Chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. I couldn't help but think This
week, after we heard the news of Brother Hartley, I was trying
to get my thoughts together for what I wanted to try to speak
to you about today and couldn't help remember getting up here
and stumbling and fumbling all over myself trying to bring the
message. And afterwards, Brother Hartley
always had an encouraging word. He always, you know, that was
such a blessing, brother. I mean, that was And God's people
are gracious. You're a gracious people. If
you were not, I wouldn't get up here and even attempt to do
this. But the Lord, it doesn't matter,
regardless who gets up here to preach the gospel, how good or
how poor we are at speaking, God still has to take the word
and bless it. Otherwise, maybe someone's impressed
for a moment and then they leave here and just as empty as we
come in, God must bless his word. Luke chapter 14, verse number
25. Scripture says, and there went
great multitudes with him. And he turned, that is the Lord
Jesus, and said unto them, if any man come to me and hate not
his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and
sisters, yea, in his own life also he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of
you intending to build a tower? That word tower, really, it's
not talking, we think a tower of a tall, slender building. It's a castle. The word for a
big house, a castle. For which of you, intending to
build a castle, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient to finish it? Less happily, after
he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all
that behold it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to
build and he was not able to finish. Well, 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 cannot be my disciple. The primary scope of this passage
that I just read and these two parables that our Lord gives
here is that those who desire to be the disciples of the Lord
Jesus Christ, those of us who desire to follow him, to believe
in him, our Lord and Savior, that we must stop and count the
cost. That is, think of what we must
part with if we would be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
consider the oppositions that we must expect to meet in our
Christian walk. That's the main scope, I believe,
of this passage that we are looking at this morning. Don't ever allow
anyone to deceive you. that the Christian walk is going
to be some type of bed of pillows. There's those who would deceive
people. Just come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Just believe in
him and everything's gonna be a bed of pillows from here on
out. No, that's not true. That's not
true. And our Lord forewarns us here
in this passage. Like building a castle. That's hard work, isn't it? Think
about it. Today, when someone's going to
build a big building, a big castle, we have telehandlers and forklifts
and all kinds of hydraulics. You see these people building
these buildings, and they don't even have to carry the sheetrock
up the stairs anymore. They have these trucks that they
can strap the materials on, and it just takes it up there. But
even with that, it's still hard work to build a house, right? Well, the Lord here speaks of
building of a castle, of a tower. It's hard work, isn't it? Going
to war, that's hard. That's hard, isn't it? We hear
the news over in Ukraine, of the Russia and Ukraine war, and
it's just, it's definitely not a bed of pillows, is it? It's
hard. So why would the Lord Jesus Christ
tell these things to these multitudes? And why do I try to bring this
message to us this morning from this passage of scripture? You
know, there are no doubt, many that were hearing the Lord right
now speak these words, that in time we're going to come to faith
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were not yet at this point,
but on God's calendar. There was the time and date set
when they were going to remember the words that our Lord spoke,
and they were going to believe and trust in Him. And there were
some here, no doubt, who did already trust in Him as the Christ
of God. You know, the 11 of the 12 disciples,
they believed in Him, and they trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ
as their Savior. And I believe the Lord Jesus
tells us these things, first of all, Because all of us by
nature, think with me about this and tell me if this isn't true,
all of us by nature tend to be more confident and think higher
of our spiritual abilities than we should. That somehow, You
know, we can keep ourselves, we can come to Christ, we can
keep ourselves in Christ, we can keep in fellowship with God
most of the way when we just need a little bit of help when
we fall short. But that is not true. The scripture
teaches that we are perfect weakness in ourselves. Not only that we're
weak, not only that we need help, but that we're perfect weakness. Secondly, because all who've
ever engaged our enemies, our spiritual enemies, in ourselves,
in our flesh, in our own abilities, we've all miserably failed. I
confess that I have. We try to engage to fight the
good fight, as Paul spoke of, to walk a Christian life, and
we try to do so in ourselves. What do we do? We fall. We fail. We've been defeated. I think thirdly, the Lord speaks
these words because our Lord would not have any of us who
follow him be surprised when hardships come in our life. Believer, those of you who have
been in the Lord for many years, do you not testify with me that
life is full of hardships for the believer and the unbeliever?
There's additional hardships for the believer. There are additional
blessings, there are additional comforts, but there are additional
hardships for the believer that the world knows nothing about.
