Seeking once again the help of
Almighty God, I'd like you to turn with me to the chapter that
we read together, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 9,
and the text you'll find in verses 61 and 62. And another also said, Lord,
I will follow thee. Let me first go bid them farewell,
which are at home at my house. Jesus said unto him, no man having
put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom
of God. Very searching word again that
we have before us and as the Lord Jesus seeks to expose the
hearts of those who had come to him and He laid down the seriousness
and the consequences of those who follow him and those who
were wanting to follow him for various reasons. Multitudes followed
him because of the many miracles that he did. Multitudes followed
him because of the following of the crowd being ushered along
with everything that was taking place. But there were those who
truly followed him because they loved him, they were willing
to lay down their lives for his sake, they were willing to forsake
all and to follow him. And so in these closing verses
of chapter 9 there were those who had that desire to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ but then they had reasons why they couldn't. There was other things that were
more important, other things that they didn't want to lose,
other things that they deemed not quite as important as following
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus says those who who
put their hand to the plough or make a decision and say they
want to follow me and then look back, they're not fit for the
kingdom of God. And Jesus never shied away really
from saying it how it was. He never shied away of laying
down the truth of following him that there was going to be consequences
for those who followed him. As they persecuted me he says
so they will also persecute you. many people who follow the Lord
Jesus Christ because they believe that their life is going to be
altered materially and they're going to benefit from following
him materially and he tells them that the foxes have holes and
the birds of the air have nests but the son of man hath not where
to lay his head. And so the gospel is a call the
gospel, the good news of salvation is a call to follow the Lord
Jesus. We know that as Christ called
Peter and James as they were fishing with their father he
called them to follow me and they forsook all and they followed
him. the proclamation of the gospel
is that sound that message which says walk away walk away from
your sin walk away from this world and follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. The scripture tells us, doesn't
it, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. And so there must be that turning
away from the world and turning to the Lord Jesus. turning in
repentance and faith. As we know as repentance is as
it were a turning around. We are going in one direction,
heading towards hell on the broad road that leads to destruction
and we hear the gospel sound, we hear the message of salvation
and that message of salvation has an effect upon us. It puts
faith within our hearts and we turn aside, we turn around, we
see our sin and our iniquity and our shortcomings and our
failings and we turn And we look to the Lord Jesus. We go through
the door, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're brought onto the narrow
way that leads to life. And so we walk away from our
old life, the old nature, the old man, as Paul calls it. We are different. And so we hear
the gospel sound. We walk away from sin and Satan
and self and our old life. we follow the Lord Jesus. Or
maybe you're thinking well you know my sin and myself is not
quite so bad. What about your self-righteousness? That also has to be walked away
from. That self-confidence, that self-ability
that you see in yourself, that you are able to obtain a righteousness
that God would be accepted, would be pleased with. The scripture
tells us that our own righteousnesses are as a filthy rag before a
holy God. His eyes cannot behold evil.
and therefore our own righteousnesses can never obtain and satisfy
those pure eyes of Almighty God and so that also must be turned
from and to follow the Lord Jesus. Our hope, our only hope is the
righteousness of Christ. Our only hope is the cleansing
blood of the Lord Jesus that Christ was well-pleasing to the
father as we read as Jesus was transfigured before the father
as he was there on that mountain. He was transfigured before Peter
and James and John. And as they went up into the
mountain to pray, his raiment was altered, his fashion and
his countenance was altered, his raiment became white and
glistening. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elias. In verse 34, it says, while he
thus spoke, there came a cloud and overshadowed them, and they
feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice
out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. And so the only beloved son is
the Lord Jesus Christ. All else has fallen short of
the glory of God and unable to obtain that righteousness, that
standard which God requires. And so our only hope is the beloved
son of God. And so as our sin is revealed
to us, our unrighteousness is revealed to us, we are given
faith to turn away from our sin, turn away from our eternal destination,
which would have been hell, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there must be that following
the Lord Jesus. This following the Lord Jesus
cannot be a half-hearted affair. We cannot have our sin in one
