The Cost of Commitment to Christ

Transcript

GRM 804
9/01/2002
The Cost of Commitment to Christ
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


While I was gone, I had opportunity to read some things just for my own encouragement, and one of the things that I read in again, having not read it for a while and I had a new copy that I could mark that wasn’t marked before, was a book called Holiness by J. C. Ryle. I’ve referred to it before and many of you have read it. If you haven’t, I would encourage you to get a copy and read Holiness by J. C. Ryle. If you have already read it, I would encourage you to sit down and at least read sections of it again. There was one chapter in here that stirred my thinking and leads us to where we are going to be in our study of the Word today. It’s a chapter on the cost of becoming a Christian, the cost of gaining, if you will, eternal life. I’m not talking about the cost that was paid for by Jesus Christ who paid in full the penalty for our sin by His death on the cross, but what does it cost us to become followers of Jesus Christ.

There was a movement that was having great influence when J. C. Ryle was carrying on his ministry in England. He wrote this book in 1877 in response to that movement. Revival movement with great masses of people coming to meetings and making decisions for Jesus Christ. Ryle was concerned that the message that was presented was a simple message of make a decision for Christ and you will experience His peace and His comfort and be prepared for heaven. That it was not a complete gospel that was being presented.

I would like to read you just a couple of his comments on this matter. “We live in a day of great religious profession, scores of professing Christians in every part of the land are expressing a desire for more holiness, a higher degree of spiritual life. Yet nothing is more common than to see people receiving the Word with joy, then after two or three years fallen away and going back to their sins. They have not considered what it costs to be a really consistent believer and holy Christian.” He goes on to list some of the things it will cost you to become a follower of Christ. Then he says, “The persons I speak of are not thoughtless about religion, they think a good deal about it. They are not ignorant of religion; they know the outlines of it pretty well. But their great defect is that they are not rooted and grounded in their faith. Too often they have picked up their knowledge second-hand from being in religious families or from being trained in religious ways but have never worked it out by their own inward experience. Too often they have hastily taken up a profession of religion under the pressure of circumstances, from sentimental feelings, from general excitement, or from a vague desire to do like others around them without any solid work of grace in their hearts. Persons like these are in a position of immense danger. For one of counting the cost hundreds of professed converts under religious revivals go back to the world after a time and bring disgrace on religion. They begin with a sadly mistaken notion of what is true Christianity. They fancy it consists in nothing more than so-called coming to Christ and having strong inward feelings of joy and peace. When they find after a time that there is a cross to be carried, that our hearts are deceitful, and that there is a busy devil always near us, they cool down in disgust and return to their old sins. For one of counting the cost the children of religious parents often turn out ill and bring disgrace on Christianity. Familiar from their earliest years with the form and theory of the gospel taught even from infancy to repeat great leading texts, accustomed every week to be instructed in the gospel, or to instruct others in Sunday Schools they often grow up professing a religion without knowing why or without having ever seriously thought about it. And then when the realities of grown-up life begin to press upon them, they often astound everyone by dropping all their religion and plunging right into the world. Why? They have never thoroughly understood the sacrifices, which Christianity entails. They have never been taught to count the cost.”

One more quote. “If we desire to do good let us never be ashamed of walking in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ. Work hard, if you will, and have the opportunity for the souls of others. Press them to consider their ways, compel them with holy violence to come in, to lay down their arms, and to yield themselves to God. Offer them salvation ready, free, full, immediate salvation. Press Christ and all His benefits on their acceptance. But in all your work, tell the truth and the whole truth. Be ashamed to use the vulgar arts of a recruiting sergeant. Do not speak only of the uniform, the pay, the glory. Speak also of the enemies, the battle, the armor, the watching, the marching, and the drill. Do not present only one side of Christianity; do not keep back the cross of self-denial that must be carried when you speak of the cross on which Christ died for our redemption. Explain fully what Christianity entails. Entreat men to repent and come to Christ but bid them at the same time to count the cost.”

