The Way Of The Cross

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Thank you for your name. Sorry, Nick, I think it is now. Everybody, it's good to see you. [00:00:40] Not sure what to say, but it is with much fear and trembling that I stand up here today. If ever there was a message, it's today's message for me. [00:01:15] And I think that I would be satisfied with just going home now and saying this message was for me. But I will share what God has shared with me and what he's trying to show me. There has been a song going through my mind, The Way of the Cross Leads Home. I don't think it's in any of our song books. Y'all may know it. I thought I would read the verses written by Jesse Brown Pounds. [00:01:54] That's a lady, by the way. In thinking of Paul and thinking of how Christ called his disciples into the way, And in thinking of how often Paul talked about the cross to the different churches, [00:02:27] it wasn't just to one church, but Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Corinthians. I had to think of this song. It goes, I must needs go home by the way of the cross. There is no other way but this. I shall ne'er get sight of the gates of light if the way of the cross I miss. So according to the song, I know it's not the Bible, but this is pretty important, this way of the cross. [00:03:02] And it got me thinking, what is it? What is the way of the cross? I must needs go on in the blood-sprinkled way the path that the Savior trod If I ever climb to the heights sublime where the soul is at home with God Then I bid farewell to the way of the world to walk in it never more For my Lord says come and I seek my home where he waits at the open door [00:03:34] for the way of the cross leads home. Oh, it is in here. Cool. Maybe we can sing that later. There's a lot of scripture I'd like to turn to. So if you want to, those of you holding little ones, I know it's kind of hard. I forgot, who was I holding here a while ago? Kaylee maybe, last Sunday or something. Man, you can't follow along very good in your Bible when you're holding a child. But those of you that want to or can, let's turn to Luke chapter 14. I hope I can get through everything. Good morning. Sometimes I end up skipping over passages because I feel like I don't have time. We'll see what happens. [00:04:38] I guess, you know, the whole fear and trembling thing, I don't know, I just feel very unworthy to be up here preaching a message that I haven't yet learned. You know, Christ, Jesus taught what he had already learned, what he was living. He was preaching what he was living. And I wish I could say that, but I can't. So, that's why I say that this message is for me. [00:05:10] John 14 Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, and where I go you know, and the way you know. You know, in the last week that Jesus was here on earth, He got His disciples together [00:05:50] and He told them that He was going to be betrayed and He was going to be killed. And so he told this to his disciples, that where I go you know and the way you know. I think he could have said in the way of the cross you know, but they didn't know it yet because he hadn't went to the cross. They didn't understand. And he could tell by what Thomas said that they were kind of perplexed. [00:06:27] And so Thomas said to him, verse 5, Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. and from now on you know him and have seen him. Jesus was trying to show him the way. [00:07:01] He was trying to tell him the way to life. And he was going to the cross. He knew he was going to the cross. And it's like he was saying, watch me, follow me. He had already told him, follow me. Take up thy cross and follow me. And yet he was going to the cross. Now let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm going to look at how Paul, what he had to say about the cross of Christ and make a few comments. [00:07:41] In, we'll read 17 and 18. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. There's power in the cross. Why? There's salvation. We all know that. You know, that's nothing new. [00:08:18] We know that the Gospel is the Cross. You know, the Cross of Christ is the Gospel. What happened on the Cross? What does that mean to me? What does that mean to you? And then do we live in the way of the Cross? And what is the way of the Cross? If you were to write it down, What's the first thing you would think of? What all does that mean? In the second chapter here in 1 Corinthians, in verse 2, he says, [00:08:53] For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So it's like that was his focus. It wasn't even just Jesus Christ, but it's what He did. What He did for us. You know, without Christ, without the Cross, there's no salvation. We cannot save ourselves by going to church. You know, if going to church made us a Christian, then duh, we could, if we went to a garage, what does that make us? [00:09:30] If we go to a restaurant, what does that make us? It doesn't make us anything just by going to church. We can't save ourselves by going to church or reading the Bible or praying. We can't save ourselves. There's no salvation except through Jesus Christ going to the cross. Galatians chapter 6, verse 14. [00:10:02] Paul said, but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Are you dead to the world