Taking up the Cross...

There’s a great misconception of these words of Jesus. He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” There are many "false ideas" about taking up the cross. Many people think they’re carrying the cross, and they make many expressions such as, “My cross is this,” and “My cross is that.” However, we find in the Word of God that crosses are made for only one purpose: "to die on". They’re not made to carry. Christ carried His Cross only to the place where He was nailed to it, and then He died on it. Once He died, He was freed from it; the Cross had no more place in His life from that point on.

The same is also true with us. We must take up our cross, follow Him, and carry it to the place where we "lay down and die on it". The old life dies, or comes to an end, and then, thank God, we can exchange "that cross" for "a crown of real living". From that point on, the Bible says that we are able to "reign in this life". Christ, could have only carried His Cross, but that would not have helped us, one bit. It was only when He died on it, that He freed us. Likewise, we can carry our cross, but until we come to the place that we die on the cross and get free from it, there’ll be no blessing and no help for us.

Unfortunately, there are too many, who are up and down in their experiences; they tend to backslide often. When Christ set forth the plan of salvation, whereby we could have everlasting life, He came to bring us such an experience that, if we'll meet Bible conditions, we can live consistently throughout our life, from the time we gain the experience, till God calls us away in death. People may backslide, but thank God, they don’t have to!

Too many seek this great blessing of real salvation, but seemingly, they don’t find it. They really desire and long for an experience of salvation, wherein sin has no more dominion over them, but they fail to find it. They’ve opened their lives in honesty, and they’re trying to seek the very cause of their failures. They want to know why they failed, and they want to know why "this or that thing" rises up in their lives and overthrows them. They love those Scriptures that talk about reigning in this life and having dominion over sin. They love such expressions as, “Sin can no longer reign over me.” These are beautiful biblical expressions, but more than that, they are experiences that everyone can have.

The Hidden Life of Self...

In their searching, they deal with many issues in their lives. One person who feels he's sold out to God is troubled with worldliness. Another person may be troubled with lovelessness; he gets hateful every once in a while. Another feels the lack of humility; he sees pride moving in his life in a way that shouldn't be. They’re stirred about these things, so being honest, they come to the Lord with these failures and confess them, and do their best to put them away; yet these same failures continue to constantly show up in their experiences.

What’s the problem? They pray over those issues and confess those issues; however, they never get to the root of the problem: they haven't come to the place of crucifying self completely. They need to stop dealing with the issues and get to the root of the problem, by crucifying self. They must know definitely that the old man is dead. Some say, “My problem is this or that.” The truth of the matter is: their problem is not this or that; those are issues that are coming forth from a self that's never been crucified.

When Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,” He knew what He was walking about. John, the second chapter, tells us that He knows what’s in man, and He knows what our needs are. He's the Creator, and He knows how we’re made. He understands us altogether, and He knew that crucifying self was a definite necessity. If we’re going to live consistently and follow Christ as a disciple in true Christianity, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross.

Again, one reason some people don’t gain this experience of salvation is that they never get to the root from which all other issues stem. You see, the real root of trouble is nothing more than the hidden life of self with its various forms: self-seeking, self-pleasure, self-confidence, and self-satisfaction, and there are many other issues that we could mention, which come from self. When people get stirred because self has not been pleased, they don’t need somebody to help them get victory over the fact that self is displeased, but rather they need to get rid of self. If we will get rid of self, we’ll not have any trouble with wanting selfish pleasures and selfish satisfaction. Too many are trying to get victory over some issues instead of getting to the root of the problem. If we want to get rid of the things that self seeks after, we must crucify self.

Let Self Be Slain...

Even after we gain this experience and have self crucified, we have members (our bodies) that are still on this earth. That’s why Paul said not to yield these members to sin. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can have control over them. The devil can't make us do anything; there has to be a yielding on our part. These earthly members---our eyes, our mind, our ears, our hands, and our feet---are what the devil works through, because he wants to get sin back in, it will reign every time. The great need is to be liberated from self. Until self is crucified, or until we are liberated from self, the life of God cannot entirely fill us.