I think what stirred the heart of this godly man should be a concern for us today, that we present the truth, the whole truth. I thought his analogy of a recruiting sergeant was very good, where they entice you to join the Army and see the world, get a free uniform that will make you look sharp, free meals. We’ll provide the lodging. Come join, what more could you want; but there is another side to be told. Go to another country, be shot at, perhaps get your limbs blown off, die on foreign soil. Well, that’s the whole truth. Sometimes I think we present Christianity in just as artificial a way. Trust in Christ, He’ll solve your problems, He’ll give you peace, He’ll restore your marriage, He’ll help you raise kids that are a joy and blessing, you’ll do better in life, you’ll go further in you job. There is an element of truth in much of that. He does bring peace to your heart, a relationship of peace with the living God. He does provide the foundation for a marriage to be full and satisfying and complete, and on we go.

But there’s another side to the story. You trust Christ; it may destroy your marriage, or what there is of it. It may bring division into your home, it may cost you your job and your honor and your possessions, it may make life more difficult for you than you can imagine. Now in light of that we ask you, come follow Christ. We must tell the whole truth, otherwise we encourage people to respond and make decisions; but they have not understood the commitment that is required to truly be saved. Salvation is a gift. It is a free gift. There is nothing you can do to earn it, but by the same token it is a gift that costs you everything. It’s as though someone wanted to give me a gift, maybe a bucket of gold coins, and I say fine I’ll take it. They say no you have to take it with both hands. I say no I will not leave go of the book, but I will take hold of the bucket. No, you either take hold of this gift with both hands or not at all. It is a gift, but I cannot partially take it.

That’s true with our salvation in Christ. It is by God’s grace and mercy that we are saved, it is a free gift. But you cannot take it with one hand and hold in your other whatever is precious and dear to you that you do not want to let go of. You must understand to follow Christ, to truly be born again you must let go of everyone and everything and take hold of Jesus Christ and believe in Him alone. We really understand that if we are truly saved. You cannot trust Christ and anything else. It is Him and Him alone.

I want to direct your attention to the gospel of Matthew, and I just really want to review a few passages where Christ confronts those who would be His followers with the cost of following Him. Matthew chapter 8 in your Bibles is where we will begin. We’re just going to highlight a few of the basic passages from Christ’s ministry. The first thing I would have you note is Jesus Christ brings in the issue of the cost at the very time it seems His ministry is becoming the most popular. Note how chapter 8 begins. “And when He had come down from the mountain great multitudes followed Him.” When you get to verse 18, “now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him.” We’ll see the same kind of context later when we turn to Luke chapter 14, see Him dealing with individuals, some who could add greatly to His popularity and influence. At that very time He cuts through the superficial responses of the people and says most of you cannot be my follower. You must pay the price of giving up everything and everyone to follow Me. So, we have the paradox, what does it cost to become a Christian? It costs you nothing because Jesus Christ has paid in full the penalty for sin. It costs you everything because you must turn from all you have; all you count dear and commit yourself to Christ completely. Trust Him alone to be saved.

We’ll pick up with verse 18 of Matthew 8, “now when Jesus saw a crowd Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side.” Going to’ move from one area of the Sea of Galilee to another. We’d do just the opposite. If we find a place where a crowd will gather around us, that’s where we want to be. You’re being successful when a crowd grows, when the numbers increase. That’s not what Jesus was concerned about. He did not find it difficult to get a crowd. Feed them, do a miracle, teach with authority and they’re amazed, cast out demons. But He was not looking for a crowd. He was looking for those who would commit their lives to following Him. He prepares to depart, and a certain scribe came and said to Him teacher I will follow you wherever you go. What a remarkable opportunity. The scribes are among the upper echelon in Israel, usually associated with Pharisees. Two major parties are the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the liberals, remember, they did not believe in miracles, did not believe in life after death and so on. The Pharisees were the conservatives. They claimed to believe the Old Testament and adhere to it and more. The scribes are connected to the Pharisees. They are the experts in the Old Testament scriptures. They are highly respected. Jesus said of them they love the place of honor in the synagogues, they loved respectful greetings. They were people of influence, of means; they were the upper class in a variety of ways. Now you have a certain scribe who is willing to step out of the group and declare to Christ I will follow you wherever you go. You’d think Jesus would say get right next to me, so people would look and say look the scribes believe. We think when someone prominent and influential is willing to become a Christian that’s the greatest thing that could happen. You know what Jesus tells this man? Consider the cost. You’ll have to give up everything to follow me.

