Well, this seminar is called,
The Cost, How to Call Others to Follow Christ. And I have
written a book that has come out at this conference. It's
called, The Cost, What it Really Means to Follow Christ. And a
number of years ago at a Resolve conference, there were about
4,000 college students that were present, and I preached a sermon
on Luke chapter 14, 25 to 35. entitled, It Will Cost You Everything.
And there was quite a response. And there was a young man that
I met years later who took a nine-minute excerpt from that sermon and
put pictures and caption to it and put it on YouTube, unknown
to me, and it's received something like a million hits. And so it's
had kind of a life all of its own. And so I've expanded that
one message into a book. the cost, and I would encourage
you to get a copy of it. But they've asked me in this
seminar if I would take this passage and talk to you about
evangelistic preaching. We who are so committed to expository
preaching, exegetical preaching, doctrinal preaching, have a tendency
to lose our way as it relates to evangelistic preaching. Martin
Luther talked about the drunk man on the horse who has a tendency
to fall off on one side of the horse or the other, and how rare
it is for a man to be able to be balanced and in the middle. For those of us in this part
of the body of Christ, we tend to be very strong in exegesis
and in theology and in word studies and in cross-references and historical
background, But we tend to be weak in preaching the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And that's a tragedy. Jesus said,
follow Me and I'll make you fishers of men. And from that, we can
easily conclude that if we're not fishing for men, we're not
following Christ. Because He said, follow Me and
I'll make you fishers of men. And so in our preaching of the
Word of God, we must know what it is to be casting the net but
also to draw the net. It's not enough just to do word
studies on redemption and propitiation. There's got to be a summoning
and a calling of those who are without Christ to come to faith
in Jesus Christ. for us to bring them to an intersection
where they must decide which way will they go. And we have
a tendency to feel that it is wrong to be persuasive in our
preaching. And nothing could be further
from the truth. And so today, I want us to look at Luke chapter
14, and I want us to see how Jesus preached. I want us to
see how Jesus preached the gospel. In Luke chapter 14, I want to
begin reading in verse 25. This is one of the great evangelistic
sermons that our Lord preached. And I want to begin by just setting
this text before you, Luke chapter 14 verse 25. Now large crowds were going along
with Him, 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 finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying,
this man began to build and was not able to finish? What king, when he sends 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
a far way, he sends out a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then? None of you can be My disciple who does not
give up all his possessions. Therefore, salt is good. And
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. Not only was Jesus Christ the
greatest expositor to ever walk this earth, and not only was
He the most powerful preacher, but He was the greatest evangelist
who ever walked this earth. He was not only the sum and the
substance of the very gospel message itself, but He was the
greatest proclaimer of this gospel. And Jesus launched His public
ministry as being an itinerant evangelist. He wasn't a pastor
of a local church. He was an itinerant evangelist.
He was on the move. He was going from village to
village, and from town to town, and He was going everywhere preaching
the gospel. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand." And those whom He called to be His disciples, to
be trained very closely, they were to preach as He preached.
And when Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost, he knew exactly
how to preach because he had observed evangelistic preaching
from the Master Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so for
those of us who preach the Word of God, we need to observe and
study this evangelistic sermon. This was not a small group Bible
study. Jesus wasn't sharing. There was no dramatic role play
here. Jesus was blowing a trumpet in the ears of those who were
there that day. Paul told Timothy, preach the
Word, 2 Timothy 4 verse 2, and he gives them eight qualifications
on how to preach the Word of God. They're all in the imperative
verb, meaning these are commands. And when you come down to verse
5, he says, do the work of an evangelist. And in the context,
it is to begin with your own church, begin with your own flock
and work out from there. And if you are to rightly preach
the Word of God, then you must do the work of an evangelist.
You must be a harvester of souls. You must be a fisher of men.
