The Cross - An Invitation to Liberation
November 16, 2019      |     By: Sam McVay, Jr.      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: Wichita
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Mark 8:31-38 (ESV)
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.
36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

The central bondage of the “Adam Race” is the “autonomous self”.

Other words would be: “fallen self”, “corrupt self”, or “false self”.
Whatever name it is called, from the standpoint of the Lord Jesus, self must be denied in order to embrace our cross and follow Him.

John 8:36 (ESV)
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

It is deep in the heart of your Father that you are free!!!
An integral part of the doorway to freedom is the denial of self which has been dealt with by the cross, both objectively and subjectively.

The objective work of the Cross is the supernatural work that Jesus accomplishes upon His cross:
1. freedom from the penalty of sin (Hebrews 9)
2. freedom from the power of sin (Romans 6)
3. freedom from the tyranny of Satan (Colossians 2:15

The subjective work of the cross:
1. obedience to our personal kingdom assignment
2. involuntary sufferings in life like pain, rejection, trials...
3. voluntary suffering or denial in the age...

Both the objective and subjective works of the Cross are an Invitation to Liberation in an age where individuals and society are slaves to self.