hand and Christ in the other. We cannot have one foot on the
broad road that leads to destruction and one foot on the narrow way
that leads to life. We cannot continue on in sin. As Paul says,
that grace may abound. There must be a wholehearted
following of the Lord Jesus Christ. It demands total commitment to
him. I mean where in Kenya I used
to say there to the people there used to be a ferry that goes
from Mombasa Island to the mainland. I used to say to him you know
you can't have one foot on the ferry and one foot on the land
because you will fall into the water in either one way or the
other. You must be either on the ferry
or on the land. You cannot split yourself between
Christ and the world. And so it demands total commitment
to following the Lord Jesus. You cannot half-heartedly follow
him. We must completely follow him. Demands dedication. It is a total
life work of following Christ. Dedicated to him as his servants,
as his slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. We walk behind him, we
follow him, we obey him and we seek to serve him. It demands
faith to look to him. to supply our daily need. And so Jesus tells us that following
him is like digging a plough into the ground and setting out
on a ploughing journey. Somebody ploughing needs faith. Ploughing is an act of faith. Those who ploughed in the Old
Testament and even in third world countries today. It takes a lot
of effort. It's not just getting into a
tractor and turning the engine on and allowing the tractor to
do all of the work. It requires manual labour, requires
sweat and stamina. And it requires faith. If you didn't believe that God
was going to bring the rain, if you didn't believe that God
was going to cause the seed to germinate, you would be wasting
your time. Sometimes when the men used to
plough our land at the mission, it would take them three or four
days by hand. Hard work. They used to laugh
at me and say that white men can't plough. We don't have the
strength. It's for Africans, they would
say. And so Jesus says, no man who puts his hand to the plough
and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. It requires faith
and determination and commitment that once you have started, you've
got to continue. You can't wake up the next day
and think, well, I'm too tired. Yesterday was too difficult.
It was too much sun, too much hardship. Because if you don't
plough, then you won't be able to plant and then you won't be
able to get a harvest. And so it demands a commitment
and determination, a perseverance, a focus. And you've got to keep
looking straight ahead. Anyone who's ever mown a long
lawn will know that if you take your eyes off the end where you're
going, your lines will become wonky. If you start looking round
about you, if you start looking at your lawnmower, if you start
looking at your feet, if you start looking at your arms, your
lines will go all wonky. You're meant to look straight
ahead so that your lines might be straight. It would be the
same with ploughing. As Jesus looked round about him
and saw those men in the field, ploughing the field, he would
have seen them having their faces towards the end of the field.
Ploughing in a straight line, totally committed, totally dedicated,
having faith in what they were doing that God would provide
the necessary to make their labour worthwhile. Ecclesiastes it tells
us there in chapter 11 and verse 4, he that observeth the wind
shall not sow and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. And so there's no excuses to
be made. Those who look to the wind and
say well it's a bit too windy today, I'm not going to sow,
will wake up tomorrow morning and have another excuse. They
will say it's a bit too windy today as well and so they won't
sow. He who looks at the clouds also
will not reap the harvest. the harvest time you want it
to be dry but if you look up in the sky and you see there's
a little cloud well I'm just going to sit down and I'm going
to relax today I'm not going to go out into my fields then
you won't reap. You'll keep looking for an excuse,
another excuse, another excuse and nothing will be done and
you will go hungry. So it would be the same for those
who plough. It's too hot today. It's too
difficult today. You've got something else to
do today. But if you were to neglect your
ploughing then you're going to not have a harvest in the future. And so if you look round about
you making all manner of excuses as to why you cannot put your
hand to the plough then you never will because every day you'll
come up with another excuse. verse 57 of our chapter there was a man there who wanted to follow the Lord
Jesus. He says, Lord I will follow thee whethersoever thou goest. So Jesus says to him, it's fair
enough. You know the foxes have holes
and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has
nowhere to lay his head. Jesus never hid the fact that
there would be hardship. You see ploughing is hard work
and following the Lord Jesus Christ is also hard work. scripture says it is through
much tribulation that we must enter the kingdom of God. When the apostle Paul was converted
he was told it's going to be hard work. In Acts chapter 9
verse 15 After he had been converted,
the Lord speaks to Ananias and says, Go thy way, for he's a
chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and
kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how great
things he must suffer for my name's sake. That was the message
that came to the Apostle Paul, that you're going to suffer.
