First of all, one brief verse in the book of Proverbs chapter 11, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. And in the gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 14 verse 25, the Lord Jesus is resolutely on his way to Jerusalem, where he will lay down his life, an atoning sacrifice for sin. Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 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. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish it, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. 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. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." In Luke chapter 14, verse 33, we find our Lord Jesus speaking these words, so therefore Any one of you who does not renounce all that He has cannot be my disciple." I wonder if, like me, you find reading the four Gospels deeply unsettling. Yes, they are wonderfully encouraging. They are richly reassuring. But perhaps more than anything else, and maybe I'm speaking just for myself, I find them deeply, pervasively unsettling. And I doubt there are few more unsettling words in the whole Bible than those words I just read in verse 33 of Luke chapter 14. Any one of you, who does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple." Simply reading those words, and I've been reading them and reflecting on them perhaps for two years or so now, cause us surely to pause in our reading and take to heart what Jesus is saying renounce all that you have. And if you don't, you cannot be my disciple. This is the irreducible minimum, Jesus is saying. This is not where you are to aspire to after 5, 10, 20 years of faithful Christian service and living. This is where authentic discipleship begins. if you do not renounce all that you have, you cannot be my disciple. The Bible could not be clearer, could it? That God justifies the ungodly through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. We are saved by grace, the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ alone. It's the article, as we heard earlier, it's the article of a standing or falling church. It's where we rest the weight of all that we are on the grace and sufficiency and mercy and love of everything that God is to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. And yet Jesus still says, unless you renounce everything you have, you cannot be my disciple. To renounce something is to give up all claim to it. When someone renounces their claim to the throne, as happened in 1936 in Britain, They're saying publicly, I give up all claim and title to this. And Jesus is saying, unless we do that, we cannot be his disciples. Now, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He is on his way to the cross. He is marching resolutely, steadfastly, undeviatingly to that date with destiny appointed for him from times eternal. And as he marches resolutely and determinedly to Jerusalem, great crowds begin to gather around him. And these crowds are described throughout the Gospels as disciples. Even Judas is described as a disciple. Phenomenologically, by appearance, that's what he was. That's what the crowds were. They were followers. Where Jesus went, they went. But Jesus knows, because He knows what's in the hearts of men and women, Jesus knows that they have not begun to begin to grasp what it would mean for them to truly be one of His disciples. And that's why you have those two little parables in the previous verses. someone building a house and a king going to war. And the simple point of the two parables is you need to count the cost. You need to sit down and think carefully what this will mean for you. And Jesus is saying, if you're going to follow me, you need to understand the radical, unimaginable nature of authentic, discipleship. But we need to somehow relate the truth that we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone. that our salvation does not rest on anything we do or are, but wholly upon Jesus Christ and who he is and what he has done, we need to relate that somehow to these words of Jesus, if you do not renounce, forsake, give up all claim and title to everything you are and have, you cannot be my disciple. Now, it's very obvious, I think, that what Jesus is doing here in these verses 25 through 35 Not least when he says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus is saying to these would-be disciples, these crowds that are flocking to hear him but haven't really understood what it would mean for them to be one of Jesus' disciples, He's picturing for them, describing to them the lifestyle of justified sinners. He's saying, this is the principal or principal identifying feature of someone who has been savingly united to me, that they renounce all claim. to everything they are and everything they possess. To use Jesus' own words in a slightly different context, by their fruit you will know them. By their fruit you will know them. How do you know someone's a Christian? Jonathan Edwards, the great English-American, theologian, philosopher, pastor, preacher, and much else besides, unwearyingly told his congregation that it's how you live that will reveal what you really are. He was unwearying in pressing upon people that where saving faith takes root within us, It bears fruit within us. Now, you will know that the New Testament has many ways to describe what a Christian is. A Christian is someone who has been born again of God, born from above. God has supernaturally invaded them and planted new life within them. That's why to talk about a born again Christian is really an oddity. There's only one kind of Christian. Every Christian has been born from above. A Christian is someone who's been born anew of God. A Christian is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. A Christian is a repentant, penitent sinner. A Christian is someone who not only initially out of a sight and sense of the odiousness of their sins turns to God, but who understands, as the first of Luther's 95 theses says, when the Lord Jesus Christ said, repent, he meant that the whole of your life was to be a life of repentance. A Christian is a penitent sinner. A Christian is a child of God. God has fathered