Okay, let's ask the Lord to help us, okay? Dear Father, we believe and know that You are our Father. It's been revealed to us by Your Spirit and by Your Word, so we're so grateful and thankful that we have a heavenly Father loved us so much to sacrifice His only Son. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for coming here. Thank You for loving us and redeeming us. We ask for Your help in this time. We want You to be glorified through Your Word. We want people to see something of Your greatness. It's not about us. We're nothing. We're nobodies. But we want You to be lifted up. So please use Your Word today. to do that, that we would learn something about you spiritually, not just some thoughts or words or words on a page, but we would see something miraculous about how great you are. Give us grace, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The name of this little message today is called, Jesus Filters Out the Fake Christians. And how does He do that? How does Jesus filter out? He has a filter. And so we know the verses in the Bible that talk about Jesus taught rather repeatedly that most people who say that He's their Lord, most people who say they believe in Jesus, are really fake. They're not real. And you know, when we read like Matthew 7, you know, that whole context, remember He said, enter through the narrow gate For wide is the gate, and easy is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But narrow is the gate, small is the gate, and hard is the way that leads to life, and only a few, only a few find it." Now, you know, in that whole context he's talking like that, it helps me to think about this. In the day of Jesus, it was very similar to the day of the Reformation, I think, in this sense. When Jesus came, He says, I didn't come for the lost, you know, for the Gentiles. I came for the lost sheep, for the sheep of Israel. I came for the people of Israel, not for the Gentiles. The Gentiles would be later with the apostles. So He came for the Jewish nation. And the Jewish nation, they all thought, hey, we are the people of God. We are the children of Abraham. So, we're not the pagan nations over here. But in that day, They were all thinking, well, we're the people of God, but the people weren't regenerated. They weren't really true, true Jews. Only a few. And so it's kind of similar to the days of the Reformation. We had the Dark Ages, and we had all this Catholic doctrine, and everybody thought they were kind of okay because they were all baptized when they were babies. Everybody in the whole country was baptized. But nobody knew the Gospel. They weren't saved. And so when the Reformers came, they were preaching to people like, hey, you guys think you're okay, but you're not. Only a few of you, most of you guys are lost, but you're thinking you're okay. That was the day of Jesus. So most of his preaching was kind of like that. That's why he's talking about these two gates. So the people who entered the wrong gate, they entered. They weren't like atheists. and pagan nations, they were entering the Kingdom of God, or so they thought, but they entered the wrong gate. And it was the easy way. It's basically this. We can have religion and the world. We can be worldly, it's easy, no change, but we're okay with God. And that's kind of like the context of his speaking these words. So, my thought is this, and I see this and you can see it too, is that he used a filter. I call it the filter. And where I go, you know, in the Philippines, it's kind of like everybody thinks they're okay with God because most of them are Catholic. But they don't even read the Bible. They don't know anything about the gospel. But they're kind of okay with God, they think. They've been taught, we're all children of God and God loves everybody, you know, so we're all okay. So I got to hit this I got to hit this point quite hard. But I start out with this when I teach on this, you know, I use like, okay, imagine there's a real beautiful girl, and she is a pageant winner, and she is a nice person, a nice girl, and everybody wants to be her boyfriend. She's beautiful, and she's lovely, and kind, and everybody goes, wow, I wish I could marry her. I wish I could have something to do with her. I wish I could be her boyfriend. And so she's got all these guys interested in her, but a lot of the guys are just fake, because they just want to kiss her, and fool around with her, and play games. So there's the fake ones, and then there's the ones that really, really want her, because they really think she's something valuable. So she knows she has value. So she has a filter. And I tell all the girls in the Philippines this. Look it, you guys gotta have a filter. All these guys wanna sleep with you. And they're all gonna tell you how much they love you. And they're all gonna try to get your heart. And some of them really believe it. But then they change their mind. So how are you gonna decide which one is real? Here's how you do it. You tell them this. Hey, you can be my friend. We'll be friends. But guess what? You can't touch me. Nobody can touch me. Nobody can