Be Not Entangled

Good afternoon, brethren. What a week it’s been. If you’ve been watching the news, this is really fascinating what’s all going on here in America and Democratic National Convention, and yesterday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Trump and all the swing states, and just, it’s political topsy-turvy. Who knows what’s going on exactly? But I’ll come back to this in a little bit, and it’s just an interesting time to watch the news. We know that we’re supposed to watch. We’re supposed to keep an eye on what’s going on in the world, but we’re not supposed to keep an eye just for entertainment purposes.

There’s a lot of entertainment out there. I’ll tell you that. There’s no doubt about it. So you can turn it on and be entertained, but we’re to watch for greater purposes. You’re supposed to watch for the reason of keeping an eye so that we can understand what’s going to happen shortly. And anyway, I’ll come back to that in just a moment, but turn over to Acts chapter eight. We’re going to start there. Acts, chapter eight. Going to go through three different accounts, and we’re going to... You didn’t know that you were coming to services for a quiz today, but you’ll be quizzed on what it is that connects the three accounts we’re going to go through.

The first one is in Acts, chapter eight. What do the three accounts we’re going to go through have in common? Let’s pick it up in verse seven. Acts eight in verse seven. Okay? Let’s just pick it up in verse nine. I’m sorry. “But there was a certain man called Simon…” So we know that we’re jumping right into the context. There’s a man named Simon. We know his name was actually Simon Magus. History is recorded, “…which, before time, in the same city, used sorcery. He bewitched the people of Samaria…” Not a good man. “…Giving out that himself was some great one.” He professed himself to be some wonderful, godly person “…doing sorceries and bewitching people in this town of Samaria.

“To whom they all gave heed, they wondered after him from the least to the greatest, saying, This man has the power of God.” No, no, no, I’m sorry. It doesn’t say has the power of God. It says “is the power of God.” That’s even worse. This man is the power of God. They thought highly of this man. “…and to him they had regard, because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.” So, he didn’t just come into Samaria and do one miracle and make people go, oh, and ah. No. He came in and, for a long time, was bewitching them with his sorceries.

“But when they had believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. The people of Samaria. And Simon himself believed also, and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and the signs which were done. Now when the apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. Who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.”

And parentheses for the next verse. “(For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)” Verse seventeen, “They laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” So, it’s and again, this proves what we’re going to see after services today. Baptism doesn’t just involve baptism and immersion in water, full immersion in water but involves laying on of hands as well. Verse eighteen, “And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money.” Wow. “Give me some of that Holy Spirit,” he says, “I’ve got a few. I got a five here. I’d like me some of that. The power that I was exhibiting in Samaria all these years wasn’t enough. I want some of the Holy Spirit. I’ll pay for it.”

Verse nineteen, “Saying, Give me also the power that on whomsoever I lay hands, he might receive the Holy Spirit.” Oh, he wants the ability to give it to others too. He’s thinking big. And verse twenty said, “But Peter said unto him, Your money perish with you because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter; for your heart is not right in the sight of God.” You know there’s this thing called indulgences. I don’t know if it’s still done, but I think the Catholic Church has involved itself in indulgences in years past and it’s not good. God prohibits this. Verse 22, “Repent therefore of this wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I perceive that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”

“Then answered Simon, and said, ‘Pray you to the Lord for me, that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me.’ And they, when they testified, preached the word of the Lord, and returned to Jerusalem, and...” That’s pretty much what was spoken of Simon from this account. Simon Magus. Okay, that was the first account. Soak it in. Think about it. This man named Simon comes in and he’s wanting to access the truth. He’s come in contact with God’s true church, but he still kind of wants to do some shady things. Let’s just put it that way. He’s not really interested in diving fully into the truth, you could say. He wants to have access to the truth, but kind of do it his own way. Let’s just keep that in mind.

Turn over to Mark, chapter ten. Mark chapter ten. We’ll pick it up in verse seventeen. Let me just read a few verses here. Here’s the second account we’re going to go over. Mark ten, seventeen, “And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him,” speaking of Christ, “...and asked him, ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said unto him, ‘Why call you me good? There is none good but one, that’s God.”

“You know the commandments,” must have been able to discern that this was somebody who had kept the commandments, a Jew or something. “You know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness,” don’t lie, don’t defraud, “...honor your father and mother.” And he sort of left it at that, listing off a number of the Ten Commandments. “And he answered him and said unto him, ‘Master, all these have I observed from my youth.’” So far, I can check them all off. All these boxes I can check. I’ve been doing all of these. This is good.

“And then Jesus beholding him loved him,” interesting, “...and said to him, ‘One thing you lack, go you your way, sell whatsoever you have, and give to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross, and follow me.’” “And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.” He wasn’t willing to do that. So rather than saying, “Oh, I can add this to the list of things that I’ve done,” he said, “That’s too much for me,” and he walked away and probably never saw Christ again. That’s the second account.

Let’s go to the third account, Luke ten. Luke ten, thirty-eight. That was the account of the man who said, “What shall I do to receive eternal life?” And he just wasn’t able to fully pull the trigger, if you want to put it that way. Wasn’t able to fully commit. Luke ten in verse thirty-eight. All right. Verse thirty-eight says this. “Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village,” again speaking of Christ, “...and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And he had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Christ’s feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve all alone?’”

