This time we'll read in the Bible from Mark chapter eight. So we'll turn at this time to Mark chapter eight in God's word. We'll be reading from part of Mark chapter eight. You probably noticed that I've been preaching regularly from the book of Mark. That's because back in, I believe it was the summer, the middle of 2019, that I began a series of sermons on the book of Mark. And this is roughly where we have come in that series, although I have preached sermons further into the book of Mark. But we save this passage, verses 34 through 38, for Seth's confession of faith tonight. So this time we'll read from Mark chapter 8, beginning at verse 14, and read to the end of the chapter. Now the disciples, verse 14, there we read the word of God as follows. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. And he charged them saying, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves saying, it is because we have no bread. When Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, why reason ye, because ye have no bread? Perceive ye not yet, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember? When I break the five loaves among 5,000, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, 12. And when the seven among 4,000, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, seven. And he said unto them, how is it that ye do not understand? And he cometh to Bethsaida, and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw Ot. And he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking. After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house saying, neither go into the town nor tell it to any in the town. And Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And by the way, he asked his disciples saying unto them, whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist. But some say, Elias, and others, one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed. And after three days, rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. And now the words of our text, verses 34 through 38. When he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, whosoever will come after me, Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Thus far we read, and may God bless us in the reading of Scripture. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, Had we read in chapter eight, Jesus had declared openly what was to happen to him. Very openly, very different from the earlier part of the book of Mark, but things now shift at this pivotal point in the book of Mark. Now, openly, Publicly, he declares, not just to the 11 disciples, but also to those around him, he will be rejected by the Old Testament Jerusalem, represented by the high priests, the high priest and the chief priests, the rulers of the Jews and the scribes. They will take hold of him. They will reject him, that is, condemn him, and then crucify him. Nevertheless, Jesus taught, after three days he shall rise from the dead. That news very openly disturbed Peter greatly. This was not at all what he imagined Christ to be doing. This was not the trajectory he had in mind for the ministry of Christ. His trajectory was up, Christ declares down. And vehemently then he rebukes Jesus for Jesus' prophecy of his own death and resurrection. Clearly, Peter, as Jesus mentioned concerning the disciples about the two miracles of feeding the 5,000 or the 4,000 with bread, Peter did not understand. And Jesus issued to him a very sharp rebuke. Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. And that's the occasion, beloved, for our text. In connection with his own death and resurrection, and then Peter's clear error regarding their relationship to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus now taught what true discipleship is. That was necessary over against the apostasy in Jerusalem by the chief priests, the scribes, the rulers of the Jews, but also necessary over against not just Peter, also the other disciples had error, the same error concerning what it meant to follow Christ and to be associated with Christ and how Christ would establish his kingdom. And similarly then, we must also understand what true discipleship involves. We must avoid the errors to which we are prone in thinking that discipleship, following Christ, is a matter of convenience, or we might be misunderstood. We might misunderstand with a wrong expectation, having made confession of faith. Now the way forward for those who make confession of faith, well, the way is easy, or it might be a little hard, but for the most part, I can handle this. Jesus' explanation, clarification, makes clear that true discipleship involves devotion to him, to his word, his gospel to his doctrine to the fullest, but nevertheless with a blessed expectation. Call your attention to the text under this theme, Coming After Our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the devoted discipleship, very crucial cost, and thirdly, the encouraging expectation. Jesus had his own disciples, not just the 12, but also a greater following of disciples. And that was, in those days, a common phenomenon, that a master of learning would have his disciples, who were his students, who followed his teaching and put that teaching into practice. An example of that in Jesus' day would have been Paul. Paul was a student