Alright in that passage of scripture
that brother Stan just read we're going to look at some thoughts
here that the Lord teaches on the particular subject of discipleship
I've entitled this message extreme Discipleship and I've got two
messages on this that I want to preach this today and next
week extreme discipleship The reason I wanted to do this is
we've been going through these parables in Matthew and Mark
and some in John. We have to continually be reminded
that these parables are not just stories that we read and are
emotionally warmed by, but they are lessons for believers. They
are lessons concerning the glory of Christ. They teach us about
Him. the greatness and glory of His
person, who He is, that He is God and man in one person, God
in human flesh, God incarnate. And that's why He had to be that,
because that's what it takes to save sinners like us. And
they teach us about ourselves, our sinfulness, our need of Christ,
our need of grace, our need of mercy. And they teach us about
our only hope of salvation in Christ. That parable that I preached
on last week here in Luke 14, the parable of the great supper,
eating bread in the kingdom, which is a picture or a symbol,
symbolic language of showing how God's children, His disciples,
feast upon Him by faith. In John chapter 6, he called
himself the Bread of Life. We're going to refer back to
a portion of John 6 this morning. And then he starts off here in
verse 25 after he spoke of the parable of the Great Supper.
He said in that parable, he said, many are invited. He said, those
who are invited will not come, but some are compelled. And I
love that language. That's the work of the Holy Spirit
in His invincible call to bring a sinner to Christ. You see,
you weren't just simply invited to the banquet. The gospel is
a command. And it's a compelling. And that
compelling is done by the Holy Spirit. And like I told my class
this morning, I said, you know, if you're hungry, what are you
compelled to do? You're compelled to eat, to fill
that hunger. But now, if you're not hungry,
And you don't eat. Well, we say that. Some people
do, and they're not hungry anyway. But we know physiologically that's
the thing. And if you're not hungry, you
don't eat. If you're thirsty, what are you compelled to do?
You're compelled to get some water to quench that thirst.
If you're not thirsty, you're not compelled to do so. And you
can go right on. Well, it's the Holy Spirit who
makes the sinner hungry for Christ. Makes him thirsty for the water
of life. It's the Spirit of God who exposes
our nakedness before the justice of God. We have no righteousness
of our own, and He compels us to flee to Christ for His righteousness,
His robe of righteousness. You see, that's the invincible
call of the Spirit. And that's what that parable
taught. Who's going to eat bread at the king's table? Those who
are hungry for the king's bread. If you're not hungry for the
king's bread, you don't want that. You eat man's rotten bread. Works at salvation. So then he
says in verse 25 of this chapter, he says, And there went great
multitudes with him. Now there was a time in our Lord's
ministry where great multitudes of people followed him. And they
did it for different reasons. They had different ideas, different
notions, different motives. He told them one time, he turned
to a group and he said, the only reason you're following me is
for the loaves and the fishes, physical food. That's not a good
reason to follow him. You see, to follow him is to
follow the Lord of glory and salvation. And so here, these
multitudes, it says in verse 25, and he turned and said unto
them. Now what he says in the next
verses, as you heard Brother Stan read these, is extreme. I mean, it's extreme. This is
discipleship to the max, you might say. But what you're going
to find out is this. There is no other kind of discipleship
in the Bible than extreme discipleship. Now the key to understanding
what he's talking about in these verses is this phrase, my disciple. Look at verse 26. He says, if
any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and
wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own
life also. Now doesn't that sound extreme
to you? It does to me. And it is. But he says if you don't do that,
You cannot be my disciple. Three times he says that. Verse
27, Whosoever doth not bear his cross. Next week I'm going to
measure on these two things that people think about. What is it
to bear the cross? And what is it to deny self?
Cross-bearing and self-denial. As I conclude this teaching of
these parables. And that's why I'm keeping this
right in line with the study on the parables. Because these
parables, remember, they're teaching God's people how to think. like
him. Our thoughts must be subject
to his thoughts. You know, we all have our own
ideas of what it is to be a disciple, what it is not to be a disciple.
The only way we can be sure is to go to God's word. And so he
says in verse 27, whosoever does not bear his cross and come after
me cannot be my disciple. Down in verse 33, so likewise,
whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot
be my disciple. There's a lot of questions about
those things, aren't there? In people's minds. A lot of confusion.