Martha was trying to tend to the physical things around Christ and thinking that that was the right thing to do. And then she got a little upset at her sister, who wasn’t helping her do the physical things. “And Jesus answered and said unto her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” In other words, he was saying Mary is focused on the right things here. She’s not caught up on the things that are physical or unnecessary. Christ didn’t care about that. He wanted their attention. He wanted them to focus on what he was saying or what he was teaching, or what he was doing so that they could learn, not so that he could just sit there and be served by them.

So that’s the third account. What do these three accounts have in common? This is a fairly challenging question, but let’s answer the question by turning over to Second Timothy chapter two. We’ve got Simon Magus, who was in contact with the truth but still wanted to use indulgences and things like this. Never fully came into the truth. He never fully did away with himself or his old ways. You have this person who said, “What shall I do to receive eternal life?” And He said, Christ’s response was, “You do all these things, but you also need to do this final thing.” And he said, “That’s too much for me.” Wasn’t able to commit. And then finally, Martha, who wasn’t focused on the right way. Her attention was elsewhere.

What Martha was doing, I’ll add this, was not a sin. It wasn’t sin for her to be tending to the physical things. There’s nothing wrong with what she was doing, but it wasn’t what she should have been doing, if that makes sense. She wasn’t fully into whatever it was that Christ was teaching her at that time. So, let’s again turn to Second Timothy, chapter two. You’d probably turn there and I’m blabbing and talking, and I didn’t turn there, so I’ll turn it over myself. Second Timothy two in verse one. “You therefore be strong in the grace that is in Christ, Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commits you to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. You therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

We’re supposed to be soldiers. I’m looking at an army in front of me. An army of soldiers. That’s what we were called to be. Christ is using this analogy here, and He says, “No man, that wars.” None of us brethren that war, soldiers go to war. We have many wars going on in the world today. We heard about them in the announcement bulletin today. These are the kinds of wars that some presidential candidates are deeply trying to or wanting to have end. But “no man wars, that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him, who has chosen him to be a soldier.”

Just like a soldier shouldn’t involve himself or entangle himself. Let’s say he’s out on the battlefield. What soldier would turn away from the battlefield and go, you know, start like blowing dandelions or something. I don’t know, whatever. It could be anything. If you’re not focused on the task at hand, if you’re at war, and you’re not focused on being a soldier at that moment, then you’re entangling yourself with things that are problematic. You won’t be effective. Now, the same is true as a Christian. The point here in Second Timothy is that Paul is telling Timothy that if people get caught up as Christians by entangling themselves into the world, they can’t be effective Christians.

That’s what we saw with the three accounts that we just opened with. Simon Magus couldn’t effectively be a full-on Christian, somebody who followed Christ, somebody who was obeying God and doing all the things that he needed to do because he was still dabbling in his old ways. The same is true with this man, who just simply couldn’t pull the trigger. Covetousness got him. He couldn’t let go. Money, that was it. He wanted to keep his money. One of the Ten Commandments is don’t be covet... The last commandment is don’t be covetous. To lust after things, including money, but he couldn’t do that. He had one foot in the truth. He was doing all the first things that Christ said but he wasn’t willing to do everything.

And Martha, far less egregious than the first two accounts. We would all agree. But even Martha, what she was doing, Christ was setting her back on the right path. Martha, you’re not thinking right. Your focus is wrong. Your focus is on the things that are physical, as opposed to the things that I’m going to be teaching you. Focus on what it is that’s more important.

All of these accounts showed people who had, to lesser or greater degrees, entangled themselves in the thinking of the world. Now, there’s three ways that we can get entangled with the world, and we’re going to go over two more verses here in a minute, but before getting to those, there’s three ways we can entangle ourselves in the world. You’ve heard of them. The three S’s. Self, Satan, and society. These are the ways that we can be ensnared or caught up in the ways of the world. Think about it. Like when you get entangled, think about a spider web.

As a kid, I’m a boy, okay? So maybe you girls can’t relate to this, but I was a boy, and I liked growing up to go walk around and find an ant on the floor, on the sidewalk. I grabbed that ant, and I’d go find a funnel web spider in the corner, and I’d throw the ant in the spider, and I’d see the spider come out and take it back into its web. I thought that was, wow, that was excellent. That was so much fun to see. And sometimes it would stay out so I could observe it, and it would wind it up, and I was doing a service to the spider. I was feeding it, was giving it its meal, but that ant was ensnared. Was caught in that web. He was entangled.

And you’ve seen certain bugs get into a spiderweb and they’re not quite in well enough so they’re still able to crawl out and get away. Okay. The same is true with a Christian. We can be ensnared to different degrees. Martha was much less so than Simon Magus. We would all agree with that. But nonetheless, we can be entangled in the world to greater or lesser degrees.

Turn over to Ephesians, chapter two. The three S’s. The first S is Satan. Satan himself can begin to entangle us if we’re not careful. How so? Ephesians chapter two in verse two says this: Start in verse one. “And you has he quickened, who are dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past, you walked according to the course of this world.” Before we were called, we walked according to the ways of the world. And how are the ways of the world? “According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.” Satan himself, he’s infiltrated the airways, you could say, and he’s infected everybody around the world with his way of thinking. Satan directly as what the Bible calls the prince of the power of the air, directly affects every human being. That’s the first S of the three S’s.

