Luke 5 11 I want to speak to you briefly
this morning on one single verse of scripture that we could easily
have passed over but I'm glad we're not. You remember last week in the
context of this verse 11 how that the Lord after they had
fished all night and caught nothing he told them to cast their nets
on the other side And they enclosed a great multitude
of fish. And then he said, you're going
to hereafter be fishers of men. And verse 11, and when they had
brought their ship to land, they forsook all and followed him. When they had brought their ship
to land, their ships to land, they left them there. Some of them left their family,
their nets, their ships. They forsook all and followed
him. I know some people who have literally
done that. I know some people who have left
their home, their family, their loved ones, their friends, their
job, the state that they lived in, and they followed him. They left all in order to be
fishers of men. I know them personally. I've never heard anybody, including
themselves, ever brag on them for doing that. And that's as it should be. Because they didn't do that because
of who they were. They did that because of who
He is. That's why you would leave everything
and everybody and follow Him because of who He is. If there had been a choice, they
wouldn't have done it. Our Lord said in Luke chapter
14, turn over there with me, I want to look at this passage
of scripture in Luke 14. And this is jumping ahead of
ourselves a little bit in our study, but this will teach us
what happened there in verse 11. Luke 14, 25. Luke 14, 25. And there went great multitudes
with him, and he turned and said unto them, if any man come to
me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children
and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of
you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth
the cost, whether ye have sufficient to finish it? lest, happily after
he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it,
all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to
build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war
against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against
him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an embassage, and desireth conditions
of peace. If you can't win, then you need
peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath. Is that what it
says the disciples did in Architecture? They left all, they forsook all,
and followed him. If you don't do this, you can't
be my disciple. If you don't leave everything,
you can't follow me. That's what a disciple is, a
follower of Jesus Christ. You have to leave everything
to follow me. Otherwise you can't do it. That's why he said what
he did to the rich young woman. Go sell everything you have now
if you're going to follow me. Notice first of all that he's
not just talking to preachers here. The whole great multitude,
there was a multitude that followed him there it says. A multitude.
And he turned to the multitude. Everybody that would follow him.
I'm just talking about preachers. Maybe you thought that when I
was saying, I know some people who have done this, not just
preachers now, the whole great multitude. We
might see that verse now in chapter five, our text verse 11. And
we might think, well, that makes sense. You know, preachers have
to pretty much abandon all other pursuits. They usually have to
quit their job and move maybe to become a pastor. We're not
talking about just them though. That, first of all, is clear
here. He said to the multitude, if any man, if any man come to
me. And notice, secondly, that our
Lord didn't say to them, I'm so glad that you're following
me, that you've decided to follow Jesus. I'm so glad. We have a
gift package for all of you, you know, and a disciple's handbook,
and we want you to sign the letter of membership and this pledge
card. What he did say was this. What he did say would be considered
by today's religious standards to be a very negative thing to
say. He was implying here clearly
that many of them ought not to even be there. In fact, unless you've done something
that's impossible for you to do, isn't that what he said to
the rich young ruler? He said that to his disciples
after the rich young ruler walked away sorrowful because he had
great possessions. Men can't do this. Men are not
ever going to forsake everything. It's not going to happen. If
it's up to you, as religion says it is, it's not going to happen. It is impossible with men. What
is? To forsake all and follow him.
It's not complicated. That's what he was saying there.
