I want you to take your Bible,
and I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter
14. This morning, we began looking
at this text, this passage, and we looked at verses 25 to 27,
and I want to finish what we began. I want us to look tonight
at verses 28 through the end of the chapter. But I want to
begin by reading the passage one more time and setting it
before you, and as I read the text, One reason I do so, Paul
told Timothy, until I come, give attention to the public reading
of Scripture, to exhortation and to teaching. When you begin
by reading the Scripture, you're making a statement that everything
that I have to say to you tonight is originating in this text,
is coming out of this text. And so the real preacher is not
me, the real preacher is God through this text. So I trust
that the Lord will give us all ears to hear what God says in
His Word and that we can apply it to our own lives and be an
incarnation, really, of this passage. Luke chapter 14, I want
to begin reading in verse 25, and tonight we'll start our study
at verse 28. Now, large crowds were going
along with Him, and the Him, of course, is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he turned and said to them,
if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother
and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his
own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which one of you, when he
wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate
the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when
he has laid a foundation, and is not able to build, not able
to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying,
this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or, verse 31, what king, when
he sets out to meet another king in battle? will not first sit
down and consider whether he is strong enough with 10,000
men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000. Or else, while the other is still
far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be my
disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Therefore, salt is good. But
if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless, either for the
soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let
him hear. In a former life, I once played
college football for Texas Tech University. After my senior year
in high school, I was given a full four-year football scholarship
to Texas Tech. Everything for the next four
years was paid in full. My tuition was free every class
for four years. My room was free My board and
meals were free. My laundry was free. My books
were free. My travel was free. My tutors
were free. For the next four years, my entire
college education was free. It did not cost me one thin dime. But then again, it cost me everything. I could barely afford this free
education. There were two-day practices
in West Texas under that blazing hot sun. You'd stand on one end
of the astroturf field at the goal line, and you'd look to
the other goalpost, and you literally could not even see the other
goalpost for all of the heat that was rising from the astroturf
field, which was like a hot skillet. There were full contact scrimmages.
There were wind sprints, weightlifting, agility drills, running laps,
running stadium stairs, tackling drills, blocking drills. There
were team meetings, mandatory curfew, team rules, mandatory
class attendance, mandatory grades, even mandatory church attendance. For the next four years, that
university literally owned me. It cost me everything that I
had to give. It even required trips to the
hospital with the trainer as I gave blood, sweat, toil, and
tears. I recently went to a doctor to
have him look at my sinuses, and he said, oh, your nose has
been broken. I said, no, my nose has never been broken. He says,
trust me, your nose has been broken. It cost me everything for this
free education. And though it was free, it cost
every drop I had to give. In a real way, that is exactly
how salvation is if you indeed are saved. Everything is free. Jesus lived a sinless life under
the law, obeyed the law on our behalf, and secured for us a
perfect righteousness on our behalf. And He went to the cross
and was lifted up to die. And there upon the cross, Him
who knew no sin, God made to be sin for us that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him. And there is now therefore no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus paid it
all, and all to Him I owe, sin that left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. And it is offered to us as a
free, prepaid gift. There is nothing that we can
add to the finished work of Jesus Christ upon the cross. Therefore,
having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. through
our Lord Jesus Christ. But at the same time, true saving
faith necessitates that you commit all that you are to the Lord
Jesus Christ. It will cost you everything to
receive the free gift. It necessitates a life of self-denial. Death to self, death to lust,
it necessitates sacrifice and submission, and it brings adversity
and tribulation and persecution, and for some, even martyrdom. The cost for following Jesus
Christ is always a high cost. The cost of following Christ
is never marked down, it is never discounted, it is never reduced,
it is never on sale. Following Christ is never pursued
on easy street. This morning we looked at these
first three verses, and just to give a brief summary, we noted
the crowd in verse 25, that it was a mixed crowd. Large crowds
were going along after Jesus. Some of them were committed,
others were just curious. Some were counterfeit. It was
a mixed bag. Some were true believers in Christ,
and others were just hanging out with religious people and
a part of a religious crowd, but they no more had committed
their life to Christ than the devil had. And so, in verse 26,
we see the call. Jesus, it says at the end of
25, turned and said to them. What a bold preacher Jesus was. He turned and said to them, and
