We're going to read just three
verses, 25-27. We're going to look at true discipleship,
and then the cross of discipleship, and then the cost of discipleship. Probably three separate messages. There's so much to be seen and
learned. Verses 25-26, there went great
multitudes with Him. And He turned and said unto them,
If any come to me, man or woman, young person, any, and hate not
his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Now, these are
the words of our Lord. These are not my words. These
are the words of our Lord. And have you noticed, I know
you've noticed with me the severity, seriousness of what he's been
saying for the last several chapters. I told someone, I'm not avoiding
these, but it's very difficult to deal with. And I like comforting
God's people more than anything else. I want to be comforted
more than convicted, but these are the words of our Lord. He said things like this, chapter
12, He said, there's nothing covered that won't be revealed.
There's not one thing hidden that's not going to be exposed. He said, whosoever shall confess
me before men, the Son of Man will confess before the angel,
but deny me. He said, I will deny you. He said, sell what you have and
give on and provide bags that wax not old, treasures in heaven.
He said, where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. He said, you'd be like men and
women and people waiting on their Lord. One thing on your mind,
waiting on your Lord. He said in the same chapter,
I have come to send fire on the earth. He said, suppose I've
come to bring peace? No, a sword. He said, division. Division. I've come to divide. It's serious, isn't it? These
are the words of Jesus Christ to whom? Everybody. His disciples. He said in chapter
13, He says, suppose they told you about some Galileans at an
awful death. He said, you'd think they're
worse than anybody else. He said, if you don't repent,
then you're going to perish. Words of our Lord to His disciples,
everybody. He said, strive to enter into
the straight gate. Many, He said, many will seek
to enter and won't be able to. Man. He said, it's going to be
weeping and gnashing of teeth to see some sit down with the
Lord in heaven and you cast out. That's what He said. And then chapter 14, and he gave
the parable of the wedding feast, and he said, all these people
made excuses. Everybody made all kinds of excuses. And he
said, the Lord, which was him, was angry. Angry. He said, none of them are going
to be in the kingdom. And then he gives this, perhaps
the strongest words possible, if any come after me and hate
not his father, mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters,
yea his own life cannot be my disciple. What are we going to do with
it? What are we going to do with it? Most people in the world
don't ever read it, don't want to read it, don't care to read
it. Now, He's not saying here, let
me just tell you what He's not saying. He's not saying this
is a condition you meet, that if you do this, you'll get to
heaven. What He's saying here, this is
the way it is with every one of my true disciples, if it's
not. He can't be my disciple. No way.
No way. He can't be my disciple. Like
when he said in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are they that
mourn, blessed are the poor, blessed are they that mourn,
meek and hungry and thirsty. He's not saying if you strive
to be this way, then you'll enter, so that's the way you are. It's
not something you drum up, it's just the way it is. If life is
there, you're poor in spirit. You mourn. You're meek. You can't
know God and be too proud. You can't do it. What he's saying
is there's no way this person can be my disciple if they're
coming after me and prefer anybody or anything over me. No way. It can't be my disciple. It's
not possible. It's just not true. He said now, he turned to that
multitude, verse 25, great multitudes went with him. He turned and
said unto them, great multitudes, they all seemed to be following
him. How many today profess to be
Christians, followers of Jesus Christ? I read one time, years ago, that
50%, one out of every two adults in the United States profess
to be a Christian. Brother, if that was so, we wouldn't
have any crime. Are you kidding? That's ridiculous. Our Lord,
that has never been the case. It's always been a few. It's
always been a remnant. We looked at that. Are there
few that be saved? Comparatively. Now, there's going to be more
people saved in glory than there are lost. How can that be? Babies. And I just heard one of the greatest
messages I ever heard by my pastor. He said, if you become as little
children, you're not going to inherit the kingdom. That's who's
going to be there. He said, if any come after Me,
see that, come to Me. This is a disciple of Jesus Christ. This is a Christian. Who are
they after? Him. Not Heaven. Not Mama. She might not be there. And if
she's not, you know what you're going to say? Amen. That's right. If any come to me, and remember,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me." That's what
Christ said. All chosen, elect, come to Christ. They come to Him. Like Simon,
Andrew, James, John, Matthew, all of them. They were in the
world. The world was their life. Everything, everyone was their
life. They were married. They had children. They had jobs.