Go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come
follow me. Well, I can't do that. And he left. And the Lord said,
well, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man. And they said, well, who can
be saved then? And he just told them plainly, with men it's not
going to happen. It's not going to happen. But God can make it
happen. But what a negative thing to
say. Unless you can do something that's
impossible, then you're just, you're a pretender. You're wasting
your time. You cannot be what you're pretending
to be. Why would he talk that way? Why would he say to his
disciples? In John chapter 6, for example, you know, he spoke
of how that no man, he said no man can follow me, can come to
me. Nobody can be saved. Nobody can believe on me. Except
my father which has sent me draw him take him from where he is
and bring him to me That's the only way you're coming to me
is if my father Causes you to come blessed is the man whom
thou chooses and causes to approach unto thee and nobody else is
coming and Many walked away and went no more with him They said
this is a hard saying and it didn't mean they didn't understand
him that that word means intolerable and scandalous and This is an intolerable and offensive
saying. And they left and walked no more
with him. And why would he turn? Instead
of turning to his disciples and saying, man, I'm so glad somebody
stayed. He said, aren't you going to go with them? Why would he say that? Why would he say to that multitude,
unless You forsake everything now, unless you take up your
cross, unless you're willing to die. You can't be my disciple. You may be following me physically,
but you're not doing it truly and spiritually. Well, the Lord
knows the reason he speaks that way is he knows what we have
no way of knowing. That these individuals who make
up this multitude in Luke 14 are just like the ones in John
6. who when he began to teach them
that following him was not up to their free will, but that
his father would have to draw them, they went back and walked
no more with him, saying, you know, this is just intolerable,
this is offensive, I'm not going to listen to this. He knows what's
in people. He committed not himself to those
that followed him just for the loaves and fishes, because he
knew what was in them. That's why he speaks to us the
way he does. Our text is a warning. It's a
wake-up call. Are you here this morning because
you want something from God? Because you want some stuff from
Him? Some blessings? Some jewels in your crown or
something? To go to heaven when you die? A mansion over the hilltop? Because of the loaves and fishes,
in other words? You want to go to heaven when
you die, you know? I used to, sadly and to my shame,
found myself with men who went around soul winning, door to
door. And the first thing they'd knock
on the door, somebody answered the door, they'd say, we just
wanted to come by and find out if you want to go to heaven when
you die. I never ran into anybody that didn't. Is that why you're following
him? Or are you following Him because you love Him above all
others? Like marriage, forsaking all
others. You've got to leave your father
and mother, cleave unto your wife, and vice versa. Is that why you're
following Him? Because you love Him? Because
you trust Him with your very soul? I know whom I have believed
and I'm persuaded that he's able. And because you need him more
than your necessary food. Is that why, maybe? And let me be blunt. I want to
be just blunt and clear. Do you know the difference? Do
you know the difference now, this morning? Do you know the
difference when somebody preaches the gospel, and when somebody's
just being religious, and talking about the free will, you know,
salvation, man-centered, so-called gospel in this world? Do you
know the difference? That God is God, and He's sovereign, and
He chooses, not you. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you. That He sits with you. Do you
know the difference? And yet, I don't know who I'm talking
to this morning because this will likely be heard by many
who are not even here this morning. Do you know the difference between
the gospel and false religion and yet your wife or your husband
or your boyfriend or your girlfriend go to another church that preaches
a Jesus who wants to save everybody if they'll just let him and so
you go there with him or her and forsake the gospel and the
worship of God Almighty the true God You cannot be his disciple,
he said. You got to forsake. This is exactly
what he's talking about. Whatever stands in the way of
you following him wholeheartedly. And hey, a wife or a husband
doesn't have to stand in the way. Mine doesn't. You need to find one like that.
Or just forsake him and be honest about it. Just be honest about
it. Just say, I'd rather have her
than him. Or him than him. Just be honest with yourself.
Be honest before God. Just as sure as I'm standing
here, it's you that he's talking to. If you're in that place.
Do you know the difference, that there is a difference between
the true gospel and false free will religion of this generation
and yet you live somewhere where there's no true church you've
got a good job and all you know and love is there and think about this now because
I've never thought about this before but the Lord showed me
this as I was looking at this you would ask another man if
you're in that place if you're somewhere where just a dark corner
of the world where there's no gospel and it don't look like
there's fixing to be No reason to believe there ever will be.