in verse 26, the call, if anyone comes to me. He invited the entire
crowd to come to Him with a step of faith and entrust their soul
and entrust their life to the Lord Jesus. But, third, we noted
the condition. And the condition is that you
must hate your own father and mother and wife and children
and brothers and sisters and even your own life, or you cannot,
you cannot, you cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And to be a
disciple of Jesus Christ is to be an authentic believer, a genuine
convert to Christ. So, what does this mean? Well,
what Jesus is saying is using a figure of speech. And what
Jesus is saying, as we noted this morning, that you must love
Jesus Christ so much more than anything or anyone in this world
that the love that you have for Christ, the affection, the allegiance,
and the loyalty that you have for Christ makes any other thing
in your life appear to be as hate because you love Christ
supremely. And Jesus will never be number
two in anyone's life. He is Lord. And that's the condition
Jesus is stating. Jesus is saying, I will not follow
you, you're going to follow Me, or you cannot be My disciple. The commitment of your life is
going to have to be real and genuine and deep. Then we noted further in verse
27, the cross. Whoever does not carry his own
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. A cross, we noted,
is an instrument of death. It was the electric chair of
the first century. It was the gas chamber of the
first century. A cross was what someone was
placed upon, nails driven into their hands, and they would be
crucified and put to death. And the condemned criminal would
carry his cross through the streets to the execution site. And as
he carried his cross, he was a dead man walking. He had no
more rights to his life. And so it is that for those of
us who follow Jesus Christ, we are dead to our old way of life.
And we are dead to our old pursuits. We are dead to our old passions. And we now carry the cross. Not
the cross of Christ. He hasn't been put on the cross
yet. We all have our own cross. And it symbolizes death to self. and the burial of the old life,
that there would be a resurrection of a new life in Christ. And
so Jesus is intentionally sifting through the crowd. He's not making
it easy to follow Him. He is actually upping the ante.
He is actually setting the bar at a very high place that to
be one of His followers, we must be sold out to Him. None of His
followers can straddle the fence. They can't play all ends into
the middle. They can't be someone on Sunday and someone else on
Monday. He is requiring all-out commitment to Him. Now, we come to verse 28, and I want you to note the calculation.
Because Jesus, as it were, is putting up His hands and saying
to the crowd, do not make a rash decision. Do not allow your emotions
to just sweep you into a decision that would be a shallow, superficial
decision. No, you must count the cost before
you commit to Me. Because though salvation is free,
discipleship will cost you every step of the way. And so, beginning
in verse 28 and extending down to verse 32, Jesus gives two
parables. Jesus is the master teacher,
and Jesus now gives two parables. You know what a parable is? A
parable is an earthly story with a heavenly…or a heaven…yeah,
an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. He doesn't just tell them what
this commitment looks like, He shows them what this commitment
looks like. And what is interesting in these
two parables, they both say essentially the same thing. that it will
cost you everything to follow Him. In the first parable, in
verses 28 and 29 and 30, He says, if you follow Me, it will cost
you everything. In the second parable, He says,
in verse 31 and 32, If you do not follow Me, it will
cost you everything. It's going to cost you everything
whether you follow Him or whether you don't follow Him. What stunning, profound brilliance
is on display in these verses. has like a vice grip being tightened
upon the conscience of these listeners, Jesus is saying, it's
going to cost you either way, whether you follow Me, whether
you don't follow Me, so you might as well follow Me. So, let's
look at the first parable here in verse 28. And as we look at
this parable, I want you to give thought to your life. I want
you to give thought to your soul. Have you truly counted the cost
to follow Christ? So in verse 28, he begins by
saying, for which one of you? And as he says that, he's looking
straight into the eyes of these who are following him, hundreds
if not thousands of people pouring out of towns and cities and little
villages. It's a groundswell of people
that are following after him. They have never heard anyone
preach like him. They have never seen miracles
like he is performing. And so, Jesus looks them square
in the eye and says, which one of you? And He now begins to give this
parable when He wants to build a tower. In this parable, this
man is a builder, not of a small building, but of a tower. requiring a sizable investment
of resources to undertake this project. The word for tower in
verse 28 that you see in your Bible is a Greek word that can
mean a castle, a fortified structure rising to a considerable height
that would require watchmen in the towers or on the wall. So, which one of you, when he
wants to build this extraordinary edifice, does not first sit down? In other words, on the front
end, before you make this decision to begin to build this tower,
you need to sit down at the table and do the math. You need to
add up what this is going to require, not just to start the
project, but to complete the project, because it's going to
require an enormous commitment on your part to carry it out. So, you need to do the math on
this. You need to see what you have and what it requires. So he says, who does not first
sit down and calculate the cost. In other words, you need to add
it up and come up with a grand total and see if you're ready