But that's the key. My disciple, he's talking about. Extreme discipleship is to be
Christ's disciple. And this is about the reality
of being a true disciple of Christ. You know the word disciple means
a learner and a follower. One who follows Christ. One who
follows the teachings. in doctrine, in attitude, in
life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a disciple. Over in the
book of Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28, let me just read it
to you. Christ stood on that great day
of the feast and He told them, He said, Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. There's
another thing about being compelled. If you're tired, you're compelled
to do what? You're compelled to rest. And that's what he's
talking about, rest in him. He says, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. Salvation is a learning experience
taught by the Spirit of God of our sinfulness and Christ's blood
and righteousness. His glory, His ability. Paul
said, I know whom I believed, and I'm persuaded that He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. I
know He's able to save me. I know He's able to save anybody
who wants to be saved in Him to the uttermost. All that come
unto God by Him. He said, learn of me. And we
do. We're taught by God through His Word, by His Spirit. And then it's a continual learning
experience. We never stop learning. That's what we're doing this
morning. Some of you have been saved for 50 some years or more,
maybe. But you're still learning, aren't
you? You'll never come to a place where you say, I know it all
now. But you're still learning. That's what a disciple is. From
disciple, we get our English word discipline. Being a disciple
of Christ is to lead a disciplined life, not to be saved now. but
because of salvation already freely given by His grace through
the cross of Christ. Salvation, you see, is not the
result of our discipleship or our discipline or our works or
our performances. Salvation is the result of Christ's
work, His performance, His finished work on the cross. You see? Being a disciple does not make
the cross effectual in our case. Christ on the cross makes us
disciples from Him. That's the difference. It's a
life of grace. It's a life of faith. Well, what
is a disciple of Christ? Well, a disciple of Christ may
be defined this way. One who's chosen by God. You'll
notice in the scriptures when the Lord began His earthly ministry,
He chose His disciples. True disciples now. And someone
chosen by God is one justified by the righteousness of Christ
imputed, for he has none of his own. We have none of our own,
no righteousness of our own. So how am I going to be complete
and whole and accepted before God? How am I going to stand
before God not guilty when I'm a sinner? I have no righteousness
of my own. How am I going to stand before
God complete when I'm so incomplete in myself? There's only one way,
in Christ. and him crucified and risen again.
A disciple of Christ is one who is redeemed by the blood of Christ. They're bought and paid for.
He told his disciples, he says, you're not your own. You're bought
with a price. And the price was not your tears
or your sorrows or your resolutions or your attempts. The price was
the blood of the Son of God. That's the price of redemption.
That's the price of it all. And it's paid in full by Christ.
A disciple of Christ is one who's born again by the Holy Spirit,
born into the kingdom of God spiritually. He was dead, now
he's made alive. She was dead, now she's made
alive by God, the Holy Spirit. Life by the Spirit from Christ. That's what the scripture teaches.
That's why he told his disciples before he left it, went to the
cross and left this world, he said, if I go not away, the Holy
Spirit, the Comforter, will not come. be no work to do. But if
I go away, he'll convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment to come. That's Holy Spirit conviction.
So a disciple of Christ is one who's been convicted by the Holy
Spirit. He's one in whom the Word of
God has been implanted in his heart indelibly, cannot be removed. It's there and the love of God
has been shed abroad in his heart. He knows he's a sinner. He knows
he has no claim upon God's salvation, but that which he finds complete
in Christ, in Him crucified and risen again. He's one who believes
in the Lord Jesus Christ, follows His doctrine. Now, doctrine is
not a dirty word in Scripture. It means teaching. And that's
what Christ said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden,
I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. He's teaching us through His
Word. He uses men, weak men, clay pots, as Paul wrote in 2
Corinthians 4 to do it, and you have to get past those men. You
have to get past me. I've often said one of the greatest
dangers of being a pastor of a church is allowing you all
to take on my personality or to follow me. Don't do that.
