Well, we're in Luke chapter 14, and we're looking this morning at verses 25 through 35. Three times in this passage, our Lord says He cannot be my disciple. And the conditions are pretty stringent as we read. One does not hate his own family. He cannot be my own disciple. Now, he doesn't really mean hate. It's a symbolic statement. One doesn't carry his own cross and come after me. He cannot be my disciple. So then none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions. Now, Jesus has a point here. Men were created by God for a heavenly life, for life with Him. God put Adam in paradise and had fellowship with him. Adam fell. And though God has made a way of salvation, a way to be restored to fellowship with Him, people become entangled with the cares of this world. Keep them from Christ. They place obstacles in their own way. Obstacles that cause them to resist and reject the call to follow the Lord Jesus Christ who saved us. We saw last Lord's Day, many find some excuse for their refusal to respond to His call. I've got to go look at the ox and I've got to go look at the field. We know many who hold out pretenses for rejecting the grace of God. Always, always, there's always something more important than Christ. And Jesus showed us last Lord's Day, He rejects every excuse. There is no valid excuse. No man is going to be excused by Christ who loves the things of this world more than him. That's his point still in this passage this morning. Some, actually quite a few, say they believe in Christ but don't want to leave the world behind. The things of this world. They don't want to follow Him. So they call themselves Christians. May even attend weekly services. But are unwilling to pick up their own cross and follow Him. Their love is for the things of this world. It's a form of self-love, the Bible tells us. They cling to the things of this world and bind themselves so closely to the things of this world that they cannot part with Him, even for the blessing of Christ and eternal life with Him. Now we're not talking about, and he's not talking about in this passage, those who simply want nothing to do with Him. Now these are those who hear the Word of God, have some desire to receive the blessings He offers, but still don't want to part with the pleasures of this world and follow Him. And some say such people are safe from eternal fire. But Jesus says they are not. These are those who will give our Lord an hour or two each week, maybe each month, and hope to maintain a kind of a membership card among His people. But who resist any inclination to give their lives to Him, to give their whole selves to Him. It's such people to whom our Lord is speaking this morning. Luke picks up with Jesus again traveling. Verse 25, large crowds were going along with him. Many believe this was in Perea on his final trip to Jerusalem. Perea being to the east of the Jordan River. He's on his way to Jerusalem to be crucified. These great crowds that were following him. Many in those crowds were certainly pilgrims coming from Galilee also to Jerusalem for the Passover. Now we're not told what prompted Jesus' teaching here. Perhaps someone had expressed interest. I want to become one of your followers. I want to join up. We don't know. But what Luke tells us is that Jesus turned to them and said, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Now does Jesus desire that his followers love their enemies, love the brethren, but hate their own families? Well obviously not. His meaning is more clearly stated in Matthew 10, verse 37, where he spoke very similar words. Here's how he said it there. 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 His cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." He's not saying literally you should hate your family. He's saying your family can't come ahead of Him. And what He's doing here in this passage this morning is nothing less than defining the character of all those who may truly be called His disciples. It's a disciple. Well this word mathētēs in Greek is not found in the Greek version of the Old Testament. This word isn't found in the Epistles. It's not found in the book of Revelation. It is found 262 times in the New Testament. And every one of them is either in the Gospels or the book of Acts. The basic root meaning of this word mathētēs is of a learner. But Jesus also always used this word to describe followers. Some followed Him for a time and did not continue. John 6, 66, the apostle there tells us, some who had been disciples, followers, ceased following Him. So that's one way the word disciples is used. But far more often, Jesus used this word, disciple, to describe those He will bring to eternal glory. He used this word to describe true believers. He used it of the twelve minus Judas. The call of Jesus is to follow Him. Now we use words like believe, receive Him. And those are certainly part of the life of the Christian. He uses the word follow. It's a call to submission. It's a call to faith expressed in repentance and obedience. You know, Jesus never suggested that anybody could be saved by a momentary