I'm going to be in Luke chapter
9. Luke 9, these last six verses
of the chapter. There's three examples in this
text which teach us something of our Lord's calling of his
servants into the ministry in the kingdom. These are largely
directed toward preachers, toward pastors and preachers, but there
is something here for every one of us who has a heart to serve
in the Lord's kingdom. We all may be instructed in these
words. So first, The first thing that
we see here that our Lord shows us is that by nature we have
a corrupt, sinful nature. And he warns us against false
and vain motives that we would have in coming to the Lord in
this flesh, in trusting our flesh. Now, he says in verse 57 and
58, you'll notice each example is two verses, 57 and 58. And
it came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain man
said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes
have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
Man hath not where to lay his head. Now Matthew speaks of the
first two of these men that come to the Lord here, and you'll
notice when you read Luke, he's not as constrained by the specific
order of events. When Matthew records this, it
occurred while our Lord was in Galilee, having just finished
the Sermon on the Mount, and then we're told that He healed
many. He was healing them of their sicknesses and diseases,
casting out devils and unclean spirits. And this man, who Matthew
tells us was a scribe, comes to the Lord and tells him, I
will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. He heard Christ. He saw his miracles and said,
I believe this man's the Messiah. I think this man's the Messiah.
Based on what our Lord says to him, this man's motives were
not right. He had an expectation of a fleshly
glory. He had an expectation of an earthly
kingdom, much like the Lord's disciples had, and that they
had to be corrected of because it is a spiritual kingdom. Our Lord is establishing his
word, his power, his habitation in our hearts and not in an earthly
kingdom. That was never the purpose of
the Lord. And so what we see here is that
we all come with various carnal expectations and thoughts about
the Lord that are born out of a sin-corrupted nature. We are full of darkness. By nature
we sit in darkness. We dwell in the valley of the
shadow of death. And we have much sin and much
corruption in our thoughts, our words, our deeds. And we have
this idea of what following God is going to be like at first
until the Lord teaches us by His grace. And He begins to instruct
us. He begins to teach us needful
lessons. And we see here that one of the
trials of this man, one of the sins of this man, is he was very
forward and very confident in himself. He was very confident
in himself, saying, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever you
go. I'll go. I won't have any trouble.
I'm doing it. I'm there. And any who have been
in the kingdom for some time and been taught of the Lord think,
oh, really? You're going to just follow the
Lord anywhere he goes? And it's because the Lord teaches
his children. He humbles his children. This
reminds me, actually, very much of what the Lord's disciples
struggled with themselves. This is not unique to this man.
This is very true of every one of us by nature. We're very self-confident
in ourselves by nature. And James and John had asked
the Lord, if they would be able to sit on the Lord's left hand
and the right hand, and Christ asked them, are ye able to drink
of the cup that I shall drink of and be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with? They say unto him, we are able. We're able. And that's because
by nature we don't know the costs. We don't count the costs. We
don't know what we're really capable of when faced with the
trials and tribulations that come against us. the new man
of grace. That new man will stand, but
this old man will not, will not stand. And Christ said, ye shall
drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that
I am baptized with. In other words, you will receive
the Holy Ghost and you will suffer for my name's sake, but to sit
on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall
be given. to them for whom it is prepared
of my Father. Now I want to show you from this
example here, three lessons for any that would serve the Lord
in his kingdom. Three lessons for us. So the
first lesson in this is that as men, we naturally think too
highly of ourselves. And even people who don't think
of themselves as being confident, we think too highly of ourselves. We're very confident in what
we can or can't do. And this man, he doesn't know
the cost. He doesn't know what he's asking for. It's clear he
lacked humility when he said, I will, I'll go wherever you
go, Lord. But what the Lord does is he
humbles us. He humbles each one of His children. Anyone that exalts themselves
will be humbled and those that are humbled will be raised up
by the Lord. It's something that He does for
us and so as the Lord leads us in the way, in Christ, in his
kingdom, he does humble us. He does make us to see that we
cannot do whatever it is that we think we're going to do. And we're very boastful in it,
but as the Lord humbles us, we begin to be more reserved. more
discreet in how we say things and what we would do so that
things change. Things change in us and that's
because we see that we don't control everything in this life.
There's things that are outside of our control. control, even
when we mean well by the things that we say we're going to do.