I'm going to talk about that a little bit next week when we
talk about denying self. Here's the point. John the Baptist
was one of the greatest examples of that in his preaching. He
said, Christ must increase, I must decrease. So I apologize that
you have to get past me, but you have to do it. The only way
you're going to do it is by the power of the Spirit. Too many
groups, religious groups, revolve around one man. And that's a
shame. It's a shame and it shouldn't
be that way. And too many men allow it to happen. Because that's
the flesh. We love that kind of thing. And
if the Lord allows me to stay here for years to come and I
leave this church, do not continue this church as a memorial to
me. It's a memorial to Christ. See, that's the issue. A disciple
of Christ does not follow men. He follows Christ. That's what
it is. We're disciples of Christ. That's what a saved sinner is.
So he follows the doctrine of Christ. He rests upon Christ's
blood and righteousness. He is filled with the Spirit
of Christ. He strives to follow the example
of Christ and live to do His work, and it is a struggle. A
disciple of Christ is a person who is in a warfare with himself
or herself. That is why it is called the
warfare of the flesh and the Spirit. But let me give you these
things here. Number one, listen to this. Here
is what a disciple of Christ is. He is one who has no hope. No hope of salvation. no hope
of glory, no hope of heaven, but Christ crucified and risen. Mark that down in your mind.
Being a disciple of Christ, look back over here at verse 25, or
verse 26 rather, of Luke 14. First thing he says to this multitude
that followed him out, and you know each individual person in
that multitude, like I said, there could have been a thousand
different reasons why someone was following him. Some people
would follow, you know, I know some people who join churches
and get with people called Christians because they like to be different.
Just be different, you know. But why each one was doing it,
we don't know. He doesn't say. But here's what
he says about discipleship. He says, if any man come to me,
now underscore come to me. Now, that's the first thing about
a disciple of Christ, a disciple of Christ begins with coming
to Christ, coming to Him, coming to a person. Now, you have to
come to the right person. There are counterfeits. And that's
why we don't exclude doctrine. Some people say, well, you don't
come to a doctrine, you come to a person. That's true. But
you're not going to know the right person to come to without
the right doctrine. You could be sitting in a church
where a man is standing up there denying the deity of Christ.
If you come to that one, you're coming to a counterfeit. Isn't
that right? You could be sitting in a church
where a person is denying the finished work of Christ and the
power of his work. You come to that when you're
coming to a counterfeit. Christ himself said in the last
days, they'll come, they'll say, here's Christ, there's Christ.
Don't believe them. And he said, there'll be some
who are so close that if it were possible, they could deceive
the very elect. We're living in dangerous days. Dangerous
days. We're living in the days where
Satan is operative. And he's busy disguising himself
as a minister of light. And we have to be so careful.
Somebody said, why do you have to be so extreme about this?
Well, eternity is pretty extreme. Now, right? Eternal death is
pretty extreme, isn't it? Because we're talking about extreme
things, you see. If I'm not telling you the truth,
that's pretty extreme. And so we have to be in that
way. But being a disciple of Christ begins with coming to
the Christ of Scripture. That's what he told the Pharisees. You search the Scriptures, for
in them you think you have eternal life. They are they which testify
of me. What does God's Word say about the Savior? It teaches
these things. It teaches that He is God in
human flesh. It teaches that his work upon
the cross is not an attempt to save all without exception, but
a salvation for his people. It's what it teaches. His blood,
his righteousness alone is our only ground of salvation. And
he says, if any man come to me, but now look on, look at verse
27. Discipleship continues. In this
way, look at verse 27, he says, and whosoever does not bear his
cross and come after me. Now, underscore come after me.
That's what it is to be a continual disciple of Christ. You come
to him for salvation and you come after him. That means to
follow him. In your life, follow him, follow
his word. You see, when men follow men,
they're not disciples of Christ. What are they? They're disciples
of men. Whoever it is they're following, that's who they're
a disciple of. You say, well, how do I know
if I'm following Christ or a man? Right here. See this book? You
got one in front of you? That's it. Follow his word. If they speak not according to
this word, there's no line in them. So in the beginning of
our Lord's ministry, these disciples are all over the map now. You
remember what is said here. Look in verse 25 again. Multitudes,
great multitudes with Him. You know something is going on
here that has to be set straight. Because by the end of His earthly
ministry, you know where He was? It wasn't great multitudes following
Him. He was alone. He walked the winepress
of God's wrath alone. who praised Him and said, Hosanna,
when He came into Jerusalem, turned on Him and said, Crucify
Him. And even His disciples, the eleven of them who were true
disciples, they left Him. And they left Him because of
fear of men. Peter denied Him three times. And he was sorry
over it. But even they left Him. So what's
going on here now? In the beginning of our Lord's
ministry, these disciples, and he called them disciples, but
now some were only false disciples and temporary disciples. That
doesn't mean they were saved and then lost. It means they
never were true disciples. But these disciples are all over
the map in terms of their commitment. There were some who were truly
committed to Christ. We can think about the eleven.