Look at verse 20, Jesus said to him “the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” In order to become my follower, you give up everything, you won’t even have your own bed. What is He saying? Count the cost. It will cost you everything to follow Me. You like your honor; you like all that goes with being important and influential and powerful. You become my follower you’ll have nothing, not even a place to call your own to sleep. We hear nothing more of this man. Evidently when he is confronted with counting the cost, he counted it too great. If you’re going to follow Me you’ll have nothing. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. That’s a remarkable statement. It’s the first time in Matthew’s gospel that Matthew uses this title, Son of Man, as Christ speaks of Himself. It’s Christ’s favorite title for Himself. It’s used over 80 times in the gospels. Its background is in Matthew chapter 7 where in anticipation of the coming kingdom that God would establish on earth one like the Son of Man comes before the throne of the Ancient of Days and He receives an eternal kingdom. Here is a scribe confronted with a dilemma. He’s face to face with the Son of Man, the one who will fulfill the prophecies of Daniel 7. The Jews knew well the reference to the Son of Man. But to become His follower I have to give up everything. You would think becoming a follower of the One who is destined to rule and reign over all means I will be rich and even more influential, more respected. But to become His follower I won’t even have a place to call my own to sleep in at night.

Another of the disciples said to Him. You understand the word disciple is used in two ways in the gospels; it’s used of the general crowd. The word means a learner, one who attached himself to someone else to be his follower and to learn from him. It’s used generally of the people who gathered around and followed Christ from place to place. They were His disciples. Now most of them were not true believers, but they were following Him, they were enthralled by His teaching, by His miracles. Jesus said of some of them I know you’ve followed Me because I fed you. So here out from this group that has been following Christ comes another and he wants to also go with Christ. But he says first permit me to bury my father. Seems a reasonable request. We don’t know the details. Perhaps this man’s father had died, and he had to go see to the burial. Evidently, he would be talking more than just that day because the Jews would have buried the man on the day he died. May have been talking about observing the 30 days of mourning afterwards. It may be his father was old and deteriorated in health and was saying after I’ve taken care of my family responsibility there, I’ll follow you. Whichever, Jesus’ point in response is clear. He is not willing to be second to this man’s father.

Verse 22, Jesus said to him “follow Me. Allow the dead to bury their own dead.” Those who are spiritually dead can bury the physically dead, there’s something more important than even burying your father. You follow me. What has He said? To the scribe, you must give up all that you have; to this disciple, you must put Me before your closest family members, or you cannot be my disciple. He got into the boat and His disciples followed Him and evidently were narrowing down to those that we’re going to know as the twelve, or more that inner circle.