And when you say you're going to do something, you are to keep
your word, even to your own heart, to your own hurt. You are to
keep your word. But there are things that that
can derail that at times that are outside of our control. And
so we're humbled by them. And the more resistant we are
to hearing it, the more the Lord is able to humble us and bring
us lower and lower and lower and lower in ourselves. As much
as is needed, he is able to teach his people. Paul said it this
way. He said, I say through the grace
that is given unto me to every man that is among you not to
think of himself more highly than he ought to think. but to
think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure
of faith." And that sounds great. Man's willing to embrace that.
And then he finds out he isn't willing to embrace it and isn't
embracing it. And the Lord will humble him and bring him low
for use in his kingdom. And that's why James said it
this way, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. And that only comes by instructing,
by the Lord teaching us and humbling us and making us to see, I cannot
determine what's going to be. I need the Lord's grace. And so as the Lord gives us that
heart, We learn it, and we learn it often through practical lessons. It doesn't just come. We are
given a new heart, we are made new creatures, but the Lord teaches
us that through hard and difficult lessons in life that bring us
low in ourselves. Now, not only should we not think
too highly of ourselves, but second, the Lord's gonna give
his child a servant's heart. He's going to give us a servant's
heart because, again, the natural man thinks, I'm going to rule.
I'm going to do this my way. I'm going to do it like this.
And what the Lord does is he'll give his servants in his kingdom
a servant's heart. Our Lord, when he's speaking
to this man, he refers to himself as the Son of Man. He calls himself
the Son of Man. He says, the Son of Man hath
not where to lay his head. And I know in Matthew that's
the first time that the Lord uses that term concerning himself.
And it's a term of humiliation. You think of the Son of God.
who was in the bosom of the Father with God the Father for all eternity
and he laid aside that glory to take upon him this flesh,
the weakness of this flesh. He emptied himself of his glory
and came in the weakness of this flesh, doing all that the Father
sent him to do, speaking the words of the Father, doing the
works that the Father sent him to do, it's a condescension,
it's his humiliation, and he says, the son of man hath not
where to lay his head. And so Christ, our Savior, our
Lord, our husband, our friend, he served his people by taking
the lowest form of a servant and laying down his life for
his people in order to accomplish the redemption of his people,
to do for us what we could not, cannot do for ourselves. And he said it this way when
instructing his disciples in Matthew 20 at the end of verse
25. He said, ye know that the princes
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are
great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so
among you. But whosoever will be great among
you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. And so, contrary to a life of
ease and comfort that this man was looking for in the ministry,
the Lord is saying, it's not going to be that way at all.
You're going to serve the people. You're going to bite your tongue. You're going to close your mouth,
and you're going to minister patiently, slowly, the people
of God, who will not hear, except God give it to them. And he's
going to bring his servants low in this flesh. And so contrary
to... The reason why the way is difficult,
it's a joy, but the reason why it's difficult is it's contrary
to the flesh. And we don't do what is described
in Galatians 5 verses 19-21. We don't do those works of the
flesh. We're not to just get angry,
fly off the handle, say whatever we want to say. No, you don't
do that. That's the works of the flesh.
You patiently minister the gospel, which I remember as a message
here a while ago now, but when you're smacked across the cheek,
you're bearing that, meaning when you're loving your enemy
who smacks you across the cheek, you're preaching the gospel.
You continue to preach the gospel. The most loving thing you can
do is preach that gospel. There may be some other words
and instruction, but it's done in love. and gentleness and patience
and kindness in light of the gospel. And Paul says it this
way, and this is helpful to me. When Paul and Barnabas had ministered
the gospel in the churches, the Gentile churches, they're now
heading back to Antioch, I believe it is. And we're told in Acts
14, 22, that as they went back through, They went to all the
churches that they had been through before and it says, they were
confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue
in the faith and that we must, through much tribulation, enter
into the kingdom of God. The Lord gives His people a minister
to them called tribulation. And that tribulation is an instructor,
it is a helper to the Lord's servants, to His people, teaching
us to obey the Lord. to submit to the Lord to be humble
to the Lord that tribulation works that in us you know we
don't realize just how spiritually poor we are we come to the Lord
as mercy beggars we come to the Lord having nothing to give to
him. And yet, we don't realize that. We don't know our poverty. But
once tribulation comes, then we begin to know just how bankrupt
we are by nature and how needy we are of the Lord's grace and
mercy to do for us all that we need. And we know that, we learn
that through tribulation. That's why the Lord gives us
tribulation. It's not just for tribulation's
sake, it's because it's a minister unto us. Thorns in the flesh
are a minister unto us. Afflictions are a minister unto
us. They serve us for good, for our
good. And they show us our dependence
on the Lord and need of Him so that we're not just confident
in the flesh. It's for our good. And then third,
when we are called by Christ, the Lord is showing us here,
it's not we that call ourselves. It's the Lord who calls his people
to serve him. And again, it's not just for
preachers and pastors. Anything that we would do in
the kingdom, the Lord calls us. He gives us that heart, that
desire, that willingness to serve Him as we see in salvation. It's not of Him that willeth
nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. He gives that willing heart.
