John 12:20-26 - All about Je..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. According to John on the 12th chapter, we'll be reading from verse 20 through to 26. Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.

So these came to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew, Andrew, and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, he remains alone. But if he dies, it bears much fruit.

Whoever loves his life loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Amen. Brothers and sisters, last week we began a passage, a section in the Gospel according to John in the 12th chapter. A very, very rich and profound section whereby our Lord is teaching profound truths. It began there in chapter 12, verse 20, and it will continue. Our Lord's discourse will continue all the way through to the end of the chapter.

He's still in Jerusalem, and as far as we know, according to the Gospel, according to Luke, He's teaching daily in the temple precinct. So the words that our Lord is speaking is very likely to be in the temple. He's gathered for himself a substantial crowd. We saw that from previous weeks, and we know there is a large multitude that are following after Christ, even now. They are sympathetic to our Lord.

Only recently they declared Him joyfully as their King, chanting atop of their voices, this is the King of Israel. That sentiment we know and we've discussed previously will begin to dwindle. It will begin to fade. When exactly it fades, I'm not sure. It seems to me to be progressive.

But I can say this much from what I can see. Although these people chanted, this is our king, and in only a few days they'll chant at the top of their voices, crucify him and crucify him. Let his blood be on us, on our children. I can tell you this much, beloved. The monologues that we find before us, the teaching from the mouth of our Lord that we find in these verses in chapter 12, no doubt have acted as a catalyst towards the diminishing favorable disposition of the people of Israel to the Lord.

Because it's pretty clear for anyone who has ears to hear Despite the immediate high and lofty royal messianic expectations in the hearts and in the minds of the people that are before Him there in Jerusalem, our Lord had an entirely different purpose in mind. He has not come to merely be crowned and coronated as king of Israel to rule and reign then and there in Jerusalem. That's not why he came. He came in the initial advent, his first advent, to willingly lay down his life for his people. Jesus came to die.

This is in essence what he's saying. The metaphor he's given us here in John chapter 12 verse 24, and he's proclaimed to the people in Jerusalem on that day, is one that is an agrarian picture, that everyone should have been able to understand at least in a day where farming was all around them. Our Lord says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. I said last week that verse 24 speaks specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He's speaking of himself in that verse. And he's making a point of the absolute necessity of his death. His death is required, beloved. It is absolutely necessary that Jesus die in order for him to reap a harvest of life. The Son of God in flesh came to this earth to die.

So coronating him as king would never work. It wouldn't be according to the plan of God and therefore we know in a few days time that will not take place. According to our Lord, it is much fruit. It is a great harvest that will not come unless, unless He dies. And if He's enthroned as King, that will not take place.

But rather, it was required for Him to come and to condescend as the God of the universe, the Son of God from all eternity, the eternal Word, to come into this world and condescend and become one of us. To take upon Himself a reasonable body and a reasonable soul. He looked like you and I. If He cut Him, He would have bled. A real man and yet the God-man.

That He was required to come to this earth. And just like that grain of wheat that He's giving an example of needs to be buried in the ground and die before it produces a harvest, a much fruit, He says, so too the Son of God in flesh. would willingly lay down His life upon that cross, and bear the wrath of God upon that cross, to die on behalf of His people. And in His death, and then in His resurrection, He'll reap a harvest of righteousness, as we sang earlier, to bring many sons to glory in His name. So that by the grace of God and by grace alone, through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and in His finished work, many sinners who are only deserving of judgment, hear that beloved, only deserving of judgment would be forgiven of their sins and reconciled to the only true God to enjoy eternal life.

You see, it's life through death that Jesus is saying here. The first Adam, the federal head of humanity, he brought death and misery through his sin. The last Adam, through his perfect righteousness, his impeccable obedience, his substitutionary vicarious death, and his powerful resurrection, this last Adam brings life. Our union with Adam, it brings death. Our union with Christ brings life.

By faith, we die to Adam, but we live to Christ. That's good news. That's the best news you can ever hear, Christian. Christ died for us. and the life he now lives, that resurrected, powerful, victorious life he lives for you and me, Christian.

Rejoice. Rejoice. We share in his death and we share in his life. This is the principle that Jesus taught in his earthly ministry. And this is also the principle that the apostles have taught throughout the writings.

This is the truth of the scripture. This is the truth of the gospel that we die with Christ and we live with Christ. The Apostle Paul says it this way, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I that live or who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2.20 Listen to how the Apostle says it in Romans chapter 3 verse 3 and 4.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. There's so many passages I can take you to that speaks to the reality of dying with Christ, our association, our identification in death with Christ and our identification with the resurrection of life, the newness of life. His life becomes our life. There's so many places I can take you to that speak to this.

