I want to talk to you this morning about counting the cost. Counting the cost. Now, my wife likes to read these
books by an author. His name is Nicholas Sparks.
Some of you women may read some of his books. But the thing she
really gets aggravated with him about is at the end, he always
kills off the good guy. And he has a surprise ending.
It just leaves you like, oh, I wish I'd have known that. I
wouldn't have even read the book. A total surprise ending. And I say that
to you because my message this morning, as it progresses on,
has a surprise ending. So don't close the book. weight
on the Indian. Now, whenever a man or a woman
shows any interest in spiritual things, and I'm using this term very
broadly when I say religion. I'm saying that the majority
of religious men and women, this is their thinking. I'm not pulling
out a particular thing like Catholicism or the Baptist or Anybody in
particular, I'm talking about the whole outfit, the general
theology, the general tenor of a religious man. Here's this
fellow and he comes and he's a child of somebody that attends
the church or whatever, and all of a sudden he begins to have
a little bit of interest. The first thing the religious
man does is pounce on him. He just jumps on him. Strike
while the irons hot. And they get him down and boy,
it's coming from all directions. And he don't know which end is
up. But I find this not to be so
in the Word of God. It's just not so in the Word
of God. Mary and Martha desired the Lord to come to their aid
concerning their brother Lazarus, and the Lord let them sit for
three days. He let them sit over there and
think about it, contemplate it. Think about him and why he's
not there, and why he didn't hurry over there, and why he
seemingly doesn't care anything at all about their needs and
about their desires and about their heartache. He just let
them over there for three days. He didn't think about it. Turn with me to Luke chapter
14. Religion says strike while the iron is hot, but the Lord
says count the cost. He said, consult your advisors
and see if what you have, see if what is necessary, to complete
what you're about to begin, see if you have it. See if you're
able to do this thing that you desire to do. He tells you to
stop. Now this chapter, just hold your
place there in Luke chapter 14, this chapter is about these Jewish
leaders and their people, and their rejection of Christ,
and then the people's turning from them to follow after Christ.
You go through this chapter and that's what you're going to discover.
The Lord said they were like people that were highly esteemed
in their own eyes. And the people that were in agreement
with them, they highly esteemed them. And these men were highly
esteemed. They were haughty and proud and
self-righteous and arrogant. When somebody invited them to
supper, they always wanted the chief seat. If there was a special room for
the muckety-mucks, that's where they wanted to be. Book me over
here in room 3. I don't want to be over there
with some other guy. I want to be over here. And the Lord said,
you're opening yourself up for trouble when you do that. Because
He said, here's what's going to happen. You're going to come
in, and everybody's going to see you, and they're going to
see those broad phylacteries, and your uniform, and your holiness,
and your righteousness, and you're somebody, and you're going to
walk in there, and you're going to sit down in the seat. You're
going to sit down there. Here I am. But here comes the
prince, and he comes in, and they're going to say, hey, bud,
you're sitting in my seat. And then you're going to be embarrassed.
Then you're going to have to go over there to the room that
you already told them you didn't want to sit with. That's where
you're going to have to go. Over there. He said, you're opening
yourself up for problems. You're headed for trouble. When
you assist on these chief seats, one greater than you is going
to come in with a greater office and a greater reputation than
you. And you'll have to suffer the embarrassment of being relieved
from your place to a lower place. And then he moves to a little
bit broader picture. And he says, he said there was
a man who gave a great supper. This is not one of these little
township suppers. This was a great supper. This
guy was somebody. He was somebody. And he made
a great supper. And when the feast was ready
to be served, he sent his servants to those who were bidden, and
they really didn't want to come. They didn't want to go. You see,
the honor of the feast was not in their honor. The glory of
that feast was not about their glory. The purpose of that feast
was to honor the Son, and they didn't really like him to start
with. And they hated the seating arrangement. And the master of the house insisted
that they put on a special robe. And they didn't like it either.
They wanted their own robe. They wanted them broad phylacteries
that they hand-stitched on there. Old Grandma hand-stitched them
on there. They were so proud of them. They walked like this
so you could see They brought those big bands down there at
the bottom so you'd know who they were. But this supper, they
couldn't wear that. They had to wear the master's
robe at this supper, and they didn't like that. And so one
at a time, they began to make excuse. Oh, he said, I bought
a piece of ground. I'd like to be there. I appreciate
you asking me, but I bought this piece of ground. I've got to
go look at it. And so he excused himself. And the servants came
to the next one and he said, I'd go. I really would. I want
to go. I thank much of you, Master,
but you're going to have to excuse me. He said, I bought five oaks
of yoxin. And he said, I've got to go prove
them. Now, nobody buys gram without looking at it or oxin without
proving them. So these were things they were
just throwing up into the face of these men who knew better.