They started to cross the sea, there’s another lesson for a disciple here. They are crossing the Sea of Galilee. A great storm arises. The Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long and 7 miles wide, noted for its great storms that come suddenly blowing down. Men in this boat like Peter, James and John had been raised on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, were experienced, weathered fishermen who had fished the best of days and worst of days. They had weathered severe and serious storms on the Sea of Galilee, but this one was different. They didn’t think they could ride this one out, they didn’t think the boat could make it. Verse 24 says “there arose a great storm in the sea such as the boat was covered with the waves. But He Himself was asleep.” Here you have the storm raging, the waves crashing over this boat, and Jesus Christ is in a deep sleep. His disciples are in a panic. They came to Him and awoke Him saying, "Save us Lord. We are perishing.” And He said thank you men for waking Me up; I didn’t know it was so bad. I must have really been tired. You know what He says? “Why are you timid, you men of little faith?” That doesn’t seem fair. I mean these are men that waited until they’d seen that there was no hope. Stop and think. Was their trust completely in Him or not? Just what chance is there? This boat is going to the bottom with the Son of Man in it. What’s the problem? If it is going to the bottom, we’re going with it. Serious lesson here. You have to trust Me completely in every circumstance, in every situation. You can’t count your life dear. You trust Me.

He stands up, rebukes the wind and the waves and everything gets calm. The men marvel saying, “what kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him.” You know the remarkable contrast here? Here you have the Son of Man asleep in the ship. He’s so tired and worn out, physically exhausted, He’s in a sleep that even the storm doesn’t awaken Him. But this One worn out and exhausted and sleeping in the boat is the One who can stand up and tell the weather to stop, wind to stop blowing, storm cease; and it stops. You see that remarkable connection of the humanity and deity of Christ. He is the Son of Man, He is the Messiah of Israel, and He is God in the flesh.

The lessons learned here. You have to give up everything to be a follower of Christ. You have to forego even the closest relationships if necessary to follow Christ. You have to trust Him completely in every situation of life, if you’re going to be His follower. It’s Him totally, Him completely, and Him all the time.

Turn over to Matthew chapter 16. Stop at chapter 10, Matthew chapter 10 verse 24; “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.” An analogy again of a disciple and a teacher. The disciple had submitted himself to his teacher to learn from him, to become like him. The slave had submitted himself to his master to serve him, do his bidding, do whatever would be pleasing to his master. “It is enough for the disciple to become as his teacher, the slave as his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household?” Beelzebul, a name that probably comes from II Kings chapter 1. It was the Canaanite god of the Philistines who lived in the city of Ekron. Over time it seems the Jews picked up this name in corrupted form and used it as another name for the devil. We know on other occasions in effect the Jews called Jesus Christ the devil or demon possessed. Jesus says to them remember, if you’re my disciple, if you’re my servant it’s enough for you to be like Me. If they’ve called Me the devil and treated Me accordingly, what can you expect as the members of my family? There’s no sugar coating here. There is a constant reminder, even to those who have become His followers. You know when we present the gospel to people we must present the whole gospel, the complete truth. After people have trusted Christ there is the need for ongoing reminder, let’s go back to that commitment because things press in, and we forget these are disciples he’s sending out according to verse 16. “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Verse 17, “beware of men they will deliver you up to the courts, scourge you in their synagogues, be delivered before authorities of all kinds.” So that’s the context. You’re going out to represent Me, don’t expect better treatment than Me. Three times in this context He tells them don’t be afraid, don’t fear those who oppose you.

Look at verse 26. “Therefore, do not fear them.” Look at verse 28. “Therefore, do not fear those who kill the body.” Verse 31, “therefore do not fear.” One of the major obstacles we face in faithfulness to Christ is fear. I’m going to go out and declare before the world my allegiance to Christ, going out and declare to the world their lost and hopeless condition unless they trust in Him. They are going to respond ferociously, they’re going to hate me for it, they’re going to attack me for it, they’re going to do all they can to destroy me for it, and I’m afraid. The reason we haven’t talked to more people about Jesus Christ this week is we’re afraid. Isn’t it amazing how the most talkative of us can become tongue-tied when it comes to telling someone about Jesus Christ? I just didn’t what to say, I didn’t know how to approach it, I didn’t know if it was the right time. Bottom line, I was scared stiff. I was afraid so I didn’t open my mouth. I didn’t think they’d want to hear it. I didn’t think they’d like me if I told them. I thought they might become my enemy. Jesus says, “therefore do not fear them for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be made known.” You know the point of this? There’ll come a time when things will be set right. They’ll reject you; they’ll persecute you; they’ll hate you; they’ll do all they can to destroy you. There’ll come a time when we will be revealed, unveiled before all creation as Romans 8 says, as the sons of God. There’ll come a time when they are revealed as the enemies of God. But it may not happen in my lifetime, it may not happen in your lifetime. But be assured we live in light of ultimate reality. There’ll come a time of the unveiling of the motives of men’s hearts. The true condition will be unveiled. Men may persecute you, as they will crucify the Son of Man and do it under the guise of defending the character of God. But all will ultimately be revealed.