The second is society. You can turn over to First Corinthians fifteen, verse thirty-three. First Corinthians fifteen, verse thirty-three. Satan himself, of course, is the overarching evil figure who impacts the world but once Satan has done his deed, if you will, society, in and of itself, will take that ball that Satan started to roll and they’ll roll it further. They’ll just keep going. And what happens when we come up against or interact with society of this world? What happens? First Corinthians fifteen in verse thirty-three says this: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” When we come in contact with those world and spend too much time with those in the world. This verse kicks into gear. We’re not going to be affected by society.

And the translation of that verse is actually pretty poor. It should say this: “Evil companionship corrupts good habits or good conduct.” When we make companions with people in the world, we spend too much time with those in the world. Rub shoulders with those in the world. Their evil, if you will, will rub off on us. Our good won’t rub off on them. That’s just the way that it works. So the second S that we’re talking about here, after Satan, is society. And society in and of itself can help entangle us back into the ways of the world.

You know, even just going back to the initial example of the politics of today’s society are so polarizing, and it draws you in. A person gets sucked in. If you’re watching like we’re supposed to watch, it’s hard not to begin to take sides. That’s where you have to fight it, because it’s not... we’re watching for the sake of prophecy. We’re watching to see where all of this intersects. What we’re seeing in the world, how does it intersect with the Bible? How does it intersect with what God’s word says? We’re not watching politics so that we can begin to take sides, because we’re apolitical. We aren’t in politics. Our politics are in heaven, as God says. But because we have to watch, it’s very easy for society to affect us and impact us in the way that we think, whether it be politics or any other matter in life. But politics are a big one.

And then there’s self. Turn over to Matthew, chapter seven... Mark seven, excuse me. Mark seven. The third S. Mark seven in verse twenty. You know, there’s a thing called human nature and we all have it. And we’ll see here that there’s parts of us just being ourselves without any outside influence from either Satan or society. We, in and of ourselves, can be deceived of ourselves. It’s a dangerous thing. Let’s read here in verse twenty. “And He said, That which comes out of the man that defiles the man.” We’re not talking about stuff that comes from the outside in. We’re talking about feelings and ways of thinking that come from the inside out. We have to be careful of that.

And then he gives a series of examples of this, like bubbling cauldron of filth that comes from the inside of us. “From within out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murder, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man. Self, Satan, and society. Now, if it weren’t for Satan, these kinds of things wouldn’t be the same way impacting us. So we understand that. But we’re up against all three of these forces, if you will, when we’re battling our human nature and trying to stay out of being entangled with the world.

Let’s just go over to two more verses about being entangled. Galatians, chapter five. Before we get into the main repurpose of this message is, how do we prevent any form of entanglement with the world? How do we make sure that a little Andrew Holcombe, when he’s young, doesn’t come pick you up off the sidewalk and throw you into the spider’s web? How do we make sure that we stay out of that spider’s web? Galatians chapter five in verse one.

Galatians five, one says this, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty or the freedom. wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Okay, so we saw the example of like a soldier shouldn’t entangle himself with the affairs of this world. Different analogy here. We’ve been freed. When we’re in contact with the truth and God and Christ are teaching us, and we’re learning from the Bible, and we’re learning from God’s Church and understanding the truths that it teaches, we have made ourselves in alignment with Christ, and we’re not entangled with the world anymore. But we’re free if you will. We have freedom.

But by going back into the world, what the Bible says, what Paul told the Galatians, is that we are now putting a yoke back on ourselves. We are now burdening ourselves and putting ourselves back into bondage, like a slave. It’s so opposite of the way that the world thinks. So the world thinks that they have freedom to do whatever they want. They’re the ones who are in bondage right now, in bondage to sin, in bondage to the way that Satan has deceived them.

They may feel free, and they may look at us and say, “Wow, you all are in bondage.” We look at it, though, as when we obey the truth, the truth sets us free. We have liberty by being in alignment with Christ and the truth. And the way that we maintain that freedom is by not entangling ourselves in the world. It’s pretty simple. And finally, Second Peter, chapter twenty. One more verse on this concept of entanglement. Second Peter chapter twenty. Excuse me. Second Peter two in verse twenty.

You’re better people than I if you can find Second Peter twenty. All right. Second Peter two in verse twenty, says this. “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of this world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein.” That word entangled can mean entwined, like a kitten who got into the yarn and is just wrapped up in yarn, entwined therein, “...and overcome, the latter end is worse than the beginning.”

So this concept of being entangled with the world can be a slippery slope. At first, if we only slightly entangle ourselves and we say, “Oh, maybe this is okay if I just kind of allow this one thing over here or take on this mindset over there, that’s of the world.” The problem is, is this verse says that it gets worse and worse. You become overcome by it. The good will be outweighed by the evil. You’ll get too caught in that spider’s web and won’t be able to get out before that spider comes and gets you. It’s that simple.

So the whole point of this message is to answer the question: How do we prevent any form of entanglement? How do we remain untangled, detangled, anti-tangled, whatever we want to call it, with the ways and thinking of this world? And we have an answer to that question. The Bible is explicit, and Christ is explicit. Let’s turn over to Mark, chapter eight, for the answer. Mark chapter eight.

We’re just going to read a few verses here. This is the account of Peter. Let’s pick it up in verse thirty-one. Mark eight, thirty-one. “He began to teach them,” teaching the disciples, Christ’s teaching, “...that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days, rise again.