If we look at the context right above our Scripture text, we’ll find why Jesus said what He said to His disciples in verses 24 and 25: He was brought to the place of saying it because Peter exerted self. Jesus told His disciples that He must go into Jerusalem and die. Peter rebuked the Lord and said, “Be it far from you.” Therefore, Jesus said, “If you are going to follow me, you must deny yourself and take up your cross.” In essence, He told Peter, “Self is getting you into trouble.”

Matthew 16:13-17 tells us: “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and other, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

Here Peter was uttering a glorious confession, that Jesus was the Son of God. However, in verses 21 and 22, when Jesus began to talk about taking up His cross and dying, Peter rebuked Him. Peter was just like too many of us are, today. Through the Father, many have learned to know that Christ is the Son of God, but they don’t know Him as a crucified, Christ. Along with that, they don’t know that just as He was crucified, every one of us must take up the cross (ours) and crucify self.

The Apostle Paul traveled to the congregation at Corinth, where there were a lot of things going on, such as division and men who had received the Holy Spirit, but were still walking as men. They were not allowing the Spirit of God to direct them. Because of this, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” It seems that millions today can say they know Jesus as their Savior, but they never look with a deeper discernment at the Cross, the emblem of a debt. Therefore, they fail to consider that Jesus Himself had to die, and that they also must take up their cross and let “self be slain”.

Jesus’ words were: that we must actually deny, hate, or lose our own life. We must lay it down before we can receive the full life of God. Looking to the other Gospel where this Scripture is found, we will find that people said this was a hard saying. It hasn't become any easier; it’s still a hard saying! The people back then were no different than people are today.

Yielding Ourselves Completely to the Word of God...

If we're not careful, we can become wrapped up in ourselves and get to the place where we live in our own "little" world, and we don't want anybody to bother us. As a pastor, we learned years ago how to get along with some people. If we would have the song leader sing the songs they liked, and if we would preach from the text that they liked, things would go wonderfully. However, when we began to take the Bible, and the Word would dig around them, and reveal that they had some measuring to do, some giving up to do, and some dying out to self, there was trouble. The Gospel hasn't changed: the message of the cross is still an offensive message.

Paul, in Galatians 5:11, said that if the offense of the cross ceases, the glory ceases. This is why the glory of God has left movement after movement: they got away from the offensive part of the Gospel that requires men and women to give up their ways, give up their lives, and yield themselves completely to the Word of God. Some people won't do it, and they'll tell you that they won't do it. It's still a hard saying; nevertheless, it's true, and it plays an important part in our experience of salvation. It's impossible to follow Christ without denying ourselves, crucifying self, and getting self out ot the way. Again, for many, this is hard and difficult.

Some people question in their mind, "Even though Jesus said it, why is it necessary that I die out to self completely? Why should I be called upon to deny myself, my own feelings, my own opinions, my own will, and my own pleasures? Why would Jesus call upon me to part with my life, that life that I make most any sacrifice to maintain?" Let's consider the Book of Job. After God had allowed the devil to take everything Job had, including his children, he was left with nothing but his wife and his own life; then the devil said, "Let me have his life." How are you going to save your life? By losing it. The devil said to God in Job 2:4, "All that a man hath will he give for his life." Over and over, people spend thousands of dollars and make the doctors rich because they want to live six more months. All that a man has, he will give for his life.

When Jesus came, He said you must lay down your life, or in other words, you must take your hands off. Here's the reason for the battle. This is much closer to people and has a greater hold on them then they will acknowledge. If it didn't, there would be more sanctified, happy powerful people. Instead, there are many weak Christians who are stumbling, falling, failing, and running back to God to beg forgiveness for failures. The devil knows what a hold life has on us. Job could say, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord," when the children, the cattle, and everything else had been destroyed. But the devil said, "Let me at him." Life is the greatest possession a man has; it has a hold on him, and all that a man has, he will give for his life.