You must be those who are...who are calling people to faith. in Jesus Christ. And so we need
to observe this sermon and we need to lock in and see how Jesus
Christ Himself preached the gospel. Now, there is no one way that
He preached the gospel and there were different people in different
settings and different circumstances as He preached the gospel. This
is simply one of those. But we need to extract from what
we see here and implement it in our own preaching ministries
if we are to preach like Jesus. So I want to walk through this
text with you and walk through this passage and make some comments
as it relates to preaching as we go through this. And the first
thing that I want you to note in verse 25, I want you to note
the crowds. And verse 25 says, now large
crowds were going along with Him. Jesus is en route to Jerusalem. And there are enormous throngs
of people who are following Him. You'll notice not just a crowd,
it's crowds in the plural. There are multiple crowds that
are merging together like many different streams flowing in
to form one mighty river. And it's not just crowds in the
plural, it's large crowds. This is an enormous swelling
of humanity that is following behind the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are attracted by the
power of His preaching. And they are attracted by the
miracles that He's performing. And it is safe to say thousands
are following Him. But notice it says they were
going along with Him. They're just going along. The
idea is that they're just going along for the ride. And anytime
you have a large gathering of people like this, people are
going to be at any particular place. Certainly there were those
in the crowd that day that were committed, genuinely, authentically
committed. We know at least eleven of the
twelve were at that point where they had left things, the world
behind and had given their life to the Master and they were now
following Him and there must have been others like that. But
beyond the committed, there would have been the curious. Those
who have heard about Jesus, I mean, it's the talk of the town. It's...He
is...He's what's happening and He is attracting large numbers
and people want to see Him with their own eyes. They want to
hear Him with their own ears and so they're just instinctively
curious and they're drawn. And then there are others who
are confused. They're confused about the way
of salvation. They've been a part of the apostate
nation of Israel and the religion of the self-righteous Pharisees
and a work salvation. And they are totally confused
about the true way of salvation. And then no doubt there are others
who are convicted. They're actually wanting to know
more because they understand that there's no peace in their
heart with God. There's no authenticity. And
then there would have been another group within this crowd that
we could call the counterfeits, those who think that they are
right with God, those who think that they have a relationship
with God, those who are religious but they are religious but lost.
And these are the hardest people in the world to reach with the
gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to get them lost before
we can get them saved because they have a... They have
a false assurance of a salvation that does not exist. And as you
and I stand to preach the gospel, it would be utterly naive of
us to think that everyone is committed, that everyone is genuinely
converted to faith in Jesus Christ. And I've been a pastor for over
34 years. I've seen hundreds of people
come to faith in Christ, and I would say 19 out of the 20
were people who were religious but lost, just church attenders,
church members, deacons, elders' wives, Sunday school teachers,
choir members, just going along with Jesus exactly like what
we see here in this passage. and how easy it is to be a part
of a crowd. The larger the crowd, the easier
it is to hide and to remain anonymous and to remain unconverted. You
don't have to declare your allegiance. You just blend in with everyone
else and you can look so religious by simply being in a crowd that's
going along with Christ. That's exactly what we have here
with the crowds, the large crowds. And no matter what size church
you pastor, no matter what size Sunday school class you teach,
no matter what size campus ministry you may be involved in, even
Jesus who had twelve disciples, one of them had the devil's initials
carved in his heart. Even one of the twelve was a
devil. And so in our ministries, if
we're to be truly evangelistic, we have to begin with where the
Lord has planted us and the church is our first mission field. Not everyone who says to Me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say unto Me in that
day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not cast
out demons in Your name? Did we not perform many wondrous
works in Your name? And I will declare unto them
in that day, depart from Me, you who work iniquity, I never
knew you." And so, as we preach the Word of God, we must be aware
that there are those, and I'm sure that there are more than
what we have any idea, who are outside of Christ but are a part
of the crowd that are going along with Him. So notice it says in verse 25,
and He turned and said to them, Jesus stopped in His tracks.
