It is not more certain that without holiness no man can serve God than that without self-denial no man can be holy. And so it must be, from the nature of mankind and the nature of Christ's service; for what is man's nature but sinful flesh, and what his service but a sharp corrective? No two powers can be more antagonistic than man's nature and Christ's service, and the struggle issues, as either power prevails, in apostasy or in self-denial.
I. In the first place, without crossing and denying of self there can be no purifying of the moral habits. Without a true compunction and a tender conscience, purity of heart, and the energy of a devout mind set free from the thraldom of evil, no man can have fellowship with Christ, and no man can have these without self-denial.
II. And so, again, even with those who have for a while followed Christ's call, how often do we see the fairest promise of a high and elevated life marred for want of constancy. They had no endurance, for they had no self-denial. A self-sparing temper will make a man not only an utter contradiction to his Lord, but even to himself.
III. Without self-denial there can be no real cleaving of the moral nature to the will of God. I say that, to distinguish between the passive and seeming attachment of most baptized men, and the conscious energetic grasp of will by which Christ's true disciples cleave to their Master's service.
IV. We have need to ask ourselves: (1) In what do we deny ourselves? It would be very hard for most men to find out what one thing, in all the manifold actings of their daily life, they either do or leave undone simply for Christ's sake. (2) And if we cannot find anything in which we deny ourselves already, we must needs resolve on something in which we may deny ourselves henceforward. In things lawful and innocent, and, it may be, gainful and honourable and in keeping with our lot in life; and such things as the world, by its own measure, esteems to be necessary things; we may really try ourselves: we may find matter for self-denial, and that in many ways.
H. E. Manning, Sermons,vol. i., p. 89.
Wherein consists the self-denial of which the text speaks? We must bound it by the prescribed path of each man's Christian duties and trials, but within that path, what is it, that we may know and practise it?
I. First of all, it must find its field and exercise in the thoughts. There let us plant it and thence trace its work on the words and actions. Whosoever will be Christ's disciple, must deny himself in his thoughts. It is a temptation to all men, to think highly of themselves; a temptation so subtle that, even with the utmost care to prohibit and cut off its occasion, it most usually finds its seal somewhere in a man's character. What we should aim at is, that quiet reasonable abnegation of self-will and self-regard, which lays us, for all our more solemn interests and eternal prospects, passive in the hands of our Heavenly Father as His children, cared for by Him, as much bound to believe and trust Him as to obey and serve Him; that truest humility which is content to take Him at His word and appropriate His promises; that genuine self-denial, which links our will in His, and pours life and energy and a warm loving heart, with all its fulness of conviction and affection, into the unreserved and unconditional furtherance of His work in the world and His glory in ourselves.
II. Self-denial is a wide subject indeed; one deserving every Christian's earnest and active endeavour therein to follow the example of his Saviour. The Christian's light is to strive not that men may follow him, but that he may lead them out to meet the Bridegroom; and the voice of Him for whom we wait may be heard in the simplest remark of a child, as well as in the deepest conclusion of a philosopher.
III. Self-denial in thought and word would ill deserve the name, if they did not lead on to self-denial in deed. If any man will come after Christ, in his outward life and acts, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. iii., p. 32.
The Saviour hardly ever said words whose bearing is more direct upon the practical work of our daily living; and though it is a bold thing to make the assertion, we do not hesitate to assert that no words ever uttered by Christ were ever so misunderstood and misinterpreted by very many men, in many places and in many ages. Christ's teaching was, that the earnest believer must be ready to give up anything, though it should be a right hand or eye, that tended to obstruct him in his Christian course; and that he must be ready to fulfil every Christian duty, however painful, and to bear every burden laid upon him by the hand of God, though it should press upon him heavily and sorely, as the weighty cross upon the poor criminal who bore it to the place of doom.
I. The doctrine of self-sacrifice has proved sufficient to produce many instances of the purest heroism that this world has ever witnessed. Many a time it has gained victories, silently won, in struggling hearts, to which earthly battle-fields are nothing. The self-denial required by Jesus does not lie in seeking needless suffering for ourselves, but in bearing humbly and submissively what should come in the discharge of Christian duty. Let a man, says Jesus, deny himself, and take up hiscross the cross God is pleased to send him and no other. Let him bear the sorrow allotted to him in love and wisdom by the Almighty, let him not tempt the Lord by trying to take the reins of providence into his own puny hands. If we take the trials God sends us, and strive faithfully against the temptations from within and without that God permits to assail us, we shall find that we need not go out of the way to create trials for ourselves. The world, the flesh, and the great adversary are hourly seeking to mislead us, and if any man will come after Christ, he mustdeny himself and take up his cross daily.
A. K. H. B., Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson,p. 268.
References: Luke 9:23. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xi., p. 10; J. H. Thom, Laws of Life,p. 251; Christian World Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 311; W. Landels, Ibid.,vol. viii., p. 8; G. S. Barrett, Ibid.,vol. xxx., p. 381; W. P. Roberts, Ibid.,vol. xxxi., p. 235; R. Tuck, Ibid.,vol. xxvi., p. 102; E. H. Higgins, Ibid.,p. 316. Luke 9:24-27. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 173.Luke 9:25. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. v., p. 314.