Joseph Carroll emphasizes the rigorous conditions of discipleship as outlined in Luke 14:25-35, where Jesus calls for total loyalty and commitment, even above familial ties. He challenges the audience to consider the cost of following Christ, highlighting that true discipleship requires a willingness to forsake all for Him. Carroll draws parallels between the loyalty expected of a disciple and the unwavering loyalty seen in historical contexts, urging listeners to reflect on their own commitment to Christ. He stresses that being a Christian is synonymous with being a disciple, and that true love for others stems from a deep loyalty to Jesus. Ultimately, he calls for a radical transformation in how one lives, prioritizing the will of Christ above all else.

Luke chapter 14, reading from verse 25 to verse 35. 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. What a word to utter. Now that's just the way lured to lose that crowd, and it's still the same today. Quite obviously our Lord never went to any schools of psychology or learned the power of positive thinking. Isn't that sad? What a thing to say to a multitude. Yet, there they are. Yea, went great multitudes with him, and he turned, and he addressed them. What did he say unto them? If any man will, or 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. Is he exaggerating to approximate? No, he is truth. And he's uttering truth. 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 happily 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 an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath. He cannot be my disciple. Now, just a moment, Lloyd. You really mean that? Yes, he means it. Well, are you his disciple? You say, well, I'm not his disciple, but I am a Christian. Well, I don't read anything about Christians until we come to the Acts of the Apostles. All I read about is disciples. The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. What were they called? What were believers called before that? They were called disciples. A disciple is a Christian. A Christian is a disciple. Now, why were they called Christians first in Antioch? Well, Antioch was one of the great slave centers of the Roman Empire, and at any hour of the day or night, you would see slaves passing through Antioch to the various parts of the Roman Empire. And a slave was known as a caesarin, a caesarin. If you saw a slave, you'd say, there is a caesarin. There is a caesarin. He's a caesarin. He belonged to Caesar. He was Caesar's property, body, spirit, soul. Caesar could do as he would with him. He could send him where he willed. He had power over his life. He was Caesar's property. Totally, unconditionally, unreservedly, Caesar's man, Caesar's slave. So, these people in Antioch were observing Christians or serving disciples of the Lord, and so they came to a conclusion. They said, what the slave is to Caesar, these disciples are to Christ. They are Christians. They are Christ's ones. They are Christ's slaves. Christ's slaves. The slaves of Jesus Christ. They are Christians. A wonderful thing to be a Christian. A real Christian. Are you a Christian? Are you the slave of Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ's property, body, spirit, soul, life, and all that goes with it. That person is a Christian. Nobody else is a Christian. Not according to the New Testament. Nobody else. So, I've made a decision. Well, what was the decision? What was it? Well, I came to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's a commitment, isn't it? Commitment to what? Believing on the Lord first. Then Jesus, the man who came into the world to identify with you and bear your sins, and the Christ, the anointed of God, you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're to be saved. But Lord first. He died to be your saviour, he lives to be your Lord. He lives to be Lord. God hath made this same Jesus, said Peter on the day of Pentecost, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Lord and Christ. Lord first. The early church priests preached the resurrection and Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus Christ as Lord. Are you a Christian? Well, I'm a member of a certain church. That doesn't mean a thing. No churches in heaven, only one church. There's still only one church, whether you believe it or not. That's the church in the New Testament. The body of true believers, the invisible church. That's the only church that counts with heaven. You can say I'm a member of this. You mean you're a member of an organization. You're a member of a denomination. When you can be a member of an organization denomination, that doesn't make you a Christian. Perhaps the greatest preacher since the apostolic era was George Whitefield, and George Whitefield on one occasion in New England was preaching, and in his own tremendously dramatic way, he lifted up his face to heaven and he said, Father Abraham, are there any Methodists in heaven? Then he paused and back came the answer. No, Whitefield, none. Any Baptists in heaven? No, Whitefield, none. Presbyterians? No, Whitefield, none. You don't have Baptists and Presbyterians in heaven. You have the children of God. The children of God who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Are you a child of God? Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? Are you a Christian? Are you a Christian? Are you Christ's man, Christ's woman, Christ's slave? You live for one thing and to do one thing only, to know and do the will of Christ. Your master and your Lord. Is that what you live for? Is it? It's a wonderful thing to be a Christian, because when you truly become a Christian and you become the slave of Jesus Christ, you are then his care and his responsibility. And he's a wonderful Lord, a wonderful Lord. I remember in the early days of ministering in Australia with a fellow evangelist. We didn't receive a great deal of remuneration for our ministry. A lot of it was in the country areas. And I had received quite a large sum of money after being discharged from the army. And I was more or less living on that money, but it was fast coming to an end. And one day in the city of Melbourne, I was riding along in a trolley car. And a conviction came to me, not an audible voice, but a conviction. If you will, the voice of the Lord. I want you to give 50% of your gross income to foreign missions. I hung a little title on the strap. Well, it didn't come from my subconscious, because I'd never thought of that, ever, never entered my head that I would give 50% of my income to missions. I was just going by as it was. So I made my way home to my friend's place where I was staying. Went to my room, knelt down, quietly waited on the Lord for a long time. As I quietly waited, the impression became a conviction. And that's how God guides you by his spirit. He gives you an impression which becomes a conviction. And with that conviction, you have peace. And I knew that that's what the Lord wanted. So I said, yes, Lord. That ended all my concerns about money. I've never had any concerns since. What he wanted was for me to give him my nickels, you see. And he'd give back, pressed down, shaken together, running over. But you must be first. That's the law of recompense. People think, oh, if I become a Christian, what will happen to me? Well, have you ever thought of the great risk from our viewpoint God takes in accepting you? Have you ever thought of that? I want to ask you one question. What will happen if you don't? You know, one of the problems in this great nation is we play at Christianity. It's a pastime. It's not a passion. It's a pastime. It's a pastime. It's a game. I had a person come to me, came to our conference, I think two years ago. Very thoughtful man, very discerning man, man who's seen a great deal of life, been through many hard times, and a very honest man. So he came with a friend to our first meeting at one of the conferences in the morning, more or less on sufferance, you know, half dragged, half persuaded, half pushed, until finally got him here. And he sat over there and on my left and fidgeted a little bit for a while and finally settled down. So he decided to stay for the second period. And then he stayed for the third period. And then we had a little chat during a break and he said, I feel at home here. I just feel at home here. And so we finally invited him for lunch with the students. And I always remember he looked at me across the table, he said, Mr. Carroll. I said, yes, sir. Do you know what you're doing? I said, well, fair idea. He said, you are preaching New Testament Christianity. I said, I trust so. He said, you don't think these people are going to accept that, do you? You don't think they're going to accept that in the South, do you? I said, that's not my business. My business is to preach it. That's my business. He said, well, I can tell you now they won't. In the South, we play games. We play games. Listen, if you are not Christ's slave, you're not Christ's son. You're not God's son. That's clear, Christopher. That's clear in the New Testament. But the devil has very cleverly come along and he's divided, you see. He's divided. You can be a Christian. You don't have to be a disciple. That's optional. It is no such thing. It is no such thing. Not optional. And three times in that passage, I read this evening, our Lord says, you cannot be my disciple. You cannot be my disciple. You cannot be my disciple. And so we're going to consider the conditions of discipleship. The conditions of discipleship. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Or if you will, what does it mean to be a true Christian? You say, Mr. Keller, I find it hard to really understand that word which the Lord said, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Two times. Cannot be my disciple. That's strong. Well, he doesn't mean that a man must hate in the sense that we consider. It's simply a comparison. It's simply a comparison. It's an oriental way of presenting a comparison, a comparison of loyalties, loyalties. So that my loyalty to Jesus Christ is my Lord and the one who died for me on the cross and rose again for my justice. And who intercedes at the right hand of the Father for me and will come to take me one day to be with himself. Isn't that wonderful? You can go on and on, can't you? My loyalty to him in comparison with my loyalty to the ones who were nearest to me on earth could only be compared as hatred. So total must be my loyalty to Jesus Christ. You say, is that going to interfere with your love for your loved ones? Of course not. For the first time, you'll really love them when you truly become a Christian. Because you'll love them for their sake, not your own. Only the true Christian really loves, because only the true Christian in whom Christ dwells is selfless in his love. You say you love another person. Why do you love them? Because they do something for you? That isn't love. That's selfishness. True love gives without reserve, seeking nothing in return. That's true love. When you love a person, you give yourself to them for their sake, never thinking that they should return to you anything because of what you've done for them. It doesn't enter your thinking. That's what Christ can do for a man. You see it all throughout the New Testament. You see it all throughout the New Testament. You see it all throughout church history. Stephen, stoned by these men who gnashed on him with their teeth. Religious men, they still do it. Gnashed on him with their teeth, stoned him. What was his response? Father, forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. That's his response. That's love. It's pouring out of your heart for those who would stone you to death or crucify you. Same as his Lord. His Lord. Father, forgive them. They know what they do. Stephen, lay not this sin to their charge. What a prayer, as the stones are beating the last breath out of his body. That's Christianity. That's New Testament Christianity. That's the power of the Holy Ghost in a man. That's the risen Christ in a man. That's New Testament Christianity. No, it's loyalty. It's loyalty. Love is loyalty. If I love a person, I'm going to be loyal to the person. Loyalty. The power of a central loyalty. Jesus Christ demands total loyalty. And why shouldn't he? Why shouldn't he? Jesus Christ is God. We believe that, yes. We believe all that. Well, of course, the devils believe it too. It doesn't mean much. It's better to believe and not believe it. It's not going to save you. Jesus Christ is God. Well, who's giving you the breath you're breathing right now? He is. That's the grace of God towards you. That's the grace of God towards you. Who keeps that heart going, that pump that's in your breast? Who keeps it going? He can stop it any second. In fact, in recent days, we've had two deaths, two dear brothers. Quite unexpected. Suddenly gone. Gone. It was God's time for them to go, and they went. I spoke to a widow this morning, wife of one of these dear men. She said, Mr. Carroll, I know it was God's time for him to go. I know it. I told the doctor, don't be discouraged. You couldn't have done a thing for him. It was God's time, and that's that. Praise God. But he was ready to go. He was ready to go. Are you ready to go? Are you ready to go? Or are you just playing games, just playing a Christianity? It's a pastime. Listen, when a person is truly saved, it becomes a passion. To know and do the will of God is the ruling principle of your life. Now, let's get hold of that tonight. Because every person here this night is going somewhere when you die. And according to the scriptures, only one of two places. Unless, of course, the Lord comes. If he comes, those who are truly his are going to be taken up to meet him in the air. But secondly, every person here this night, within the sound of my voice, you're going to spend eternity somewhere. That's unavoidable. You're going to spend it somewhere. So we must understand loyalty. Does Jesus Christ demand total loyalty? Well, of course. Those of us who had the experience of passing through the Second World War, and those of us who've studied military history, will know the tremendous, fantastic loyalty that the German soldier had for Hitler. Amazing. Here they were in the city of Stalingrad, starving. Thousands of them wounded without any medical aid, any medical care, no hope of evacuation by air. And the place is falling apart around them. And they're still saluting and saying, Hail Hitler. Laying down their lives for this maniac, demonized man. Why? In 1933, when he came to power, he began to work on the youth of Germany. And by 1939, although he didn't intend to go to war in 39, he wanted to go to war in 41. He was caught a little bit off guard. But nevertheless, his army was ready. In six years, he had established a central loyalty, which drove the nation to war because of one man. Amazing. Amazing. The first thing any dictator does is establish a central loyalty. Of course. I lived for 10 years in Japan, lived not so close to Japanese for two and a half years in the Solomons in