They had possessions. They had boats, nets, fishes,
money. Matthew, Publican, he lived for
money. The other disciples for fishing,
whatever it was. When Jesus Christ chose them
and called them, they dropped everybody. And you never hear
about their family ever again. They had children. They never
brought them up. They had wives. They never brought
them up with wives. Christ was their life. They weren't
interested in you knowing about their lives and their children.
They were interested in you knowing about Jesus Christ. Because the
time remained. It remains with those that have
been married and those that have never been married. Those that
had wives. Those that had children. None
of those relationships in glory. Not there. He was all the bride
of Jesus Christ. He's our husband. He's our all. He's our life. And that begins
here. It doesn't just happen in glory.
It begins here. As if not, our Lord said, there's
not much time. He said that. And every one of
them that left all of these things, Simon, Andrew, and all that,
remember he gave them an opportunity one time. Will you go away? To whom? You're our life, he said. You're
our life. You're our love. You're our all.
You're the one we want. Like David, whom have I in heaven
but thee? And there's none on earth I desire beside thee. That man knows God. That man
loves God. That's right. To come to Christ, let me remind
you, to come to Christ is to be born again. No man comes except
the Father drawn. Born of God. All taught of God. Born of God. And what do they
do? They run to Christ. They see their need of Christ. It's faith. It's to believe and
are sure. It's not, well, I believe some
doctor. No, believe Him and are sure
He's my Christ. I need a Christ. He's my Savior. He's my Lord. I need a Lord.
He's my Shepherd. I need a Shepherd. I don't want
sheep to need a Shepherd. Need. It's need. Words of life. Need. Why don't we come here?
Because it's Sunday? No, because it's Because we need
to hear from Him. Love. It's marriage. Why do you
go home to your spouse? Love. You want to be with them,
don't you? Does it enter your mind, well,
I want to run off with my buddy. You don't love your wife. You're
married on paper. Right? The older we get, men
have been married 42 years now. And the older we get, the more
we just like sitting at home together. Together, nobody would
rather be with. That's marriage. That's love. It doesn't wane, it grows. If
it's there, if it's not there, it won't last. Love. It's life. Christ our life. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ, didn't he? He proved it. He proved it. So to come to Christ is like
marriage. You leave your father and mother.
This is a great mystery, says Ephesians 5. It's a great mystery.
A man leaves his father and mother. And that's what Christ did, didn't
he? He came down to Mary. Who'd he come for? Now if he
came to us like that, and you know he didn't consider
it a sacrifice. Peter and James and John, they
didn't consider it a sacrifice to leave boats. Paul says, done! I got the pearl
of great price in exchange. I didn't give up anything. Life, you come to Christ like
marriage. Baptism is kind of like the marriage
ceremony. We're telling the world, this
one is my life. He laid down his life for me
and I want to lay down my life for him. I believe him, trust
him. I'm married to him. I want to be one with him. I
want to live with him forever. Yes. I want to be crucified to
the world and married and joined, united to Jesus Christ once and
for all. marriage. When you come in marriage
to the one you're marrying, you say, I'm yours. Take me. I want to serve you because I
love you so much. That's a sacrifice. It's not perfect. Far from it. But it's there. If it's not there, no life. That's what our Lord said. Now
He uses the word hate. That's the strongest word you
could possibly use it. Our Lord doesn't mince words. You know the scripture says,
is not my word like a hammer. Like a fire. We're going to burn
away all the drops. We're going to get rid of all
this superfluous stuff. We're going to find out what
is left. Gold and silver. We're going
to burn away the drops. He said, is not my word like
a sword that pierces, cuts, two-edged sword, heals. Surgery is painful,
isn't it? Surgery is usually inside. Takes a long time to heal from.
Cuts. He says divides a subject. Separates
joints from marrow. Boy, that's quite painful. What's
that? Joints and marrow. That's something in your natural
body tied together so tight. Have you ever cut a deer or some
of you men have done that? Boy, Brother Stephen, get rid
of some of that flesh and sense. Tough stuff, isn't it? Joined
together. That's family. Ties. Blood kin. If it doesn't, he
hadn't operated on you. Circumcision. Cut away what? Flesh. Flesh. Now our Lord is not telling us
to hate our family. He's not contradicting himself.
What did he teach? He said, I tell you, that you
heard it said, do you hate, love your neighbor and hate your enemy? He said, I say unto you, love
your enemies. Didn't he say that? He told John
to write a whole book on loving your brother. Love, love, love.