of the Master Gamaliel and all that the Pharisees were teaching. In Jesus' case, he was the master of truth, teaching his disciples to follow and to practice his truth, his doctrine. And of course, Jesus is the chief prophet and teacher incomparable to any other master or rabbi or teacher in that day and in this day and in all ages. Unlike the Greek philosophers or the rabbis or whatever those great masters of learning may be, even in this day and age, Jesus is the truth of God and of everything. As the scriptures teach, in Christ are hid all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. And thus a true disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is taught by him and taught the whole counsel of God, all of the truth of that one true Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. and taught all of his wonderful works, which he has done and continues to do in all of history. That Jesus calls and called unto himself his own disciples. They did not choose Jesus, Matthew, or James and John did not decide one day, well, I think we're going to, in the case of Matthew, I think I don't wanna be a tax collector anymore, or James and John, well, let's quit fishing and let's just follow that man over there. Jesus called them to be his disciples. teaching us that a true disciple isn't one who chooses or votes in himself, well, I think I will now join myself to this master of learning instead of that one. Christ calls us as he has chosen us according to what the Father has directed him to do. You might be thinking, well, what about Judas Iscariot? Providentially even. Though he was the son of perdition, the father directed him to include Judas Iscariot as one of his disciples so that God may be glorified in the use and purpose God had for Judas Iscariot and the humiliation of Jesus. But Judas was not a true disciple. As we'll see later, things he did not do, he could not do, Outwardly, he may have looked like a disciple, but as time goes on in the ministry of Jesus, more and more it becomes evident, no, he is not a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Still today, Jesus calls unto himself his own disciples. He is pleased to call them by the preaching of the gospel and by the Holy Spirit, call them to repent to believe in him as the only hope and salvation there is from the wrath of God unto life everlasting on the foundation of his everlasting righteousness. And those disciples, being called by Christ, embrace his truth, they absorb that truth, and with the anointing of the Holy Spirit as a Christian, they confess his name, they confess that truth. That outward call that Christ makes known in the preaching of the gospel, he makes effective through the Holy Spirit in us or within us. He opens that closed heart. Like in the miracle which we read, he opens the blind eyes, opens the deaf ears to make us see and to hear and to receive by faith that word and teaching of our master, Jesus Christ. He makes that word, by his irresistible grace, a reality in our willing hearts, which he makes willing, and our understanding minds, which by the Spirit he makes understanding in the true faith. When the Lord works that in us, or in our covenant children, we see evidence of that, we rejoice in the goodness of the Lord unto us, so unworthy and undeserving. Now more specifically, what is that life and activity of true discipleship to which Christ calls you and me? Jesus teaches us in the text there are three interrelated parts to that discipleship. Number one, first of all, true discipleship begins with self-denial, verse 34, denying oneself. No, that's not what the world will declare to you. That's not what the devil declares to us and with which he tempts us. The world and the devil champion self-ambition. Live for yourself. Do what you want to do. Do what you think is good. Build your own value and worth on your works. on your job success or your success as a student in school or on your success in your family life. Self-denial in the world, that's a sign of weakness. Don't do that. Or someone will, some do champion self-denial, but only to serve a greater carnal purpose of attention and praise of men. That's not what Christ calls us to do as his disciples, deny we must ourselves. Nor does Jesus teach self-denial as merely denying ourselves certain things in this life, so that we might think, well, to be a disciple of Christ, I will deny myself certain luxuries in life. have a little bit of discomfort, and that's the extent of discipleship. Self-denial doesn't mean necessarily deprivation of the good gifts which God has given us in this life. That in itself is not discipleship. Jesus teaches the first part of discipleship is to deny yourself. Deny your name. in comparison and in connection with Christ. Deny your reputation, be willing to sacrifice your earthly honor before men. Be willing to sacrifice the things of this life, perhaps, or convenience, or the good gifts of this life for the sake of Christ. Self-denial is putting aside of me, self, For the sake of the Lord. Self-denial is following the motto of John the Baptist, where he told his disciples who were jealous that the people were following Jesus now, John said to them from prison, I must decrease and Christ, he must increase. Yes, we want Faithful disciples of