The lesson this morning will
be taken from Luke chapter 14, verses 28 through 35. The subject of these verses is forsaking
all for Christ. Let's read these verses together. Luke chapter 14, beginning with
verse 28. For which of you, intending to
build a tower, sitteth not down first, and consulteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest, happily, after
he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all
that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to
build, and was not able to finish. Or 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, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath. He cannot be my
disciple. Salt is good, but if salt hath
lost its savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither
fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it
out. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Our Lord's here showing to us
the way of discipleship. What is a disciple? We hear much
about disciples. We talk about Christ's disciples.
What is a disciple? He's teaching here discipleship.
Well, a disciple is a follower. He's a follower of one And this
follower is willingly and actively submissive to him. Nobody's forcing him to. But
he sees in this man, whoever it is he's following, he sees
in this man that that man can do him good. His association
with that man, his following after that man, his being submissive
to that man is to his advantage. and especially concerning his
teaching. And he follows him, being convinced
that he'll do him good, that he'll benefit greatly from being
around him. Christians are all disciples
of Christ. Paul said, I know your election
of God. Our gospel came not unto you
in word only, it came in power, it came in the Holy Ghost, it
came with much assurance, and you've become followers disciples
of us and the Lord. They followed Paul in so much
as Paul followed the Lord. We don't follow men blankly.
We don't follow men and if the blind follow the blind, they're
both going to fall in the ditch. We don't do that, but we follow
men in so much as that man follows the Lord. In John 8, 31, our Lord turned
to the believing Jews And he said, if you continue in my word,
not if you heard something and memorized it and went home, if
you continue in my word, there's an interest, there's an appetite,
you found something there. If you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall set you free. A disciple of Christ is one who
must follow him wherever he leads him. Wherever that is, he's going
to follow him. He goes where his people are. And where his people are is in
a hostile world under the bondage of an evil king. And where he
goes, he goes as he truly is. We don't follow the Christ of
our imagination. We don't follow that old Christ
that was sold to us, that image sold to us by worldly religion. Where Christ goes, he goes as
he truly is. Now you think about that. There's no pretense, there's
no hiding of his person, not any part of his person. And there's
no leaving off of the things for the sake of offense. First
thing our disciples said when they saw those Pharisees, man,
they were powerful, influential people, and they said, you offended
them, did you know that? Yeah, he said, I knew that. Leave
them alone. Leave them alone. And it's not
an easy thing to be a disciple. Don't ever get it in your head
it's an easy thing to be a disciple. There ain't nothing easy about
it. Back in verse 25 we're told that
great multitudes went with him. That is, they followed him. They
followed him. But going with him did not make
them disciples. And so it tells them something
of how it truly is. Following him will cause a division
in your life. That's what he tells us. You
ready for that? You ready for that? Oh, you thought
this was going to be all roses and candy and cake. Following
him is going to cause a division in your life. Your closest relatives
are going to become your foes if you follow him as he is and
follow him where he goes. You'll find yourselves at variance
with your own children. Isn't that what the Lord said?
Your closest friends will not seek your company anymore. It's an amazing thing. People
I've been friends with since I was a kid. And when they learned
what I believed, they just kind of backed off and faded into
the crowd. And organized religion will put
your picture on a wanted poster. And so our Lord, having said
these things as plainly as words can be used, he now draws for
us a couple of pictures. The first in verse 28 is about
building a tower. He said this is like a man sat
down and he said, I'm going to build a tower. Why would our
Lord use that to describe a disciple? A tower. What is a tower? A tower
is a high place. It's a high place. I'm going
to tell you something. If you follow him, you're going
to be walking in a high place. There's none higher than Christ.
You can't get no higher than that. He's the head of all principalities
and powers. He's high and lifted up. His
train fills the temple. When he's talking about a tower,
he's talking about a place high. High above everything around
him. A place above all the distractions and everyday business of life.