But know this, Christian, you are no longer in Adam. You are in Christ. Crucified with Him, now you identify, not with Adam, but with Jesus Christ. We identify with Christ. No longer are you an individual.

You're an individual in Christ. Forevermore, if you've come to trust in Jesus, forevermore you're going to be known as one who is in Christ. The glory of being in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. That He would be willing to identify with you and with me. Sinners.

Depraved individuals. Worthy of only death and judgment. That He would be willing to identify with us. How glorious is this reality. How glorious is the Gospel, beloved.

That we get to enjoy the newness of His resurrected life. The old has gone and the new has come. Praise God. Christian, this is your status. Listen to me, this is your status in Christ.

In Christ. He doesn't walk alongside you. You're united in Him. The union that you have with Jesus Christ is the very bedrock of the Christian faith. His life is my life.

We can say that. His life. It's my life. And this union is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, lest what I say next may give you the wrong impression. I want you to know that.

That's our status in Christ. So what should the manifestations of our life look like? If our status is to be dead to Adam and alive to Christ, no longer abiding in Adam, but abiding in the last Adam, that is Jesus Christ, then what should the outworking of our lives look like? What does the reality of that look like in the life of the individual Christian? There's many places I can take you to explain this, but 1 John 2, 6 is pretty clear.

Whoever says he abides in him, the him is Christ, ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. In a word, we're united with Christ, our lives must begin to resemble his. Walk the way he walked. That is to love the things he loved and hate the things he hate. But beloved, doesn't it make sense that our lives must be growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ if He is the vine indeed?

And we've come to trust in Him and place our faith in Him and be saved. Our soul has been forgiven and set free by His finished work. Then if Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches that are attached to the vine or even grafted into the vine, then if the nourishment and the nutrients that come through the vine, through the branches produce fruit, wouldn't it be fair to say that that fruit should have the DNA of Christ and not of Adam? And it begins. Christ is our example.

Christ is our example to follow. As he walks, we ought to walk. That's what the Apostle John is saying. And the example he's given us in the text before us in verse 24 is this. He put self to death in order to reap a harvest of eternal glory.

So too are we to put self to death in this age in order to by his Spirit also reap a harvest of eternal glory. The follow after Christ, beloved, is in fact an invitation to die. It's a call to death. And that's not a popular thing to say, but it is a call to death. Because death, because from death comes life.

Christian, as I said earlier, our status is in Christ. In Him we have justification. That will never change. If you've been justified in Christ Jesus, that will never change. The Lord will look upon you as a justified individual for the rest of eternity.

That cannot change. But there's that matter of sanctification. Positionally in the mind of God, we are wrapped in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. When God looks upon us, then our positional sanctification is as He sees Christ, as He sees His Son. He looks upon you.

Remember, we identify with Jesus, not as our own. When we approach God, we don't approach Him on our own. We approach Him wrapped in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that's how the Father looks upon us. So in the Father's mind, in the Father's heart, we are wrapped in the righteousness of Christ.

But in real time, as we live out this life in this age, we ought to be growing in the likeness of Christ. The Spirit of God ought to be purging and purifying our hearts from the sin of this world, from the effects of the flesh. We ought to be seeing that as the evidence in our life. It is progressive. The sanctification in this life is progressive.

because of the continued presence of sin. We've been saved from the penalty of sin, praise God. The penalty has been borne upon the cross. He bore the wrath of God in full and God is a just God. He never will inflict the same punishment upon two people when it's been paid upon Jesus already.

He saved us from the penalty of sin, praised be His name. He's also saved us from the dominating power of sin, that dominating power that had us in chains and bound us. He saved us from the dominating power of sin. It's been disabled, there's still power, but it's the dominating power no longer slaves to sin. And He's continuing now to sanctify us through the continued presence of sin.

And He will bring that sanctification to completeness. We know He will, because He promised He will. He'll present us before the Father spotless, without blemish. He'll present His church beautiful to the Father, and that will take place in glory. But in this age, as I said earlier, There's a refining process taking place in the life of the Christian and that sanctification is indeed progressive.

In a word, sanctification is putting to death the remnants of Adam and growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ. It's putting to death the remnants of the sinful nature that we inherited in Adam and growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ. In other words, dying to what we once were. Beloved, hear these words. Dying to what we once were and now living as who we are in Christ.

Dying to what we once were and now living as who we are in Christ. And I believe our Lord is saying exactly that in a nutshell here in verse 25. When he says, whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Now, I want to get this straight. Our Lord is not speaking of how one is to be saved.