Judas was a false disciple. But there are probably others
who were truly committed to Christ. Some of them were barely committed.
And some of them were not committed at all. All kinds of disciples. Some of them were just trying
to get food. Have a meal. You know, He fed 5,000 with the
loaves and the fishes. He could feed you. And some were
just trying to get there. Some were just after physical
healing. You remember there were 10 lepers that were healed and
only one turned around to glorify the Lord? The rest of them. went
on. Some of them were just wanting
to be healed of any physical infirmity that they had. Some
just trying to escape hell and get to heaven without true commitment
to Christ. I imagine that was probably the
majority. I imagine that's probably the majority today. They want
to escape hell and they want to get to heaven. And that mostly
when they get closer in old age to where they feel the breath
of the grave on the back of their neck. And so, well, I better
straighten up and start going to church, at least now and then. And so it happens. No commitment. And as the Lord continued through
his ministry, he showed the reality now of the extreme nature of
being one of his disciples. What is it to be Christ's disciple? He said, my disciple. Those who
were just disciples in name only began to drop off, began to leave
him. Remember the parable of the sower and the seed. There
was the stony ground hearer who received it for a time and then
left it over persecution. The thorny ground hearer, he
received it for a time and he left because he was too busy
getting rich, occupied with the things of the world. So they
began to drop off. If you find salvation and peace
and rest anywhere but Christ, I can guarantee you, you are
not his disciple. I want you to turn to John chapter
6. This is after the Lord spoke of himself as the bread of life.
What he was teaching in that analogy was, number one, he himself
is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant. The Bible says in Romans
10, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believes it. And that's a big statement. That's
a bold statement. That's an extreme statement.
That's a radical statement. He was saying simply that everything
for 1,500 years that Israel had under that old covenant, the
priesthood, the altar, the sacrifices, the tabernacle, the kings, the
prophets, everything that was said that pointed to salvation
was fulfilled in Him. That's extreme, isn't it? And
then he told them, he said this, he said, except you eat of the
bread of life, except you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
repent of your self-righteousness and your dead works, thinking
that you've earned God's blessing or that salvation is a product
of your will and your way and your performance, unless you
repent of that dead work, those dead works, and run only and
flee only and rest only in Christ and what He accomplished, who
He is, and what He has accomplished, you cannot have eternal life.
Now listen to what happened in verse 60 of John 60. Now listen
to this very carefully. It says, Many therefore of His
disciples, when they had heard this, they said, This is an hard
saying. Who can hear it? That's difficult. That's extreme. Who can hear
it? When they say who can hear it,
they don't mean with the physical ear. They mean who can obey it.
Who can submit to that? Well, verse 61, when Jesus knew
in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto
them, Doth this offend you? Let me ask you something. when
any truth of the Bible is preached or studied. Even some things
you can't understand. And there's a lot. I've told
people, I've often quoted, when I was an unbeliever, my favorite
author was Mark Twain. And you ought to understand,
Mark Twain wrote a lot of stuff other than Huckleberry Finn and
Tom Sawyer. He was an atheist. And here's
what he said about the Bible. I used to quote this all the
time. He said, it's not the parts of the Bible that I don't understand
that bother me. He said, it's the parts of the
Bible that I do understand that bother me. You know, I understand
that. That's the problem here. They
heard what he was saying. They said, that's hard. That's
difficult. When you hear some of the difficult things of scripture,
some things you can't, as we say, wrap your mind around. Does
it offend you? God's sovereign electing grace. We talked about this morning,
our Sunday school, predestination. Better leave that one alone.