Christ, the attention focused on our master, not us. We put Christ first, we put the scriptures first, we put the Reformed faith first, we put the cause of the covenant and the kingdom first before me, before self. That implies that one has embraced by faith, the word of Jesus Christ. Christ teaches in his word the worth of self apart from him. The worth of self apart from Christ is zero, nothing, and worthy to be cursed by God. Embracing that word, the true disciple of Christ says, yes, I deny myself, which is nothing apart from Christ. And by that same faith, I yield myself to the Lord's good pleasure, to the Lord's way for me in life, and I submit and obey his word. True discipleship submits to the will of the Father, the will of Christ for the pathway of all of the circumstances God gives us in life. And in that self-denial, we seek that not our name be glorified, but God be glorified by the activities and the work we do for the cause of His kingdom and covenant. Self-denial, saying no to what I want, no perhaps to what you want, so that the cause of Christ represented in the home, in the marriage, in the church may be advanced. And then number two, take up your cross, Jesus said. What is that cross that we must carry in life. That cross is not exactly what we might commonly think. It's not exactly all of the sufferings in life that are common and in general what mankind receives. The cross is not the cancer or the various diseases we receive in life. The cross here in the text is very specific. The cross that Jesus speaks of is related to the rebuke that Jesus gave to Peter because of his misunderstanding of his relationship to what Jesus had just revealed. Peter, I am going to die and rise again. And I'm going to die and be crucified for my kingdom. This is how this king establishes his kingdom, by his death. And that cross of Jesus Christ, though Peter did not understand that at the time, that's the cross that determines and is the fundamental cause of the cross that we must bear in this world. That cross of Jesus Christ establishes that you and I are strangers in this world. so that just as Jesus was hated by the world, by Herod and the Old Testament church at that time, which was apostate, surely those same enemies of Christ will also hate you. They will persecute you. You will suffer for them, for my sake, by their hand. The cross that we must take up then is the cross of suffering, specifically as the text teaches, for the sake of Christ and the gospel. Now that cross, as we take it up, is not going to atone for our sin. Taking up that cross doesn't mean we're going to merit something and get the attention of God and for that God will bless us, no. Nor may we, as some in the early New Testament church wrongly thought, well, we will take up that cross so others in the church may see us and then praise us for how much we want to be a martyr for the sake of Christ. It's not the purpose of that cross at all. Our cross is one of reproach for belonging to Christ in body and soul, and so belonging to his death. by which we are made citizens of his kingdom, have the right to that citizenship. Through the death of Christ, we are dead to the world. We are now on the side of Christ, being engrafted into Christ by his spirit, we belong to his cause, his kingdom. And by his spirit, we become light in the darkness, strangers in the world, and enemies to the world. That's the discipleship to which Christ calls us by his spirit, calls us into a relationship of enmity to the kingdom of darkness manifest in the world. The true disciple of Jesus Christ, having denied himself, must then acknowledge that relationship to the world and take up that cross which associates him to the death of Christ, one whom the world rejected and despised, and say, yes, I am with him. I belong to him. I belong to his cause. I'm willing to be mocked for the sake of his gospel. I'm willing to be mocked for following his word. I'm willing to be mocked and persecuted for following his commandments and for things as specifically as being willing to be, I'm willing to be mocked for following the word of Christ and having devotions before our meals. That happens, being laughed at in the world because a family will pray and read the Bible before eating. Yes, we're willing to do that, willing to consecrate Sunday, not to lawn mowing and entertainment and shopping and golf and whatever else, but we're willing to suffer reproach because we use this day for worship in God's house with our church family, and then having fellowship together as families out of that fellowship in the house of God on the Lord's day. We're willing to be mocked and reproached for a clear, distinct, and humble confession of the truth of God's word according to the Reformed faith. We're willing to suffer injustice as Jesus did for faithfulness to him. Take up that cross, beloved. Then Jesus says, follow me. We cannot take up that cross and say, well, I won't deny myself and then I won't take up the cross, but I can still be a disciple of Christ and follow him. Oh no, we cannot follow him unless we've said no to self and embraced that cross of reproach. One who has received the grace of God to say no to self and to be associated with that cross of Christ, which is a shame to the world and to the unbelieving, will