In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of laying down one's life for Christ based on the mercies of God. He refers to Romans chapter 12, where Paul urges believers to offer their lives as a living sacrifice to God. The motivation for this sacrifice is found in the first 11 chapters of Romans, where Paul explains all that God has done for us in Christ. The preacher highlights the significance of Christ's death, stating that it should move believers to worship and gratitude, as it is through His sacrifice that we are set free from bondage and brought back to God.

And now, go to the garden for a moment. Father, let this cup pass from me. Let this cup pass from me. Drops of blood, sweating, coming from his brow. Father, let this cup pass from me. These preachers, they say, Oh, Jesus didn't want to go to that Roman cross. That's a lie. Oh, Jesus, these charismatic preachers. Jesus was afraid of the devil. Blasphemy. Oh, that Roman cross, that whip. He didn't want to go to it. Absurd. Let me ask you a question. Just for a second. I want you to think about this for just a moment. After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, since that time, it is estimated that 50 million men and women and children have died for their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Because they've died as martyrs. In the early church, through the time of the Puritans and the Reformation. Do you know? Let's just use the early church for example. Many of Jesus' followers were crucified. Not only crucified, they were crucified upside down. Not only crucified upside down, they were pitched, filled, covered with pitch and set on fire to provide lights for the streets of Rome. But many of those followers of Jesus, in chains being taken off to be crucified, sang hymns full of joy. Do you honestly believe the Captain of our salvation is in a garden cowering because of a cross, even though his disciples went to the same cross with joy in their heart? Do you think that the Captain of our salvation is so weak? Think, man. Jesus wasn't afraid of a cross or a nail or a spear or a crown of thorns. What was in the cup? What is it that caused Christ to tremble? Christ Christ we are healed We should desire Him Despised and rejected by men He came to His own, they forsook Him He led to the cross as a man What was in the cup? What is it that caused Christ to tremble? The wrath of God was in the cup God's fierce hatred for all that is evil was in the cup A wooden cross? All men are under the fierce just wrath of God because of their vile wickedness Someone had to drink down that wrath Jesus Christ on that tree bore the guilt of His people and stood in their law place Then all the holy just hatred wrath, judgment and justice of God like blinding white light came crushing down on the head of His only begotten Son Have you never read? And it pleased the Lord, Yahweh, to crush Him to grind Him to powder Now there's no other way You've heard the story of Abraham and his son Go up to that mountain and slaughter your only son Abraham goes to that mountain in obedience He ties his son down His son offers no resistance it seems The old man goes for the knife lays his hand upon the brow of his son and as the hand comes down he is stopped God will provide You say, oh what a wonderful story There it was, the animal there trapped by its horns in the bush What a wonderful ending to the story It wasn't the ending It was the intermission Hundreds of years later on a hill called Calvary God the Father laid His hand on the head of His only begotten Son and He slaughtered Him Someone had to die You see this is the cross that all these modern day preachers put in the back of the store and not in the storefront window because it's a shameful thing, it's a horrid thing, it's a terrible thing Some of you are looking at each other as though I've never heard anything like this before Absolutely, and that's why the cross has so little power in your life This is a horrid thing, a vile thing not the kind of thing you wear around your neck The Lamb that was slain received Your reward for You were You were worthy Lord, You were worthy You were worthy Lord, You were worthy You were worthy The scripture does say that we are saved by Christ alone without works But now the big question is and right here is the hole in the bridge where millions fall through How do I come into saving relation to Christ? He alone saves without human merit or works But He doesn't save everybody Therefore there must be some connection made or some relation sustained Somehow or other I come into a relationship to Christ that saves me Now what is that? And that is a matter of life or death You dare not assume anything You must know Not to be sure isn't to gamble with your soul Not to be sure is to be dead Just as you dare not cross the mighty ocean without a compass to do so would be to die So you dare not assume that you have the relationship unless you have It's got to be there before you dare accept it as being there To be wrong on this is to be lost If I were to ask you tonight You're saved Do you say, yes, I'm saved? When? Oh, so and so preached I got baptized I am saved What are you saved from? Hell? Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from lust? Are you saved from cheating? Are you saved from lying? Are you saved from bad manners? Are you saved from rebelling against your parents? Come on, what are you saved from? For me to accept Christ means that I am to accept Him in every part of my being and that I am to form an attachment to Him an emotional, an intellectual, a volitional attachment which is complete leaving no part of the life unaffected If He cannot control you He cannot save you And if He cannot control all of you He cannot control any of you And then it's to be an attachment that is exclusive I mean that Christ is not to be one of several interests The Christian who truly is born anew and has accepted Christ rightly has accepted Him exclusively so that He is to you what the sun is to the earth He is that which you revolve around He is the central sun and you are in orbit moving round Him held by the bonds of His love and lightened by the light of His face They are minor and they're secondary and they take their place down the scale Christ is first The Lord Jesus Christ is first and for Him I surrender everything To Him I give all To Jesus Christ my Lord and my Savior He can command me He's ahead of my wife He's ahead of my children He's ahead of my ambitions He is first and everything else is last Anything else is not New Testament Christianity Anything else is a compromise and it leaves people half-saved confused, frustrated, bewildered and in the dark Jesus Christ is your exclusive Savior and all other relationships are determined and conditioned