Remember our Lord's sobering
words, verses 25 and 26, there went a great multitude, great
multitudes with Him. And He turned and said unto them,
all of them, all these people seemed to be His disciples. They may have said they believed
in Him and on Him, but He turned to them and us, this is to all
of us. and said, if any man, if any
person come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife
and children and brethren and sisters, yea, his own life also,
my, my, that's everything and everyone dear to us, isn't it? He said, he cannot be my disciple. Now those are shocking words,
aren't they? He said in Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 7, many will say unto me on that day, Lord, Lord. He said, not everyone that saith
Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom. But many will say, Lord, Lord.
And he will say, I never knew you. Knew means loved you. called you, I never was united
to you, nor you to me. And everyone that he says that
to is going to be forced to say, we never knew you either. If any, hate not. Those are strong
words. We've already looked at this,
but it leads into the cross and counting the costs. This all
goes together. If Christ is not your life, if
your family is, then you don't belong to Christ.
If Christ is not your all, if He's not your heart's desire,
if there's no union there, no real love there, then you're
not in Christ and Christ is not in you. I didn't say this, and
our Lord did. I thought to myself, I think
to myself, I don't want to put any obstacle between anyone and
our Lord. I don't want to make salvation
difficult on anyone. Salvation is simply believing,
trusting, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a condition
we meet to make us accept it or make us to decide but now. It is something He does in every
one of His people to make them meet to be His disciples. This is something. It's like
love. You can't make yourself love
someone. You either do or you don't. Right? Now love can grow and you nurture
love. It grows. It does. It must grow.
Like everything. Grace. It will grow. You fell
in love with your husband or your wife, you fell in love.
You didn't say, well, I think I'll try to love that fella.
It didn't happen that way. You don't look for love. Love
finds you. And God is love. Christ is love. And God, when He comes to one
of His elect, He puts the love of God in you. What is the love
of God? It's love for His Son. Supremely. Who does God love the most? His Son. He built the whole universe
for His glory. So this is not a condition we
meet. This is something He puts in us to make us meet. God's
people love Him now. Oh my, they were just waiting
to be with him, and someday they're going to be. One time in Luke chapter 8, his
mother and his brethren came to where he was preaching. Why weren't they listening to
him preach? Why weren't they in there with the rest of the
disciples? The Lord did that to show us something. That's
where they should have been. But they weren't, and she stood
outside and still tells him, Your mother wants to speak to
you. Huh. And what did our Lord say? Who
is my mother? Who are my brethren? And he waved
his hand. These, behold, are my mother,
my brethren. This is my family. He proved
that, didn't he? He left. Now this is, Paul said
in Ephesians 5 about Christ and His Church, it's like marriage.
That's the marriage. It's a union between a man and
a woman. It says a man leaves his father and mother, and so
does a woman. But a man leaves his father and mother to cleave
unto his wife, and those two become one. What God hath joined
together, no man can put asunder. He puts that love there. And no one and nothing can separate
us from that love. Him for us and us for Him. Can't
be done. They're one. They're one. That's Christ and His people. Christ and His people. And look
at chapter 12 of Luke, verse 51. Our Lord says, suppose ye
have come to give peace on earth, I tell you, nay, but rather division. Another gospel, he said, a sword.
And it's the words, truth, that's what he divides, separates, joints
and marrow. That's something that's been
joined together from birth. And he's going to separate. He said, there'll be five in
one house, three against two, two against three, the father
against his son, the son against his father, the mother against
their daughter. My, my, over what? Him. And Satan, we're not wrestling
with flesh and blood, but principalities of power, rulers of the darkness,
spiritual wickedness in high places. Satan came to the first
couple on earth. And he turned them against God
and against each other, didn't he? He's crafty. He knows. He knows this much. He's not
omniscient, but he knows this much. He knows who he does not
have completely captive. Like Joe, he knows who God has
a hedge about. And you know what? That's who
he's after. He has everyone else. They have
no interest in God. No love for God. It's obvious. They're in the world, out of
the world, but it's the ones he doesn't have captive is who
he's after. That's who he assaults the most.
