In the sermon 'Take Up Your Cross' by Scott Brown, the speaker explores the profound spiritual implications of embracing or rejecting Jesus Christ's cross. The sermon is rooted in Mark 8:35-38, emphasizing the everlasting value of the soul and the consequences of prioritizing worldly gains over spiritual well-being. Brown reflects on the necessity of denying oneself and taking up the cross, highlighting the eternal consequences of such choices. He uses examples like Esau and Judas to illustrate the folly of exchanging one's soul for temporary pleasures or material wealth. Brown also stresses the importance of understanding God's commands not as arbitrary rules but as guidelines with profound implications for the soul's destiny. The sermon encourages believers to prioritize the care of their souls by aligning with divine will, loving God's word, and recognizing the soul's eternal nature. It concludes with the reminder that at the cross, there is hope, healing, and the ultimate expression of God's love and kindness.

It's a delight to continue handling the word of God to try to bring it to bear on all of us, on me and on our congregation. Congregation and what you find if you're preaching week to week that you have a very wonderful difficult relationship with God as you try to bring yourself under submission to the text. And it's a great blessing and it does have its weight to it. And So I pray that you'll receive the weight that I've tried to bear for myself As well during this time I'd like to read mark chapter 8 Beginning in verse 35 picking up from the last message on this text in Mark eight. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, But whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?

Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me in my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Let's pray. Oh Father, that none of us would be ashamed of you and find ourselves being ashamed of in your glory, but that you would find our hearts having been justified and then sanctified and then purified by the washing of water, by the word, loving your word, not being ashamed of it, having it reshape our lives, having it steal from us the worst of our autonomy. Amen.

So we're speaking about the consequences of rejecting the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The consequences of refusing to deny yourself. And this makes me think of the value of the soul and the everlasting nature of the soul. I recall many of us were at a funeral a while ago and at that funeral There seemed to me to be a multitude of children there. This was the funeral of Jenny Krause.

And at that funeral, it struck me how important it was to speak to the children about the soul. We were laying Jenny's body in the ground, but what about her soul? Where is she? Is she in that grave? And I found it necessary in doing funerals to speak directly to the children so that they understand who they really are and that they recognize that they have been given an eternal soul.

They need to know that. They need to know about what happens to you when you go moldering in the grave, is that you? And of course it is not you. The soul flies away from the body at death. The soul doesn't go into the grave, the body goes into the grave, but the everlasting part of you doesn't go in the grave.

Every person is born with an everlasting soul and children need to know that. And this passage speaks of the soul very specifically, especially what are the long-term implications to your soul for denying, for refusing to deny yourself, for refusing to take up your cross, for loving your autonomy so much that you would give it in exchange for your soul. Another question that arises in my mind about this this text which speaks about the soul is in the form of a question how am I taking care of my soul or I'll flip it how are you taking care of your soul as a question? Do you even believe you have a soul? Do you even believe that you have a soul that lives forever?

Or do you think it's all over when you get buried in the ground? You will get buried in the ground or you'll get burned up or you'll get you'll drown in some body of water, or you'll be blown up somehow. Your body will not survive. But everybody's body is bound to be destroyed in one way or another. But what about the soul?

And if you did have a soul, if you did believe with all your heart that you have a soul, do you believe with all your heart that you have a soul? But if you did believe that, then how would you treat your soul? We live in a world where people seem to be obsessed with the treatment of their body. Well, I believe that Christians should be, should care for their bodies, for sure. But you find a world full of people who care quite a bit about their bodies and what they put in their bodies and how they treat their bodies, how they condition their bodies, how they care for their bodies but they care nothing about their souls or they seemed actually blind to the fact that they do have a soul and in the neglect of the soul they are they are caring for it but rather they are exchanging it.

The matters of the soul are very, very important. In this passage, we see the everlasting preciousness of the soul of man. There is the life in the soul. And there is either the life of God in the soul of man, or there are the works of the devil in the flesh in the soul of man, ruling and reigning. The other thing about this passage is that it speaks very frankly about the destiny of the soul and actually the status of a soul because while While you're alive, your soul can be lost or saved.

And in this room, We have people whose souls are lost and we have souls of people who are which are saved Right here in this room and the most precious Relations that exist upon the decision to deny yourself or not, to follow Jesus or not. So I think it also helps us to know whether our souls are lost or whether they are saved. Now in these verses I want you to notice a three-letter word. You have your Bibles in front of you? There's a three-letter word, it's the word four.

And it appears three times, first in verse 35 and next in verse 36 and then next in verse 38 the word for and this means that Jesus not only issues Jesus not only issues commands for the treatment of your soul But but he also Gives you Promises or You might call them incentives You might call them explanations of the command. So the command, deny yourself, and then the implications of which way you go. That's what's here in this passage of scripture. It's a very critical section in the Gospel of Mark. It actually exists in the midst of a transition in the Gospel of Mark.