This is what Jesus was talking about. There's definitely a reason why an individual should hate his own life: it is the first and the greatest turn toward God. We'll never crucify self, and never completely give up our own way of life until we first come to the place where we hate it. This is the truth of the Gospel, and we're going to look into it a little deeper in order to understand it. It was man having his own way and following his own desires that got him into trouble, and we can read about this on every page of the Book.

There's never been a sinner converted who didn't come to the place where he hated the life he was living. In order to become a candidate for salvation, we must be sick enough of the life we've been living, and we must hate it enough that we want to be free from it; we must desire a different life. Until we get to that place, we won't find real salvation. A lot of people are seeking eternal life, or God life, but they don't find it, and many never will find it. The Scripture says, when we take up our cross and become willing to deny (or crucify) self, we will then, find it. That's the starting place, and too many never reach that position. If we're going to have a lasting experience, we must deny ourselves; otherwise, one of these days we'll become shipwrecked in our experience.

Why Must We Deny Self?

Why should a man hate his life? Why did Jesus call on us to deny ourselves? We need to realize that the life He wants us to hate and turn from is so completely under the power of sin and death that there's nothing else to do with it except sacrifice it, or kill it. The self life must be completely taken away to make room for the God life, or eternal life. Two diverse things cannot occupy the same place. This is the law that Jesus set up.

We can't have God come into our life in His fullness until self-life goes out completely. God doesn't have any trouble with people who have really crucified self, and neither do the pastors or fellow brothers and sisters. Our own life and the life of God can't fill our heart at the same time. Self has to be brought to an end before the life of God will come in; when our life is cast out, the life of God will fill us.

As long as self is "still something", Jesus cannot be everything to us. This is the reason why many people don't make it in: they think they're something when they aren't. As long as there's anything about us that feels we're something, it's impossible for Jesus to be everything to us.

Why must we deny self? Let's consider Creation. When God created man, He gave him a separate personality, a power over himself, with the intention that man would, of his own free will, present and offer his life to God, and God would in turn fill it with His blessedness and perfection. What happened to that man whom God gave a free will, or power over his self? The fall was a perversion of that life, that will, and that personality. Adam and Eve went away from God in order to please themselves. What kind of poison did the devil use on Eve? What did he use to breathe into Eve's ear and heart? Pride! God made man upright; He made him a free moral agent, with power over himself. Man could yield himself to God, or he could yield himself to the devil. God created him in hope that he would use the power that he had over himself and bring himself into subjection to God and His law and be blessed by God, but he failed to do that.

Genesis 3:4-6 states: "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat." Verse 7 lets us know that the eyes of them both were opened. The point that we want us to see is: man took his free moral agency, the power that God gave him as a creature to reign over himself, and turned away from God.

God had angels of a different nature that worshiped Him. However, He wanted a creature of choice, a man with power over himself who could either give himself to wrong or give himself to right. The devil came along (which is the same seducing spirit that works on people yet today---there are many of them), and seduced and poured that poison into Eve's ear to make her feel that she would be wise---that she could be proud and have wisdom and wealth. Man turned away from God to find delight in his self and in the world. When he did this, his whole life was perverted and withdrawn from the control of God, and he went and hid. We repeat, he turned from the control of God that he might seek and serve himself.

Greater Life Is Only Through Death...

The Gospel brings us to a place where we have a right of choice again. We were bound in sin, we sold ourselves to sin, and we were under the power of sin. As long as we were under the power of sin, we had no choice; but thank God, the Gospel came to tell us how Jesus Christ took the curse of the law on Himself. He became a curse for us and died as our substitute; now, once again, we have a choice. Nevertheless, Jesus let us know that we cannot even yield ourselves completely to Him unless we get rid of the self that seeks to have its own way. Self will lead us back into sin.