And he turned around, which indicates he was at the tip of the spear,
he was out ahead of the crowd and they're trying to keep up
with him as he is walking at a brisk pace, headed to the next
place where he will preach the gospel and he senses and discerns
what's going on here that the larger the crowd, the more unconverted
there are. And so, He stopped and He turned
around to face them and it says, "...and said to them." He spoke
directly to them. He addressed the issue right
where they were. And we need to be aware that
there is a vast difference between a church and a crowd. And Jesus addresses the crowd. just like you and I need to in
our preaching to address the crowd. Now second, I want you
to note the commitment. In verse 26, we now hear Jesus
state what is necessary to be a true follower in His kingdom. He says, if anyone...now just
stop right there. This is an open invitation. Here is the free offer of the
gospel. If anyone...this is how large-hearted
our Lord was in His evangelistic ministry. If anyone comes to
Me, to come to Christ... is to believe in Christ. To come
to Christ is to commit your life to Christ. To come to Christ
is to take that decisive step of faith and come all the way
to committing your life to Jesus Christ. It is synonymous with
saving faith. In John chapter 6 and verse 35,
Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will
not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst." It's
parallelism in that verse. To come to Christ is to believe
in Christ. Jesus said in John 7 verse 37,
if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink, and out of his
innermost being shall flow rivers. of living water. And Jesus, when
He says, come to Me, He is not saying, get up out of your seat
and walk forward. He is not saying anything silly
like that. He is not saying, walk across
the room in order to come to Me. He is saying, right where
you are, right where you stand, right where you're seated, in
your heart, you must take the decisive step of faith and come
to Me. But notice he gives a qualifier.
If anyone comes to me with this, he has swung open the gates of
paradise and does not hate his own father
and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and
yes, even his own life. He cannot be My disciple. A disciple is a believer in Jesus
Christ. The term Christian is not even
coined until Acts chapter 11, and at that it was a term of
derision that the unbelievers mockingly put upon the disciples
who were on the way So even the term Christian was not even coined
until much later. Jesus identifies true believers,
authentic believers who are in the Kingdom as disciples. That's why in the Great Commission
He says, go into all the world and make disciples. He is saying,
lead them to faith in Me in the gospel and then teach them all
things so that they will come to Me and now follow after Me. But Jesus puts this in the most
negative way. He says, if anyone comes to Me
and does not hate, when we raised our children,
we would not even let them say the word hate. Our children would
have bubbles of soap coming out of their ears. If you then came close to saying
you hate your sister. But here is Jesus and He is intentionally
saying this with a high shock value in order that His words
will have a cutting edge to them. I know what this is like pastoring
in the south for all the years that I have pastored there. I
can stand up and quote John 3, 16 and people just yawn in my
face. I read a text like this and people
sit up straight. And they pay attention because
these words intentionally are electrifying. They are shocking. They are captivating. And Jesus says that to be His
disciple, He says, you must hate your own father and mother and
wife and children, those relationships that are the very closest in
your life. How were they to take this? How
were they to understand this? Does not the fifth commandment
say, honor your father and your mother? Does not the Sermon on
the Mount say, love your enemies? How much more so should we love
our own family members? And did not Jesus as He hung
upon the cross say, son behold your mother, mother behold your
son? And did not Paul say that if
you do not care for the members of your own household, you're
worse than an infidel? So what does Jesus mean? Well this is a figure of speech.
It is known as hyperbole. It is an intentional, exaggerated
statement that is intended to Capture the attention of the
listener and lodge the words to lodge into the mind with a
jolting effect. And in order to understand what
this means, we must use Scripture to interpret Scripture. And the
key that unlocks the meaning of this verse is found in Matthew
chapter 10 and verse 37 where it becomes abundantly clear what
Jesus is saying. And in Matthew chapter 10 and
verse 37, Jesus said, He who loves father or mother more than
Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter
more than Me is not worthy of Me." Now it becomes abundantly
clear as Scripture interprets Scripture that we must love Jesus
Christ more than anyone or anything else in this world. He must be
our supreme passion, our supreme affection, or we cannot be His
disciple. That's clearly what Jesus is
saying. He's not going to ride in the
back seat of anyone's life. He will only be in the front
seat behind the steering wheel. He must be number one in our
lives, or He's not a part of that life. He's not looking to
join up with someone, He is looking for someone to make Him the chief
object of affection and love in their life. That is exactly
what Jesus is saying He is saying, you must love Me more than you
love those whom you love the most in this world who are the
closest to you, who are the dearest to you, who brought you into
this world, and those whom you have brought into this world,
you must love Me so much more than you love them that the love
that you have for them compared to the love that you have for
Me would appear to be as hate for them because you love Me
so much more." That is precisely what Jesus is calling for here,
and if we will love Christ more than anyone or anything else,
We will love our parents more than we've ever loved them before.