kiss me. I'm saving all my kisses for my husband." You tell them that. And when they try to hold your hand, you pull your hand away. And you say, nobody can touch me. What does that do? It filters people out, doesn't it? All the guys that just want to be physical, like how we were when we were lost, they filter those guys out and they go to the next one. But then she's left now with somebody who says, no, I don't care if I can touch you or not. I just want to be with you. I like you because of you. Not because of what I can get from you. I just like being with you. Now she's got a bunch of guys that aren't fake and she can choose from that group. So they have a filter. I'm trying to teach them to have a filter. But Jesus Christ had a filter. So I call these the filter verses. And many people call these verses the hard sayings of Jesus, but they're not hard sayings at all. In fact, when the Holy Spirit is working on somebody, they love these sayings. They're like music to their ears. It's only hard saying if you're not being called by God. Okay, so, remember when Jesus was speaking one-on-one. I want you guys to try to get this point. He didn't say the same thing to each person, remember? The woman at the well. Did he tell the woman at the well to sell all her possessions and give to the poor? Did he tell the rich young ruler, where's your five girlfriends or something? No. Why didn't he do that? Because he had something that we don't have. Can you look at a woman at a drinking fountain and figure out how many husbands she had? I can't. Can you? How did he know she had five husbands? Now you say, well, he was using his omniscience? No, he was living like a man. But we know this, he says, my father told me what to say. Everything I'm saying, my father told me what to say. Remember that? John 12. So, here's this woman, guess who told Jesus she had five husbands? I think in Jesus' prayer time, God the Father was saying, Jesus, you're gonna meet this woman today, she's gonna have five husbands, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? He knew all this stuff, right? You're gonna meet this other guy, he's got all these riches, he's full of covetousness, you gotta tell him about that. But I don't have that, neither do you, right? I can't tailor my mind. People say, don't speak the same thing to each person, like Jesus didn't do that, but I'm not Jesus, so I have to speak the same thing to each person because I have no idea where they're at. So when Jesus talked to crowds now, when He spoke to crowds, He didn't do that. He didn't look at the crowd and say, I know you, but He used the shotgun approach. He said the same thing to the crowds, is my point. I want you to see this. He spoke to the crowds differently than He spoke to the individuals. So what does He say here in Luke 14? To the crowds here in this one, we're going to look at three passages. This is the first one. Verse 25, you see that? Luke 14, 25. Now great crowds accompanied Him, and He turned to them and said... What's He going to say to the crowd? This is the question. Whenever there's a crowd, there's all kinds of people, right? Some people came to see Jesus because, you know, maybe they wanted something. Somebody else wanted to be healed. Maybe somebody was interested in, like, seeing this new guy that everybody was following. What's it all about? There's all kinds of reasons why people were wanting to see Jesus. A crowd. And he knew that. And then there was some real ones that really wanted to find God. So, he's going to filter out the fake ones. He's going to filter out the ones that came, not for the right reason. Look what he says. This is like slapping somebody in the face. The first thing he says to the crowd is this. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. You can't be my disciple unless you hate your family. What? And hate your own life. Or you can't be my disciple. Now, is that a filter or what? How many people are going to say, what is he talking about? I'm out of here. Hate my family? And hate my own life? I'm out. He filters people right out with that. And we know what he meant by that. Hate. We talked about this. You guys know this. Matthew 10 says this same thing with parallel passage. He says this, right? He says, you can't love your family more than me. You have to love me more than your family. Or you're not worthy of me, he said in Matthew 10. So that qualifies what he's talking about when he says hate. Hate is like a hyperbole. It means this. You have to love me so much more than your family That it's kind of like, hey, you love me, or you can't be my disciple. Not just a little bit more, but a lot more than your own family. Now people don't like that. When I teach on this, see in the Philippines they have a saying called, family first, family first. And I've been told this, people don't help anyone except their own family. Because there's no money, there's not enough money, they're always focused on their own family. So, you know, blood is thicker than water, it's family, family, family in the Philippines, right? So I tell them this and I go, hey, hey, does