Conclusions Drawn

Review of 'Strange Words from the Prince of Peace'

0:01 We shall turn tonight to the portion of the Word of God that we began to study this morning, the 10th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew chapter 10.

0:15 Will you follow, please, as I read verses 34 through 39, Matthew 10, 34 through 39.

0:29 Our Lord Jesus Christ speaking said to the twelve whom he had just commissioned, Think not that I came to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And the man's foes shall be they of his own household.

0:58 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And the man's foes shall be they of his own household. And the man's foes shall be they of his own household. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

1:09 And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it. And he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. I have entitled this portion of the Word of God, Strange Words from the Prince of Peace.

1:33 Because the exposition this morning and this evening is really one unit, it will be necessary to take just four, I hope five, at the maximum, minutes to go over the main thrust of what was considered this morning, and I trust what was opened up according to the mind of the Spirit in the text, and then we shall proceed to study verses 37 through 39. In the introduction of our study this morning, I justified the title to the sermon, something I rarely do simply because I seldom have titles. Rogers makes up titles for the tapes, but he usually has to make them up out of his own head. We lay a terrible task upon our dear brother.

2:16 But I started out by justifying the title, Strange Words from the Prince of Peace. And we looked briefly at a number of passages in the Old and the New Testaments in which the note of peace is seen as a dominant note concerning the gospel of Christ. And because peace stands so central to the work of Christ, to the influence of God, to the influence of the message of Christ upon men, these are strange words because on the surface they seem to be a blatant contradiction of everything else taught concerning the mission of Christ. I came not to send peace, even I who am the Prince of Peace, who have come to effect peace by my death upon the cross,

3:01 to shed abroad in men's heart my peace by the Spirit, to bring peace between the sinner and an offended God. I came not. To send peace. Then we notice by way of looking at the setting of the passage that our Lord spoke these words in the context of commissioning the twelve who were about to be sent forth to preach that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, to bring, as it were, in their hands rich blessings to all those to whom they came.

3:30 They were to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cleanse the lepers. And yet our Lord says in the midst of so glorious a message announcing a kingdom of mercy and grace, and forgiveness and pardon, there would be great opposition. And He seeks then to put the record straight that in the accomplishment of their mission they can expect tremendous opposition. With that as the setting, we then looked at the prohibition given by our Lord in verse 34.

3:59 Do not think that I came to send peace on the earth. Our Lord prohibits any assessment of His mission that thinks of the mission of Christ, in terms of a thick, soft, downy, fragrant blanket of conciliation and peace cast over any people to whom He comes in the gospel or the message of the kingdom. He says you must never think of the influence of my mission in these terms. Then we looked at the assertion which our Lord made, I came not to send peace, but a sword.

4:36 And we sought to understand what those words meant. He did not come. He did not come with the specific intention of disrupting families, disrupting societies, disrupting friendships. But He says it is an inevitable accompaniment of His coming, for He came on a mission of salvation, a mission that knows no lesser demands than that of claiming to be God.

5:00 Christ makes the claim, and claiming absolute and unrivaled allegiance from all who would be His disciples. And whenever that happens, there is such a thing as a promise. There is such a polarizing of total perspectives. Those who are committed to the flesh and to the world, those who are committed to the Lord of glory and to His truth, there cannot help but be cleavage in the deepest of human relationships.

5:25 And then finally, we have an explanation offered by our Lord in which He expands precisely how this sword will work itself out. And He tells us in verse 35 and 36 that there will be, at the level of the deepest intimacies of human ties, father, mother, son, daughter, daughter, mother, father-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, in these intimate ties of human affection, the sword will cut whenever and wherever the gospel comes. Now let me just assert again what I asserted this morning. Our Lord is not teaching that in every single instance the gospel will disrupt households.

