His Cross (luke 9;23) Part 8;let Him Take Up His Cross

[Speaker 1] [Intro Music: "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God wetly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Praise ye the Lord! We thank our God again for today. We bless His holy name for another time of our discipleship class this Monday. We thank Him for how He led us last Monday in looking at the matter of His cross. And in looking at the matter of His cross, we have been journeying severally since the month of June, looking at different aspects of His cross. And in the last two weeks now, we have been looking at the matter of let him take his cross. Let him take his cross. Let’s have one or two words of worship, prayer, and then we commence again for today. [Song: "We Are Gathering Together Unto Thee"] We are gathering together unto Thee. Oh, we are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord, unto the Lord, shall the gathering of His people be. We are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord, we are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord, we are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord, unto the Lord, shall the gathering of His people be. We are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord, we are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord, we are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord, unto the Lord, shall the gathering of His people be. We are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord. Our Father, indeed unto You we gather this evening. We gather unto You, we gather unto Your name, we gather unto Your spirit, we gather unto Your word. Lord God Almighty, we pray. We come into Your presence. The Bible says in Your presence there is fullness of joy. Lord God Almighty, we pray. May our situation, our circumstances, experience the fullness of Your presence this evening in the name of Jesus. Lord our God, as we fellowship together in the scriptures, as we fellowship together in the spirit, as we fellowship together with one another. Lord, we pray Your spirit will work within us, among us in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, meet us where we need You most this day. Thank You, Eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Amen. So we want to take the matter from where we left it last week. We have been looking at the matter of let him take his cross. Let him take his cross. And last week, we were able to establish very clearly what actually is the cross. What actually is the matter of the cross. What actually that is, what actually that represents. We have been able to do that last week. And our concern today was where we left the matter last week. We’re looking at how do we take up the cross. In Luke 9:23, the Master said, "If anyone would be My disciple, let him deny himself, let him take up his cross, let him take up his cross and follow Me." I read from that scripture, Luke chapter 9 verse 23: "Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'" Let him deny himself, let him take up his cross daily, and follow Me. So how is he to take up his cross? That's our focus. How is he? And we want to begin the journey gradually. See how we do the taking of this cross. Now, the first thing to establish about how do I take up his cross—don't forget, we are taking up his cross in terms of your cross. The Lord is giving you a cross to take. Now, in closing the meeting last week, we raised a very fundamental issue about his and then taking. And it is from there I want to move on today. In Numbers 21 where we read, you will notice that the instruction that was given to Moses was verse 8: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.'" I raised something fundamentally last week, that you notice that the fiery serpent that was made by Moses was placed on a pole. Now, it was not placed on many poles. I concluded last week when I noted that, so that place, that pole on which it is placed, is to give a kind of elevation such that people would be able to look at it from different directions. So it was lifted up. Although spiritually also, it is pointing to the eternal truth that Jesus will be lifted up. Now, the implication, what I'm trying to make you see, is that for them in the wilderness, they must all converge to a pole. They—everybody is about a pole. Everybody must be able to come, be able to see. So there's no personalized to any individual. I'm talking about the superiority of the provision of Christ over the New Testament is take up his cross. You are given one. Everybody is not converging around one, even though there is a sense in which that cross is the cross of Jesus. That is the common ground. There's no other foundation that anybody can lay but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. So Christ is the chief cornerstone. Our having a cross is actually also His cross. Now, the second thing that I mentioned fundamentally last week is that we must relate look and believe. He says "when he looks," whereas in John chapter 3, John chapter 3 verse 14 to 16, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes"—so you notice something. In the Old Testament, he who looks will live. In the New Testament, he who believes—he believes. Note the matter, believe. We're looking at how do I take up this cross. How? And the first thing I'm pointing your attention to is the matter of believing. Matter of believing. For them, it is the matter of looking. For us, it is the matter of believing. It says "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." And then, for God—that's in the verse 16—"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes"—you see the matter again—"believe." Now, so when we are talking about take up his cross, fundamentally, we are addressing the matter of faith. What did I say? When we are looking at how, what we are saying actually is living by faith, believing. Now, I will need to quickly explain something which we have explained under this meeting, I think some years back. I can't remember exactly when, but I will need to make reference to that. Now, we're talking about believing and faith. What exactly are we talking about? He says "he who believes," and I've just mentioned faith. Now, when you look at the word "believe" and "faith," a close examination of these two