Jesus sound like family first? Does that sound like family first to you? Or does it sound like Jesus first? Did anybody ever tell you guys, is Jesus first, not family first? Did you ever hear that? They never heard that. And I think they don't hear it here either. He says, you've got to love Me. So He's filtering out. See, when the Holy Spirit's working on you, this is like music to your ears. Yes, of course I love Jesus more than my family. He's a billion times better than my family. Yes, I want that. But when the Holy Spirit's not working, it's like, love Him more than my family? What? Are you crazy? And my own life? Hate my own life? I love my life. When the Holy Spirit's working, it's, my life is worthless. My life is nothing. I just deserve to be punished in hell. Of course I hate myself. I hate my life. I hate who I am. I wish I was different, but I'm not. I'm struggling all the time trying to love the Lord instead of loving everything else. I hate myself. Oh, he says, oh, you hate yourself? Oh, yeah, that's me. I'm in. I like that. Am I right? And the Holy Spirit's not working. It's like, hey, my life, what are you talking about? I don't know, I'm out. And then he says this, 27. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. What is that? Listen, in our culture, this doesn't mean anything. Bear your own cross? Is that suffering or what is that? What is it? In the day of Jesus, when He uses this phrase, and listen, He says this five times. If you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, even in John He doesn't say cross, but He describes it. So it's really six times. If Jesus says the same thing six times, do you think it's important to Him? He says this thing about take your cross, bear your cross, carry your cross, or you can't be My disciple five times. So we better figure out what it means. Take up your cross. Bear your cross. In the day of Jesus, those words were heard. Here's where those words were heard. You're a criminal and you're under the death sentence. And the judge says, take up your cross. That means this, you are a walking dead man. You take that cross, you carry it down the street so everybody can see you're an object. Let's see what happens to bad guys. We're using this for a fear tactic to deter crime. We're going to go up that hill, we're going to nail you to that cross, and you are going to die on that cross. Take up, carry that cross. Those are words from a judge pronouncing execution on you, but you're not dead yet, so you're walking with this cross, but you're a walking dead man. That's what it means to take up your cross and carry it. Everybody knew what that meant. He's really saying to these guys, you must die to yourself. That's why the very next thing He says is you have to deny yourself. Five times He says this. Take up your cross. Deny yourself. Your life is over. You are dead. Now you are following a new Master. You're not following you anymore. You're dead to you. You're following Jesus. You have to follow Me now. That's why He says take up your cross and follow Me. So, people hear that and they go, what? Die to myself? Deny myself? I just came here to get some food. I came here to get a miracle. I came here to find out what Jesus is. Now He's telling me I'm gone. I'm filtered out. You get it? He's filtering them out with these statements. And then He says down in v. 33, So therefore, if anyone of you does not renounce or give up all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. You're out. You can't join my group and be in my kingdom unless you renounce or give up all that you have. Now, what does that mean? Well, we know what that means. Look it. When I come to Jesus, He says, Sam, I want everything you have. Fine. It's all yours. Everything I have is yours, Jesus. I just want you, right? So my bank account is his, right? My time is his. Everything I have is his. And then he tells me what to do with it, because he's my new master, right? I don't tell me what to do with it, because I don't own me. You're not your own. You're bought with a price. He owns me, and I'm His slave, and He bought me with His blood. Now He owns everything I have, and I'm happy that way, because I want to do everything His way. I want to govern all these things that He gave me, what He tells me what to do with it, right? But see, when the Holy Spirit's working, you're happy to do that. I like that. I have a good Master who's going to tell me what to do with all my stuff. So I'm renouncing it all. When the Holy Spirit's not working, it becomes a hard saying. Hard. Oh, what? Now He's going to take from me? You know the parable? You're a hard master. You want to reap where you didn't sow. You want to take from me. See, it seems like a hard saying, but this is what it is. He's filtering out the fake guys. And then he gives a little story here. We don't have time to look at all this, but look at verse 31. 