Verse 27, “What I tell you in the darkness speak in the light, what you hear whispered in your ear proclaim upon the housetops.” What I’m teaching you now, what you’re hearing from me personally, you go out and tell everyone. You know what? That’s an intimidating task. If we sent every single person in this auditorium, share the gospel of Jesus Christ with 5 people this week, we multiply it out and say how long will it take until every person in the city hears the gospel. You go and be relentless. What does He say in verse 28, “do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul. Rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.” Fear is a good motivation. We should have such a trembling fear of the living God that we are driven to overcome our fear of mere mortal man to proclaim to them the truth that God has entrusted to us. We don’t have to fear men, what can they do? They can destroy your life. They can destroy your reputation. They can take your possessions. Some places they can imprison you for preaching the gospel. Some places they’ll kill you. Then what? Well, that’s all they can do. But there’s one who can do more, there’s one who cannot only kill the body, but He can cast your immortal soul into an eternal hell. Don’t fear those who kill the body, that’s nothing. Fear the one who is able to bring such judgment He can cast your soul into hell. That’s the one to be feared. Fear has a place. I must fear only God. The most fearful thing if I would not, please Him, I would not honor Him, I would not serve Him faithfully. That drives me to overcome my fear of man. That’s what He’s telling His disciples.

He tells them, “Don’t worry, you’re valuable." You can get two sparrows for a penny, and yet God is in control of the sparrows. Don’t be afraid, you’re more valuable than sparrows. Well, that’s comforting. “Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men I will confess him before my Father who is in heaven. Everyone who shall deny Me before men I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.” There are absolutely no secret disciples. He’s not saying you have to come forward in a public meeting, but it is saying there are no secret disciples. You have to come to place your faith in Christ here in this life, and those who truly believe in Christ, there’s no secret here. There are no secret followers. I’ve trusted Christ but I’m not telling my family, I don’t want anybody I work with to know, just keep it a secret. I don’t think there are those kinds of disciples in the scripture. If you don’t confess Me before men, this is the day of salvation, this is the opportunity. If you don't come to believe in Christ here in this life, come to agree with Him, confess Him, then when you stand before God in the courts of heaven, He will disown you. As Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, “I will say depart from me, I never knew you.” We think we’ll all get there, and it will all work out. He’s already said what He’s going to say, I don’t know you, I never knew you, you don’t belong here. “Cast him into hell prepared for the devil and his angels,” as He says in Matthew 25.

Look at verse 34; “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” We struggle with that as believers. We don’t like trouble. You read J. C. Ryle who mentioned that. We don’t like a vital religion; we don’t want there to be conflict in our Christianity. But you note Jesus Christ said I did not come to bring peace. Don’t think that you’re mistaken. I came to bring a sword. Didn’t He come to bring a certain kind of peace? Yes, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and now the peace of God stands guard in our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Romans 5, Philippians 4. Wonderful truth, but it’s not the whole truth.

