3.20 - THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

We come, my friends, to the closing service of this series of meetings. I feel that great good has been accomplished, and I recognize the fact that this was made possible by faithful brethren who have gone before and prepared the way.

Long before I ever tried to tell the story, the foundation for this meeting was being laid by faithful, godly men, who sacrificed much more than I have ever done, to plant the cause of Christ within this splendid city.

Unto God be all the praise for such loyalty and fidelity and sacrifice on their part. Those of us still here ought to be greatly encouraged to press on with a zeal greater than ever before. This meeting has been characterized by absolute simplicity. There has been no effort to entertain you, other than by the hymning of these good songs and the recitation of stories recorded by the sacred oracles. The financial part of it had been arranged in advance in a quiet manner by those who love the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the finest evidences that good has been accomplished is the discussion on the streets, in the places of business, and the very kindly criticisms that have been offered through the public press. I want those who have seen fit so to do, to know that I think none the less of them. I appreciate the man who has convictions, and then the courage to press them to the ultimate result.

I noticed in today’s Tennessean a criticism from a Mr. Taylor. I understand he is yet a schoolboy, and perhaps this fact explains his rushing in where others fear to tread. He felt that our Lebanon friend had made a complete failure in his attacks, and hence, this young man seeks to save a last hope. Doubtless Mr. Taylor is a bright boy. I feel sure he knows more now about some things than he will in the years to come. I once heard of a young fellow who had so much knowledge that a part of his brain had to be removed to make room for what he knew.

Mr. Taylor should bear in mind that "larger ships may venture more but smaller boats should stay near shore." It is a great pity that such stupid fellows as Drs. Westcott and Hort, whose Greek Testament has become standard, did not consult Mr. Taylor on Matthew 16:18. Even the great Joseph Henry Thayer, the Greek lexicographer, lived and died without the benefit of such wise counsel.

I appreciate all these criticisms. They make the truth stand out the more prominently. Those who so desired have had ample time and I hope no one will take advantage of my absence and hurl his darts. This would indicate cowardice on the part of him who so does.

Let me read to you from Luke 14:25-33 : "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, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever cloth not bear his cross, and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 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. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth all ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hash, he cannot be my disciple." The subject tonight is, "The Cost of Discipleship." What does it cost to become a child of God, and to meet His approval in our onward journey?

There were great multitudes that frequently gathered round about the Christ, prompted by various reasons. Some of them followed for the loaves and fishes which He was able to multiply. Others followed, doubtless, out of curiosity, and to behold the great miracles, signs and wonders which he was accustomed to evidence in their presence.

Jesus once said to the company, "The foxes have holes, the fowls of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." As much as to say, "Don’t follow me with the hope of dwelling in a palace on earth, or of sharing the good things this world may have, for such I do not possess."

I want to say to you, friends, that it really costs much to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." To this multitude, in Luke 14:1-35, He has this to say: "He that will come after me must hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brethren, his sisters, yea, and his own life. If that be not true of him he cannot be my disciple."

There are many hard sayings in the Bible, things that challenge our very serious concern, and call upon all within us to make that decision which is fraught with much expenditure on our part. I just wonder if it is possible for us to become disciples of the Lord.

Upon the condition that one must hate his father, his mother, and those generally nearest and dearest, who can be a disciple? Friends, I think I know what the word "hate" means in modern speech, and I am frank to admit to you, tonight, that I cannot comply with such, if that be the idea expressed in this scripture. And if the significance of that word be as I now understand it in ordinary use, I must confess, I am not a disciple of the Lord.

I do not hate the father responsible for my existence upon the earth. When I was wholly unable to provide for myself it was he who cared for me, made provision, and guided my feet in what he thought was the right path, and though for twenty years he has been gone, his memory lingers still. I feel certain that the time will never come when I can say, "I hate him."

What shall I do about it? Christ said that I must hate, not only my father, but likewise my mother. My mother died when I was about fifteen months old. I never knew what it was to recognize her. All I know about her is what others have told me. But from that, I cannot say that I hate her. I know that her very life trembled in the balance and was suspended quivering on the pivot when I first opened my eyes to be greeted by the light of God’s day. I do not hate her.