And he uses anything. He uses people and things. The
things that our flesh are so easily tempted and swayed by. People and things. My pastor
used to say the two greatest dangers for a believer are the
people of this world and the things of this world. He'll draw
you away. And He uses these things to try
to lure us away. I mentioned Deuteronomy 13, which
in your Bible it has that reference, I'm sure. Moses told, it says,
if any man, his brother or sister, whoever, says to you secretly,
come with us, come worship our gods, secretly, Come down to
our church. We're having a special meeting. Or come with us. We're having
a prayer, a united prayer service on a courthouse law. Come with
us. We're having a spaghetti dinner down at our church. He said, don't you do it. He
said, you strap on your sword. He told them to literally put
on their sword and go in. If you love God's glory, kill
your own brother. And that's what he said. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. This is true love, isn't it? Who or what could separate you
from her, Ronald? Would you lay down your life
for her? If somebody says, came to you, your mother, whoever
it is, and say, It's either her or us. Who would you choose? Why? Because you love her. You're
one, aren't you? You're one. It's either so or
it's not. That's what our Lord said. Now, the next thing our Lord says,
look at verse 18. No, I'm sorry, verse, where am
I? Here we go, verse 27, verse 27. Now, whosoever doth not bear
his cross and come after me cannot be my son. Again, this is not something,
well, I'm going to try to do this, and so I'll be one of his
disciples. No, it's something he puts in
us, like this love. And the cross he's talking about
is his cross. It's persecution for the truth.
It goes along with the family, and hate is your family, and
the world's going to say, how could you leave your family for,
you know, church or worship? You don't love your family. No
way you could love your family. Well, you do. But you just love
God more. You love Christ more. And it's
going to be a time when it's not, you know, have a father,
a mother, a husband, a wife. There are no such relationships
in glory. And God unites his people with
him and each other right now on this earth. He starts that
relationship when they're born again, a new nature. It's like
the animals on the ark. They were all drawn into that.
Oh, you can't make a lion come to you when you call him. Well,
God did. All right, so there were no cages, no bars, no restraints. They were all dwelling together
in unity. The lion laid down with the lamb.
Why? God changed their nature. They
loved each other. There's no place they wanted
to be but right there. Lion, look out there. No, I'm
happy right here, lying down here in this land. We're all
lying down, eating, feeding and resting. That's what God does
to His people. He changes their nature. New
creature in Christ. In Christ they are and Christ
in you. Love for Him, love for His people,
love for His kingdom. Mind, heart set on things above,
not on things of the earth. Nothing and no one can entice
you to come out. Uh-uh, I'm happy right here,
right here. So it goes together, the cross,
crucified Noah when he went into that ark and his family, he was
crucified to the world. Well, the world was to him too.
They said, that fool, what a fool. No, he's wise, he fears the Lord. And everybody's about to see
who's a fool and who's wise. The door's gonna shut. The cross
is this persecution for the truth that you'll experience first
at the hands of your family. All right, look at verse 27,
it says, Whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot
be my disciple, because it's called our cross, but our cross
is his cross. It's singular. I've pointed this
out before, and this was made clear to me recently. It's never
plural in the Bible, ever, crosses, ever. It's never written like
that. And there have been many good men out through the years,
men I know and love, believe the truth, that talks about crosses
we bear. That's wrong. That's just wrong. It's never mentioned that way
in the scripture. Ever. Only one cross is mentioned
in the scripture. The cross of Christ. The cross. That's what we bear up. That's
what we take up. The crucifixion of Christ on
the cross. His cause is what we bear up.
His cause is what we... As Moses lifted up a serpent
on a pole in the wilderness. That's what we do. We hold up
Christ for people who look at Christ on the cross, not what
we're suffering. But His sufferings. Paul said,
God forbid that I... He went through many, much suffering. And one time he said, I'm forced
to speak like a fool. I'm forced because these people
are against me. They say I'm not an apostle.
They say this and that and the other. He said, I'm going to
speak like a fool, but I've suffered more than all of them. But he
said, I didn't lay down my life. Paul didn't die for you. Paul
wasn't on that cross for you. That's why Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory, say, in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to talk about my sufferings. My sufferings, far less than
I deserve. And may I suffer for his cause. His suffering, he didn't deserve
any of his suffering. The cross of Christ. The cross. The crucifixion.
