Well, good morning. Good to see
you all here this morning. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. Before we look at our text, let's
bow together in prayer. Oh, how thankful we are for your
mercy and your providence has brought us here this morning
to worship your matchless name. And father, I pray that that's
what you enable us to do this morning, that you would deliver
us from the motions of religion, that you deliver us from playing
church and father, that you would enable us to worship you in spirit
and in truth. I pray you'd send your spirit
upon us as your word is open. As you did to the disciples on
the road to Emmaus, open the scriptures to us and cause our
hearts to burn within us as we hear of Christ our Savior one
more time. Father, we thank you for this place that you've provided
where we can meet together and worship in peace and unity and
pray that you continue to bless your word as you have in the
past. Father, continue to bless your word. For your great namesake,
Father, I pray that you would Continue to cause the gospel
to ring forth from this place, that your glory, that your name
might be known. And Father, for the good of your
people, we pray you continue to cause the gospel to ring forth
from this place, to call out your sheep and to instruct and
comfort and edify the hearts of your sheep as we travel through
this world here below. Father, we pray for those who
are hurting and who are sick, who are away from us. Father,
we pray your healing hand, comforting hand would be upon them. We know
these things come from your hand. They're not an accident. They're
from your hand. And Father, we look to thee.
You promised that there would be grace sufficient. We beg of
you that you give grace sufficient for the hour. Father, bless us
as we look into your word. Let us see more of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's in his blessed name we pray
and give thanks. Now I've titled our lesson this
morning, A Cost-Benefit Analysis. And I think we'll hopefully make
that title clear as we look through our text this morning. But you
remember last week we looked at the Lord dealing with the
rich young ruler who came to the Lord and their conversation.
And our Lord's disciples were standing right there, heard the
whole conversation. They heard the Lord, verse 21,
they heard Jesus saying to him, if thou will be perfect, Go and
sell that thou hast and give to the poor and now shall have
treasure in heaven and come and follow me. They heard the Lord
say that and they saw that rich young ruler go away. Verse 22,
but when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful
for he had great possessions. Now the disciples saw that And
now they're getting ready to ask yet another question about,
uh, about rewards. And this question keeps coming
up with the, with the disciples. It keeps coming up cause you
know, our Lord was growing more and more and more hated every
day and they were following it. There's a cost to this thing.
They are following him and they were just expecting rewards for
doing They expected to have rewards in an earthly kingdom. They thought
the Lord, they still thought the Lord was going to establish
an earthly kingdom. Just like people who help a man run for
president, he gets elected. They expect to be appointed,
you know, somewhere in his government. They expected a nice cushy position,
you know, in his kingdom. They expected rewards in heaven.
They thought that, you know, their sacrifice and following
the Lord, they expected to have rewards in heaven. And Peter
wanted to nail this thing down. I mean, he wanted to nail it
down now. What is it now that we're gonna
get so we know how invested we should be in this thing? In verse
27, that's what happens. Then answered Peter and said
unto him, behold, we've forsaken all. Now you ask this rich and
ruler to forsake all. We have forsaken all, and we
have followed thee. What shall we have therefore?
You know, that attitude's hard to kill, isn't it? What shall
we have therefore? Matter of fact, it's impossible to kill
in the flesh. Our flesh wants to be rewarded.
We want to be rewarded for what we've done for the Lord. Our
flesh wants to have the preeminence. That's just a fact. We want to
have the preeminence for serving the Lord more faithfully, with
more orthodoxy than we see other people doing. What's in it for
me? That's alive and well. Alive
and well in all of us. And Lord graciously, gives us
some instruction here on the life of faith. He explains the
heavenly arithmetic of the loss and gain of faith. So you can
do this cost-benefit analysis. We're told in scripture, count
the cost. Here's a cost-benefit analysis of faith. And the short
answer, what anybody that has faith will arrive at this answer.
The cost, whatever the cost is of believing and trusting and
following Christ, I'll grant you at times it can be high,
it can be. But the gain that we have in
Christ is infinitely more, infinitely. So if we're gonna do this cost-benefit
analysis, first thing we have to see is this. What is involved
in this thing of faith, in saving faith, what's involved in it?