6:08 We read in the book of Acts, Acts of conversions of households. But our Lord is saying there will inevitably be the effect of the sword of division whenever the gospel comes. And it may not be in your immediate family, it may be with your cousins, it may be with your neighbors, but somewhere along the line, if you've embraced the Lord Jesus as He's offered in the gospel, you will feel the effects of the sword of division. Well, for those who were not here, and this is not a matter of commercialism with us, there's no profit in it, but if you're interested to have the full fleshing out of this, the thoughts shared, of course, are on tape, and perhaps it would be in your own interest

The Conclusion Drawn: Preferring Christ Above All

6:53 to obtain them at your leisure. Now we come tonight to the last verses in this paragraph, verses 37 to 39. And as I labored at dividing up the verses, I don't know how many different approaches I tried and scrapped and then finally ended up with one with which I'm not fully satisfied, but such as it is, I'll give it to you. Having looked at the prohibition given in verse 34, the assertion made, verse 34b, the explanation offered in verses 35 and 36, I would suggest that verses 37 and 39 could be entitled the conclusion drawn.

7:32 In the light of all that has preceded the prohibition, the assertion, the explanation, our Lord now draws certainly, but in conclusions, the conclusion or conclusions drawn. And there are three parts to the conclusion or conclusions drawn by our Lord. Two of them are bound together by these coordinating conjunctions. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

8:00 And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. And then the final one is a separate unit of thought. He that findeth his life shall lose it.

8:17 He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. And so our Lord draws a conclusion in the light of what he has taught concerning the inevitability of the sword of division doing its work wherever the gospel comes, wherever the claims of Christ are laid to the consciences and hearts of men. Well, let's look at part one. Verse 34b, verse 37.

Part 1: Preferring Christ Above Dearest Relationships (Matthew 10:37)

8:42 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. First of all, what are the precise meaning, what is the precise meaning of our Lord's words in this passage? Well, he uses the word for love, which is the word that focuses upon human fondness, natural affection.

9:08 He does not use agape, or agapao. He uses phileo. He uses the word which speaks not so much of that divine love that is a love of intelligence and purpose, but he uses the word for natural affection, human fondness. That love, which is called in the scriptures natural affection.

9:36 The scripture speaks of people who are without natural affection. Natural affection. Great sin that we find on every hand, where animals do their best to protect their young, unborn and born. We see on every hand the absence of natural affection.

9:52 Wholesale murder in the womb going on in our own country and in Great Britain with the so-called liberalized abortion laws. Legalized murder in the womb without natural affection. Well, this phileo is that natural affection that binds people together, even though they are strangers to the grace of God. Now, our love to the Lord Jesus is a love that takes within its orbit both the phileo and the agape, or the agapao.

10:24 For in our Lord's treatment of this whole problem with Peter recorded in John 21, he asks him twice, Do you love me? Agapao. Peter says, Lord, I phileo. I love you.

10:38 I have affection for you. I am. I am attached to you. I am fond of you.

10:42 He says, Do you love me? Agapao. Yes, I have phileo. Then the Lord says, Do you love me, phileo?

10:51 And Peter says, Lord, you know all things. You know that I phileo. You know that I love you. Indicating that our Lord does not despise this quality, this dimension of love in our relationship to Him.

11:05 So it is proper for Him to say, He that loveth, he who has faith, fondness for, and attachment to father or mother, more than he has fondness or attachment to me, is not worthy of me. What he is saying is this. Whoever has such deep ties of natural affection for earthly relationships,

11:32 that he will not have them ruptured for the sake of attachment to Christ, is not worthy. He is not a true disciple.

11:47 Let me give it to you again. He who has earthly, natural affection for, attachment to any earthly relationship, father, mother, brother, sister, it matters not, that will not allow him to forego the rupturing of that relationship for the sake of Christ, Jesus says, is not worthy of me. Now what did he mean by that? What did he mean by the words worthy of me?

12:18 Is he teaching that some people are inherently worthy of his salvation or that they can constitute themselves worthy of his salvation? This would be a denial of everything taught in the word of God from Genesis to Revelation. What then is our Lord saying? He does use the word worthy.

12:39 Speaking of something that has intrinsic worth in comparison to something else. Well, go back to what we opened up this morning. Why did he come? To save.