Jesus was not just making a command that was unreasonable. He knows what kind of shape we were in. We went our own way, after self-gratification, self-satisfaction, selfish opinions, and selfish ideas. How were we going to come back and turn around all at once and follow Him, take His way, yield to His word, and let His will be done in our lives? Jesus said there is no way to do it unless we get rid of self. Yes, this is a hard saying, but we need to get a deep conviction about the entire corruption of our nature under sin and what sin has done to us. Self seeks to please itself in many ways. We’re sorry to say, self stands out in many people’s lives who claim to be Christians. All we have to do is listen to them talk and be around them to see what they’re interested in. Once we learn what their highest interests are, we’ll find that self has never been slain. They’re trying to do something that’s impossible to do: follow Christ and be a Christian without crucifying self.

The only means to greater life is through death. There can’t be greater life without death. Jesus said that except the corn of wheat fall in the ground and dies, it lies alone; but if it falls in the ground and dies, it will bring forth many grains. Christ was speaking of Himself in these Scriptures. There is no way to get to this level of God life without a death: self must die. God has greater life for us. Some have already gone to Heaven, but there’s no way to get there except to die. Greater life comes only through the experience of death. This is God’s law and God’s plan. The same is true in the Christian experience.

In nothing, is the Christian free to follow his own feelings and his own desires. Self-denial is a requirement in every sphere of the Christian life, without exception. If we are truly a Christian, we cannot even choose the vocation of life that we want to live. Some people are doing what they want to do. They have their own aims and their own ideas; however, they don't know anything about self-denial. Too many don’t know what self-denial is. In self-denial, we follow the Lord, and when we follow the Lord, we’re never "up front", so to speak. We may be first, after Him, but we’re never first, before Him. Christ must be first in everything! There’s nothing in our lives that we can decide for ourselves, and yet truly be a Christian.

Following God’s Plan for Our Life…

The Christian cannot choose whom he / she wants to marry. They may have some ideas to pray about, but the Bible says to marry in the Lord, or in the Lord’s direction. Many men have found a woman, but they have never found a wife. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:22, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.” He will direct us and give us a wife. And when the Lord gives us a wife, she will be a good wife!

Someone may say, “When I got saved, Jesus set me free.” He just set you free from bondage, so that you could become a slave to Him. Christianity doesn’t set us free to allow us to have our own way and do everything we want to do. Real salvation sets us free from the bondage of sin, so that we can wholeheartedly, follow Christ. We may say, “I have so many decisions to make.” However, we won’t have too many, if we’ll make one big decision, and that is to follow the Lord. He will tell us not to say, “I'm going to go here and get a job and make money”; instead, we ought to say, “If the Lord be willing, I will go here.”

Those who really have the experience and are practicing self-denial will "measure up" when the Word is preached to them. The pastors won’t have trouble with them, because they will follow Christ. Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep [every one of them] hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” We'll stay out of a lot of trouble when we really deny self and let the Lord lead us. He will lead us victoriously. He will never lead us wrong, and He will never withhold one thing that is good for us.

One reason the divorce rate is so high, is that, in many of those cases, the Lord had nothing to do with the marriage. It was the same way in the days of Noah. If we read about it, we will find that they married the wives “they chose”. They looked on the women and picked out a fair one. However, there’s more to getting a wife than just choosing someone who is good looking and has pretty hair and pretty legs. We need to get a deeper look than that. We need to look down where the natural eye cannot see, where only the Lord can see; otherwise we may end up with “a bad one”.

Jesus knows that it’s self that gets us into trouble. Self will cause us to get out of line and detour from God’s plan for our lives. God can never set forth His plan unless we deny ourselves and get self out of the way. The devil will come around, as he did with Eve, and tell us that it will be a better personal advantage for us, if we will go some way other than what God said. It’s the same devil and the same seducing spirit. We must get rid of self and come to the place of "full consecration" to God and say, “Not my will, but Yours, be done, Lord, and I mean it! I want to live that way, if You will show me Your will, and give me grace and strength. I’m going to do what You want and not what I want.” Repeating, the Christian is not free to do whatever he wants to do. He must seek God’s direction concerning a vocation, marriage, and how many children he / she, has. See, the child that we would not bring into the world, might have been the greatest preacher we have ever heard!