He's the one that calls us to serve him. He tells us thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. And so man doesn't
choose Christ, Christ chooses whom he will. He said to the
disciples, ye have not chosen me, I have chosen you and ordained
you. The Lord does that. And that's
why when you read Romans 12, there are people gifted with
administrations and abilities and giving and they're given
a measure of faith for those things that he purposes to give
them in the body of Christ for the good of the people. And that's
where we minister those gifts that the Lord gives to us in
his body for the good of his people. And so the Lord, trust
the Lord to bring it to pass and believe him. And if he's
turning your heart, hear him, listen, believe him, trust him,
follow him, and pray about it always, because he'll make it
known. Now we come to the second example
here, and this one again concerns preachers and pastors that were
serving Christ at this time, but we can learn from it. We
learn from it. Look at the next two verses in
Luke 9, 59 and 60. And he said unto another, follow
me. But he said, Lord, suffer me
first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, let the
dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of
God. So this man, he felt he had an
obligation to show this final act of love and respect to his
father. And there's clearly a tugging
going on of his loyalties in this and what he should do. What the Lord is showing us here
is that when he calls a servant into the ministry, he's going
to give them a singleness of heart. And again, that singleness
of heart is taught to us. We're given a new heart and then
we're brought through various trials and lessons that bring
us to that singleness heart and and show us that and so that
the Lord speaking here of a singleness of heart in our calling now what
we see there when he says let the dead bury their own dead
what the Lord is teaching us here is that worldly things may
be and shall be taken care of by worldly things, by worldly
people, by other people that can do those things. When he says, let the dead bury
their own dead, he's not saying you can't go to a funeral, you
can't honor your parents and do those things that you're supposed
to do. That's not what the Lord is teaching us. What he's saying
is there are plenty of people in the world to do worldly things,
an abundance The things that we need in the world, there's
so many things in the world and so many people in the world to
do those things, that they can provide the necessary services
for those things. If you need surgery, you can
go to a hospital. You can go to a hospital for
that thing. If you need groceries, you can go to a store where the
shelves are loaded and packed with different things. The world
can provide a lot of the things that the world needs. But there's
one thing, one thing that this world cannot do. This world cannot and will not
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. They can minister to all kinds
of needs that you have, but they cannot preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. They try. There's all kinds of
liars out there. There's all kinds of false churches,
so-called. There's all kinds of wickedness
going out there and religions. but the Lord gives his gospel
to his church. And the only place you're gonna
be fed the gospel and hear the gospel is through that church. And so to me and to anyone that
would serve the Lord, especially in the preaching, he's saying,
leave those other worldly things to let others in the world do
those things. you are called to preach the
gospel, because they can't get the gospel from anywhere else
but in the church that Christ has planted and established for
his people. So preach the word. That's what
Paul told Timothy. Preach the word, Timothy. Preach the word. That's your
focus, Timothy, preach that word. And so we preach the word because
that's how the Lord calls his people, instructs his people
in the way of salvation. Because again, you can get your
learning and education, you can get it at home, you can get it
in school if you want to go there, you can get all kinds of services
out in the world, but they cannot give you the gospel. They cannot
and they will not. And so that's our business, brethren. And all that would serve the
Lord, serve him with singleness of heart, rejoicing in what he's
done for you and doing that for you. Now, lastly, let's look
at verse 61 and 62. And another also said, Lord,
I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which
are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, no man,
having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for
the kingdom of God. Now there's two lessons I think
that are taught here in this final example. And I touched
on one of them in the first message. But the first lesson is that
we're not to be looking back, but looking forward. In my limited
experience as a plowman, which I don't even think I could be
rightly called a plowman, in my garden I have a rotor teller
that I use. And again, when I look back,
to see where I've been, and I put my eyes forward, then I always
see I'm off the path. I'm off the straight and narrow.
