In the sermon titled 'The Grain of Wheat Dies' by Scott Brown, the focus is on the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as a humble king riding on a donkey, a symbol of peace and humility rather than the expected military might. This imagery contrasts with worldly expectations of power and success, emphasizing the unique nature of Jesus' kingdom. The sermon explores the theme of dying to oneself, as illustrated by Jesus' statement that a grain of wheat must die to produce much fruit. This metaphor is applied both to Jesus' sacrificial death and to the call for Christians to die to their own desires and worldly attachments to gain eternal life. The speaker highlights the difference between mere fans of Jesus and true followers who seek to glorify Him. The narrative also touches on examples from scripture and historical figures like George Mueller, who exemplified dying to self and living for Christ. The sermon encourages believers to adopt a mindset that prioritizes Christ's teachings over personal preferences and worldly influences.

Please find verse 12 in John 12. The next day, a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they'd heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him and cried out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Then Jesus, when he had found a young donkey, sat on it as it is written, Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done these things to him. Therefore the people who were with him when he called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness.

For this reason the people also met him because they heard that he had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, You see that you're accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn, Andrew and Philip told Jesus. But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him my Father will honor." O Lord, we pray that you would take these precious words and teach us your ways. Help us to understand the ways of your kingdom, the ways of our own hearts. Lord, we pray that you would do all these things for us now, amen. The world that we live in tells us to find ourselves, tells us to express ourselves, tells us to be what we want to be.

You can be whatever you want to be. How often have you heard that? It's a season, as all seasons are in the world and have ever been in the world and will always be in the world. Seasons of self-expression, seasons of self-fulfillment, self-definition. Don't let anybody tell you what to do or what to be.

Now, this section in John tells you exactly the opposite. Here's an illustration. George Mueller. Someone said to George Mueller, what has been the secret of your life? And Mueller hung his head and he said, there was a day when I died.

And then he bent over lower and he said, died to George Mueller, died to his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will, died to the world, its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame even of brethren and of friends, died. The Christian is a person who's died to himself, to his own opinions, to his preferences. He's died to his tastes, his will, dead to the world, dead to approval, dead to the world's messages, dead to the songs, dead to the voices of wickedness and the images of wickedness that fly around this world, dead, dead to the world. Now, as we look at the flow of this passage, there are just two things. You have an outline in front of you.

It's very simple. It's a two-point outline. Aren't you glad for that? But these two sections speak to this worldview, this very same worldview that I just spoke of. And the first is that Jesus is a king and he rides on a donkey, but worse than that, he rides on the cult of a donkey.

Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. It's so interesting to me that the prophecy says, fear not, daughter of Zion, your king comes on a donkey. You would rather have heard, fear not, daughter of Zion, your king comes with thousands of bombers. He comes on a donkey, not really just a donkey, but on the foal of a donkey. A donkey littler than a donkey.

His kingdom is not a kingdom of pomp, but it's humility and grace. Jesus is the ruler who serves, and He's the servant who rules. So that's the first part. He's a king, but He's not the kind of king that you would expect. Secondly, He's the King who dies.

Jesus gives life to sinners through His death and through His resurrection. And those who follow Jesus follow the same path. To live is to die to yourself and to live to Christ. So that's the essence of this. There's a part of me that just wants to Sit down now.

Now remember where we are in the Gospel of John. You know, the first 11 chapters cover three years of his life. The last 10 chapters cover the last week of Jesus' life. So that's where we are now. On Saturday was the dinner at Simon the leper's house, and now It's Sunday.

Well, we call it Palm Sunday. It's the triumphal entry where the palms were laid out on the road. And so the whole the storyline as we pick it up here, It really began in the previous chapter where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and then he leaves, and then he comes back to have dinner in chapter 12 in the home of Simon the leper. And you have Lazarus, this man formerly known as Dead, and you have this leper formerly known as Leper is there having dinner together. Amazing, amazing scene that must have been.

And Mary is overcome with gratitude and she pours out this expensive oil on Jesus' feet. She loves him. And then in this scene here, Jesus is making this two-mile journey to Jerusalem, and on the way he curses a fig tree. He's walking between thousands of adoring, and I'm just going to call them fans. I'm going to call them fans.