And he spoke that saying openly, and Peter took him and began to rebuke him.” Not good. No one should ever be rebuking Christ, particularly if you know the truth, but he did. And verse thirty-three, “But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, ‘Get you behind me, Satan, for you savor not the things that be of God, but you savor the things that be of men.’” And the word savor is kind of a funny word; we don’t really use that term today in this way. You have savory foods, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

The word for savor means that you entertain yourself with, you involve yourself with, you focus on, or think about the things of men rather than the things of God. In other words, he’s entangling himself. Peter got himself entangled with the thinking of the world. So he rebuked Christ for it, and Christ said, “No, no, no, I’m not mistaken here. You’re the one mistaken. You focus...” And that’s why he rebuked Peter back and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are entertaining and entwining yourself with the things of this world, and you’re not thinking about focused on the things of God the way that you should be.”

So how’s the account continue? Christ goes on to tell us what we need to do to no longer be entangled. What Peter needed to do, yes, but what we also need to do because he said, and when he had called the people unto him with the disciples, he didn’t want what he was about to say to be heard only by Peter or the disciples, he wanted everybody to hear what he was going to say now. I want everyone to learn a lesson from this, and that lesson is this: “Whosoever will come after me, let him do three things, deny himself, 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 for the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”

These are the three points we’re going to focus on today, denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Christ. So let’s jump right into the first point: How do we properly deny ourselves? What does that even mean? First and foremost, this word deny is very interesting. It can mean deny, of course, deny means you put away or you push away certain things. You deny yourself that extra piece of cheesecake. Maybe you deny yourself certain things in life. That word can mean deny, but it also has a more interesting and fascinating definition. That means to disown ourselves.

And when Christ said that Peter and all of us need to deny ourselves, what he meant was we need to disown ourselves. Now, what does that mean? Let’s turn over to First Corinthians, chapter six. How do we disown ourselves? The first way that Christ said we should stop entangling ourselves with the world is he says, “You must first deny yourself or disown yourself.”

First Corinthians, chapter six. We’ll pick it up in verse nineteen. First Corinthians six in verse nineteen. We’ve all heard this verse before. “What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have of God, and are not your own?” We are not our own. “For you are bought with a price, and therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Now, we see this as a physical way of talking about our bodies, and of course it is. We have to look at our bodies as though we don’t own them. We have to treat our bodies as though we don’t own them. There’s a very big difference between owning something and borrowing something.

When you think about owning a car, I have the freedom and the ability to do with that car whatever I want. I can decide this weekend if I want, I don’t have to tell anybody or ask anybody. I can just go ahead and decide to drive from Ohio to California and take a vacation. I can just go enjoy that trip in the car that I own because I’m paying for it. I can do with it whatever I want. But let’s say you’re borrowing a car from somebody. You would never, no one would ever think maybe there would be some people out there, but no one would ever think to take a cross-country vacation with somebody’s borrowed car without first asking them, “Hey, is this okay if I do this?”

Well, wait, you’re driving through the Rocky Mountains, and it’s winter, and are you sure you... nobody would ever think to do that. When you borrow somebody’s goods, you treat it differently than you do if it’s your own. Why? Because you’re now accountable to somebody for it. You’re accountable to that person. If you wreck the car that you borrowed for them, you have to count to them for what you did and why you did it. If you wreck your own car, who do you account to? Yourself? The insurance company? I mean, if you wreck your own car, that’s what you did. Okay. You have to live with it, but you don’t have to account to anybody else for it unless it makes a big accident with somebody else but that’s beside the point.

You understand it’s very different to own something versus borrow something. So the same is true with our lives. Not just our physical bodies. Yes, it’s true of our physical bodies. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and how we treat our bodies is very important to God because it’s not our own. We don’t get to decide what we do with our bodies and with our lives. God has shown us what we should do with our bodies and with our lives.

We are borrowing our lives, our bodies. And we’re going to be held to account for how it is that we borrowed and used the things that God has given us in this life. Think about that for a minute. This is fundamentally opposite from how the world thinks. The world sees, I’ve got my life, I can do with it whatever I want. I’m not burdened, they’ll say, by obeying God or keeping these commandments. They feel like they’re not burdened, but they feel like they’re free, but they’re not. Brethren, we’ve seen that. Satan flips everything on its end. They live their lives how we want, but our bodies are simply temporary dwellings. Just like we’re about to go to the Feast of Tabernacles at a couple months, our bodies are temporary dwellings. We’re only borrowing them. We’re not in them permanently.

Turn over to First Corinthians, chapter seven, just one chapter later. The same is true in marriage. When we get married, we don’t get to just say, I get to do whatever I want and not consider my wife or my husband in marriage. Why? Because First Corinthians chapter seven in verse four says this, “The wife has not power of her own body, but the husband.” When two are made one flesh, God says that you each have a certain level of control over the other person. It’s no longer just your body to do with it whatever you want. You’re now held accountable to the other person with what you do. Verse four again, “The wife has not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise, also the husband has not power of his own body, but the wife.”

So the concept is physically we can understand it, we can understand it in marriage, and so forth, that God has set this example of how we’re not supposed to feel like we... As soon as we come to the realization that we no longer own our bodies or own our lives, it will change and renovate the way that we live our lives. We will live differently. If we realize that I’m walking outside and I have to give account for the things that I’m doing now with this piece of flesh that God has given me on this earth, I can’t just walk around and do whatever I want.