But rather, He's speaking about the outworkings of one's life. The manifestation of the soul. And this begins in the heart, beloved. You're going to hear me say that quite often through this sermon. It begins in your heart and mine.

It begins in the heart. It begins in the heart. I've said often from this pulpit that everything we do, everything that is the manifestations of our lives is not plucked from out here, but it has its root in here. The Lord said in Matthew chapter 15 and Mark chapter 7 that it is not what comes out, what comes into the mouth that defiles man, but what comes out of the mouth because it comes out from the heart. It's rooted in the heart.

All sins and the inherited sinful nature is rooted in the heart. But the Lord also says, from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Everything is rooted in the heart. And here our Lord is saying that there are two types of people before us, and they're antithetical one with the other. But both have an element of life, and both have an element of death.

On the one hand, to love your life now, Jesus is saying, is to lose it for eternity. And on the other hand, to hate your life now is to gain it for eternity. I can say it another way, not that I can improve the Lord's words, not that at all. But he does say, live now, die in eternity or die now and live for eternity. You see, there's two categories of people before us.

And identifying which category you belong to, beloved, here it is, will reveal the state of your own heart. Now let me be clear once again. Neither will bring salvation, for salvation is the work of God alone. Salvation is of the Lord. Nothing you can do or I can do.

No work of these corrupted hands No labour. There's nothing that you can do in your efforts that can bring forth salvation. It is a work from God alone. But what our Lord is describing here is the manifestations of the heart of man. A man who remains in Adam on the one side and a man who is united with Christ on the other.

Now it's clear in both clauses in verse 25 because of the contrast made to eternal life. So there's life contrasted with eternal life. The life in this world that Jesus is speaking of in this passage, this life that you can either love or this life that you can hate is the human experience in the here and the now. This experience is the life that we experience in this age. The focus being on the temporal, beloved.

It's the life we've been given from birth. It's life in Adam. We are born in iniquity. Every one of us is born in sin, born in iniquity. And as such, the moment we came into this world and opened our eyes, we deemed ourselves as the very center of the universe.

That's what it is to be born in Adam, born in iniquity. We're born as selfish beings, self-centered, self-absorbed beings. Hard to imagine that when you look upon a baby, isn't it? You see what seems to be such innocence. But let me tell you, babies are not acquitted of this.

Have you ever thought why a baby cries when the baby cries? Even before that baby can reason, think about that, even before that baby can reason, by nature, when he's screaming at the top or she's screaming at the top of his or her lungs, that baby by nature is thinking, Mommy, how dare you sleep when I need you? Mommy, how dare you eat when I need you? Mommy, how dare you go work and do, for that matter, how dare you do anything when I need you? Leave everything right now and come and tend my needs.

By nature, by nature, we love self. Because nothing is more precious to our soul than self. It's all about me. Me, me, me. We might not say it out loud as grown-ups because it may be looked upon in shame and it may give us a certain stigma we don't want in our society, but deep inside it's what drives the natural man.

Me. Self. It's all about me. Self on throne. Self on throne.

Self-absorbed. My life is more important than anything else. And that's why we as a society have come up with all these sayings. You only live once. Or live for today.

Or life is short. How about this one? Gotta have as much fun as I can before I die. It's all about me in the here and now. No concern for God.

No concern for sin. No concern for eternity. No concern for judgment. Just right now. Right now.

It's about me and my desires. This life that Christ speaks of here in verse 25 is a self-centered life. It's not God-centered. All that is in God's creation and purposed for His glory self-thinks that's designed for my pleasure, not His. All that is in God's creation, that one who is still in Adam thinks and looks upon that and says, how can I use all of this to satisfy this?

To fulfill my desires, to fill my lusts, that's the natural man. And the system of this world has so much to offer that appeals to the soul. And the natural man feels right at home in this world. What more can one ask for than an arena like this that has what it takes to satisfy the longings and the lusts and the passions of my sinful heart? And it does.

This world offers riches, it offers wealth, it offers entertainment, respect, position. It puts on offer power for those who love power. It puts on offer the applaud of men who love to be applauded by others. It puts on offer sinful indulgence of the passions of the flesh. It will satisfy those indulgences, this world will.

If that's what you're looking for, this world is bliss. Is that you? Are you giving over to these type of fleshly desires? Sometimes we think about these words and what Jesus is saying, and we keep them in the abstract, but oftentimes it's good to bring them down to our level so we can relate and examine our own hearts, because these words are not meant to only one particular type of people. This is God's word that is implicable to all of us.

So in the interest of examining one's own heart, we need to think about how these words apply to us. At least we can introspect and examine before the Lord where our heart stands. What is the state of our soul even now? Questions like, what do you think about through the day? What occupies your mind?