Forsaking All

Jesus said in Luke 14:33, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” Jesus went from forsaking self to forsaking all that we have. The Christian doesn’t have anything; it all belongs to God. God doesn’t ask us, as he did the rich, young ruler, to give away everything we have. However, we cannot follow Christ if our possessions get in the way. It won’t be long until God will make a requirement that will squeeze us on our possessions, and self will rise up. When we get to the place where we forsake all, turn it over to the Lord, and live in such a way that we don’t have anything (it’s all the Lord’s), He will turn around and make us a steward over it; it’s not ours, but His. For example, our "pocketbook" is not ours, but God’s.

Too many have "crutches to lean on". If we’ll forsake all that we have, it’s not hard to trust Jesus, because He’s the only help we have. We’re “a pauper”, without Him: Jesus is everything to us, He’s our all in all, and we cast all our cares on Him, because we cannot care for ourselves; all has been forsaken for the Lord. We learned that a long time ago, and we’ve lived better, ever since. We’ve found that He knows more about running a business and keeping finances and causing them to grow than we ever knew or ever will know.

Forsaking all is a hard saying for some people too; nevertheless, it’s where the real victory lies. Again, God doesn’t want us to sell our house and bring the money and put it in the offering, He just wants us to forsake it and turn it over to Him completely. Not only must we forsake self, but everything to which self is connected. When we turn everything over to Him, it won’t be hard to trust Him, because we’ll have no other avenues of help. There are too many crutches in the way, when we try to serve the Lord and "something else" at the same time.

There are three crucifixions mentioned in Galatians 6:14, which reads, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” The first crucifixion is Jesus Christ’s. Second, through the experience of denying self, the world is crucified unto us. (We won’t have any trouble with a crucified world.) The third crucifixion is, self has been crucified unto the world. It’s the old life, not the new life of God that loves the things of the world. When we go through the experience of crucifying self, the world is crucified unto us, and we are crucified unto the world.

Have We Been Crucified With Christ?

First John 2:15-16 says: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” Those who are truly crucified with Christ do not love the world or the things that are in the world.

Many preachers spend too much time preaching on the issues. They deal with this part of the world and that part of the world. Why not get to the root of the issue? We must come to the place that the world is crucified unto us (a dead world), and we are crucified unto the world. James 4:4, says, that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Those who still love the pride and the vanity of the world, absorb its trivialities, covet its god and honor, and love its applause, are not yet dead to the world. They don’t have this crucified experience. A worldly professor, a person who professes to be a Christian and yet is worldly, is a disgrace to God, to himself, to the people with whom he worships, and to his community. People who live by the world’s standards, or follow the course of the world, yet profess to be a Christian, are an insult to Christ.

There are many things that God hates, and one thing He surely hates is a proud and worldly heart. Proverbs 6:16-17 says that God hates the proud look. Why does God hate a proud and worldly heart? Such a heart cannot have real reverence for God, His Word, His Spirit, God’s ministry, or God’s people.

The religion of that one who still has a proud and worldly heart, is hypocrisy; it has no reality. The Bible lets us know that such people profess in word, but in deed, they deny Christ. Everybody hates hypocrisy. One hypocrite hates another because he is a hypocrite; and every hypocrite, when he has his moment of honesty, hates his own hypocrisy. True Christian life is, and ever will be, a life of separation from sin, pride, and worldliness. The most pitiful person in the world is one who talks as a Christian but lives as a sinner; he professes to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, but he lives as a citizen of the devil’s kingdom.

Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” This is the testimony of a truly sold-out Christian. Many have actually fallen so low in their Christian living that they deify Paul. They put him up on a pedestal and say, “That was Paul. Don’t expect to live as he lived.” Paul was a man just as you and I are. Well, he had real salvation, he denied himself, and he crucified self, and God filled his life. Paul is not to be deified. He became an example, or a witness of what God can do for any man or woman.

