Count The Cost

Count The Cost

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lu:14:28

Which of you, who have come to the REAL Jesus Christ by the drawing of the Father (Joh:6:44), have counted the true cost of following your professed Savior to eternal life?

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
stedfast unto the end; Heb:3:14

Which of you, who have started in the faith, continue in the purity of this Gift given you by God?

Which of you has ever been told the Truth of the difficulty (Matt7:14) that lies ahead of you when you have heard the Gospel and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ?

Do you have "sufficient" to finish this race, this walk, this journey; Sufficient understanding of what it means to give up everything you are and possess, to be accounted worthy of Life (Matt10:38)?

...If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
M't:16:24

Did your Pastor tell you - of the total sacrifice YOU must become (Ro:12:1)? Or did he sit there with dollar signs in his eyes telling you that your life would be easier if you belonged to his church because any sin you commit now is forgiven?
Did your Pastor tell you - you'd be hated (rejected-reviled) of all men if you follow Christ (M't:10:22), or did he slap you on the back, utter a biblical platitude or two and invite you to join their Christian Soft Ball Team instead, offering worldly fellowship and new business opportunities with your new "brethren"?
Did your Pastor tell you - the lusts of the flesh have no place in your new life nor the Assembly (1Pe:1:14), or did he say that your indiscretions were excusable and that money, power, prominence and esteem were blessings for all the mammon you penitently throw in the plate every week?
Did your Pastor tell you - your 'Cake' is for having and eating too, or did he tell you to stop seeking the things of this World and serve Jesus Christ only and forsake riches and vanity? (Lu:14:33 - 1Jo:2:15 - Jas:4:4)
Did your Pastor tell you - to serve Jesus Christ and no others (Matt6:24), or did he tell you he has all you need for you to survive in this world AND get you to heaven without you spending too much time in the Bible for yourself or grieving over this unnecessary "fear and trembling" over your state of Salvation?
Did your Pastor tell you - your money in the plate matters pitifully little and your soul is what counts?

What your Pastor should have said to you was that he wouldn't want anyone who wasn't bound and determined to seek holiness and truth from the Word and the Spirit ...in his congregation. Your Pastor should ask you if you've counted the cost of truly following Jesus. That is, if even the Pastor is a true follower of Jesus. I don't recall Jesus organizing a pension plan, 401-K, housing and schooling for the pastoral kiddies as a perk to preach the Gospel. Wouldn't things like that tend to make a strong man go soft? Go figure.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Jas:4:8
As we have stated, Faith does not supercede the necessity of holiness nor does Grace accommodate man in his sin. If your Pastor offers you two worlds, you're in big trouble. You're BOTH in big trouble! You cannot waltz with the passions of the World, claiming imputed righteousness to cover your continued "indiscretions", all the while thinking yourself pure and spotless and without sin! That "reed" is blowing to and fro. Where in the Bible does it speak of Jesus' PERSONAL righteousness being imputed to us? Here is one of the the scriptures that the soul butchers cut up to fit their eternal security in sin gospel: Ro:4:22: And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. What was imputed to Abraham? Faith! What does this have to do with the false teaching of the imputed personal righteousness of Christ to cover our sins?

Follow a Man and perish!
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. 1Jo:2:27

Pastors, preachers, teachers and the like are GUIDES, MESSENGERS! They are not to be followed as the ULTIMATE authority! They too are accountable. The FATHER is the ultimate authority. The HOLY SPIRIT teaches and makes the final determination as to when and where Truth is applied in your lives. NOT MEN! We are esteeming men over God and Jesus Christ! Well, what does the bible say about our esteem of ANYONE but God in our lives...? Look it up. It might lead to places you don't want to go but where's your sense of adventure?
Pastors today justify their callings in and by a name ONLY. Yes, blaspheming the name of Jesus Christ! The Corporation rules, not Christ! Stop kidding yourselves. Pastors today are waterless clouds (Jude:1:12) and princely puppets, spewing false doctrine and easy Salvation that includes one's OLD SIN NATURE! Pastors today are leaking poison through their teeth while spewing delusional rhetoric of right living before God. Which God? Pastors today want to offend no one with the TRUTH and justify their filthy gospel of compromise before their congregations!
...Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. Lu:16:15
Holiness, to these, is a dirty word!