by this one overwhelming almighty relationship And I want you to know that when you take a look at American Christianity it is based more upon a godless culture than it is upon the Word of God and so many people are deceived and so many youth are deceived and so many adults are deceived into believing that because they prayed a prayer one time in their life they're going to heaven and then when they look around at others who profess to know Christ and see those people also just as worldly as the world and they compare themselves by themselves nothing troubles their heart They think, well I'm the same as most in my youth group I watch things I shouldn't watch on television and laugh about the very things that God hates I wear clothing that is sensual I talk like the world I walk like the world I love the music of the world I love so much that's in the world but bless God, I am a Christian Why am I a Christian? I don't look any different than most of the other people in my church Why am I a Christian? Because there was a time in my life when I prayed and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart I want you to know that the greatest heresy in the American Evangelical and Protestant church is that if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart He will definitely come in You will not find that in any place in Scripture What you need to know is that salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ and faith alone in Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance a turning away from sin a hatred for the things that God hates and a love for the things that God loves a growing in holiness and a desire not to be like Britney Spears not to be like the world and not to be like the great majority of American Christians but to be like Jesus Christ I don't know why you're clapping I'm talking about you I didn't come here to get amens I didn't come here to be applauded I'm talking about you Those who say that they know Him must walk as He walks Those who worship the Lord worship in spirit and truth Those who say that they know Him must walk as He walks He is the way and the truth and we obey His word If we walk in the light we are true and in Him there is a light If we obey His word and we walk We say that we know Him but we don't keep His word and we walk in the dark and the truth's not there anything else is not intended for Christianity brothers and sisters and so many people are deceived It was just as shocking when the Lord Jesus Christ used these words in this context His people couldn't understand it Did you all know what He said? If any man take not up his cross and come follow me he cannot be my disciple and so we find that this great salvation does not only include salvation from sin salvation from hell but it also includes salvation from the world in which we've lived that's governed us and controlled us whose attitudes, whose maxims, whose rewards we've sought and whose interests we've served It not only includes salvation from the world but includes salvation from the flesh from our own personality and nature, traits and interests It includes salvation from those habits and attitudes that we've developed and acquired but it not only includes salvation from the world and the flesh but it also includes salvation from the devil We were His bond slaves We'd given Him control of our life It had been done for us by the Father of the race but it had been confirmed by us by our own choice at the age of accountability and we were then the children of the devil His Father, He was our Father We were His children, His nature we exhibited and His acts we performed and His government we accepted but we come to Jesus Christ and His purpose is not only to save us from hell and save us from sin but it's to save us from the world and its government and its interests and its control It's to save us from the flesh with its pull and its hold and its ensnaring and meshing pulls around us and it's to save us from the devil with all of His power and all of His cunning and all of His craftiness The Lord Jesus died therefore to set His people free For whom the Son makes free is free indeed free from the fear of death free from the fear of hell but free from the power of the world free from the power of the flesh and free from the power of the devil This was all part of His great salvation We want a resurrection life but we don't want to die We want to be filled but we don't want to be empty We want to be clothed but we don't want to be stripped Jesus was severe He said you can't, unless you leave all not leave something, leave all and follow me Four times in the ministry of our Lord He mentioned the word cross In Matthew 10 He said take up your cross and follow me In Mark 10 He said to the rich young ruler for sell all you have, give it to the poor take up your cross and come follow me And in Matthew 16 He said if any man would follow me, let him take up his cross and come follow me And in Luke 14 He said except a man, if any man is to take up not his cross and come follow me, he cannot be my disciple The only four times the Lord Jesus mentioned the word cross as such was in reference to His disciples At the very outset He said this is the condition for coming to me The perpetual challenge to the believer is come down from the cross and save yourself Why should you fast when other people are feasting? Why should you be down there breaking your heart weeping for revival when other people are over there having a good time and living it up like they do in canteens, many of these places I take my cross and follow you You saved my life in this world You the promise given to me in my anger to the Lord Now can you see the folly of a person saying well I don't want to go to hell when I die but I'm quite content to be in bondage to the world to its aims, to its goals, to its interests, to its rewards and to engage in its service Well can you see how silly, how foolish how ridiculous it is for a person to say I don't want to go to hell, I want to go to heaven but I'm quite content to go on being in bondage to my own personality I've got a mean, ugly disposition you see Oh I lose my temper, I get terribly mad but I'm quite content to go on shaming Christ and caricaturizing Christ you see because really all I wanted out of Christ was to escape from hell Can't you see what a total contradiction this is Can't you see how foolish it is for a person to say well you see I'm quite willing to go on doing the business of the devil I'm willing to be a fifth columnist for hell because I've already been secured against the burning I won't have to go to hell when I die and so I don't care if I do serve the devil a little bit, it's alright Can't you see what a total contradiction of terms this is how unthinkable it is and