2 Kings. One guy hits 10,000. The other guy hits 20,000. The 20,000 King is coming against him. And if not, if he can't win, While the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation to ask for terms of peace. Now, everybody knew what that meant. Because in the day of Jesus, the day of Alexander the Great and all these guys, we know what they would do. They would march up to a city. Alexander, you can read all about it. He'd march up to a city. They were all walled cities. And he would say, OK, we're here to kill all you guys. And we're going to surrender to us. Open the gates. Let us in. Nobody will die. Everybody will be better off. Everything in your city will now be mine. I'm your king. Don't fight. Just open the door and surrender. Everything's going to go good for you. And they all did it, except the foolish ones. So they knew what that meant. The guy with the greater king, with twice as many soldiers, comes against the weaker one, and the weaker one goes, I can't beat this guy, so let's make terms of peace. We surrender. Everybody knew what that was about. Jesus is saying, that's what it's like with me. I'm coming against you for your own good. I'm saying surrender or I will take everything and I will kill you anyway. You're going to be destroyed if you don't surrender to me. He's motivating them. Do the smart thing, don't be stupid. Surrender to Me and everything's going to go good for you. That's why He says renounce everything you have, see? He wants a full surrender. Now why am I talking like this? Because this is the way Jesus talked when He hit the crowd. He hit the crowd with the shotgun approach. I'm going to filter guys out. And my point is this, see, I want to use the way that Jesus did it, don't you? I want people to hear what He... because listen, when you join the Navy SEALs, They don't just let anybody join. They only take the elite. And when I was in the Marines, they had recon, just same thing as Navy SEALs. They didn't just take anybody. You had to prove that you were one of the elite, real serious soldier. OK, now we're going to give you a try. And it's all about this. You've got to be willing to die at any day. Boom. You're going to be a commando. You're going to lay down your life. You're going to do these insane things. And you're going to die to help other people for the sake of freedom. And guess what? People say, that's exactly what I want to do. I want to give my life for something greater than me. We have that in the stupid realm of military. How much more in the realm of spiritual things? Say, yes, I want to give my life for something greater than me. Jesus, you can have it all, right? Well, that's what he's talking about with the filter. Now, if you look at Mark chapter 8, There's another one here. We're only going to look at three today, but there's a little bit more in here that adds to it. And look at Mark 8. Again, it's the crowd. "...calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, said to them, If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me." Says it again, right? He's hitting the crowd with the same thing. Deny yourself, which means die to yourself, and you're a walking dead man with this cross idea. Now you're going to follow me, the new master, right? 35. For whoever would save his life will lose it. What does that mean? Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it. Now we know he's talking in this context about eternal things. Save your life. Eternal life. Lose your life. Lose eternal life. Lose your soul. He says it later. We're going to see it to tell you what it means. For whoever would save his life will lose it. In other words, it looks like this. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I have to deny myself and be a walking dead man? I got to lose? No, I don't want that. I don't want that. You know why? Because I like my life. I don't want to lose all that. I want to keep it, Jesus. It's mine. I went to school. I got a degree. I worked hard. I saved my money. I bought a house. I got a family. It's mine. I like it. Don't take it away from me. Don't take... You're going to lose it all. But... the guy who loses his life. Yes, Jesus, I give my life to you. I give everything to you. I lose it all for you. That's easy to get, right? We just got done talking about that. But he adds another thing here. Look at this. Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel, the gospel's sake, my sake and the sake of the gospel will save his life. How do you lose your life for the sake of the gospel? What does that even mean? It's not hard. What is the gospel? The gospel is a message. It's information. It's news. It's good news. But what is it about? It describes this person, this great person who came out of heaven to this crummy planet to help us. How does he help us? He sacrifices His life on the cross to pay for your sins, and He invites you to this kingdom. He rises from the dead, and He invites you down. You can have eternal life, and you can be in this great kingdom forever, and all your sins forgiven. No more punishment. Eternal life. There's no message like it. Nothing even close. When you give your life to the Gospel, it's the same thing as giving your life to Jesus, because it's the message that describes who He is and what He did. It's about describing this