to make this commitment, because you're just going to be throwing
your money away. If you start this project and then come to
the realization, you know what? I don't have what it takes. So
I just blew all that money, I just threw it down the drain. It was
just a total waste of time and resources." So he says, this
man who is ready to begin to build, he must sit down and calculate
the cost to see if he has enough to complete it, if he has enough
resources, if he has enough materials, if he has the ability to hire
enough workers, if he has enough money to meet payroll. Does he have enough to complete
it, to finish the task? And that question anticipates
a negative answer. Oh, he wants to build this tower,
but he doesn't have what it takes. So, note the carelessness in
verse 29, the carelessness. Jesus now tells of this foolish
builder who just rushed into the project without counting
the cost. So in verse 29, he says, otherwise,
meaning on the other hand, however, by total contrast to the wise
builder who counts the cost before he builds, here is the scenario
and the story of the man who did not count the cost. He is
a foolish builder. He is a careless builder. He
is a reckless builder. He is not a shrewd manager. of what he has. So, verse 29,
"'Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation.'" Oh, it looks
so good at the beginning. He made this initial decision.
He cleared the land, He bought the materials, He began the project,
and it started so well, and it looked so good, and everyone
when they walked by, they saw the beginning of this tower going
up, the foundation, but then we read at the end of verse 29,
in the middle of verse 29, it says, and is not able to finish. He didn't have what it takes
to complete the project. He ran out of money. He ran out
of materials. He ran out of willpower. Oh,
he had good intentions. He meant well. He started well. He just could not finish. Why? Because he never counted
the cost on the front end. He made this rash decision that
was a superficial decision. It was a shallow decision that
lacked the true commitment to carry it through. This builder
pictures the false convert. It pictures
those in the crowd there that day who were just swept up in
the emotion of the moment. It was so easy just to slide
in with the crowd. It was just so easy to go with
the flow. It was just so easy to learn
the vocabulary. It was so easy to blend in with
everyone else, but down in the heart There was never a genuine
decision to love Christ more than this world, than loved ones. There was no cross-bearing. There
was no death to self. They were religious but lost. They were Judas' disciples. who
had never come to the place of counting the cost of what this
would require for me to follow Jesus Christ. It was just all
good times. It was kind of a health, wealth,
prosperity gospel. What's in it for me? What good
times will come to me, but I won't ever have to sacrifice, deny
myself, and take up a cross and follow after Christ." So Jesus
is blowing the lid off of their self-deception about where they
really are with Him. So he says in verse 29, the condemnation,
all who observe it, but all refers to the whole town. Everybody
who knows this builder and everybody who sees this project starting,
the town people, the neighbors, the business partners, the bankers,
the competitors. all who observe it." Now, this
unfinished tower with just a bare foundation and maybe some scaffolding
and just some studs, but the empty shell of an abandoned tower
Everybody sees this and they begin to laugh. What fool would
have begun a project like this without ever coming to the point
of counting the cost? You didn't know what it would
cost you. So you just entered in so easy, but it wasn't a genuine
commitment. And you just so easy fell away. It's like the soil, the seed
that fell on the soil in Matthew 13, on the shallow soil. And it at first began to grow,
but there was a rock ledge underneath the very thin soil, and when
those roots went down and hit the rock ledge, they reversed
their direction and then went up and were exposed to the air
above the surface, and they just died. And it pictures someone
who is self-deceived about being a follower of Christ. You're
just on an easy street. You've never really become a
disciple of Christ. And so, at the end of verse 30, At the end of verse 29 it says,
they began to ridicule Him. That means they began to mock
Him and jeer Him and scorn Him and scoff at Him and laugh at
Him, verse 30 saying, this man, and there's a note of disdain,
looking down at this man, began to build and was not able to
finish. Why? Because he just entered it in
such a blasé, fair, superficial way,
he never counted the cost. And the point of the parable
is those in the crowd there that day had never counted the cost
of being what we would say today of being a real Christian. So, what was the cost? The cost is everything. Everything that you are and everything
that you have, all signed over to the Lord Jesus Christ and
your life is no longer your life. Your life now belongs to the
one whom you are following, Jesus Christ. And the cost Jesus laid
out In verse 26, this is the cost. You must hate your father
and mother and brother and sister, yes, even your own life, which
literally means you just must love me more than those whom
you love the most. And you must love me more than
you love your old, sinful, stinking life. And the cost is you must
take up your cross and die. to self and to a life pursuit
of sin and head in a totally new direction. You must count
the cost or you will be like this foolish builder who just
prays a prayer, raises a hand, signs a card, joins a group,
but you've never done business with Jesus. So that's the first
parable. It's a powerful story, is it
not? And it is a story that is directed to each and every one
of us here tonight. And the cost of following Christ
has never been discounted and it has never been marked down.