12:50 Whom did he come to save? Rebel, guilty, needy, undone sinners. In what way does he save them? By revealing the depth of their need in such a way that the Spirit of God draws them to embrace without reservation all the bad things God says about them and all the wonderful things he says to them in the Gospel.

13:12 Now it's in that context that our Lord says he that loves father, mother, brother, sister is not worthy of me. What he means is precisely this.

13:24 If you have not seen yourself as so undone as to need Christ and to have him at any cost you're not a true disciple. And in that sense you're not worthy of naming his name. For in every case where Jesus Christ seeks and saves a lost sinner he reveals to that sinner that his need is so great that it is worthy to be met at any cost and on any terms set by the Savior.

14:06 The Holy Spirit never reveals a sinner's need and the terms of the Gospel in any other framework than that.

14:18 So our Lord says here's the person who claims attachment to Christ. Then the demands of Christ will impinge upon him. Upon a deep earthly affection there is strong phileo strong love. Now he says if you so love that earthly object that father, mother, daughter son-in-law, daughter-in-law that you will not risk the rupturing of that bond of affection in obedience to my revealed will.

14:51 You've never seen who you are. You've never seen who I am. You're not my true...

14:57 true disciple.

15:00 There is in every true exercise of saving faith an implicit element of utter abandonment to Jesus Christ no terms set.

15:16 This is not to say that we're saved by our works. Of course not. It is simply going into the psychology better yet the theology of what is involved in saving faith.

15:29 The Lord Jesus stated in even more blunt and shocking terms in Luke chapter 5 Luke 14 look at his own words and maybe he'll clear up the issue far more quickly than I've been able to do in the past five minutes. Verse 25 of Luke 14 Now there went with him great multitudes and he turned and said unto them if any man cometh after me this is not a challenge to a group of Christian workers at a dedication service great multitudes the mixed crowds and he turns and says if any man cometh unto me and hateth not his own father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea in his own life also

16:13 he cannot be my disciple. He cannot be attached to me. And the only bond by which a disciple is attached to the Lord is the bond of faith. He says you cannot be my disciple.

16:27 There is no exercise of true faith. There is no saving attachment to me. If I do not have a place of supreme affection so far beyond every other affection as to make it in this figure of speech to make it hate by comparison give up all thought of ever being my disciple.

16:49 Now do you see why our Lord draws this conclusion? Remember the theme of the passage? Strange words from the Prince of Peace I came not to send peace but a sword. And he says the sword will cut into the deepest to the most intimate of human relationships as the Son of God goes forth to call sinners to himself.

17:13 And he says Christ is to be preferred before our dearest relationships for often the sword cuts at that very point. And our Lord draws the conclusion knowing the tendency of the human heart and says if you're unwilling for it to cut there you're not worthy of me. Now look at part two in verse 38. Part two of our Lord's conclusion.

Part 2: Preferring Christ Above Ease and Reputation (Matthew 10:38)

17:39 And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He's in the same ballpark. This concept of being worthy of him. But now what do his words mean?

17:55 When he said to these twelve and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me what did those words mean to the twelve?

18:07 Well obviously they had no significance with reference to his own death upon the cross. Our Lord begins to teach this explicitly. Later on in his ministry and even then they just couldn't get the message. It just didn't come through.

18:22 So at this point in time the cross would mean one thing to these Jews under Roman rule. One thing and one thing alone. They had seen common criminals who were now the outcasts of society carrying this Roman gibbet out to a place of execution. It meant shame, rejection, humiliation.

18:45 It was societies not just the monarchy which was based on the indexing of the heart of the intellect and the will. It was the Traversite that was the most important right from the beginning that there was no one who could tell him he's going to die. So when you take the cross of shame of rejection of hardship exposure to ridicule and ultimately of course the symbol of death. Now, our Lord says this, I came not to send peace, but a sword.

19:23 Now, in the light of that, I'm drawing a conclusion. Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. In other words, the sword will introduce another object. The sword will introduce a cross.

19:38 Just as surely as the sword will cut the deepest ties of human attachment, the sword will bring in its train the imposition of some of the severest trials to a human being. Shame, rejection, humiliation, loss of reputation. There is no sane person with any measure of developed social consciousness who delights in shame.