person, what He did, and who He is from heaven. And we tell people that, and we're sacrificing our life, because you know why? Here's why. It's about this. It's about living your life, not for your own glory, but the glory of somebody else. Now your whole life is living following Him, and you are not about your own glory. Look how great I am. Look what I did. Look at all my stuff. Look at my kids. Whatever. It's about this. It's about I'm trying to promote this other person. I'm all about that. His credit. His glory. So when we're living for His glory, we are sacrificing our life for the sake of the message. Because the message is about the gospel of the glory of who? It's the gospel about the glory of this person. Yes, we want Jesus to be glorified. We're nothing but pathetic nobodies that deserve to be thrown into hell. That's who we are. Now we have a new thing that we're living for, not my kingdom and how great I am anymore, right? He even says it. Listen to what he says. He says, if I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. He's trying to show us how to live. We don't glorify. My father glorifies me. I don't glorify myself. Listen to what he says here. He who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true. Get that. He who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is the true one. As my Father sent me, so I'm sending you. He sends you out to seek the glory of someone else, not you. That's the real Christian, right? He's filtering these guys out. Lose your life for me and for my Gospel. For what does it profit a man? Verse 36. Now what is he doing here? Listen. He knows it's hard to go through the filter. He knows the filter's kind of hard on our flesh, right? And he knows there's the guys who are going, hmm, hmm, should I do this or not? That's why he says count the cost, remember? Well, I'm thinking about this. So now he's trying to help these guys. He's trying to move them with arguments, pushing them through the filter. He wants them. He wants them to come through the filter. So watch what he does. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? What's he saying? You guys that are pondering if you want to come to me and lose everything, think about this. Even if you get everything you want, even if you get all your dreams, and all the things that you think that you don't want to lose, that you're clinging to, everything works out perfect. Everything. You get your career, your beautiful spouse, your kids, your house, your vacation, your swimming pool, retirement, your friends, you get everything you ever wanted, everybody looks up to you and you got this great life, and you even get even more than that! You get the whole world! Everything that anybody would ever want! but you lose your soul, what good is that?" He's reasoning, don't be stupid. Don't be a fool. I'm moving you with this argument. Even if you get everything and you lose your soul, what good is that? That's a good argument, isn't it? That's a powerful argument. Don't be stupid. He's saying don't be a fool. He's trying to help these guys. 37. What can a man give in return for his soul? On your deathbed, when you have... I read these things I see on the internet. These guys on their deathbed, what did they say? They say things like, I was stupid. I lived for the wrong thing. Listen, on your deathbed, you've got no time left. Oh, I lived for all this glory. And they all go, it was stupid. But it's too late. So, He says this kind of stuff five times. Take up your cross. Carry your cross. Deny yourself. Lose your life. Follow Me. Love Him more than your family. Love Him, number one. That's what I'm calling the filter verses. Filtering out the fake Christians. See, when you tell everybody this, hey, God loves you. Now what I'm about to tell you is not false. God loves you. And Jesus came to die for your sins. And you're not saved by works. You are not saved by anything you do. You're only saved by His work only. And if you accept Him and His work for you, you'll be saved. That's all true. Right? Something's left out. What's left out? Take up your cross. Deny yourself. Lose your life. Love me more than your family. Why don't we invite people to that? Why don't we say, oh, you wanted to come into the kingdom? Here's what He says. Because then we're going to help these guys by filtering them out instead of making them all think, well, I accepted Jesus in my heart so I'm going to heaven now because it's not by works. He's doing them a favor by showing them what they are. Listen, let me ask you this question. Why does Jesus demand these things? Why does He demand these things? Why? What's the purpose? Does He need this? Does He need my stuff? He doesn't need it. God has everything, right? Is God happy without me? I think he's more happy without me, right? Okay, so he doesn't need me or my stuff. Hey, how about this? Does he need worshipers? Some people say yes. Yes, Sam, he needs, does he need servants? Yes, he needs servants. Does he need, he doesn't need any servants, does he? Does God need servants? Does He need people to worship Him? He doesn't need