although Christ has appeared to you and revealed himself to
you he has altered the course of your life he has altered your
eternal destiny yet to get to that eternal destiny which is
heaven itself there's going to be suffering along the way there's
going to be hardship on the way and yet the first message that
he receives was that you are going to suffer you're going to suffer Now most people would walk away
and say, you know, oh, this is the pathway of a Christian. This is the pathway of following
the Lord Jesus, and I don't want it. By our nature, we shy away
from suffering. By our natural manner, our flesh
shies away from difficulty and hardship. We like to have an
easy path, which is why through the process of time, people have
stopped ploughing by hand and now they drive wonderful tractors
with GPS and air conditioning. So they've taken out the hardship
of the work. Our flesh doesn't like hard labour
and suffering. Yet the Apostle Paul is told,
now Christ has appeared to you you are going to enter into a
pathway of suffering. Jesus says, no man who puts his
hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of
God. If you were to put your plough
into the ground and you find that it's too hard and you give
up, Jesus says you're not worthy to obtain and harvest. You're not worthy to receive
a reward. The Apostle Paul was told you've
put your plough into the ground and it's going to be difficult.
It's going to be hard. It's going to be laboursome.
You're going to have obstacles and persecutions and beatings
and rejections. That was the first message he
received after following Christ. You know in our land if someone
becomes a Christian it's not really that difficult. Especially if you're brought
up in a Christian family, your mum and dad are Christians and
you get saved and you want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ,
you want to be baptised Everyone is going to be for you. Everyone
is going to be encouraging you in that pathway. But it's not like that everywhere. If someone is converted out of
a Muslim family they may lose their mother and their father.
They may lose any inheritance. They may not be able to go to
family parties. They may not be able to mix with
their uncles or their aunties or their cousins. They may lose
their friends. They may lose their jobs. They
may lose everything. And Jesus says, I will show you
how much you will suffer. You think of those who come out
of the, who are born again out of the homosexual community and
that, LGBT and all of that. They will lose everything. They
will lose their friends. That lifestyle that they once
lived, they have to walk away from it. They will suffer. No man having put his hand to
the plough and looking back, It is fit for the kingdom of
God. And so Jesus says we're to consider
the cost. That's probably something that
you and I have never really thought about because as we most have
been brought up in Christian families there was no cost. There
was nothing really for us to consider. Maybe we didn't really
lose anything. As soon as I was a Christian I lost all my friends. I used to be known by everybody. I could go into town, everyone
knew who I was. But as soon as I became a Christian,
nobody wanted to know. And I never really considered
the cost because of the greatness of the love of Christ which shed
a board in my heart. I had only one desire and it
was to follow him. I never considered the cost. But Jesus tells us that we are
to consider the cost, that there will be a cost to following him. Maybe not now. Maybe not in our time. may be coming. May be coming in this land of
England when there will be a cost. There'll be certain jobs that
Christians won't be able to do. There'll be certain places that
Christians won't be able to go. as our brothers and sisters throughout
this world there are certain things that they can't do certain
jobs that they can't have sometimes they have to meet in secret they
cannot broadcast publicly that they are believers in Christ
there is a cost to following the Lord Jesus Christ and yet
they've put their hand to the plough and they're ploughing
through hard ground and they can't look back because of their
love to the Lord Jesus Christ they keep their eyes fixed upon
him and they keep going knowing that he also has ploughed before
them. So there is a cost to following
the Lord Jesus. In chapter 14 of Luke, verse 25, there was a great multitude
that were following the Lord Jesus Christ and he turned to
them And he says to them, if any man will come after 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. And whosoever does not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of
you intended to build a tower sit is not down first and counteth
the cost. whether he has sufficient to
finish it. Happily after, he has laid a foundation and is
not able to finish it. And all that behold him begin
to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able
to finish. And he goes on explaining that
there is that consideration of the cost. Those who were following
Christ in that day knew there was a cost that was involved
in following him. And what Jesus didn't want was
people to say that they were following him and then when the
hardship came and the problems came, they turned around and
they went back. He says, first of all, Before
you do follow me, before you put your plough into the ground,
consider the cost of being my disciple. He says I'm not going
to provide you with an abundance of material supplies. I'm not
going to bless you materially because my kingdom is not of
this world. I'm going to provide for you your daily needs but
if you're going to walk with me then you're going to walk
like me. The foxes have holes, the birds
of the air have nests and the son of man he has nowhere to
lay his head. Now it doesn't mean that every
single Christian is going to lose everything but that the
love that we have to Christ is worth more than all of the other
stuff that we have around about us, that we are willing to lose
every single thing for the Lord Jesus Christ because we don't
want to lose the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who do not love the Lord
Jesus Christ wholeheartedly would rather lose the Lord Jesus Christ
than lose their material goods around about them. And so the
farmer who puts his plough into the ground can't look back. And he knows there's going to
be a cost. He knows he's going to have to
plough today, plough tomorrow, plough the next day. He knows
he's going to have to buy seed. He knows he's going to have to
rely completely upon God, but he has to do it. He has his eye at the end of
the field. He has his eye on the promises
of God that one day there is going to be a harvest. And so he's willing to put in
the effort because he knows that there's going to be a harvest. If I don't plough, he says, I'll
get nothing. So I must plough and I plough
in hope knowing that the Lord will bring the rain and I will
get a harvest. Back in our chapter, Luke 9, Jesus says, And he said unto them all, If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, let him hand
over his will to me. Deny yourself, lose yourself. In my will I take up his cross
and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life
for my sake the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged
if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be a castaway? You see there are many people
we could say that are partying when they should be ploughing.