One commentator, one I read almost all of his sermons when I was a boy, a young man and in seminary, Ray Stedman. And he wrote a book at that time called The Ruler Who Serves and The Servant Who Rules. And he divides the Book of Mark into two sections. The first is the ruler who serves, and I'm sorry, the servant who rules. He rules the wind and the waves, but he's serving.

And then the opposite, the second half, He's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He's the ruler, he's the servant who rules. And so in Mark eight we come to kind of a transition in the Book of Mark. And it's a transition that marks the exaltation of Jesus Christ on the cross, his death, his crucifixion, and his resurrection. Now, this phrase about losing your life and gaining your own souls, very popular.

It's been popular for many years. I read one time that when archaeologists were excavating the tomb of Charlemagne, fourth century king. They broke into his burial vault and they saw a skeleton with his bony finger pointing to an open Bible on this verse, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. So this verse is not new to the world and it hasn't struck the heart of us fresh in the sense that it's new, it's old. But I pray that we'll have that same sense of importance of it, that Charlemagne thought, or at least those who buried his body thought.

So there are three specific reasons or arguments related to the command preceded by the word for in this passage of Scripture. For, verse 35, whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. My sake and the Gospels will save it. And then in verse 36, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. And then in verse 38, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, the Son of Man, will also be ashamed.

Those three things, those are the three consequences of refusing to deny your autonomy. You can see the seriousness of it. It's deadly serious, eternally deadly serious or eternally and everlastingly sweet in its consequence. So one of the things I want us to mention here is that God in this passage, and he does it in many places God doesn't just simply say get it together pick up your cross deny yourself. Just do it.

Just suck it up get it done I'll tell you later why God doesn't do that God is a very kind Father and He explains things and He explains the implications of things. He tells you the why behind the command. And here He tells us the consequences. And this is what parents are supposed to do. Parents should explain the consequences.

They should be very careful to explain everything about the world and how it works. And here our kind Father does that. He doesn't just bark out the command. He wants us to see his goodness. He wants us to see the beauty of his commands.

He wants us to see how life-giving and how helpful they are. He wants us to see the value of the soul and how he desires to bless your soul everlastingly. And so he follows up the command to deny yourself with this disclosure of the danger of not and the blessing of doing it. So the first issue here is the saving and losing of your life or of your soul. That's verses 35 and 36.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? So this is the weightiness. We exchange our souls for the smallest things.

There are many examples in the Bible. Esau exchanged his soul for food that he liked a lot. There was a man in the New Testament who traded his soul for leisure and for pleasure, security. He'd made a lot of money and he thought, now I'm just going to sit back. This is in Luke chapter 12 verse 9, 19.

And he said, I'm just going to build barns and I'm going to kick back for the rest of my life Sometimes when you have too much money, it's not good for your soul if you go in the wrong direction Now everybody doesn't go in the wrong direction when they have a lot of money But it's a great temptation and he but he's he he talks to his soul in the text. Jesus has him talking to his soul. And I'll just read it. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

Just enjoy it." And of course the Lord comes and says oh no no no no don't you know your soul will be required of you You never know when your soul will be required of you I never I never want to try to scare people by saying it might be today, but frankly it might be today. Now I think we should also recognize the gravity and the importance of this question about exchanging the soul. It's always important to know who's asking a question. And this is the question that's posed by Jesus. What will a man give in exchange for a soul?

That's Jesus is asking that question of all of us. We should all take that question in our hearts and personalize it and say, well, what will I give in exchange for my soul? But it's Jesus that's asking the question. Now, here's a principle of life, especially for you young people. The significance of a question should be considered upon the significance of the person asking the question.

If you have a fool asking the question it might be one thing but if you have Jesus Christ asking you this question, the Lord of Glory, the creator of the universe, then it might be giving greater weight and importance to the question. What will a man give in exchange for his soul? So the significance of the person asking the question determines the importance of the question. This is a very important question. And there are there are two ways of thinking about your soul.

Saving your sinful life for your sake or losing your life for the sake of true life. When the Lord is working on people typically and their souls are lost, Typically what happens in that person's mind is that the most prominent question in their minds is what do I have to lose? And that's the most haunting question. And what holds most people back is they think there's something that you lose in salvation. That if you follow God that you're going to lose something important.

You're gonna lose some pleasure. I was just talking to a father in another state just this week. And he was telling me that was a problem of someone in his life. This person thought that if they came to Christ they would lose something. That somehow if they came to Jesus Christ He would deprive them of pleasure.

That He is the cosmic killjoy. That He's going to take away everything your heart desires. Now he might, but when he does, he'll give you everything your heart needs and will bless you beyond measure. The natural man believes that he owns his own soul and determines its course. The natural man may not even think he has a soul and that he will just, everything will end with him in the grave.

