Street Meeting Tenth

There is a command to make disciples, as well as a command to remind them of the cost of becoming one. Luke 14:25-35.

It is a grievous error of our times that many imagine Christianity to be merely an assent, a quiet nod of the head, to the belief that Christ Jesus is the Son of God. Far from it. That may be true for nominal Christianity, but different from true biblical Christianity. It is not enough, I tell you, merely to believe in the Savior; we are called to follow Him. This is the great, vital work: to set aside, with a firm and devout resolution, all and everyone else—yea, even the dearest ties of flesh and blood, the most cherished comforts of this fleeting life—so that the blessed Lord Christ may occupy that sole, uncontested position in the very center of your soul.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

And when that moment of trial comes—as surely they will—when the choices stand before you, stark and terrible, and the world forces you to choose, your kin begs you with tears, or your very life is threatened, if such things do collide against His commands... in that hour, you must stand immovable, planted solely and forever upon the Rock, Christ Jesus. And if it be so ordained—for the Lord's ways are mysterious and glorious—that your testimony must be sealed with your very blood, so that His name alone may be exalted and magnified before men and angels.

In this world, where human hearts are easily bruised and worldly opinions are held in such high esteem, we are often tempted to seek the smooth path of approval and peace, falsely so called. But mark well this eternal decree: when the claims of men rise up in opposition to the King of Glory, we are to be ready to stand upon Christ (Acts 5:29). Let the world rail. Let your dearest companions frown. Let the voice of the multitude condemn your stubborn adherence to the truth of the Gospel. We must count it as dust, as the vain breath of mortals. For our whole and singular devotion must be to this: that we are ready and willing to offend all else, rather than offend Christ.

It is a great misrepresentation, often wickedly spread by those who misunderstand the Gospel's immovable demands, that the Christian is commanded to sever ties with their own kith and kin, or to seek quarrel with them, or to harbor a venomous hatred in their breast. No, we are not called to obey one part of Scripture and violate another. We are commanded to "honor your father and mother" (Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16), not hate them. The word hate is not one of emotion, but one of action. It simply means, your love for your own would appear to be less, because of your love for Christ is now greater than all else. The deep, penetrating meaning of that holy Word—when the Savior speaks of hating father or mother, or even one's own very life—is not a call to remove our natural, God-given love from them. Heaven forbid. It is a call to simply and completely elevate our love for Christ Jesus over all else that draws breath. The love for our Redeemer must be so vast, so transcendent, that all other loves, though real and precious, appear by comparison as a lesser thing—as hate in the face of that supreme, divine passion. This is the true meaning of the supremacy of Christ in the Christian heart. Scripture makes this same portion clear in the book of Matthew 10:37.

And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

And let us speak now of the cross. We are nowhere commanded to rush headlong into the grave in the name of Christ, nor to seek our own death, for salvation is not, and never can be, acquired by martyrdom. Our righteousness is found only in the shed Blood of the Lamb, and nowhere else. However, if the dark hour does fall—if the choice is starkly laid before us: to deny Christ and save ourselves, or to maintain the holy testimony and surrender the life redeemed by His sacrifice—then, O then, we must not shrink back. We must joyfully surrender this redeemed life to its rightful Lord and owner.

This is a great spiritual law, immutable as the stars: there is always a cost, a thing to be let go, if we are to acquire another of greater worth. This is the very economy of God's dealings with man, and we cannot afford to be deceived. It is the whisper of the Serpent, a pernicious lie breathed into the ears of the unwary, that we do not have to give up anything, not a single trifling vanity, to receive the unspeakable gift of salvation.

Lest haply, 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 was not able to finish. 

Consider the folly. It is precisely like saying that one desires to stand utterly and perfectly on the side of God, yet refuses to unfriend the world and its wicked ways (James 4:4). It is like entering into a binding marriage commitment and still expecting to cling to the self-serving privileges of the single life! No. This is impossible. You cannot serve two masters. Look to the Savior Himself. To effect our redemption, He did not cling to His divine prerogatives; He gave up the glories He had before the world was framed, pouring Himself out in marvelous condescension, taking on the form of a servant. To redeem His Church, His beloved Bride, He willingly gave up His very life upon the tree. His life and our old, selfish life cannot exist side by side within the same breast. The one must give way to the other, else one will consume the other. His life must come in and occupy ours fully, to the exclusion of all that pertains to the flesh and the former bondage. For, as the Holy Writ doth testify, it is by His life that we are saved. (Romans 5:10)

So likewise, any one of you who is not ready to lose everything he has, cannot be my disciple.