There are many people that are living their life now and they're
going to lose it for all eternity but there are those who have
been able to view Christ, they've lost their life to him, they've
given their life to him, they've plunged the plough into the hard
ground and they are following the Lord Jesus Christ and he
says they will save it. You see because there is that
harvest that is coming. They have saved their life eternally. They've handed over their life
to Christ now and now they are following the Lord Jesus Christ
because their hope is that eternal harvest when Christ would come
and gather his people to himself. And they view the cost as nothing. It's like it's not a cost. because
of what they are to gain. The reward that they are going
to receive far outweighs any loss that they have in this world. As the farmer is willing to plough
money into the ground because he knows he's going to get a
harvest, so the believer is willing to cast himself upon Christ and
to forsake all and follow the Lord Jesus, deny himself and
follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? because he knows that one
day there will be an eternal harvest and everything that you
see round about you will be gone forever and all that will remain
is the spiritual gifts which cannot be taken away from us. And so the farmer has to plunge
his plough into the ground and fix his eyes upon the end of
the field and have a hope for the harvest. He dies to himself. because he wants to live. He
dies to himself. He could be sitting in his house
relaxing but he dies to himself and he begins to plough knowing
that if he doesn't plough he will never reap a harvest and
so he dies to himself to provide for his family and so the believer
dies to self follows the Lord Jesus Christ without looking
back, knowing that everything behind is going to be put away
and one day they will reap that heavenly harvest. And so he says
no man having put his hand to the plough looking back is fit
for the kingdom of God. Must plough in a straight line.
It's a narrow way that leads to life. Straight is the gate,
the scripture says. We look to the left hand or to
the right hand if we are distracted then we begin to plough in a
wonky line. If we begin to be distracted
by the material things of the world and take our focus off
the Lord Jesus Christ, off heaven itself, we begin to go wonky. And we don't plough on a straight
line. I went to think of Lot's wife. What did she do? She was told, don't look back.
But she looked back and became a pillar of salt. Don't look back. You'll be distracted. Maybe that's what you have been
doing even this week. You've been looking back. Oh,
that I didn't begin to follow Christ. I've suffered so much
since I've began to follow. Lot's wife looked back. She became
a pillar of salt. the children of Israel were delivered
from Egypt and how the Lord favoured them and blessed them as they
were being brought out and how the Red Sea was parted for them,
how the Lord provided for them water and manna in the wilderness.
Everything they needed he provided and helped them with. Yet they
looked back. They began to grumble and to
complain about the pathway that the Lord was leading them in.
In Numbers 11 and verse 4 it says, And the
mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting. And the
children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give
us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we
did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and
the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul
is dried away. There is nothing at all beside
this manna before our eyes. So God was providing them with
the manna and with the water. Yet they grumbled and complained. They cast their eyes back to
Egypt to their time of slavery and they wished themselves to
be back there. They felt that Pharaoh was a
better slave master than God. God was just giving them this
weak manner and they wanted some variety in their diet and they
lost contentment and they began to desire to return back to Egypt. And so they grumbled and they
complained about God and about all that he was providing them
with. And God took that, you can say personally, for he judged
them for it. In verse 33 it says, And while
the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the
wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord
smoked the people with a very great plague. And so as Jesus
says, whoever puts his hand to the plough and looking back is
not fit for the kingdom of God. These people have put their hand
to the plough. They began to follow the fiery,
cloudy pillar. They were following the Lord.
