This sermon emphasizes the demands of discipleship as outlined by Jesus, focusing on the need for no rival, no refusal, and no retreat in one's commitment to Christ. It challenges individuals to stand out from the crowd, surrender completely to Jesus, and be willing to forsake all for Him, with a call to die to self in order to fully live in Christ.

God has laid upon me, very forcibly, a message which I must bring to you this morning entitled The Demand of Discipleship. And I want to remind you that when our Lord Jesus spoke these words, a great multitude was moving with him down the streets of Jerusalem. But I want to, in my Saviour's name, to turn to the crowd, the crowd that is surging along with Jesus, because it's the popular thing to do. It's the Sunday morning thing to do. I want to talk to you this morning and challenge you as an individual within the crowd. And ask you whether you've got the courage this morning. And ask you whether you've got, listen, the deep insight of the Holy Ghost this morning to step out of line with the surging crowd of people. To step out of line and stand with him and say, Lord Jesus, ask from this morning. Cost what it will. I'm a disciple for this. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the first demand of discipleship. Listen to it carefully. Jesus says, no rival, no rival in your life for me. No rival in your life to Jesus Christ. For God has declared and decreed that he shall have preeminence in all things. God has exalted him above every name that is named. Beyond dominion, beyond powers, beyond principalities. He has put him at the highest place in the universe. And God says, I'll give my son no lesser place than the throne of men and women's lives in an unrivaled place. I'm asking you, is that where Jesus Christ is in your life today? Never mind whether you've made a decision for Christ at any other time. Never mind if you call yourself a Christian. I want to go radically, fundamentally to the very base of Christian experience today. And ask you, is Jesus Christ unrivaled in your life? No rival in the life for Jesus Christ. Jesus says in the second place that the demand of discipleship means, listen carefully, no refusal in the life for Jesus Christ. No refusal in the life for Jesus Christ. Listen to the word. It comes from the Savior's lips. Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. This is the cross in your life. And the cross sells an eternal yes to all the will of God. The cross means for you and me this morning, listen carefully, no refusal, no refusal to recognize that you have died, that you have died to the principle of the old life. Up until now your life has been, listen carefully, not Christ but I, not Christ but I, not Christ but I. But this morning if you're going through with him, you're going to sing as you leave this place, not I but Christ, not I but Christ. Christ all in all, in everything in your life. Is your life no refusal to the life of Jesus Christ? For you see my friends, the Christian life is an eternal no to Stephen Olsen and an eternal yes to Jesus Christ. Yes to the will of God. Listen, no rival in the life for Jesus Christ. No refusal in the life for Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ said demands of discipleship, he said no refusal, no rival, but something more than that, no retreat, no retreat, no retreat. If you're prepared for no rival and no refusal, I demand also no retreat. For following the Lord Jesus Christ means, listen carefully, no going back, no going back. It means forsaking all to go with him. It means burning the bridges behind you. It means never looking back again. It means going on and on and on, not for a day, not for a week, not for a month, not for a year, but forever. And I'm putting it to you this morning my friends, are you prepared for those demands? My dear friend here, listen to me very carefully. The demands of discipleship, the demands of discipleship, they're addressed to the individual in the crowd. Just sitting here on this great Sunday morning in a great multitude, Jesus steps into the crowd and he hits the individual and he says, If any man, are you prepared to stand out today? Are you prepared to stand out today and say, Cost what those demands will, no rival, no refusal, no retreat. Cost what it will, I'm ready Lord. May I remind you that Jesus hung there at Calvary's cross and went all the way for you. He held back nothing. Will you look up into his face and say these words this morning? Will you make them your prayer? Listen, listen, dear Lord in full surrender at thy feet. I make my consecration thou complete. My life I yield to thee. Henceforward there shall be no rival, no refusal, no retreat. Unless you're prepared to let go of what you are, you will never become what God intended you to be. I want to ask you this very simple question. The moment a grain of wheat has gone to the ground and has admitted its need of dying, how much control does it have over the future? How far can a grain of wheat that goes into the ground and die shape its future end? From the moment that it is prepared to die, it has absolutely no say at any time about anything. And I want you to know this. So long as you intend to plan your own program, insist on your own blueprint, shape your own end, you'll never know spontaneous life of Jesus Christ, quickening resurrection impact on the world around you. But you'll never reproduce life. Only God restores life. If only you'll be prepared through death to allow his life to be released. In reckless abandon become expendable in complete unquestioning availability to Jesus Christ. I cannot promise you what it will involve for you because I do not know. For I know that he knows. For he knows the end from the beginning. And you and I are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before, ordained that we, that we should walk in them. And I wouldn't invite one man, woman, boy or girl to walk down any church to come to Christ who wasn't prepared for that quality of Christianity. This is normal Christianity. This isn't fanaticism. My invitation to you tonight is to die. Die. That the latent Lordship of his hidden life, Christ living in me, be released. Always remember this. Jesus Christ is enough. It is not Christ plus somebody else, Christ and somebody else. Jesus Christ is all in all.