I've gone off the way. The only way to stay straight
and narrow in that way is to keep my eyes forward and just
keep moving forward, looking ahead, not looking back. As the Lord is saying to this
man, don't look back when your hand's on the plow. going forward,
looking to Christ, looking to Him alone. And so the Lord takes
that looking back to this world longingly because it's got to
be taken from us. Otherwise, we're going off that
narrow path. We go crooked. We go crooked
from the straight way, which is Christ. And then secondly,
this seems to harken back to the calling of Elisha. Turn over
to 1 Kings chapter 19, the calling of the prophet Elisha. And here
we'll see a couple more lessons in this. So this is right after
Elijah, Elijah now, the prophet just before Elisha, Elijah had
fled and thought there's no other believers. And the Lord says,
no, there's 7,000 that I've reserved for myself that have not bowed
the knee to Baal. And he tells him to go to Elisha,
to go find Elisha. And so the spirit leads him to
Elisha. And it says, verse 19, First
Kings 19, verse 19. So Elijah departed from where
he was, from thence, and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who
was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him. That's an interesting
number, 12. Thinking of the apostles, the 12 apostles. And he with
the 12th. And we're not told who this one
is that the Lord's speaking to. We don't know. It could have
been one of the 12 disciples. I don't know. But it probably
was someone of the 70. But he's with the 12th. And Elijah
passed by him, by him, by Elisha. and cast his mantle upon him."
And a mantle is a garment. It's like a cloak that the prophet
would wear. And it was clear this was Elijah's
mantle, and he's casting it upon Elisha as he's going by. Yeah, and verse 20, and he left,
or Elisha left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me,
I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother. Let me go back home
to bid farewell to them that are at my house. That's what
he's saying there. And then I will follow thee.
And he said unto him, go back again, for what have I done to
thee? And he returned back from him,
and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh
with the instruments of the oxen. and gave unto the people, and
they did eat. Then he arose and went after
Elijah and ministered unto him." So right away we see Elijah said,
yeah, sure. You want to go back? I don't
care. Go on back and bid farewell to them. But Christ says, don't
do it. Don't do it. What's the difference
here? The Lord uses that word plowing
for a reason. Well, one of the things I think
is going on here is the Lord is actually addressing what's
in this man's heart. And he's addressing what's in
his heart. It's quite possible that he's
thinking, the Lord has conferred this great blessing on me, like
the casting of the mantle. He's conferred this great blessing
on me. I should go home and say goodbye
to my family and enter into this ministry. thinking of what Elisha
had done. Thinking, well, I saw Elisha.
I had this pattern here. Let me go and repeat this pattern
in following the Lord. And one of the things that the
Lord is telling me here in looking at this here is, don't look back
to the Old Testament to bring and carry up these traditions
that you think are necessary in serving the Lord in his kingdom
today. These things, not that they're
wrong necessarily, but these things, these types and shadows
and pictures testify of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they reveal
the gospel to us. And man's natural inclination
is, oh, the Lord's telling me I have to do it this way, I have
to go about things in this manner, and we make things very fleshly,
when left to do it. We'll turn all kinds of things
into idolatry if we can. And the Lord's saying, let that
go. And additionally, we see here
that these things are like the physical, and Christ is that
which is spiritual. We have the old covenant, and
Christ is saying, you're in the new covenant. serve him by the
Spirit. These things were given as pictures
and types and shadows, not as a law for you to be bound with
and to put a yoke upon your neck and to try to follow God in that. Instead, the elder shall serve
the younger. See it for what it is, how it
helps us to see and to know Christ, to see the spiritual thing of
these things. That's why he said that picture
of Esau and Jacob, the elder shall serve the younger, is also
a picture of showing that the Old Testament is serving the
new. We don't We interpret the Old
through the New Testament, not the Old Testament interpreting
the New. We understand what the Lord is
showing us through the Spirit and through the grace that He's
given to us. And so the second thing now is
that we're called to serve our Lord. And it doesn't matter what
Elijah permitted Elisha to do. We're called to serve the Lord
and he ministers his word and his calling in the hearts of
his people. And so when the Lord is dealing
with me, I'm not to worry about whether or not he's dealing with
you on the same thing. He might turn me from something,
some practice or some thought, for my good, for you. I'm not
worried about whether or not you think it's OK for me to do