A healthy approach to working out your salvation (Ph'p:2:12) is holding your spiritual life up to the light of (1John2:27). Who's been "teaching" you? I am NOT saying that you should fire the Pastor and go off on your own. What I AM saying is that men DO NOT lead anyone into the Truth. The Holy Spirit does. Men guide, admonish, bring the Gospel, instruct in the "ways" of righteousness! If we've turned to men as our final authority, ...we are walking into Hell BACKWARDS! Think about that! 'Nuff said.

Let's take a look at the progression of events in the life of one CALLED to Christ:
(Did you exhibit GODLY sorrow?)

OK, you have answered the call of God, by His Spirit (Joh:6:44), to come to Him through Jesus Christ, have fallen before His Majesty broken and convicted of sin, full of GODLY sorrow... For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. (2Cor:7:10-11)
I pray we began in the True Faith with the cold, hard, painful understanding that we had come to the absolute end of ourselves and that we saw ourselves as NOTHING in the eyes of this Merciful and Fearsome God who had called us by His mercy and good pleasure to eternal life IF we continue henceforth to obey His commands. I pray our conversion began as it did with Paul the Apostle, face down in the dust of the Damascus Road, and full of fear, emptied of all pride and self awareness. I pray you experienced the wretchedness described by Paul in (Ro:7:24).
You then couldn't hold back the tears and sobs of Joy over a merciful God who had answered you when you called out from this place of awareness of your wretchedness, looking upon Jesus, and God had forgiven your sins through His Son. But I pray you KNEW there was much more to do! I hope you didn't head for the nearest Church!
You had then counted the cost of following the Way (John:14:6), (Jesus), to eternal life (Lu:14:28), obeying his commands for righteousness, purity and holiness, NEVER going back to your old sins again. NEVER thinking to live in them using Jesus Christ and His (imputed) Righteousness as a cloak so you can have your worldly cake and eat it too! You had continued soberly and meticulously, counting the cost of following ONE Master (M't:6:24) and had happily forsaken the World and everything in it (Matt 19:29)!
And right now, as we speak, you are alone on a very narrow way with your Savior, hated and reviled (Lu:6:22), rejected and outcast because you want nothing to do with the pomp and vain glory of this life, Churchianity or posing for the camera.
You mortified (killed) the deeds of the flesh (Ro:8:13). Right now you are striving to enter in to Life (Lu:13:24), enduring until the end (Matt10:22), holding fast to your Faith (Heb:10:23), being sober and vigilant (1Pe:5:8). REJOICING in your poverty and sufferings (1Pe:4:13)! ARE YOU!?

Jesus Christ is NOT your meal ticket, a by-word, but He is your very LIFE! If you have come to His narrow way since your conversion, you have the Hope of eternal life with Jesus and the Father.
If not, I honestly don't know what else to say.

ON BROKENNESS...
There is little in the way of brokenness among many so-called followers of the Master Jesus. Brokenness is a sure sign of honesty also. Pride of the world like sorrow of the world is what I see in many lives. There are two kinds of sorrow as described in 2Co:7:10. Which do you truly exhibit?
Brokenness, contriteness, CONTINUE on in the lives of the true believer after the salvation experience. It is a sign that regeneration has taken hold in your lives. Our realization of wretchedness must continue as we progress in the Faith. Our "good works" are NOT perfected in our bodies. The good works of the Holy Spirit are what is perfected in us (1Jo:2:5).

There should be constant unmistakable signs of the new man/woman. After one's so-called receipt of grace, it seems many lose the brokenness and humility and the world, cares and pride of this life take back over, muting the spiritual "voice", (thorny ground). After the conviction of wretchedness (Ro:7:24), comes brokenness and a contrite spirit which leads to constant Godly humility. It is no longer you that truly lives! (Ga:2:20) Period.