And we will love our wife more than we've ever loved her. And
we'll love our children more because we love Jesus more. And
when Christ comes into our lives, our hearts are filled to overflowing
with a supernatural love that only He can give and it spills
out onto those who are around us. But in order to be His disciple... To be a true believer in Christ,
we must love Him most. But then Jesus adds, at the end
of verse 26, the knockout punch. He says, and even His own life. In other words, if you love your
life more than you love Christ, you cannot be His disciple. Self-love must go. What does
self-love look like? It is self-centeredness, self-preoccupation,
self-pampering, self-pity, self-flattery, self-promotion, self-ease, self-pleasures,
self-exaltation, self-esteem, self-love is being self-absorbed,
self-consumed, self-focused, self-fixed. If we are to live
for Christ, we cannot live for ourselves. Self must die if we
are to live for Christ. And then Jesus concludes, verse
26, in this evangelistic sermon, He concludes again in a...almost
as if He's stiff-arming the crowd. He's not just making this easy
for them to come follow. He says, or He cannot be My disciple. The one who issues the call sets
the terms. And those who follow, or who
would follow, do not set the terms. And these terms are non-negotiable.
This price is never marked down. This cost is never discounted. And again, this is stated in
the negative, cannot. As we preach the gospel, we both comfort the afflicted
and afflict the comfortable. And there are those that we comfort
with words like John 3.16 and the assurance of the forgiveness
of sin. But there are many others in
the crowd who have a smug, self-righteous attitude who need the strong
sayings of Jesus for their own spiritual good and conviction.
And this is an example of one of the hard sayings of Christ.
And it's not hard to understand, it's just hard to swallow. So we've seen the crowd and we've
seen the commitment. I want you to note third, the
cross. In verse 27, Jesus makes one of the most demanding
statements to ever come from His lips. He begins in verse
27, whoever, and again, this is like how verse 26 began, if
anyone, here again is the open nature of this invitation, whoever does not carry His own cross
and come after Me cannot be My disciple. We need to preach like
Jesus preached. No one in the first century in
the Roman Empire would have ever mistaken the meaning of these
words. The cross was the electric chair
of the first century. The cross was the gas chamber
of the first century. The cross was not a piece of
jewelry. The cross was an instrument of
death. The cross was the primary means of capital punishment in
the most barbaric way. The cross, the carry one's own
cross, pictured a condemned criminal after he has stood before the
high tribunal and has been found guilty, and if the crime was
such, he would be sentenced to death. And He would then be charged
to carry the crossbeam of the very cross upon which He would
be crucified through the streets of the city to the execution
site. It was known as the death march.
And the entire city would turn out and line both sides of the
street. And the crowds would cheer...would
jeer and taunt and mock and ridicule and it was the ultimate humiliation. It was the ultimate indignity
because you are now publicly before all acknowledging that
you are under the higher authority of the Roman Empire that alone
had the power to sentence someone to death by crucifixion and now
you are publicly before the watching eyes of the world carrying your
cross to the execution site, you are a dead man walking. There was a public shame about
it. and the charge of the crime would be fastened to the top
of the cross. Spiritually speaking, what did
Jesus mean? That all who would follow Him
must come under the higher authority of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. and in so coming under the Lordship
of Jesus Christ to agree with the sentence of His tribunal
that we have been weighed in the balances and we have been
found wanting and that we now accept God's judgment upon our
lives, that we have sinned and that we have fallen short of
the glory of God. and that we now openly confess
our sin and yield to the higher authority of the high court of
heaven And we now openly and publicly before the watching
eyes of the world follow Christ in complete submission of our
lives and we acknowledge that He alone has the right to rule
our lives. Look at verse 27 again, he says,
"...whoever does not carry his own cross and come after To come after Christ is inseparably
bound in verse 26 with coming to Christ. All who come to Christ
in verse 26 will come after Christ in verse 27. This is a package
deal. It's like justification and sanctification
are inseparably bound together. And when you commit your life
to Christ and you come to Christ, it's not over, it's just beginning.