I can’t just go out on Friday night and decide I’m going to go get drunk and say, “Oh, it’s okay. It’s my body; I can do with what I want.” No, it’s not my body. I can’t do with it whatever I want. I can do with it however God wants me to live. And that’s the first point. We have to change our mindset to see that we are no longer in ownership of this human vessel. And if by changing our mindset, what that will do is change the way that we live our lives altogether. It will alter our thinking. It will alter our lifestyle if we just change our mindset and keep reminding ourselves over and over and over, I do not own this body. I’m going to give account for what I do with this body.

Turn over to Romans, chapter six. Romans six, verse four. This may be the clearest way to see this point is through Romans six in verse four. Says this, “Therefore we are buried with him at baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” When we go to be baptized, we’re burying our old self. We’re saying, “I want to completely disentangle myself from the world.”

Verse five, “For if we’ve been planted together in the likeness of his death,” through baptism, “...we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth. We should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” So, we have to remember this, that part of disowning ourselves is recognizing that we are literally separating ourselves from the old man. We’re disowning that old man.

Now, part of who we are growing up, we might have been; let’s say we didn’t grow up in the church. Let’s say you didn’t grow up in the church, but you were not a liar, for example. You always knew that lying was wrong and you never did it. That’s not part of the old man that we’re shucking off. You would want to keep that as part of who you are moving forward. What we’re talking about with the old man is all of the stuff that got us entangled with the ways of the world.

If there were parts of who we are growing up that we’re in alignment with the truth, we would want to hold to those, and we wouldn’t want to change those. We’d want to keep improving but we wouldn’t want to change those things. The old man is this entity that we’re leaving behind that was entangled with the ways of the world and the thinking of the world. That’s what we need to crucify at baptism, just like Christ was crucified, that the body of sin might be destroyed. And by destroying this old man, by separating ourselves from it, we’re now free. We’re now free.

But the danger is, brethren, as we’ve been in God’s church for any number of months, or years, or decades even, we all know that just because we’ve buried the old man doesn’t mean he’s not trying to come up out of that watery grave every once in a while, rear his head. And even sometimes we might find ourselves trying to jump back into the baptismal tank to get that old man out, “Oh, don’t die. No, I want to revive it.” No, we have to be careful in that. Can be easy at times to let the old man come back to life. We don’t want that. I’ve noticed, and a lot of us have probably noticed this, that when people are starting to fall away from the truth, they’ve been in contact with the truth for a long time, or they’ve been baptized and they start to come back, they start to allow that old man back, one of the things that inevitably happens is they want to begin to take ownership of their life back again. You see it.

When people are on their way out. They say, “I want to be able to do what I want to do.” They don’t want to fully disown themselves like Christ said we should do in this first point. They want to say, “Well, maybe I do want some ownership back again. I want to take ownership of my life in this area. Who are they to tell me that I can’t do X, Y, or Z?” And so it begins. If we begin to find ourselves taking ownership of our lives, “I get to do what I want. I don’t care what the church says. I don’t care what God’s word says about this and this, or that matter.”

If we begin to take ownership of our lives again, we’re in danger of this first point. We’re not remembering that we’re being held accountable to God for borrowing our lives, and we’re trying to resurrect that old man. We can’t do that. We can’t do that. But, brethren, denying ourselves, you know, putting to bed the old man, denying ourselves, disowning ourselves, doesn’t mean we live lives of asceticism where we’re basically starving ourselves and we deny ourselves all pleasures and good things in life. That’s not how it works. God says that we should live the abundant life. We do live the abundant life.

Because what happens is, is when God sees that we disown ourselves, He inevitably blesses us for it. He says, “That’s wonderful. I’m glad to see that. Now, I’m going to bless you in a way you didn’t have any clue was coming.” So that’s the first point. We have to be willing to change our mindset, just change our mindset. And rather than looking at ourselves as being something that we can control everything, every turn in our lives, we have to disown ourselves, and we have to see ourselves as living lives that are being borrowed. That’s the first point.

The second point, back in Mark eight, you don’t need to turn there, I’m just going to read it to you again. It says Christ said that we’re supposed to take up our cross. Take up our cross. Now, think about what that means. A lot of people thought, “Well, it just means you go through your life and you endure the trials that you have to endure.” And that’s fine. That’s true, but I don’t know about you. I don’t physically... Christ even didn’t physically walk around with His cross on. You know, the stake that He used His own personal torture device. He didn’t walk around with that every single day of His life.

So it doesn’t just mean... let me get into this, but doesn’t just mean take up your cross and just endure life’s trials. Everybody in the world has trials, brethren. There’s not one person you’ll meet in society who doesn’t have some form of trial going on in their lives. And maybe sometimes they’re even worse than what we have to go through at that time. So what does it mean? Do we have to bear our cross if it isn’t just getting through life’s trials?

Turn over to first Corinthians chapter fifteen. When Christ bore His cross, the stake that was ultimately used for Him to be crucified on, He was walking toward His death. He was bearing a burden that was much greater than just simply a regular average everyday trial. The burden He was dealing with was the burden of death. So First Corinthians fifteen and verse thirty says this. “And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?” When we go through difficulties in life, the trials that we have to endure aren’t necessarily the same as those in the world. A lot of times, the trials that we endure are because we obey the truth.