New Guinea. Well, close enough. The amazing fanaticism of those Japanese. After the war, we went across to Rabaul. They had 100,000 Japanese there. And they sent down an interpreter with a group of men to do our fatigues around the camp. He spoke very good English. And when he realized I wasn't going to kill him or bite him or do something, he finally began to open up a little bit to me. And I always remember one morning he looked at me and he said, what are you going to do with the emperor? That's the only thing that concerned him. I said, aren't you looking forward to going home? He said, I don't care if I ever go home. I don't want to go home. I don't want to go home. What are you going to do? The only thing that concerned him was his emperor. Central loyalty to his emperor. He would die for his emperor. Any of those Japanese would die for their emperor. We say we're Christians. All right, you die for Jesus Christ in your life in this world and prove it. Oh, I want to have just a moment. I thought Christianity was something for me. No, Christianity is everything for him. That's New Testament Christianity. Something for me. I want to be saved. I want to go to heaven. Well, who doesn't? Well, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to take me to heaven. All right, prove that you are his follower. Prove that you are his disciple. To believe is merely to begin. Then your life proves whether or not that decision was real. Whether or not it was real. Central loyalty. It is to whom? It is to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ the Lord. Conditions of discipleship. He demands a loyalty from me that transcends all other loyalties. And in comparison with which we can say it could be compared almost as heck with. It's a comparison here. Does the true disciple love his father, his mother? Yes, he does. Does he love his wife? Yes, he does. Does he love his children? Yes, he does. But he doesn't love them with the same intensity and the same commitment with which he loves his Lord. That's what our Lord is saying. Your loyalty to me must transcend all other loyalties. You must live for me, not for them. You know, it's a wonderful thing. The Lord can take very good care of the children of his servants. I've seen that again and again and again. Where a father and a mother have really committed themselves to Jesus Christ and become true servants of Jesus Christ, slaves of Jesus Christ. The real thing. And how God has blessed their children. Not because they've asked him to bless them for their sake, but because he has blessed them. And there's much in the word of God that encourages you to believe that God will bless the children of those who are truly his. Money can't buy that. Influence can't buy it. God is no man's debtor. And then in Luke chapter 9 in verse 23, he says, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. He said to them all, if any man, his appeals to the individual, will come after me, first, let him deny himself and take up his cross every day, daily, and follow me. And then he gives us similar words to those in Luke 14, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged if he gained the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? When I was a teenager before I was converted, it was Christmas holidays, school holidays. And in those days, I was very interested in racing cars, not the stock cars, but the real thing, the racing cars. And every year in the city of Bathurst, they had these TT races. And so with two, with my brother and another friend, we'd been working on an old Ford. In those days, you could take a T model Ford four-cylinder block and you could put an overhead block on it, head on it, and turn it into a hot rod. And you could even get one with twin overhead camshafts. And you just would get into it and hope that the crankshaft would hold, but that thing would do 90 mile an hour. And so we took the old head off the side valve and we put this overhead valve on it. We built our own body, cut it down, and away we went to the TT races. I always remember it was one hot morning, speeding along, and there was a very, very gradual turn in the highway. And being the junior member of the team, I was seated crosswise, jammed in to a little compartment at the rear. We didn't have anything on top, just a couple of scoops, a couple of cows, nothing, everything over. And I was sitting sideways, couldn't move. There I was. And as we came around that bend, there was this massive billboard. What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? I didn't enjoy that time at Bathurst. I couldn't get that billboard out of my mind. Here I was, the usual fun-loving, pleasure-seeking, God-neglecting young Australian. What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? The whole world! Why, some men would sell their souls for the city of Greenville. Yes, they would. Yes, they would. They'd sell their souls for something less than the city of Greenville. What about the whole world? The whole world and everything that's in