things, particularly when you look at James chapter 2, James chapter 2—it should be from around verse 17, 18, thereabout. It says from verse 18, "But someone will say, 'You have faith, I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." Now, you believe—are you seeing the matter again? Believe and faith. As if they are being interchanged. "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even demons believe and tremble." Verse 20, "But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?" Now, when he got to 23, look at the scripture again: "And the scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God." Then look at the verse 24 again, he went back to faith: "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." Now, you see the way they are using faith and believe interchangeably. Now, the point is this. You cannot separate believe and faith. They are not separable. They are the two sides of the same thing. If you say it is a coin, we're talking about the cross the other time, the head and the tail. Now, faith and believe is also like a coin, the head and the tail. They go together. They are actually one thing. But how do we explain them practically? The way to do it practically is what we are seeing in James. What the book of James is making us to understand is that when a man believes, when a man believes, that believe cannot be said to actually be that he believes until he acts on what he believes. It is when you act on what you believe that it can be said that this person believes. When you don't act on what you believe, it is as good as you don't believe. So when works is added to believe, it becomes faith. If you want to use the things of nature, it's like talking about wind and air. Air is everywhere. But once the air begins to move and you are feeling it, you don't say air is blowing. You say there is wind. You say the wind is blowing. But essentially, what is actually moving, what you are calling wind, is air in motion. So what we are calling faith is a believe that is put into practice. A believe to which work is added. When work is added to believe, it becomes faith. So faith is believe in action. When there is no action to believe, once there is no action, then we say there is no faith. That's what you are learning from this place. So you are looking at something in John chapter 3, "whoever believes will not perish." That believing we are talking about there is that the person is expressing faith, that is, a believe that is coupled with an action. That is what we saw in Numbers 21. When He said they should look, looking is an action. Looking is a verb. Look, that's a verb, it's an action. So if they get there and they are by the serpent that Moses made, if they don't act, if they don't do something, they must act. They must look. That's an action. As they take that action, the power of God will come into operation and then the venom of the serpent will become powerless. So it is the same thing. When He says "whoever believes," what we mean is that anybody that will act upon what scriptures have said shall be saved. Anybody that will act, that is the believing. Anybody that will act, you put it—if you act, you put it into practice. God says look and they look. So the thing here is that if God says something, you take it that that is it, you act on it. That is what we mean, and then you will be saved. Now, so you see that when we're talking about take up his cross, let me now make it simpler for you. It simply means let him live by faith. Let him act on—let there be his faith. There must be his faith. There must be his faith. And that is what I'm going to take time to make you see about how do we take this cross. It’s faith. It's faith. His faith is his cross. His faith is his cross. He lives by it. If he throw away this faith, he has thrown away his cross. He takes that cross as a matter of faith. When you look at Habakkuk chapter 2, let’s go to the Old Testament, when you look at Habakkuk, you will notice where the matter is coming from in Habakkuk chapter 2. It says, I will read from verse 1: "I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said: 'Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live'"—do you notice the word here again?—"by his faith." His faith, his cross. The just will be able to live on account of taking his cross, his faith. When we are—I want you to be seeing faith and taking this cross as synonymous. His faith is his cross. He lives by it. Now, when you come to the New Testament, I want us to look at some very important event in the scriptures to establish this matter of his cross. I want to point to some things in scripture just to establish this matter of his faith is his cross. Now, the first one I want us to go and look at is the incident of Jairus' daughter. The incident of Jairus' daughter. I want us to see something there, just trying to establish this matter, trying to establish the matter of Jesus and the matter of our faith. The matter of our faith and the matter of Jesus and the matter of His cross, so that some things can be clearer to us as we try to live this life of faith that the Lord offered us, which is our life actually. Let's look at that should be Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. The incident of Jesus speaking, making response to Jairus when he came to ask Jesus to come and heal his dying girl. Now, let's look at it from verse 22. It says, "And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet and begged Him earnestly, saying, 'My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.'" The Bible says, "So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him." Now, there's an interruption of the woman with the issue of blood. We'll come back to that, because that's the second thing I wanted us to look at, just about a few incident about Jesus and the matter of faith. Now, move back to that of Jairus. Verse 35. "While He was speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, 'Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?' Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?" The girl was dying. By this time, the case, the matter went further. The girl was dead. Now, look at what the Bible says. Look at what the Bible says. The Bible says, "As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken"—please note that—"As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler, 'Do not be' what? 