Thomas J. McLauchlin
Bethlehem Ministries
2233 Hampton Highway
Yorktown, Virginia 23693
(757) 291-7808 Email:
Thomas McLauchlin’s ministry has spanned three decades as he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ in many nations. He is available for your engagement through the contact information above.
There is never a charge for our publications. Donations are welcomed and needed.
Suggested donation is $10.00
Contents
- Counting the cost
- Jesus a forgiver of sins
- The kingdom of darkness
- Ministry of the word
- A Rock of offense
- Why no revival?
- Jesus a friend of the heart
- Trusting Jesus thru His name
- Seven questions on spiritual gifts
- Spiritual gifts- Part II
- The Holy Bible
- Two Temples
- Leadership – Being Salt
COUNTING THE COST
For the last two nights, we have looked at the home of unbelievers, the kingdom of darkness, and your responsibility for starting a true revival. Tonight we will look at the cost of business doing on this spiritual battlefield. First, to be sure we are in a fiercest of battles. Remember I said that Paul told us in Ep.6.10-13 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” Now I ask you, why would we need armor if we were not fighting? Paul said our struggle is with the inhabitants of the evil dark kingdom of Satan. He has come to attack and kill us. Die we do. However, Jesus said in Mt. 10.28 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Are you still not convinced that we die on this battlefield? Here is a little lesson from history John Foxe wrote in his book, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs that Stephen was stoned to death by the Jews, The apostle James was beheaded, Thomas was slain with a poisonous dart in India, Both Simon’s were crucified, Mark was burned to death, Bartholomew was beaten with sticks, crucified condemned and beheaded. They crucified Andrew and Philip. Matthew ran through with a spear. James was beat with stones and finally died with his head crushed in from one final blow. They crucified Peter upside down and Paul beheaded. They sent John to the island of Patmos in exile. Moreover, you too, once you begin to witness to this evil world, you will suffer persecution like you have never seen. We are at warfare and we must learn to fight. A sign at one of Fort Bragg’s gyms read, “We must be fit to fight.” And fight we must. In fact, he said in 2Co.10.3-4, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Therefore, when we come to Christ we can expect a battle like no other. Although the outcome is certain, the fight is fierce and real. Remember Paul said they are strongholds! It is one in which the conventional weapons of warfare and tactics are ineffective. Since this is a spiritual battle, we must use weapons that are effective in that realm. Many of us go through so much and are beaten down and defeated. It seems that all we do is of no avail. Our loved ones are unbelievers, our bodies racked with pain, our lives are in shambles and persecution comes from all sides: from believers and unbelievers, friends and enemies, inside, and outside our homes. We have tried to do everything we can and nothing seems to work. We pray and pray and pray and the situation stays the same. The battle is not going good for us. What are we to do? For many, the problem started back in basic training. We never understood what discipleship meant or how precious it was. It did not sink in that this was the toughest journey around. We have learned things a certain way and to change now is like trying to train a child after he is full grown, it can be done, but it is difficult. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, “The Cost of Discipleship wrote that there are two different kinds of grace in churches today and the first is called cheap grace. He says “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church...Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. It is a cheap covering for sins; no remorse is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner...Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. When Jesus saw the large crowds following him, he turned and said in, Lu. 14.26, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.” What a strong statement! That is what Jesus requires. The Greek word here is miseo - and means, the preference of one thing over another; the claims of one person relatively to those of another. Therefore, Jesus is saying that if anyone comes to him they must acknowledge that he has preference over anyone and anything in their lives. That includes mom, dad, wife, husband, and even your own desires. There is a story of little children listening to the story of Lazarus and the rich man. They are asked who they would like to be like, Lazarus who had nothing on earth and went to heaven or the rich man who had riches here and went to hell. One little girl said, “I want to be like the rich man now and Lazarus when I die.” This is how many of the saints are. We want to have our way and do what we want to do. We want to lead our own lives and when we die, go to heaven. We want both worlds. However, Jesus said in Lu. 14.27, “...anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” That is one who does not die to self and put the will of the Lord over his own can never belong to Christ. Listen to Lu. 14.33, “...any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Too long, we have let people think that all they have to do is feel sorrow and not necessarily have a forgiveness of sins. A young man I know in Virginia came up to accept Christ earlier in the year. As much as we tried to nurture him in the way, he kept slipping back into the world. One night I went to visit him. He told me how hard it was to be a saved teenager. He told me that he stilled liked his music, going out to parties and club and being intimate with the girls. In fact, he mentioned that other Christians had told him that they were praying for him and he was doing okay. That night I let into him with the word of God. I told him that you could not be on both sides of the cross. When he came to Christ, he knew it would not be easy. We did not try to make the way seem smooth. Bonhoeffer said that when “Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” He came into it with both eyes wide open. I informed him that he had to make a choice finally. This stuff about salvation too hard for the young or trying to ease into living right is no good. This out has been peddled much too long. We cannot be both the rich man and Lazarus or we end up being the rich man only. Our Lord paid the way with his