20:11 I said with developed social consciousness. You kids scratch your head and say, what in the world is the pastor talking about? Well, that's...

20:18 That simply means you're aware that there are other people in the world and you care what they think about you. All right? That simple enough? That's developed social consciousness.

20:26 Why don't you go running down the street tomorrow morning in your pajamas? You say, well, what in the world will everyone else think? You have a developed social consciousness. And the guy who doesn't care how he looks in public has lost a due sense of social consciousness.

20:41 Now, I don't want to get sidetracked. I could very easily in the light of our own generation. But shame, reproach, rejection. Rejection to any normal human being with a normal level of developed social consciousness.

20:57 These things cut against the grain. We don't like these things. Jesus said, I am not come to bring peace, but a sword. And my sword will not only cut the ties of deepest human attachment.

21:12 It will bring in its train these issues that attach themselves to the concept. Of the cross. Now he says, if you're not willing so to bear a cross. In identification with me and my truth and my word and my law and my people.

21:32 If you're not willing to bear shame. You're not willing to bear rejection. Not willing to bear hardship, exposure. Not willing to be counted in the language of the apostle Paul.

21:42 The off scouring of all things. Remember, crucifixion was society saying we've already given him up. We want no part of him. I'll put him on a cross.

21:53 Jesus said, if you're not prepared to bear that. You're not worthy of him. He's saying you're no true disciple. There is no true bond of living faith in the son of God.

22:09 You see our Lord is teaching that in the heart of a true Christian. Christ is preferred before ease, safety, reputation and comfort. Now there may be times when he flinches. In more.

22:23 Moments of weakness and thank God for Peter's denial. Is it pastor you crazy? Thank God for Peter's denial. Yes.

22:30 Thank God for Peter's denial. Now I'm not thanking God for the sin shame on him to be denied, but thank God for the record of Peter's denial.

22:40 Yes. Under moments of pressure. When is it where the splinters of the cross begin to bite into sensitive flesh? We may, as it were, push the cross from us for a moment and say, ah, blessed freedom.

22:54 If you're a Christian, you know what? That's. So-called freedom will lead to the bitter tears to which it led in Peter's case, for you find that any freedom attained at the price of getting rid of the cross is nothing but glorified bondage and it'll break your heart if you're a true Christian and we find that same Peter just a few short weeks later. Thank God we have the record of his denial, but the record of his open espousal of Christ and he dares to stand and face that same crowd and say, you took him and with your wicked hands, you put him to death.

23:30 You threw it. You said you're murderers of the Lord of glory. What happened now? What was really the root of the matter was coming out in the fruit of his life.

23:41 Peter was acting contrary to what he was when he denied. And that's the great contradiction of sin in the life of the Christian. And I am not saying that you are not a Christian. If there are times when you've denied by your silence or even by open, and I'm from that standpoint.

23:57 I thank God for the, for the quality of Peter's denial. If it had just been silent denial, some of us have gone beyond that. His was not only open verbal denial. He brought up some of his language from his past.

24:12 The scripture said he cursed and he swore saying, I know not the man, but that wasn't Peter acting according to what Peter really was as a new man in Christ. And so I'm giving all due allowance for weak grace, for grace that is smothered as it were for a time. I'm subdued by other considerations, but I go back to my original statement in the application. Our Lord is teaching that in the heart of a true Christian, Christ is preferred before ease, safety, reputation, and comfort.

24:53 When the sword comes, it often brings more than the alienation of affection. It brings at times even open opposition, the maligning of character, and possibly the threat of death itself. I think of that dear man of whom I heard when I was in Pakistan, a converted Muslim who dared to take on the local Malvi, that's the local Muslim priest, along with one of his superiors in public debate and so put him to public shame that the head Malvi has placed a price on the head of that man and promised anyone, kill him and several thousand rupees are in your hand.

25:30 That's taking up the cross for all intents and purposes, he knows that he's already a man. He's already a man. He's already a man. He's already a man.