You've waited and you've thought, well, maybe the Lord will send
us a pastor. You would ask another man to leave everything that
he knows and loves and come be your pastor, but you won't go
do that? You won't go be where there is a pastor? What do you
think this world is about? What do you think you're here
for? When God clearly over years of
time shows you that he's not going to send a pastor there,
you're not yourself willing to forsake anything for the sake
of the Lord Jesus Christ? You think you can serve him and
honor him where there's no gospel? Maybe you need to think about
that a little longer, a little harder. Pray about that. Is that
blunt enough? Have you counted the cost? Let me ask you this. Have you
counted the cost of not building anything? Can you afford not
to build? Why are people building towers
and houses? What is this? Well, clearly it's
an analogy of having a home. It's an analogy here of winning
a war. There's a war going on. Maybe
you're not aware of it. It's a battle in which the souls
of men hang in the balance. Your soul hangs in the balance. And the very honor and glory
of God hangs in the balance. And whether you win or lose,
He wins. I want you to win, too. I want
to win, too, don't you? I want to win. What's it going
to take to win? What's it going to take to build,
to get this done? What's it going to take? Everybody's
building something, I believe. Others are. I see that others
are building. It's time for you and I to sit down and count. There's a terrible cost of doing
nothing. That's clearly implied in our
text. Why don't these ones who do build, who do fall across
without looking back, why don't they just despair and build nothing
because they have no resources? Maybe you sit down and you say,
well, I don't have anything to build with. Just give up. Just
quit. No. Because building this house,
the plain illustration here is that building this house in spiritual
terms is following Christ. It's being with Him. It's having
favor with God. Having the blessing of God. It's
believing on Him. It's life and death. And the
most important thing that we need to understand in this lesson,
next to the fact that you have to build. This is necessary. You've got to build. We must
have Christ. The next important thing we need
to understand is why we must have Him. And this is vital now. We don't
come to Him because we have enough. We don't build this house because
we have enough. We don't come to him because
we're capable, because we're in a position of strength. We
come to him because by his grace we have counted the cost and
only he is enough. We don't go to battle because
we're able to win. We go to battle because he gives
us the victory. When you sit down and count the
cost as our Lord advises us to do in this passage of scripture,
do you know what you're going to discover? I know some of you know because
you've done it. You've sat down and thought about this. Am I
able to follow him? Am I able, really? You know what
you're going to discover? You're going to discover what
the Lord told that rich young ruler in the same exact situation
that you're in. With men, it's impossible. I
can't get it done. That's why we go to Him. That's
why we follow Him. Not because we can, but because
we can't. Because we have nothing. No resources. The cost of following Christ
for that young man was to sell all that he had, give it to the
poor, and come and follow Christ. And he couldn't pay. And he said
no man can. With men, it's impossible. And here's what counting the
cost will bring us to realize this morning. If we find ourselves
in the same situation, we sit here and think about now, what
have I got? What do I don't have? What do I lack? What are my resources? Am I able to get this done? Here's
what we're gonna realize. I owe him everything. And I have nothing to pay. Nothing. That's why I've got to have him.
That's why I can't let anyone or anything stand in my way to
Him. I have nothing and He is everything. Here's what I discovered, put
another way. I've got a tower to build and without Him I can't
do anything. I have a house that I've got
to build and there's just one foundation and it's already laid.
I don't need to build a foundation, and I'm glad I don't, because
I don't have any resources. But there's one already laid.
No other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid past
tense. Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. He is the author of my faith,
and he's got to finish it. If I have to leave my home, what
of it? He's my home now. If I have to
physically, earthly leave my home, the place that I live,
my job. You was looking for one when
you found that one. He gave you that one. Who do you think gave
you that one? Boy, I sure do love, you know,
this boy or this girl. God Almighty, If you're going
to ever find the person that you're supposed to be with, it's
because God's going to give them to you. And if they're keeping
you from Him, they're not the one. They're not the one. He's my home now. How can I leave
my home if I follow Him? He's my home. He's my father,
my sister, my mother, my brother. Isn't that what He said about
us? If he's my brother, he said he's my brother, well that makes
him my brother too. He's my family, how can you leave
your family if you're following him? He is your family. I would to God now that my earthly
family would come with me, don't you? Don't you wish they would
follow him too? I sure do. The prophet said,
come with us and we'll do you good. I believe it was Moses,
and I've got the scripture here, Numbers 10, 29. And Moses said
unto Hobat, the son of Regel, the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law,
we're journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I'll
give it to you. We're going to the place that
God has provided for us. Come thou with us, and we'll
do you good. For the Lord has spoken good
concerning Israel. It's not just that we're going
to do you, we will do you good because God has pronounced good
upon his church. Come with us. That's what we
want. We don't want to leave anybody
to follow him, do we? We want everybody to come. The
Spirit and the Bride, you know what they say? Come. And let
him that heareth say come. Have you come? Then you're saying
come. Come and see a man who told me
all things ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Is not
this the Christ that we preach here? And let him that's thirsty come,
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. We
don't hate them in the sense that we don't want them to come.