And then the third one said, I married a wife. Surely you
don't expect me to go. I just married a wife. I can't
go. And the master of the house,
when the servants came back and told him the news, he was furious.
And he sent his servants out into the city and brought in
the poor and the maimed and the haught and the blind and gave
them their place. And still there was room. And
so the master sent out his servants and he said, ìGo on out of the
town. Go out there in the highways and the hedges. Go out there
where the homeless live and bring them in.î And he gave them the
chief seats at the supper. He gave them the seats where
the proud Jew was bidden to sit. And there sitting in his seat,
this old filthy Gentile dog. Where these proud, arrogant,
highly esteemed people would not sit, would not be seated,
the publicans and sinners gladly came in and sat down. And the people who heard what
he was saying, applied what he was saying to these Jewish And
rightly so. That's exactly who he was talking
about. And they saw what he was talking
about. Saw what he was talking about. And began to turn away
from that traditional leadership of the scribes and Pharisees
and follow after the Lord. See, they wouldn't give any kind
of okay to Christ at all. They wanted answers and he wouldn't
give it to them. They wanted signs and he wouldn't give it
to them. And so they wouldn't put their stamp of approval on
him. But the people, regardless of
what they did, began to see some foolishness in what they were
doing and some wisdom in what he was saying. And so they turned
from the old traditional leaders and began to follow after Christ.
Now watch this. And this is what the Master said.
He said, none of those men that were bidding, who made excuses,
is going to eat my supper. They're not going to eat my supper.
They're going to stand outside and look in. They're not coming
in. None of those men who were bidding
but were too self-conceited, too self-righteous, and too arrogant
to come shall taste of my supper. They'll sit outside the house
and look in and see the old derelict sinner sitting in his seat, drinking
the master's wine and eating the master's meat. Why wouldn't the master allow
them to come in? Because they judged themselves
unworthy. That's why. They didn't want
to go because it was total foolishness in their eyes. Now watch this
here in Luke chapter 14 verse 25. This is where I want to pick
this up. And there went great multitudes with him. Great multitudes. We're not talking about 5 or
6 people. When he fed the 5,000, he didn't
even call that crowd a great multitude. This was a great multitude. Turned and began to follow him. And he stopped dead in his tracks.
He didn't say, come on, stop dead in his tracks. Now watch
this. And some of you here, you begin to hear a little something
different. You're not quite sure what it is. You can't put your
finger on it. But you're hearing something
different here than you're hearing everywhere else. You're seeing a little bit of
foolishness in where you was and a little bit of wisdom in
where you are. You can't put your finger on it. You can't
say, that's it. That's it. You're not there yet.
But you're seeing some things. Enough to turn you. Enough to
turn you. You haven't figured it all out
yet. But the Lord's given you enough of an appetite to where
you're coming. That's exactly where this multitude
was at. Exactly where they're at. Something
about his message, his way, and his wisdom caught their eye,
and they turned from their normal routine and began to gather around
the Lord. And the Lord turns to this great
multitude that have risked some things. They've risked some reputation
being here. Some of you have. You mean you're
going over there? Huh? You didn't confess anything,
didn't do anything, wasn't a bad guy, you didn't do anything.
Already they put the label up. You going over there? That's
what these Pharisees, when they saw that crowd going, you going
with them? They already risked a little
bit. He said down here in verse 26, he said three things to them. Stop dead in his tracks. Turn
and stop that big multitude dead in their tracks. Gives them three
things. Look here at verse 26. He said,
"...if any man come to me, and hate not his father, his mother,
and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple." Pack your bags. Go on back. That's the last thing you'll
ever hear from religion, ain't it? Now, rather than giving you a
lot of things that it don't say and things that it might say,
I'm just going to tell you what he's talking about. If your intention is to follow
the Lord, you must have a clear and just hatred or sin. Now, that's what he's talking
about. You see, man assumes, we were talking about this Wednesday
night and I made this statement, man assumes when the Bible talks
about sin that it's talking about isolated acts. I was young and foolish and I
did some things I shouldn't have done. Anybody here escaped that? Guilty. In a moment of weakness
or anger, I did this. I said that, I've done this. Preacher, I was in the wrong
place at the wrong time, and I fell in with the wrong crowd,
and I did something I never would have done under different circumstances. He or she made me jealous, and
so I reacted. The kids pushed me too far. Any
of you mothers been there? pushed you too far. We look back
over our lives and we just see a trail of litter that dirties
up the landscape. You look back over there and
I can just, man, that path looks like the road into the city dump.
