Luke 9.57, 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. 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. 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 this is a simple lesson that
I sure don't want to complicate. We're given three examples of
our Lord's dealings with people with regards to following Christ. First, let's talk about what
they meant by following Him. The first man and the last man
the ones who said I'll follow you We can't be completely sure
what they meant but likely they meant will Will hear you will be with you
will be a disciple of yours And many I know at that time
wanted to make the Lord a leader and And they're saying, we will
follow you, we'll make you our leader and we'll follow you in
that sense. We know now what our Lord means
by when he says, follow me. It means to be with him, sure
enough, to stay with him. It means to be a disciple, a
learner from him, to listen to what he says. and do it. It means
at the very least to go where he goes and do as he does and
do whatever he says do. I will follow you. I will submit
to you. You can't follow somebody that
you don't agree with. So it has that connotation too. I believe what you say. You're
right. As Simon said, you have the words
of eternal life. We're not going anywhere. We're
going to follow you. You have the words of eternal life. Many
went away in John chapter 6 and walked no more with Christ. Why?
Because they disagreed with him. They thought what he said was
offensive. You look at that chapter again.
He began to teach the inability of man and the necessity of irresistible
grace. That's what he taught. He taught them that God has got
to irresistibly take you from where you are and put you in
me. Father must draw you to me or
you're not going to follow me. You can't come to me. You're
incapable of it. And they said that's offensive
and they went away and walked no more with him. So following
him has something to do with agreeing with him, bowing, submitting
to his will, his word. You can't follow somebody you
can't see either. In our Lord's sense of the word
follow me, you have to know him, you have to see him, you have
to understand. You can't go your own way and follow somebody at
the same time. It has to do with abandoning
your way. Now there is one way you can
go your own way and follow him that is if your way is following
him We see that in Mark chapter 10 blind Bartimaeus Jesus said
unto him go your way Thy faith hath made you whole go your way
and immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the
way That was blind Bartimaeus way That's what I want But here's
our problem. By nature, Isaiah 53 6, all we
like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. That's the problem. What's the
solution? How do you fix that? Everybody's
just like, we're not going to follow him. We're going to do
what we, you know, they went away and walked no more. How
do you fix that? The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us
all. The way you fix us being bad
is not by making us better. The way he fixed us being bad
was by paying for us being bad. To follow Christ you got to always
be looking to him. You're going to lose your way
if you take your eyes off of him. Simon Peter took his eyes off
the Lord and started looking at the waves and the winds and
he sank. But then he said, Lord, save
me. When he saw that he was sinking, he cried, Lord, save me. And
the Lord immediately caught him by the arm, by the hand and saved
him. That's the simple truth of the
salvation of the soul. We got to keep our eyes on him. You must be resigned to his will
in all things now. Can't pick and choose. You must
abandon self. He said, you've got to take up
a cross if you're going to follow me. That means you die. Let's just say it like it is
now. And this is like it is. In order
for you to follow him, he's going to have to do a miracle for you.
Because you're not about to do it. With men, it is impossible. Go
sell all you have, give it to the poor, and come, do what?
Can't happen. Can't happen. With men it is
impossible, but with God, bless God, not only are all things
possible with God, but He's willing. If He wants you to follow Him,
He said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. All He's
got to do is speak the word only. And you're coming and there ain't
nobody or nothing going to stop you. But you must abandon self. You know the story of the rich.
I was going to have us turn over there, Matthew 19. You know that
story, the rich young ruler. Follow me, follow me. You want
to have life? You want to have eternal life?
And listen to this. He said, do you want to be perfect?
Follow me. We're not perfect by doing better,
we're perfect by following the one that's perfect. Not because
we can perfectly follow him, but because he's perfect, we're
perfect in him. By grace through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This man in our text, he started
off by saying, I will. Gotta be careful about that,
don't we? I will. I will. The rich young ruler
seemed willing as well until he found out what it would cost
him. And that's exactly what our Lord taught this man in our
text. He said it's going to cost you. I will. You're not even going
to have a place to lay down at night. Our Lord may have taught him
in a little different way a little different language But it's the
same lesson wasn't that he showed him that he couldn't follow.
He can't you're not gonna do it You're not going to abandon
the one that you love the most and that's you Until the one
who is altogether lovely reveals himself to you He's got to do
that He said I'll follow you wherever
you go I Wherever you go, I'll fall. I'm right there. Reminded
me of a song we used to sing in Sunday school. I ain't proud of it. I have decided
to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow. It
says it three times. I haven't even heard that song
before. I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back. No turning back. Though none
go with me, I still will follow. Who does that remind you of?