Now among fans, you also might have true followers. That would be my assumption that there are both fans and followers. Those are two different kinds of things. They both do the same thing. They both say the same thing.

They look the same, but they're not the same. One is a fan looking for something for himself. The other is a follower looking for glory for Jesus. Two different kinds of people in this crowd, and you find this. And Jesus is sending a very clear message to those who are saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Before he enters the city, while the people are waving palm branches, Jesus is weeping before the city and he's cursing a fig tree on the way to the city. So Jesus isn't functioning the same way as they are. This is the same crowd that in just a few days is going to say, crucify him, give us Barabbas. So there are fans and there are followers, and We can't know who is who. So let's look at this first section, the king who rides on a donkey, verses 12 through 9.

Jesus is proclaiming himself as king, but he's not the kind of king that you're looking for. The next day, a great multitude had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So this is normal. Probably Jesus went to the Passover every year of his life and now he's doing it again. He went with his parents and So this is Palm Sunday now the historian Josephus tells us that there they were 2.7 million people in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.

Now we don't know if that's true, sometimes Josephus seemed to exaggerate some of his numbers. But Jerusalem is a really small city, It's only a couple hundred acres. And there are, maybe there's a million, maybe there's two million people here. And, you know, He reports that 256, 500 lambs were slain on that day. Tremendous activity, and this multitude is coming to meet Jesus.

Look at verse 13, and they took palm branches and went out to meet him and cried out, "'Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.'" Now, John is the only gospel writer who mentions the palm branches, but all the gospel writers report on this scene. It's a very important scene. Matthew tells us that the people were laying their coats, their cloaks on the road for Jesus to walk on. But it's really important to grasp the symbolism of the palm branches. The palm branches were a symbol of Jewish nationalism.

They were identified with a conquering military kind of messiah king. The palm, waving the palm branches was like waving your national flag. It was just Flag Day a few days ago. It was like waving your flag for national ascendancy, national pride. That's what the palm branches were all about.

The symbolism of the palm branches goes back to the Maccabean period when Judas Maccabeus kicked out the invaders and expunged them from the temple and they got their country back. But that's a longer story. But this was more like the enthusiasm of a political rally. You've seen those. Seen those.

But palm branches had their symbolism in more of a political, military kind of victory. Now, they were quoting Scripture. They were fulfilling scripture. This is the amazing thing. They were quoting Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26, which says, Save now, I pray, O Lord.

O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. What beautiful words they were saying and They were quoting Zechariah 9 9 through 10 rejoice greatly Oh daughter of Zion shout Oh daughter of Jerusalem Behold your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation lowly and riding on a donkey, a foal, the foal of a donkey. Not exactly the most graphic symbolism for power and political authority at all.

Well, Jesus later on, after Peter cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest, he says, my kingdom is not of this world. If so, my servants would fight or not fighting that way. But the crowd had interpreted, Jesus raising of Lazarus and probably all the other things he did as a, a, a sign of the military victory they would receive over Rome. Now remember verse 18 tells us they were there because they heard about what happened with Lazarus getting raised from the dead. Verse 18 says why they were doing this.

They were pretty excited, wouldn't you? He's the kind of king you want in a time of war. How about a king that brings your dead soldiers back to life on the battlefield? How about a king when your soldiers are hungry, he can make food out of nothing. How about that kind of king?

How about the kind of king that can take every sick person in the army and make them well, even the lepers and the lame walk. How about that kind of King? Would you like that kind of King? I think they were celebrating that kind of King and he can change the weather. How many military engagements have been changed because of changes in the weather?

You know, everybody knows how important the weather is in a battle. Well, So they're waving their palm branches and laying down their coats. I don't expect that Jesus was waving his hands and giving the thumbs up sign. He was weeping before Jerusalem. He was cursing a fig tree because it wasn't fruitful, because of the fake religion that had caught hold.

And he's riding on a donkey and he's fulfilling prophecy. And Jesus is making one of the most blatant, explicit contradictions to their desire for earthly success by riding in on the full of a donkey. The gentleness of a donkey. The humility of the full of a donkey. Remember, you have the donkey and you have the full of the donkey.