precious blood and too many saints have died for us to stand halted between two opinions. He needed to stand up and confess the Lord openly to the world, unashamed of him who died for us. Watchman Nee in his book, “The Good Confession”, said, “The best opportunity to confess the Lord comes right at the beginning. If one starts immediately, the way of confession is forever open. So one must force oneself to speak out right after he believes in the Lord, even if he feels it is difficult and finds himself rather unwilling...otherwise he will be mute. We do not want to have any dumb believers. Paul said in Ro. 10.9-10, “That if you confess with your mouth (not with your actions, not with your pocketbook, not with your church duties, but with your mouth), “Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” When we believe in our hearts, God acknowledges our faith. God then forgives us our sins and justifies us. If we just believe in our hearts and never confess with our mouth, the world will still think we belong with them. They will never look on us as the redeemed of the Lord. If we do not confess the Lord the world will think we are still one of theirs and expect, no require we be with them on their evil endeavors. The confession is not for God but for the world that we live in. They must know that we have changed. W.E. Vines said that confession is “to declare openly by way of speaking out freely, such confession being the effect of deep conviction of facts.” Jesus said in Lu. 12.8-9, “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.” It is then that the world will know that we are separate from them. Paul said in Ga. 6.14, “… the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” The world crucified our Lord. In doing so, Jesus arose on the other side of the cross. When we come to Jesus, we stand with the Lord on the other side of the cross. Then it is the world on one side and we on the other. The cross is in the middle. Whenever we look at the world, we cannot help but see the cross. The cross defines how we react to them. It is always present and immovable. It is a fact of history that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on the cross. As God looks at us through the blood of Jesus and finds us justified, we cannot but look at the world through the cross and find them lost. However, this only comes through what Bonhoeffer calls, “Costly Grace”. He says, “Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field, for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has...it is the grace for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble...It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son...and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life...” We must acknowledge the battle is for real, and all the days of our lives, we will be fighting it. Those on the other side of the cross are our adversaries. There will be no relief, no truce, no cease-fire and no let up from the enemy. His resources are many and his strategies sound. In 2Co. 2.11 Paul tells us to learn forgiveness “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” Moreover, his schemes are many indeed. He has men and women who have gone underground to subvert the cause of Christ and try to destroy us from within. 2Pe 2.1-3 “...there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies (that is, an opinion that subverts the teaching of the truth and therefore divides), even denying the sovereign Lord ... Many will follow their shameful ways ...” They have infiltrated the Church and are actively teaching lies. Paul said in Ga. 1.7, “Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” They are mean and vicious in their attacks of the truth and of you as saints that Paul said in Phil. 3.2, “Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.” Of course, we know that not only does Satan send his subjects, the unbelieving sinners of the world to attack us; he sends his many demons. They are relentless in their pursuit of the saints. One of their major objectives is to get God’s children to follow them back into the world. That is why Paul said in, 1Co. 10.20 “... I do not want you to be participants with demons.” Additionally we read in 1Ti. 4.1, “... some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits.” Jesus even told Peter, Lu. 22.31, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.” He wanted to do to Peter what he had done to Job and wants to do to you. He is intent on making your life a miserable as possible. They attack our children, our jobs, our husbands and wives, our very bodies. The cost of following Jesus is great indeed and you must understand that when you make that decision, you will cross over to our side and the entire dark kingdom and the whole world will be against you. Before you decide that the cost is too great, realize that there is a cost to staying on your side of the cross. It is a cost that I am afraid that you will not be able to bear it. Ro. 6.23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If you stay on your side, you will surely die. However, if you make it to the cross you will find the gift of God. On the one side, your side is eternal death and the other eternal life. Because Christ has called to you and you have not heeded, Paul said, Ro. 2.5 “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.” When his wrath comes, it will fall on all those who are on the wrong side of the cross. He has given you every opportunity to repent. The cross is standing in front of you like some tall mountain. You cannot miss it. You are without excuse. You see, as Christians must count the cost, you must also do the same. If you live like Lazarus, you will die like Lazarus; but if you live like the rich man, you will die and burn in hell like the rich man. But when that day comes and you stand before the Lord in judgment, the books being opened, and your name is not there, remember that I have told you now that those who live with the world and reside on the wrong side of the cross will not have their names written in the book of life. Remember Re. 20.15, “If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” The day will come when you will cry out with the rest of the world as they say, Re. 6.16 – 17, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" Oh yes, you are counting the cost. As you sit with your pious attitude and decide that the cross is not for you, you are deciding. When the flames of hell are lapping at you a billion years from now, you will have plenty of time to reconsider your decision. By then, it will be a billion years too late!