Sometimes we have struggles at work because we have to obey God. We can’t keep the same work hours that everybody else at work does because God says we have to align ourselves with His word. We have to keep the Sabbath. We have to keep the holy days. So trials for us often come because we are aligning ourselves with God and His ways, and persecution can often come from it. So First Corinthians fifteen says this. First Corinthians fifteen, thirty. “And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?” We are in jeopardy every hour. “I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord, I die daily. “

Taking up our cross doesn’t just mean enduring life’s burdens. It means, brethren, that we must, like Christ, die daily. We have to be willing to see Christ’s example of sacrifice and be willing every day to get up and go to work and sacrifice the things that we need to sacrifice in order to obey God. Sometimes that’s hard to do, but that’s what it means to take up our cross. The word take up means to lift or to take up or to keep in suspense.

If we were to keep the cross in suspense, we’re not supposed to let it down. It’s something that we do every single day. So taking up our cross daily is much more than just getting through life’s trials. Trials come on every person, like I said, inside and outside the church. Where we are different is that our trials often stem from obeying God, and in this way, anytime we make the conscious decision to obey the truth over escaping persecution, we are taking up our cross in partaking in Christ’s sufferings.

Turn over to John chapter fifteen. John chapter fifteen. Read verse seventeen. John fifteen, seventeen says this. “These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hate you, yet know that it hated me before it hated you.” Part of taking up our cross is realizing that life is not going to be easy. If we decide and make the conscious decision to every day keep that old man buried and disown ourselves, we are, just automatically, we’re going to be treated by people in the world differently. We’re going to be looked at as odd maybe. We’re going to be looked at as different, and that’s part of the cross that we have to bear. The burden that we have to bear through our lives.

“If the world hate you, yet know that it hated me before it hated you.” We’re going to be treated just like Christ. People are going to hate us for what we do, even though we’re not doing anything wrong. We’re just trying to obey God. If you are of the world, the world would love its own because everybody in the world is entangled like everybody else. They’re in this giant web thinking that everything is just fine and dandy and we’re looking at it saying, “You’re all in a massive spider’s web. Don’t you realize that?” They don’t see that.

They’re entangled with the world so deep, they don’t see, but as long as they’re all doing it together, it’s fine. It’s no big deal. But when we separate ourselves from the world and we stop having anything to do with it, we’re looked at as strange, and it’s going to naturally bring persecution. “Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” So this is part of dying daily, brethren. It’s realizing that every day we’re going to be getting up. We’re going to get up and go through life, and we’re going to probably be persecuted for what it is that we believe.

And it may not be easy, but we have to do it day after day after day after day after day after day until we give account. Go back to Mark chapter eight where we started this. It’s the very verse that we are using here to describe these three points. Mark chapter eight and verse thirty-five. After Christ said, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Verse thirty-five says, “For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it.”

If we go around in our lives and we don’t die daily taking up that burden, we’re trying to, in effect, save our lives, but God says the end of that pursuit is death itself. We’re going to lose it, but death eternally. That’s not where we want to go. That’s not the path that we want to take. If we try and save our lives in this world so that we don’t get persecution from friends or family or co-workers or whoever and what we’re doing is we’re trying to save our physical lives, save the burden that we have to deal with every day, all for the benefit of losing eternal life.

Brethren, we never would want that. The only way to flip that on its head is to do what it says in verse... the back half of verse thirty-five. “But whosoever shall lose his life, die daily for my sake, and the Gospels, the same shall save it.” This is the great purpose. If we are willing to get up every single day and determine, I’m going to keep the old man dead, I’m going to stay out of any entanglement with this world, I know that that’s my end. I’ll be saved. I won’t eternally lose my life. I’ll save my life eternally. That’s what we want.

Romans chapter eight verse thirteen. We all remember Solomon just coming off of this verse that whosoever will lose his life shall save it and save his life shall lose it, the opposites.

Solomon, we just heard recently, he sought to get everything in life. He sought to accumulate to himself everything he possibly could. And I mean, unless he came to a deep repentance, that verse says what it does.

I hope the best for Solomon. I hope that we do get to see him. I hope that he didn’t lose God’s spirit. Hopefully, he did repent. Maybe he is a complete saint or maybe he is an incomplete saint. We don’t know. But he was on a path toward destruction. He was on a path toward getting everything in this life, saving up his life in this world so that he would potentially lose it later on. It’s a dangerous, slippery slope that I said earlier in the message.

So Romans chapter eight and verse thirteen says this, “For if you live after the flesh, you shall die.” Now, this is where Martha kind of comes in. Martha’s issue wasn’t glaring, but what she was doing was she was focused on the physical things. She wasn’t focused on the big picture. It’s easy for us in our lives. We live busy, busy lives. In this modern age, we live very busy lives. It takes a lot of hard work, probably by both people in the household oftentimes just to be able to get an income, to be able to pay for the house that you live in, and so on. It’s an amazing rat race. We’ve heard it being called.

And anyway, Martha was focused on the physical things, and it can be very easy for us to also in this big rat race, if you will. So Romans eight thirteen says this. “For if you live after the flesh, you’ll die. But if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you put to death every day the deeds of the body, you’ll live.” It’s just another way of saying what we read back in Mark eight. Remember the first point that we had, that we went over. This point kind of works in tandem with the first point, that we’ve disowned ourselves and are accountable to God. If we allow God’s spirit to guide us through life’s decisions and choices, letting God lead us through life, we’re actively going to be dying daily.

So by remembering the first point, if we just remember this, that we are living borrowed lives, we’re not in ownership of ourselves, and we’re going to be held accountable for the actions and the thoughts, and so forth that we have. If we remember that, then by itself, we will automatically be dying daily because our actions will be led of God. They won’t be led around by our own thoughts and whims and ideas. Will be led of God.