How do you use your time? How do you use your spare time? What about when no one is watching? What do you do when no one is watching? What do you think about when no one is watching?

How do you use your eyes? What do you look upon? What do you read with these eyes that go into your soul? What do you hear with your ears? How do you use your hands, the things of your hands, the energies and the pursuits of your life?

How are you using these things? What do you spend your money on? Beloved, what makes you happy and what makes you sad? Remember what I said earlier, that what is in here is manifest out here. It goes through the mind and it's manifest in the things you do in this life.

A documentary was made of your life or mine over only the last week. Will an observer look upon your life or mine and will they conclude that this person hates his life or this person loves his life? Let me ask you another question. Would they conclude, I don't know who this person is, but they definitely love Jesus? Love for this life is rooted in a self-centered, self-absorbed heart.

One that is very good at making idols. It's what the world promotes, beloved. And these words may not be as I think it's impactful, or I guess let's leave it at that, impactful, because we all have become to some degree desensitized to a lot of these things. The world promotes this idea that you, it's all about you, that you're number one, that after you die, who cares what takes place? It's all about you here, and now you're worth it.

Do it. You're worthy. Indulge in the things of this world. If you're not worthy, then who is, is what the world says. And it's promoting this type of ideology to yourself and to your children.

And in a way, it's desensitized our minds and I hope not our hearts. It tells us that everything in this world is designed to satisfy your longings, your passions. It might not be outwardly spoken like that, but internally, the natural man, that's what it speaks to. Love for self. Love for self is the guiding principle of life, is what the world will say.

And if that's the heart of one who remains in Adam, then this world feels just like home. Because there's no desire for God, no regard for eternity, no problem with sin. This world is where I belong. All that is precious to my heart is found before my very eyes. So much to indulge in in this world, the natural sinful heart would say, this is paradise.

And then you hear the words where the Lord says that he's calling upon, he's calling upon these who are before him and you and I who are reading some 2,000 years later to die to self. to give up this world. And that elicits in the mind of many a thought or a question, why would I give up all that I treasure? Why would I give it all up? The world that I love, why would I give it up?

Why would I give up something that I love so dearly, something that appeals to me so strongly? Why would I give up this world? Why would I give up these passions, these desires? Why would I give them up? I think I best leave that to James to answer.

James says, oh, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy with God. Is that not enough reason? To love the world, the present evil age, James is saying by inspiration of the Spirit, is to love your own life, to be fully absorbed in the here and the now, to make this life ultimate in your eyes, is to declare war against God. One may think they've chosen the path of life, but in fact this is the path of destruction according to our Lord.

Whoever loves his life, loses it. Our Lord says it another way in Luke chapter 17 verse 33, and this is what he says. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. Save your life now, is what Jesus is saying, and lose eternity. Choose one, because you can't have them both.

You can't have a foot in the world and a foot outside the world. And it's all about the affection of the heart. And that affection of the heart will be manifested, as I said earlier, in your lives, in my life, in the life of all. It makes no sense to give up what is dear to my heart, does it? That which satisfies my longings, it would make no sense.

But this is the scary thing, beloved. There is a context. Because when we think about these things, we may think sometimes of the most heinous of sinners. These are people who have fully given over to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These are those who are so saturated in sin, sexual sin and immorality.

These are the murderers and the swindlers and the rapists of the world. We may think to the worst and the worst of sinners. And we say, yes, I can understand, I can see how that's the case, but there's no way that these type of people are inside the visible church. There's no way that people who are now, who have come to worship and people who come to worship every week and read their Bibles and pray, there's no way that we can have any of these type of people among us. Surely, surely that's not the case.

This is a scary thing, beloved. There is a context where one may endeavor to act religious, act godly, act righteous, act like a follower of Christ, and yet inwardly remain corrupt. Thinking that they can change somehow with their outward behaviors and the things I do and the things I engage with, surely if I act like this on the outside, then surely that's who I am on the inside. But beloved, this is the deal. It requires a heart transplant.

This requires a nature change. If you are in Adam, you don't become in Christ by trying harder, by acting more, by doing more things, by acting godly and reading your Bibles. It doesn't come that way. It requires God's divine hand to do a heart transplant, to go in there and pluck that heart of stone and give you a brand new heart, a heart of flesh with a brand new nature. That's what it requires.

You can't do it on your own. This is God's turf, not yours. None of us can do this. It's a heart transplant that comes through repentance and faith in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. That's it.

That's it. No matter how hard we try, the person who tries hard to be a godly person or a righteous person, for all the wrong reasons, no matter how hard they try, they will always revert back to the default. And that default is their nature in Adam. A leopard cannot change his spots. You can't do that with your own hands.

