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Matthew 16:24 - SURRENDER ALL.

Matthew 16:24 (NIV) Then Jesus said to his 
disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny 
himself and take up his cross and follow me. 

COMMENTARY PEARL

   There is not one verse of Scripture that 
indicates you can be a Christian and live any kind of 
a life you want to. When Christ enters the 
heart, He expects to be Lord and Master. He 
commands complete surrender - mind, body, talents, 
and abilities. He expects nothing less than that 
all your work will be performed in His name. 
   We have the warning of Christ that He 
will not receive us into His kingdom until we are 
ready to give up all, until we are ready to turn 
from all sin in our lives. Don't try to do it 
partway. Don't say, "I'll live part of my life for 
Jesus and part for my own desires." Jesus expects 
100 percent surrender, and when that is 
accomplished He rewards a thousandfold. But don't expect 
Jesus to hand out any 50 percent awards for 50 
percent surrenders! God doesn't work that way. When 
you have determined that you are renouncing sin, 
forsaking sin, and yielding all to Christ, you have 
taken another step toward peace with God. 
   Are you living partly for yourself and 
partly for Jesus? [Peace for Each Day by Billy 
Graham] 

COMMENTARY

Self-denial
   For the first time, Christ had definitely 
announced that He would have to suffer much and be 
killed and be raised again. "Then Peter took him, 
and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from 
thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee" (v. 22). 
Christ's answer was, "Get thee behind me, Satan" (v. 
23). The spirit of Peter, seeking to turn Him 
away from the cross and its suffering, was 
nothing but Satan tempting Him to turn aside from 
the path that God had appointed as our way of 
salvation. 
   Christ then added the words of our next 
verse, in which He used for the second time the 
words "take up his cross." But with these words, 
He used a very significant expression revealing 
what is implied: "If any man will come after me, 
let him deny himself." When Adam sinned, he fell 
out of the life of heaven and of God into the 
life of the world and of self. Self-pleasing, 
self-sufficiency, and self-exaltation became the laws of his 
life. When Jesus Christ came to restore man to his 
original place, "He humbled himself, and became 
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" 
(Philippians 2:8). What He has done Himself He asks of 
all who desire to follow Him: "If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself" 
   Instead of denying himself, Peter denied 
his Lord: "I do not know the man" (Matthew 
26:72)' When a man learns to obey Christ's commands, 
he says of himself, "I do not know the man." 
The secret of true discipleship is to bear the 
cross, to acknowledge the death sentence that has 
been passed on self, and to deny any right that 
self has to rule over us. 
   Death to self - such is to be the 
Christian's watchword. The surrender to Christ is to be 
so entire, the surrender to live for those 
around us so complete, that self is never allowed 
to come down from the cross to which it has 
been nailed, but is always kept in the place of 
death. 
   Listen to the voice of Jesus: "Deny 
self." Let us ask God that we, as the disciples of 
Christ, who denied Himself for us, may by the grace 
of the Holy Spirit always live as those in whom 
self has been crucified with Christ, and in whom 
the crucified Christ now lives as Lord and 
Master. [Andrew Murray 365-Day Devotional Bible by 
Barbour] 

CLOSING THOUGHT

Free But Not Cheap
   During the early years of the twentieth 
century, Bill Borden turned his back on one of 
America's great family fortunes to become a missionary 
to China. He only got as far as Egypt where, 
still in his twenties, he died of typhoid fever. 
Before his death he wrote, "No reserves, no 
retreats, no regrets!" 
   Discipleship is always costly. No, it may 
not cost us our lives. But it will cost us. It 
will cost us our plans, our wills, our selfish 
desires. Jesus' standard has not changed: "If anyone 
desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and 
take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24). 
Instead of controlling our lives, we turn them over 
to Christ as Lord. 
   Someone has said, "Salvation is free but 
not cheap." It cost Jesus His life, and it will 
cost us as well. But could anything be greater? 
Could anything be more fulfilling? 
   Follow Christ, and at life's end you will 
be able to say, "No regrets!" [Hope for Each 
Day by Billy Graham] 

LINK FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Matthew 16:24 - Deny Self Pick Up Your Cross 
Follow Jesus. 

http://www.abible.com/devotions/2021/20210818-1019.html 

LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT

https://abible.com/links/