Well, first of all, saving faith involves a knowledge of Christ.
You know, if we're going to trust our souls to Christ, we have
to know him, don't we? We have to know who he is. We
have to know something about him. And that knowledge, knowing
who Christ is, that can only come from the preaching of Christ.
That's the only way it's possible. And that's why the preacher's
job is to always preach Christ. Always. I've talked to different
pastors in different situations, and we talk about situations
that we're in. And this is the conclusion that
I have arrived at. I don't care what situation that
we're in, what situation the congregation is in, what it is
that people are going through, what is happening. The only prescription
for it, the only prescription, is a steady diet of Christ. Just don't get off on any other
topic, on any other subject, Just keep preaching Christ. Just
keep showing people who Christ is, what he's accomplished for
sinners, so that sinners will know who he is. We've got to
know him before we can trust him. Look at Romans chapter 10. This is what the Apostle Paul
tells the church of Rome. Somebody's got to tell us who
Christ is, because we just can't trust somebody that we don't
know. Romans chapter 10. Verse 13. For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a true
statement. But how then shall they call
on him in whom they not believed? And how shall they believe in
him whom they not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sinned?
As it's written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
But they've not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, who
hath believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. If we're ever gonna know who
Christ is and have faith in him, we've got to hear the word of
God. We've got to hear God's gospel.
So saving faith involves knowing who Christ is. It's just obvious.
You can't trust somebody you don't know. Second, saving faith
involves belief. in Christ and trust in him. Now
we talk about believing Christ. That's not just believing some
true facts about Christ. This is trusting our eternal
soul to Christ and Christ alone. It's, it's faith in him to such
a degree that this is what I believe. This is, I'm just committed to
this. I'm going to be damned unless Christ saves me. all by
himself, all by himself without any input from me. There's no
plan B. All my hope is in one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And saving faith believes everything
the word of God says. It believes it. I don't understand
it, but I believe it. The word of God says this about
me, that I'm a sinner. I'm lost, I'm undone, I can't
do anything to please God. I believe that. I believe that.
Saving faith believes everything that the scriptures say about
the Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures say he is the
savior of sinners. He came to save his people from
their sins, and I believe he did it. I believe it. Since Christ
is the savior of sinners, he did indeed accomplish what he
came to do. He saved his people from their sin. Then Christ is
all I need. I don't need anything else. I
don't need any other righteousness because Christ is my righteousness.
I don't need any other message. I don't need any other message
to preach other than Christ because he's my message. I don't need
any other sacrifice because Christ was sacrificed. He was sacrificed
as my substitute for my sin. I don't need any other hope.
I mean, I just don't need any other hope because Christ is
my hope. He's all my hope. Look at 1 John
5. By God's grace, I simply believe
this, and everybody who has faith will say this, I simply believe
Christ. He's the only savior, he's the
only way of salvation, he's the only one I want. 1 John 5. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. If you, saving faith will simply
believe that Jesus is the Christ. He's God's promised Savior. He's
the one who came to save his people from their sin, and he
got the job done. Now you trust him. You look to
him. You trust him. And I want to
ask you, what loss do you have in trusting Christ? In trusting
your soul to Christ, now what loss do you have? Spiritually,
what loss do you have? You've lost something. I can
tell you that if you trust Christ, you've lost something and you
know what it is that you've lost. You've lost your works of the
law. That to me, that's pretty good game. If I'm doing a cost
benefit analysis, that's pretty good game to tell me that I give
up my works. They can do nothing but damn
me to have Christ who saves me. That's what I've lost in trusting
Christ. The only thing I've lost in trusting Christ is done. That's
it. Saving faith, trust Christ. He's all my salvation. Now here's
the third thing, and this is coming to what this cost benefit
analysis I want us to do. Saving faith involves commitment
to Christ. Commitment, commitment to him. I remember being young, newly
married, and the Lord revealed himself
to me. I always knew the gospel. But the Lord revealed himself
to me. And I'm telling you, this is the most glorious thing, the most glorious experience. And I just committed. If you know him, you know what
I'm talking about. Saving faith involves commitment. Commitment
to Christ, commitment to his gospel, commitment to his people.