because you only glory in the cross of Christ? Is that the only thing you glory in? Or do we glory in ourselves? If we seek after the world, if we're not dead to the world, we will, we're trying to glory in ourselves, we're trying to big ourselves up. [00:10:43] If we glory in ourselves, we are worldly. Verse 15, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. The next question is, are you a new creation? because it looks to me like that's all that really matters. Circumcision or uncircumcision doesn't mean anything. It doesn't matter. But a new creation does. Are you a new creation? [00:11:17] Thinking of the way of the Cross. When I think of the Cross, I right away think of death. I don't know what you all think about. The crucifixion. We all know that. And then my mind goes to Galatians chapter 2 where he says in verse 20, For I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So, okay, that's very, very familiar. [00:11:49] We know that. But does it open our eyes? Does it open our hearts? Does it mean anything? Has it done anything in your life? What does it mean to be crucified? How are you crucified? How do we reckon ourselves dead according to Romans chapter 6? How do we reckon ourselves dead? Can we just say, okay, I'm dead. Done. I'm dead to that. But yet we still seek after our own things. [00:12:21] This verse where Paul proclaims and testifies that he has been crucified with Christ, I believe that the only way he could write that, the only way that God told him to write that is because it was true. He was crucified. So how did he live his life? How did Christ live his life? I think that He gave sacrificially without anybody knowing. [00:12:55] Sometimes people did know. I'm kind of getting off on a rabbit trail, but I had to think of how did Christ... I mean, I'm sure that there's things in Christ's life that we don't know what He had to go through, what cross He had to bear. What was it like in His home? With his brothers who didn't believe and he was living at home, what kind of ridicule and what kind of making fun of and what did he have to go through secretly? It's not in the Bible. [00:13:27] What did he secretly have to go through? I think that was a cross he had to bear and that can be a cross that we have to bear sometimes. But these verses that we know almost by heart, have they soaked down inside from our head, down to our eyes and opened them and down into our hearts. You know, sometimes it is so frustrating for me to go downstairs and wake up the boys. You know, they're sleeping and it can be 9 o'clock. [00:14:00] They've had 11 hours of sleep. You go down there, hey, time to get up, let's go. You walk out to the bottom of the stairway, stand there for a minute, walk back, and they're still crashed. And you just want to take a gallon of water and just splash it on their head. What would that do to them? Would that wake them up? What do you think, Carrie? It would wake them up, wouldn't it? Well, here is the Gospel, Christ, God's Word. Why doesn't it wake us up? [00:14:34] Why doesn't it wake us up to see how Paul actually lived and what Jesus had to go through to go to the cross, crying out to God, let this cup pass from me. I don't want to go through this. You know, we can, I'm getting way ahead of myself, but we can get so, it's too hard this Christian life. Well, no kidding. You don't think Paul knew that? You don't think Christ knew that? He goes to the cross and there he is. He knows what he's going to have. For weeks he knows. And he prays, Lord, let this cup pass from me. [00:15:16] And I'm positive, I think, that God told his son, look here son, take up your cross and follow me. Exactly what Jesus told his disciples. Exactly what he's telling you and me. Take up your cross and follow me. Suffer. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. If you're righteous, you're going to suffer. You're going to suffer with me? In what ways do you have to suffer? Well, we think, we just go on through our life and go to work and go to parties. No, we don't. Parties, that's the one I'm talking about. [00:15:49] But have our heyday. Because, well, persecution isn't here yet. That's not the only way that we suffer. We have to choose to suffer. The cross means death. And what I'm getting at, death to ourselves, as we'll learn in Philippians after a while. Death to ourselves. I think that's the biggest thing. Death to ourselves. Crucified. Paul said, I'm crucified. [00:16:23] pride. You know, we would like, y'all haven't been to our place in a long time, but we have got weeds. You know, no topsoil, plant no grass or nothing. It is a messer. We mow our weeds. Bush hog our weeds down. Well, we're getting ready to kill them off. I want the absolute best roundup. You know, I don't have to do this twice. I got roundup coming. I stopped in there. My dad said he found, it's called Kills All or something at Barnes and Hoover, so I stopped in there and they're out of it. [00:16:58] I said, hmm, this stuff must be pretty good stuff if they're out. You know, so I definitely want it. I'm not buying Roundup, Roundup, you know, the name brand Roundup. I'm buying this Kills All. You know, Roundup sounds like you're just rounding them up, you know. No, we're going to kill them all. You know, I want a yard, nice, green, fresh, pure, no weeds. But