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Counting the Cost, Lk. 14:28

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Counting the Cost, Lk. 14:28 COUNTING THE COST Lk. 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? “Conversion is not putting a man in an armchair and taking him easily to Heaven.” That’s the angle from which J.C. Ryle looks at this subject. Do you find, - since becoming a Christian, - everything falling into your lap, you have no problems, all is going smoothly and without any hassles? Or, have you ever found yourself sitting down and analysing all the difficulties, and saying to yourself, “I never had to contend with these things when I was ‘in the world’”? Is it worth it being a Christian? … Counting the cost of following Christ. … And it does cost, doesn’t it? Not just the offering we put ‘on the plate’, but the way we live out our faith. It costs because … * in the office we have a different set of criteria that we work by, * in the home we have Christian principles that we seek to uphold, * in our families we have examples to project, * and in our church we have a message to proclaim. It sounds almost nonsensical to have to say it, but in these days when many churches have ditched the truth of God’s Word it is necessary to say it, - we believe that following Christ costs! I don’t understand the talk about free salvation, - there is nothing free about it, * It cost Christ everything, - Heaven, glory, His own life * It costs the believer everything too. There is no such thing as free salvation, but there is free grace, - the love of God in Christ offered freely to those whom He would have believe. So, there is a cost. There is a cost first of all to the Saviour. But … what is THE COST TO THE BELIEVER of placing your trust in Jesus Christ as your own and personal Saviour and Lord? * According to the standard of the Bible what does God expect from me? * What is the measure of commitment that God will accept from me, … and is there any room for manoeuvre? D.G. 2 * Counting the cost, - that is what we are thinking about, - what is it costing me to be here in church this morning? * When I go to the Bible Study on a Monday morning, the prayer meeting on a Monday evening, the once-monthly Tuesday afternoon meeting, the CE meeting, the Wednesday Fellowship Lunch, the Women’s Meeting, the Wednesday Bible Study, the Thursday Prayer and Bible Study, the Services on a Sunday, - does the cost of my commitment to the work of the Lord in the place in which I believe He has called me, is the cost of my commitment to my Lord greater than the cost that He paid for me on Calvary? * No! it’s not. It doesn’t even come close, … for He gave His all for me, He left the splendour of Heaven knowing His destiny Was the lonely hill of Golgotha, There to lay down His life for me. If that isn’t love … ! * Compared to what our salvation cost Christ there ought to be nothing we hold back, - that is why I say the value of a soul was at the price of the sinless, perfect Son of God. * It cost Him everything, - imagine, being laughed at, considered a deranged maniac, threatened, set aside by His family and people, His Father turning away His face from Him, - it cost Him everything! * … What right, then, have I to hold anything back?! * It costs nothing to be a Sunday-only Christian. * It costs nothing to be a Christian according to our own ideas of what a Christian might be. * But when we count the cost of our salvation the price is away beyond our means. * Perhaps I need to emphasise here that the full cost of salvation has been paid by the Saviour. * I don’t want anyone to think that you or I bear the initial brunt of the cost, because it was a price that could only be met when the blood of Jesus spilled down His precious body and on to the hill of Calvary. * You can’t save yourself. No matter how hard you try you cannot of yourself become a Christian, - it is a work of God’s grace and favour. D.G. 3 * It is not a matter of coming to all the meetings I mentioned a few moments ago. * You can only be saved when you call upon the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you your sin and He comes into your life and changes it. * So the matter of salvation is not what you can do for Him, it is what He has already done for you, and then as a consequence you are wholly taken up with Jesus and He lives the new life through you. * In other words, self-righteousness is not an attribute of the Christian, - our righteousness is in Christ. * And that means the love of sin has been buried, blotted out, washed away, * “Aye, but what about those sins that pursue me and cry out to me to return to them?” * Yes, that is a very valid question, - it’s a battle each one of us has to contend with in some way or another. * You have left the sin behind you, but you find it pursuing after you at a deadly rate, … what do you do? * There must be a parting of the ways! Bondage to the will and freedom in Christ are not compatible, - they cannot tolerate each other. * To be a Christian means fighting against sin with the whole armour of God. * And I guarantee you, such a fight … it’s not an easy one, and being a Christian is hard, - it’s a serious business, - it calls for everything to come under the absolute control of God. * It might suit some, it mightn’t suit others, - but it costs to be a Christian. It is not natural to be a Christian, no more than it is natural to be the man in the moon. * It is a work of God’s free and sovereign grace that He has gifted to His people. The cost of believing in Jesus Christ as your own and personal Saviour and Lord. So there is a cost, and it is a very expensive cost to be a Christian. It is not to be considered lightly, - it is all or nothing, and it permeates every aspect of your life. … And you can’t lower the cost, - there is no ‘discount package’ to become a Christian. … It’s on God’s terms or not at all! D.G. 4 And that is why we must consider THE IMPORTANCE OF COUNTING THE COST. * I’ve had the privilege of leading folk to the Saviour. * I do count it a privilege, - perhaps one of the greatest privileges for the Christian is to lead someone else to saving faith, - but I always seek to be so careful. * I would love all men, - and women and boys and girls, - to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth but when we are sitting down with someone who is seeking Christ it can never be made too easy. * ‘Easy believism’ is not a characteristic of the Gospel of Christ. * When someone says to me they want to be saved my heart is excited and it is beating faster, but – do you know? – I very carefully almost do a turnaround and present obstacles as to the sincerity of their desire to come to Christ. * Jesus did that, He said to the young man, [Young man] if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. Jesus presented obstacles in order to determine the sincerity of this young man’s desire. * I would hate to have someone pray the prayer, - and not fully aware of the cost it demanded, - and then that person being irreparably spiritually damaged. * You remember that their were some followers of Jesus who could no longer tolerate what they considered to be the harshness of His words, - they walked for a little while out of fascination perhaps, or with the hope that Jesus would set up a new earthly kingdom and drive out the foreign invader, * The Bible tells us, Jn. 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. * Demas had been faithful alongside Paul, but when he looked around him and counted the cost of being a Christian, he didn’t consider it worthwhile, and he forsook the work. * There is a real cost to following Christ, and of pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. * It is a personal cost, - it doesn’t depend on my parents, my friends or anyone else, - it is a personal cost to me. D.G. 5 The initial cost of believing in Jesus Christ as our own and personal Saviour and Lord. The importance of counting the cost … Adding it all up. * Mk. 8:36 what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? * Christian, you are saved for the Saviour, - He owns you, He paid the price of your redemption, … what profit is there in giving Him anything less than your best? * You add it up, - how He has changed your life, - you are different to what you used to be, * Yes, some things you have had to cast to the one side, but other things that have been added since you became a Christian have more than made up for your loss.
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