All four Gospels mention the cross of Christ. Paul, eleven
more times in the New Testament, the cross is mentioned. Okay?
Never crosses. Eleven times. I'll quote them
to you. Briefly. 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews talks about the cross
of Christ, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, the offense of
the cross, the preaching of the cross, persecution for the cross
of Christ, the glory of the cross, being reconciled by the cross,
the death of the cross, enemies of the cross, peace by the blood
of his cross, Christ enduring the cross, and nailing ordinances
to his cross. This is talking about Christ's
cross that we bear. Never ever did Paul talk about
any other cross but the cross of Christ. He talked about thorns. He said, I've got a thorn in
the flesh. He talked about tribulation, afflictions, trials, infirmities. He never called his sufferings
a cross. Christ was nailed on that cross.
He was made a curse for us. Christ hung on that cross between
heaven and earth like the serpent on a pole. And Moses, that pole
was only as good Only good for one thing, to hold up the remedy
for sin. And we don't glory in a piece
of wood, we don't wear one around our neck, that's idolatry. And
when we mention the cross, when we talk about glory in the cross,
we're talking about glory in the one who hung there and the
work he did there for us. And my sufferings don't merit
anything. And they're not worth talking
about. But His cross is our theme. And His cross is bearing persecution
for the truth. That's why He was put on the
cross. You know that? He was put on the cross. They
said, you're just a man, you make yourself a big God. The
truth, He told the truth. And they put Him on the cross.
Who did? God did. cross, a tree. It's a tree actually,
a cross because a cross, remember, hands are nailed to, but it's
a tree. Because cursed is everyone hanging
on a tree. Christ was made a curse for us
and we are blessed through his cross. Simon Peter was literally
crucified. Our Lord told him that, remember? He said, when you're old, they're
going to carry you in a place you would not go. He was crucified
on a cross. And our Lord said that to them
all. He said, they're going to kill
you. He said, they hated me, and they hate you. He said, they're going to kill
you like they did me. Yes, they are. Who's they? Everybody. It's of the world. For Christ's sake, for the truth's
sake. Now, there are many illustrations throughout the scriptures and
throughout time of people. Hebrews 11. Oh, don't you love
Hebrews 11? We've looked at that more than
any other chapter in the Bible, I believe. A great cloud of witnesses
of people who suffered persecution, endured the cross, bore the cross. Scriptures full of people who
suffered. Our Lord wrote that whole chapter
to commend those who laid down their lives for Him, who laid
down His life for them. Men and women. Men and women
whom the Lord loved, whom the Lord saved, whom the Lord revealed
Himself to. Men and women who loved the Lord,
who stood for Him, stood for His truth against everything
and everyone. And Scripture says in Revelation,
they loved not their lives unto death. And what this is, this glorifies
God because man won't do, you won't forsake your family until
God puts this supernatural love in you. And many examples, I'm
going to give you one though, of one martyr. I love this story,
love this story. William Tyndall of England, 16th
century England, born about 1500 in England. The Lord raised him
up to translate. You have a Bible right now because
of William Tyndall. Because God put his love in William
Tyndall. Love for the truth, and oh did
he suffer for it. Born around 1500 in England,
he only lived 36 years. His early years unknown, but
the Lord saved him and gave him a desire to translate the Word
of God into English. It was only in Latin and Hebrew,
the original Hebrew language, and Latin, and the Roman Catholicism
ruled the world. at that time. This is at the
end of the dark age, dark being no word, no light. And there
was no word. People didn't have copies of
the Bible. The Roman Catholics, the priests and popes and all
that, forbid people from having one. The pope declared in a decree,
a papal decree, a synod, He said, we prohibit the laity, that's
what they call the people, the clergy, the laity. We have us
high muckety mucks and you low mucks. We prohibit the laity
from having books of the Old and New Testament, I'm quoting.
They can have a Psalter or a Breviary or whatever that is. A couple
of Catholics here might know what that is. or this Hours of
the Blessed Virgin, some kind of book about the Blessed Virgin.