'afraid. Only' what? 'believe.'" What is He telling him? What is He telling him? Have faith. So if you try to understand this, what is He saying? Take your cross. Have faith. It is His. He need to express it. It is His. He need to take up his cross. He said have faith. Jesus was the one to heal the girl. But for the girl to be healed, for the man to experience that miracle, there is something that is his, and what is that? His faith. His faith. His faith was his. He need to have that faith. He need to have that expression of his faith. He says immediately Jesus heard what was spoken, He said to the ruler. Now, what was going on here? I want to explain it practically. The man was looking—he has heard about Jesus. That Jesus can heal. Jesus too have made affirmation about Himself that He can do it. Now, the man needs to act on that belief. He acted on that belief. And it was acting on that belief that took him to Jesus. When he got to Jesus, Jesus was already following him. He was going to get his miracle. But along the line, there was a word that came. That word was to make him stop acting on his belief. Immediately Jesus heard that, He knew that if the man stop acting on his belief, things will not work well for him. And so He quickly told the man, "Do not be afraid." He has to send another word. "Do not be afraid. Take up your cross. Take this cross. This thing that you have taken, take it, hold it!" Because it is the emblem of your victory and life. It is the emblem of your victory and life. If you leave this incident, go back to the earlier one, the woman with the issue of blood. You see the same pattern. The woman was hearing. She has been hearing. And what did she do? She began to act. What was she doing? She was taking the cross. She was acting. She was acting. She was acting. And that is why, you see, let me tell you, you see one thing you need to appreciate about this matter of this cross is that what you hear—I have been trying to talk about this hearing because many times we don't know that there is so much about taking up your cross and what you hear. What you hear, what you give your hearing to, determines whether you live or you die. The Bible says faith comes by hearing. Faith—another way to put it another way, the taking of the cross comes by what? By hearing. The taking of the cross comes by hearing. When you hear, as you hear, you cannot believe what you don't hear. That's the first fundamental thing you must first hear. There must be a hearing of it. The taking of the cross, how do I take it? The first question I want to ask you is how much of hearing is happening in your life? How much of hearing, how much are you hearing, what are you hearing, what are you giving your hearing to? You notice that Jairus was trying to listen to another thing and the Master said, "Don't be afraid. Don't listen to that one. Listen to what you have always heard. You heard something that brought you to Me. Keep hearing that one. Don't hear this new one." Because it's in hearing that you are taking. His faith is actually his cross. When people are now talking about, "Ah, that's my cross," it's actually what they actually mean is that, that's my faith! And not the other way around that your sorrow is your cross. No. The expression of your faith is the cross you are to take. And it is yours for taking. You need to take it. If you don't take it, you notice the instruction to Jairus. Look at the woman with the issue of blood. You see the same pattern. The woman was hearing. She has been hearing. And what did she do? She began to act. What was she doing? She was taking the cross. She was acting. She was acting. She was acting. And that is why, you see, let me tell you, you see one thing you need to appreciate about this matter of this cross is that once a man don't know—connect with what God said, he cannot take up his cross. Once a man does not know exactly what God said, once a man does not know actually what has been said, that man cannot take up any cross. That man cannot take up any cross. And so, unfortunately, when the man is going through some difficulties, they say, "You see you're carrying your cross." "You know that is your cross." And the man thinks he's taking the cross of Jesus because he's going through some difficulty. And so he thinks, you know, that is not scripture. The cross, the cross is availing ourselves of the power of God. The cross is stepping, is acting on that which God said. So when a man does not know that which God said, the exact thing that God said so that he can act on that which God said to effect the power of God in a particular situation, he's not taking up any cross. He's not taking up any cross. The woman heard about Jesus. She came behind in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made whole." Immediately the fountain of her blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched Me?" But His disciples said to Him, "You see the multitude thronging You and You say 'who touched Me?'" And He looked around to see who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said, "Daughter"—do you see that? What follows?—"Your faith." That is her cross. She took her cross. It is her faith. Her cross. It is hers. It is hers. He said take up your cross. One thing we are not doing today as believers, we need to understand a very, very serious matter about this our Christian work. I've not—but because that is a matter specifically about our redemption and about our victory. But I'm trying to make you understand that how do I take up this cross? This cross is His faith. Your faith, your faith is your cross. And faith in what? Faith, faith in Christ. When we say faith in Christ, what are we saying? We are saying that hearing Jesus and putting into practice what He made available. What did He make available? What He made available by His death and resurrection was that what? Number one, everything that is written against us, everything that is against us, everything that is contrary to us, every ordinances, everything that has been written why we should not live, why we must not have life and life in abundance, do you know the day you recognize that everything why we must not live, everything, every curse, everything that