And I think, fourthly, the Lord spoke these words that we may
be prepared for the worst. Because the worst, it may be
God's purpose in our life that we go through the worst. Building a tower, as I said earlier,
or fighting a war both require great sacrifice. And they're
both very hard work. So that's the main scope of this
passage. Now I'd like us to try to go
through the verses here briefly this morning. We read them, and
let's look at them in closer detail. Verse number 25, Luke
chapter 14. Scripture says, verse 24 and
25, and there went great multitudes with him, and he turned and said
unto them, if any man come to me and hate not his father and
mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea,
in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Now what in the
world is the Lord Jesus speaking about here when he says this?
If any man come after me and hate not his father and mother
and brother and sister, in his own life also, he can't be my
disciple. What's the Lord talking about?
The words of the Lord Jesus Christ here, we cannot take them literally. You can't take these words literally. Why? Because these words here,
if taken in isolation, they will lead you down a very bad path.
You have to look at the whole content of the scripture and
compare scripture with scripture. And we all know that God's word
does not teach that we are to hate our father and our mother,
and that our Lord Jesus was not teaching that we are to hate
our brother and our sister, right? We all know that this morning. The Lord's fifth commandment
is, honor thy father and thy mother. And the Lord Jesus was
not here teaching something different than the commands that he had
given. Right? So that is not what he
is saying. You remember the Lord Jesus rebuked
the Pharisees for failing to take care, for failing to honor
their father and mother. They had figured out some scheme
within their scheme of religion whereby if they could neglect
their parents to their own benefit, and that would be OK. And the
Lord rebuked them for that. He called them out on that. Why?
Because one jot and one tittle shall not pass away, he said,
from the law that he had given. And we are to honor our father
and our mother. Our pastor's been preaching to
us from the Sermon on the Mount, and we know that there the Lord
Jesus said that we're to love our enemies, right? And that we are to pray for those
who despitefully use us. So we know that the Lord's words
here cannot be taken literally. So, secondly, I don't believe
that the Lord here is speaking comparatively. There are commentators,
and I've heard people say this before, and as you know, I know
I don't know all things. In fact, there's so little that
I do know. But I don't believe, my belief
is the Lord's not speaking comparatively here. That is, I've heard people
describe this as, what the Lord is saying is that our love for
him must be so great that it almost seems that our love that
we have for our family would almost be as hate, just because
our love for him is just so much greater. I don't believe the
Lord is saying that. There are many good commentators
who tried to explain this passage that way. I don't believe that
the Lord means that here. I pray that he doesn't. because I know I would fail.
I would fall so very far short if that was his meaning here,
but that is not what he's talking about here. He's not speaking
comparatively. I believe the key to understanding
what the Lord here is saying is if we take a passage of some
words that he said in Matthew, he said, he that loveth father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loves father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And what does he
mean by that? What he means by that teaching
is that if our family, if those that we love and care for so
much, and we should, right? We should love our families.
But if our family would stand in our way of doing what we know
the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to do, then he must come first. That's what the Lord is teaching
here. If someone that we love and care
for would stand in our way of following the Lord Jesus Christ,
he must come first. That's his teaching. Now, look at verse number 27. He said, and whosoever doth not
bear his cross, and come after me cannot be my disciple. Turn back, if you would, to chapter
nine of Luke. Luke chapter nine. Keeping these
words in mind. Whosoever doth not bear his cross,
and come after me cannot be my disciple. Luke chapter nine.
Luke chapter nine, verse number 18. Scripture says, and it came to
pass as the Lord Jesus was alone praying, his disciples were with
him. And he asked them saying, whom
say people that I am? I just can't pass this verse
up without commenting on this. You notice it says, it came to
pass as he was alone praying. In the very next sentence, his
disciples were with him. He wasn't alone, he was just
alone praying. They were with him, but he was
alone in prayer with God. And he asked them, whom say ye,
whom say the people that I am? They answering said, John the
Baptist, some say you're Elias, others say that one of the old
prophets is risen again. He said unto them, but whom say
you that I am? Peter answering said, the Christ
of God. And he straightly charged them
and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying, the Son
of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders
and the chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the
third day. And he said to them all, if any
man will come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross
daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged
if he gain the whole world and lose himself and be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed
of me and of my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed
when he shall come in his own glory and in his father's and
of the holy angels. You see here, the Lord says, for whosoever, he says, if any
man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross
daily. and follow me. That goes along
with this verse here in Luke 14, 27 in our passage. And whosoever
does not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. You know, when the Lord spoke
these words that we read here in our passage