There probably were two of them, two donkeys on that road. He's not like earthly kings. He's a gentle shepherd. He says, I am gentle and humble in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. Jonathan Edwards comments on this.

He says his condescension is great enough to become their friend, to become their companion, to unite their souls to him in spiritual marriage. And then Edwards goes on and he speaks of how Jesus subjected himself to shame, to slapping, to spitting, and finally a spear in his side. So this is not the earthly king. God is not establishing a kingdom like you think. And Jesus conquers in a different way than earthly kings.

Jesus is conquering different things. He's conquering men's hearts. He's setting up a kingdom in the inside of human hearts. That's what Jesus does. You know, we've read, you know, Jesus said that he came to save and seek the lost.

He did not come to judge the world. Well, his incarnation was to come and save, and that's exactly what he's doing here. Now, When he comes in the final judgment, recorded at the very end of the book of Revelation, he comes, he comes on. He comes on a horse. He comes differently There.

He comes on a stallion. But now he's bringing salvation to his people. And it's interesting, you know, Jesus came here not for a coronation. He came for a crucifixion. Now verse 16 says, his disciples didn't understand.

His disciples did not understand these things at first. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done these things to him. And then the Pharisees make a comment about this because they see the attraction of Jesus and they say among themselves they're saying basically whatever you're doing isn't working because the whole world has gone after him. So they're very worried. They're worried about the king who came in not on a donkey but on the foal of a donkey, and they're scared to death.

He rides in in humility. Rides in in humility. So here we have the king who rides on a donkey. The next section. Well let's just stop for a minute.

Praise God that we have a king who draws near to us praise God That we have a Savior Who enters into our humble circumstances? Praise God for a king like that. Praise God for a king who works from the inside out. Praise God for a king who doesn't manipulate us like the world, but he cares for us. He doesn't push us around, he carries us and he moves our hearts.

Praise God for a king like that. You know, how many times has he done that to you? You know, I'll just tell you, I came in this morning, not right, and the Lord Jesus, through the prayers at the beginning of this service, brought me where I needed to be. He brought me there. The men who prayed carried me there this morning by the Spirit of God.

I was so thankful for that. Praise God for a king like that. Well, now we engage the king who dies, verses 20 to 26. Now here, we learn that the path of life for sinners is more surprising and more wonderful than you could ever imagine. He's showing the way of eternal life, and the way of eternal life is the way of death.

Now, all of this happens because there are some Greeks who want to see Jesus. Or at least this gets recorded. Verse 20, now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Now the word used here indicates that they were Greek speaking Gentiles. This is a different word than the Hellenistic Jews of Acts six, who were Jews.

These, however, were God-fearing Gentiles. These were the people who worshiped in the court of the Gentiles. The Jews invented something to deal with the Gentiles who came from the outer regions and there were there are many examples of this in the book of Acts. Cornelius was one of these gentiles. He was a God-fearing gentile.

The centurion in Luke chapter 7, who built a synagogue, he was another one of those God-fearing gentiles. The Ethiopian eunuch was a God-fearing gentile. So there was a place for the court of the Gentiles in the temple where the Gentiles could be gathered These were those kind of people they weren't the they weren't the Hellenistic Greeks in Acts chapter 6 different kind of group and And it says here that they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida. Now Philip had the only distinctively Greek name. He was one of them, and he was kind of from their area, Probably.

So they went to him. I don't know what to say about that except for that's just the reality. And I think, you know, this also just indicates, you know, God is drawing the Gentiles. You have this diverse church from every tongue and tribe and nation. The church is not an affinity group.

The church is a group united by the blood of Jesus Christ and Christ alone. And that's what unites them. It's not our ethnicity. It's not our different perspectives. It's not our debatable matters.

It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And so Jesus answers Andrew and Philip, but what's strange about this narrative is It doesn't appear that Jesus even speaks to these Greeks. We're not sure. Maybe they were close by, maybe not, but there's really no indication that Jesus said, oh come on, bring them on, let's have a, let's sit down and talk. I don't, You don't see that, but we do see what Jesus says.