It just, there's stuff everywhere. Everywhere. All along the trail. And then I begin to think about
this. I begin to think about the things that I could have
done and didn't. This is that old blood Hound
Rock used to talk about that will chase you into a never-ending
eternity. Opportunity is missed. Time wasted. This is what Paul is talking
about over in Hebrews chapter 11, saying of how much sore punishment.
He said, those who violated the law of Moses before two or three
witnesses were taken out and stoned to death. Now he said,
of how much sore punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God? When did I do that? When
the Lord met and you wasn't here. When the Lord called and you
didn't answer. When the gospel was preached
and you didn't respond. When the love of God was manifested
and you didn't want any. Of how much sore punishment shall
he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of
God, counted the blood of the covenant that sanctifies his
people once for all? An unholy thing. And done despite under the Spirit
of grace. And I know that you recognize
these things because I see them myself and we repent of these
things. Wish they'd never happened. And
like that old Jew, we see the blood of the substitute, put
them away, and then the rest of our lives look pretty good.
They go up there to that priest and they confess their sins on
the head of that goat. Confess their sins. The old scapegoat. Lord, I don't pray enough. Lord,
I don't do this. Lord, it reminds me of that Catholic
confessional where they go in there and, okay, you have to
do five Hail Marys and whatever else they tell them to do and
they're on their way. Takes care of these things that we did in
this moment of weakness and this trial under the wrong circumstances
in the wrong place at the wrong time. We see those things put
aside, but then the rest of it looks pretty good. It looks pretty
good. It's okay. Is that how you feel? Then you don't know anything
at all about sin. You don't know anything at all about sin. The
truth about sin is that the part of our lives we are the proudest
of is the part that manifests the greater evidence of our sin.
That's exactly what the Lord was telling these Pharisees.
That part that you're so proud of. You're proud of yourself.
You're proud of this office you hold. You're proud of these things.
And you want to be recognized for it. You want to sit in this
seat because you think you're worthy to sit in the seat. But you're sitting in his seat. And he's going to embarrass you.
He's going to embarrass you when he comes in, won't he? Yeah,
he does. Paul said in Ephesians 2, 3,
describing the condition of man before God. Before God came and
quickened him out of his spiritual death and depravity, he said,
you were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. By
nature. In Psalm 95, 5, I read this to
the people the other night. David said, man at his best state, at his best state. We're not
looking now over the past. We're talking about the best
part of it, the part you're proudest of, is altogether vanity. Huh? See, it's what men don't see.
They don't understand sin. If you understood sin, you wouldn't
brag on your righteousness. You wouldn't feel good about
anything you ever did. You won't ever find Paul rejoicing
in something that he did. Paul rejoiced in Christ alone. The only joy he had. Only joy he had. But if I can
rejoice in Him, I can rejoice in my marriage. I can rejoice
in all things if I can rejoice in Him. If I can see it in him. Isaiah said, We are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And just
two chapters past this that I'm preaching to you from this morning
here in the book of Luke, over in Luke chapter 16, he said,
That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination. Wow! What's that mean? That means
every time I do something and feel good because I do it, I'm
practicing something that's abomination in the sight of God. That's what
that means. All man's ways are clean in his
own eyes. Man looks on the outward countenance.
God looks on the heart. The thing that impresses the
natural man the most is utter and absolute abomination before
God. When a person is brought to see
sin as who he is, that he, like Job said, he drinks iniquity
like water. He said, how can man be just
of God? He said, the stars aren't pure
in his sight. The moon and the sun are not
pure in his sight. Much less a man that drinks iniquity
like water. That's us. That's us, like water. When a man comes to see these
things, he'll cry out to God with Paul, Oh, wretched man that
I am! I'm going to cry out until he sees
it. He ain't going to cry out over that watermelon he stole.
He ain't going to cry out over that piece of copper he smuggled
home from his work. He's going to cry out when he
sees what he is by nature. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? This is death.