Likewise may I say regarding the brothers and sisters that I have in this world. But Christ said, "Hardeman, unless you hate your father, mother, brothers, sisters, wife, children, all, you cannot be my disciple." For twenty and seven years I have walked down the pathway of time side by side with her who decided to share my sorrows and my joys. I would not say that every step has been absolutely harmonious. She has a head of her own, and many times her judgment has been contrary to Nine. I might not admit it, in her presence, but I must say to you that, sometimes, just once in a while, she has been right on a few points. Regardless of any differences whatsoever, I cannot say that I hate her. In our home there have been three children born. All of them are now grown to manhood and womanhood. In their interest our very hopes and ambitions are centered; and upon them we may be forced to rely in our declining days. Of course, I do not hate them. And then, my own life is as dear and precious to me as the ordinary one. For that life the Bible says a man will give all that he has. And yet Christ says I must hate my own life, or else I cannot be his disciple.

Brethren, what shall I do about it?

I am glad to say that I never have in my life tried to find one passage in the Bible to offset or to contradict any other statement made. I know that God is the author of this book, that every word of it is true. I know that all truth runs in parallel lines, and if there be a seeming discrepancy, or a contradiction, it lies somewhere in my own mind, and not in Him who spake the word, or caused it to be penned. But words do not always carry the same significance. The word "hate" is one of that number. Tonight, it means to despise; to dislike; to detest; to abhor; to abominate, etc. But it does not mean that in the Bible. All expressions of emotion and physical passion as used in the Book of God are comparative in their nature. In a parallel passage, Matthew 10:37, Christ said this: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." But again, in Genesis 29:30-31, there is more light that will help us to all appreciation of what is here said. The Bible teaches that Jacob ran away from home and went to Padan aram. There he married Leah, the daughter of Laban, and seven years later, Rachel, her sister. The Bible says, verse 30, that Jacob loved Rachel more than he did Leah. But the next verse says, "And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren."

What is the point about that? Simply a comparative idea. God says that Jacob loved Rachel more than he did Leah, and the very fact that he loved Rachel more justifies the next statement that Leah was hated, or loved less.

Hence the text tonight reads with a different idea when I submit to you that general statement regarding this word. "If any man will come after me and does not love me more than he does father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children, yea, his own life, he cannot be my disciple."

I want to say to you that with many of us that test has never come. And yet there are those possibly dwelling in your city, and may be in this audience tonight, who have demonstrated in their lives the thing thus presented.

Suppose a man wants to become a Christian and decides in his heart to obey God, but his wife rises up in rebellion and files all objection. The man, therefore, is put to the test. Shall he obey God, or shall he respect the whims and wishes of his wife? The man who will yield to the latter is unworthy of the sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ. If that father of whom I have spoken had objected to my becoming a Christian and I had yielded to his demands, rather than have gone forward in obedience to Christ, it would be all exhibition of the fact that I am unworthy of discipleship with the Lord.

Many there are in this land who have been told, in advance, that their becoming a Christian means that another home must be found.

Christ would say, "Go right on; become a child of God, pay the price." Unless you are willing thus to do, you will be unworthy of that relationship you hope to sustain.

Friends, I believe that men ought to become children of God prompted by the loftiest incentive, and the highest motive known. I have never yet had so little respect for any man as to ask him to become a Christian other than as he was moved by a conviction of the truth of God’s Book. I know that it is fine for husband and wife to be members of the body of Christ together. But, hear it, any man who will profess to become a Christian just to please his wife is unworthy of the name of the Son of God. And any woman who has no higher conception of rendering obedience to (loaf Almighty than simply to please her husband will, I think, die and land in hell at last.

Therefore, my friends, let us take Christianity out of the idea of its being a kind of social club. Let us be moved by genuine convictions, and higher ideals.

If you think a thing is the truth, accept it, and stand for it four-square. If you do not believe it is the truth, let no consideration of earth induce you to the acceptance of the same. The Church of Christ is calling, not for great numbers to swell the roll, but it is calling for men and women genuinely, really and truly converted to the truth, with a backbone and a courage to stand for it against public sentiment, against criticism, against everything; and to hold aloft the banner of Christ everywhere.

There is nothing but that must be subordinated to the will of God.