I would, except for one thing. It's in the Bible. You say, well, I can't wrap my
mind around it. I always say, what? Join the
club. But it's there. I told him, I said, Brother Tim
James said, man, by nature, he doesn't mind predestination as
long as he's the one doing the predestinating. He just doesn't
want God to be doing it. God, who is all wise, all good,
all just, all fair, all knowledge, just put it in my hands. That's
what man wants, you see. Well, how do you react? Does
this offend you? You say, Christ is the only way
of salvation, the only way of righteousness, the only way of
eternal life. Does that offend you? You say,
no, preacher, that's my only hope. I've got no place else
to go. Read on. He said in verse 61,
does this offend you? Verse 62. He says, What, and
if you shall see the Son of Man ascend where he was before, it
is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing.
You see, this message is offensive to the flesh. The message of
grace, the message of God's sovereignty, the message of mercy that's undeserved
and unearned, that's offensive to the flesh, but not to the
Spirit who quickens, who gives life. And he goes on, he said,
the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are
life. The Spirit gives life through the Word. These are the words
of life. And he says in verse 64, but
there are some of you that believe not. Now he's talking about his
disciples. Some of them were false disciples.
There are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that believe not and who should betray
him. Whoa. Now, now, don't pull out
your telescope of time today. Because that's not going to work. Not going to work. He didn't
have a crystal ball that he looked in and foresaw the future. He
determines the future. You say, well, that boggles my
mind. Mine too. And if it didn't, if it let me
tell you something, if it didn't boggle your mind and you had
that all figured out, I'd be worshiping you. Because you're
God. But you're not. But look on,
he says in verse 65, you know, I've had people get mad at this
and say, I don't believe what you're saying. I'm just reading
scripture. But the man said at one time, when you stand up reading
Romans chapter eight or chapter nine, I mean, and somebody in
the group said, I don't believe what you're saying. He just said,
I'm just reading scripture. And that's the key. And so he
said in verse 65, and he said, therefore said I unto you that
no man can come to me except it were given unto him of my
father. Can you come to Christ for salvation? Well, if you can,
the scripture teaches, whether you like it or not, if you can,
it's given, it's a gift. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. You didn't come to Christ because
you're better than the fellow that didn't come to him or won't
come to him. And chew on that one for a while.
But that's so, isn't it? A disciple of Christ who has
been brought to Him. Well, look at verse 66. From
that time, many of His disciples went back. That's ones who were
following Him for a while, and they stopped following Him, and
they went back. They said, we don't want any
part of that. I'm going to go where I can hear something makes
me feel better or lifts me up. Or like that fellow I heard on
TV this morning preaching out there in, I think it's Houston.
Man, he made me feel good. I'm telling you. But that stuff's
appealing to the flesh, you know. You can do it. You can do it,
you know. I think he talked about marching around his yard, you
know, getting rid of diseases and curses at his home, you know,
and all that. His dad was leading the pack. His dad's dead now.
I don't know where the disease or the curse got him. But the
thing about it is, see, that makes people feel good. That's
psychology. That's modern religion that comes
in the name of Christ. Make you feel good about yourself.
I don't want to make you feel good about yourself. I don't
want to make me feel good about myself. I want to make you feel
good about Christ. That's what I want. That's what I want the
Spirit of God to do. But it says they went back and
they walked no more with him. They couldn't take what he was
saying. Verse 67, Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also
go away? Are you going to leave too? Now
let's look at verse 68. Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Now there's a disciple of Christ.
I've got no place else to go. That's what Peter's saying. If
I go back, I'm going to death. If I go over here, it's death.
You have the words of life. I may not understand it all.