It is the same in every generation on every continent. It will cost you self-righteousness. to no longer trust in yourself
and trust in your own good works and trust in your own morality
to commend you to God. It will trust you, your self-control
That you're no longer in control of your life, you're no longer
in charge, but you're under new management now. You're under
the lordship of Jesus Christ. You're no longer doing your own
thing and going your own way and doing what you want, when
you want, how you want, but now you commit to do what Christ
wants, and when Christ wants it, and how Christ wants it. and you're dead to your self-ease. You're no longer just letting
your own lust just take you away with the flow of this world.
You now have reversed your course and you now are swimming upstream
against the course of this world. And you've died to self-pride. You've come to the end of yourself.
That's when Christ begins. These are strong words from the
Savior. There's a second parable. So,
if you say, yes, I'm going to follow Christ, then you're going
to have to count the cost, and the cost is it's going to cost
you everything, which means Not that you work for your salvation,
it just means that you make a total commitment and surrender of your
life to Jesus. You cross the line. You've burned
your bridges behind you. There's no going back. Now, the
second parable starts in verse 31, and this is the next heading.
It's the conflict. Jesus is out ahead of the crowd
in what they're thinking, and He knows what some of them are
thinking. And some of them are ready to say, are saying to themselves
internally, well, I'm not ready to make that commitment. I'm
not ready to be sold out to Jesus Christ. I want to hang on to
my own life. I want to call my own shots.
I want to make my own choices. I want to go my own way. So Jesus
now gives this second parable. to show them that if you don't
give your life to Christ, it's also going to cost you everything,
but in a different way. It will cost the damnation of
your soul in hell forever. So, notice verse 31. This parable
is all about two kings with two armies who are headed to an unavoidable
confrontation and conflict. Let me say that again. There's
two kings. Both kings have armies at their disposal, and they are
marching against one another, and it is an unavoidable conflict. That is the parable. So in verse
31, Jesus said, or what king? Let's just stop right there.
This first king in this parable is everyone in the crowd that
day who had not committed their life to Christ. It was everyone
in the crowd that day who was just being swept up in the emotion
of the moment and had an easy road in front of them. And they're
pictured as a king because a king rules over a domain, and everyone
in the crowd that day who had not taken up their cross to follow
Him, who had not made Him the supreme loyalty and allegiance
of their life, they're like this king who is just reigning over
their own life, calling their own shots, doing their own thing,
going their own way. They're just being the king over
their own life. They've been running their own life. So, in
verse 31, or what king? Now, follow what Jesus is saying
in verse 31. For what king? When He, referring
to the first king, sets out to meet another king, the second
king is the one who is telling the parable. The second king
is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, none other than
Jesus Christ Himself. And he sets out to meet another
king, please note this, in battle. Do you see that in your Bible,
in battle? This first king is heading into
battle with this first king. This first king, because he has
not yet committed his life to Christ, has declared himself
to be the avowed enemy of the second king. This first king
is at war. with the second king. He is at
enmity with the second king. He is hostile to the second king,
just like Colossians 1.23 says in Romans chapter 5, that every
unbeliever is an enemy of God, whether by active rebellion or
passive indifference. They are at war. Every unbeliever
is at war with Almighty God and with Christ. In fact, bitter
opposition and stiff strife. And if you're here tonight and
you're without Christ and you have not yet taken up your cross
and you love yourself more than you love Christ, if you love
others more than you love Christ, I am here to tell you the truth
about the state of your soul, that you are an enemy of Christ. You're not in neutral zone. You're
not in no man's land. You have declared your opposition
against Christ. You will not take His yoke upon
you. But what is worse, far worse,
is not only is this first king at war with the second king,
but the second king is at war with the first king. That Jesus
is at war with rebels who oppose His kingdom, who have committed