decision to obtain forgiveness and eternal life. And then go back to his old life, living any way he wanted. Jesus' call here, very clearly, is to a costly commitment to Him. Now, is a disciple something different than a believer or a Christian? Well some say yes. Some claim there are two levels of Christianity. That one may be an uncommitted disobedient believer who's made this momentary decision to receive salvation but has no desire to follow Christ. Some call this a carnal Christian. But Scripture never describes a true believer in that way. A true believer is a disciple, one who has surrendered his will to the will of Christ. He who loves even family more than me is not worthy of me, he says. So a true disciple is one who lives to serve him and him alone. All true believers are new creations in Christ. No one who's born again is the same person they were before. They've been joined into an eternal spiritual union with Christ. They've crucified their old self, and they now walk in the newness of life. They're not perfect, but the desires of their hearts and the fruit of their life show the work of God in them. This is the only kind of true believer in Christ. So a disciple is not some second-level Christian. What did Jesus say in the Great Commission? Go and make disciples. If we just look back to Jesus' words in Matthew 10, 37, those who are not His disciples are not worthy of Him. Now is Jesus saying that a true disciple must dislike or abhor or hate his father and mother? Of course not. There's no place in Jesus' teaching for literal hatred of anybody. Love your enemies, love the brethren. So he's obviously not now saying, hate your family. He's saying that devotion to himself though must be wholehearted. This casual Christianity that's crept in is a great danger to the eternal state of people. He's saying that even your attachment to your family members must not be allowed to stand between you and Him. He has to come first. And He's saying that the love that a disciple has for Him must supersede all earthly loves, even of a spouse. And that's why when we combine this passage with that of Matthew 10, 37, we see even the very closest of earthly relationships cannot stand between you and Him. If there's any human relationship that's holding you back from following Christ, from serving submissively under His Lordship, He says you are not worthy to be His disciples. Colossians 118, in all things, He must have preeminence. And this all becomes clear when we look at verse 27. He who doesn't carry his own cross, carry his own cross. He's not talking about something very easy here. And come after me, cannot be my disciple. Look back to Luke 9, verse 23. Luke 9, 23. Look what he says here. He's talking about the same truth. He was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. Now, you might say, well, okay, that's only for this second level of Christians. Well, look what he then says. Well, whoever wants to save his life will lose it. Whoever will lose his life for my sake, he's the one who will save it. It's those who will take up their cross, deny themselves, and come after Him who will save their lives. Now, of course, He's the Savior. So when He says this, take care of your own cross, we know He went to His death on a cross. But if anybody wants to follow Jesus into eternal glory, to be His disciple, he too must die to his old self, deny himself, take up his cross daily, whatever that cross might be. It may have several aspects to it. If this is how Jesus describes the heirs of eternal life, those who will save their lives, then we must hear Him. We have to hear Him, and we must act on what He says. He shows us here in 9, 23, and 24, an essential tenet of discipleship is self-denial. Not necessarily denying yourself all things. denying anything that stands between you and Him. Not living for the gratification of self. This whole idea of self-denial is in direct conflict with the sin nature. The sin nature wants to gratify self. We were all born with a sin nature. Our nature is to gratify ourselves. Fulfillment of our every desire is what we are relentlessly encouraged to pursue in virtually all the advertising that we cannot escape every day. Self-denial means subduing our lusts and desires. means that as new creations in Christ, we cease the constant promotion of our own selfish interests, and we begin a new life promoting the glory of God in everything we do. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. In Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, Paul reflects. He says, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. So denying self means surrendering oneself to Christ, to Christ's instruction, even to his discipline. And so Jesus says if a person wants to be his disciple, to come after him, he must take up his cross and follow him. And no, he doesn't promise he's going to make you healthy and wealthy. No, a disciple is one who believes in him, takes up his own cross daily. Now it's not the same cross as Christ. His cross saved us. Our cross is not literal. Our sufferings don't atone for anybody's sin. But our crosses are real. And they're not minor discomforts. That's not what he's talking about. We're not talking about the minor annoyances of this life. One's cross is whatever pain, shame, and persecution that may come upon every one of us every day because of our loyalty to Christ. Look, I don't know if we know it, but the world looks at us differently if they know who we are. To take up one's cross is to willingly and voluntarily accept these trials. Perseverance of the saints consists in willingly bearing the cross which has been laid on each of us. That's what perseverance is all about. And Jesus adds the word daily, Calvin says, so that we'll know there's not going to be any end to this warfare in this life. Not until we leave this world. He says, quote, "...let us understand that when some afflictions have run their course, we must be prepared to endure new, fresh afflictions." Get through some. Some more are coming. So there are crosses for every true servant of Christ. The earthly prospects of a disciple may not sound all that appealing to us, but he hasn't left us on our own. And the promises he's given us are of a glory of such magnitude that as Paul wrote, 2 Corinthians, our momentary light afflictions are producing for us an eternal weight of glory. And he's given us his Spirit. He's indwelling us right now. Once a man has been reborn, the Spirit of God remains with him forever. You're not alone. He's equipping you to do that which we couldn't do in our own power. Take up our cross and follow Him. He's Lord after all. And this is a matter of eternal consequence, he says. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. Those are really important words. Well then he presents the challenge of discipleship in two illustrations here. Beginning in verse 28, we have a man who wants to build a tower. Maybe a watchtower. Maybe a storage place. Whatever it is, before he starts to build it, what does he have to do? He has to figure out what it's going to cost. And if he doesn't, and he starts building, what happens? He looks foolish. You're exactly right. He'll become an object of ridicule. So what's Jesus teaching us here? It's pretty obvious, isn't it? Before one begins to walk in the path of a follower of Christ, he's got to realize there's going to be a cost to being a Christian. Jesus taught this truth on many occasions. We think of Pastor Arthur Polosky in Canada. He keeps getting sent to jail for what? Preaching the gospel. They've arrested him three times. He's in jail right now. Twenty-three hours a day inside a cell for preaching the gospel. And there are those who would love for that approach to come here. Here's what Jesus said, Matthew 7, 14, the gate is small, the way is narrow that leads to life. There are few who find it. Back in Luke 13, 24. Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. This isn't just a matter of a profession. It's a matter of discipleship. Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone, Jesus says, who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father. You think obedience to Christ doesn't matter? You think obedience to our heavenly Father doesn't matter? Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father. Not as a way of earning entrance into heaven, but as a response to the grace of God. As a response of gratitude, worship, and yes, obedience. Many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in Your name? Didn't we cast out demons? Didn't we perform many miracles in Your name? And I will say to them, I never knew you. Never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. What didn't they do? They didn't take up their cross and follow Him. Paul taught this same truth in many of his letters. I know sometimes you must think all I ever preach about is suffering. But that's an awful lot of what the New Testament talks about. Romans 8, 17, if we suffer with Him, we will be glorified with Him. Want to just delete that verse? Philippians 1, 29, For to you it has been granted not only to believe in Him, but what? To suffer for His sake. There is a cost to being a disciple of Christ. The parable of the sower in Matthew 13 is somewhat instructive here. Many there begin to follow Christ, but many soon turn away, having failed to count the cost. Others follow for a time, but they too, when they realize the cost, they also fall away. Affliction, persecution will be part of the cost of following Christ. But the deceitfulness of riches can choke out the desire to follow Christ too. So your love for the things of this world must be counted. And you must be willing to deny yourself those things when called to if you're going to follow Him. One must come to desire the blessings of forgiveness, eternal life with God One must come to desire his relationship with Christ more than he desires the things of this world. Henrickson says you cannot remain neutral. Jesus said you cannot remain neutral. Well then Jesus presents a second illustration. This second illustration comes from kings at war. We got one with 10,000 soldiers, another with 20,000. And the one with only 10,000 has to consider, can