You can have that. But we strictly prohibit the
reading and the owning of the Old and New Testament books to
be translated into the vulgar, that is the English language. They said if this were allowed
to happen, it would cause more harm than good. And they said, if the people
wish or the people must abide by the judgment of the bishop
and the advice of the parish priest. In other words, if you
need any answers, you ought to look to man, not God. You can't have God's Word. That's
how you keep people in captivity. Truth, God's Word will make you
free. Well, William Tendon, praise the Lord, William Tendon
was facing some of those priests, about a 30-year-old man. Well,
that's significant, isn't it? Our Lord, 30 years old, faced
Satan himself. He was in the middle of the seat
of Satan, William Tendon, and he said, pointed at him, he said,
God willing, he said, if allowed, God willing, he said, I defy
the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life, ere many
years, I'll cause a boy on the plow to know more of God's Word
than you do. Well, he quickly became the enemy.
And they went after him. He fled to Germany. And that's
where he started his translation. For two years, he translated.
Can you imagine how difficult that was? He started translating
for two years. Well, some of those copies came
back to England and they were quickly burned by every bishop,
everyone that got their hands on them, except a few people
that laid hold of them. The story has it of one young
woman, the Lord saved, said, you can have all of my earthly
possessions, you can't have this book. And he was betrayed by friends
and put in prison. Listen to this. He was in prison.
Listen to this. It doesn't sound like follow
the puzzle. He was put in prison to write the Scripture. He was
put in prison and he wrote a letter to whoever the man in charge was.
He said, I entreat you by the Lord Jesus Christ It's winter,
and I request that you send me a warm coat and a warm cap."
Remember, Paul said, bring the cloak. And then Tyndall said,
above all, I entreat and I beseech you that you bring me my Hebrew
Bible, that I may spend my time in the study of that. Paul said,
bring me the cloak, and most of all, The scrolls. I live on that. Brethren, you have a Bible in
your lap because that man did that. He loved not his life. Well,
Tendo was condemned, brought before his judges The kangaroo
court, they condemned him to be burned at the stake. They
tied him to a pole. While they set him on fire, he
literally burned alive, a burnt offering. While he was tied there and hung
there, he said, he cried out, Open the King of England's eyes. Does the Lord hear the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man? He sure does. In 1538, that's
1536, in 1538 by decree of the King of England, the Bible was
translated into English and the King decreed that it was required
to be set up in every parish throughout the land. That's bearing the cross. Now
the cost. Oh, I'm out of time, but I want
to get to chapter 15. You know what's in chapter 15? Particles sought. The lost sheep. I don't want to rush through
this, but I'm going to. Verse 28 says, Which of you,
intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the
costs, whether ye have sufficient to finish it? Lest, happily,
after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it,
all that behold begin to mock him, saying, This man began to
build, not able to finish. What's that talking about? Well,
our Lord certainly built this kingdom, didn't He? Unless the
Lord build a house, they labor in vain to build it. He built
this kingdom that reaches heaven itself. The tower, that's why
it's called a tower. Towering kingdom of God. And
the cost that he paid was his own precious blood in it. You know, we are laborers together
with him. Isn't that what it says? Isn't
that what Paul wrote? Laborers together with him. What
do we build on? the foundation, Christ, Jesus,
the Lord, and gold and silver and precious stone, not wood,
hay and staple, not clay. We build on that foundation and
laborers together, we build up one another on this most holy
faith. Build up. Christ is our aim. Christ and glory. For us to start
this race and quit, brings more shame than any good
we ever did. People mock. Nothing to it. See? I told you. Mock. That's why Paul said, we have
this ministry. Not going to faint. Not going
to quit. Christ finished the work. Not
going to mock Him. His last words are, And so we say we're laborers
together, and we believe him, and this is our aim, this is
our hope. We labor to build up one another.
Well, if we fall away, if we leave, if we quit, it's a great
reproach in a democracy. Look at the next thing, verse
31. What king going to make war? And that's what Moses, remember
Moses said, Lord, if you kill these people, the Egyptians are
going to say, you couldn't bring them in. Remember that? Verse 31, what king going to
make war against another king? Sitteth not down first and consulteth
whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against
him with 20,000. Or else, or otherwise, while
the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassador and desires conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever be of
you that forsaketh not all he hath, he cannot be my disciple."
