Featured Counting the cost

In the classic book on holiness by J.C. Ryle we find this;

Question.....are we our brothers keeper on this issue?

How do we go about it?


The people I speak of are not thoughtless about religion; they think a good deal about it. They are not ignorant of religion; they know the outlines of it pretty well. But their great defect is that they are not "rooted and grounded" in their faith. Too often they have picked up their knowledge second-hand, from being in religious families, or from being trained in religious ways — but have never worked it out by their own inward experience. Too often they have hastily taken up a profession of religion under the pressure of circumstances, from sentimental feelings, from emotional excitement or from a vague desire to do like others around them — but without any solid work of grace in their hearts. People like these are in a position of immense danger. They are precisely those, if Bible examples are worth anything, who need to be exhorted to count the cost.

1]For lack of counting the cost, myriads of the children of Israel perished miserably in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan

2]For lack of counting the cost, many of our Lord Jesus Christ's hearers went back after a time and "walked no more with Him" (John 6:66).

3]For lack of counting the cost, King Herod returned to his old sins and destroyed his soul.

4]For lack of counting the cost, Demas forsook the company of Paul, forsook the gospel, forsook Christ, forsook Heaven.

5]For lack of counting the cost, the hearers of powerful evangelical preachers often come to miserable ends

6]For lack of counting the cost, hundreds of professed converts, under religious revivals — go back to the world after a time and bring disgrace on religion.

7]For lack of counting the cost, the children of religious parents often turn out badly and bring disgrace on Christianity.

 

JamesL,

Some have believed Jesus on this......
25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,

26 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.

27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

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

29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

31 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?[/QUOTE]

 

http://www.gotquestions.org/count-the-cost.html

http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/701/Counting-Cost.htm

 

Your post suggesting such profane things is unfortunate.
Jesus knew all things perfectly.
Looks as if you have a defective understanding of these things however. In fact it seems like that is the way it is on most every doctrine. You believe you see what no one else in church history see's very clearly.
If anything.....what you offer here shows confused thinking on your part as the objections are not connected to the topic.

 

If a person does not have a biblical understanding of salvation to begin with......the idea of counting the cost will seem a strange thing unto them.
So it must be my Arminian ways that cause this. I thought I had disguised them but they must have escaped out of their hiding place.
Why can some people miss the Forrest for the trees all the time?

 

TCassidy,

No doubt that this can happen. To teach on such a crucial issue takes really well thought out and scripturally accurate teaching. You can not cover this kind of material in little sermonettes.

I deny there is such a Christian. I deny there are thieving Christians, I deny there are lying Christians, I deny there are murdering Christians.

Are there Christians who grow at a really slow, or retarded rate....yes....
Can real Christians commit acts of sin that are fleshly.....yes
Is there a class of Christians that are not controlled by the Spirit, but somehow remain under the dominion of the flesh.....no.
There are only two men spoken of here in romans 8;
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

We all sin.....we fail....but God does not have undisciplined children;
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

TC........what Paul does do here is rebuke them for behaving" as if" they were unsaved men, as if they were unsaved natural men who are carnal......it is a rebuke....not a second category of Christians......