Look at the next verse. “For I came to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me, he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it; he who has lost his life shall find it.” Pretty difficult to maintain a crowd with this kind of message, isn’t it? Let’s cut through. If you’re looking for a message that says I’ll put your family back together, there’ll be peace in your home, your kids and you will now get along, your husband and wife will get along, you in-laws will love you finally, and on it goes. I can tell you that there is the chance, I don’t know how God will work, perhaps your husband or wife will also get saved, perhaps your children will, perhaps your in-laws or your parents will. That would be wonderful. But let me be honest. You trust Jesus Christ; it may tear your family apart. You trust Christ and your husband or wife doesn’t, you’re going to have a child of God and a child of the devil now living under the same roof. You trust Christ and your parents, or your in-laws don't, they may hate you for it. You trust Christ your boss at work may decide he’s going to get you, do all he can to destroy your reputation and credibility and may get rid of you; and on it goes.

I want to tell you the whole truth. There’s no way to have peace with God but through faith in Jesus Christ. There’s no way to experience the peace of God in your heart and mind except through a personal faith in Jesus Christ. But let me tell you, there is nothing that can bring turmoil to a life like a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus said He came to divide families. We don’t like that. We need to be reminded of that. We need to present it when people are considering making a commitment to follow Christ. We need to remind ourselves of the commitment we made. Oh well I don’t know whether I could do that, you know. I know we’re Christians, but my family is here. It doesn’t matter what my family thinks or where they are. Doesn’t matter whether they ever speak to me again. My love and commitment to Jesus Christ is in a category all its own. I don’t weigh in the balance what it will cost me with my friends or my family. There is only one consideration, my responsibility to Jesus Christ, what faithfulness to Him requires. If it divides my family, so be it. If I lose my friends, so be it. If I die in poverty, so be it. If I’m persecuted, imprisoned, executed, so be it. He who has found his life shall lose it. People think they gain life. They have so much. While we traveled in California we visited a well-known castle out there, 73,000 square feet in this man’s house, filled with priceless antiques and so on, now a museum. Couldn’t help as I walked through it and think, this man is in hell. He walked in these rooms, slept in this bedroom. Now he’s in a state where he would say what. Send someone to dip his finger in water and touch my tongue, I’m tormented in this flame. He thought he had life, but and he had nothing. We have believers, those who have come to trust Christ and it’s cost them their very life, and they enjoy the courts of heaven for eternity. We need to measure what the true cost, the true gain is.

Look at verse 24 of Matthew 16. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, if anyone wishes to come after Me let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.” You know what it meant to take up your cross. Remember when Jesus was going to the place of crucifixion, they put on Him His cross and He had to walk through the streets bearing the cross. It was shame, humiliation, rejection. That’s what it means to take up you cross. If you’re not willing to suffer the rejection of the world, of your closest and dearest friends and family members, suffer humiliation and whatever else, you cannot be my disciple. There is no bargaining here, there is no well take eternal life with this hand and hold in your other hand whatever is dear to you. You know what Jesus Christ says, you have to let go of everything else, you have to let go of everyone else. If you are not willing you cannot be my disciple. “Whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Turn to one more passage, Luke chapter 14. You get the idea that this is a repeated emphasis in Jesus’ ministry? Any wonder he got to the point. One occasion in John chapter 6. The multitudes are following Jesus Christ and He cuts through with the truth and they all left, and He turned to the 12 and said to them, “are you going to leave too?” Peter had it exactly right. He said “where shall we go Lord? You have the words of eternal life.” But the multitudes did not understand that. We’re doing a terrible thing in the church today when we’re trying to present a gospel that is not the whole truth. Let’s not present anything offensive, anything that would drive people away, anything they would find unpleasant. Let’s make Christianity as appealing as possible, and after they’ve trusted Christ, they’ll learn about the other side. The problem is you cannot trust Christ in that kind of context. You cannot have a life on your terms, but only on His.