Though none go with me. It says it three times. Though
none go with me, I still will follow. No turning back. That
reminds me of Simon, doesn't it? Though everybody else betray
you, I never will. I will not. I will follow you. I will die with you. He used the same words, didn't
he, Simon did, in John 13. Let's turn over there and look
at that. This is the whole of our lesson right here. How can
we not look at this? This is what our Lord is teaching
us. The same thing He taught Simon Peter here. Following Him
is not something we do. It's something He does. It's
something He does. I'm telling you now, you following
Him is something He does. You can't come to Me except... John 13, 36. And this is so tenderly
and kindly and longsuffering the way the Lord taught Simon
this. May He teach us that this morning the same way. Look at
John 13, 36. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? And Jesus answered him, Whither
I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterwards. And Peter said unto him, Lord,
why? Why can't I follow you now? Sounds like a little kid, doesn't
he? That's what we are. Spiritually, we're just little
children. Why? Why can't I? I want to go with
you. I want to go now. There's no tomorrow, you know.
You'll follow me hereafter. I want to follow you right now. Can't do it now. Why can't I follow you now? I'll
lay down my life. You see the words I will again? I will. I will lay down my life for thy
sake. And Jesus answered him, Wilt
thou lay down thy life for my sake? Now there's a lot in that
question. Because here's the thing, I'm
pretty sure Simon Peter did lay down his life for the Lord's
sake, but he wasn't ready to do that yet. Will thou lay down
my life for my sake? That's a good question. Right
now Simon ain't ready to do that, but I believe he did before it
was over with. Pretty sure. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. You're not brave, Simon. Your love's not that strong. And then look at the next verse. Let not your heart be troubled. And don't you imagine now that
that did trouble Simon? When the Lord, I mean, he was
sincere. There's no question in my mind that Simon, he said,
Lord, I'm ready to die right now for you. I'm pretty sure
he was sincere about that, but the Lord said, you're not going
to do that. You're going to do just the opposite
of that. You're going to be a coward and you're going to deny me.
I bet you that troubled him. The Lord said, don't be troubled
about that. If your sin causes you to despair of favor with
God, then you don't know God. Don't be troubled about that.
We're not happy about our sin. Don't misunderstand. We're not
happy about our sin. But me being a blithering, miserable
failure is okay. It's okay. It better be okay
because I am one. It's okay for me to fail because
he didn't. My love is not what saves me. My courage is not what saves
me. Aren't you glad? Why can't I follow you now? Oh,
Peter, you're going to deny me. You're going to deny me. He said,
I will, and the Lord essentially said, you will not. You will
not. And that's what the Lord said
to the man in our text. I will follow you wherever you
go. No, you're not. You're not going to do that. Can you imagine that? The Lord
saying that to you? Simon was sincere, but he didn't
know himself. And we don't either, I reckon.
Not yet. And our Lord comforts him very
sweetly. Let not your heart be troubled.
He's still talking to Simon, isn't he? And us. You believe in God. Believe also
in me. Now God's given us faith. We
believe in God. But don't start trusting your
faith. Don't do that. Believe also in me. Faith is not trusting faith.
Faith trusts Him. That's what Peter needed to learn.
That's what we need to learn. Faith trusts Him. believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. Now, think about the context. Our Lord is telling
Simon, I'm going and you can't come with me. Well, where are
you going Lord? Why can't we come now? Where
are you going? So he tells him a little bit about it, about
the place he's going to. He said, there's a lot of, there's
a lot of mansions there, dwelling places. It just means dwelling
places, but you know, I don't have a whole lot of problem with
the word mansion. Because I gotta tell you, there
ain't a mansion in this world that compares to having a place
with Him. That's alright, if that's what
the Lord uses to get our minds beyond the earthly. And look at this, if it were
not so, I would have told you. I go. I'll go. Lord, I'll go. No, you won't, but I will. I go to
prepare a place for you. Where I'm going, there's a lot
of places there for others to live with me. And I'm fixing
to go make sure one of them is yours. You're going to fail.
You're a coward. Your love is not worth talking
about. But it's gonna be fine. Don't
worry, don't trouble yourself over it. You're not, you can't
go, but I'm gonna go. You can't do what needs to be
done, I'm gonna do what needs to be done. Does that comfort
you at all this morning? And I'm gonna make sure you get
in on it. I'm not going to prepare a place
for me, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And once I have,
I'm going to come back and get you and take you there that you
might be with me forever. Will that comfort your troubled
heart? Get your mind off of what you're
going to do, what you're determined to do, what you've resolved to
do and set your heart and your eye of faith. You rest your soul
upon the Savior who is able to keep that which we've committed
unto him against that day. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will. It's just fine
for him to say that. I will. I will come again and
receive you unto myself at where I am. What is a mansion? What
is it to live in luxury and glory and rest and peace? Everything
that a home is. Comfort, security, peace, rest,
satisfaction, joy, family gathering, love. There ain't no home without
love, is there? What is a home? You know what
that is to me? where he is where he is by his
grace that's what it is to be home with the lord to be absent
from this body is to be at home with him our lord is just simply saying
again this is simple simon you can't cut the mustard you can't
you're not going to do even what you want to do much less what
needs to be done but it's okay It's okay that you can't do the
things that you would. It's okay you can't follow me
unless I cause it to happen. Because I'm going to cause it
to happen. It's okay that you can't lay down your life for
me. Because I'm going to cause you to lay down your life for
me. It's okay that you're a failure.