first of all, we've got to kill off the weeds. We've got to kill off the weeds. [00:17:29] They've got to die totally dead. Not partly. Down through the root. They've got to be dead. And I liken that to my life. There can only be true, pure life if I'm dead first. The only way that I can rise again, The only way that Christ could rise is he had to die first. The only way you can have new life is by dying to yourself. [00:18:01] The only way. Die to the natural man. We were born. We all know how we were born. Look at a child. Tyrell. I asked him who's going to eat those fish. He said, I'm going to. Nothing against Terrell. It's just a child. He said, I'm going to eat him. I said, you're going to share him with your sisters? No. You know, look at a baby. [00:18:33] Cries for a bottle. This is what I want. Give me what I want. That natural man, I remember telling Keela's mom one time, Trish. I said, you know, Keela is so selfish. We're born selfish. What? She's not selfish. My baby Keela is not selfish. That's our natural man. We've got to die to that. And maybe for each person it's a little different. In different areas. But I still think it comes back to self. [00:19:06] Die to ourselves, what we want. And so the big question is, okay, for me it is, how in the world do I do that? Now, in Philippians chapter 2, now, so I was going through this in my mind. [00:19:40] Okay, sometimes people can say things that hurt us. That we feel like they're putting us down, belittling us, shaming us. They don't care about me. And it's very depressing, very discouraging. And sometimes they say things that we just want to fight back. I see that in my boys even today. [00:20:12] Sorry, boys. One gets hit, the other hits, you know, they just back and forth. You know how that is. Well, do us as Christians do that? Maybe not right out, but do we do it in our minds? And so right away I think, well, yeah, I probably do that once in a while. So do I, I don't know, this may be a wild goose chase, but okay. Okay, so somebody says something hurtful to me. And since I'm such a good blocker, I just, I don't hurt me any. Well, really, it did hurt me. But I say, no, it didn't hurt me. So am I reckoning myself dead to that? This person ain't gonna, or, you know, so I think, okay, so am I supposed to share my feelings or not share my feelings? We learned that out at life. You know, this really did hurt me. Yes, I'm hurt. [00:21:03] crab. What's his first name? Larry Crabb. Wrote a bit, look, Inside Out. He's very, first couple chapters, he's very, recognize your hurts. But then he goes on to say, recognize that you also hurt others. We hurt and we hurt. Okay. So it's not only us that get hurt, we hurt others. So in other words, what I'm trying to say is, we, Am I supposed to go to my friend, say, Jim hurts me, and I go to Brad and say, Brad, this is what Jim said. [00:21:45] Or do I just reckon that dead and say, you know, what do I do with that? What's the right thing to do? Do I share my feelings or not? I'm not sure if I'm getting what I'm trying to say. But as I look at Philippians chapter 2 verse 13, he says, For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. So that means to me that there's a, I will, like I want so bad to reckon that dead. [00:22:20] I'm not going to respond in a negative way because Enos slammed me. Okay, that's my will. That's what I want to do. But it's not, he works in us, not only to do, but not only to will, but also to do. And so what is that doing? What am I supposed to do? And to me, that is when I go to the cross. You know, I take, maybe your children disobey. [00:22:53] Maybe you, there's some older ones of us here that have teenagers. And maybe a teenager says, well, my dad just treated me so bad. What's he going to do with it? Well, my children are disobeying and such. What am I going to do with it? You know, there's pain where our spouse hurts us, or there's all kinds of pain. I think you know what I mean. We have burdens, and we have worries, and we have anxieties, and we even have temptations that we cannot overcome. Well, no kidding, you can't overcome it. [00:23:25] You can't overcome it by yourself. It has to be Christ working in us and through us. So what do we do with this? Well, we take all of that. Take whatever is laying hard. This sister is just driving me nuts. She's mean to me. Let's take it to the cross. And it sounds simple. Oh, just take it to the cross and pray. But it's something that I feel like I have failed in so many times. Take it to the cross. [00:23:55] Lay down your burdens. What does that mean? It's not just sins. It's burdens that weigh you down and trouble you down. And as we lay our burdens down, our worries, our anxieties, our hurts, our pains, guess what? We take up His burden. We take up the burden of Christ. And that's not a heavy burden. We take up what did Christ do? He loved others. He cared for others. He sacrificially gave, not out of His abundance. He sacrificially gave. [00:24:33] We even notice when he was baptized, he prayed. That alone should compel us and challenge us to pray. If Christ had to pray, you don't think we have to pray? Huh. When times get rough, when times are good, at all times, where is our relationship with Jesus Christ? With God the Father. Christ had to pray. I think he prayed for the Holy Spirit. [00:25:05] And boom, Holy Spirit. How much more do we need to pray for the Holy Spirit? I know that we are. But I was thinking of this book that we're reading, The Prayer Life. And all we really need to do is look at Christ. He prayed. Oh, that must mean I must pray. Follow me. Thinking of taking our cares and hurts, I thought of the song, Tell it to Jesus. [00:25:42] Are you weary? Are you heavy hearted? Tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving over joys departed? Tell it to Jesus alone. Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden? Have you sins that to men's eyes are hidden? Ask yourself. Do you fear the gathering clouds of sorrow? Are you anxious what shall be tomorrow? Are you troubled at the thought of dying? [00:26:15] For Christ's coming kingdom are you sighing? Tell it to Jesus alone. Or do we go to a friend wanting to share our hurt, but secretly down inside we really want to slam this person? Do we just want to? If we don't even take notice of our natural man, [00:26:47] and we just run to a friend and say, Do you know what? Look how he hurt me. Really, we're trying to big ourselves up. Trying to make ourselves feel better. That's not true peace. It doesn't make us feel better. It's not Christ-like. It's not Paul-like. Also in Philippians chapter 2, verse 3 and 4, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. [00:27:22] Let each of you look not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Very, very familiar. But how does that, is that reality? Is that what is true in my life? Is that what is true in your life? How does that make us feel this morning? Are we honest with ourselves? Is the truth setting us free? [00:27:58] We'll never be free if we don't look at ourselves and get rid of our selfishness. Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1, I like these verses, that we can be redeemed through His blood. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, [00:28:32] which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known to us the mystery of his will made known to us, sorry, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him In him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will [00:29:08] that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. Notice his glory. Paul writes his glory, his glory, his glory, to his glory, on and on to different churches. Not to my glory. And as we saw before, looking at Paul's life, it was all about Christ. But there is redemption through His blood. There is redemption through His cross. Amen, somebody. Amen, somebody. [00:29:41] Amen. Wow, that took a while. And then, verse 13. In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That's a promise. The gospel of your salvation. That's the cross. The way of the cross leads home. [00:30:14] We have to come to Him with nothing. We must not. We cannot add Christ to our good things, to our good works. That's an illustration from Paul Emerson. I so like that illustration. So we come to the altar, we come to Christ, and we want to add Christ to what we are doing that's good. That don't make sense. But that's what we want to do. [00:30:44] We want to keep all of our good things that we're doing, throw away the bad things, but we can't do that. That's how Paul, forget who he said it to now, shoot, how he counts all things as loss. That's counting all things as loss. We have to take all of our good, all of our bad, and give it to the Lord. We come to Him with nothing. Nothing, I forget how the words go, but this song kind of, [00:31:17] Nothing to the cross I bring, only to the cross I cling. I don't know the words for sure, but something like that. I think you know what I mean. I was going to read chapter 2 of Ephesians, But I just really, really, really like it. Verse 1, And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. [00:31:48] Why? How? It's through the Cross. It's only through the Cross. In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, The Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Okay, so if we walk according to the course of this world, if we walk in selfishness, that's our natural man, we are sons of disobedience. [00:32:23] Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others. If you look at verse 3, you know, sometimes it's easy for me in a way to skip over and of the mind. Where does my mind go? Where does my mind act? What do I think of others? What's my attitude towards others? Do I love as Christ loved? [00:32:55] And then verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love of his great love with which he loved us, and on and on. Verse 9, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Paul knew, I think, the way of the cross. And then verse 16, that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross. [00:33:29] Reconciliation I think it was in Romans 15 Paul writes that not even Christ pleased himself. Let's turn to Philippians chapter 3. This is one that a passage that kind of Are we enemies of the cross? [00:34:06] Paul writes to the Philippians, we'll start at verse 18 of chapter 3. For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who set their mind on earthly things. Let's turn to, well, you don't have to. [00:34:37] I'm going to turn to Hosea. I think he's referring to Hosea 4, verse 7. And you should