no wonder the writer of Hebrews says How can we escape if we neglect to break salvation when God's salvation intended deliverance not only from the penalty of our sins and from the certainty of hell but it included deliverance from the power of the law its grip and its hold upon us it included deliverance from the power of the flesh the personality, the nature, the traits of the individual it included deliverance from the power and control of Satan himself and the demons of darkness and for a person to say well I'm all I really want from Christ is just to go to heaven anyway well it's unthinkable it's inconceivable it can't be it just can't be that anyone can spurn the grace of God and the mercy of God and the love of God manifest in the deserts of his son to set his people free and go on in bonding when he's already paid the price of their deliverance and I am dead to the world I put my hand to the plow and never will look back move the stone from this well and let the living water flow they tell about a man out in the western part of Mississippi in a little rural town way back up the river that had a large plantation and many many slaves somebody came around to the slaves and said the Emancipation Proclamation's been signed they went to the owner and says now what does that mean he says that means I can't sell you to anybody else that means that from now on I just can't sell you it's utterly impossible for me to sell you the government said I can't sell you and so what does that mean that means you just go right ahead and work here and you don't need to be the least bit afraid you just work for me and go right on working for me and I'll never sell you I'll never sell you you can stay right here so one year went on two years went on they kept living in the slave quarters they kept going to the field eating the food and taking the lash of the overseers just going right on and they said isn't it wonderful to be emancipated we don't have to be so fear about being sold our families won't be broken up and children you can live right here with your daddy and your mommy all your life and we go right on working for the master here and so they go right out into the field and grovel and serve and they were talking about being emancipated because they couldn't be sold to anybody else then someone came along and said what are you doing here well we're emancipated we don't need to be afraid about being sold anymore if you don't understand what emancipation is you don't need to serve that man anymore he doesn't own you he not only can't sell you but he can't work you you don't have to do his dirty bidding anymore you can leave here pack your things and go down the road go anywhere you want to go well he never told us that that's what it meant to be emancipated and so we've spent four years working here when we didn't have to oh listen I know children of God that have been four years doing the bidding of the world and longer than that doing the bidding of the flesh and longer than that being hounded and whipped by the devil and they never heard that Jesus Christ died to set them free but oh to think that when they've heard they'll go right on in bondage that's unthinkable that's unthinkable and so if I speak to you and you've had bondage to the world it's been gripping and pulling the Lord Jesus died to set you free he carried you with him to the cross so that as you went down in death the world would have to relinquish its hold it couldn't follow you into death he carried you with him to the cross so that as you went with him into death the flesh couldn't hold you and govern you anymore he carried you with him so that the devil couldn't hold you anymore and then he brought you up on the other side of the grave with him in newness of life so that you could walk in free for he that is dead is freed from sin can you go on neglecting so great salvation? you can't you've got to admit your bondage admit your need admit that you've been serving when you didn't have to serve and come and throw yourself at his feet and gladly take from his nail-pierced hand the deliverance that he purchased with his blood because you've heard about it you've heard about it if you hear his voice harden not your heart as in the rebellion someone had to die justice had to be satisfied to demonstrate love God had to put away sin first and there was only one way to do it the death of the only begotten son of God he died and you see this is what the Christian life is all about Paul says in Romans chapter 12 he pleads with the people he says I urge you as a pastor would urge a loving flock he says I urge you to do what? to lay down your life to offer your life as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God but Paul gives the motivation he says to lay down your life because of based upon the mercies of God and what is he talking about? the thing that ought to motivate you to lay down your life for Christ are the mercies of God but in Romans chapter 12 the mercies of God are referring to the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans where in the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans Paul explains everything God has done for us in Christ and he's saying and since God has done all this in Christ now lay down your life for Him and the more you know of this cross the more you are given to lay down your life for Him He's no longer this little accessory that you put on your life to make it better He is your life you are consumed by Him you are constrained by Him every thought, every judgment, every word everything you do why do you do this, sir? why do you do that, sir? because Christ has shed His own blood for my soul the love of God in Christ constrains me He died offer up the sacrifice creation sends forth a call offer up the sacrifice one life to pay for them all offer up the sacrifice the innocent one must be slain offer up the sacrifice and bring man back to God again He died it's amazing what the Spirit can do when He's here it's amazing what is not done when He's not but Christ died those words should be enough to break your heart into a thousand pieces and to cast you to the floor and worship Christ died for you but Paul tells us Scripture tells us that He did not remain dead it is not just the death of Jesus Christ that saves us it is the resurrection of Jesus Christ also that has a great part in this story if He had remained dead there would be nothing there would be no hope all things would be dashed to pieces but God has vindicated His only begotten Son by raising Him from the dead and in raising Him from the dead God has set His seal and told us, declared publicly through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that His sacrifice was sufficient to atone the sins of His people What do you say, Father?