Oh, how we want them to come. Our Lord is teaching us this,
if coming to Christ, we don't hate them in a vindictive, you
know, like we hate the enemies of God, you know, in the strict
sense. What He's teaching us is this,
if coming to Christ means leaving them, then as difficult as that
may be in the flesh, we must. There's really no decision, is
there? We will, because by the gift
and revelation of God, we know who He is. That's the only reason
that the rich young ruler couldn't leave all of his stuff and follow
Christ. He just didn't know who he was.
You reckon if he knew who he was he wouldn't have left that
stuff? You just got to be able to see, that's all. But that's
a miracle of his power and grace. No man can. He's got to open
blind eyes. He's the one in that business
and he's the only one. This hating is not an evil, malicious
hatred. In fact, loving and knowing and
following the Lord Jesus Christ will cause you to love your family
and friends more than you ever could otherwise. You realize
that, don't you? You care more about them than
you ever would if you hadn't followed Him. It's not that kind
of hatred. But it is that we love Him so
much that we would even forsake those that we love. in this world,
if necessary, in order to be true to Him, to honor Him. We need Him. We need His righteousness to
please God. That's the cost of building this
house. You've got to render unto Him perfect obedience. Can you come up with that? We don't follow him because we
can do that. We follow him because he is that. Christ is that righteousness.
We need his precious blood to wash us from our sin. That's
the cost of redemption. That's the price of freedom,
and we can't pay it. But he did, and so we must have
him. It's by faith that we realize
this. Faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. Our Lord said no man can except. He didn't say no man
can. He just said you can't unless
the Father draws you. Something's going to have to
happen if you can't. God Almighty has got to draw you, take you
from where you are and put you in Christ. Paul said of God are
you in Christ Jesus. That's how that works. How does God do that? How does
God take you from where you are and put you in His Son? By faith. We follow Him by faith. You know
how you can leave everything and everybody and follow Him?
By faith Moses chose to be reproached with Christ and esteemed Him
to be greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. By faith. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
although that would have meant every whim that he could ever
have to be fulfilled, to have authority and favor in every
blessing of this earth that men think are blessings. But he chose
by faith, rather, to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach
of Christ, greater riches and the treasures in Egypt, for he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward. He knew that he
couldn't afford not to have Christ. By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him
who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover
and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn
should touch them. I want you to turn over there
to Hebrews 11 24 because I want us to look at three things here.
This is how you're going to be able to do this. If God gives
you faith in his son, then this world, you won't have
a choice to make anymore. As long as you have a choice
to make, you're going to choose poorly. 11 24 of Hebrews. In the first part, there's three
distinct parts of this. By faith, first of all, Moses,
when he was coming to years, he didn't want to be, he didn't
want to live in Pharaoh's house, the king's house. He wanted to
suffer. Why? Because that's what comes
with being with Christ. You see. He has esteemed the
reproach of Christ greater riches. So number one, By faith Moses
saw the Lord Jesus Christ to be worth it. To be worth it. If the rich young ruler would
have had that faith, the faith that God gave Moses, he would
have left everything and followed Christ because he's worth it.
He's worth it. And that's just an understatement.
Zacchaeus did the very same thing that the rich young ruler could
not. When the Lord came to Zacchaeus's tree and said, you come down
here, Zacchaeus. I've got to come live with you
now. Zacchaeus said, everybody that I've cheated as a tax collector
who were notoriously cheats, I'm going to pay them back more
than I stole from them. And whatever's left, I'm going
to give it to the poor. That's exactly what the rich
young ruler couldn't do. Why was Zacchaeus able to do
it? Read Luke 18 and 19 if you ever want to see the difference
between the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus. You know how?
Faith. We don't need stuff. We got to
have Him. If He gives us some stuff, we'll
be thankful for it. But we got to have Him. Secondly,
by faith Moses wasn't afraid. Verse 27 there. He wasn't afraid. Why? This is so interesting. It says there in verse 27, the
reason that he wasn't afraid. How many times has the Lord said,
fear not, fear not. What am I going to do if I don't
have anything, if I don't have a home to even live in? Moses
forsook a cushy position in Pharaoh's house. What am I going to do?
How am I going to live? What about this? What about that?