Because if it's valid and genuine and real, as you take that decisive
step of faith and you come all the way to faith in Christ, you
now begin a whole new life of following Christ. And to come after Christ in verse
27, there is a strong personal attachment that you now have
to Christ. You're not following anyone else,
you're not following anything else, you are following Christ. You're not following a church,
you're not following a denomination, you're not following a ministry,
you're not following a cause, you are following the person
of Jesus Christ. You now walk as He walked. You
now begin to talk as He talked. You now begin to speak as He
spoke. You now begin to rejoice over
that which He rejoices over and you begin to weep over that which
He weeps over. You're following Christ. He's
moving out. You can't sit still. You can't
be passive. You've got to now with steps
of faith follow Christ. The verb come, after me, come,
it's in the present tense, meaning every moment of every day we
are to be following Christ. It's not just a Sunday morning
thing, it's a Monday morning thing, it's a Wednesday night,
it's a Friday night, it's a Saturday morning. And when He says, follow
Me, He is referring to a daily habitual lifestyle. And He does
not tell them where this will take them. He does not tell them
how this will all work out. You don't need to know where.
You don't need to know how. All you need to know is who.
You just need to know Christ Himself. He says, come after Me. You go
wherever He leads. You do whatever He commands. You say whatever He teaches.
You believe what He instructs. You live as He lived. You love
what He loves. You now hate what you hate. This is what it is to be an authentic
believer in Jesus Christ. When He says, then, come after
Me, the word Me leaps off the page. It's all about Christ. Christianity is Christ. Being a genuine disciple of Christ
means that you know Christ. You believe in Christ. You trust
Christ. You worship Christ. You adore
Christ. You treasure Christ. You follow
Christ. You obey Christ. You submit to
Christ. You serve Christ. Your whole
life is Christ. Paul said, for me to live as
Christ, this is what it is to be an authentic,
genuine disciple, believer in Jesus Christ. And when he says
we must follow Christ, It means we must follow Him personally.
This is a decision that everyone must make. No one else can make
this decision for you. Your parents can't make this
decision. Your wife can't make this decision. Your pastor can't
make this decision. This is as personal as personal
can be. You must follow Him wholeheartedly.
You cannot straddle the fence. You must follow Christ...you
must be all in to follow Christ. You must follow Him permanently.
There's no turning back. This isn't a short journey, this
is a life-long now pursuit of Christ. You must follow Him repentantly,
turning your back on the world, renouncing the sin that you once
lived in. You must break from the pack.
You must follow Him obediently under the authority of the Lordship
of Christ and under the authority of His Word. You must follow
Him openly through the streets of this world. And he says, he
who is ashamed of me in this sinful and adulterous generation,
the same will I be ashamed of when I come in the glory of the
angels with my Father. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. We must follow Him openly. We
must follow Him comprehensively. Every area of your life is involved
in following Christ. Both feet are on this narrow
path. There are no side streets that
you're pursuing. There are no secret compartments
to your life. There's no part of your life
that is off limits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The entirety
of your being is following Christ. He must follow Him unconditionally.
You cannot set the terms to the Lord, where you will go, or what
you will do, or what you won't do. No, you're willing to go
anywhere, anytime, to do anything, to pay any price with anyone. And you follow Him exclusively.
It's not follow Christ and your job. It's not follow Christ and
your family. It's not follow Christ and your
hobby, or anything else. It is solas Christus, Christ
alone whom we follow, and we must follow Him immediately.