So the carnal man does not want to consider the value of his soul and so he hates the idea of being crucified to the world and he even hates more of the world being crucified to him. And he hates the idea of giving up his autonomy but the consequences are tragic. The Christian man values the worth of his soul and He regards it as a gift of God. He believes that his soul is owned by God, given to him as a lamp, given to him as a treasure. And he believes that he is only a steward of his immortal soul.

The Christian believes that they have immortal souls. And the Christian believes that the best thing you can do for your soul is to entrust it to God and His commandments and for His care. The Christian wants to feed his soul with the finest of wheat. The Christian wants to drink the clearest water and the best pasture. And the Christian desires to entrust God with the care and feeding and the guidance of his soul.

You know, Judas gave his soul for 30 pieces of silver. He must have thought that money would make him happy. But when you exchange money for your soul, you find yourself with nothing at the end. You know, we have several men now who are called the richest men in the world. But you know, if they, if any one of them would get so sick that they couldn't hold their head up, they would give everything for their health.

They would give their entire fortune just to feel good again. But you can't do that. That doesn't work. You can be in a coma and the richest man in the world and your money will do you no good. And you can see, I mean that's I know it's a very extreme example of how foolish it is to exchange your soul for money like Judas did or like the man who built his barns did.

It's so foolish. But young people do this all the time. They think, oh wow, if I turn to Christ I am not going to get the pleasure that I want. And they they send themselves on a fool's errand and if they really do pursue their sin they'll find out how damaging it was and they'll end up with nothing at the end. In verse 38, we find the word for again.

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words. Now this is the other element, the other consequence of being ashamed of his words. Now he talks about his words and then he talks about this adulterous and sinful generation. That's what you have. You have the holy, pure word tried seven times in a fire and you have this adulterous generation.

Those two things are set off against one another. And The issue here is what you think about his words, whether you value his words, whether you cherish his words or not, or are you ashamed of his words? Are you afraid to say his words? You know, many people today are afraid to cite the law of God. And by the way, that's why we're in so much trouble today as a culture.

Let me just reduce it down to really practical terms. The reason that man was killed in Minneapolis is because the law of God was rejected for generations. Rather than to love the law of God, men become a law unto themselves. We call that antinomianism. No law.

Antinomianism. No law. John, the apostle, talks about that. He uses that terminology to talk about the unbeliever, that person doesn't love the law of God. They love their own law.

They are a law unto themselves. Most of us can trace every stupid thing we did to becoming a law unto ourselves. But it's very important that we understand that What you do with God's words and whether you're ashamed of them or not turns the switch on God's shame of you and me. Whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him I will be ashamed when I come in my glory." The Apostle Paul taught this to Timothy, that young pastor in the city of Ephesus. In 2nd Timothy 2.11 he says, this is a faithful saying, for if we died with him, we shall also live with him.

If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will him, he will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. So, what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

And what God tells us is that we ought to give everything in exchange for our souls. And that we ought to do it quickly and we ought to do it happily and we ought to do it publicly. By the way, we're gonna have a baptism in a few minutes this afternoon. And that's what's happening. They are happily, and these people are happily and publicly saying that there has been an exchange that's taken place.

That they see the value of the soul and its everlasting importance, and they want to follow Jesus. And so They are going to demonstrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they are going to proclaim that they have been raised up with Him to everlasting life. So, let's be feeding our souls with the food of angels. Let's be feeding our souls, our everlasting souls, with the finest of wheat. Let's eat the bread of life.

Let's drink the water of life. Let's walk through the door of life. And it's such a blessing to treat your soul well, to treat it sweetly, and not to abuse it, and not to defile it. Don't defile your soul. Because at the cross There is a medicine for every sickness.

And there is a balm for every wound. And there's a consolation for every sorrow in the cross. And there's cleansing for every sexual sin. And there is forgetfulness for your foolishness and there is forgiveness for every infraction of the law at the cross and there is substitution for every impure motive and every impure word you've ever spoken. And there's blessing for every curse, for he was cursed on the tree, so that you would not be cursed.

And there's the fruit of the vine for the sponge dripping with gall for you. And there is instruction in the midst of every trial and every reversal. And then there's the family of God where everybody has a brother and a sister and a father and mother and everybody has a grandmother and a grandfather. Everyone has a parent. Everyone has a savior.

That's the value of the cross. And so while you're paying close attention to what you feed your bodies, pay even more attention to what you feed your souls. It's absolutely the most precious thing, and it's the only everlasting thing we have. What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord Lord you have Been so kind and not just to tell us what to do, but to show us the beauty of it and the value of it, the preciousness of it, and all of the happiness of it, Lord. And so we thank you for being such a good shepherd, such a kind father, such a comforting spirit, amen. Let's just pause for a minute. I want to give a few moments just for reflection and then I want to open it up for any questions that anybody might have or comments. So let's just be reflective and consider the things that you've heard today about taking up the cross and following and the everlasting value of your soul.

Consider it now. Amen. Amen.