has to do with the law, every curse of the law, everything that has to do with look, you do this, this is the penalty, you did that, that's the penalty, you did this, and every kind of thing that they can put together, the Bible says He nailed them to the cross. But what I want to talk more today, I'll be speaking what what happens by that resurrection, so that you will understand why Jesus was saying the kingdom of God is like a land that when a man discovered that land, he did what? I said this at the very beginning. He sold everything that he had to buy that piece of land. You will understand why it has it's not about the temple. It is not about a man of God. It is not about a prophet. It is not about a pastor. It is about a teacher. It is not about a discipler. It is not about any if Moses, if Moses do not point the people to the cross, Moses becomes useless as far as God is concerned. All that God needed Moses to do is what? Just tell them to look at what? Look at the serpent. Any man of God, anybody, let them call him anything, what does not make the people to look up into looking into Jesus and is trying to stand between them and Jesus, that man is not relevant to the kingdom of heaven. He's relevant to some other kingdom. He's relevant to some other kingdom. And so, brethren, as we conclude today, what I'm trying to make you see primarily today is how. What is the how? I've tried to make you see something very clear. Taking up His cross is the same thing with when we say the just shall live by His faith. That is what we mean. It's simply that. The just shall live by His faith. How does he live by his faith? The just, this faith—don't forget—this faith is in that Jesus is the Christ, He is the Son of God, shall live by this faith. Life and abundance is by that faith. Now, in taking up in faith, in taking up His cross, what he needs to do is says faith comes by hearing. What what you must do as a believer, what you must do daily, what you must on a daily basis do, is to hear Jesus. If you will be victorious in this life—I'll be giving you example by time we are speaking next week on what are the various things that happened therefore by the resurrection, because the matter is about the resurrection. What are the things that the cross, what did you see in this cross? You will see that you must daily hear Jesus. You must daily know what He said. You must daily know what He made available. You must daily hear Him. Jairus heard Jesus. The woman with the issue of blood heard Jesus. The centurion, it was the same thing. He had heard about Jesus. And when Jesus was approaching his house, what did he say? He said, "You don't need to come under my roof. You don't need to come to my roof. Me too I'm a man under authority. I say this one go, he goes. This one come, he comes. You too speak the word." Do you see the faith he expressed in Jesus? And what did Jesus say? "I've not seen a man taking up his cross like this. I've not seen a man operating this kind of faith." The Bible says and it was to that man according to his faith. May you understand this matter very, very clearly, that the same thing, it was a serpent, it was the same fiery serpent on the floor. The same thing that had destroying many is also the same thing that those who take their cross will live victoriously over. I want you to get that clear. Anybody who is looking away, who is looking down will be going down. The same thing that are scattering people today, destroying them, scattering their life, making them to become whatever, are the same thing that those who are listening to Jesus, who are hearing Jesus, who are holding to what He said, who are expressing this faith, they are having victory over the same set of things. It's just a matter of choice whether you take up your cross. But remember, the just shall live. If he must live, if he will not die, if he will live, it is by his cross. It is by his faith. Let us close this evening. Let's talk to God. If the just must live, if the just must live, the just must live. Ah! "Therefore do not cast away your confidence which has a great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience. After you have done the will of God, you may obtain the promise. But if any man draws back, My soul will have no pleasure in him." Ah! Mary, Elizabeth—look at the pronouncement—"Blessed is he who believes, because there will be a performance. There will be a performance of those things spoken by God." The just live by faith. The just conquers by faith. The just overcomes by faith. It is by faith, that is his cross. Take up this cross, brother. Do everything to hear the Lord. Hear Him in His word. Know the truth. Stop know exactly what He said. I'll be giving example next week. I'll be show some things happening in our own life. because we didn't know exactly what the Master said. We were we were groping in darkness, groping in darkness. until one day, we were were able to see exactly what He said. And we stood on what He said. And we experienced victory and we experienced life. We thank You for this evening. We commit ourselves into Your hand. the taking of the cross, for the just to live by his faith. Lord, help us to daily take up this cross. To daily take up this cross. If we abandon faith, we will die. The just only live, if he must live, he's by his faith. If he throw off his cross, he will die. He perish. That's what Jesus said. "For whoever believe will not perish." If the just throw away this cross, he will perish. But he can live. He will have life. Life in abundance. Help us to take up this life, to exercise this faith, to live in this faith, to act in this faith, to stick to Jesus. Thank You, Eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Let’s share the grace together in fellowship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. [Outro Voiceover] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's Word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission health. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM; adolescents and singles club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; marriage forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Verajoy filling station, along Ijede road, Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 080-3386-1136, 070-3361-3848. God bless you all.