We're Responsible for Our Influence...

Are we truly dead to the world to the degree that we don't relish its follies, fashions, sinful pleasures or applauses? Do we care more about our standing with God than our standing with man?

If others were to follow really close to our example, would they be on safe ground? Mark it down; somebody is following us! It doesn't matter what kind of life we're living, we're shedding an influence. It's a deadly thing when we claim to be a sold-out child of God, yet live our own selfish way and testify to others, "Follow me. I'm a child of God." Let's not forget, if those who are following our influence are not on safe ground, and they die lost, their blood might be "on our skirts," when we come to the Judgment.

The Bible says no man lives to himself or dies to himself. Every one of us is influencing people one way or another. Not only are we responsible for our life but also our influence. When we die, we're not judged right away. We'll not be judged until the final judgment, when all are judged. Why? Because even after we die, our influence goes on. This is why people should be encouraged to watch how they make their wills. Why? We can will our money to unsaved children, and they can use it against the Church, and we'll have to answer for that at the Judgment. Let's not think that after we die that's the end. Revelation 14:13 says, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." If we understand this message, we will realize that we don't have anything to will; it all belongs to the Lord. This is another hard saying; nevertheless, it will direct us to a place of real victory.

Jesus knew what things would be hindrances; that's why we must lay them down. We must forsake father, mother, wife, husband, and children. This doesn't mean we have to leave them, but we must put them in a secondary position. Why? Because; they will trouble us unless we commit them to the Lord. Part of the reason many children are out in the world is: they didn't see enough godly living from their parents, to follow.

The Way of the Cross...

There’s only one road that leads to the exalted plain of true Christian living: it’s the way of Calvary, the way of the Cross. If we will die out to sin, the flesh, and the world, we won’t need to know anything further about heavy crosses. Again, the cross, according to Paul’s writings, is exchanged for a crown of real living. When we start to reign, we will wear a crown, and when we get to the feet of Jesus at the Judgment, the Bible says we will take off our crowns. We can’t take one off, if we don’t have one, and if we don’t have one, we’re not reigning; if we’re not reigning, we haven’t crucified self. One day we'll take off our crowns and lay them at Jesus’ feet. Why? It was because of Him that we’ve been able to wear a crown. Thank God, it’s through Him that we have the victory. Jesus is ready to help us if we’ll honestly seek the experience.

Jesus knows that when we come seeking this experience, it doesn’t lie completely within us to gain this experience, because self-will cannot rise up and cast out self-will. This is why we must humbly and honestly seek Him. Self can’t mortify itself; therefore, when we come for this experience, we must bow to Him, acknowledge our helplessness, impotence, and inability, and say, “Lord, I want self crucified. I want to die out to self, but I know that self cannot cast out self.” This is where we must die in humility before Him. It’s only when we realize our own impotence and inability to change ourselves that He comes on the scene.

Jesus had the likeness of sinful flesh, yet He was without sin. We want us all to see that denying self, really crucifying self and getting the spirit set free, is not a simple thing. If it were easy to do, Jesus wouldn't have had a struggle. Another reason why people don’t get this experience of salvation is that they’re not willing to struggle. We may have to pray for two or three hours to get to the place where release from self comes. For some people, this is just too much of a struggle. They want salvation "on a silver platter", so to speak. Some want to get it by shaking a preacher’s hand, by having a preacher lay his hand on their head and praying, or by just kneeling down and praying a few words. If this is the case with us---no need to expect to get self crucified, because there's a struggle to it.

Matthew 26:36-37 tells us: “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.” Here’s the pattern: Verse 41 says, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” What kind of flesh did Jesus have? He had the likeness of sinful flesh; the same flesh we have. This portrays the battle it takes to gain this experience. Self will hold on, and self dies hard!

Bringing the Flesh Into Subjection...