I could say all day long, I love Janie. But you'd question my
confession of love for her if I was not committed to her. Saving
faith involves a commitment to Christ. It's a surrender. I surrender to him. I surrender
my soul to him. I tell you what else, I surrender
my body to him too. I surrender my hope of the next
life to Christ. I also surrender this life to
him, this life. I surrender my life to Christ
to use as he will, because he's my ruler. He's my master. He
can use it as he will. My time in this life belongs
to Christ. It belongs to him. So I'm going
to serve him. I'm going to worship him first. It's my first time
commitment every week to worship the Lord. My talents belong to
Christ. Whatever, you know, I'm not a
very talented person, but whatever talents that there are there
belong to Christ. To serve him and serve his people
in whatever opportunity, whatever way he gives me. My money, my
possessions, my family belongs to Christ. We give to support
the gospel first. The first fruits belong to the
Lord. My family belongs to Christ. As for me and my house, we're
gonna worship the Lord. He's preeminent. You see, faith
is committed to Christ. Now, I still have my responsibility
in this life. I have a responsibility to my
family, to my loved ones. I have job responsibilities.
We all have those. We have responsibilities as a
citizen. But serving Christ comes first. Worshipping him comes first. And those other responsibilities
take a back seat to worshiping God and serving him. And if you
got any sense whatsoever, you know how to prioritize those
things. I don't need to tell you, you know how to prioritize
those things. Saving faith involves a commitment to Christ. All right, that's what faith
is. Here's the second thing. Faith in Christ and a commitment
to him is gain. not loss, gain, not loss. Verse 28, Jesus said unto them,
verily, I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the
regeneration, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of
his glory, ye also shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12
tribes of Israel. Now there's an opportunity cost.
to following Christ. If you've left all and you followed
me, the Lord didn't deny that they did that, did he? You have
left all and followed me. And there's an opportunity cost
in doing that. If you're going to do one thing,
you can't do something else because you just only got so much time
in a day. If you would follow Christ, there's an opportunity
cost to your time. If you're committed to being
in the worship service, you're committed for watching out for
each other and helping one another when folks need help, then you're
not going to have some time to do some other things because
you can't be in two places at once. There's an opportunity
cost there. There's an opportunity cost in your money. If you're
committed to giving, to support the gospel, you can't spend that
money on something else. There's an opportunity cost in
following Christ with friendship with this world. You can't serve
two masters. You can only serve one. And if
you're committed to serving Christ, the world's going to hate you.
The world's not going to understand you because it hates Christ.
There's an opportunity cost in following Christ and believing
Him for the glory of your flesh. If you're committed to trusting
your soul to Christ, you're going to have to give up your own glory.
You're going to have to give up trusting in your own works
and you're going to have to give Him all of the glory. There's
just, there's things you give up, but whatever it is that you
give up to be committed to Christ, to be committed to following
him, it cannot be compared. It can't be compared with the
gain of knowing and having Christ. Look at Romans chapter eight.
I don't care what it is that we've got to give up in this
life. It can't be compared to the gain
of Christ. It can't be in this life or the
next one. Romans chapter 8. Paul has done a cost-benefit
analysis. In verse 18, he says, I reckon,
that's a mathematical term. I use the term I reckon, meaning
I guess. That's not the way Paul uses
it here. This is a mathematical term. He's added up both sides
of the ledger. And this is what he says. For
I reckon, I've added this up, that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy. to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us. That's true in this life and
the next one too. The glory of knowing Christ,
the glory of being found in him. Now the Lord tells his disciples,
you followed me, and he says, this is a true statement, verily
this is true. He said, you'll sit on the 12
thrones in glory when I sit on my throne of glory when I return. Now I looked and looked and looked
at that in the best statement that I found on this verse was
found in brother Fortner's commentary. And this is exactly what he said.