You say I will but you're not. But I will. And that's our hope. That's salvation. Will go and
prepare a place for you. I will come again. I will receive
you. I will do everything for You
that's the definition of substitution for you. He died for us. He lives for us He went into
the presence of God for us with something to offer for us his
own precious blood and The man in our text said, I will, and
the Lord essentially told him that he didn't even know what
he was asking. He didn't even know what he was saying. But
bless God, though we go every one our own way, the Lord hath
laid on him our iniquity. Now here's a lesson for us. Don't
ever brag about what you're going to do. I don't care what it is. Don't ever brag about it. Go
to now you that say today or tomorrow we will go into such
a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain,
whereas you don't know. You don't know if you're going
to go, you don't know if you're going to be able to buy and sell,
and you don't know if you do whether you're going to get gain
or lose. You don't know. What are you talking about I
will? You know not what shall be on
the morrow. You got no business talking about it. For what is
your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth
for a little time. You may not even be here tomorrow. You may be in hell tomorrow.
And your little business on earth ain't gonna matter there. You
may be with him tomorrow. And guess how much your business
on this earth, going into town and buying and selling and getting
gain, guess how much that's going to mean to you if you wake up
in His arms tomorrow. Your life is a vapor. It appears
for a short time and then it's gone and you can't even tell
it was there. For that you ought to say. This is clear teaching
isn't it? Here's what we ought to say.
If the Lord will. Oh, if the Lord will, I'll lay
down my life for Him. I sure will, if He will. Religion
says if you will, God will. Guess what? Everything they say,
just turn it completely opposite and you'll have something worth
saying, probably. If He will, I will. You ought to say, if the Lord
will, we shall live and do this or that. But now you rejoice in your boasting. To say, I will, is just, you're
overstepping your bounds. All such rejoicing is evil. It's evil now. We can't even
go to Kroger and buy a package of chicken unless God wills it. Do we understand that? He's got to do a hundred different
things to make that happen. If I'm going to go buy some chicken
at Kroger today, God's got to do a thousand things so that
that will happen. And I'm just going to get in
on it. If He does it, then I'm in on it. And it appears in the text that
the Lord just didn't make it happen for this first guy. Because
he didn't encourage him, he didn't even welcome him, he discouraged
him. He said, I don't even have a place to lay down, you don't
know. He's saying in effect, it sure appears, you don't know
what you're asking. You don't even know what it means
to follow me. But look at the second example, and we'll spend
some time on this and really be through and just make one
Brief comment on the last part. He said now to another follow
me This is the Son of God speaking now. This isn't some puny Feeble-minded
peanut-brained ant saying I here's what I'm gonna do This is the Son of God who said
let there be light and there was light saying follow me But
he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Now,
the Lord never said follow me to anybody that didn't follow
him. And normally they didn't even
say but. He didn't ask 20 disciples in
order to get 12 apostles. He asked, he commanded 12 and
he got 12. That's how the Lord operates. But here he allows this man to
say but in order to teach him something and to teach us something.
When he says let there be light, light doesn't say well hold on
a minute I've got other things to do. Unless he lets it. And that's what he's doing here.
He's allowing this. He said Lord suffer me first
to go and bury my father. Now that almost certainly doesn't
mean his father's dead and he needs to go set up the funeral.
It could. It doesn't matter really. But
likely he's saying my father's old and I need to, I'm the one
that takes care of him. What's he gonna do without me?
And I'm gonna wait until he dies and then once I've taken care
of him and he's gone then I'll do whatever you want me to do. It almost sounds reasonable,
doesn't it? In this second example, the Lord
says, follow me. And we know what he means by
it, don't we? Abandon your own way, set your heart on me, obey
me, submit to me, imitate me. I'm your life now. And whereas
the first man was anxious to follow the Lord, this man hesitates.
You remember that parable our Lord told where he said one man
said I'll go and then he didn't and then another said I'm not
going to go and then he repented later and went. Which one obeyed?