There must be no delay, for He's calling through this sermon and
through to this crowd. He is not calling them to follow
Him next week, or next month, or not even tomorrow. Tomorrow
is the devil's day. Today is God's day. Behold, now
is the accepted time. Behold, today is the day of salvation. And boast not yourself of tomorrow,
for you know not what a day may bring forth. This was a call
to come immediately to faith in Jesus Christ. This was the
cross that Jesus called that crowd that day to pick up and
now follow Him. And in our preaching of the gospel,
we must call people to come out of the crowd, to step out of
the world. to surrender their life, to come
under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, to take up a cross
and openly and publicly in every area of their life now be an
authentic follower of Jesus Christ. I want you to note fourth, the
cost. Beginning in verse 28 and extending
through verse 33, Jesus gives two parables back-to-back. And these two parables are a
call for sober calculation. In the first parable in verses
28 to 30, Jesus says, it will cost you to be My follower. And then in verses 31 and 32,
he says, it will cost you if you're not one of my followers.
It's going to cost you both ways. It's going to cost you to follow
me. It's going to cost you even more if you don't follow me.
But there's no easy road ahead of you. It's going to cost you
either way. So, parable number one. Verse
28, for which one of you? And Jesus has turned to look
at this massive swelling crowd of humanity that is just going
along with Him. He turns and faces this crowd,
this multitude and says, which one of you? And great preaching
gets to the you. Generally preaching begins with
we. But it must work its way to the you. And Jesus now gets to the you
in His preaching. If you're to preach like Jesus,
if you're to be an evangelist with power, then you've got to
get to the you. Now 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. Of course, any wise builder who
had two brain cells touching between his ears would first
sit down and count the cost. No one would ever start a building
project. without knowing what the cost
would be. You don't just rush into this. You don't just have a spontaneous
idea and like this seems like a good idea, I think I'll build
this tower. No, you must sit down and count
the cost. What will it require? Do you
have the sufficient commitment to follow through with building
this tower? So it says in verse 29, otherwise,
meaning if you do not count the cost, otherwise when he has laid
a foundation, in other words, he's raised a hand, walked an
aisle, signed a card, baptized, joined the church, but he never
counted the cost. The cost of having to renounce
his sin, the cost of now opposition from the world, the cost of resisting
temptation, the cost now of living by a higher and new standard,
the cost now of walking by faith, the cost of sacrificial giving. Otherwise, when he has laid a
foundation, meaning started this project, and he says is not able
to finish. All who observe it, they see
this foundation and they see a few studs that have gone up
from the foundation and maybe there's a wall in place, but
it's just a...almost looks like a haunted house. All who observe it begin to ridicule
Him. And rightly so. What kind of
a fool are you? that you would begin to build,
that you would enter into this project and you never did a cost
estimate of what this would require of you? And those who ridicule
in verse 30 say, this man, and there's a certain disdain about
this man, this man began to build and was not able to finish. What was the cost? The cost was everything He had
to give. The cost was the commitment of His life. The cost was the
surrender of His life. And this One who began to build
and then was unable to finish is not a genuine disciple who
then falls away from grace. This was just like those people
in the crowd there that day. This was a counterfeit. This
was a curious. This wasn't a committed. The
faith that fizzles before the finish had a flaw from the first. It was a bogus faith. It was
a demon faith. It was a Judas faith. And so, as we preach the gospel,
there needs to be no fine print in the contract. We need to tell
people up front what is required of them to follow Christ. And there is a sense in which
it will take the rest of their life for them to fully understand
what that means. Just like for you and me, there
is an unfolding of this. But we need to know on the front
end, listen, we're not just adding Jesus to our life. Jesus isn't
following us, we are following Him. And so there will be many people,
if we do not preach like this, who will walk in the front door
of our church and then after a couple of months walk out the
back door. And the reason is, sometimes it's because of such
a shallow presentation of a half-gospel message. Now notice the second parable
in verse 31. It's going to cost you to follow
Christ. The second parable is, it's going
to cost you if you do not follow Christ. So look at verse 31, or what
king? When he says a king, a king is someone who rules over a domain. And the king here represents
each individual in the crowd there that day who had not yet
committed their life to Jesus Christ. They were like a little
pawn king over their little tiny speck of a life. Or what king
when he sets out to meet another king and this second king is
none other than the King of kings and the Lord of lords who rules
the vast domain of the entire universe, it is Jesus Christ. Or what king when he sets out
