Words of Jesus Podcast - The Cost of Discipleship

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

The journey to salvation begins with repentance (i.e., making changes as prompted by the Holy Spirit) and is completed with the achievement of "enduring till the end." One is our Teacher, even Christ. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John 3:7-11 ***73: Jesus Tells The Cost Of DiscipleshipLuke 14:25-35 Great multitudes followed Jesus. He said to 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 whoever doth 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 an embassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.            “Salt is good; but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello my friends, I'm Don Harris with Think Ready Ministries. Glad to have you for another episode of the Words of Jesus series. Our goal here is to reinforce Christianity with the wisdom and the words of Jesus. We're starting in chapter 73 in our book, The Words of Jesus. And here we find Jesus is telling his disciples the cost of discipleship. I know.

Are you surprised that there's a cost for discipleship? Yes, actually there is. And we have, I think we've taken the idea of free salvation and we've taken the idea of free salvation and we've kind of done a disservice, not only to the one who made the purchase for us and paid our ransom, but I think that the idea of it being free

kind of bled over into our own service and discipleship. But it's really not free there is uh i i really don't understand uh the uh the need to even attach the adjective free to salvation but they've they've done that i i i can only assume that in the earlier years of Christianity, when Christianity was essentially Catholicism, and there were a lot of what is called penance and even penitence the idea of I mean everything from saying particular prayers, novenas or hail marys

or our fathers over and over again in order to essentially pay for sin all the way up to self-flagellation where people are actually injuring themselves they have played on a an innate understanding within ourselves first of all that we're sinners first i mean first foremost, that we don't rank anywhere near any stage of anybody's understanding of holiness. And so it has, because of that innate understanding in us, we tend to gravitate toward a self-flagellation, even if it's a mental one. And we feel like that we want to damage ourselves in some way, to hurt ourselves, to harm ourselves,

to make ourselves essentially pay for what we've done wrong. This happens not only in the area of religion, it also happens in the areas of relationships, even in families and such where children don't feel loved by their parents or they feel like what they've done has caused their parents some kind of damage or some kind of harm. And so, I mean, this just shows up. We have a quid pro quo, a tit for tat idea in our heads that tells us, I mean, I think unequivocally that we have a debt to pay. I've explained to you, or tried to,

that there is such a thing as a debt you cannot pay. I'm not talking about necessarily amount. I know that when we talk about a sin debt, we use the term sin debt. And I think what it does is it kind of awakes that in us to realize, oh my goodness, I owe a debt. Well, if you owe a debt that must be paid with a medium of exchange that's not money, it's not necessarily pain, it's not necessarily, you know, a giving even of oneself and one's life. It's in a currency that we don't even own. We have no access to. And our sins that we commit,

they have different values or debts incurred that you could, I mean, it doesn't take, you know, a whole lot of contemplation on this point to realize that a person who steals a paperclip is really different than a person who robs a bank. That's obvious. In the Old Testament, when we find that people would sin against God, he only offered two different ways to clear a person in a particular debt and one of them was a recompense um the other one um was you understand what i mean that if a person were to steal from his neighbor and be caught doing so um depending on you on the other extenuating circumstances, he would either give four or seven times back to that person what he had stolen. And this was a recompense.

This was a way of clearing himself of this. This was a punishment. This is what the Lord did. I want you to notice, though, that sins against our fellow man were considered in a different category as sins against God. And when you come god um there was never a debt to pay there were taxes there were there were um uh you know demands made upon people but these weren't because we had sinned it was to add value to whatever it was we were participating in such as tithes and such as offerings and such as uh you know the the the money that was given to the temple money that was um given to the levites the ministers of god um and and these kinds of things these were duties they weren't sin debts you understand when it came to a a debt that we owed as far and