I may not be able to figure it out. The philosophers have been
trying to do it for years and they haven't. They're still writing
books. Our book's been written. And at the end of it, it says
anybody that adds to it or anybody takes away from it, that's it. He's not one of his disciples. They're still trying to figure
it out. They're like that fella who had his hand on the bass,
they're playing music, and everybody else was moving up and down,
and he just had his hand right there. The guy asked him, he
said, what's going on? He said, well, I found the note,
they're still looking for it. Our salvation is not dependent
upon our figuring these things out. Our salvation is in coming
to Christ for life, for righteousness, for glory. That's what a disciple
is. And he'll let us in on a few
things. He'll reveal some things to us. I'm going to talk about
that tonight in the life of David. He told David some things, and
then he kept secret from David some things. Same with us. And
there are some things about God that we just can't fathom, because
He is God. My thoughts, He said, are higher
than your thoughts, and my ways higher than your ways. Consider that parable of the
Great Supper again, back here in Luke chapter 14. All these who were invited, they
didn't come. You know why? They weren't hungry.
Come to the supper, it's ready. They weren't hungry. They weren't
thirsty. But there are some who were compelled,
and who were they? The maimed, the haught, the lame,
the people who couldn't contribute anything. Go out there and tell
that lame fellow who is in his poverty and in his destitution,
now you bring a dish. He didn't have a dish, he didn't
have food, let alone a dish to put it in. That's grace, you see. That's
the kind of disciples Christ has. That's the kind of people
He saves. Those who cannot contribute to Him. But you see, churches
all over this world are telling people, if you could just contribute,
just contribute. For what? Everything we have
and everything we do that's good and to the glory of God is from
Him. Being a disciple of Christ is
a truly extreme experience. It's no halfway. It's not just
sticking your toes in the water. It's diving in head first. That's
what he's saying. And that's the reality of true
salvation. It's a total reliance upon Christ. That's what a disciple is. It's
total reliance upon Christ. And that results in total commitment
to Christ. That's what it is. And it's all
of grace. To be a true disciple of Christ, then, is to be saved.
And to be truly saved is to be a disciple of Christ. And salvation
is totally by grace, so discipleship is totally of grace. Isn't it? You know, this truth here in
Luke 14, it's really placed, and you see the wisdom of God
here, it's really placed in a strategic place. point here in the light
of that parable of the Great Supper. Christ had shown that
the religious leaders did not know the truths of salvation
and discipleship. He said, they can't show you
the way. He said, I'm the way, the truth and the life. Their
thoughts were on their own works. Their thoughts were on their
own righteousness and not the fact that they were helpless
sinners in need of grace, in need of righteousness they could
not produce. Their hope was in their ancestry.
We're Abraham's children. Their hope was in their ceremony.
We're circumcised. Their hope is in their works.
We have Moses. That's what people think about
today in different forms. They'd been invited to the supper
in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, because everything
in that Old Covenant was given to be a schoolmaster to lead
them unto Christ. It was all in type, in picture,
and in prophecy, but it was there. Moses saw it. You know how I
know that? Read John 5 sometimes. He said,
Moses wrote of me. And even before the old covenant,
Abraham saw it. John chapter 8. Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. Abraham's hope of salvation was
in the future of the coming Christ to do his great work on the cross
and to put away his sin. Abraham was a disciple of Christ.
So was Moses. But you see, it's pride that
keeps sinners out of the kingdom of heaven. But there are some
that God has chosen who He powerfully compels to come. They're identified
as the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. Spiritually,
the proud are no better off than these, but the proud will not
admit it. They won't come to repentance and faith. So how
does a sinner come to the banquet of God? How does he come to salvation? come to Christ. That's how. For
in Him is salvation. He is all my salvation. And this
refers to the gift of forgiveness by His blood, the gift of acceptance
by His righteousness, by His death, eternal life in Him. It's
for all who put their trust in Christ alone. Peter said, to
whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. Many claim to have Him. Many claim to have come to him,
but some who make that claim have not. How can we tell? Well, he said, come to me, and
then he said, come after me. Now, there are people who, some
people who are very confused about this, especially today.
Well, I won't say that. They've always been confused
about it. But it seems to be so prominent today. And they've
left a huge trail of confusion throughout what is commonly called
Evangelical Christian. That's what it's called. And
they'll say things like this, it doesn't matter what you believe,
just so you confess Christ. You ever heard that? That's not
a disciple. Because it does matter what you
believe. You can't separate Christ from His truth. And listen to
me. Now, Christ never stood and preached
a three or four point message in a pamphlet and gave what people
call an altar call today, and told men to come to the front
and repeat a short, easy sinner's prayer to receive eternal life.