follow him. And that following him doesn't mean that we take the lead. We don't become impatient like Jacob, who tried to run ahead of the Lord and manipulate things so that he'd help the Lord fulfill the promise. No. Nor will we be impetuous like Peter, We'll tell the Lord what he should be doing in our lives. Follow him. Follow the hand of the Lord that governs all of the circumstances of our life. That hand of the Lord determines our parents, determines our children, determines the troubles and the challenges and even the unbelief that we must face in life. Following him means by faith we submit to that way of the Lord and the circumstances which he has determined and fulfills in our life. And in that pathway, we follow him and his word in submission and obedience. Suffering reproach, hatred, enmity, loneliness, Breaking of relationships and even family relationships for the sake of the truth as we live out of faith in Christ and love to God and to the neighbor as ourselves. That's the devotion of true discipleship to Jesus Christ. So that we clearly understand the reality and the extent of that discipleship, Jesus includes verses 35 through 37 to make abundantly clear that great cost of discipleship. The Lord makes that clear by way of a contrast between our earthly life and our soul. Jesus teaches one may experience persecution for the sake of Christ and the gospel. According to his outward confession, he says he's a Christian, and thus he becomes a target of the devil, he becomes a target of the world. You're a Christian, here comes the temptation, here comes the laughter, here comes the mockery. Now in the face of that persecution, what will that man do? Verse 35, Jesus teaches, whosoever shall save his life, he shall lose it. Before that persecution, one may try to escape that reproach, escape that persecution. And though he might be relieved from that persecution, maybe he isn't burned at the stake, maybe he isn't put in prison, maybe he doesn't suffer the loss of his job, What about his soul? Jesus says, yet he shall lose his soul to everlasting death. But then in 35, he says, in contrast, whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. This disciple isn't just a disciple in name, but in reality, he's willing to lay down his life and thankfulness to the Lord as a privilege for the sake of Christ and the gospel. And though he has lost his earthly life and from an outward point of view appears to be absolutely foolish, yet Jesus says that one shall save his soul, shall save his life. He will know that his life is safe in the hand of God. And by this, the Lord teaches it would be very foolish to seek to preserve our life here at the expense of our soul or the souls of our generations after us. Jesus says in verse 36, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but lose his soul? What advantage is it to a man facing persecution and thinking, well, I can escape that persecution. I'll just deny the Lord and I'll be okay. He gains the world, or the man has all the riches in the world. What can that do for his soul before God? The redemption of our soul, as you read in the book of Job, is precious. No man can afford that, even the richest man in the world. and that that is exactly the temptation of the devil in persecution. The devil says, why are you serving the Lord? He's making you suffer like this. That's not love. Deny the Lord, and you will achieve great gain for yourself in this life and for your soul. Don't deny yourself. Don't take up that cross of reproach. Follow your own heart. Follow your own soul, and all shall be well with your soul. Jesus teaches if a man follows that lie of the devil, of Satan, what shall it profit him? The answer is rhetorical, it's nothing, zero. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Nothing, the soul is too precious. So the Lord teaches there is a grievous, humanly irreversible harm that one will do to his soul by refusing the rigors of self-denial, cross-bearing, and following Jesus always. For the cost of true discipleship is total. True discipleship isn't part-time. Well, I can be a disciple on Sunday, But there are other days of the week, well, I can just forget about the Lord and do my own thing, or do what my peers tell me to do, and I'll just go along with the crowd. Cost of discipleship is total, total. It involves your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, everything. The true disciple of Jesus Christ must be willing to suffer quietly, physically, mentally, spiritually, even be willing to give up his life, yes, even for the Reformed faith, and to sacrifice his time, his money, his possessions, everything. To refuse to do that, Jesus teaches in verse 38, would be to follow the world that is an adulterous and sinful generation. What he means there is that world, which we live today, has the same description as a world that's married to false gods, in a wickedness where the world is deliberately always missing the mark of the glory of God. They hate God. They want another God of their own imagination. Jesus teaches the true disciple says no to that world, no to that wickedness, takes up that cross of reproach, follows me in everything. Who is able to afford that discipleship? Any of you? You who made confession of faith tonight, can you afford