25:35 He's already a man. He's already a man. He's already a man. He's already a man.

25:36 He's already a man. He's already a man. He's already a man. He's already a man.

25:36 He's already a man. He's already a man. given up and cast out by his own society. And though offers have come for him to relocate and live in another community, he says no.

25:43 It's in this place that God saved me. It's in this place that I shall bear witness to the Son of God and His salvation. That's taking up the cross.

25:52 And he says, whoever does not take up the cross is not worthy of me. His attachment is spurious. His profession is not the real thing. Well, let's look at part three of our Lord's conclusion.

Part 3: Preferring Christ Above Life Itself (Matthew 10:39)

26:06 And here we have a. different unit of thought, and that's why I said I wasn't satisfied. I tried three or four different outlines and still not satisfied. Maybe you'll get a different sermon, but a better outline on this one next week. I don't know. But part three, verse 39. At least you're getting the scriptures,

26:21 and that's my one great consolation. My headings are just helps, and sometimes they just don't come as they ought. All right, verse 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. It seems to me that what our Lord is doing when he

26:41 gives us this cryptic, this paradoxical statement is to bring home to the consciences of his hearers one most powerful and final word of conclusion that becomes, as it were, the capstone over everything else that he has enunciated. Now, what is the precise meaning of these words? He that finds his life. He that finds his life shall lose it. He that loses it for my sake shall find it. Well, it's obvious

27:13 that though it seems to be a play with words and a contradiction or a paradox, the meaning I trust is quite clear to all of us. Our Lord himself gives, as it were, an excellent exposition of these very words in John chapter 12. Let's look at it for a moment and take our clue of its proper interpretation. from the very words of Christ in a parallel passage. John 12 and verse 25. Perhaps we'll get

27:45 back up to verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone. But if it die, it beareth much fruit. Back a couple of months ago, before I planted my garden, sitting in a cupboard in the laundry room, there was a bag with a bunch of seeds in it, little packages of seeds. Now, one of those packages

28:14 contained cucumber seeds. And a cucumber seed is pretty small in terms of what comes out of it. Well, they sat there for several months. Because of all the wet weather we had early in the spring, I was late getting my garden planted. But one day, the soil was prepared, and I read the directions

28:32 that with my cucumber seeds, if I was planting them in hills, I ought to make my hill and drop five to seven seeds. In a hill. And when they came up to two inches high, thin them out to three or four plants per hill. So here's that one little seed that sat on the shelf. And I don't know how long it sat in two guys

28:48 before I bought it, and how long it sat before that at Burpee's plant somewhere. But there it was, abiding by itself alone. It was placed in a hill, covered with earth, and tenderly watched. And after some days, something happened. Up came a little sign of green light.

29:11 And what was just the sign of little green light is now huge leaves with cucumbers like this on it. What happened? The seed died. It gave up its life, and in giving it up, it found it.

29:24 And we will be, as it were, reaping the fruits of that finding every time we eat a pickle during the winter, as we use our cucumbers for pickling. Now, our Lord is using this common, observable experience from the realm of horticulture, from the realm of plant life. And now he says in verse 25, He that loveth his life, loseth it. And he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal.

29:54 Suppose that little seed could have a name. And we'll call him, with all due respects to a gentleman here, we'll call him Little Henry Seed, all right? Or Little Harry Seed, all right? And suppose the day came to plant those seeds, and Little Harry reared up on his little seed high in legs and said to me, He said, Don't plant me. The earth looks so damp, and it's so dark.

30:18 And evenings it might get cold. And when there's rain, it might get wet. He was so comfortable in that nice, warm, dry shelf above the dryer in the washroom. Don't put me in the dark, dirty, damp earth. Spare me.

30:37 But I say to Little Harry Seed, But Harry, you'll abide by yourself alone. Ah, but he says, Spare me. But I say, Harry, no. If you die, you'll bear much fruit.

30:50 Finally, Harry consents to die. And what happens to it? He puts cucumbers on the table and in the pickling jars. And losing his life, he finds it. But suppose Harry had a twin brother.

31:02 And we'll name him Henry.