it. What would you profit if you had all that and you lost your soul? What profit? Be on the wrong side of the ledger. Wrong side of the ledger. And so off we went to Bathurst and I couldn't get this out of my mind. Then we were coming home. Well, when you've been to any of those TT races and you see these fellows roaring down at fantastic speeds and cutting corners and then whirling around, you wonder if they're going to turn over and suddenly they come out and speed down the straightway. Of course, everybody on the way home was trying to do the same thing. So we're speeding along and screaming around corners in our little front-neck Ford. And we came into a little mountain town. Bathurst is in the mountains. We came into a little mountain town. And we're just crawling around a little corner in this town about eight mile an hour. And the tie rod broke. Now the tie rod happens to hold those two front wheels together. And so both front wheels just went like this. And that was the second time the Lord spoke to me. Oh, yes. If those tie rods would have gone when we were doing 70, 75 mile an hour, one of those big curves, I wouldn't be here tonight. I wouldn't be here tonight. Does God speak to you? Some of you people have been listening to me preach here for 12 years and you're still lost. You're lost. How do I know? Your life shows it. Any man being Christ, he's a new creation. He's new. How can you tell he's new by his life? Now he lives for Christ before he lived for himself. Now he lives for Christ. That's how you can tell who he's living for. Not what he believes, but how he behaves proves what he believes. Not what he says he believes. How he behaves, it's the one testimony, how he behaves, by their fruit, you'll know that. You'll know the Christians are by their fruit. Are you a Christian? If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. In other words, in that man's life, there's going to be a crisis. He's going to be followed by a process. Crisis and process. What is a crisis? The crisis is the dethroning of himself. He's got to get off the throne of his life and put Christ there. He's got to enthrone Christ as Lord. If any man come after me, let him deny himself. Let him take self off the throne of his life and let him enthrone Christ. Now that's where it begins. When did you do that? When did you do it? I've been baptised. Have you? That's interesting. Baptism doesn't save you. Even a Baptist knows that. It doesn't save you. Member of the church. Yes, everybody seems to be a member of the church. Church wasn't crucified for you either. Only Jesus saves. Only Jesus saves repentant sinners. It's the only person he saves, a repentant sinner. Who turns from his own way, from his own way to live God's way for his life. That's the man God saves. But first he must turn from his own way. He must turn from his own selfishness and he must live for his Lord. A loyalty that nothing else can compare with on the face of this earth. He must dethrone himself. Any man will come after me, or if any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, let him dethrone himself. And take up his cross daily and follow me. Why take up the cross? Because the cross is an instrument of death. It's that upon which someone dies. And so every day the disciple is to say no to his will in order that he might say yes to the will of his master. That's his life. And as the no is made real, so the life is manifest in him and through him to the glory of the one whose name he professes. So he's letting him take up his cross daily and follow me. What does that mean? It means death to personal ambition and personal pride. That goes. Death to personal ambition and personal pride because our Lord here goes on to speak about the cross. And remember, the cross speaks of death. He speaks about the cross, he speaks about life, and he speaks about what are you going to advantage, what's going to be to your advantage if you don't do this. You see, you're weighing time against eternity. Time, maybe three square years and ten. Eternity, eternity. Eternity, hundred, thousand, million, trillion years, still going. Eternity. You're going to weigh time against eternity? That's foolish. Well, I know that there is an eternity. Well, where are you going? That's the most important question you're going to have to ask yourself, where you will spend eternity. You can't take a risk on that one. He says, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross daily. Now, those whom our Lord was speaking to here knew exactly what he meant. They knew what he meant. Because this was a very common method of execution used by the Romans. It was the most inhuman method ever devised by men. But this was common. They, it was a common thing to see men on crosses. And they knew exactly what our Lord meant. Because in those days, it was not an uncommon thing to see a little band of Roman soldiers, a little platoon of soldiers, they would go into a village, and they would ask, does so-and-so live in this village? Yes, he lives in this