But being led of God’s spirit sometimes means that we have to willingly give up or sacrifice certain things that we want. It’s part of dying daily. We can’t just walk around life and do anything that we want. We have to sacrifice. Turn over to First Peter Chapter four. First Peter four and verse one. First Peter four, one, “Forasmuch then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.”

Allow God’s mind and Christ’s mind to guide us through life, “for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time pass of our life may suffice us that we have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.”

These are the all things that we did with the old man that we should bury at baptism and try to keep buried every single day. “Wherein they think it’s strange that you run not with them to the same excessive riot, speaking evil of you.” When we have to sacrifice certain things in life, whether it be ambitions, or pursuits, or interests, or ideals, we could receive a lot of flak for that. But by giving these things up, we’re choosing not to entangle ourselves with the world.

Now, there are obvious things that we should not entangle ourselves with the world. Like I said before, we can’t go out on a Friday night and get drunk. There’s a whole lot wrong with that, and we all know why. That just blatantly disobeys God on its face. But there are other times when it may be less cut and dry and it requires judgment, judgment calls. Like I think about my wife when she was first being called, she had a trip to Japan she was going to make. And God was calling her and her sister at the time. They were both going to travel out to Japan, and the very day that they were going to fly out to Japan, the tsunami, the earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima. And the nuclear plant melted down.

We all know the story, maybe we remember it from years ago when that occurred, and so she didn’t get to go. Now, my wife being quarter Japanese herself and her sister as well, would love to go to Japan even to this day, but there are certain things that she and I, and all of us have to sacrifice. It would be a wonderful thing to be able to go to Japan, wouldn’t that be great? But we also see that there’s responsibilities that we have. There are things at times that we’re not able to do whatever it is that we want. Even if we want to go, it just doesn’t align with what it is that we’re able to do right now.

So that’s a sacrifice that she’s had to make. She’s had to sacrifice that. She wants to go. I would want to go. I’d love to see Japan, it’d be wonderful. But there are times when we need to just simply recognize it’s not right for us to go. Would it be a sin for Melissa, my wife, to go to Japan? No. No, it wouldn’t be. But if she did, it would cause certain issues. I don’t know what I would do with the baby at home. Maybe it would be a sin after all. I’m kidding. No, but you understand the point. You understand the point, sacrificing doesn’t… sometimes it just involves judgment.

Now, there are all of the servants in the Bible. I’m trying to think of an example in the Bible where it wouldn’t be true, but from my recollection, all of God’s servants in the Bible are shown in some way, shape, or form as having been willing to or actually given up something for the truth. Whether it be, you know, “Follow me,” Christ tells the disciples, “Follow me and leave your Father behind here. Let the dead bury the dead.” Whatever it is, or whether it’s Steven. And He died. He died for the faith. He gave up His life for the faith, for the truth.

The Bible... all of God’s servants in the Bible are shown to have given something up and died daily in this way. But when God sees that we’re willing to die daily for Him, He opens doors of blessings that are just simply unimaginable. Now, let’s go to the third point, which is, “Follow me or follow Christ.” Turn over to John chapter seventeen. This last point takes a little bit of a turn. We’re supposed to follow Christ is the last point. Pretty simple, right? John seventeen, in verse sixteen. It doesn’t seem like it would need much explanation. Just let Christ guide you through life, right? That’s really the point.

Well, there’s maybe a little bit more to it. Let’s read in verse sixteen of John seventeen. “They are not of the world...” Christ is praying to the Father here. “They are not of the world.” And it’s speaking of the disciples. “...even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through the truth. Your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world. So have I also sent them into the world? And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which have, which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one as you Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us.”

So this word, before I go any further, I want you to know that the word follow me back in Mark eight, it means to follow, but it also means to be in the same way with. We have to be in the same way with Christ. In other words, we have to unite with Christ. We have to be in unity with Christ. So when we’re reading here in John seventeen, that God and Christ’s purpose for us is that we may all be one as you Father are in me, Christ is the Father, and I in you, that they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that you have sent me.

Verse twenty-two. “That the glory which you gave me, I have given them that they may be one in us. One even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.” Part of following Christ is being in one with Christ, but it’s much bigger than that. We’re seeing here that we’re supposed to be one with Christ the same way that we’re supposed to be one with one another.

So when God wants us to follow Christ, He wants us to do it, not just individually. I’m following Christ, and then this brethren over here is following Christ, and this brethren over here is following Christ. What it is, brethren, is we’re all collectively following Christ together. We’re in it together. It’s not just... it is an individual pursuit. I don’t want to diminish the fact that it is. You work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. There’s no doubt about that, but we’re not in it alone. When we have to follow Christ, we’re doing it as a Church.

The Bible talks about how Christ is the head of a body. One limb can’t just follow the head’s responsibility without being connected to all the other parts of the body. The whole body works together. So when Christ said to follow Him and unite with Him, it’s just as equally important I could argue that we must unite with one another in uniting with Christ. So following Christ is much bigger than just simply deciding I’m going to walk the way that God wants me to walk or Christ wants me to walk. It means we do it collectively. We help one another. We look out for one another. We’re in it together as a team working toward this great goal of salvation.

Now, remember what Paul said to the Corinthians in First Corinthians chapter one. First Corinthians chapter one and verse ten. A very familiar verse. First Corinthians one, ten. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we all speak the same thing.” You can’t have one brethren over here saying, “I believe that Sunday is the Sabbath.” Another one over here saying, “I believe Friday is the Sabbath.” And then the guy in the middle says, “No, I believe Saturday is the Sabbath.” You can’t have a unified body if we have different beliefs. That’s what’s so amazing about God’s Church and the truth.