cosmic treason against Him. And this very moment, they are
under the wrath of God. There's more to the story than
smile, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. God is angry with the wicked
every day. In John 3 verse 36, the text
reads, he who does not obey the Son will not see life. But the
wrath of God abides on Him." That's a present tense verb,
meaning not one day on the final day will the wrath of God be
revealed. No, right now, today, this very
moment, if you do not obey the Lord Jesus Christ in saving faith,
you are presently under the wrath of God. I want you to take your Bible
and turn back to the book of Psalms. It'll be easy to find. And I
want you to turn to Psalm 2. And I want us to look at five Psalms very quickly. Psalm
2. Psalm 5, Psalm 7, Psalm 9, and
Psalm 11. And the reason I lay that out
before you is I want to impress upon you how these Psalms are
front-loaded at the beginning of the book of Psalms. These
are not hidden at the back of the book of Psalms that might
not ever be read by most people. These are intentionally collated
and placed at the very beginning of the book of Psalms in order
to capture the attention of everyone who enters into this book. And
in Psalm 1, Jesus, or the psalmist says, there are only two roads
in life. There is the way of the righteous and there is the
way of the wicked. And in Psalm 2, he talks about
those who are on the way of the wicked, which is every unbeliever,
every unsaved church member, every person who names the name
of Christ but has never come to the point of submission and
surrender and cross-bearing So beginning in verse 1 of Psalm
2, why are the nations in an uproar? And the people's devising
a vain thing, and it pictures a worldwide conspiracy against
God. It pictures the entire human
race in every generation of history rising up in their conspiracy
against God. Verse 2, the kings of the earth
take their stand. These kings rule over the nations,
and the rulers take counsel together. They rule over the peoples in
verse 1. Please note the end of verse
2, against the Lord and against His anointed, and that ultimately
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the word Christ means,
the anointed one. So, the entire world, they can't
come together, they can't agree on politics, they can't agree
on finances, they cannot agree on social issues, but the one
point of agreement that they have around the globe in the
kingdom of darkness is their conspiracy to rise up against
God. So, this is what they say in
verse 3, "'Let us tear their fetters apart, In other words,
we don't want to be tied down by God. We don't want to be tied
down by the moral law of God. We don't want God's definition
of the family. We don't want God's definition
of morality and purity. We want to throw off those fetters,
which are like ropes and cords that would tie us down, at the
end of verse 3, and cast their cords from us. We want to be
free. We want our own sexual orientation. We want to define the family
the way we want to do it. This is a picture of the world
in which you and I live right now, my friend. And so, in verse 4, he, referring
to God, who sits in the heavens, laughs. It's not the laughter
of hilarity. It is the laughter of scorn that
you little puny man would think that you could rise up against
me and throw off my cords and my fetters, the entire world
rising up against me. God but blows and they go to
every direction. At the end of verse 4, the Lord
scoffs at them. There's more to the story than
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Verse 5, then He will speak to them in
His anger and terrify them in His fury. But as for me, I have installed
my king," referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, the king that is
mentioned in Luke 14, the second king, with 20,000 soldiers. I have installed my king upon
Zion, my holy mountain. In other words, I have enthroned
my Son at my right hand, the heights of the heavenly Zion. I will surely tell the decree
of the Lord. He said to me, the Father said to the Son, you are
my Son, today I have begotten you." Note verse 8, ask of me,
ask of me, the Father says to the Son, and I will surely give
the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth
as your possession. Now, please note what the Father
commands the Son to do with the nations that are in rebellion
against God, verse 9, you, the Father speaking to the Son, shall
break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware. This is the command of the Father,
crush them into hell. Sinners in the hands of an angry
God. God is angry with the wicked
today. Verse 10, now, therefore, O kings,
show discernment. In other words, wake up before
it's too late. Take warning, O judges of the