this? Beloved, no man is, no woman, no child. In the days of Jesus, the unbelieving Jews could not afford that. They wanted Jesus for earthly bread. Judas Iscariot, he just wanted Jesus because he was a thief. He wanted money, and he got his money, his 30 pieces of silver. Eleven disciples also followed Jesus, made a clear confession of faith earlier in the chapter, but they're so weak. Later in the book of Mark, and according to Matthew and Luke, in the garden of Gethsemane, what do they do? In their own strength, Peter denied the Lord three times. A little earlier in the evening, when Jesus was taken and surrendered to the captors, Judas Iscariot and the band, when they saw that, they were offended at Jesus, offended at this king come to establish his kingdom in that exact way of being rejected by men. And so they forsook him. They didn't follow him. In fact, the Bible says they fled away from him. They couldn't get away from Jesus fast enough. Will ye also follow Jesus? Luke adds the word daily. Deny yourself every day for the sake of God's covenant and kingdom as a mother in the home, a father, husband and wife in this wicked world, as a covenant family, all the temptations around us to run with the world, Willing to take up that cross of suffering for Christ? Suffer for something in the three forms of unity or scripture, really? Lose a job for that? Suffer the breakup of a good relationship because the person is walking in sin? Suffer for maintaining church membership For the sake of the truth, through thick and thin, willing to do that? Keeping the Sabbath day holy over against whatever else the neighbors might be doing? Refusing labor union membership, really? Don't want to join the association? You're not going to do that and jeopardize that good paying job? Suffer for the sake of Christ and faithfulness to the fifth commandment? Suffer for maintaining a Christian school for our covenant seat in the midst of this wicked world? We could give many more specific examples where following the truth and the distinctives of the Reformed faith, standing opposed to certain sins, And then in our family life or our life with acquaintances saying, no, I cannot make it look like I approve of those sins in which you are living, willing to suffer what's going to happen. They're going to give you a bad name, cast you off. Willing to do that, to that extent for Christ, and maybe someday soon lay down your life for the sake of faithfulness to the scriptures. Beloved, we're not willing to follow Christ to that extent. Before the stake, if it would come to that, to be burned there, we would fight and we would be prone to try to preserve our earthly life to the damage of our souls and the souls of the generations after us. We're prone to be ashamed of the word of God. Prone to be ashamed to be not in the majority, but into the small minority and think, well, maybe we're doing something wrong. Maybe the Bible isn't so infallible after all. And when it costs me, the me of self, too much time, too much effort, too much money, too much suffering, too much energy, too much thought, or prone to quit and be offended by Christ. Because the main problem with discipleship is not those people over there or those people over there, it's right here, it's me. Because this me is that adulterous and sinful generation by nature. I want to be devoted to another God with a different will. A different standard of righteousness. And I want to be that God, too. We're no different than the disciples who couldn't get away from Jesus fast enough in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were so embarrassed to be associated with him. No different than Peter who called out, but that young girl, weren't you with Jesus? And he was embarrassed. Yes. That's humbling, isn't it, beloved? And that's where the word of God brings us, to realize, apart from Christ, we could never be his disciple, never. Must look to him, our chief prophet and teacher, and believe and be thankful that he calls us to be his disciples. He, by his Spirit, anoints us to be his disciples. He washed us in his blood, earned us, for us, the right to be his disciple. By his Holy Spirit, makes us his disciple, puts in us his image of righteousness, holiness, and truth. by the Holy Spirit works his word in you and me so that we embrace his truth. And embracing his word as his faithful disciple more and more through life, we learn under the instruction of our master to deny ourselves, to embrace him and his will, and then without shame, without hesitation, to take up that cross of reproach, not in obnoxious pride, but in humility, to take up that cross of suffering to suffer for his sake, to suffer for the truth, to suffer for the Reformed faith, and bear the reproach in the narrow way that he has set for us, and to do that in thankfulness. Look to him, beloved. You who have made confession of faith, look to your chief prophet and teacher, which is Christ, your Lord. And be encouraged, though the way is hard. It is also blessed. And the Lord leaves us in his word with an encouragement. He reminds us at the end of the text, he is coming again very quickly, teaching us that our cross-bearing in this very narrow and difficult way, it's not forever, the rigors of cross-bearing and following Christ in this life