That's pretty obvious isn't it? The first man was anxious but
then The rich young ruler was anxious, wasn't he? Oh Lord,
I want to inherit eternal life. Just name it. I've done everything
that you're talking about. What else can I do? What do I
need to do? This first man hesitates. He
doesn't refuse. He doesn't say, no Lord, I have
no interest. Thanks anyway. He doesn't say
that. But the Lord needs to teach him something. of his earthly
responsibilities, which by the way are not to be neglected,
all things being equal. If the Lord didn't come and say
follow me, then the right thing for this man to do was to bury
his father and take care of his father. Make sure that his father
had everything he needed and respect him, honor him as the
Lord taught him to do. That's the right thing to do,
all things being equal. This was a noble consideration,
there's no question about that. Just as it was noble for Martha
to be cumbered about much service. Who is she serving? She's serving
the Lord. The Lord's come for supper. I've
got things to do. But our Lord taught her something
too, didn't he? And us. And he teaches this man
the same way. He teaches him what's vital. Serving the Lord there ain't
a whole lot wrong with that. But what's vital is What the Lord
does for us what he says? Mary hath chosen that good part
Which shall never be taken away. What's she doing? She's sitting
at his feet hearing him hearing him And so this also was noble
and again all thing, you know Not not a bad thing to do But
our Lord said, follow me. Follow me. What needs to happen
if the Lord says, follow me? Well, wait, this, this, this,
no. What needs to happen is follow Him. That's it. He teaches him what's vital.
There are things that people think are important in life. There are things that are important
in life. And burying your father would
be one of those. And then there is that which is vital. The Lord gives this man a very
blunt and a very instructive response. The Lord didn't say
it didn't need to be done. In fact, the Lord said it'll
be taken care of. He will be taken care of. It'll all be fine.
Dead people, spiritually dead people, can tend to matters like
that. And when the Lord says, follow
me, there's not going to be bad consequences of that, of you
obeying the Lord. You're not ever going to be a
loser for doing what God says do. Well, I obeyed the Lord and
my dad wasn't taken care of. You really think the Lord's going
to let that happen? There are others that can take
care of that. Spiritually dead people can tend to matters like
that, but a dead man can't preach the kingdom of God. Can't do
it. He can pretend. He can say a lot of good things. Only someone who has life from
God can preach the gospel of life. And there's nothing more
important than that. We just entered the category
of that which is vital. Have we come to terms with the
fact that there's nothing more important in this world than
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? If there's nothing more
important than Him, then what is there more important for us
to do than what He said to do? And our Lord is not going to
tell us to do something that contradicts something else He's
told us to do. Can you worship and honor God
and take care of your family? I'd say yeah. Can you worship
and honor God and take care of your responsibilities in this
world? If not, then you've got too many responsibilities in
this world. Or the wrong ones. And me too. Have we come to terms
with that though? David said, a day in thy courts
is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Why David, why is it that important to you? To dwell in his house,
to worship him, to honor him, to obey him, to rejoice in his
gospel for him giving you his body and blood to drink through
faith in the gospel. Why is that so vital? For the
Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. This world can't give you that.
You're not getting that anywhere else. And no good thing will he withhold
from them. You think you're going to miss
out on something because you honor God too much? No good thing will
he withhold from them that walk uprightly. You're not ever going
to be the loser for honoring him, and you can't honor him
too much. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the
man that trusteth. And the following him is going
to take trusting him. In order to go sell everything
you had and give it to the poor, Would that take a little trust?
Would you have to just follow somebody? How am I going to live? Follow me. Follow me. What about my loved
ones? This man said. You know what
the best thing you can do for your loved ones is? Follow him. Would Martha have been better
served by Mary getting up and doing the dishes? Or cutting
the onions? Or was Martha better served by
Mary sitting there, not even consciously doing this so Martha
could see it. But our Lord used Mary as the
example. She's sitting here at my feet,
hearing my words. Martha, you're troubled about
many things, but Mary hath chosen that good part. May God give us grace. And another
also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid
them farewell, which are at home in my house. Apparently. Relatives. Let me. Go say bye to mom and dad and.
And Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the plow
and looking back is fit. for the kingdom of God. We could
say a lot about that, but what impressed me about this, I guess
the most, is the analogy that our Lord gave. When you're plowing,
what's the important thing about plowing? Well, it's important
if there's going to be life, if we're going to have food,
if we're going to have what we need, there's got to be plowing. But
the act of plowing itself, what do you want to do? You want to
plow straight, don't you? You know how you do that? You
look straight. If you're looking over here and
plowing that way, what's going to happen? If you look back,
you're not worthy. You're not going to plow right.
You're not going to plow straight unless you're looking straight.
And in the kingdom of God, where are we going to look? Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Looking
to the one who is the reason I have faith and The reason I'm never going
to lose it He's the reason that I have that I believe on him
and he's the reason I'm gonna die believing on him looking
unto Jesus The author and finisher of our faith who for the joy
That was set before him endured the cross and despising the shame. May we look to Christ crucified
and plow with all of our hearts, keeping our eyes on him. May
he fix our hearts upon him this morning and never let us look away. Let's
pray.