And he explains, I think he's explaining what it means to see Jesus. He's explaining the exclusive demands of the gospel. Demands of the gospel. And these demands are all around dying first, losing your life, First, losing your life, hating your life, and following. Those things.

And he explains how one enters into eternal life by dying and losing and hating and following. Again it's not exactly like the culture that we live in that says go be what you want to be, express yourself. No it's different it's not like that if you wanted the end of the kingdom of heaven it's it's not becoming a better you. It's dying to yourself. So these, I'm going to work through these these four things.

Now, the first illustration is, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies. Now, These words here should be first of all understood Christologically in the sense that Jesus Christ, Jesus who is the Christ, is the grain of wheat who falls to the ground. He dies for sinners. He loses his life and he follows the directives of his Father. So we should first understand this Christologically, that Jesus Christ is the grain of wheat that falls to the ground.

And secondly, we should understand it soteriologically or anthropologically, we should understand it in terms of our own lives, particularly the second set here of losing your life and hating your life and following. Now those do apply, I believe, Christologically, they apply to Jesus, but they most clearly apply to us. But I also believe that the grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying is also, We are like him. We die with him and we are resurrected with him. So I do believe that even the grain of wheat relates to us.

It first of all relates to Jesus. So, but the theme of all of these is death leads to life. That's the theme. Death leads to life. Death to yourself leads to life.

Verse 24, dying. Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it produces much grain. Now the illustration here is of plants and seeds, and it's what every farmer knows. It's an illustration of the plan of salvation. You know, the Lord is so kind to us.

He gives us so many ways to understand the kingdom of heaven. You have trees and water and you have bread and all kinds of things to help us understand the kingdom of heaven. Now you have a grain of wheat so they're not he Here's what salvation is all about. It's like a grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies and Jesus of course is telling them that he must die He dies as a substitute for sinners, and in his dying he bears much fruit in sinners. That's the whole idea, because seeds of wheat don't bear fruit until they die.

If you just, you know, take the seed and put it on the shelf, it remains alone and it doesn't do anything. So The meaning of this verse is that Jesus must die in order for you to live. You know, I called a friend on Friday and I read this passage to him and I said, what? Well first of all I was just telling him just how little I've died to myself and how grievous it was for me to consider these things. And so I told him that and I read this passage and he said to me, he said, the first thing that comes to my mind, because I said, let's talk about this, he said, The first thing that comes to my mind about this passage is the gravelly voice of an old preacher who I heard preach of this.

He said, this preacher was preaching on this text, and he said, I expect to swing out into eternity on that truth. I was glad he said that. And he, and then we just went on and talked about how this matter of dying to yourself means that you are with him, that you are loved by your father and you are with him. Now the message that Jesus is giving to these Greeks is, If you want to see me, then you must die. I must die and you must die and you must follow me.

You must hate your life. I think that's the message that Jesus is giving. And Jesus is glorifying himself through his death. In Philippians two, verse eight, there's a beautiful explanation of this, where we read, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death of the cross. Therefore God has also highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." So we find life by dying and by following Jesus.

That's why George Mueller hung his head and he said, there was a day when I died. George Mueller died to his opinions, his preferences, his tastes, and his will. He died to the world. And when a person does this, they bear fruit. Jesus dying bore fruit, and our dying bears fruit as well.

I Think I was reading some commentator and they were relating this to Psalm 92. We're talking about old people. Psalm 92 mentions old people, you know. I don't know how you define old people, but the Bible says that the righteous will flourish like a palm tree. They will grow like a cedar of Lebanon planted in the house of the Lord.

They will flourish in the courts of the Lord. They will still bear fruit in old age. They will stay fresh and green proclaiming, the Lord is upright, He is my rock, and there is no wickedness in Him. You know any old people like that? They get old and what they do is they just say, the Lord is my rock, He is upright, He is good, and they're always pouring out the praises of God.

I know some people like that. I Know a lot of people like that I live with people like that They They got old age for sure But they're fresh and green and they're bearing fruit in their old age praise God for that You know, so there's this dying, you know, it's a hard thing, you know, we die, but there's a glorious thing, then we bear fruit. When you become a Christian, the old man dies, your sinful nature dies. That's Romans 6 verse 6. But the problem with dying is that there's still remaining sin that needs to die.