He said, this is my commandment that you love one another. He's not telling us to hate one
another, but it's such a hard and shocking word that gets our
attention. And, you know, it's the strongest
word possible to prove the truth from the false. Now, hatred,
there's a holy hatred. God hates some things, some people. That's right. You know, religion,
the world, religion's full of people. We have a little bit
of a sparse crowd this morning. But religion is full. They can't
build that tent on 220, building something else. Why? Because
he can't give enough room to pack them all in. Why? What do
they tell them? And I tell them to hate one another.
And I tell them the truth, because the truth cuts. They're compromising. They're taking the edge off.
Taking the offense off of God. Remove all that. Prophesy a smooth
thing. Tell people what they want to
hear. And you'll pack them in. Tell them the opposite. Tell
them how much God needs them. And you'll pack them in. But
tell them God doesn't need them. Tell them God doesn't need you.
You're a worm, you're a grasshopper, you're nothing. You're filthy,
you're vile, you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. You're a sinner through and through
and God ought to send you to hell right now. Tell them that. You'll get a little, you might
get a few. You know who you'll get? You'll get God's people. They all know that. That's why
they come, because they know that's what they are and they
need Jesus Christ. He came to save sinners, not
good people. Hates. Hates. Now, there's holy
hatred. God hates. Six things doth the
Lord hate, yet seven are abomination to Him. The world doesn't believe
you ought to hate anybody or anything. You that love the Lord
hate evil, he said. David wrote Psalm 139. He said,
Do not I hate them that hate thee. I hate them with a perfect
hatred. They're my enemy. God's enemies,
he said, I hate them. Didn't I? God hates some people. Human
hatred now is evil. Everything about sin. Human hatred. Human hatred always has at its
root pride. Self. Love of self makes you
hate others. Always. Human hatred is evil,
it's sinful, it causes all sorts of evil and pain and suffering.
And it comes from pride and self-love. It blinds us to reasoning. It
just blinds a person to reason. Some people live on hate. How
long we'll get to that? How long we'll get to that person?
It blinds you to all reason. It consumes you. It controls
you. It starts wars. It devours us,
destroys others, and will eventually destroy us. Hatred. And you know,
God's Word says man hates God. That's what Romans 1 says. He
hates God. Oh, I don't hate God. You won't hear religion preaching
this message. Why? Because they hate this guy.
They hate this Jesus Christ sitting there. Gentle Jesus, meek and
mild. That's what the Catholics call
Him. He's one-sided. That's another Jesus they're
talking about. Now, love for self is natural. Love for your flesh is natural.
Love for your blood came. That's natural. Everybody does
it. Our Lord said, you love those that love you. Nothing thankful
about that. Even a heathen do that. The mafia,
they got family ties. They'll cut you. They'll kill
you. Not my boy. If you touch my boy,
I'll kill you. That's my faith. Boy, isn't that
noble love? No, that's just sinful flesh.
Everybody loves flesh. That's natural. But now, the
love of God comes. And He puts the love in you,
in God's people. For Him, it's over and above
flesh. It's over and above kin. It's
over and above self. Who can put a love for somebody
else in you more than you love yourself? Who can do that but
God? That's the love of God. And it's
supernatural. It's not natural. With man, it's
impossible. You've got all these illustrations
in Scripture of people doing things. John Bunyan was in prison for
12 years and his blind daughter would come and beg him, Daddy,
come out and come on, Daddy, you don't have to preach that
message. Come on, Daddy, I love you. He loved her, oh, he loved
her more than he loved himself. Can you imagine your poor little
girl coming, Daddy, please? Blind! This was in a day when
there was no welfare. They needed him. Daddy, just
stop preaching this sovereign grace. I can't do it, honey. I can't
do it. That's a man who knows God. Hate. What it is, our Lord is using
the term that the world will call it hate. He said, that's
what the world thinks, like foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1 talks about the
foolishness of God. There's no foolishness of God.
He said, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. It's to the world foolishness.
But to us, it's the wisdom of God and the power of God. Please
God by the foolishness of preaching. That's what the world calls it,
foolishness. We don't need this foolishness. Yes, we do. And
that, what you're calling foolishness, is wiser than you. It's wiser
than the greatest wisdom man. God's made foolish the wisdom
of this world. And those that are saved, they see that everything
in this world is foolishness. But God, the simplest truth of
God is wisdom and power. It's what the world calls foolishness.
And this hate is what the world says, you can't possibly love
your family. You don't love your family if
you choose this religion over them. You hate your family. You
see? I'm not telling us to hate anybody.
Lay down your life. A husband is supposed to love
his wife like Christ loved the church. Lay down his life. Give
his life for her. Forget himself. That's what he
said. That's love. That's the only
true love. It's either there or it's not.