It requires the almighty hand of God. How often have we heard of people trying to build parameters, maybe we've tried ourselves, to build parameters around ourselves to try and attempt to live godly and righteous lives. I'm not saying that putting parameters and limitations is a bad idea, but it must never begin there. It must never begin there, because that begins in the flesh. You have no wisdom, you have no strength to begin in the flesh.

As I said earlier, one can come to church and read their Bibles, even pray and sing songs and do Christian things. We can give money to the poor. We can do benevolent activities, look after our neighbours and help those around us. We can do all these things, all these things that may be recognised as good deeds by others, but God cannot be mocked. He knows the hearts.

And in fact, even though a lot of these works may look like righteousness, if they're not rooted in Jesus Christ, if there's not been a nature change, a heart change, then this is just idolatry wrapped in a cloak of righteousness. And it's despised by the Lord. It's a heart problem. It's a matter of the heart. The issue is in the heart.

It is a heart problem. And the sinful nature, beloved, is so twisted. It's so depraved. That it can come up with ways of deriving sinful pleasure even whilst doing what seems to be righteous activities. I don't know about you, but that scares me.

Because many people who are yet in Adam who have not experienced the salvation of the Lord can sit in a church and find some form of satisfaction when their hearts are yet to be changed. It's scary. The world, as we know it, and as Christ is speaking of here, love for the life in this world. The world is the arena where the lust, the pursuits of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are found. The world is the place where one is allured by the things of this world, the temporal pleasures and the passions that so satisfy the one who yet remains in Adam, And as I said, you cannot lock yourself away from the world and think that somehow that's gonna sanctify your heart or mine.

We can't do as the monks do, right? They sit in a cell and the cell has got no windows and no entertainment and no distractions. There's nothing to distract, no TV, no internet, nothing. We've locked ourselves from the world. Surely, surely that will work, right?

No. No, as long as you take your sinful heart with you, You can remove yourself from the world, but you cannot remove the world from within. This is the problem. It's the problem with the heart. The heart is the issue.

The heart always is the issue. Earlier, I quoted Luke because of the words that seem to be synonymous with the words of our Lord. In Luke 17, verse 33, you might have remembered me quote these words. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. Essentially what Jesus is saying here in verse 25 of John chapter 12.

However, I failed. I failed to quote three words that come prior to those words. And these are those words. Remember Lot's wife. Remember, Lot's wife.

Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I trust most of us are familiar with Genesis chapter 19 and the story of Lot's wife. You may remember that the judgment of the Lord had decreed to pour out his judgment on the immoral city called Sodom and Gomorrah. Not even ten righteous people were found in both those cities. And God had decreed to bring those cities to destruction.

by fire. He sent two of his angels into Sodom, where Lot resided, with his family and decided that he would save Lot, his wife, and his daughters. His son-in-law-to-be had no interest. They knew judgment was coming. They didn't want to depart from that city.

So you know how the story goes. They leave. They need to leave their homes and their possessions. their families and their friends, everything they owned in this world, apart from the clothes that are on their back. Everything, as life as they knew it, would have to be left.

They'd have to turn their back on the world as they knew it, and then walk to wherever the Lord is taking them. And they depart, and once they remove themselves from the city, we're told that Lot's wife, she looks back upon Sodom. And immediately she turns into a pillar of salt. Now yes, it is true that the angels had told Lot and his family, do not look back. So there is disobedience here, but there's more than disobedience.

We're meant to look beyond the only, the disobedience to the heart that disobeyed. And the cause of the disobedience. Beloved. Lot's wife was removed physically from Sodom, but her heart remained in Sodom. You can remove someone out of this world, out of the context of the environment, of all this sin and the depravity and all these things.

You can remove one out of that. Sodom is being destroyed, the immorality that's taking place. They're no longer connected to it, but you cannot remove Sodom from within the heart of a person. She looked back because that's where her heart was in Sodom. That's her world.

That's what she left behind and it's too hard to leave that and go forward with where the Lord is taking them. That's where my heart is. And you read sections of scripture like this and you ask yourself the question, is there hope? Is there hope for you and me? Is there hope for anyone?

Yes. Yes, absolutely there's hope. This text began with hope. Verse 24, That's hope! That's hope in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

You and I would never give up our lives by our own volition. We would never on our own be willing to give our lives in the sinful nature. But Christ did. He laid down His life as an effectual sacrifice to reap a harvest. Beloved, He laid down His life to reap an effectual harvest, a real harvest.

