The Implications of the Cross

Think back in your minds, friends, and try to recall the last time you were in church and you heard a message on the cross in the life of a believer. I really believe that when Dr. Stephen Ofer died, that message died with him. Very few pastors are willing to preach hard messages that go against the flesh of their congregations and rile up the good deacons, and very few church members are willing to embrace the implications of the cross in their lives.

But the implications of the cross must be addressed in your day and mine, friend, if we are to have any hope of seeing God move in revival, because God only deals with serious seekers of Him, and to be a serious seeker of Him, you must walk with Him, and my Bible declares in Amos 3.3, can two walk together except they be agreed. And no man, and no woman, is going to go deeper with God unless they embrace all the implications of the cross in their lives. Everything else is just lip service on what you intend to do for God and never get around to doing it.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is The Implications of the Cross, and my text can be found in the Gospel of Luke, in chapter 9, in verse 23. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends, as I read this declaration of our Lord Jesus Christ to every disciple that claims to be a follower of His. And He said to them all, I will pause there, friends, to whom did the Lord Jesus address this message to, where is the emphasis on the sentence, on the word all, and that meant all His hearers within the sound of His voice, and all followers of His in ages to come who claim the name of Christ, all, meaning He's speaking to you, and you, He's speaking to you, young man, He's speaking to you, young lady, He's addressing you, let me continue.

And He said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross every now and then. Is that what He said? No, Jesus said, take up his cross daily, and follow me. In other words, a crucified Savior must have crucified followers, but some of you don't agree with that.

Most folks today are satisfied with an easy religion that doesn't cost them anything, or make them uncomfortable in any way. We want to see the messages that make us feel better, and we want to laugh and be entertained. Well, listen to me, friends, we cannot ignore the implications of the cross in your life, because you will always settle for second best as far as what God had planned for you, if you don't, unless you're willing to embrace the cross and all its demands and implications.

You will never, I repeat, never be as useful to God as He desires you to be. Now I know in my own life that the times I was not being used to God as I should were times when I fled from the implications and ramifications and declarations of the cross in my life. I wanted a Savior, but I didn't want a ruler over me.

I wanted to sit on the throne of my life and rule there, and so do many of you, if you're honest enough to admit it. You don't want the flesh-killing cross to touch your self-life and give up your control. You like being in control.

You'd rather sit there and reign on the throne of your life instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to me, dear friends. The implications of the cross must be faced, if we want to go deeper with God.

The implications of the cross must be faced, if we want to see souls saved in our day. The implications of the cross must be preached and proclaimed and taught and dealt with, if we ever have any hope of seeing a God-sent revival in the land. There are several aspects I'd like to draw out from our text this evening, and I'll first list them and then elaborate on each head as I proceed.

I don't use the overworked art of alliteration much anymore, because I feel it's too overdone these days by too many folks, but sometimes I cannot do justice to a text without its aid, and this is my case right now. So forgive me for my alliteration of this text as follows. There are several implications to this doctrine of the cross in the life of a believer, and they are, number one, there is a command to be obeyed, number two, there is a cost to be paid, and number three, there is a cross to be embraced.

Allow me to address this first aspect of this text, and I'll then address the rest. There is a command to be obeyed. Who gave the command? Was it Peter? Was it John? Or was it James? No, the command to take up the cross comes from the precious lips of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Who is He talking to? He's talking to you. And if you fail to obey Him in this matter of the cross smack dab in the middle of your self-life, then you can pretty much get used to a life of mediocre Christianity and little usefulness to the God of glory. I know some of you don't like that.

You say, you don't know what you're talking about, preacher. I'm a deacon, and I serve this church faithfully. I give my time and my money and my prayers.

Well, hold on, bud. I'm glad you do. I'm sure the pastor appreciates it, but I'm not talking about your long track record of service.

I'm talking about you being honest enough and brave enough and willing enough to pick up the cross daily and apply it to your self-life. That's what Jesus is talking about. There is a command to be obeyed or disobeyed, and if you are ignoring the ramifications and implications of the cross in your life, you are in direct disobedience to the one you claim to serve.

Number two, there is a cost to be paid. My late homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Oldford, used to drill me over and over again with the following statement. He'd say, what cost counts, and what counts costs.

Listen to me, dear friends. If you want to go deeper with God, and if you want to be more useful in His hands and your generation, then there is a price to be paid, and that price is the death of the self-life. In Bible times, when folk saw a man carrying a cross, it meant one thing.

He was sentenced to die. That condemned man could not get away from the cross, which was to be his own instrument of death. And if you claim to be a serious follower of Jesus Christ, then you too cannot get away from the cross, which must be your own instrument of death to the self-life.

Now most of us don't like to suffer. We back away from pain. But over in John's Gospel in chapter 15, Jesus talks about the relationship between the vine and the branches, and that it is the branch that is pruned that produces the most fruit.