You don't find that in Scripture. First of all, we don't have an
altar call because I'm going to tell you, well, let me put
it to you this way. What people normally think of
an altar call we don't have because there's no altar down here. You
see, our altar call is this. Come to Christ. He's my altar.
And you don't have to move a muscle to do that. You can do that sitting
right where you are. And if you ever do, as the old
preacher said, it'll leak out on you. And then you confess him in believer's
baptism. You come and talk to me. It's
not walking an aisle. And what happens, see, Christ
never called on people to make an emotional decision prodded
by the pleadings of a preacher over some music intended to stir
their emotions. That's not discipleship. That's
not confession. He never offered an easy forgiveness
or an easy way to heaven. He speaks here in Luke 14 about
counting the cost. There's a cost. Now, there is
no cost to us for forgiveness, for salvation. Christ paid all
the costs. But if God makes us one of his
disciples, it'll cost us everything we have. Because anything that
stands in the way of Christ has to be removed. Am I right? Anything. It doesn't matter who it is.
It can be your nearest and dearest loved one. Let me say this too. Christ never coerced children
to walk down an aisle and get baptized when they had no idea
what salvation is or what the gospel is. Salvation or discipleship. The only thing they had was the
hell scared out of them. Now, he didn't do that. That's
not discipleship. What is a disciple? He's one
who puts Christ above everything and everyone. It's a total commitment
to him, his truth and his people. It's not an outward reformation
or change of habits. It's true faith in Christ and
repentance of dead works. Salvation and discipleship are
grace, faith, Love, obedience to the extreme. Consider the
language our Lord uses here in Luke 14. Look at it. Look at
it again. Verse 26. If any man come to
me and hate not his father and his mother and his wife and children
and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. What's he saying there? The Bible
teaches us to love our enemies, and we are to. He's not giving
us an excuse to hate persons, but what he's showing here is
that in comparison to Christ, all other relationships are to
be moved out of the way and take a back seat. He's talking about
that we're to prefer no one, love no one more than we love
Christ and His truth and His people. He speaks of carrying
your cross, giving up all your possessions. That doesn't mean
you have to get rid of everything. But that means if it comes between
you and Christ, you have to get rid of it. That's right. Hating your own life, he says.
You remember in the parable of the banquet now, the great supper,
one, he had some land. That's his possessions, came
between him and Christ. One had a job. One had a family. It came between him and Christ.
And that's why he said, now, You come to me. If you come to
me and hate not father, mother, keep on going. You cannot be
my disciple. That's pretty extreme. So you
see, he's not calling for some addition or some embellishment
or some enrichment or some emotional or outward change of or just
offering fire insurance to you or to me. This is not a makeover. This is a takeover. That's one
person said. where he takes over our lives.
That's discipleship. You know, that's why some people
call Christianity a cult. They really don't know what a
cult is, you know. And you may look at it and you may say, well,
surely he doesn't mean it that way. Well, surely he does mean
it that way. When Christ saves a sinner and
makes that sinner his disciple, that disciple acknowledges Christ
Not as just this part of his life, that part of his life.
He is my life. To whom shall we go? He's my
life as my sovereign Lord, my divine ruler, my controller.
He's the king of my life. Somebody may say, well, I don't
want to get in all that. I just want to be saved. You better read the book. You
better read what the Lord says. One thing we need to understand
is that people can know the facts of the gospel and still not believe
them. They can even affirm the truthfulness of those facts and
not believe them. In salvation, we must be confronted
with the truth and compelled to Christ. We have to be given
a new heart by the Spirit to know and love Christ and His
truth. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Next week I'm going to continue with that, and I'm going to talk
about this issue of cross-bearing and self-denial, because I think
a lot of people are confused on that issue today, too. But
I want to know what God's Word says. And I'll tell you, if you've never come to Christ,
come now. I'll say that. Come now. I'm not telling you come down
to that front. Come to Christ, you see. Come to Christ. And if you do, come and tell
me about it. Come and tell some of these folks about it. We'll
rejoice with you. And confess him in believer's
baptism, not to be saved, but because when you come to Christ,
that's salvation, not coming to the baptismal pool. He makes
his people his disciples by his grace and his power and his mercy.