that, right? So why is Jesus making these demands if He doesn't need anything? It's for our benefit. He's giving us an opportunity. He's testing these guys to see, do you guys understand the value of what you're getting? He wants them to understand the value of what they're getting. He's testing them. Here, I'll give you an illustration. Paulie is a multi-billionaire. Paulie says, Sam, I got a deal for you. He says, just turn your bank account over to me. Empty your bank account, give it all to me. And your motorcycle and this stuff, right? It's all mine now. And after about a month, I will give you $1 billion. And I believe him because I know he's trustworthy. Is that a good deal for me? I give him some piddly money and he gives me a billion dollars, right? Okay. So, what kind of a person is, oh, I don't know about that. I want to keep my motorcycle in my bank account. I don't know about that deal. It's a fool, right? Okay, well, you know, does Jesus offer us a billion dollars? No. He offers us Himself, eternal life, paradise, forgiveness of sins, billions times more than a billion dollars, right? And so He's giving us a deal. Sam, do you understand what I'm offering you? Do you get the value of what I'm offering you? If you don't get it, if you say no, that means you don't even get it. You can't come in because you don't even get the value of this thing. You don't know who I am. You're not valuing me. It's about value. His value. His worth. Is He worthy? Worthy. Worth. Value. You guys know this? Worship. You know where the word comes from, right? You guys know? Worth. Ship. The old English word. Value. Worth. Ship. Somebody asked me, Sam, what does that mean, ship? I get the worth part. It was kind of hard to explain. So I did a little study, and it's not that hard. It means the state, the continual state of something, like friendship. is a continual state of friends. Citizenship, a continual state of being a citizen. Worship, a continual state of realizing the value of something. See that? So when you worship Jesus, you are seeing that His value, what He's worth, but it's a continual state of knowing that. It's not like I sing a song once a week. It's like I'm living in this continual state of recognizing the true worth of this person. That's what it means to worship Him. The true worth. His true value. See, that's why He's testing us. The filter. Do you guys get the value of what you're getting? Do you guys get it? You give me this piddly thing that I came to use, this worthless sinful life, and you're going to give me that. Do you ever think this? Why would He ever want me? Why would God ever want me? I'm just this person that didn't do anything. What worth do I have? And He wants me. Did that ever hit you? Or maybe you think you're great. I don't know. You know, when Jesus said the words that He came to seek and to save the lost, do you remember where He said that? The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. It was with Zacchaeus. Jesus is walking down the road with this mob of crowds, and there's this guy that wants to see Jesus. Think about this guy, right? He's a corrupt tax collector. He's a corrupt politician. That kind of guy. But there's something going on with this guy. He's interested in Jesus. He's like, you know, he's probably thinking, my life is not great. Maybe this guy has something for me. I want to see this guy. What's he all about? You know, these rabbis don't want anything to do with me. I'm not a church guy anymore. So he climbs up this tree to see Jesus. And Jesus saw the guy. Hey, do you think that Jesus knew the guy who was going to be in that tree? Yes. He goes, Zacchaeus, come down. I've got to visit your house today. The guy comes down, he's all thrilled. Wow, something happened to that guy. Remember what he did? He says, today, he goes, I'm going to give half my possessions to the poor, and if I defrauded anybody, I'm going to pay them back four times as much. He probably went in debt doing that. Jesus said, today salvation has come to this house. He's a true child of Abraham. He says, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. That's the kind of guy he's saving. That kind of guy. So, here's what it is, right? It goes like this. Sam, guess what? I came all the way down here from heaven to save you. I don't need your service. I don't need your possessions. I don't need any of your stuff. I came to get you. I want you. That's what He does. If you know Jesus, that's exactly what He does to you. Pauly, I left my home in heaven, came all the way down here to die on that cross to get you. I came to get you. That's why I want you. Sam, I came all the way down here to hang on that cross and bleed and die and do all that just because I want to get you into My Kingdom, to bring you to be where I am because I want you to be blessed. It's all about you getting something. Sam, what do you think of that? What do you say then? You know what you say? I can feed on that forever. There's nothing like this. You came all the way down here to bleed and die on that cross. For me, I can feed on that thought and feed on that gospel for eternity. There's nothing like that. Well, maybe I'm wrong. What are they singing about in heaven? in Revelation 5. You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals because you were slain And with your blood, you purchased men from every tribe, language, people, and nation. They're singing about Jesus bleeding and dying on the cross to purchase these people. That's what we're going to be doing. The whole focus. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And what is He talking about? If a kernel of wheat doesn't die, it can't grow? He's talking about His own death. How does the death of Jesus glorify Him for all eternity? Because we're all going to be in heaven going, wait, we still can't get over it. We are so amazed that you would leave your home and come down to this filthy place and let these guys abuse you and die on the cross to pay for our sins so we can come up to glory. We are so amazed at that. We are so blown away. We will never stop appreciating that forever. That's what heaven's about. It's about the greatness of the Savior, right? Well, Thomas said last week, if you were the only guy, Jesus would have had to do that for you. Remember that? Is that true? Here's the way God works. You guys know this. You guys that know a little bit of theology. There's the doctrine of imputation. Remember that? Do you guys know this? Do you guys believe this? The Bible says when Adam sinned, God looks at it like you did it. Do you guys believe that? When Adam sinned, God looks at that and He says, you did it. I didn't do it, I wasn't there. That's how God looks at it. We call that imputation or God credits or God counts what Adam did to you as if you did it. That's the first thing He does. So now, I'm guilty of sinning in the Garden of Eden. by the doctrine of God crediting it to me because the other guy did it. Then what does he do? Then he takes Sam and he goes, Sam, here's a record of all the bad things you did, all the bad things you thought, all your wicked motives your whole life. I'm going to take that and I'm going to credit that to the Lord Jesus Christ as if he did it. I'm going to look at Jesus like He did the things you did. Just like Adam. Now Jesus Christ is on the cross and He gets all my sin, which means this. He now is looked upon as the one who did the things that I did. He actually did them. He's the sin offering. It's transferred to Him as if He did it. He didn't do it, but as if He did. Now He's treated like He did the things that I did. And then all the things that He did in the days of His life here, all the sinless life that He did, God looks at me and He goes, Sam, I'm going to look at you like you did that. You did what He did. All those things He did, now I'm counting it to you, crediting it to you like you did it. That's how God works, right? Okay, so now when we look at Jesus, we go, okay, He took all these things that I did and He was treated like that because of what I did. God looks at you now like one-on-one, okay? Booker, Booker, yes, you sinned against me in the Garden of Eden because Adam did it. Now, I look at you like, Booker, you did everything right in the life of Jesus, now you did it. And all the things you did, Booker, it's all on Him as if He did it. And it's one-on-one. It's you and God and Jesus. This is why I hate when people say, He died for our sins. What did Jesus do on the cross? He died for our sins. What does that mean? He somehow died for everybody's sins, right? Some vague thing, right? No, it's this. He died for my sins. He took my sins and died for me. Remember what Paul said? I have been crucified with Christ. I'm dead, right? I have been crucified with Christ. And the life that I live now in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me. Who loved who? He loved me! And he gave himself for me, Paul says, right? Does he say, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live and Christ lives in me, but the life I now live in the body, I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for all of us. Does he say that? He loved me and gave Himself for me like I'm the only guy. Like God looks at me and says, how am I going to get you to heaven? You need this person. I'm going to credit everything, just what I just said. And that's one-on-one with everybody. So God looks at everybody one-on-one. What did you do with Jesus? Judgment Day. What did you do with Jesus? You're in because you came to Jesus and you're one-on-one with Him. All His sufferings count on your behalf. It's all paid for. And the other guy gets none of that. So, it's one-on-one. One more passage. John 6. I've got to get this. You've got to see this. The crowd again. The context, remember? Jesus fed the 5,000. Then the next day they came looking for him. He said, you're looking for me because you want the food, remember? Not because you saw the signs. The signs are what? The signs tell you who He is. He did these miracles. They're supposed to say, wow, we know who you are now. You're the Son of God. It's a sign. That's not why you guys came. You guys want more food, not because of the signs. Then