Now, you might just ask yourself, where would you be if Christ had not died right now? Here's another question. This was a question that This man surfaced when I called him. This is a godly man. He said, where would my family be if I died more to myself?

Where would my family be if I died more to myself? Where would my church be if I died more to myself? What kind of father would I be if I died more to myself? Then he said, every wrong thing about me is because I haven't died to myself. Well nobody ever completely died to himself.

Nobody ever could. Thankfully God has broken the power of sin, and you can die progressively to yourself, just like Lazarus coming out of that tomb. He's still got his grave clothes, but it's going to take some time to unwrap those grave clothes, and he's going to smell for a while. But Even though none of us ever completely died to ourselves, Jesus Christ did. He did die to himself.

He did only what his father told him to do. He said only what his father told him to say. He did everything. He died to himself in his incarnation. Jesus Christ did the will of his Father in his incarnation.

And he did that so that those who don't can be saved. His perfect righteousness is imputed to our imperfect righteousness. But Jesus did die to himself. Praise God. I'm so thankful that he did.

And then he said in verse 25, he who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Now Jesus is speaking to his disciples at least and he's instructing them on how this applies to them. Now, I do believe there is a double application. It's both Christological and it's sartorialogical, anthropological in that sense, relating to man. But he who loves his life will lose it.

Now the word that Jesus uses here for lose is destroy. He who loves his life will destroy his life. If you love your life, you'll destroy it. You don't want to love your life, you will destroy yourself in loving yourself. I really love the way J.C.

Ryle talks about this. J.C. Ryle, an Englishman, one of the greatest teachers of the 18th century, said this, "'To be born again is to enter into a new existence. It is to have a new mind, new heart, new views, new principles, new tastes, new affections, new likes, new dislikes, new fears, new joys, new sorrows, new love to things that you once hated, new hatred of the things you once loved, new thoughts of God, new thoughts of yourself, new thoughts of the world, new thoughts of the world to come, new life in Christ. You know, Jesus said, what would it profit a man if he gained the whole world but loses his own soul?

That's the same idea. But loving your life is the greatest disaster. Losing your life is the greatest blessing. Now I just want us to think about this for a minute. Losing your life is the greatest blessing.

Here is a reality of the Christian life. God will help you lose your life. He'll help you. He helps in a lot of different ways. He weans us from our affections and takes away the things that are harmful often through trials and we lose parts of our life.

He might take something away. He wants you to lose your your life. He wants you to lose your life. He wants you to lose your best life now and give you His. You know, what have you lost?

What has He taken away? What has been withheld from you? All of these things are designed to give you true life that you would trust in him alone. Not your vision of life, his vision for your life. But He does sanctify, He does do things to help us to lose our lives.

We don't want to lose our lives. We hang on so tight and sometimes He has to take something out of our hands in order to replace his life for ours, our vision of our designer life. Now there are many, many illustrations of this in the Bible. The rich young ruler is one of them. He loved his life and he lost his life, not through sanctification, but he lost his life because he could not let go of his life.

He came to Jesus, he said, Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, you know the commandments, don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't bear false witness. He says, I've done all these things for my youth up. And then Jesus looked at him and he loved him it says. And he said, one thing you lack, go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

And come take up the cross and follow me. Now Jesus was putting his finger on his idolatry and he was sad and he went away sorrowful because he had many possessions. He loved his life And then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of heaven. Illustration number two. The rich man in Luke 12.

Jesus told the parable of a rich man who had everything he needed and he concluded that he'd just pull down his old barns and build bigger and better ones. He said, I'll say to my soul, soul you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry. But then God says you fool, this night your soul will be required of you." And then Jesus says, So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Then he said to his disciples, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on.

Life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn, but and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature." Jesus was talking to a man who was worried. He was so worried.

And Jesus wanted to deliver him from his worry, and he wouldn't be delivered. Here's another illustration. Matthew 16, 24. Jesus says to his disciples, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? Well, a man will give almost anything. He'll give the most trivial thing in exchange for his soul.