I do this? Can I do this? I'm not going to simply wait to be slaughtered. So he tries to simply make peace before the enemy comes and surrounds him. He's not in the same position as the man who wants to build the tower that first man chose to build. This man is thrust into this situation. He's being attacked. So he has to make a decision. And that decision may be to try to just make peace with the other king. Jesus is warning all His disciples. If you're going to follow Me, make certain you've equipped yourself for the spiritual battle that lay ahead. Make sure you've equipped yourself to travel the narrow road, a road that's fraught with many perils. And it's not only the persecution of the world. It's not only the afflictions and hardships we must bear. What are you going to do about the lustful desires of your flesh? Because see, all these are weapons of Satan. All of them. With which he seeks to draw people away from Christ. And again though, the good news? God has provided us with all the necessary armor as gifts of His grace. He's empowered us. He's strengthened us with His Word of Truth, with the assurance of the gift of faith, and with His indwelling Spirit. So then, he concludes, none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Well again, Jesus is speaking in a somewhat hyperbolic sense. He's not demanding we renounce and divest ourselves of all earthly wealth and property. That would reduce all Christians to beggars and burdens on the fallen world. That's not his desire. But what he is saying is this. All that is of this world has the potential to hinder your walk with Jesus. There's nothing out there that doesn't have that potential. This is true of anything or anyone that you make more important to you than the risen Lord. That's called an idol. If anything or anyone is more important to you than He is, And he says, you're not his disciple. You're not worthy of him. And you are in great danger of losing your life. That's what he says. John Stott wrote this in a book called Basic Christianity. The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers that are ones of those who began to build and were unable to finish. Thousands of people still ignore Christ's warning and undertake to follow Him without first pausing to reflect on the cause of doing so. See, the blessings are great, but the taking up of one's cross is also part of the Christian walk. As Todd says, the result is the great scandal of Christendom today, a false, so-called nominal or carnal Christianity. See, the Christian is not somebody who tries to buy a free pass to protect him from eternity in hell. I don't know if you've had this experience, but I have. I've had people say flat out to me, I'm going to church just in case. Just in case. Well, that's not going to get you eternal life. Here's someone The true Christian is who's been reborn of God and becomes grieved by the way he's offended God with his sin. He now loves God. He loves the brethren. He now lives in gratitude and obedience to God. See, we could never live in such obedience to the law of God that we would earn eternal glory. But having received eternal glory, we are called to now live in gratitude and obedience to Him. And it won't be perfect. God knows that. But our pattern of life ought to be one of love for and obedience to our Lord. This is the change that God has made in the hearts of His people. This is the evidence of His saving work in you. So a true disciple kind of sum it up, is one who has a wholehearted devotion and loyalty to Christ. For real. Who denies himself, meaning he puts himself, his talents, his time, all his earthly possessions entirely at the disposal of Christ. So Jesus is condemning any notion of a half-hearted Christianity. Remember, in the first century, they were having to die if they were to be called disciples of Christ. Same thing in the 2nd century and the 3rd. Now, if this level of devotion and sacrifice seems too great, well let's compare it with what His level of devotion and love was for us. Because while we were yet sinners in rebellion, in open rebellion against Him, He suffered more than we can imagine and died for us. He's not demanding of us what he demanded of the rich young ruler who was so attached to his possessions he had to give them up. But he wants us to surrender ourselves to him. He wants us to serve him wholeheartedly according to whatever talents, abilities, aptitudes he's given us. Well, in the last two verses, Luke inserts a teaching of our Lord that may seem at first glance to represent a change of subject by our Lord. But look at the word therefore. Well, what does the word therefore do? Well, it connects the little passage about salt to what has gone before. He now uses salt as an illustration. Therefore, he says, salt is good. If salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? You see, you can't season salt. Once salt becomes tasteless, it's not salt anymore. But if it does, it's useless. Either for the soil, for the manure pile, it is thrown out. So what is this saying of our Lord here? A lot of different views among the