It's a place of clean sight. Nothing obstructs your view from
this tower. When you rise up into that tower,
you can see all things. You can see eternity past and
eternity future in Christ. You can see all things. And from this tower, you can
see danger approaching. That's why they built it. You
can see danger approaching. You can see enemies out there
moving around for position. Thieves sneaking in to steal
away precious things. And then secondly, a tower is
high ground. It's being where you need to
be when you come under attack. You won't be in a high tower.
You don't want to be in a ditch. It's a stronghold, a bulwark.
And taking up a profession in Christ is like building a tower. That's what he's telling them.
Just like building a tower, it must have a sufficient foundation,
a strong base to support this great work. This is a great work. This is what's going to save
your soul. This is the only refuge there
is. It's a high place. It's a massive
thing. It needs a foundation. It needs
something stable. And this tower must be built
on Jesus Christ. Son of God, come into the flesh. That's Jesus. He's the Son of
God. Christ is his office. So when
we're talking about Jesus Christ, we're talking about the Son of
God, our Savior. In Christ, the Christ is God's
appointed Savior. He's Lord and deliverer. He's
the refuge. He's the city of refuge. And the Christ is God's appointed
head and representative, his substitute and redeemer. And
this tower must reach into heaven itself. That's how high it has
to be. It has to go all the way to heaven.
Isn't that why they tried to build the Tower of Babel? But
God confounded their languages and they couldn't do it. And so it does in Jesus Christ,
who is not only the foundation, but the tower itself, and it
reaches into heaven itself. We're seated with him, the scripture
said, in the heavens. And this discipleship rests in
Christ alone, who is able to save to the uttermost those who
come unto God by him. Now all those who intend to build
such a tower are called on to count the cost. Why? Why? So you won't be laughed at. I'll
give you a better reason than that. So God won't be laughed
at. God won't be mocked. But here's the larger sense.
Why am I told to count the cost? It's to convince you that you
don't, of yourselves, have what it takes to build this tower.
That's what this counting will cost. It's to show you, you know,
you're getting ready to build a house and you reach down there
and you pull out your wallet and you got about 25 bucks. I've
been building one. I'm going to tell you something.
You can't buy the blueprints for 25 bucks. You ain't going
to buy nothing. And we're bankrupt beggars. And
that's what the Lord's telling these Pharisees. Their whole
hope was on what they built. Their whole hope sprang from
within them, their own righteousness, their own works, their own dedication. Everything about them, that was
the strength of their tower. And the Lord said, you start
to build something you can't finish. If you count the cost, you'll
see you don't have enough to finish. So how are you going
to build it? In Christ. God built it. God
built it. It's to convince us that we don't
have of ourselves what it takes to build this town. What do we
have to contribute to such a thing as this? What have you got? Huh? What have you got, if you
could this morning pull it out and bring it before God, what
have you got that you think God might use? Nothing. Nothing. He said, if I was hungry,
I wouldn't tell you. Why would I come to you? What
do you got? All them cattle you see out there
that men think they own, those are all mine. Those mountains
are mine. That sky is mine. This earth
is mine. That air you breathe is mine.
It's all mine. Listen to this. Paul said those
who are under sin, back in Romans chapter 3, you can read it. Those
who are under sin, he said, are together become unprofitable. There's nothing in them. Nothing
in them. The sufficiency of the tower
is Christ and God the Holy Ghost who reveals into our hearts and
minds. And faith is the gift of God. It's not of works, lest
any man should boast. It is of faith, Paul said, that
it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure
to all to see. That's why it's by faith. He's
not counting on anything from you. He's going to give you that
faith. And he's going to give you that revelation of faith,
which is Christ, who is the tower. Faith rests in the sufficiency
of Christ, the victorious Christ, the exalted Christ, the reigning
Christ, Christ on the throne. That's why I'm not hearing that
preach today, are you? Christ is on the throne. He's
running the show. He's arranging all things. He
arranged this day. He arranged for you to be here.