We can nurture it, we can grow it by His grace. We can't make
it grow, but He sure can, and He will. If you don't grow, there's
no life in it. If it doesn't grow, there's no
life. That's a characteristic of life,
it grows. And this growth in grace is a
downward growth in humility and out of self. Love to God, love
to others. Well, let me give you three illustrations
here, okay? Three people. The second message
is going to be Abraham. God chose Abraham. Turn with
me to Revelation 12. I was going to have you turn
and read. each of these illustrations,
but I don't have time. I'm out of time. But we need
to read this. Revelation 12. Three people. Three examples. Scriptures are
full of them. Full of them. Hebrews 11 is a
hall of faith. Thirty-some people he mentioned.
All of them. Sacrificed homes, family, everybody. Because they believed God. Abraham. He was an eye doctor. 75 years
old. Steeped in religion. He was a Methodist. Born and
raised a Methodist. You ain't gonna get a Methodist
out of Methodism. God will. Oh, he's a staunch Catholic.
You mean stinking, don't you? You can't get him out of that.
He believes the church is life and God will. If he belongs to
God, he will. He'll bring him out. He brought
Abraham out, okay? Alright, the ultimate proof that
Abraham believed God was God said, take your son, your only son,
and kill him to me. Abraham rose up early and took
that boy. I was about to put a knife in
his chin. And God said, now I know. He approved it. That didn't make God love him.
That's the reason why he did it, because God did love him.
It was already there. And we're going to preach that,
by request. A sister back there asked me
to preach from that this morning. I said, I speak the language
too. Ruth, two girls born in the same family, Ruth and Orville,
same country. Heathen, idolaters, they loved
their mothers and fathers, didn't they? They loved their home,
their families, they loved all of them. Okay, a woman came in
and her husband came into town with two sons. She married one
of them. And he died, her husband died. Father-in-law died. Both those husbands died, Ruth
and Orpah. And then so Naomi said, you girls
stay here in Moab with your family. I'm going back to home with God's
people in Bethlehem. I'm going back. And Orpah said,
see you later. And Orpah went back to her gods.
and back to her family, her mother. Her mother was living there and
she wanted to live with her mother. And her mother was a heathen,
didn't know God. And that's where she went, because
Orpah didn't know God. Ruth said, please don't make me go back
there. I don't want to go back there. That's not my home. That's
not my family. That's not my father. Not my
mother. Not my brethren. Your people are my brethren.
I'm going to go where you go. I'm going to live with you forever. I'm going to die with you. Your
God's my God. Your people are my people. And
they owe me like Christ says to us. Come on. You know what happened to
Ruth, don't you? And then there's Moses. Had it
all. Gonna be Pharaoh. He gonna be
President of the United States. Most powerful man in the world. He has it all. Influence, everybody
bowing and scraping to Moses. He's going to have it all. The
biggest palace, the finest palace that Egypt can offer. The finest
chariot. He's going to have ten chariots.
He's going to have a hundred chariots. He's going to have
it all. Money, wealth, fame, fortune. He's going to have it all. And
God came. And he saw a burning bush. That's Christ crucified. You
know what he did? I'm not Pharaoh's son. I don't
want to live in Egypt. I don't want any of that stuff. What do I want? I want to be
God's disciple. I want to be with God's people.
You can have Egypt. It's going to perish anyway.
I want to just be a stranger in a pilgrim with God's people. If he hadn't done that, he's
not God's disciple. Right? Can't bet. Can't bet. If any man loved father, mother,
one place. Another place, our Lord put it
this way, if you love more than me, that's what he said, more
than me. That's the only sense in God's Word where it's talking
about love less. You know, the Armenians, the
word hate, you look it up in a strong accordance, it means
detest, despise. Alright? And our Lord said, they'll
hate you. Meaning they detest him, despise
him. He said, they'll kill you. That's hated. They hated him. What did they do? They killed
him. Killed him. There's some people God hates.
He's going to kill them. Not love less. That doesn't apply
to God. God can't love anybody less.
You hear me? His love is perfect. He can't
possibly love you less than me. That's not God's love. That's
us. That's our love. And he tells you and me. You
better love me more. And you will. Look at Revelation
12, verse 11. Our Lord is commending these
disciples of His in verse 11. It says, They overcame Him. Who? The accuser, the brethren,
the tempter, Satan, the world. How? By the blood of the Lamb. They
saw Christ coming for them, living for them, dying for them, and
they died. And it killed them. His love
slew them. And they fell in love with Him
like a bride. And now they're living for Him.