us in the gospel. A Christian is someone indwelled by the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is not in you, you don't belong to Christ, Paul writes in Romans 8. Or we could look at it from another vantage point. What is a Christian? Someone who is poor in spirit, said Jesus. To them belongs the kingdom of God. A Christian is a peacemaker, and so we could go on. The New Testament has any number of ways of describing what a Christian is, like a multifaceted diamond. From one perspective, he or she is this. From another perspective, he or she is that. But here is another description of a Christian. A Christian is someone who has renounced all that he or she has. And if they haven't renounced all that they have, said, Jesus, you cannot be my disciple. It's all or nothing. One of the charges of the Roman Church at the time of the Reformation against the Protestant Reformers was that their teaching on justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone was a recipe for moral disaster. If you tell people they're right with God simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, all moral hell will break out. You will be fomenting civil and civic disaster and unrest." And the Reformers had an answer to that, as you would expect, and the answer was simply this, you don't understand the gospel. What do they mean by that? Perhaps Calvin, more than anyone else, puts it so strikingly. He says, when a believer is united to Jesus Christ, they're united to a whole Christ. who has become for us wisdom from God, 1 Corinthians 1.30, even our righteousness, sanctification and redemption. You can't divide Christ. Faith takes you into Christ as you're justifying righteousness and as you're sanctifying righteousness. A Christian cannot not live a righteous life. We may live it inconsistently to our shame. But if it were possible to x-ray the DNA of the new life that God has planted within us, you would read this, holiness to the Lord. No holiness, no heaven. And the Reformers said, you need to understand the gospel. Justifying faith brings you into Jesus Christ. And who is this Jesus Christ that faith unites us to? He's the Jesus Christ who renounced everything He had, that He might come and serve us as a Redeemer and Savior and High Priest and King. He was the truly faithful and obedient and selfless son that Adam failed to be. He is the better than Adam, the second Adam who to the fight and rescue has come. And he renounced everything. He emptied himself. He literally, himself he emptied, taking the form of a servant. So with that introduction, first of all, let's ask this question. What is it that Jesus meant when he said, unless you renounce all that you have, you cannot be my disciple? Well, first of all, let's be clear what he didn't mean. He didn't mean, and read through the Gospels and you'll see this, rather than me belaboring it with you, he didn't mean that every authentic disciple, follower, believer, is to sell everything he or she possesses and give to the poor. He doesn't mean that. On the face of the Gospels, we can see that only too clearly. But on one occasion, he did say to a wealthy, young, prosperous, significant individual, sell everything you have, give to the poor, come and follow me, and you'll have treasure in heaven. He said it to one. Maybe he's saying it to someone here. And there was a reason why the Lord said to that young man, go sell everything you have, renounce every claim you have, go and give it to the poor, come and follow me, you'll have treasure in heaven, because there was a problem at the very root of this young man's life. Remember Jesus' encounter with him? Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What a question to be. Imagine someone came to you this afternoon, knocks on your door, says, Jim, Jim, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And you say, well, you know the commandments. I've kept them all from my youth up. Go and sell everything you have. Give to the poor. you'll have treasure in heaven. Well, if you know the encounter, the young man leaves Jesus sad, we're told remarkably in Mark's account, Jesus loved him, but let him go. Jesus was not going to lower the standard, because for this young man, there was something in his life that took precedence over God. He thought he had kept all the commandments. He hadn't kept the first commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, all, all, all, all. He is to have the exclusive preeminence in your life. He is to have the place of absolute lordship in your life. He is to be the ruler and king of everything you are and have. And I'm sure there are times throughout history the Lord has said to people, you need to show in your life that I am your God. Jesus isn't saying to everyone, renounce everything you have. This isn't primitive socialism or embryonic communism. Just read the Gospels. You don't need to get into that. So if that's not what Jesus means, what does he actually mean then? He means this. If you're going to follow me, Here's the first thing. You need to understand you are not your own. You've been bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body, with all that you are. You're not your own. The gospel comes to reestablish the throne of God in the citadel of our hearts. The gospel comes to dethrone self and enthrone the Lord. And when the Lord is enthroned, we discover everything I have, every breath I breathe, I breathe by His good pleasure. Everything I do with my hands, I do because He has given me the ability to do it. Every thought I think that enables me to do this or that or the other, I do because He's granted me the ability to think the thought. All that I am, all that I have, It's not my own. Everything I have, I have on loan from him. Do you own a house this morning? You say, oh yeah, I sure do. I've got a mortgage to prove it. Got a house. No, you don't. You don't own anything. You own nothing. Nothing, everything you have, you have on loan from God to use for His glory. And one day we will all give an account for every penny He's given to us, and every breath He's granted us, and every gift and ability He's given to us. I'm almost fearful to