He works in the minds and hearts to enable you to believe, to
enable me to preach. What have we gotten that we haven't
received? You see what I'm saying? What have I got to build such
a tower? We have all we need in Christ.
All there. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him. And then
he gives us another picture. That's the tower. Christ is the
tower. And then he tells us to consult
this. Here's a king. And boy, he's feeling his wings.
I mean, he's got the crown on, the robe. He's got 10,000 people
following him. And he thinks he's somebody.
And he said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to
go there, and I'm going to crush Russia. I'm going to step on
them and twist them under my feet. He said, you better consult,
because you're 10,000. Getting ready to go up and give
$20,000. And what's going to happen, you
and your pride, your foolish pride, you're going to run out
there against overwhelming odds. And then all of a sudden, it's
going to dawn on you, I can't win this war. And then you're
going to get together some people and say, go out there and see
what he says. We'll compromise. Go out there and see what kind
of terms you can get for peace. That's exactly what happens. We can't win this thing. Look at Antichrist's religion.
Look at its numbers, its influence, its social power. It's intertwined
into every government, office, school, workplace in the world. And it's against Christ, contrary
to Christ, hostile toward all who would follow Christ. And
their armies are out there. And we're told to consult as
to the outcome of such a confrontation. And again, it's to convince us
that if we try to do this on our own, it's going to end in
an effort to compromise. That's where it's going to end. We're going to compromise our
discipleship for the sake of peace. Peace with an enemy that
we cannot defeat. If we have Christ, we have sufficient
to go against the odds. Our Lord was always confronted
by the multitudes, wasn't he? You remember that day? He said,
except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no
life in you. There was thousands. Thousands
had followed him everywhere he went. They saw his miracles.
They were impressed with him. They loved him. And here they
come. And then he sat down and he said, Chip, you drank my blood
and ate my flesh. You don't have any life in you.
They said, he's nuts. He's nuts. He's talking about
eating human flesh. He's talking cannibalism. And
they turned and walked away. He turned to his disciples. He
said, will you go too? Where are we going to go? Huh? Where are we going to go? If
you have Christ, that's exactly what you know. Where are we going
to go? We ain't going with them. Where are we going to go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. And he said, all right, here's
the words. My word is spirit in their life. Chris, that outfit,
walked away. Our Lord confronted Huge multitudes,
odds against him. All of this world's religion
was against him. All of it. Pagan and otherwise. If we have Christ, we have God. Is that right? If you have Christ,
you have God. The visible seems weak. and unopposing
because the real power is in Him. It's in Him. John writes, ye are of God, little
children, and have overcome them. Who's them? That's the religion
of this world. That's the overwhelming odds.
Here they are. I mean, I can't even come up
with a number how many there is. And they're all opposed. They're all opposed. He said,
you are of God, little children, and you've overcome them, them
false prophets, those cunning spirits, not of God, because
greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. We don't
have to believe that, do we? Greater is he that's in you than
he that's in the world. Whatsoever is born of God, John
said, overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Isn't that what our Lord's instructing
these men about discipleship and faith? Count the cost, look
at the odds. You think you can produce anything
in and of yourself to confront such a multitude, to confront
such a power? My soul, Satan, takes me and
captives it as well. If He wants to, He can have you
at the snap of a finger. There's only one thing that keeps
you from Him, Christ. That's it. And there's an enemy out there
that you alone cannot defeat, cannot put down, or even hope
to challenge on your own. The angels dared not bring a
railing accusation against Him. They said the Lord rebuked them. And yet with the Lord, they don't
stand a chance. Caleb said, let's go. There was
only one thing left, the village of the Anakins, the giants. Caleb
said, I want that city. Those giants were the straw that
broke the camel's back and caused those men to come back with the
evil report, saying we can't go in there. There's giants in
the land. He said, I want that city. He
was an old man, older than me. Older than me. And he said, I want that city.