He didn't die on the cross in hope that some would come. No, He died for His sheep. His sheep were united in Him before the foundation of the world. A harvest of sinful people who would come to trust in His finished work and be saved. A people who are on the crash course into death and an eternity of suffering apart from Him and He would save them.

to give them faith and open their eyes by His grace, given you heart, brand new affections, to see the folly of their ways, the foolishness, the foolishness of saving my life now only to lose eternity that's only made known to those who the Lord has given eyes to see. To see what this world is offering, the fleetingness and the temporal aspects of everything in this world, that there is no substantial satisfaction in anything out there, beloved. This life is death. True life, eternal life, is not the indulgence of the flesh. In fact, it's not in the pursuits of anything that this world can offer.

True life, eternal life, is in Christ Jesus alone. In fact, what Jesus says in John 17, chapter 3, He says, this is eternal life. that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. You give up the temporal, the sinful, the things of this world, the fleeting, the depraved, that which will come to an end, and it will come to an end just like a vapor, for the greatest privilege, to know God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Is there a greater privilege than to know God and to be known by Him?

Christ is the rightful King, beloved. He's the rightful King of the throne of your life and mine. It's a question of affections of the heart. Who do you love more, Christ or self? What is of greater value to your soul?

The things of this world or God through Christ Jesus? What's more valuable to you, the life in this world or the eternal life that comes through the Son of God, through His love and by His grace to those who believe? You can't have both. Whoever loves his life loses it, Jesus says, and whoever hates his life in this world keeps it for eternal life. The question is, what love or what life do you love?

And what is the pursuit of your heart? The Lord is teaching this to His disciples and everyone who hears there, this massive crowd there in Jerusalem, only a few days before His crucifixion. But beloved, we know that these words are replete in Scripture, that this is not the first time you hear these words, nor the first time we read them from this pulpit. Jesus has spoken this way so often throughout the Gospels. Matthew 16 is probably the closest parallel, Matthew 16, 24 through 26.

It's a parallel with Mark chapter 8 and Luke chapter 9. It reads this way, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Hate of self is to take up the cross. and follow after Christ. For whoever would save his life, he goes on to say, will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his own soul? The cross in this text is a symbol of death. It's to put self to death. There's nothing romantic about the cross terminology. There is nothing romantic about this.

No one in the first century would walk around with a cross on their neck. It wouldn't happen. That's a symbol of death. It's a symbol of excruciating death. That's what the cross was.

And Jesus is saying that one must deny himself and take up his cross. and follow after Him. That's the cost of being a disciple. It'll cost essentially everything. No longer can you sit on your own throne.

You must relinquish that crown to another king, King Jesus. As I said earlier, the way we began this sermon was your identity has changed in Christ. Now you are in Christ. And forevermore, if that's you and you've placed your trust in the Lord, that's who you are, in Christ. You have a new purpose of life.

You know what it means to hate your own life. You know what it means because the truth of Scripture has been implanted in your soul by the power of the Spirit of God. And now you don't seek to honor yourself because yourself was sitting on that throne. Now your eyes have been opened to see the glories of the true King Jesus. Your heart ought to be only with every fiber of your being to serve Him and to love Him and to honor Him alone.

Setting aside the old and embracing the new in Christ. Is that what he wants us to do? To simply set aside some things of the old life and embrace the new? Or is it more violent than that? Because what he's saying here essentially is you need to put self to death.

Not setting aside, not going and sifting through some bits and pieces. It is to put self to death because the old you is incompatible with the new you in Christ. You can't brush up on some of your old attributes or properties and say, I can use those in the kingdom. You cannot, you cannot. They're corrupt to the core.

The old you is incompatible with the new you in Jesus Christ. And therefore it will cost you everything. Luke 14 verse 27 reads this way, whoever does not bear his cross and comes after me cannot be my disciple. It goes on to say in verse 33, so therefore anyone of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. There may have been a little bit of leeway in the previous verses, but it seems like there's no leeway here, right?

Anyone, therefore anyone of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Jesus is calling for total abandonment of old self. Jesus is saying it's going to cost everything. Your dreams, your goals, your ambitions, your emotions, your resources, everything. Unless you renounce all that you have, he says, you cannot be my disciple.

Often we hear these words about renouncing everything. And that's what he's saying. We often hear those words and we pray and we say, Lord, if the time comes and you do ask everything, including my own life, my possessions, everything I have, Lord, if the time comes and you do ask everything of me, give me to obey. Give me the strength to obey, Lord. Our minds automatically somehow go to a future event of a possibility that may take place and maybe one that's come to your mind this evening is the mission field.