what happens? He says this, verse 51, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." I will give My flesh. That's the bread. The bread is this. What's the bread? It's the flesh. He will give His flesh for the life of the world. What does that mean? That means I'm going to sacrifice My body on the cross. I'm going to give My flesh. And when I sacrifice My body on the cross, that's going to give life to the world. That's where the life is going to come from. So if you eat of this bread, if you feed on this, I'm feeding Jesus, I'm feeding on you. You sacrificed yourself for me. That's the bread. The bread is He gives His life. The bread is eating His flesh, which means His death on the cross. He sacrifices His flesh. That's the bread. The bread is what He does on the cross with His body. We eat that. We feed on that. And the same thing with His blood. The Jews disputed. 52. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 53. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. How do you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood? How do you do that? 54. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. 57. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. Feed on him. What is that? Lord, don't you guys do this? Don't you guys feed on how he died for you? Is that food for you? Does that keep you going? I don't know, does it? Kind of keeps me going. Jesus died for me, and I can feed on that. He shed His blood to pay for me. I'm feeding on that, see? So if you feed on that, you have eternal life. Were these guys feeding? They didn't even know what he was talking about. But look it, he was rebuking them because they wanted to get things from him. We know that. And Peter says after that, when they're all leaving, Jesus said, are you guys going to leave too? Remember what Peter said? Peter is the guy that goes through the filter. Peter is the guy that passes through the filter. He's a real disciple. He's a real follower. What does he say? You guys going to leave? He said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. Now, listen to what he says after that. You have the words of eternal life. We know and believe that You are the Holy One of God. What's he saying? We know who you are. We came for you. What about you? We want you. You are the Holy One of God. That's why we're here. Bread? Doesn't matter. See? The guys that make it through the filter, what do they have? They all want one thing. They want Jesus. If they lose everything, they don't care about food, they want Jesus. They're all about Him. That's the real guy. And that's why we feed on His death so much. So there's few that make it through the filter because they value Him, He's their treasure. And the others, they don't get it. They don't get it! I gotta give up my life for that? No way. So, which one are you, I guess? You know, listen, I'm not stupid enough to think that everybody who shows up in church is feeding on Jesus, or has taken up their cross and following Him. I'm not stupid enough to think that. Especially when He says, only a few find it. So, I can't tell who the real ones are. Can you? You can tell a little bit maybe by how they live, but you have to find out from God who you are. Can you ask God? This is my question. Can you pray and ask God and say, God, will you show me, show me if I'm real or fake. Show me if I'm the guy who take up my cross, die to myself, lose my life for you and for the gospel, and the guy who wants to renounce everything for you. It's all a full surrender. Am I that guy? Or am I just the guy who thinks I believe that? Because I think it's in the Bible and everything's true in the Bible. And I go, yes, that's true. But am I fooling myself? Am I really that guy? Or am I just the guy who thinks I'm that guy? How can you find out if you're the real guy or not? You can't go to somebody and say, Dorian, Dorian, am I the real guy? He doesn't know. How can he possibly know your heart? The only way you can know is if you ask God. God, am I? Show me who I am. God, who are you? Who am I? Where do I fit? Do I really believe these things or I just say that I believe them because I know it's the right thing to say? Who am I? Am I fooling myself? Am I deceiving myself even? See? Can you pray like that? Can you pray like that? God, please show me who I really am. Am I fake or real based upon these filtering verses? Do you hear my question? So listen, all we're going to do now for one minute, not even one minute, please do this. Please put your hand in your face like this. And don't care about anybody else. And don't say anything. Just talk to God with your thoughts. And just ask God in your thoughts. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. There's hope. There's hope. If you call on the name of the Lord in this way, you will be saved. But ask God where you are, who you are. So everybody, I'm gonna do it too. God, show me who I am. Let's just take a minute and pray, okay? Let's do that. Oh God, I pray for myself and everybody here that we wouldn't fool ourselves. Please, Lord, show us who we really are. In Jesus' name, Amen.