When I came in contact with it for the first time, I was just taken aback at how everybody believes the same thing. There is no division among God’s people. I was recently in contact with the church inquiry, somebody who is in contact with us and wants to attend or is interested in attending, and I answered a question, and I said if you called any minister in the church, anyone around the world, it could be the minister in Nigeria, the minister in South Africa, the minister in Abu Dhabi, doesn’t matter where you go, any minister that you talk to is going to tell you the same thing because we walk in unity. We speak the truth. We’re not divided. That’s one thing that separates us.

When we were in the churches of the world, we could believe whatever we want. We could hold whatever ideas we want behind the scenes. You could live whatever life you want behind the scenes as long as you just profess to be that religion. Profess that Jesus is Christ or whatever. That’s not so with us. That doesn’t cut the mustard. It’s got to be more than that. We have to be united. If we want to follow Christ, we have to do it together and do it in unity. And First Corinthians one, ten highlights that. It says, the second half of the verse says, “And that there being no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, for it has been declared unto me, that of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are some contentions among you.” And so on. It continues.

Actually, let me read verse twelve and thirteen. “Now this I say that every one of you says, I’m of Paul, I’m of Apollos, I’m of Cephas, I’m of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” Of course, not. We have to be united in every way, and our unity with one another shows and demonstrates our collective unity or individual unity with Christ. So the more unified we are as a church, the more unified we are with Christ who’s the head of the Church.

If I get much closer to you and you get much closer to me, and we fellowship, and we’re friends, and we know each other, we have a bond that connects us to Christ in an even greater way. Now the whole point of this verse or this third point that we need to be united in following Christ is that when we begin to... another trend, when people begin to start to slip back into the world and start to disconnect from the truth, inevitably, what happens, they start to disconnect from God’s people. They say, “Well, I can just go do this on my own over here. I don’t really care about fellowshipping with you. I don’t really want to spend time with you, brethren. Maybe this, it’s not for me to go to this social, I’m just going to stay at home.”

Those are ways, it’s not explicit, but those are ways that people can begin to allow themselves to be re-entangled with the world. The closer we are to one another, the stronger we’ll be. The closer we are to brethren, fellowshipping, enjoying each other’s company, the less opportunity we have to be fellowshipping with and enjoying the company of the world because company with the world will pull us back to the world. The stronger we are, the more we’ll be able to resist that pull and stay out of being entangled with that world.

First Corinthians chapter eleven. So we come to a close here, First Corinthians eleven and verse one says this, “Be you followers of me...” Paul speaking to the Corinthian congregation. “Be followers of me as I am also of Christ.” That is what we need to do. We need to look to each other and say, “That person’s particularly strong.” I can tell he’s particularly strong or she’s particularly strong in this area of her life. I want to try and mimic them. I want to try and replicate that. I like how they’re able to keep their emotions intact, in check.

I like how this person is able to stay calm. I like how this person is able to…whatever. If you like a quality about other brethren, and you see that that’s a quality that I really enjoy. I want to follow that quality, and it’s in line with the truth, with God’s word, we should follow one another. We should take each other’s examples and copy them. As long as it’s the right example. If it’s a bad example, you want to stay away from that. But be you followers of me, even as I am of Christ, is the point.

Being united with God’s people through fellowship, spending time together, helping one another, seeing the needs in the congregation, where might something be lacking. Does somebody need help here or there? And, of course, all believing the same things. If we unite together in a bigger way, in every way possible, it will help us all not get entangled with this world. Period. You don’t need to go back there, but just remember Galatians five, where we started this message. “Stand fast, therefore, in the freedom, the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.”

To entangle ourselves with the yoke of bondage means that we have de-yoked from Christ. We’ve taken the yoke off with Christ, and we’ve yoked ourselves back to the world again. We can’t do that. We can’t have that. So, brethren, let’s just spot through a couple of points in Philippians as we come to a close, just a couple last verses. Philippians chapter one, Philippians one and verse twenty-seven says this, “Only let your conduct, your conversation, or conduct be as it becomes the Gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you...”

Paul didn’t live there with the Philippians, so he’s writing them and saying, “...whether I’m going to come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel.” We’re not in this alone. We’re here to do it with each other. We’re on this pursuit together. Come on down to chapter two in verse one. If there be any... “Therefore, any consolation in Christ, if any comfort and love, if any fellowship of the spirit, of any bowels or mercies fulfill you, my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love and being of one accord and one mind.”

And chapter three and verse fifteen, “Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, unified.” This is the mind that we have to have, be unified to follow Christ. “And if anything be otherwise minded, God shall reveal this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule and let us mind the same thing, unified. Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example.

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is in their belly, and glory in their shame, who mind earthly things.” People who have fallen away, they simply have entangled themselves back into the earthly things. “For our conduct is in heaven, from whence we also look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

So, brethren, if we want to stay away from any kind of entanglement with this world, these are the three points we have to follow in Mark eight. We have to deny ourselves, disown ourselves. We have to take up our cross and die daily, keeping that old man in the baptismal tank where he belongs, underwater, and finally, follow Christ and be unified in doing so with God’s people. So if we follow these three simple points, we’ll be able to follow Christ’s instruction and never be entangled with the world.