i'm using this word sin debt because well frankly it's it's very difficult to uh to put this into a proper vernacular that will separate it in your mind and i'm going to separate it in just a moment or i'm going to try that when we would commit a sin perhaps against god these kinds of things were they were atoned which does not mean forgiven which does not mean salvation which does not mean all the things that we've been told it's been, that it means. An atonement is a covering of a debt. It's to put that particular debt or that sin, that inequity between us and God, it's to put it out of his sight. That's what the capereth, the covering, the atonement, that's what that is all about. It doesn't erase debts. It's been used over the years. As a matter of fact, there's a little thing that people say that atonement, if you break down the word, means at-one-ment. Well, it does not. It's cute, and that's a great little Sunday school thing to say,

and it might be a cute little thing to say with your buddies sitting around the campfire, but as far as theology is concerned, that's not what it is at all. Now if you want to stretch the idea to the point that if our transgressions are covered, that it makes us at one with God, that also has got a little stench to it as well. We're not at one with God until we are in Christ. Christ is one with God. And we are in Christ, and at that point we're at one

with God. It has little to do with atonement. As a matter of fact, that particular status comes in a person's life when they've been forgiven, when they've been saved. And if you look in the scriptures, it doesn't take long for you to find out, especially if you have an interlinear Greek or you have some familiarity with Greek, you'll find that when it talks about saved, the words are actually being saved. As a matter of fact, it's translated that way sometimes in the New Testament.

We who are being saved are being saved. It's one of the complaints I have with people who ask me if I'm saved. My answer is always the same, not yet. Not yet. The Bible says, he that endures to the end shall be saved. I don't have a right to step over that scripture, that red ink scripture that the Lord Jesus himself said, and say that I am saved now. I have not reached the end. It's the he that is faithful to the end. And so it's presumptuous to say that we are indeed saved. Now, are we safe? That's the question. Let's use words

properly. Do you feel like that you are, that the enmity between you and God has indeed been bridged, the sins are covered, atoned, are you at peace with God? Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And I'm not the least bit concerned, the same Bible that tells me there is a god tells me how he operates and the way he operates is this when you decide to keep my commandments i'll never remember anything you did wrong didn't say he was going to erase your sins oh but doesn't it say that he's going to separate our sins as far as the east is from the west? He says, I'm going to separate your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. In other words, they're not going to affect you because I am not going to impute those sins to you. Another huge, huge word, huge concept that has been kind of adulterated over the years to the point that we feel like

God imputes to us righteousness that we do not deserve. Nobody, but nobody is enjoying some righteousness that they don't deserve. That's just not so. I remember in the days of Martin Luther, when the Pope was offering to release people from purgatory or from limbo, was limbo in when, I can't remember if limbo was a part of their doctrines when Martin Luther was around because they got rid of it. But he would take people that were in these stages of, and even hell, and by means of offerings or, you know, donations to the church or whatever else, what other works, and this is what we've been talking about, right? But he would release them from that.

Martin Luther asked the question, if the Pope is good and the Pope is holy and he's just and everything about and all powerful, able to remove people from hell and put them into some eternal reward they believe in heaven. and if he's able to do that then why doesn't he out of the goodness of his heart do just that and in people who believe in you know the the concept of unmerited favor They arbitrarily attach that silly definition to the word grace. And if we have received grace and we have

unmerited favor, God is able to forgive our sins. He's able to atone for our sins. He's able to move us from destruction to reward. Then out of the goodness of His heart, why doesn't he do that? Well, you see, what we're doing is we're imposing on God an attribute that he never claimed for himself. We have to realize, we just have to change our thinking in this area because it's like looking at a lifeguard, you know, with a dead body laying on the beach and looking at the lifeguard saying, if you're trained and you can swim and you can do whatever it is that you do, why didn't you do it? Well, there's a lot of resistance between me and that person.