that or not think it's OK for me to do it. The Lord is my master. I'm his servant. And so what
he's saying is if you're called to do something, don't worry
about what others are doing or not doing. You do what the Lord
is laying on your heart. Yeah, Elisha went back. The Lord's
saying, don't go back. You do what I'm telling you to
do. And so we serve the Lord. And that's a great help to us
in not worrying and watching what others are doing and saying,
well, the Lord told me I got to do it this way. Great, serve
the Lord in that. If that's what the Lord's given
to your hand and he's put in your heart, serve him with all
your heart, with all your might, with all your soul, with all
your mind, serve him in that which he's given unto you to
do. And don't worry about if someone
else who loves him and who professes him is doing those things or
not. And so, because a lot of times,
if the Lord's laying something on our heart and we go and ask
somebody about it, there's a potential that they'll knock us off of
doing what we think we should do. And then it's only a matter
of time, thankfully, if the Lord says, no, I did put that on your
heart. Go and do what I gave you to
do in your heart. And so the Lord teaches his people
to follow him. He's our Lord. He's our Savior. And I would also say I believe
that the Lord will give you a spirit of joy. and rejoicing and doing
what he's laid upon your heart. There's a tendency to think that
I have to do something a certain way, and it's the hardest way. And we think, well, that's got
to be the way of the Lord, because it's the hardest thing. And it makes us bitter and resentful
and angry about it. But it shouldn't. If the Lord
has given you a heart for it, pray about it because he'll give
you a heart of joy and gladness in serving him. He does that
for his people. He helps his people because we
are dust, we are flesh, we are weak, we are easily turned by
this world, but he'll give us a willing heart to trust him. And so he teaches us that, again,
in humbling us through tribulations, through afflictions, through
sorrows, that we would go and lay it before him. and he instructs
us in the way that we should go. You know, a lot of times
I find when I'm praying, if I'm burdened by something that somebody
else is doing, more often than not, I'm the one that's instructed
and my heart's turned. I'm the one who gets my attitude
adjusted, not them, because it's something that's off with me. And so the Lord often ministers
his grace to me through praying and seeking him. and being quiet
before Him. And so, if the Lord is laying
something on your heart and you're reluctant about it, pray to Him
about it, because He's the one that gives the willing heart,
the heart of a servant, and a glad heart in it. And that's why Paul
said, whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not
unto men. And so don't ever think this
world's gonna approve of what you do, and other brethren may
not approve of what you do, but you trust the Lord in how he's
instructing you. and how he's leading you, and
how he's guiding you. Trust him in it, and to make
it firm in your heart. And so that's what I see in those
three examples of when the Lord calls his servant to minister
in his kingdom. The first example we saw is,
don't think too highly of yourselves, and the Lord will give tribulation
to teach us and instruct us. He'll give us those things as
ministers to us, to bring us low before the Lord. And then,
when we serve in the kingdom, don't expect much from, don't
expect to be served, but expect that if you're in service, that
you're going to be serving. You're the one that's going to
be serving in that capacity, and the calling is of the Lord.
It's not of us. And then the second example we
saw, if you're called to preach the gospel, preach the gospel.
Make that your single most important thing in your heart and your
mind because this world cannot do it. There's plenty of people
that do the other things. They cannot preach the gospel.
We must preach Christ. He's the one who is all for his
people. We have no life but by the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have no salvation apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ. He laid down his life for our
life, and he gives us that life. And this is made known through
the preaching of the gospel, his spirit taking that word and
making it effectual in your hearts, showing to you the things of
Christ, whereby you eat his body, drink his blood, and live, live
upon his word, which is spirit, which is spiritual. And whatever
service you do in his kingdom, do it heartily as unto the Lord. And then third, we saw, keep
your eyes forward, looking to Christ. Follow the Lord who instructs
you, not worrying about what others are called to do or not
called to do. You follow the Lord who has called
you. and you trust him, and so do
it heartily as unto the Lord." So we see there, this chapter
9 had a lot of instruction that the Lord gave here to his disciples
before he went to the cross to instruct us, to show us our need
of him and how he's all. We're going to do nothing except
by Him and by His glory and His praise. And I pray the Lord take
whatever words of Clay I've said and lay that which is true and
spiritual to your heart to the praise, honor, and glory of His
name. Amen.