Look at verse 25 of Luke 14, “now great multitudes were going along with Him.” Here we are again. The crowds are there. We’d look at it and say oh the place is packed; we must be doing something right. “And then He turned to them and said if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife, children, brother, sister, yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross cannot be my disciple.” We’re going to thin the crowd out pretty quick. I thought you were supposed to love your parents, and so on. Well in the context of what Jesus is talking about my commitment to Him, my love for Him is in its own category. My love for any and everyone else is hate in comparison. I would leave them in a moment if following Jesus Christ required it. There is nothing and no one that colors my thinking on this matter. Jesus says count the cost before you make the commitment.

“Which of you when he wants to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation is not able to finish and all who observe it begin to ridicule him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish.” You don’t start a building, you don’t start a house until you decide I’ve got the money, I can see it through. Otherwise, people will walk by and what? He didn’t have the money to finish. He was a fool. He was stupid. Poured all that money in the foundation, didn’t have anything left for the rest of the house. Count the cost.

“Or what king when he sets out to meet another king in battle will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000. Or else while the other is still far away sends a delegation and asks terms of peace.” You’re going to war you want to be sure you’ve got an army that is able to do battle, otherwise you want terms of peace. What’s Jesus saying? Don’t be a fool. Look at the next verse. “So therefore no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” Couldn’t be any clearer. This is at the beginning. It’s not something you decide after your salvation. This is what is required at the beginning. So, we have to decide, is salvation a free gift or does it cost you something? It is a free gift that costs you everything, but the everything it costs you is nothing but dung that belongs on a rubbish heap as Paul said in his testimony writing to the Philippians.

Family, friends, reputation, possessions, your very life, might cost you all that. But none of that, nor all of that could buy you salvation. It took the death of the Son of God on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, for your sin, for my sin. Now God offers that salvation as a free gift, but you have to take it with both hands. You have to trust Him and Him alone, you must be willing to let go of everyone and everything, take hold of Him by faith. Then that sets the course of your life. Many people are trying to live the Christian life without ever having made the commitment to follow Christ. They’ve made a decision for Christ; they’ve gotten caught up in the flow and it seems a good thing to do and they’re good people and they seem to have good families and we enjoy one another. That’s not what we’re talking about with Christianity, we’re talking about people who have committed themselves to Jesus Christ and they are true fanatics, they are consumed by their passion to follow Him. We remind ourselves of that as we live our Christian lives. Decisions come up that this is going to impact my friends. This could divide my family. I’ve already made my commitment. I follow Jesus Christ. What if it divides me from my parents, my kids, my relatives, my friends, costs me my job. That’s the commitment you made.

Simplifies our life, we made the commitment at the beginning. We gave up everything then, we let go of everything then to take hold of Him. Don’t think you can add the baggage back on as you go. If He chooses to take away friends along the way, and family, and possessions, health and so on, so be it. Nothing I didn’t expect, because that’s the commitment I made at the beginning. My commitment was to Jesus Christ, my loyalty is to Him, and I’m willing to let go of everyone and everything. Is that the commitment you made? Are you here because this is a big church, there’s something for your family, I like these activities, I have friends who come here, my family members come here? But none of that saves you. Have you understood what it means to be lost and without hope, standing condemned before the One who can cast both body and soul into hell, and know you have no hope but that His Son paid the price by His death on the cross? You’ve let go of everything and everyone and you’ve taken hold of Him by faith. That’s salvation, and that controls the way we live until He calls us to glory. Whatever it costs, it is not more than the commitment I made, because I committed everything including my life.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord for a Savior who loved us and died for us. Thank you, Lord, that He paid the penalty that only He could pay, His death on the cross, to satisfy the demands of your righteousness. Thank you, Lord, that your salvation is offered as a free gift, that we must let go of everyone and everything, cease trusting in anyone and anything, and take hold of Christ with all of our being, trusting Him alone. For then we enter into the life, the fullness of your joy and peace becomes our possession. While family and friends are dear, they are nothing in comparison to our relationship with the one who is our Savior. May our lives day by day demonstrate that that has been the commitment we have made as followers of Jesus Christ. We pray in His name. Amen.