here, I don't know if anybody that he spoke to understood and
knew that he was going to die upon the cross. Now, I believe
the disciples had heard it, but I still don't think they had
grasped this. But whether it was his disciples or these multitudes,
they did know what it meant to die on a cross. When he talked
about taking up your cross and bearing it, They knew that he
was talking about something that was very hard, right? He was talking about something
that was a battle, to take up that cross. There was no form
of capital punishment of death known to man worse than to hang
up on a cross. the shame, the pain, the anguish,
all those things. The Lord said that we are to
take up our cross daily, daily and follow him. And then the
Lord illustrates what he's saying with these two parables. Notice
in verse number 28, he said, for which of you intending to
build the tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient to finish it. Less happily, after
he hath laid the foundations, not able to finish it, and all
that behold it, begin to mock him, saying, this man began to
build and was not able to finish. Our Lord Jesus here instructs
us to count the cost. Now, Friends, there's nothing that
I desire more than for every one of us, every one of you that
are here today, that you would look and live, that you would
look to the Lord Jesus Christ and live, that you would believe
in Him, that you would trust Him, that you would come after
Him. You say, well, it sounds like you're trying to discourage
us from doing so. No, all I'm trying to do is arm
us with the words that our Lord gave to his disciples and gave
unto us of what we're to expect in our Christian walk. But there's
nothing I desire more than that we believe, that we come to him. But the Lord says that we're
to count the cost. Just like if you were going to
build a castle, you would sit down and think, OK, what's it
going to cost to do that? I don't want to get halfway done
and then fall short, not be able to finish. And then everybody
that goes by, have you ever gone by somewhere, and it looks like
someone had a great idea to build something, and they got about
10%, 20% done, and then just abandoned it. shrubs and weeds
and stuff growing around it and you think, oh, poor person, they
didn't count the cost or something happened. Something happened
that they didn't expect and they were not able to finish. So what
does it cost to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? What
is the cost? We're instructed to count it.
What is that cost? First of all, to be a follower
of Jesus Christ, we have to deny our sinful self. That's what
the whole word of God teaches, that we must deny our sinful
self. We're commanded to repent and
to forsake all our sins, even those that are the most dear
to us, even the ones that are the most appealing to us. Whatever
that sin is that most easily besets us, To follow Christ,
we are called to deny our sinful self, to repent, to turn from
our sin, and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We must deny our
righteous self. And for a lot of us, that might
be harder than denying our sinful self. That is to deny our righteous
self, to believe that there's something or some way that we
can contribute in us approaching unto God and being accepted of
God, that there's something good that we can do, that it's not
true when the scripture says that all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags in the sight of God. that our very best still
falls not only short, but so short that it's filthy rags in
God's sight. That's how holy God is. And that's
how sinful we are. We must deny our righteous self. And our Lord here emphasizes
that we must deny our natural self. You know, as I thought about
this passage this week, he teaches that we must deny our natural
self. There is nothing that is more
natural than for us to love our families above all else. There's nothing that comes more
natural than that. But the Lord Jesus here teaches
that we must deny our natural self, that is, If we have to
choose between our family and serving the Lord Jesus Christ,
following him, we must choose him. Isn't that what the scripture,
isn't that what the Lord teaches here? We must choose him. You know, I think about this
a lot. The Lord, The Lord has been so gracious to me and my family. I knew better than trying to
talk about this. But I'm able to come and worship
God, and most of my family comes as well. What mercy, what grace. And I think of many of you. You
come, and your families think you're crazy. You mean you're
going to go there again. We're having this get together
today. Why don't you come be with us? It's Sunday morning,
and it's a great football game on. Why don't you come be with
us? You have to go again today. I think of the cross that you
are called upon to carry. I haven't been called upon to
carry that cross. Now, we all have the one that
we have to bear, but not that one. And I praise God for that,
because it's all his grace. It's all the fact that I'm even
here, much less trying to share the gospel with you. the grace and mercy of God. That's all that it is. So I asked
you, will we have enough to finish? Are we going to have enough to
finish the castle? Or are we going to start, and
then are we going to fall short? Are we going to go out to battle,
go out to war, and then just give up and surrender? Well. He that has stopped to count
the cost and believes that in himself or in herself that we
are somehow sufficient to be able to finish the building of
the house and the fighting of the war has completely misunderstood
what the Lord is saying here. Because none of us, of ourselves,
are able to finish None of us of ourselves are able to finish
the course that God has set out for us as believers. That is
not what the Lord Jesus is teaching here. We must build upon the
solid rock. Right? Our strength, our following,
our trying to serve the Lord, our trying to carry our cross,
it all is sand. Nothing but sand. And if we try
to build our salvation, we try to build our castle, we try to
fight the war in our own strength or in our own thoughts, we're
going to fall. We're going to fail. We must
be built upon the solid rock. That is the words of God and