village. Where does he live? He lives in that house over there. They'd go to that house, does so-and-so live here? Yes. Tell him to come to the door. He'd come to the door, and they'd say, take up that cross. Pick it up. And he would pick it up. Take it up. Follow up. And the Roman soldiers would surround him. He'd be in the middle, and away he goes. He looks at his wife, and he looks at his children for the last time. He's not going to see them again. He's going down that street of his village for the last time. He looks at his friends, last time he's going to see them. He's not going to have his life redirected. He's going to have it ended. Do you see that? His life is going to come to an abrupt end by crucifixion. What is our Lord saying? If you want to follow me, the life that you've been living for yourself has to come to an abrupt end. It's finished. That's what he's saying. And that's exactly what he means. The life that you've been living for yourself, primarily for yourself, has to come to an abrupt end. And then you can take up the cross. And you can follow me. You can be with me there. But you cannot unless you dethrone yourself. Unless you die to personal ambition, personal pride. What are you living for tonight? What do you live for? The realizing of your ambition or being somebody? Personal ambition, personal pride. It all goes, that comes to an end. Now, Lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? I'm yours. Command me, I'll do it. You say, oh, that's harsh. Harsh? It's reasonable. It's reasonable. Oh, do you mean to tell me you've got to do what he says, even though it's the last thing you would want to do? That's exactly what I'm saying. You don't have anything to say about it, nothing. You can't make suggestions? No. Isn't that reasonable? Why, in January 1940, I received a little slip of paper, you will report to this certain station, you're being inducted into the Army. Well, did I write to the Secretary of the Army and say, I'm very sorry, but I've decided not to go? Or have you? Well, we have another place for you. Why? I am under the authority of the land. So I get another order, you will be going to New Guinea. New Guinea? I don't like New Guinea. Japs don't get you, the snakes will, or the mosquitoes will, alligators, something. No, you go. You're a man under authority, you're a soldier. You do what you are told to do, live or die. Now, that's what it means to be a Christian. It's exactly the same thing. So that if I serve my country, do I not expect to serve my Lord? It's ludicrous to think of any other condition. It's ludicrous. I marvel that he accepts us. Why? Even in any Army, you've got to go through a very strict medical examination, and you're rejected if you don't meet the standard. Why? The Lord accepts anybody that'll come. On his terms, isn't that wonderful? Anybody. If you go through any medical exam, or psychiatric examination, or psychologist probing, you don't have to have a certain IQ, or a certain education, or a certain family tree. Any man, if any man will come. Any man, isn't that wonderful? Any man, doesn't matter who he is. So he said, if you want to come after me, your life in this world must come to an abrupt end, the life you've been living for yourself. It must be true. Terminated. And you must take up that cross every day of your life. And you must follow me. When did you take up the cross? There was a very sophisticated theologian who once said, when Jesus Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. And that's exactly what he does. Die to his loved ones, die to personal ambition, die to personal pride. When did you die? Until you die, you cannot live eternally in the power of an indwelling Christ, as Saviour and Lord. Shall we pray? Father, we give Thee thanks tonight that we sit here in the peace and quiet and comfort and safety of this country. For how long, we don't know. But we thank Thee that tonight we have peace. And we thank Thee, Father, for those times when surely you've spoken to every heartbound in your presence. Some have received, some have rejected that word. A polite rejection, hiding behind a facade constructed by the devil himself. To deceive them and to keep them as his very own possession, that they might be robbed of that which thou didst purchase for them. By the blood of your Son. We pray that you would show them the foolishness of living for this present evil world. The utter madness of turning from Jesus Christ, who loved them and gave himself for them. Will you not show them the emptiness of this passing scene? And give them to face the reality of the eternity to which they are hastening, and perhaps into which they could be ushered even tonight. Oh Lord, be merciful, we pray. Open blind eyes. Open hard hearts, Father. Only you can open them. May it be so. For the sake and the glory of your Son, who loved them and gave himself for them. In agony and blood, that they might be saved from an eternal hell. Be merciful to them, we beseech thee, and turn them. In Jesus' name, Amen.