Jesus told His disciples in verse 38, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death…” What was He trying to do? He was bringing Himself, His flesh, into subjection so that He could truly say, “Thy will be done, Father.” What a struggle! We’re glad that Jesus has made provision for us. He doesn’t want us to struggle the way He did, thank God. No, He went through it as no other man ever will, and He has made a way whereby we can receive help. Nonetheless, there must be a real sorrowful condition, a feeling of heaviness on our part.

Verse 39 says, “And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed…” Jesus was getting down low before God. He realized that only the Father could bring Him the help He needed. He was heavy and very sorrowful and fell on His face. What was He praying about? His spirit was willing to obey God, but His flesh was weak.

“And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the sprit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (verses 39-41) What kind of temptation was Jesus speaking of? The temptation that He was in: to follow the flesh instead of following the Spirit. He was in a struggle. The spirit was willing and ready, but the flesh was pulling back and saying, “Some other cup.” The flesh wants to go any other way and will “hold out to the last” in order to try to do something some way other than God’s way.

“And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.” (verses 43-44) Jesus took His disciples with Him, but He found that they were no help to Him, whatsoever. To get this experience, it is a matter between God and us! Thank God for good people who may not go to sleep. They may stay up in prayer with us; however, if we ever get this experience, we must get alone with the Father. When Jesus got alone with the Father, the Father sent Him help from Heaven.

Hebrews 9:14 tells us, He, through the Spirit, offered Himself a sacrifice to God. How did He do it? Through the Spirit. When we get down really sorrowful and heavy, desiring the flesh to be crucified and God’s will to be done, how can we do it? By the help of the Holy Spirit. He will come on the scene when we get to the place that we're heavy and sorrowful enough that we’re ready to die out to our will.

Dying Out to Self and Self-Will...

This takes us back to the last point: God knows that self-will cannot cast out self-will. God, through the Holy Spirit, will come to our rescue and bring us the help we need. When Jesus reached that place, He walked back to His disciples and said in verse 46, “Rise, let us be going…” In other words, He was saying, “I'm ready to go now.” He didn’t go very far until Judas brought the crowd to take Him away. Oh, what pitiful things He faced, yet He gained the victory!

When are we going to gain this experience? When we get to the place that we desire this experience. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll have to pray three times, but Jesus did. We can read how the devil tempted Jesus three times, and He had no trouble whatsoever. He could easily turn down kingdoms of the world and all the other things. He just said, “Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:8). However, when He got in the garden and had to bring self under, His own words were,” The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is where the trouble was, and He met it in a different way. He had to pray three times, saying the same words.

What’s the danger? We may pray the right kind of prayer, but we may be saying mere words. We’re not saying that the first and second time Jesus prayed, that His prayers were only mere words, but ours can be. There must come a time when we definitely get down to business and bring self (the flesh) into complete consecration. When God sees we reach that position, just as He sent Jesus help from Heaven (angels came and ministered to Him), God will give us help.

Romans 8:13b says, “If ye through the Spirit [Jesus offered Himself through the Spirit without spot for a sacrifice] do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Thank God, we’re not talking about something that’s an impossibility, but it can be a definite experience in every heart. God is ready, He sees our heart, and when our heart reaches the point where we don’t want our will to be done any more, we want to die out to self and self-will, God will send us help through the Holy Spirit.

Peter denied the Lord. Why? There was something about him that could not handle the humble way. He would not own the fact that he was one of Jesus’ disciples. He swore that he was not, because there was pride in his heart. For Peter to own that he was one of His disciples would have been very degrading at that hour. Also, there's no telling what would have happened to him. He could have been taken into judgment, as well; therefore he denied Him. Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22:32, “When thou art converted…” When will we be truly converted? When self is slain, and we no longer go after self, but God; then we’ll be changed. Thank God, our life can be changed, our hope can be changed, our ends can be changed and our desires can be changed to great degrees.

Have we been crucified with Christ? If others are following our influence, are they on safe ground? Do we actually want to live so that our influence might influence people to be lost? It’s dangerous to try to live without this experience. May God help us!
[ The End ]