This is death. I am sin before God, and God
cannot look on sin with approval. He'll cry out, oh, Paul said
that I might win Christ and be found in Him not having my own
righteousness. We're seeking one. Paul said
he didn't want to be found in his. Bragging on it a few verses
before. Why, he said, you think you got
something? Brag on, listen to this. I circumcised
the eighth day. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
I'm a Pharisee. I'm jealous above everybody else
in the Israeli nation. I said it to Peter Gamaliel.
He had a whole book worth of stuff to be proud of. All of
a sudden, he says it's a dung. He said, I count all these things
lost for the glory of Christ. Now they're just dung and ashes.
I don't even want to be found having them. I don't even want
them on me. I don't want them associated
with my name. Not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith. When a man comes
to see these things, he'll hate his own life. He'll hate himself. He's not going to be satisfied
with himself. You can't make him satisfied
with himself. Can't do it. He'll hate himself. He'll hate
that abomination of self-righteousness. And he'll hate it wherever he
finds it. If he finds it in his father...
Let me tell you something. I first began to come to a knowledge
of these things, and God began to open some things out of the
Scripture to me, and I was excited. I couldn't believe the blessedness
of these things. And I ran to my dad, who I looked
up to as a spiritual leader all my life. And I ran to him, and
I told him these things. And he got mad. And I despised that attitude
he had. I despised it. That's what he's
talking about here. He that hateth not mother, father. I'm telling you, you're going
to hate sin. And you're going to hate it when
it's in your father. See, you hate it when the preacher
preaches it. Natural man hates it. Spiritual man drinks it up. Drinks it up. But these things
that we say we hate, when our own relatives do them, we kind
of pat them over, don't we? Christ said, He said, I'm seeing
you now, and you're turning from that self-righteousness. He said,
when you get ready to turn from your mother, father, sister,
brother, when you learn to hate this thing, wherever you see
it, when you come to realize that this is the curse of all
men, all men, You're going to hate it where
you find it. And you're going to hate it on your relatives
as much as you do anywhere else. Alright, now here's the second
thing. Now, he said, if you can't do this, he said, you can't be
my disciple. Just pack your bags up and go
on back up to the Pharisee. Come down here. Alright, here's
the second thing. Luke 14, verse 27. He said, and
whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my
disciple. This cross bearing is a two-fold
thing. The cross is the way. It's the
way. The just and righteous way of
God. The only way. There is no other
way. If it be possible, Lord, let
this cup pass from me. It wasn't possible. It wasn't
possible. This is the just and righteous
way that God can be just and still justify those who believe.
It's the only way a guilty sinner can be reconciled to God. God
puts him to death in the person of His Son and raises him up
fully justified in the resurrection of Christ. But the cross is also
that place that this world manifested their utter contempt against
Christ. You see that? Utter contempt. for God and His way of redemption
in Christ alone. And to be His disciple, I must
be willing to enter into a fellowship with the sufferings of Christ.
I've got to do that. And I do that by bearing this
world's enmity against Him. I take up that cross and I say,
this is my way. His way is my way. I believe
it. This is the only way. I insist
on it. No, you're wrong. No, I'm not wrong. And I ain't
moving. Well, we'll just despise you
then. Go ahead. Go ahead. It's God's will that He should
bear His cross, even so I have a cross to bear. And if I'm not
willing to become a laughing stock and be mocked and despised
by men, Find my enemies to be those of my own household. I
cannot be his disciple. Just pack your bags and go on
back to the Pharisees." Here's the third thing. Boy, he's not
giving these folks any leeway at all, is he? He ain't saying,
come on, you'll be all right. He's saying, check this out. Do this. Do this. All right?
Third, he says, count the cost. Look down here in verse 28. For which of you, intending to
build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost,
whether he has sufficient to finish it? Lest, happily, after
he had laid the foundation, and was not able to finish it, all
that behold 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
He's got a council of advisors here, these chief men of war,
these captains, and he sits down with them and he tells them about
this king and they discuss their strategies and all these things
to see, he said, which one of you don't do that? You're just
going to pack the army up and go out there into battle and
you don't even know who he is? He said, if you do, here's what's
going to happen. You're going to get a great way off and you're
going to discover that he had twice as many men as you did.