1 John 2:15 says: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." That is also a hard saying. My friends, I am frank to tell you, I do love this old world out of which I was created, and on which I dwell, from which I get my support, and in the kindly bosom of which I expect, at last, to pillow my head, and gently dwell in her tender and encircling arms.

I love the beautiful birds and the sweet-scented flowers that cheer us along our way and make pleasant the path in which we move.

I love the glittering chandeliers of the sky twinkling from their far-discant home, and lighting up the earth, after the sun has sunk behind the western hills. But I do not think that the passage forbids my having regard for these things. The word "world" does not in this passage refer to things material, but it is used in contradistinction to the term "spiritual." Therefore, we speak of a man’s being worldly-minded, yielding to carnality, and to fleshly appetites, lusts and passions. The Bible outlines quite a little catalogue of things that are incorporated in that term. In Galatians 5:19 there is this recitation: "The works of the flesh (and he might have said the attributes and characteristics of the world) are manifest," and here they are: "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

Therefore, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Friends, this story, read in Luke 14:1-35 carries another fine consideration. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that be hold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth all ambassage and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hash, he cannot be my disciple."

You ask what is the point in that splendid illustration. I think it may be summed up after this fashion; hear it, if you contemplate fighting against God, going through life, and meeting the judgment in disobedience to him, you had better sit down, my friends, and count well the cost.

If you are marshaling your forces against Jehovah, it would be well to think seriously, and come to a decision to send all embassy and seek peace while the opportunity and the time is yours. As a matter of fact, you are certain to be defeated, if you wage war against the authority of God. Every thought suggests that we had better come to terms with the great Father of Spirit?. But friends, when I begin to count the cost of a thing from a business point of view, I raise the question, will it pay for me to make this investment? If I spend so much, do I have assurance of a return? Is there a guaranty of any remuneration whatsoever?

I want to call your attention to some of the characters of earth who have invested in the service of God Almighty, and let you decide whether or not that investment was wisely made.

Along the lower course of the river Euphrates, in that splendid, rich, alluvial valley Abraham was, so far as I know, well fixed. He was there with his family and friends, enjoying the good things of earth. The call of God came and bade him forsake all that he had, and start out into a land later to be revealed. With a faith undaunted and a courage heroic, Abraham launched out and invested all in the call of the God of the Universe.

Up the Mesopotamian valley he went, until he came to Haran, where he buried his beloved father. Around the Arabian desert he swept to the south and west into the land premised some years before.

Time rolled on. Many were the experiences and the things unpleasant that Abraham had to share. He was practically alone as a standard bearer of God. He was a stranger in a strange land, but he had put himself and his all in the service of God Almighty. Question: did it pay?

Let that remain for just a moment.

Moses was adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh, tutored and disciplined in Egyptian learning, and was a mighty man in word and in deed. With the passing of the years he reached his majority, and came to the point in life where a decision had to be made. In response to the God of the universe, Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, and invested everything with the people then in bondage.

He made that investment on the ground that he counted the reproach of God greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of reward. Was that a good investment? That is what Moses did. That is not all. When Daniel was carried away into the land of Babylonia, a demand was made that he eat of the king’s meat and drink of the king’s wine. True to his convictions, he rose to the height of his manhood, and positively refused to be corrupted or rendered impure by any such practice. He cast it all upon Him who cared, and invested 100 per cent of his affairs in the promises of God.

Again, the disciples came to the Master once, and said, "Lo, we have left all, and have followed after thee." What shall we have? We have invested everything; all else has been given up. The peerless apostle to the Gentile world forsook the fine opportunities of the Pharisaical realm, counted all things but loss, and the very refuse of earth, that he might march under the blood-stained banner of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Friends, these are some of those who invested.

There is another record in Luke 18:18-30. It is the story of a man clothed with riches and wealth. Christ demanded of him that he sell all that he had, pay the price, and follow after the Lord. But he clung to his riches; refused to pay the price demanded; turned away; and so far as you or I know, he was shut out of the kingdom of God. He went to that country where hope is a stranger and where mercy has never yet been known. Does it pay to become a disciple? Were these characters mentioned justified in the acts described?

You know the story of Abraham. He wandered in a foreign land for about a hundred years, sorrowing and sighing. Disappointments and calamities to which humanity is heir were his to share. By and by the wife who had traveled so long with him, sickened and died. He bought a burial ground from the sons of Heth, and there deposited her in the cave of Machpelah at old Hebron. And after a while, at the age of 175, he bowed his head; gave up the ghost; and was buried far from the old homestead, and likewise, in a foreign land.