I will speak plainly and without reservation: It costs to follow Christ. This is not a cheap ticket to glory; it is a serious, costly commission. Indeed, one of the main culprits in the prevalence of a crippled, anemic religion in our day is the widespread and treacherous belief that man can freely choose Christ, claim all the glorious benefits of His Name, and yet incur no expense whatsoever. This, I tell you, is a dangerous snare laid by the adversary himself. We are indeed to call all men to Christ, to proclaim His free and abundant grace, yes. But we are equally bound, by the fidelity we owe to the truth, to clearly and powerfully remind them of the cost of following Him.

It may seem that the Savior is further thinning the already narrow road—making the gate seem yet more strait!—but He is laying His terms very clear for all who would even consider starting this pilgrimage. He is utterly and resolutely not interested in half-hearted, light-footed followers who dabble in the faith in the convenience of their spare time. Nor does He desire the company of cold, empty, and emotional professors who make a loud show now, but will surely fall away when the world bears down heavy upon them with its scorn and its trials. For what use, I ask you, is a soldier who utterly fails in the hour of need, who turns his back on the enemy when the bullets start flying? Are these fighting men not keenly aware of the risks, the possibility of losing their very lives in the heat of battle? And yet, in counting the cost, they enlist still! To enlist in the ranks of Christ's disciples without first soberly and diligently counting the cost of self-denial and the cross, of severing ties with sin and earthly comfort, is not piety; it is the height of reckless impudence. It is, in the face of eternal wisdom, utterly stupid.

Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. 

The very highway of modern Christianity is shamefully strewn with the wreckage of has-beens, those who rushed forward thoughtlessly, following the crowd without pausing to weigh the dreadful consequences of embracing the cross. They have fallen, and become utterly useless to the Master’s service. They have backslidden, sliding away from the narrow path, and for some, the end is yet more terrible—they have apostatized, turning their backs on the glorious light they once professed to cherish. We have countless, sorrowful examples of those who utterly neglected to count the cost before they began the journey, and have, alas, made a perfect shipwreck of their testimony. May the LORD, in His boundless mercy, have compassion upon us all.

A Christianity that costs nothing, does nothing, and is worth nothing, because a cheap Christianity without a cross will ultimately prove to be a useless Christianity without a crown.

J.C. Ryle

Consider the plight of this strange salt that has lost its saltiness, the backslider. He is a tool stashed away, no longer useful for the Husbandman’s work, destined never to be wielded again. He is good for nothing, save only to be thrown out and trampled upon. What a perfect, haunting illustration doth the Lord use here. There is a kind of salt that has, through some sad process, lost its very flavor, its potency, its capacity to season and preserve food. And being utterly useless in its original purpose, it is discarded—scattered upon slippery streets, and is therefore trampled by men underfoot. This is the deplorable condition of the man who loses his savor, his testimony. And tell me, how can one convince a man who has tasted the best of foods—the enlightening spiritual sustenance of the knowledge of Christ—but afterwards willingly returned to his own vomit? What better, richer food can you offer him to change his mind (Hebrews 6:4-6)? Such is the sorry, woeful state of the most foolish person in the world, this backslider. He exchanged the Pearl of Great Price for common refuse. Let us therefore take heed, lest we, too, fall from our steadfastness.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 

Here is wisdom worth our lives, for the path to life is strait, and the consequences of turning back are too grievous to contemplate. Let us not be of those who have ears, yet hear not; who have eyes, yet see not the dangers ahead. Let us be watchful, sober, and fervent in our devotion, counting nothing dearer than the approval of our Master who is worthy above all.

The message of our tenth street meeting is thus concluded. Glory and honor to the LORD.