But many of us back away from the divine pruning knife held in the master's hand, as it cuts away all self-boasting, as it cuts away all self-reliance, as it cuts away at every ugly aspect of self that stands in the way of God, giving us the very best that He intends for us to have from His perspective. He's the divine husbandman. We see the blade as it shimmers in the light, and we pull back.

We pull away. We don't like the pruning. But listen to me, friend.

The implications of the cross in the life of the believer must be faced if you ever want to go further with God. Like I said, there is a price to be paid, and that price is death to the self-life. If you want to see revival, then die, die, die.

If you want to climb higher with God, then die. Take up your cross daily, and apply all its flesh-killing aspects to your self-life until somebody can see a little more of Jesus in you. I'll never forget Adrian Rogers.

I never knew a man on this earth who made me think of Jesus more than Dr. Rogers. When I was with him, every time, I felt like I was with Jesus. Do you know someone like that, that makes you think of Jesus when you're with them? Well, Adrian Rogers was like that to me.

I'll never forget the night I dropped my family off at a local restaurant in a storm, and I went to park the car. Under the umbrella I ran to the door of the restaurant, and when I opened it, there was the figure of a man standing there, with his arms outstretched, and I heard a deep, booming voice greet me, Ernesto! It was Adrian. He hugged me, and I felt that instant that I had died and gone to glory, and Jesus was welcoming me home.

You see, friends, Dr. Rogers knew about the cross and the life of the believer, at least how it applied to his own walk with the Lord. I recall him telling a story about a time in his life when he was a young man, still a football player in high school, and recently saved. And he was walking home from school one day, and he knelt in a grassy field and prayed to God to show him how to give all he had to Jesus, so he could be all Jesus wanted him to be.

And Adrian Rogers got down low to the ground when he prayed. He knelt on the grass and finally put his face on the grass and said, Lord, is this low enough? And there was silence from heaven. Then Adrian Rogers took his thumb and began to dig in the dirt until a hole was made.

Then Adrian Rogers put his nose in that hole and prayed, Lord Jesus, this is as low as I can go. You may have all of me. And do you know what, friends? God saw that young man and his heart's desire, and he did wonders with him.

And God can do wonders with you, too, friend, if you'll only let him, if you'll only obey him, if you'll only be honest enough with him and seek and change. There is a cost involved, a price to be paid, and death it is to the self-life. Do you believe that? Do you? I pray that you will.

Now let me address this last aspect of the implications of the cross in the life of a believer, and it is this. There is a cross to be embraced. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Let me ask you a question, friend. How can you follow Jesus if you're going your own way? Do you know what sin is? Sin is going your way when you know it isn't God's way. Are you stubbornly rejecting a call of God on your life? For years I fought a call of God on my life to be a preacher because I didn't want to be poor.

It was the real point of rebellion in my life because I was telling God that I liked money more than Him. Well, God had to deal with me via the cross and the self-life. He has taught me how to be content in any situation, whether in want or in abundance, whether hungry or full.

But I had to surrender that point of rebellion in my life in regard to being a preacher. I not only had to surrender to the call to preach, but I had to embrace the cross and all its flesh-killing aspects in my self-life if God was to use me as a preacher. It was the battleground of prayer where God said, if I am to use you like few other men, then you will have to live like few men do.

This was the final battleground between self and the cross. It was either future usefulness for God or a life of uselessness for me. Self had to be willingly annihilated daily on the cross, and there had to be a full surrender to His Lordship and rule in my life in consecration from that point forward.

Until He came or called, there was no turning back. I had to cross my Rubicon, so to speak. How about you, friend? Are you making excuses to serve Him in some capacity He's already equipped you in? Are you talking about doing this and that for God, and you never actually got around to doing it? You're avoiding the cross.

You're in rebellion to God. And there's a wall there higher that you will never ever surmount so long as you avoid the rights and claims of the cross in your life. The self-life must go, friend.

The self-life must die. It's just an ugly old life anyway. Who in his right mind wants to parade the ugly, monstrous self that's keeping you from your very best that God has for you? Take self to the cross, and ask the Holy Spirit to do His flesh-killing surgery.

Embrace the cross and exchange the self-life for the Christ life. The cross is the secret to God's presence in your life. God's way is by the cross when all self-interests are nailed up there.

And then God has an empty vessel which He can fill so that rivers of blessing can course through that surrendered channel. But first the self-life must be emptied via the cross. Jesus is divine.

Are you connected to Him in a life of denying self and embracing the cross? If you want power, brother pastor, if you want power, brother evangelist, if you want influence with men, then there's a cross to be embraced. I can promise you this, friend. When you do that, your ministry will take on a new dimension, a new authority, with power from on high.

Well, we've seen tonight a command to be obeyed, a cross to be paid, and a cross to be embraced. Let us pray that it'll be the reality in each of our lives.