Joshua said, it's yours. He went in and took those giants
down. Took them down. He said, it's
like a story already told. Isn't it? Faith looks not inward. It looks
upward to the Lord. It draws its strength from Him. And then our Lord says this,
verse 33, so likewise, just like these pictures I gave you, so
likewise, whosoever he be among you that forsaketh not all that
he hath. Isn't that what I've been telling
you? You count the cost. You don't
have anything. We're bankrupt beggars. We ain't
got anything to offer. Somebody comes in, got a little
influence, got a little money. You think God needs your money? I'm grateful to givers. I have
good reason to be. God lays it on their hearts to
give. But don't you ever get the idea God needs anything that
you have. He don't. He don't. If you give, he's giving you
the privilege to give. It's a privilege. So likewise, whosoever he be
among you that forsaketh not all that he hath, all your wisdom,
all your strength, all your cunning, if he forsaketh not all that
he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Because discipleship rests in
Christ alone. You see what he's teaching? forsake all, my friends, my relatives, this world's influence, my social
status, my job, and even more, our logic and
reasoning and strength, our concepts and power. Those who would follow
Christ must do so forsaking all. But what about my future? He
is my future. Is he not? You planning on staying
here forever? Huh? I tell you, you look at
eternity, you ain't got but a day or two. At most. At most. You planning on staying
here? Oh, what about my future? He
is my future. I've got no future apart from
Him. None. What about my family? Our family
is the family of God. Is it not? It's God's family. Who you gonna spend eternity
with? Huh? I know we got friends in
this world. I got people I like in this world. We made a salesman down there,
a black fella down at Davis Lumber. I like him. He's honest. He tries
to do us the best he can, you know. But he's not of the family
of God. And it wouldn't matter if he's
black, white, yellow, or red. Our family is the family of God.
Yes, I have sons and daughters. Yes, I have cousins and nephews.
And I watch them die without any knowledge of God whatsoever,
no hope. I'm not going to spend eternity
with them, I hope. I'm going to spend eternity with
God's people. That's my family. Here's your
sister, mother, brother, and so on, our Lord said. What about my job? He gave you
that one, He'll give you another one. Huh? Oh, my friend, discipleship,
not making a profession of faith and then going back to business
as usual. That's what I love telling these
people. It's a whole new life, new principles, new goals, new
management, new citizenship. And what it requires is forsaking
all. That is all things contrary to
Christ. Paul said in Philippians 3, 7,
but what things were gained to me. My family was a big gain
to me when I was growing up. They were a gain to me. Paul
said what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
the Lord. for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things. And to count them but done, that
I may win Christ and be found in Him. That I might know Him,
that I might know something of the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His
death. And He never tells us what happened
after Christ says these things to the multitudes. But I suspect
the crowds thin down, don't you? I suspect they thin down quite
a bit. And then he wraps it all up saying
this, salt is good. I like salt, don't you? I probably
shouldn't eat as much as I do, but salt's good. That's what
the Lord said. Salt's good. But if the salt
has lost its flavor, when salt goes bad, when it goes stale,
it's not good for anything. It's not good for anything. Listen
to this. He said it ain't good to put on the dung heap. At least
you can take the food scraps and the dung and mix them together
and compost it and use it on your garden, but you can't use
salt for anything. When salt goes bad, it's good
for nothing. That's what he said. It's good
for nothing. And if you have nothing in you
of Christ, you've lost your salt. You've lost your savor. It's a bland taste in the mouth
of God. He said, you're good for nothing. Nothing is more useless than
a preacher who's not a true disciple of Christ. He doesn't fit in
anywhere. He has no sufficiency to build
and no power to overcome obstacles. And apart from seasoning salt,
he has no value at all. And he said, if salt has lost
its flavor, There ain't nothing left. He said they just throw
it out on the ground. May the Lord teach us something
of what it is to be a disciple of Christ, to follow Him.