There are many "signs" in many lives that some vestiges of self will and purpose yet exist, thus compromising the witness to the point of no effect. Hypocrisy becomes the norm and the "voice" within them (their "talk") does not ring true with their actions. We can't rise up after we are crushed by the weight of true Godly conviction to our wretchedness. Impossible. This is the essence of the emptying of ourselves and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. In order that the "new" man survive, the old one MUST be bound. Our example is in the admonition which rings through (Ph'p:2:8). You can't say such a display of humility would go unnoticed by others in one's life! We don't need much in the way of discernment to be able to make the distinction between one who has been caused to be emptied of themselves and one who has only reveled in the "moment" and yet holds on to pieces of the "old ways" thinking Christ will cut them some slack. What are the wages of sin, ANY sin?
This goes for the churches and those who may have "come out of her" as well. Day and night, black and white. The Seed seems to have been sown to thorns in many lives. What would explain the troubles in the Body? Distractions, self, pride! Is this brokenness, contriteness, humility, holiness, obedience to God's Word, ...peace, rest?
We must have both eyes open if we are to speak out against the compromise and fakery going on in the souls and lives of those we have been brought together with and those out in the world to whom we preach repentance. Nothing happens by chance. This is how we are "trained" to rule and reign in this life. Without perfect spiritual sight, constant humility and the grief which keeps us honest, we are sunk, stagnant and not moving forward along the Way. We are liars! And the lack of these "fruits" in others who call themselves born again, which we can plainly discern as NOT the result of a total surrender to God and forsaking of self, ...glares in contradiction to their witness.

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 2Co:13:5

Constantly examine yourselves to a fault. Be absolutely strait with God. If believers are not honest with themselves, they cannot be honest with God. Too much fear of losing one's place in the world and the society in which we are a part of will never open the way to honesty and the full crucifixion of self, only to the sorrow of the World ...and spiritual death. Are you disqualified (reprobate)?

Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 2Co:7:9
That "damage" is rebuke, chastisement, reproof, telling it like it is, calling it as it is. When one is rebuked, does it not cause pain at first? Paul knew full well the need for us to speak out against falsehood and the "damage" it would cause. Those who would not receive this would certainly cause "damage" to the messenger. Ask Paul.
Saint or Poser. That is STILL and ALL the question.

Is this what you desire Saints... That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death (Ph'p:3:10) ...? Suffer? Where do you hear that from the pulpits today?!

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and FEW there be that find it. M't:7:14

Have you TRULY counted the cost of following Jesus the Lord? Or have you listened to one-too-many preachers out there telling you that YOU have to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, pray the little "prayer" they offer and send for the free material they have for you? Is that what we call conviction of sin and wretchedness? I call it a sales pitch. "Come on, everyone's doing it. It's easy, painless and you get to wallow in the muck of your past sins because they are all forgiven into the future." Who wants to "work" beyond receiving this free gift, this "Jesus-meal-ticket"? Who needs to read the Bible and find out that they are called to pain, want, depravity, suffering and death!? Certainly not those in the churches today. There isn't much wanting there, only spiritual depravity.
Is that the way the Gospel was brought to the World in the beginning? Is that the way the Holy Spirit through Paul and the others preached people into devastating conviction of their fallen state and sins? Could Paul or anyone convert anyone without them being called (drawn) to Jesus in the first place by God the Father (John6:44)? We've made a racket of heaping trophies to ourselves thinking we've led people to Christ. The Bible tells us there are many who think they are doing the Kingdom a favor by doing such things when in reality they are doing what comes out of their own spirits, unperfected love and twisted assumptions that they can do whatever pleases them. These are not vessels, these are potters. And what will these tell Jesus when they stand before Him? ..."Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? (Matt:7:22) And what will Jesus say? ..." I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matt7:23)
What awaits in the REAL future for those who buy into cheap grace is eternal torment. What awaits those who preach this error along with those who pose as men of God in any ministerial leadership,
...is blackest darkness (Jude:1:13). To put it in the words of a Poser Prince I once knew, "good luck".

It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him . 2Tm:2:11

Count the cost of surrender after true conviction of your sins and mortality.
Count the cost of crucifying yourself daily.
Count the cost of being TRUE, suffering defamation, spite, rejection.
Count the cost of forsaking the World and the Flesh.
Count the cost of dying before your very eyes as a reasonable sacrifice to God your Father.
Count the cost of seeking the riches of Jesus Christ.

...before you go calling yourself a "Christian".

If you can do this and yet follow Jesus in His narrow way, as He walked,
may Life be yours, ...at the end of your Journey. Amen

He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he (Jesus) walked. 1Jo:2:6

Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