What are they going to do? They're going to die for Him.
They want to live and die with Him. These widows in here will
tell you right now, if they could have died with their husband
when he died, they would have done it. I'm going to go with
you. That's loving. You'd rather have gone first.
Are you missing? Well, read on. It says, "...they
overcame by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony,
and they loved not their lives unto death." They loved not their
lives. One more, Revelation 17. You see, His bride that He marries
is an unfaithful woman. That's who He came to marry.
But she doesn't remain that way. She doesn't remain that way.
She becomes devoted. Revelation 17, verse 14, that
says, "...the world of beasts and dragons all make war with
the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. He is Lord of
lords and King of kings, and they that are with Him are called,
chosen, and what? Faithful. Faithful. Do you take this man
to be your lawful grace husband? I do. Sickness or health? Death do you pardon? God's people
are made willing in day of His power. It's there. No sacrifice
at all. None at all. And I got to say
this. This is important in our text. It said, hate not. In Deuteronomy
13 and Exodus 32, there are two stories of Moses telling Some of the Israelites said,
come up after our gods. Come with us. We're going to
worship this god and that god. And Moses said, strap on your
swords, everyone. He said, go and kill your brother.
If that was your brother that said that, go kill him. Your
flesh and blood brother. Go kill him. And they did. They did. They really did. A brother went after you. That
happened in the Civil War. In Noble Cause, wasn't it? Civil
War? What are they fighting over then? That's what they did. But this is a Noble Cause. Now,
aren't you glad we're not under law? That was the law, but they
did that. Did they kill innocent people?
No, they killed people God's going to kill anyway. But what
they proved was we love the cause of God and truth more than I
can. If my brother doesn't love this
God, that's not my brother. If my brother rejects this truth,
that's not my brother. Here's my brother. Those with
no God love the truth. That hard? I didn't say it. Christ doesn't love the truth. And you know, can you be a constant
companion of someone that hated your husband or wife? Could you
possibly be a companion of someone that hated your spouse? It can't be. It's not possible. It's not possible. It's not possible. How can light have fellowship
with darkness? And I didn't say that. The Lord
did. It can't be. I'm not going to
hang around with somebody that hates my God. One who looks to Christ will
not justify or excuse his own flesh and blood. Won't do it.
Won't justify or excuse his own flesh and blood. She's lost.
He's lost. He or she doesn't know God. They
don't know God. My daddy's lost. My mama's lost. She doesn't know
this God. She doesn't believe this God. She was a good mother and all
that, but she didn't know God. She had no use for the Gospel. She's lost. Now that's love for God. It's
glory. It's truth over and above everybody
and everything. You won't love yourself. You'll
hate yourself. You'll condemn yourself. You'll
not justify yourself. Now a man loves himself, but
when it comes to God, he hates the true child of God and says,
I deserve to die. And my family is just like me. And there was one man in the
Scripture, Jehoshaphat, who was a friend with Ahab. And they had business together. And God over and over again did
things. He killed Ahab right in front
of Jehoshaphat's eyes. Well, that shocked him and he
came to his senses and separated. Well, then he got back in business
with Ahab's son. And they got ships and all that.
And the Lord destroyed all those ships. And he sent a prophet
to Jehoshaphat and said, how can you love those that hate
God? Don't you see what God's doing to you? That's a true story. 2 Chronicles 19. He sent a prophet
to him and said, you can't love God and love these people that
hate God. You can't be joined with them.
You can't do it. And here God will remove everything from you
to show you. And He did. It's just God's mercy
didn't destroy John Speck. Now the next, that's hard, these
hard saying. Who said it? And I did, you know, no man speck
like this man. Can you imagine the authority
and the gravity of his voice and his bearing and his demeanor
as he was saying these things. His eyes were piercing, cutting. And at those same two-edged swords,
the same, he says, now, come unto me. Come unto me. And he had to leave everybody
and everything. Now come unto me. And if you
do, he says, I'm your all. I'm what you provide everything
for. I'm your husband. Don't you see? You can't keep
any of those things anyway. It's all perishing, and I'm life. You don't need a husband. No. No, you don't. You need Christ. You don't need a wife. You don't
need children. Some don't have children. Some do. You don't need those things. God
gives us all things richly to enjoy, but we don't need those
things. What do we need? One thing. And if we belong to him, he's
going to show us. Okay.