to meet another king in battle? There is a confrontation that's
coming. There is a conflict that is coming
between these two kings. There is an inevitable intersection
of the course of their lives. There is to be a face-to-face,
a head-on battle. Or 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 ten thousand men? These are those now who are just
going along with Jesus. They have 10,000 men in this
parable and encounter the one coming against them with 20,000
men and this king is the one who is telling this parable,
this king is the one who is addressing the crowd that day, this king
is the one that they're just going along with. And He has far greater strength,
far greater power. And if you meet this King in
battle, He will slaughter you. He will destroy you. And He has
power to damn your soul forever. And He is angry with the wicked
every day. And as Psalm 7 says, He has bent
His bow. and his enemies, and as Spurgeon
says in Treasury of David, and this king has never missed the
target. So verse 32, or else...now there
is another option for you if you don't want to go into battle
with this superior king with far greater power and far greater
soldiers, or else while the other This second king is still far
away. He, the first king, which is
those who are just going along with Jesus, sends out a delegation with a stick and a white flag
on it and asks for terms of peace. This second king is willing to accept terms of peace, but the requirement is the unconditional
surrender of your life to Him, or there will be no peace. And the superior king sets the
terms for the surrender. But He is a gracious King, and
He is also a kind King, and He is a loving King who is willing to enter in to
terms of peace. And you may have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. but you will have to totally
surrender your life to Him, and you will no longer be the
king of your domain. You will now come under His kingship,
and you will now come under His domain. So, look at verse 33. So then, and there's a summation
field to the two parables, so then, Jesus now boils it down
to a bottom line. So then, none of you, there are no exceptions
whatsoever. There are no exception clauses. There's no other line that someone
else can get in. So then none of you can be My
disciple." Just let that sink in. Jesus isn't whipping up the
crowd. And in fact, He's not even backing
off, He is advancing more aggressively. He is tightening the noose. He
is tightening the screws. So then none of you can be My
disciple who does not give up all his own possessions." You
can just almost hear the crowd gasping. What is this? Does this mean that we have to
liquidate all of our assets and give it away to the poor? and
come back to Jesus now with no assets whatsoever, that is...now
what are you saying? If you were to give up everything,
every material possession in your life and just give it all
away, we would then have to take care of you. That's not going to get us anywhere. And Jesus is not saying that
you have to buy your way into heaven as though it's Tetzel
selling his indulgences through Saxony. What does He mean? What He means is when you unconditionally
surrender your life to Jesus Christ to become His disciple
and to come to Him and to come after Him, there is the transfer
of everything that you are and everything that you own and everything
that you have, it is all now transferred over to the Lord
Jesus Christ. and your entire life and all
of your possessions, your time, your talent, your treasure, everything
about you is now in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your
car is no longer your car. Your house is no longer your
house. Your bank account is no longer
your bank account. It's still got your name on it.
You're still the one who is to be using it, but you now are
no longer an owner, you are a steward of your master's possessions.
And you must now use your master's possessions in the way that will
most glorify Him and extend His kingdom and spread His gospel
and to bring...that will bring Him the greatest glory to Him. It's still in your pocket, it's
still in your bank account, but it no longer belongs to you. That is exactly what Jesus is
saying here, and that we are now a steward of our master's
possessions. Far from making this easier to
follow Christ, Jesus is making it more challenging. It's not wrong to have things.
What's wrong is for things to have you. This is how Jesus preached evangelistically
to the large crowds who were just going along with Him. And
He will say at other times, enter through the narrow gate. For
the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction,
and many are those who shall find it. But the gate is small
and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who
find it. He who hears these words of Mine
and acts upon them is like a wise man who built his house upon
the rock. And when the rains came and the
winds blew and beat against the house, it did not fall because
it was built upon the rock. He who hears these words of Mine
and does not act upon them is like a very foolish man who built
his house upon the sand. And when the rains came and the
winds blew and beat against the house, great was its fall." Because
it was built upon the sand. Both builders went through the
motions. one built upon the solid rock,
the other built upon the sand. But as you stood from some distance
away, they were both active, involved builders involved in the project." So as you preach the gospel, we're not calling for easy believism.