earth. You judges are about to be judged
by the judge, the Supreme Court judge of heaven and earth. Worship
the Lord with reverence. Rejoice with trembling. Do homage
to the Son. I love the old King James. Kiss
the Son. And you know what the picture
is? Every defeated king would be
brought before the victorious king in his palace in chains,
and the victorious king would be upon his throne, a throne
that would be raised up, and the defeated king would be brought
before the victorious king, and he was to get on his hands and
knees and kiss the feet of the victorious king. And it was a
sign of submission under the reigning victorious King." That's
what verse 12 is saying. You need to come and bow down
before the King of kings and kiss His feet and yield your
life completely to Him. Look at the middle of verse 12. Do homage to the Son, that He
not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may
soon be kindled." Yeah, I understand the parable in Luke 14 a whole
lot better now. Yeah, these two kings are at
war. And in Psalm 2, the kingdoms of this world and the kings of
this world have declared war against the God of heaven, and
the God of heaven laughs and mocks and commands the Son to
crush the nations with a rod of iron. The holiness of God demands it. You may say, what about the love
of God? Well, God has demonstrated His own love toward us in that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's what makes
the love of God so amazing is that He sends His Son to die
for those who have provoked His anger. Look at Psalm 5. Turn the page
to Psalm 5. Beginning in verse 4, and again,
to remind you, these are placed at the very entrance into the
psalter. Psalm 5 verse 4, for you are not a God who takes pleasure
in wickedness. No evil dwells with you. The
boastful shall not stand before your eyes. Please note the next
line, you hate all who do iniquity. Please note, he doesn't just
hate the iniquity. He hates the sinner man who commits the iniquity. God is holy. He cannot be indifferent
towards sin or sinners. Verse 6, you destroy those who
speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed
and deceit. There's more to the story than
smile. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Turn to Psalm 7. Psalm 7 and verse 6. The psalmist
pours out his soul. David, a man after God's own
heart, pours out his soul to God in prayer and says, Arise,
O Lord, in your anger. lift up yourself against the
rage of My enemies, and arouse yourself for Me. You have appointed
judgment." Now look at verse 11. God is a righteous judge
and a God who has indignation every day. Not on the last day,
not in eternity. Yes, He will have anger on the
last day and in eternity, but this text says every day, every
Monday, every Tuesday, every Wednesday, every Thursday, God
has indignation. against everyone who is refusing
His right to rule over their lives. Now, note verse 12 and
13. If a man does not repent, He,
God, will sharpen His sword. He is pictured here as the divine
warrior who has gathered His instruments of war and is sharpening
His sword so that it will pierce the soul. If a man does not repent,
he will sharpen his sword. He has bit his bow and made himself
ready. He's already pulled back the
bow. He's put the arrows of his vengeance and his fury into this
bow, and it is aimed right at the sinner man this very moment. Verse 13, he has also prepared
for himself deadly weapons, not Q-tips, deadly weapons. He makes His arrows fire His
shafts. He doesn't just fire the arrow,
He torches the arrow and then lights it up on fire and then
sends it. And what is the target? The target
is every unbeliever who refuses to follow Christ on His terms. Charles Haddon Spurgeon in Treasury
of David at this point says, when God bends the bow and sharpens
His sword, God never misses the target. Sinners in the hands of an angry
God. Look at Psalm 9. Psalm 9 verse 7 and 8. The Lord
abides forever. He has established His throne
for judgment, and He will judge the world in righteousness. He
will execute judgment for the peoples with equity. No mercy,
no grace, pure, unvarnished, unadulterated equity and justice. So much sin, so much wrath, so
much judgment. Look at Psalm 11, beginning in verse 4. I say it
again, these are all front-loaded at the beginning of the book
of Psalms, so that everyone who comes into the book of Psalms
as if entering into the temple will be sobered concerning who
it is that they are worshiping. In Psalm 11, beginning in verse
4, the Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven,
His eyes behold His eyelids test the sons of men, meaning no person
escapes His penetrating gaze. It is though He is squinting
His eyes in order to bring into focus so that He sees into every