Hush. Not worried about that. Take no thought for what you
shall eat or drink. Don't you think your Heavenly
Father knows you need those things? Why wasn't he afraid? It says
there in verse 27, because he saw him who people can't see. That's what faith is, to see
him. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. The substance of things hoped
for. He saw him that was invisible to almost everybody. But not
to Moses. Not to us, by his grace. Faith really is just seeing him.
Well, Chris, don't we have to love him though? If you see him,
you'll love him. If you ever see him, oh, you'll love him. Don't you
have to trust him? Oh, if you ever see him, I know whom. I've seen him. And I'm persuaded he's able.
You just got to see him. How many times has he said to
his people, don't be afraid. Do you know how to fear not?
By looking to Him, seeing Him who is invisible. Oh, we need
to see Him. That's why we're here. I just
want to see Him again, don't you? And what rest and comfort,
peace. Are you scared? There's a lot
to be scared of. But if we see Him, who is invisible, we won't be afraid. And by faith, Moses kept the
Passover. By faith, Moses offered the precious
blood of the lamb, ate the lamb, all of it, and trusted that the
precious blood of God's lamb would protect him from the wrath
of God against the Egyptians. God poured out His wrath that
night, but it didn't... He wasn't afraid of that either,
Moses wasn't, because he saw Him. He kept the Passover. He knew that his only hope before
God was the blind. Verse 28 in that text. Faith
sees the Son of God who is invisible, the substance of things, the
evidence of things that we can't see. How do you know, Chris? How do you know he's able? I've
seen him by faith. I've seen who he is. I know his
hand is not short that it can't save me. I know that his blood
is sufficient and satisfactory to God for all of my sins, because
he has given me a glimpse, by faith, of who he is. By faith
we know that he is all that is valuable and desirable. John
Newton wrote, while blessed with a sense of his love, a palace,
a toy, would appear, and prisons would palaces prove, if only
he will dwell with me there. And by faith we offer the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is our sin offering unto God. We acknowledge Him. That's what
I mean by offer. We just acknowledge Him to be
our propitiation and pray that God would be propitious to us,
merciful to us, the sinner, by the precious blood of Christ. If we're going to escape the
wrath of God, it's only by the blood of the Lamb. The Lamb who
bears God's wrath in our place. And when Christ is all of that
to you, then you'll do what our text says. That you must do in
order to be His disciple. You'll forsake all others and
you'll forsake everything and you'll forsake yourself. You'll
die for Him. You'll die for the One that died
for you. That's what crosses are. You take up your cross and
follow Him. You've got to die to self. That's what this amounts
to. We count the cost and we see
that with men it's impossible. But we see Christ to be all that
we lack and all that we need. If I have Him, I have sufficient
wherewith to build. If I have Christ, I have the
victory. The battle is mine. The victory
is mine. The spoils are ours. In myself,
I'm insufficient in every way. I'm bankrupt in the story of
the builder and I'm outmatched in the story of the battle. But greater is he that is in
me than he that is in this world. I am nothing. You gonna count the cost? You're
gonna find out. I am nothing. But Christ is my
representative, my substitute. He went into the presence of
God for me. Paul said in Hebrews 9, 4, Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
truth, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. He did every, I am nothing, but
He, I come to God by Him. I have nothing, but Christ not
only represents me in the presence of the Father, but he went there
with somewhat to offer. As our high priest, this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. How am I going to come up with
the price? of winning this battle, I'm not. But he did, and he paid it for me. This is my blood which
he shed for you. I can do nothing, but Christ
won the victory for me. He giveth us the victory. through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Our text says that someone who
sees that he's about to be destroyed by the enemy, what does he do?
He sins for conditions of peace. How can I have peace with God?
Do you know what those conditions for peace are? And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven and you What about you? Did Christ die for everybody?
No. But what you really need to know
this morning is did he die for you? For you. And you who were at one time
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Did he do that for you? Do you
believe on him? You got to forsake everybody
and everything else. They can't help you. But I got
so much stuff. What's that gonna do for you
before God? And I realize I don't have sufficient. But He is my sufficiency. Got
to have Him. Anybody like that this morning?
You got to have Him. Don't let anybody or anything
stand in your way. If you ever see Him, you won't.
Moses saw the invisible one. I pray God would open your eyes
and mine. Let's pray.