We're not tossing out cheap grace. We are to call for what Jesus
called for, the total, complete, unconditional surrender of your
life to the King. Now, finally, I want you to note
the caution. In verses 34 and 35, what Jesus will conclude with
is what caution we must exercise as we hear the gospel when it
is preached to us and that we cannot be nominally committed
or we may not come up with our own terms with which we follow
Christ. So verse 34, Salt is good, of
course salt is good, it preserves meat, it prevents spoiling, it
gives flavor. But if even salt has become tasteless,
and this is like this man who began to build but he never counted
the cost and he then stops the entire project and walks away
from the entire project. That is likened under this salt.
that seemed to be starting out as good, but now it has become
tasteless. And he says, with what will it
be seasoned? And the answer to that is nothing.
And there was some salt in Palestine that gave the appearance of being
genuine salt, but in reality it was fake salt. It wasn't real
salt. And it lost its taste and it
lost its savor because it was half gypsum and half of a salty-like
mineral. It looked real, it looked authentic,
but over time it was easy to spot because it would lose its
taste whatsoever. And the comparison is clear and
obvious as Jesus is directing this to those who are in the
crowd there that day. With these hard words, He is
challenging them that you may be just like this salt that looks
good, that seems to be authentic. is...will become tasteless and
it will become evident that you were never a true follower to
begin with. You're just going along with
the crowd. So verse 33, it, referring to
the tasteless salt, it is useless, just totally, completely, unequivocally useless. You're just good for nothing. There is no redemptive value
in your life whatsoever. In fact, if anything, you're
just in our way. It is useless, either for the soil, meaning
it can't fertilize. or for the manure pile? I mean,
Jesus is speaking shocking words here. salt, real salt, genuine salt
would be good for the soil. It would have some value and
it would even be good for the manure pile because it would
curb the stench of the dung that has been taken out of the house
and put in the backyard. But this half-committed, half-in,
half-out, just going along crowd member, you're not even worthwhile
for the toilet and is thrown out, self-indulgent, self-seeking,
self-flattering, self-pampering, self-pitying, self, self, self,
self, self, thrown out. And it's a picture of utter rejection. Jesus then says, he who has ears
to hear, let him hear. Do you get this? Are you paying
attention? Are you awake? Can you smell the coffee? You have physical ears. Do you have spiritual radar? Do you have spiritual ears? The words of the preacher can
only bring the message to the ear. It is God who must take
it from the ear to the heart. He who has ears to hear, let
him hear. We need more preaching like this.
We need more preaching like Jesus preached. We need more of the
hard sayings of Christ. We need to shake things up. We
need to have words that have a sharp edge to them. We need
to use words like, cannot. And we need to use words, come. Someone has written this and
I conclude, 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 gate 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 compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, deluded or
delayed. I will not negotiate at the table
of the enemy. I will not ponder at the pool
of popularity. 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,
give until I drop. I must preach until all know
and work until He comes. And when He comes to get His
own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will
be nailed to the mast. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ." I mean, this is the heart of
the Great Commission, to go and make disciples, not candy-legged
soldiers, not mere decisions, disciples of Christ. Those who
come to Christ and who come after Christ and who follow Christ
and who have surrendered their lives to the King who is coming
into battle with them if they will not accept His terms of
peace. May the gospel of Jesus Christ
be preached strong from your lips and may God use you for
the gathering in of His elect in these days. Everything else
that I would have to say is in the book. Let me close in a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, thank You for this time that we could spend
together sitting under the teaching of Your Word. And Lord, I pray
that You will use this past hour to challenge us, to encourage
us, to motivate us, to equip us and to thrust us out into
this world, to be those who are not ashamed of the gospel. because
it is the power of God unto salvation. Father, bless these men and their
gospel ministry. In Jesus' name, amen.