crevice of every heart and every life. Verse 5, the Lord tests
the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence,
God's soul hates. Just mark that down. You say,
oh, that's just Old Testament. Listen, Romans 1 verse 18, for
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness
and all ungodliness of men, present tense verb, right now. Hebrews
10 and Hebrews 12, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands
of the living God. So look at verse 6, Psalm 11. He, God, will rain snares. It'll be thunder and lightning
and a downpouring like no one has seen, fire and brimstone
and burning wind. In other words, it's not just
fire, but the burning wind fans the flame of the fire and escalates
the fire and intensifies the fire of His wrath and His anger,
fire and brimstone And brimstone is just fire falling out of heaven,
and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. What I want to underscore for
your thinking tonight is, as we look at this parable of these
two kings, do not think that sounds foreign to who God is and what Christ
demands. So come back to Luke 14. That
was a necessary backdrop for Luke 14 as we consider this second
parable. What if we don't commit our life
to Christ? What if we don't take up our
cross? What if we just love ourselves more than Christ? So verse 31,
or what king? When he sets out to meet another
king in battle, ah, will first sit down and consider. He's going
to count the cost. Just like the first parable,
the man never sat down to count the cost. In this second parable,
this king with only 10,000 troops He sits down and he considers
whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one
coming against him with 20,000 men. You do the math. Only a
fool would go into battle against the superior greater king who
is armed to the teeth, who is marching already against you
to destroy you. You'll note at the end of verse
31, the one coming, that's the second king, against you. He's not neutral. He has declared war. So, verse 32, or else, while
the other is still far away, he sends a delegation. It's like
a little emissary, sends out some men on horses to approach
this advancing king, waving a white flag. for us to discuss and ask for terms of peace. What are the terms of peace? The only terms of peace by which
the second king will call off the conflict, will call off the
war. The terms are the same. It calls
for the unconditional surrender of your life. The terms of peace are you must hate your father
and mother and brother and sister, yes, even your own life. And
the terms of peace are you must take up a cross, die to self,
be a dead man walking, and come follow me." That's the only way
for you to escape the damnation of your soul because everyone who has not
bowed the knee to Jesus Christ will be crushed eternally by
the second king. Read the book of Revelation.
And by the way, just to remind you, that's still in the New
Testament of how this is all going to end. Have you accepted his terms of
peace? The lesser king does not set
the terms. He has no bargaining power. It
is the greater King that sets the terms of peace. There is
no negotiation. And the greater King, Jesus Christ,
has said to the lesser kings, you and me, the only terms of
peace are the unconditional surrender of your life to me. Have you surrendered your life
to the King of kings and to the Lord of lords? And I want you
to know He is coming. And He is coming in vengeance. You need to settle this tonight. You need to settle this, this
very moment. Because at any moment, we could well experience the
Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. and the
trumpet of God, and the voice of the archangel, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. And we who are alive and remain
shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Therefore, comfort
one another with these words." You need to be right with this
king tonight. So notice, if you would please,
the next verse, verse 33. So then, has a summation feel,
bringing it down to kind of a bottom line. So then, verse 33, none
of you can be my disciple. I'm just still so amazed at how
Jesus is not making it easy to follow him. So then, none of
you can be my disciple. Who does not give up all his
own possessions? What on earth does this mean? These are shocking words. These
are hard-hitting words. Well, number one, let me tell
you what it's not saying. This is not saying that you have
to purchase your salvation because no amount of material assets
liquidated from your hand can purchase and secure a right standing
before God. No amount of gold and silver
can take away your sin. Further, this is not saying that
you have to take a vow of poverty and that you have to just go
have a yard sale and sell everything you have and come back to church.