He'll give up some entertainment, he'll give entertainments in exchange for his soul, he'll give up almost anything. There are many, many illustrations of this. But we die to sin by starving the sin. We die to sin by hating the things that the Lord hates. He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Now he's not saying that you hate life itself. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying that you hate the good things that God gave you in life. This is contradictory. The word he uses for life is psyche or suitcase.

Where do we get our word psychology? He's saying he who hates his life, in other words, He who hates worldly thinking, worldly ways of evaluating everything, worldly ways of feeling, that's what he's talking about. He's talking about hating that kind of worldliness. Now, he's talking about this whole matter that's illustrated in baptism. If you've been baptized, you know.

In baptism, you're buried with him in baptism, and you die. The Apostle Paul told the Colossian Church, it was, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. The Apostle Paul says that you are buried with him in baptism and raised up with him to everlasting life. And that's the kind of death, that's the kind of hatred, he's talking about hating, hating your sin. Now the prayer that I've been praying for myself and for all of you, all of you in this church, but especially for myself, is the prayer that says, Lord, help me to hate my ways.

Help me to hate my opinions. Help me to hate my attitudes, my thoughts, my words. And Lord, have mercy on me, have mercy on us, and help us to defer to your life and your ways and your words and your attitudes and your thoughts. You know, Jesus already said in Matthew 7, 18, he said, He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and no righteousness is in him." You know, I heard somebody say one time that the Who you the question was who are the freest people in the world? The freest people in the world Are the freest from the world The happiest people are the people whose happiness is not dependent on what happens to them in this world.

The liveliest people are the people whose liveliness is not dependent on the favors of this world. That song we sing, take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. That's the whole idea here in this thing. Now here's another illustration. It's in Luke 22.

It's that scene where Peter denies Jesus. And Jesus and Peter are close enough when Peter denies him. The Bible says that Jesus looked straight at him he had just denied him and Jesus looked straight at him and there was Peter he was trying to preserve his life in the world He was trying to preserve his reputation. He was trying to keep his skin on. And he denied the Lord.

And there he is. The Lord Jesus Christ looks at him in the eye. And then it says that Peter remembered that Jesus said he would deny him and he wept bitterly. Peter knew that he was trying to preserve his life. And there was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who was denying his life, who was giving up his life.

His Lord was hating his life and he was trying to preserve his life. And then verse 26, the final verse in our section here. If anyone serves me, let him follow me, for where I am, there my servant will be also. Now this is really a summary of the Christian life. You follow Him.

But there's such a marvelous promise in verse 26. Can you see it? Do you see the promise that's there? There. If anyone serves me, let him follow me.

And here's the promise. And where I am, there my servant will be also. Servant will be also. If you hate your life and give up your life, and if you die, here's what you get. You get the presence of Jesus Christ with you in everything.

And He has a particular disposition toward you. He honors you. He loves you. He takes care of you. He esteems you in some way.

Where I am, there my servant will be also. Will be also. That's why I'm sure George Mueller, when he was asked, what's the secret of your life, when he said, it was the day that I died, George Mueller died. Died. George Mueller died.

His opinions, preferences, tastes, and will died. So, the Christian is the person who has died to himself, but thankfully he has a Savior who died, a savior who gave up his life. You know, the remarkable fact of the gospel is that Jesus gets what we deserve and we get what he deserves in his death and resurrection. And so this is the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, and he calls us to die to ourselves. You know, there's so many applications to that in your life.

You know, you'll be able to apply this a hundred ways just today. Die to yourself today. Not your opinions, not your ways, not your preferences, not your lusts, not your needs, not your connections, nothing. Jesus Christ in him alone. Care only for his ways.

I'll just close with this. Lady Jane Grey sent a Bible to her sister Catherine, and in the Bible she wrote this note. And I'll close with this as sort of the final admonition to all of us in our church. My good sister, let me entreat thee to learn to die, deny the world, defy the devil, and despise the flesh, and delight yourself only in the Lord. May it be so.

Would you pray with me? Father, we thank You for sending Your Son. Thank You for His obedience. Thank You for His giving up His life for us so that we could be delivered from ourselves, Lord. Thank You.

Thank you for His love. Thank you that He's given us such a wonderful promise that where He is, we will be also. Amen.