are only temporary, because Jesus is coming again quickly. for the fulfillment of the kingdom which he established in his death and resurrection, and into which he has brought us by his spirit for the sake of his blood into that kingdom. He isn't coming, as Peter thought, and needed to be rebuked. He's not coming as the pre-millennials teach at any moment to rule on this earth for a thousand years. He's not coming after a thousand year reign and some are way in the future and so now we don't really need to worry about that coming and there's so much time between now and then. Jesus is coming as he said, as the prophet declared, I am coming. now in the signs of my coming and in preparation through those signs for that final appearing which is coming quickly. He's coming to establish his heavenly kingdom in that glory revealed in the Shekinah cloud in which he shall appear as God with us, the tabernacle of God with God's men, his people, the disciples of Jesus. But then he shall judge, Jesus said, all men, and he will do that according to our works. What will he say concerning you? In answer to that question, the expectation of the true disciple of Christ is truly encouraging, beloved. Not be so for those who have been like in the parable of the sower, that seed which was sown in the ground and then it sprang up immediately, but then when the sun came, it was scorched and died. There will be those who will be ashamed of the gospel of Christ and offended at Christ. They want anything to do with him. He's an offense to them. Jesus says in the judgment, Jesus will be ashamed of them. According to their shame of him, so Christ will be ashamed of them in the judgment. And he will not confess their names before the Father in the judgment. According to their confession or their shame, Christ will remain silent concerning them. And the sovereign reason is because their names are not in his book. Nevertheless, their judgment shall be righteous according to their unwillingness to deny themselves, to take up that cross and follow him. So Christ will not mention their names to their condemnation. But for the righteous, Jesus' return is a blessed encouragement. We expect in his judgment that our Lord and our Savior shall judge us. With uplifted head, we expect him who died for us and arose again to be our judge. The one who has shed his blood for us, who has redeemed us from the curse, whose righteousness has been imputed to us by faith alone, who has given us his spirit and lives in us so that we are engrafted into him and possess all the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. That Christ will judge us. in his righteousness, for the glory of the Father, for our final redemption, and will judge us according to our confession of faith and the good works out of that faith. And do that on the basis of his death and because of the book, his book of life. And on that sure foundation of his word, you may expect, beloved, the Lord in the judgment will not be ashamed of you who are weak and sinful. We believe by faith God is our God for Jesus' sake. We confess his name before his saints and before his throne and before his angels. Out of that faith, we learn to deny ourselves and take up that reproach willingly and follow him wherever he leads in life. Accordingly, then, we may expect Christ will confess your name before the Father. He will not be ashamed of you. Rejoice to confess your name written on his heart, borne by his shoulders before the Father in the judgment. What a blessed expectation that is. What an encouragement that is for you as a young brother who begin, as it were, that journey of confession of faith and a growth in that faith all the days of your life. Beloved brothers and sisters, that is our expectation. Yes, now there is that reproach. There is that persecution. And as the scriptures teach, that will become worse as the Lord comes quickly. Become worse for us and the generations after us. That's very sobering. We are encouraged, beloved, to look to the Lord for his strength, to be faithful, trust in him. Look up in your suffering to him. He will grant you the grace to be faithful day by day. And in that sure word, that sure teacher, Jesus Christ, believe that the day comes quickly when Christ shall take that cross and remove it from you and shall set upon your head that crown of righteousness and peace and glory and will lead you and we will follow him into that everlasting joy. Amen, let us pray. Most merciful God and heavenly Father, thou by the Holy Spirit do that which is humanly impossible, continue to work in us and to make us true and faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're willing to deny ourselves daily, always, to take up that cross of reproach and suffering in the midst of the wicked world and before unbelievers. And be faithful to thy word in whatever pathway of circumstance in life thou art pleased to lead us. Grant us, Lord, grace sufficient to be faithful to thee. For the praise of thy name who has called us out of darkness into thy marvelous light. Keep us faithful in our generations, even unto the end, and the final appearing of Christ, who shall appear with the holy angels in that cloud of glory to usher us into thy presence forevermore. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.