in order to be a disciple of Christ. Now, if you do that,
now we're going to have to take care of you. Don't do that. The Bible assigns the right of
private ownership of property. So, what does this mean? I mean,
Abraham was rich, Job was rich, Solomon was rich, Joseph of Arimathea
was rich. So, what does this mean? None of you can be My disciple
who does not give up all his own possessions. Let me tell
you what it means. You must give up the control of all your possessions,
and everything that you own must now be transferred to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and your apartment is now His apartment. Your bank
account is now His bank account. Your car is now His car, and
you simply are a steward of the Lord's possessions that have
been entrusted to you, and you are to use what has been placed
into your hands to further His kingdom and to bring glory to
God. Everything that you own is under
new management. Have you transferred everything
that you own and possess into the hands of the King of kings
and the Lord of lords and declared it to be His possession? That
is what is necessary, Jesus said, to be a disciple of Christ. But
the possessions are nothing to assign over to the Lord. It's
your life. It's your soul. that must be
transferred over to the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, your little
possessions are nothing. Your eternal soul is everything. So finally, the caution, and
then we're finished. The caution. Those in the crowd
following Jesus must have been wondering when He would ease
up this hard-hitting address. They must have expected Jesus
would balance His message by softening it here. But rather
than letting up on the demands, Jesus pushes down on the gas
pedal and cinches the knot even tighter. in what he is requiring
to be an authentic disciple. And so he says in verse 34, therefore,
which is another word of summation, salt is good. Of course salt
is good. It's good for seasoning, it's
good for preserving, it's good for cleansing. And we're to be
the salt of the earth, Jesus said, Matthew 5.13. But if even
salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? And
the answer is nothing within itself. And there was, there
in the Middle East, a kind of salty rock-like mineral called
gypsum that looked like salt, gave the appearance of being
salt, but it wasn't real salt. It was fake salt. And the comparison
Jesus is making is just like many in the crowd that day. Just a fake follower of Christ,
not a real, authentic follower of Christ. And so Jesus says
in verse 35 of this fake salt, these fake believers, He says,
it is useless, meaning it's of no value whatsoever for the kingdom
of God. It has no value for the purposes
of God here upon the earth. It is useless. It's not even
good for the soil to sow it into the ground as any kind of fertilizer,
and Jesus said, or for the manure pile. I wouldn't say that except
this is what Jesus said. And in this day and time, there
wasn't indoor plumbing as we know it, and there was just simply
earthen vases that would contain human excrement, and they would
take those vases and take it outside and just keep piling
on top of what was already there, and the stench would rise into
the heavens, and when the wind would blow, it would be almost
unbearable, and so you would have to throw into the human
dung that which would curb the smell and the stench, and Jesus
is saying, this fake salt is useless to even throw on the
manure pile because it has no penetrating punch or power to
it. And the comparison is obvious,
that if you're not sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ, your life
is amounting to nothing for the kingdom of God. And it's not
even worth throwing on the manure pile. You're just in the way. You're bad advertisement for
what God is wanting to do upon the earth. These are strong words. And then Jesus follows it up
just to make sure you and I get the point. Jesus said, he who
has ears to hear, let him hear. In other words, are you listening
to me, Jesus said? Because if you're truly listening,
you will respond as you should and die to self and take up your
cross and with a surpassing love and affection for Christ, follow
Him Having counted the cost of what this will require, no longer
me living for me, but me living for Jesus. And you come to the
point like the defeated king and you accept the terms of peace
before he slaughters you. And the terms of peace is the
total commitment of your life. to Him, and you and I have no
bargaining chips to try to meet Him halfway. It's all or nothing. So I want to ask you tonight,
are you in? Are you in? Are you all in? Because there's no fence-sitters
in heaven. It doesn't take much of a man
or a woman to be a disciple. It just takes all there is of
them. I close with this, something
I came across a few years ago. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. The die has been cast. I have
stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I will not look up, let up, slow
down, back away, or be still. I no longer need preeminence,
prosperity, position, promotions, or popularity. I do not have
to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded.
My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven. My road is
narrow. My way is rough. My companions
are few. My guide is reliable. My mission
is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised,
deterred, lured away, backed down, deluded, or delayed. I will not give up, back up,
let up, or shut up until I have preached up, prayed up, stored
up, and stayed up the cause of Christ. I must go until He returns. I must give until I drop. I must
preach until all know. I must work until He comes. And
when He comes back to get His own, He will have no problem
recognizing me. My colors will be nailed to the
mast. My colors will be flying and
will be clear. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ." Are you a disciple? of Jesus
Christ. The answer to that question will
determine how it will be for you when the second King returns. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, these verses,
these parables are sobering. They call for our self-examination,
whether we be in the faith. Father, how we praise You that
You sent Your Son to tell it like it is, to lay it out before
us in clear, unmistakable terms, the commitment that He requires
for us to follow Him. Lord, I pray here tonight for
those of us who have committed our lives to Jesus Christ, who
have burned our bridges behind us, would you deepen and solidify
our fundamental commitment to Christ tonight? Even as we hear
these words, as we will walk out of this sanctuary here shortly,
Lord, may you deepen the well within my own soul. And Father,
I do pray for those here tonight without Christ, and there's no
way we could get this many people together and for every single
one of us to be a follower of Christ. Father, would you single
out within the hearts of those who are like those just going
along with the crowd? Lord, would you bring conviction
to their heart? Would you give them no rest for
their soul? until they find their rest in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh God, draw them to Yourself. Bring them to be followers of
Christ. May You do that tonight in this
house of worship. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.