I reflect upon his varied career, and ask tonight, did that choice that he made, that investment back yonder at Ur, turn out well? Had Abraham not done this, you and I never would have heard his name called. He would have been unknown and unsung, except by a very small, limited number; and even then, for only a few months or years. But as it is, notwithstanding the fact that almost four thousand years have passed; forty centuries have come and gone since Abraham made that investment, he has been and is called the friend of God, the Father of them that believe. "If ye be Christ’s, ye are Abraham’s and heirs according to the promise." So long as time shall continue and men and women are born and buried upon this earth, Abraham will be to us a household word. He stands as God’s great example of undaunted faith.

He towers above his fellows like some peak above the lofty plains. He took God at His word; believed what He said; lived as the Lord directed; and trusted Him for the promises. When Moses cast his lot with a despised people subjected to the most cruel bondage, he did not know what the result might be, but with the passing of the years he was privileged to stand as the leader of the greatest number of people ever marshaled under one command.

He led them across the Red Sea, and to the foot of old shaking Sinai. He ascended its heights as the confidant of God and there received the decalogue, which has become the foundation of all laws of all civilization from then till now.

Under the Divine guidance of Jehovah, he led them for forty long years. At last he climbed to the summit of old Nebo, and there, but a youth of 120, with his physical forces unabated and his eyes undimmed, he caught a vision of the promised land. From that summit, four thousand feet in height, Moses could look to the east across the great Arabian desert and view all ocean of golden sand. He could then look southward over that land where they had wandered for those forty years. Turning northward, he could catch a vision of old Mount Hermon, ten thousand feet high. Then he could look to the west across the River Jordan and behold the fields of ripening grain, silvery streams and the beautiful hills of that land which flowed with milk and honey.

While enraptured by these splendid scenes, God came, took him, and buried him in some secluded spot, as yet unknown to man.

But, friends, was that all? Oh, no. Fifteen hundred years from that time the Christ, together with Elias and Moses, stood on old Mt. Hermon, where Jesus was transfigured in their presence. Moses was privileged to talk with Christ regarding the tragedy that was soon to come to pass. Then Peter said, "Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."

But, friends, that is not all. When time’s knell shall be sounded, and the ransomed of the earth shall be gathered home, on fairer fields and in brighter climes, we will sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb, in the glad by and by. Of course, it paid to make that investment.

You ask, what about the peerless apostle? At the close of his wonderful career, Paul said, "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, all house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." His parting declaration was, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

You ask about all others. David sums it up in a general blanket proposition, when he said, in Psalms 37:25, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread."

Friends, neither have you. The time has never been when the really righteous souls of earth were forsaken, or their seed begging bread.

Isn’t it fine, beloved, as we contemplate our investment in the matter of Christianity, that such splendid sentiments and thoughts come down the line to inspire fidelity, loyalty and genuine perseverance on our part? We ought to rejoice and be glad, because we can say, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to He down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

Brethren, if we who have invested in Christianity can but be faithful to the end of life’s way, we are certain to receive the fullest fruition of all our hallowed hopes and fondest desires. We can approach death with a smile, and meet it with the joy and gladness characteristic of the child of God.

Friends, I believe it is worth your while to invest in the service of God. I think it the greatest investment you ever made. The time will come when life’s race is run; when its battles have been fought and its victories won; when you must launch out into the fathomless depths of the eternal beyond. Are you ready for that day to come? Where will you spend eternity? Make your decision tonight. This is all important hour. The very angels crowd the galleries of glory to watch, with breathless interest, the struggle in your soul. Turn your face toward the Master before the hour of choice shall pass away forever. Invest your all in the service of Him who died that you might live. Pay whatever price is necessary; become God’s child, regardless, and then lean upon His everlasting arms while the shadows are passing. If this you’ll do, heaven will surely send a company of angelic pall-bearers to gather round about your dying couch, and when the spirit takes its flight, they will gladly bear it home to glory, where it may nestle in the bosom of a Father’s love, while eternity’s ages roll by. As we sing the last song of the meeting and extend the last invitation, come without delay.