There's a lot of water between me and that person. There's a lot of extenuating circumstances that does not allow me to do what my skill set has prepared me to do. You can't hold me accountable for killing this person simply because you think i'm all powerful simply because you think or you believe in some unmerited favor we impose on god things that by the way these ideas that we have imposed on god namely omniscience omnipresence uh um the uh the uh let's see we have omniscience omnipresence and omnipotence that we have attached to him um for these very reasons the atheists are up in arms they say that's the silliest thing i've ever heard if god can why doesn't he and if he can't

how can he be all powerful and so they see the the uh the bad logic and they say i don't want anything to do with it and the christian church kind of stands there wringing their hands it never occurs to them to think oh my goodness we've given God attributes and holding him accountable for attributes that we have given him, ones that he hasn't even claimed. It never occurs to Christians to apologize to atheists, I'm sorry, we told you something that wasn't so. God didn't heal your grandmother, so you're an atheist today. Who told you that he was going to heal your grandmother so you're an atheist today who told you that he was going to

heal your grandmother well probably some boneheaded preacher somewhere that if you believe you can receive it you know it because they have no understanding they don't understand the character of of God of what his limitations are yes God has limitations um you know, God can do anything. Well, then why doesn't he do the right thing, is the atheist argument. And frankly, it's mine. Well, what we have to come to grips with is he can't do everything. He's not everywhere at once. Oh, goodness, do you think that's blasphemy? Well, then why do you pray for him to be in your meeting?

Why do you pray for him to be in your meeting why do you pray for him to be with you when you do something or you know uh you know invite his presence if he is everywhere at once what's the problem why are we even asking him to be someplace these little pieces of ill of illogical uh thinking and acting and and uh and what we do and what we say and these kind of things, they drive people who can think out of their minds. And so they want nothing to do with it. But you know, if an atheist ever heard the true gospel, if they ever heard good and solid theology, they might be a little more receptive to it. It's what drove me, frankly, out of the church.

I don't want any more of that. Let's just go with what the scriptures say. So when we add these ideas of unmerited favor and free salvation and these kind of things, we find ourselves in trouble down the line trying to understand he that endures to the end. I thought I was saved now. Who told you you were saved now? Who told you that if you bowed your knee and asked the Lord Jesus Christ to come into your heart, not found in Scripture,

asked the Lord Jesus to forgive you, not found in Scripture. Ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you, not found in Scripture. Ask him to save you, not found in Scripture. What makes you think that if you do those things, that you stand up from that altar, if you have an altar? They've been removed for bandstands now, but nevertheless. What makes you think that when you stand up from a prayer like that, that from that moment on, you're saved? Well, you don't understand that. You don't feel that way.

And most people are honest. Monday morning, go back to the preacher and say, I don't feel any different. But the preacher is constantly telling you that if you do that, if you believe in Jesus, you'll be saved. You know that's not true. And I hope it is that he's deceived. And I hope he's not lying to you on purpose. They could be. I don't know. A lie is a lie. And it causes damage no matter what the great motivations behind it

or the good intentions or whatever else, but it's got us all screwed up. That guy goes into his preacher's study and tells him, you know, I feel just like I did before I came here. I don't know what's changed about me. What does the preacher tell him? Well, the preacher essentially commits blasphemy of the holy spirit did you hear me that's what he does because what when the spirit of god is now the spirit of god

can speak to this man in a clearer way than he could before because he has repented because he has he is has decided to go another way now he's in a new status he's in a safe status the lord says no matter what you've done wrong i'll not remember it he's in that status now and now he can hear the holy spirit a little clearer and now the lord starts working on him about some of the things that need to change in his life things that he's going to have to do he's going to have to do. He's going to have to make these changes. If you want this seed to grow up in you,

there's certain behavior that you're going to have to avoid. There's certain discipleship that you're going to have to enjoin, that you're going to have to join. And there are certain things in your life that you're going to have to make changes. Well, here's the holy spirit speaking to this guy and he comes to the preacher and says i still feel like i'm under conviction instead of that preacher saying you are under conviction man this is great news the lord chastises who he loves he's he's he's helping you along the way. Pay attention to that voice.

Listen to that. Listen to your conscience. Make these changes in your life. You're going to be happier and happier. It's just going to get better and better from here. This is what you wanted. You wanted a relationship with a father. Well, this father that you have a relationship with now is a corrective father.