think of what it would mean for me on that day. We own nothing. He said, oh, but I worked hard, I cleared the ground, I built the house. That's the great sin of Adam in the garden. Aye, aye, aye. And the Lord said, do you not know it was Me? I formed you in your mother's womb. I gave you every ability that you have, every capacity you possess, I gave it to you. Not because you asked for it or desired it or deserved it, but in my good pleasure, I gave it to you. You know, one of Paul's, and perhaps it is his most descriptive, picture of himself as a Christian, he calls himself a doulos, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, a bond-slave. And a slave owns nothing. Slaves own nothing. They have what their master is pleased to give them. Everything you have, you have as a gift. What do you have, says Paul, that you did not first receive? Now he's speaking to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4, 7, isn't it? Who are becoming proud of their spiritual gifts, but extrapolate the principle. What do you have that you did not first receive? Nothing, except your sin. And so Jesus is saying to these crowds, now do you understand? If you're going to be one of mine, you're going to become a slave. But oh, what a master you have. Now I would reckon that there must have been people in the crowd thinking, this is too much. You know, from this point on, John puts it more dramatically at the end of John 6, but from this point on, the crowds begin to fade away. There must have been some who were saying, oh, we didn't buy into this. He's asking too much. He's expecting too much. I mean, renounce all that I have. That's just not normal. That's not reasonable. Beginning of the 20th century, there was a man called William Borden. He was a Yale graduate, very wealthy young man, and he had come to faith in Jesus Christ. And he had set his heart on going to Burma, Myanmar, as a missionary. But for some time, he was persuaded to put that off and to travel throughout the USA, encouraging young men to give up their small ambitions and to go out east and preach the gospel of Christ. If you allow me to quote Francis Xavier, the founder of the Jesuits. But the day came when William Borden at last could set sail for Burma. And he left New York, and the first great port of call was Alexandria in Egypt. And in Alexandria, he was struck down with cerebral encephalitis. He would never see Burma. He would be buried in Alexandria. And as he lay dying, Some medical men were discussing his case around his bed, and one of them said, what a waste. What a waste. Humanly speaking, he is this brilliant young man, full of potential, and now, goodness, he's gonna die of cerebral encephalitis in Alexandria. And William Borden heard the phrase, what a waste. And with the little energy he had, he sat up and said, no reserve, no retreat, no regrets. No reserve, no retreat, no regrets. And you think, well, how did he get to that place? Well, he got to that place because he had renounced all that he had. But then the question needs to be asked, but what compelled him to do that? And this is what I want to leave you with, embedded in our Lord's words here, just read through the gospels themselves and discover it. Embedded in our Lord's words is something prevenient to those words that come before those words. Who is it that speaks them? The Son of God who loved us and who gave Himself for us. the Son of God who left the glory of the Father to be born humbly and lowly, formed in a virgin's womb, seeing the light of day and weakness and need. You see, if people are struggling with the cost of obedience, you don't preach the cost of obedience to them. You don't ever do that. You preach Jesus Christ to them. You preach the gospel to them. You preach to quote John Owen, the glory of Christ to them. If people are struggling with the duties of obedience, with the summons to renounce all that you have, you don't talk about now, come on, this is required of us. God summons us to it. Well, there's a place for that, absolutely. But God doesn't do that. If you know the grammar of the Bible, he woos us to obedience. See how much I have loved you. See what I have done for you and my Son." When people struggle with obedience and devotion, you speak to them of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And that's Paul's invariable pastoral method. In fact, it's that where did he learn it? He learned it from God in the Scriptures. I suppose most graphically and dramatically in the preface to the Ten Commandments, God is about to say, you shall have no other gods before me. You'll not take my name in vain. You'll not make idols. You'll honor the Sabbath day. Lord of your father and mother, you know the commandments. But how does he begin? I am the Lord your God. How did he become their God? Did they say, Yahweh, we've heard of you, we would like you to be our God? I am the Lord your God by sovereign good pleasure, purpose, and mercy. who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Therefore, you shall have no other gods before me." That's why before Paul, in Romans 12, says, I beseech you to present your bodies as living sacrifices, he spends 11 chapters telling them why they should do that. And the little word, therefore, the first word in Romans chapter 12 is Paul saying, now I've told you about the wondrous grace of God in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Therefore, present your bodies as living sacrifices. So, we are called to renounce all that we have. I'm not my own. My wife is yours before she's mine. That's why he says, unless you hate father, mother, wife, children. It's using a Hebraism. He's saying, who has the preeminent place? My children are yours before they're mine. My husband is yours before he's mine." Because that's the only response that the gospel deserves. And so when Paul says, we preach Christ and Him crucified, he's not saying you preach John 3.16 every week. He's saying you preach the multifaceted glory of the God-man who came to seek and to save the lost. And then in the light of that, you summon God's people to live lives of devotion and obedience. Thanks be to God for His renouncing Son. Amen.