But what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, and verse 12, will be true as long and the world stands, brethren: “They that will live godly in this present world shall…suffer…persecution.” The devil’s going to see that that’s so; he cannot STAND even a righteous life and the sermon that it preaches. He cannot ABIDE the preaching of the Truth without bringing some kind of opposition and suffering and so forth upon those who preach it and who stand for it. And so, the closer you follow Jesus, the more you’d better expect to bear that cross!

And, after all, the servant is not greater that his Master. IF our Lord was willing to suffer all that He did for us, ought we not to be willing to suffer some for HIM, if we’re called upon to do so? The idea of suffering and cross-bearing on the part of some, unfortunately, in our weak-spine world is to have to come back on Sunday night instead of just staying at home! What a travesty on the great challenge the Lord gives to people who would be HIS DISCIPLES!! Let’s either BE His disciples or quit pretending that we are!

But the Lord is still not quite through. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross ANNUALLY and follow Me.” Is that how your Bible reads? That’s not the way mine reads. MONTHLY! No, that doesn’t do it either. Well, surely WEEKLY will catch it! “…let him take up his cross WEEKLY….” Maybe w-E-A-k-ly would fit some, but not even w-E-E-k-ly is what Jesus is saying. He says DAILY. The very way we mark our lives off the calendars in our pockets and on our walls is the way we’re supposed to follow Jesus.

And actually, the DAILY part of this passage IMMEDIATELY modifies the BEARING OF THE CROSS!! If you have to suffer DAILY, then do it to be MY disciple. Oh, that is a challenge indeed, is it not? But that is the challenge our Lord gives us. We’re to live for Him everyday.

Being a disciple is not a suit of clothes we can hang in the closet after we get through with worship on Sunday—and leave it hanging there for a week. We’d better wear that suit of clothes to work; we’d better wear it to school; we’d better wear it when we’re shopping; we need to even wear it when we’re driving, brethren! We’ve got to be a Christian every day that we live! We’ve got to be willing to suffer every day that we live, if necessary, realizing that what ever the devil and his world brings against us cannot in any way compare with the GLORY that is to be revealed for us eventually!

Remember what Paul stated in Romans 8:18? “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not WORTHY to be compared with the GLORY which shall be revealed in us.” And in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, he says, “Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY; 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

And as he wrote the final words we have from his pen, 2 Timothy, chapter 4 and verses 6-8, Paul said, “6 For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: 8 henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.” Do we look forward with great anticipation to the coming of the Lord? The older get, the longer I live, the more I look forward to it. I’m ready for Him to come right now. I don’t know of any prophecy that hasn’t been fulfilled—that has yet to be fulfilled to prevent His coming, from that standpoint, though by no means would I begin to predict any time that He will come. It’s folly for any man to do so, because no man knows that. But we ought to look forward with rejoicing to that time, if we are REAL disciples. Now, if we’re not, we ought to look forward to it with some dread and some fear—better still, we ought to get our discipleship act together!

We’re going to sing a song of invitation in just a few moments. Go ahead and get your books out and turn to that number. I have tried tonight not to raise the bar of discipleship higher than it is and make it seem impossible for anyone to reach it. I probably have not raised it as high as the Lord raised it; I’m probably not capable of doing that. But what I fear, brethren, is that, for so long we’ve kept that bar so low that it has become meaningless. We’ve just DUMBED DOWN what Christianity really means and what being a disciple of Jesus really means to where it is almost meaningless—to where almost any kind of behavior is tolerated! That just cannot be in the discipleship of Jesus.

[The invitation is offered.]