And he's not going to just let you do whatever you want to do anymore. You're a servant now. You're a slave now. Instead of that, what he does is he commits blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I pause again for you to hear what I'm saying. Do you remember when Jesus cast a demon out of a man

and the Pharisees came up and said, he doth cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Jesus looked at them and said, you know, I will forgive everybody of anything except that. Really? What is that? You just attributed the works of God to Satan himself. That's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is

our Father. Jesus said He's a Spirit, didn't He? That's right. The Holy Spirit is our Father. He is the manifestation of the Father on the earth. The same Spirit that was in Christ is the same Spirit that is in Him. And now, because you've repented, it's in you. And now you're hearing that. Well, instead of that being good news,

the preacher tells them, you know, that's just the devil lying to you. You were saved when you asked the Lord to save you, didn't you? Yes, sir. Well, is God a liar? We've all heard these arguments. And they get out Romans 10, 9, and 10, take them back to the Scriptures and try to brainwash them into believing that you are in Christ now. Therefore, you're in no higher status than someone who's been in Christ for 50 years.

There's nothing further from the truth than that. I mean, what is a babe in Christ? What is that? That's a person who is learning to listen to the voice of God. That's what he is. He's learning to hear the voice of God. And the scriptures call it the milk of the word. If you still believe the Bible's the word of God, you don't even understand what that scripture is talking about The milk of the word the word is jesus christ. This is the milk that's being fed to us and sometimes It tastes like conviction

And the only way to get rid of that taste in your mouth is to make a change What's change? What did I tell you change was? Repentance. You thought you were all done repenting? You're going to have to do that for a long, long time. I mean, hopefully not every day, not every week, not every month. You'll get to the point where you're not committing sin. Do you think that's impossible? I know you've been told it's impossible but it's not

we just have to know what sin is we have to know what repentance is we have to know what atonement is we have to know what these things are and i don't know how to do this other than to just use the words that are in the scripture define them properly and all of a sudden the scripture just makes perfect sense. But you should never think, ever think, that there is no cost to discipleship with Jesus Christ. Only immature people would even think that. Nobody needs to think that they need to, you know, flail themselves with a cat of nine tails in order to have their sins remitted. Nobody needs to think that.

That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about repentance. That's all. Just making changes in our life and doing the right thing for the right reasons in the right way every time. Can you do that? Well, sure you can. It's just as simple as it can be and as you do that

As you listen to your conscience your conscience becomes louder as you sit before the lord and hear his voice His voice becomes louder And here's something you should know I appreciate the fact that you're in love with your bible I don't know what in the world I would do without the scriptures. I don't know what we would do. I don't know where we'd be today if we didn't have them. The most valuable thing that's ever been handed to human beings on the earth. But you realize it's only 150 years old.

What, 200 years old? There was a time when nobody, but nobody, but the highest of the highest priests were able to even see them. The Jews used to gather in the synagogues, not to be preached at, but to hear the Torah being read, to hear the scriptures being read. That's why they went there. Why didn't they just sit at home and read their Bibles? Because they didn own them so now we're we're in a certain stage of life where we have an ability to hear the words that are written to every person on earth saint or sinner and we can also have communication and conversation with our Father which is not meant for anyone except you and him this is an individual thing this is not this isn't group think

this is not you know a group of people a denomination full of people a church full of people that all believe the right things no no you're gonna have very difficult time trying to determine what are the right things no no you're gonna have very difficult time trying to determine what are the right things to believe well I'll tell you what you can do why don't you just leave that to the teacher Jesus says one is your teacher even Christ it's it's a beautiful life when you do it right our time is gone already didn't even get into the scripture. All right, we invite you to be a part

of what we're doing next time, and we'll see you then. Until then, I'd love to hear from you. You can write to me at don at thinkredink.com. And until I hear from you, think ready, my friend. Bye-bye. C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you