Frankly, I have no idea what that means. I agree. Frankly, I had no ID. Jim, Jim
matters. You should say, I have no ID.
I got no ID. What that means. None whatsoever.
It could mean that there are different positions in different
areas of service and glory like there are now, but I have no
idea. I just don't have any idea. But
Brother Henry said, let's start with what we know. Let's stick
to what we know. Here's what I know. I know the believer's
reward is not a reward of grace. It's not a reward of works. It's
a reward of grace. I know that. You do too. We could
never, by our works, make God indebted to us to give us some
reward. It's impossible. The only thing,
the only reward that we can get for our works is death. The wages
of sin is death. Now what is this, what about
this thing about ruling and sitting on these thrones? Well, again,
I don't know, but I am utterly convinced of this from reading
other scripture. There are no degrees of glory.
There's no rewards in heaven. But whatever that means is really
not material to us right now. Whatever it means, let me ask
you this. Whatever it means. Isn't being made just like Christ
reward enough? What more do you want than being
made like Christ? What more do you want? than the
answer to our Lord's great high priestly prayer, Father, I will,
that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory. I sometimes get overwhelmed,
seeing through a glass darkly, seeing the Lord's glory in the
scriptures, in the gospel. We can't imagine what that's
gonna be like seeing face to face. Isn't that glory enough? Isn't that reward enough? It
is if we know him, it is if we know him. So no matter what it
is, we have to give up to follow Christ. Christ will always be
Morgan, always. It is because he's so wonderful.
That's true spiritually. Now those of you who believe
Christ, I'll ask you a few questions. Spiritually, what have you ever
lacked? Have you ever lacked a thing?
Your answer has to be, I've lacked nothing. because the Lord is
my shepherd, so I shall not want. Well, have you ever lacked anything
God requires of you? Your answer has to be no, nothing,
because Christ is my all. Have you ever lacked any ability
to do anything God gave you to do? Have you? Your answer has
to be nothing, because you can say with the apostle, I can do
all things through Christ that strengthens me. Well, have you
ever lacked anything when you fail every test of faith? I mean, people talk about, well,
the Lord's testing my faith. I've failed every time. Haven't
you? Fail every time. But what have you lacked when
you did? Your honest answer has to be nothing. I've lacked nothing
because Christ intercedes for me, and he prays for me just
like he did Peter, that my faith fail not. When every danger,
toil, and snare In every trial, in every heartache, in every
crushing trial of life, have you ever lacked anything? Have
you? Your honest answer, if you're
a believer, has to be, I've lacked nothing, because His grace is
sufficient for me. What about when your heart's
broken? Have you lacked anything? Huh? Your honest answer has to
be, I've lacked nothing, because Christ is my comfort. And he's
faithful to always send the comforter to me, just exactly like he promised. Well, have you ever lacked anything
when you're weak and when you're empty? Your honest answer has
to be nothing. If you believe Christ, if you
belong to him, your honest answer has to be nothing because his
strength is made perfect in my weakness. In my emptiness, his
fullness is made like nothing. Have you lacked anything? when
your faith is small and weak. Which seems like most of the
time, doesn't it? Have you lacked anything? Your honest answer
has to be, I've lacked nothing. Because salvation, the performance
of it, the keeping of it, is all dependent on Christ's faithfulness,
not mine. And great is his faithfulness.
Great is his faithfulness. See, no matter what it is that
you've got to give up to follow Christ, Christ will be more gain. I promise you that. Now look
over Philippians chapter four. That's true spiritually. And
you know, that's true physically too. Whatever it is that we give
up, Christ will be more gain. Philippians chapter four. Paul
here is talking to the church about giving and the summary
of what he's telling them is this. You cannot give God. Philippians
4 verse 19. But my God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. God's
gonna supply all your need, all of it. Now anybody who takes
that and says that God's gonna make you rich if you follow him
faithfully enough and you're orthodox enough and God'll make
you rich or he'll make you comfortable, Whoever it is tells you that
is a false prophet. They're trying to motivate you
by the, by the, by, it's just a more subtle way to motivate
you by the law and by rewards rather than by grace. Somebody
tells you that's a false prophet because their message is focused
on the good of the flesh, not the soul. They're false prophet.