If the Lord calls me to the mission field to turn my back on everything that I know here in this country and to go somewhere in a mission field to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ for the sake of Christ, Lord give me to relinquish, to give up everything, to renounce all that I have and follow after you. Lord, if that's my future, give me the strength." And there is some validity in a prayer like that. But if that's all you're thinking, you've missed the point. Our Lord is not envisaging a possible future scenario here.

He's asserting in no unclear terms right now where you are. If you don't renounce all that you have, he says, you're unworthy of me. And we can't water these words down. You see, it's not simply the action that the Lord is calling you and me and his disciples to. And this is why I labored in the beginning to tell you that everything you do with these hands is rooted in here, in the heart.

It begins in the heart. It's not merely the action but it's the state of the heart that the Lord is concerned with because everything you do and everything I do and all the manifestations of our lives are rooted in the heart. It is a heart issue. It is a heart issue. Our life in Adam was a self-centered, self-absorbed life that only concerned with the here and now.

I was the center of my universe in Adam. At the core, it was only about me. Me and me and me alone. Now in Christ, we're called to relinquish our crown. His self was on the throne.

and have Christ sit on the throne of our lives as our new king. It's all about Christ. We die to self because there's nothing in old self that can be redeemed. It's corrupt to the core. And we live for Christ.

Your own life and all your resources, all your stuff, all your relationships, Everything comes under the category here of renouncing all, otherwise you're not worthy to be His disciple. You see, I want you to think of it this way. Everything that I was, the money I had, the relationships I was engaged in, my work, my thoughts, my desires, my ambitions, my dreams, all of it was held in account And that account was labeled for me. Everything in Adam, it's a heart issue, the heart is desperately wicked, it is selfish, it is self-absorbed. Everything you had, every relationship, every resource was in an account and that account was labeled for me, for my pleasure, for the satisfaction of the indulgence of my pleasure.

And that's idolatrous, that's self-idolatry, that's one serving and worshipping self. But now, but now this, everything we own, all our relationships, all our passions, all our desires, must be handed over to Christ and labelled for all that you are. It must be completely renounced for the purpose of my pleasure, for the purpose of my satisfaction, that the ultimate goal, the ultimate goal is me. And now it ought to be renounced all for Christ. All that you owned, including your life, beloved, It cannot be held with that same disposition of heart.

It cannot be. It's idolatrous. It's of the old self. That would be to retain your life here and now and to give up eternity. That grip must be loosened and all its sinful elements put to death.

We must stand before our King and wholeheartedly present ourselves ready for duty, declaring, I have no desire and no longing and no purpose other than to do your will. to fulfill your desires, to accomplish your purposes. And this is the cue we have from our Lord in Gethsemane. You remember the prayer, not my will, but your will be done. My life, my resources, my time, my work, my family, my relationships, no longer am I ultimate in them.

But I renounced that ultimacy that held me as ultimate. And now I place Christ as the one who is ultimate. My brother used that word ultimate last week when we were talking about something similar. And it just fits so perfectly here. Christ and the glory of God must be ultimate.

He must be supreme in our lives. He must be the highest ends of our life. He is my life. You see it. It's not that I must be willing to give it all up for Him.

Jesus says, I must give it all up for Him. In here. That's where it begins. In here. How it plays out, beloved, how this all plays out practically in our lives is left to the sovereignty of God who deals with His people, with His sheep individually.

I have no right to come to you and tell you what you should be doing with your life. I have no right to come to you and tell you what you should be doing with your resources, with your money and with the things that you have and your possessions. I have no right to do that. I can bring you the principle, but I can tell you your heart needs to be renouncing everything of this world and every grip that has you as sitting at the king's seat and crowning yourself as the king of your life and your resources and everything you have. And you need to bring that down and say, all that I was, I now place it in your hands.

You are my king. It's all yours. So whenever, ever you send me out or whatever you ask of me, oh Lord, I will. I'll give it up. Because in here, it's already yours.

In here, it no longer has a grip over my life. I've loosened that grip. It all belongs to you. And I'm here as a servant of yours, just to do my duty. Your will is my command.

Your will is my desire. Whatever you ask, O Lord. That's the state of the heart of the believer. to renounce all that I am for all that He is. That's to have Him as ultimate in everything.

These are scary words. I speak these words from this pulpit. I know the weight of them. I'll be accountable to the weight of them. But there's no getting around it, beloved.

If there's anything in your heart or in your soul that you admire more than the Lord, you're in trouble. If there's anything in this world that you love more than Him, that you see is more worthy than Him, if there's anything in this world that your grip is so strong that if He says, I want it, and you're not prepared to give it, it means you haven't renounced in your heart. all that you are to all that He is. You see, this is why you have Christians who have bank accounts and have homes and have cars. He's given us all things for our enjoyment in 1 Timothy chapter 6.