maybe turn, sometime read Hosea 4. He's talking about the rejection of God. But verse 7 says, The more they increase, the more they sinned against Me, I will change their glory into shame. So here they were glorying in themselves, I believe. [00:35:12] Building themselves up, glorying in themselves. And Paul writes, Whose glory is their shame? who set their mind on earthly things. There's three things in there. Whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. What's the one word that sums all that up? Those people are selfish. So if we are selfish, the Bible says we are enemies of the cross. And I'm pretty sure I've heard myself say out loud, [00:35:47] I know I'm being a little selfish, but what is up with that? Is it okay to be a little selfish? I don't think I... I don't read anywhere of Christ ever being selfish. You know, if you want to say that he went to pray whenever he wanted to, He took his time and he went and did what he wanted to. He went and prayed. People wanted to hear him. He just went and did what he wanted. I don't think that's selfish. You want your time with God in the morning? I've got to have my time with my daddy. [00:36:37] You take it. That's not being selfish. How important is your relationship with the only one who can save you? Romans 8 says, For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. [00:37:09] Set their minds, it's not talking about all they do is the things of the flesh. It's that too, but it starts in our minds. What we think. But those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. And I'm saying, brothers and sisters, check yourselves right now. If we want new life, if we want to be resurrected, if we want to be a new creature, a new creation, we must die with Christ, die to ourselves. [00:37:50] Stop trying to big ourselves up, trying to seek revenge, trying to get even. Stop being so selfish, self-righteous, making people feel like I'm better than you. It's not Christ's example. It's not Paul's example. It's not the work of the Holy Spirit. It's not. Then to the Colossians in chapter 1. [00:38:34] Verse 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now he has reconciled. Hallelujah. [00:39:04] Hallelujah. Can we rest in him? In closing, I want to turn to Romans chapter 1. I want to read verses 1 to 7. I think the biggest thing, and I've said it many times, but as we have troubles and worries and hurts and pains [00:39:43] and we need to bring them to Christ, bring them to the cross. I didn't write it down. Maybe I did. Maybe I missed it, but I just had to think. Oh, it's in Colossians 2, verse 14, the last part he says, and has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. I like that, thinking of bringing that ugly stuff to Him, whether it's just a worry or a pain, or maybe it's a sin. [00:40:18] It can be all of that, any of that, and we give it to God. and that is through obedience. And through obedience, there's power. There's power in the Cross. Power to salvation. Power to live right. There's so many promises of how He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will never allow us to be tempted more than what we can bear. Do we claim that? Do we say, hey, do we believe that as much as we believe that we are saved just because we believe? Okay, Romans 1. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, separated to the cross of Christ, which he promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord. [00:41:11] Is he your Lord? Who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. He was in the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. See, that can be you and me. We are born in the flesh. We are declared... Okay, we come to Him. Confess our sins. We are declared a son. With power, according to the spirit of holiness, by living in holiness, by living in obedience, we are dead but alive in Christ. [00:41:52] Dead to ourselves, dead to our sin. Through him, we have received grace for obedience and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. You also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are in Shipshawana, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:42:26] Amen. So I pray that we would follow Christ, follow Paul, Paul's example. And from Colossians 3, let the word of God dwell in you richly and in your hearts. This is kind of paraphrased, sorry. Doing all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not that we do for our name. [00:42:58] It's not to big ourselves up. Doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Giving thanks. Also giving thanks. Not just asking and begging and giving thanks to God our Father through Him. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that You would search us, Lord, and open up our eyes, wake us up, Lord. I pray, Lord, that You would allow and make what we know in our heads to soak down into our hearts. [00:43:34] Lord, give us a humble spirit. Lord, I pray that you would break us somehow. And help us to see you for who you really are. Lord, I pray that you would call us like you did John to come up here. To come up higher. And to see things from your perspective. Lord, you know exactly how it is to live here in the flesh, so I pray that you would give us strength and you would give us power to live here in the flesh while serving you. In Jesus' name, Amen.