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, his sayings. That's what we must
build upon. We must build upon the solid
rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why does the gates of hell not
prevail against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because
Jesus is the rock. He's the rock of the church. He's the one that enables us
to finish building the castle. That is our following of him
and a fighting of this war. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against his church, he said. You know, I couldn't help but
be blessed that song that we sang, Oh, Sacred Head Now Wounded. I don't know if you noticed when
that song was written. It was written in the early 1100s. Those words are still so true
and such a blessing to us today. And more than 1,000 years ago,
there was some believer struggling in this world, just like we are,
who wrote that song, O Sacred Head Now Wounded. You see, the
gates of hell cannot prevail against the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, not because we're strong and carrying our cross,
no, because we're built upon the rock of ages. That's cleft
for us, that can present us faultless before God. Without him, we can
do nothing. Didn't he say that? That was
his words. Without him, we can do nothing, but with him, And
through him and in him, we can do all things through Christ
which strengthens us. We have his grace to save us. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful
word, grace, unmerited favor. We have his grace. Even though
we drop our cross and we stumble and we fall, we don't stay down,
do we? Now we have His grace to save
us. We have His righteousness to
clothe us. Paul, after, you know, if there
was any someone in the scripture, he would say, boy, he really
took his cross and followed the Lord Jesus Christ. It would be
the Apostle Paul, wouldn't it? And yet, the only thing that
he could pray for and, you know, beseech God for was that he would
be found not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but to be
clothed in the righteousness, that righteousness which is by
the faith, that is the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. To
be clothed in that and not his own, and that's our hope, isn't
it, believer? We have his blood to cleanse us. The Lord said that we must deny
sinful self, but do we always deny sinful self? I know that
I have it, and I know that I don't. But that's what he commands.
That's what he calls for. But aren't you thankful that
we have an advocate with the Father? Jesus Christ, the righteous,
and he is the propitiation. That is, he's the reason God
deals with us in mercy for our sins. He said, this is my blood
of the new covenant which is shed for many. Why? For the remission,
for the washing away of sins. And it's his strength that keeps
us. You see why I say we must be
built upon that solid rock, the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He that builds on the Lord Jesus Christ, his life, his salvation,
his all will finish. We'll finish the course. Why? Because we have a great Savior.
We have a great Savior. He will supply. There's not gonna
be one, not even one little nail missing to finish that castle.
I need to wrap up, but just real quickly, verses 31 and 32. The Lord said, 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. Setting out on the Christian
life is compared to going to war. War against sin, war against
the world, world against the flesh, war against the devil and all
dominions and principalities. Setting out on the Christian
life is compared to going to war. And we're going to have
to endure great hardship. Great hardship. Isn't that what
Peter told the believers in his letter? He said, don't think
it's strange concerning the fiery trial that shall try you, as
though something strange happened to you. No, the Lord had warned
Peter, and Peter now was warning the other disciples. that this
was going to be a rough road ahead. And he specifically was
talking about persecution in that area, in that passage. The
Lord Jesus requires full and complete surrender to his lordship,
to his rulership. And we must part with all when
the Lord Jesus calls for it. He doesn't call for us to part
with all, but if he does, then that is what he demands. He's Lord, right? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Trying to, with the little bit
of time I have left, think about what I would like to say here. You know, I think I'll finish
with this. Lest any of you should be discouraged. Maybe there's
someone here and you, the Lord and his mercy and grace has brought
you to the place where you do want to follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. You won't. to trust Him, to believe
in Him, to follow Him, to have Him as your Lord and Savior. And you hear me bring these words
of the Lord Jesus and you maybe feel discouraged and say, well,
I don't know if I want to set out on that course, that course
that's hard work and that's going to be full of difficulties and
trials and troubles and fighting against sin and the flesh and
principalities and powers. Well, this isn't the only words
the Lord Jesus spoke. You have to take the full body
of what the Lord Jesus spoke. And in another place, he said,
come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
unto your souls. Yes. You're going to have a struggle. We're going to struggle as believers
in this world. But what shall it profit a man
if we gain the whole world, if we have an easy life and yet
lose our own souls? The Lord said, in our passage
we looked at this morning, We're gonna have to take up our cross
and follow him. But in another passage, he said,
come, he said, 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 a hundredfold, and shall inherit
everlasting life. The Lord Jesus will never be
debtor to any man. You know, when you pick a passage
to preach from, you never know why that's the passage you feel
led to bring a message from. But God knows. God knows. And we have to bring and do our best
to preach the whole counsel of God. And the Lord does call upon
me and upon you to bow to him as who he is, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and to take up our cross and follow him. May the Lord
bless his word. Thank you.