Now he talks about a war. A war. Oh, our Lord. Here's the gospel. you know,
a warfare between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of
darkness. And we don't, we don't play any
part in that. Christ by himself won the victory. Oh no, the battle's not, that
battle's not ours. Christ faced Satan, our adversary,
by himself. And you know what? It was accomplished. He defeated him, he crushed his
head. No, we're not in that war. But
the believer's in a warfare. We're called the army on earth.
The armies of heaven, the armies of earth. Matthew Henry said
every believer is in the army of the Lord, in a warfare. They're
not friends of the world. We're friends to it, but not
of it. There's a difference, right? We're the best friends the world
could ever have, but they don't consider us that. Consider us
the enemy, like they did Christ. We're in a warfare. Well, he
said, what if you come out 10,000 against 20,000? What can you
do going against the majority? You're a few, and here's 20,000
against you. Now, can you few people be right and all these
people be wrong? It's always been that way. The
truth has always been in the minority. Many have called it
fewer chosen. It's always been that way, right?
That's what they said to Noah. God is not like you say He is,
angry and going to pour out His wrath and judgment. God is love,
Noah. Look at all these people. Everybody
in the world believes that. You can't be right. And all these
hundreds of thousands of millions of people be wrong. It's always been that way. And what are we going to do?
He says, well, what are we going to do? Go out and wave the white
flag? Let's make friends. It's okay.
You believe this, we believe that. It's all the truth. So
just wave the white flag. We ain't going to wave the white
flag. Martin Luther stood up that day, didn't he? He said,
what are we going to do? If we can't beat them, join them?
No! I'm going to wave the white flag. I'm going to wave the cross. I'm going to fly the flag of
truth. Who's on the Lord's side? He laid down the gun, the weapons,
the truth. Some shame and some mockery.
You remember the story, I was going to have you turn to 2 Kings
6, but the young disciple or servant of Elisha, he looked
at it and said, all these enemies against us, they're against us,
they're going to get us, they're going to take us away. Elisha
said, Lord, open his eyes. And he went out there again,
he said, the mountains, And the hills were surrounded with chariots
of fire, round about one man, Elisha. And that young man said,
huh, we don't have anything to fear, do we? And Elisha said,
that's right, they that are with us are more than they that be
within. If God be for us, no, we're not going to lay down the
white, not going to raise the white flag. I'm not going to
lay down the cost. I'm going to keep fighting. Then our Lord said, salt is good. But if the salt hath lost his
savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? What is it good for?
Salt is good. You know, every sacrifice is
salted with salt, our Lord said. That's Christ. That's Christ. Every sacrifice has Christ. The
sacrifice represent the grace of God, the mercy of God, the
love of God, the salvation of God that's in Christ. Salt, savory,
and it tastes good. I like salt. I like salt. I love
salt, don't you? It's a principal spice, isn't
it? I was watching all these cooking shows. I like to watch
them, and they did all these chefs, these professional chefs.
I'd put my mother against all of them. But anyway, this one
judge, you know, he tasted this meal and he said, this is good,
this is good, but you know, he left out one thing. He said,
I can't believe you left out one thing of all spices, salt. And no matter what preaching
it is, no matter what it is, who it is and how good it may
seem, if Christ is not in it, it's not of God. It's useless. And he said, you're the salt
of the earth, Christ said. You're the salt of the earth,
you're the light of the world. Now we're not the salt, but we're
salt as long as we bear witness of Him who is the salt. We're
light as long as we reflect the glory of God in the person and
work of Christ. That's our purpose. If we lay
that down. We're going to be trodden underfoot.
We're no good. We're good for nothing but to
be trodden underfoot. See, ain't nothing to that. You're
nothing. This gospel's nothing. This church
is nothing. We told you. Shamefully. It's not even fit
for the downhill, he said. Brothers and sisters, that's
where he raised us from. We're going to go back. Now he that
hath ears to hear," he said, let him hear. Tough, hard words,
aren't they? And one time some said, these
are hard to say if we can't hear them. We turned to Peter. We also go with Simon Peter and
all that. He said, I'm not. I can't. This is life. You're
my life. I'm not going back to my wife,
my children, my family, the world, my former gods, my former occupation. You're my life. That is a true disciple. That's
the cross, and that's the cross, and that's his disciple. Amen.