But Paul is saying this to God's people, that whatever it is that
you've got to give up in this flesh to be committed to Christ,
Follow Him. Whatever it is you give up, you're
not going to lose anything. Anything. God will supply your
need. That's true spiritually, and that's true physically. That's
a promise of God. You can read it for yourself.
That's a promise of God. The only thing that we're going
to sacrifice in this life to be committed to Christ is sacrificing
perishing things that are soon going to burn up anyway. That's
all we give up. And if you look in Luke chapter
22, I'll show you an example of this. Our God will supply
the need of his people. Luke chapter 22, verse 35. And he said unto them, when I
sent you without purse and script and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, nothing. And I
think it's very interesting when the Lord made this statement.
Look at the previous verse, verse 34. It's talking to Peter. I
tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before thou
shalt deny me thrice that you even know me, that thou knowest
me. Those words are going to come
back to Peter's mind. and he's going to be devastated. He's
going to do that. You know the story, he's going
to be devastated. And our Lord's given him, in the very next sentence,
a promise of his grace. Peter, when your faith fails,
you're going to lack nothing. You're going to lack nothing.
That's true spiritually. And it's true physically. This
really happened. The Lord sent his disciples out
to go out preaching with no visible means of support. They didn't
take an extra pair of clothes. They didn't take an extra pair
of shoes. They didn't take a bag full of money with no means of
support whatsoever. They went out preaching and on
that entire trip, they lacked nothing. They lacked nothing. They lacked nothing because the
Lord laid it on the hearts of his people to give, to support
them. And if you look back in our text,
Matthew chapter 19, it could be, that that's how the Lord
will support you and me too. Verse 29. And everyone that hath forsaken
houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive in
a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. Now we have
a family of believers. That's the way God refers. to
his elect, that they're family. We have family of believers.
We're to watch out for one another. We're to care for one another's
needs. We're to support one another when somebody needs it. When
the chips are down, I mean, there's no family like this family. I mean, when the chips are down,
the way people help and pray for one another, that's how God
supplies the need. I'm talking about physically
now, the need of his family. It's by his family. It's by his
family. Laying it on the hearts of his
people to take care of one another. And whatever it is that you give
up, our Lord says, you'll receive
a hundredfold. That's not, that's not investing. I'm not telling you, oh, you
know, you give a dollar, you'll get a hundred. That's not, that's
not it at all. But that's what the Lord said, and you'll receive
a hundredfold. You won't lack anything. You
won't lack anything. Now, here's the third thing,
kind of in summary of all this. We do this cost-benefit analysis
subconsciously sometimes when things are going bad. And we
think, we think, I'm really suffering here. I mean, I've lost a lot
in this thing. I just, I don't, I'm just losing. We think that. We think I'm losing
in this thing. Well, let me tell you why that is. We think that
we lack. We think we're suffering loss.
We think that the loss is greater than the gain. Because the mind of this flesh
looks at everything backwards. If you've got profit and loss,
and the profit is greater than the loss, well, you're going
to think it's the other way around if you put stuff in the wrong
column. Does that make sense? And that's what the mind of this
flesh does. It puts stuff in the wrong column and we think
we've suffered loss because we've got it all backwards. Verse 30,
but many that are first should be last and the last should be
first. See, God doesn't do things the
way we do things. The first should be last and the last should be
first. It's upside down. It's the opposite
of the way the flesh looks at it. But if the Lord let us see
things in their proper order, we'll see we've suffered no real
loss in following Christ and being committed to him. And just
like those questions I asked you earlier, however the question
is posed to you, have you lacked anything? Have you suffered the
loss of anything? Our answer will be no. I've suffered
nothing, lost nothing. if we know who Christ is, and
we believe Him, and we're following Him. Now, if we're committed
to trying to gain our own glory, our own recognition, well, no,
we won't be successful in that. And if we are, God help us. But
if we're committed to following Christ, our answer will be I've
lost nothing. All right, well, God bless that
to you.