He's a good God. Our Father is a good Father who gives all gifts to His people. He provides for our needs. We're not going around signing all our homes and everything over to the ministry even as we stand, give it all up and then we sit in a room with nothing in our pockets and no food to eat. That's not what Christ is saying.

But what He is saying, what He is saying is this. Where is the state of your heart? Have you renounced everything that once you derived pleasure from? Everything that once had you as ultimate? Everything that your eyes would see as this is the realm of my joy.

And now relinquished all that and placed it in the hands of the Lord. That means the relationships I had The relationships we had, even as a married couple, before when we're in Adam, if the Lord saved us after we were married, then before, then there's no doubt according to the word of the Lord, that you entered into that relationship with a covetous heart, with an idolatrous heart, because if self is at the center, you may be benevolent in your love for your wife in Adam, but not for the right reasons. You couldn't see that marriage for what it was purposed in the heart and in the mind of God, that it is a symbol, a picture of the beautiful relationship that Jesus has with His bride, that your eyes would not be able to see that the purpose, husbands, your purpose in that relationship is to sanctify your wife, to present her holy and blameless to another husband. That sounds so odd in this world, but that's the responsibility of husbands. Wives, How do you see your husbands?

When you entered into a relationship, it was before, if it was before you knew Christ, then there was an element of self-centeredness. But now as we, as our eyes have been opened to the glories of God, renouncing all that we are and all that we have is not to say, okay, I'm going to do away with all my relationships. Rather, but rather, to examine and to see where I was ultimate, where I was sitting on the throne, in areas where I was deriving all the satisfaction and the joy, where I was the ends of that relationship. And now I say, I'm not worthy of that. You are.

I renounce. and I present it to you. Help me to be faithful in this relationship. That I would have you as ultimate, you as the ultimate ends, that your glory be the forefront of my mind, that I do things according to your will and according to your word. Whether it's my wife or my husband, whether it's my children or my parents, whether it's in the workplace, whether it's strangers, whatever it is, whether it's my resources, my bank account, my car, my home, whatever it is.

Christ has called us to give up everything for His sake. Is our heart gripped by anything in this world? If so, there is hope. Bring it to the Lord, because He is faithful and just if we confess our sin. He's able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and to forgive our sins.

He's a good God. He's a complete Savior. Will you trust Him? Will you trust Him when He says that life in Him is better than anything this world can offer? Will you?

Will you trust Him? Let me end with this. I know. I know our lives are valuable to us. Our resources are valuable.

Our aspirations, these are dear to our hearts. I understand these things. You know, when you're... If the Lord gives And the disposition of your heart is to actually renounce all the pleasures that you used to once derive from this world through the things that you have and the relationships you have, to find Christ as ultimate and see only your joy and your satisfaction in Him. Then you have to ask yourself the question, what actually am I giving up?

So when I do give up the things of this world and the pleasures and the passions that I once derived from the world, what exactly am I giving up? Compare them. Put them side by side. Put what you're giving up in comparison with what you're receiving in Christ. I'm not saying that you give up and to be saved.

I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying this is the product, the fruit, the outworkings of your salvation. Don't hear for a moment that you hear me say that it is by your work or your endeavours that the Lord will look upon favour upon your life and give you salvation. That's not it at all. This is a product of those who are in Christ already.

It's not by trying harder that we achieve brownie points with Him, or somehow He saves us through that. Not at all. It is by His grace and grace alone you're undeserving, as am I. It is that grace has been poured out upon us to open eyes, to embrace Christ by faith, to trust in Him for His finished work. The product of salvation of our hearts and our souls.

And this is the product, this is the outworking of that. This is the fruit that comes through putting self, putting self to death. What is it exactly that you're actually putting to death by comparison to what He promises to give you in Christ? Let me end with this and with the words of the Apostle Paul. He says in Philippians chapter 2, indeed, I count everything as loss because of a surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

Just think about who's writing, the Apostle Paul, the Pharisee, the one who was well above most of his peers, the one who knew the law, who thought himself to be righteous according to law, the one who all around him thought, this guy is the next big deal. He goes on to say, for his sake, Christ's sake, that is, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. BSV is polished. Dung, cow dung. In order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

Before the apostle was saved by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, he didn't consider those things as rubbish. that were dear to his heart and his soul. It's only by the grace of God that he's been given eyes to see and the comparison to what he held dear to his heart and to who Christ is and the eternal glories of our Savior. And the apostles are able to say, that's cow dung compared to the excellencies of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. Is that your heart?

Is that my heart? May it be. Let's pray.