You had 10,000, he had 20. Now, you're going to flippantly
jerk up that little posse of yours and go out there and tack
those 20,000 without consulting, without saying how we're going
to do this? Here's what's going to happen,
he said, you're going to find while you're a great way off
that he outnumbers you and got greater power than you and you're
going to get together and send out an emissary out there, a
little group of men, you're going to send them over there and see
what kind of conditions of peace he has to offer. You're going
to compromise, that's what he said. You're going to compromise. You're going to go to war big
time when you ride out of the castle. But then you're going
to come up over that rise and man, look at that army, it goes
horizon to horizon. And you're going to say, let's
back up now. Let's send some folks over there and see if he
won't give us some conditions of peace. And this tower he talks
about, I've got an OED at home. I don't even know if you can
buy them anymore. You have to read it with magnifying glass.
But it takes a word and it takes it back in time. Not as it's
set forth in the Bible, although it does give some instances of
the Bible, but it tells you what this word means in that day. A tower is not a common word
for it. When we think about towers, we think about radio towers and
TV towers and cell phone towers and that kind of thing. That's
not what a tower was. A tower was a high-fenced house
of a dignitary. Now, you won't see too many of
them in Taylor. But if you go down to Shreveport
or Bossier City and you get out there where the bank president
of some big national bank lives or where the governor's house
was, you're going to see this big old brick mansion and the
whole yard has a brick fence all the way around. Nobody else
around him looks like that. You drive up and you look at
the house and you say, boy, he's somebody. He's somebody. That's
what this town was You see, faith doesn't have near as much to
do with how men look at you as how men look at your God. This
house of faith that you're building has a direct relationship to
the character of God. And that's why you hear me often
when I'm talking about natural men's religious assumptions that
they call faith and their silliness of coming down an aisle, what
kind of God do you got? That's what I say when I look
at their house. You know, they're saying, hey,
I'm a sister to the governor, but you're living in a trailer. He said, well, if you're going
to sit down and build a tower that's going to, when people
go by, they're going to look at it and say, Man, that's the
king's ambassador there. You going to do that without
counting the cost? The Lord don't even give you
credit for getting the foundation in. You read it again. That's about all you got done.
And you didn't even get it done right. This house in itself makes a
statement. Believers are kings and priests
unto God. This house of faith makes a statement. It's a statement of greatness.
The greatness of our Lord and Savior. The greatness of our
God. And of our highly favored, this highly favored servant of
grace that He called and given the privilege to follow Him.
Peter said this coming to Christ was a coming to a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. And
ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
in Jesus Christ. Paul said over in 1 Corinthians
3, verse 9, he said, We are labors together with God, and we are
his husbandry and God's building. And according to the grace that
is given me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation,
and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how
he buildeth, for other foundation can no man lay than that which
is laid, Christ Jesus." Do you have what's necessary to build
the house? That's what he's asking. Can you build that kind of house? And there are forces at work.
An evil king has invaded the land and took possession over
the kingdom. And he's got double your forces.
He's greater in power. Double your power and might.
If you're not careful, you'll force yourself into a compromise,
and then you're going to be forced to accept his conditions of peace.
Peace, peace where there is no peace. That's what he's talking
about. So then, here's your surprise ending, brethren, what this counting
of the cost is, is not about you sitting down and saying,
can I drum up enough willingness to get this thing done? Can I
get up enough devotion to get this thing done? Can I pray enough
to get this thing done? That's not what it's talking
about. It's counting the cost. It's looking to yourself and
realizing that you don't have what it takes. That's what he's
talking about. He's telling you before you run out here and fall
off the flat end of the earth to sit down and see where you're
going and who you're going against. You ain't going to defeat Him.
You're not going to defeat Him. Now watch what he says here in
verse 33, Luke 14, 33. See if this is not the truth
about what I've been saying to you. So likewise, Whosoever he
be of you that forsaketh not. All that he hath. Huh? Get rid of all your luggage.
Throw it away. Take that robe off. He's not
going to let you wear that robe at this supper. Just shuck it
to the side. All that he hath, all his righteousness,
all of his holiness, all of his arrogance, all of his potential,
all of his strength, all of his earthly health and influence,
all of his old friends and family, all that he hath. Are you ready
to turn it loose? If you're not, he said, pack
up your bags and go back up to the Pharisees. You cannot be
my disciple. People who, I'm telling you,
Christ is going to be all or He's going to be nothing at all. You're going to bow to Him or
you're going to answer to Him. One or the other.