31:05 And Henry so, so remonstrated with me and the rest that I gave him. And I said, Well, Henry, I'll leave you all alone in the shell. Come pickling time a few weeks from now, and then later on in the winter, come time to open up the jars, if we can ever get the ball tops. I think they're pulling a slick one.

31:23 You can't buy just the simple tops. If any of you find them, let us know, and we'll be glad to get some. But anyway, come time to eat those pickles.

31:33 You see, we would appreciate the willingness of Harry to lose his life. But his brother Henry would sit on the shelf alone. See what our Lord is saying? Taking that common illustration.

31:45 He that loveth his life, he that is so concerned with preserving that life that is centered in his own desires, his own likes, his own dislikes, his own fears, he that loves it will lose it. But he that hates it in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Now take all of this and put it back in the context of Matthew 10. I came not to send peace, but a sword.

32:10 Not only will the sword come and cut, cleave the deepest ties of human affection, making it necessary to prefer me above all other creatures, not only will the sword bring in its train a cross, with shame and rejection and ignominy and hardship, demanding that Christ must be preferred above ease and safety and reputation, but the sword will also bring in its train death, death to cherished relationships, possessions, ambitions, dreams,

32:48 ambitions and relationships and possessions rooted in carnal, self-centered existence. And he says to that you must die. Die if you will live.

33:00 And when that is given up, not in a literal death, though some may be called upon for that, but in that inward spiritual crucifixion, then and only then is there the emergence to that life which is life indeed.

The Centrality of Christ in Discipleship

33:22 Christ must be preferred above all relationships, verse 37, preferred above all ease, safety and reputation, verse 38, but he must be preferred above life itself. Life as we know it, according to the flesh. Now there's one little phrase that I've not expounded in verses 37 and 38, and one in verse 39, and I've left that to last, because to me it's the heart of the message. You notice what it is?

33:53 Look again at the text. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, of me. And then he repeats that in the next verse. He that loveth father or mother more than me, he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

34:15 And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me. Do you see the centrality of our Lord's emphasis?

34:23 It focuses upon this whole matter of our estimation of Christ, our attachment to Christ, verse 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it. He that loseth his life for mine, for my sake, worthy of me, three times, for my sake, verse 39. So you see the emphasis, if we may use the term key without abusing it, the key to the passage, is that our Lord envisions the true disciple as the one who is attached primarily not to notions about the Son of God, not to doctrines that surround the Son of God,

35:06 not to forms and to ceremonies that may flow out of the worship of the Son of God. Their attachment is not primarily to the others who follow him, to the church, to the visible community, but it seems to me that the thrust of the passage is this, the key to facing the issue of the sword, these strange words, is to zero in upon the depth and reality of personal attachment, to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's the issue.

35:42 A sword is not a pleasant thing.

35:46 The severance of deep earthly ties is not pleasant. Rejection and scorn and shame are not pleasant. Death to natural carnal desires is not pleasant. And the inward spiritual death is something against which our carnal nature revolts as much as physical nature revolts against physical death.

The Remedy: Looking Unto Jesus

36:11 There is only one posture in which to assess this whole matter of whether or not we are prepared to claim an attachment to Christ in spite of the sword. And that posture is beholding the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And this is the pervasive emphasis of the New Testament, I think particularly of a passage such as Hebrews chapter 12. Turn to it for a moment, please.

36:42 When... The arduous nature of the Christian life is set before these Hebrew Christians who are feeling the sword of division, who are feeling the cross, who are being called upon to die to their possessions, as he told them earlier in the letter.

37:04 You took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, reputation, and all the rest. He says the Christian life amidst all of these struggles and its arduousness, and its arduous demands is like a race. And he exhorts us to lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us and to run with patience or endurance the race that is set before us. And then he gives us this very important word, looking unto Jesus.

37:37 Now that's not just a nice little collection of words convenient for the plaque makers to put on their Christian plaques and make a few bucks in the Christian bookstore. Looking unto Jesus. That's a powerful description of the only way in which the arduous, difficult elements of the Christian life can properly be assessed and by the grace of God faced in the strength of Christ. Looking unto Jesus.