writers. He says salt is good. Now why salt good? Well it's useful as a preservative then and still today. And it imparts flavor. Well I think it's clear that the best way to get understanding of the Lord's meaning when He's speaking is to look to the rest of Scripture. Now if you'll turn to Matthew chapter 5. There in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made a very similar statement to the one He's making here. There He declared to a crowd of people following Him, who would become disciples, many. He said to them, You are the salt of the earth. But then look at what He says. But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. This is essentially the same statement he's making here in Luke 14. What if salt were to lose its flavor and become tasteless? The answer in both cases is, it's not good for anything. But He's speaking of His disciples as the salt in Matthew. There are qualities that are inherent in discipleship that would mark every true disciple. And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus referred to one of those qualities as salt. Devotion to Him, belief in His Word, a trust in Him. And if anyone lacks that quality, then whatever other characteristics he may have, he lacks that one quality necessary for true discipleship. And so if those who have been called by Him to be disciples, to be salt and light in the fallen world, if we lose that which makes us disciples, we become useless. And they are thrown out, cast out. He would say elsewhere, into outer darkness. He says, I've called you to be my disciples. I've called you to be salt and light. Called you to be salt of the earth. But first, you better count the cost of being my disciple. You must place me above everything else, ahead of everyone else, even family. You better understand that opposition to me and to my gospel, and to you now as my disciple, is going to be great. It's going to be hostile. He says, don't begin to follow me unless you've weighed all these things. I'm looking for lifelong loyalty to the end. I'm not looking for those that we meet in John chapter 6, who found my doctrine too difficult to accept. Jesus' point, He's not seeking carnal Christians, whatever that means. He's not seeking those who are willing to make Him just a mere part of their life. He's seeking disciples, brethren. Those willing to surrender their lives to Him. Those willing to live in joyful submission to Him, to His will. People who are willing to place Him above all else and all others. Call again the words of Luke 9, 23 and 24. If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, must take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? I don't know if there's a doctrine in all of Scripture that is taken more lightly than this one by people in churches. And Jesus is warning clearly against that. He's saying, I'm calling you to abandon your old loyalties to devote your whole allegiance to me. Because if you don't, then like that salt that's lost its taste, you're useless to me. And you will be cast out. He concludes with the words that we read often in the parables in Matthew. And that we read at the end of each of seven letters to the churches in chapter 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Jesus said to the twelve, to you it's been given to understand the kingdom of God. to the others. I speak in parables so they won't understand. But He's equipped all those He has called to hear Him and to respond in gratitude, worship, repentance, and obedience. And that's what He wants to see in us. The invitation to come to Christ, to take up your cross and to follow Him as His disciple, is extended to all who will hear Him. So the questions for us this morning. You have to answer these for yourself. How have I responded to God's gracious invitation? Am I truly His disciple? Am I truly living as He calls His disciples to live? Does my life give evidence that I'm His disciple? Am I salt and light in this fallen world? Does my life give clear evidence that He and He alone is my Lord? For all who can truthfully answer yes to all these questions, there's indescribable blessing and joy that lay ahead and will endure for all eternity. Do we believe that? I pray we do. Well, Jesus taught us here to count the cost, though, of discipleship. But as we hear His words and meditate on them, let us also count the cost of refusing His call to be His disciple. Because those who refuse, their destiny will be grave. Let us pray. O Lord, You issue a great challenge to us. We look at ourselves and recognize that Your standard is set in heaven. And Lord, You've come down into this fallen world and begun to gather Your people. You continue to gather them today. And You call us, Lord, to live by Your heavenly standard. one that is of a love of the one who has loved us first. Lord, we acknowledge you've equipped us by your Word and by your Spirit. We pray, Lord, for increased equipping of we, your people, who find such challenges so difficult. So Lord, I pray you would, by your Spirit, fall upon us and stir us to a right response to your call this morning. In Christ's name.