38:09 Further on in this very exhortation, he says things are getting rough for you, aren't they? Verse 3. Consider him that endured such gainsaying of sin, sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

38:28 You see what he's saying? They were beginning to feel the effects of the sword, the splinters of the cross. They were beginning to feel the agonies of death to so many things. And he says, now here's the remedy.

38:40 You're growing faint. Look unto Jesus. Not in some kind of a mystical, subjective way. No, no.

38:47 Look unto him. As he's mirrored in the gospel record concerning his sufferings. Who for the joy that was before him faced the agony of Gethsemane and Calvary and endured all of this. And when you begin to grow weary following after him, tell me, when has blood spurt from your veins in struggling against sin?

39:12 Pause at the foot of the cross and behold the blood pouring forth from his. This is what it meant. This is what it meant for him to be obedient to his heavenly Father. And I urge upon anyone sitting in this building today who perhaps has found this day far from a glorious Lord's Day.

39:33 It's been a miserable Lord's Day. Miserable in the sense that the arrows of God found their mark in your heart this morning. When we were considering our Lord's words concerning the sword and in the application said that this not only applies but also applies between the two. Between the saved and the unsaved.

39:50 But there is an element here that is present even amongst the people of God. Some who do not see an issue that God has made plain to us and he's opened up the path of duty before us and summons us to obedience. And there's been the heaving, the sighing within your own breasts this day. The struggle between the voice of God and the voice of your own flesh crying, Spare me.

40:16 And those ties, those areas where there is such strong attachment and affection for these deep, intimate, human relationships. You felt how strong they were. The moment you begin as it were to take one step in the direction of what you know to be the will of God, you feel as though you're almost bound with chains to those human ties. And you say, I don't know.

40:40 I don't know if it's in me to say no to father, mother, daughter, daughter-in-law at this area. I don't know if I can. And you've begun to feel what it is to take up the cross. You say, if I do, I know what's going to come.

40:54 I'll be thought a fool. I'll be considered this. I'll be considered that. There's something of the pain of shame and rejection.

41:02 In other areas, some of you say, I'd sooner die than yield at that particular point. Oh, my friend, listen. There is but one place to wrestle this thing through and that place is Mount Calvary. That place.

41:18 That is Golgotha. That place is Gethsemane. Wrestle with that thing while gazing upon the Son of God, sweating, as it were, great drops of blood upon the ground that you might have a Savior pouring out His soul unto death. Oh, my dear Christian friend, if that will not break you,

41:43 you have reason to question whether you deserve the name Christian. Looking unto Jesus. And so our Lord, in His conclusion, demonstrates to His own and to us by that same word. In the light of His prohibition, think not that I came to send peace.

Concluding Exhortation and Call to Self-Examination

42:04 In the light of His assertion, I came to send a sword. In the light of His explanation, He draws this conclusion. This being so, the inevitability of the sword,

42:17 you must prefer me above all human ties.

42:21 You must prefer me above love of ease and reputation and comfort. You must prefer me above life itself. Does Jesus Christ occupy that place in your estimation, not as a theological proposition, but at the point where His will impinges upon some human relationship? At the point where His revealed will touches some human relationship?

42:50 Do you love Him more? If not, you're not worthy of Him.

42:54 At the point where His will impinges upon name, reputation, ease, and comfort, you must prefer me above life itself. At that point, are you worthy of Him?

43:05 At the point where His claims mean death, do you love Him?

43:13 I trust that the response of our hearts to those questions is one that will enable us to sing together in closing the words of the hymn from which I quoted this morning. Number 593. Jesus, I, my cross, have taken all to leave and follow Thee, destined to be with You. Toot, toot, despised, forsaken, Thou from hence my all shalt be.

43:42 Perish every fond ambition. All I've sought or hoped or known, yet how rich is my condition. God and heaven are still my own. He is the wealthiest man in all the world who has God and has heaven if he has nothing else.

44:02 Let us sing it to God's praise and I trust it's the honest response of our hearts. Number 590.