He was providing for them, giving them enough to keep them going
and yet they grumbled and they complained, they were not content
about the pathway and they wanted to go back to where they came
from. Maybe that's how we've been.
We see the world enjoying themselves. Maybe you feel that Christ has
been a hard taskmaster to you. And you've cast your mind back
to your previous life and you said, well, I had so much fun
then. Everything was going so well.
Since I've began to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, it's become
so difficult and so hard. Well, isn't that what he told
you would happen? Isn't that what he said at the
beginning? You are going to suffer much persecution. Didn't he tell
you that at the beginning, that through much tribulation, you
must enter the kingdom of God? And so why then now do you look
back and say I wish I was how I was before? Have you regretted following
the Lord Jesus Christ? No man having put his hand to
the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. The Christian life, as Jesus
says, is not an easy life. As we have looked at over the
past weeks, the reason why we wear the armour of God is because
of the enemy that is opposed to us. Self, sin and Satan and
the world. not an easy road to heaven, a
narrow way that leads to life. But it's only when we take our
eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ and stop ploughing in a straight
line we become distracted by those things round about us and
then our minds begin to think well it is actually quite a difficult
road and before I was having quite a nice time But like the psalmist said, when
I go into the sanctuary and I consider the end of the wicked and if
we consider all that Christ has actually done for us in bringing
us onto this narrow way that leads to life there is no way
that you would want to go back to your previous life. It's only
Satan that is distracting you from thinking about your eternal
destiny. The birds. of this time of year
are getting ready to migrate. We see them sitting on the telephone
wires, sitting in the trees singing and preparing themselves for
their journey to a better place. Christians are like that. Christians
are just here for a moment. They're on a journey. They are
migrating to a better place. And those birds that dilly-dally
around, they're going to be left behind. Those birds that don't
heed the warnings, they're going to be left behind. They're going
to suffer hunger. They're going to die of the cold.
They can't look back. They must keep going. And even
if the way is tough, can't look back, you've put your hand to
the plough and you've got to keep going, you've got to keep
ploughing. Not in your own strength, strength
is given to us daily but you've got to keep going, looking forward
to heaven, looking forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus never looked back. You ever read of a time that
Jesus looked back and said, no, these people aren't worth it.
I'd rather be back in heaven with my father. These people,
they're not worth it. We read, didn't we, that he set
his face toward Jerusalem. He knew what he was going to
do. He was going to die upon the cross, being handed over
into the hands of sinful men. And he had his mind fixed that
that was what he was going to do. He didn't say, it's not worth it. Many Christians,
all Christians I should imagine, at some time in our life as we
are ploughing through hard ground, we say, is Jesus worth it? Is this worth it? There was not one time when Jesus
took his eyes off his people and said, this is not worth it. In Isaiah. Chapter 50. And the Lord God hath opened mine
ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave
my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off
the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. so the Lord Jesus never turned
back. His mind was fixed, his object was his people walking
in obedience to his father and even though he gave his back
to the smiters and although they plucked off the hair from his
face yet he never turned back, he never said you are not worth
it, He understood that he loved his people and he loved them
from time eternity to eternity. He never took his eyes off them. Psalm 129, it says, the flowers
ploughed upon my back. They made their furrows long. And all the time, he was thinking
about you. He was thinking about me. Never
did he turn away as those strokes of man were laid upon him, never
did he say so and so is not worth it, that you are not worth it.
He came to save his people and to bring them to glory. As the father's wrath was poured
out upon him he never said they are not worth it. He put his
hand to the plough and he never looked back. He continued ploughing
a straight furrow even though they lined his own back with
furrows. He never took his eyes off his
people because he came to establish a kingdom. them although God
owns the whole world all silver and gold is his cattle upon a
thousand hills are his he owns the stars the planets the whole
space system is all his yet he came to save a people to bring
them into a spiritual kingdom the kingdom of light to take
them out of that spiritual darkness and to bring them into his kingdom
he took them from darkness to light and cause
them to follow him. His kingdom is not of this world.
Strangers and pilgrims are we, walking through, ploughing through
hard ground, but our object is Christ and eternity. And all
believers, we are looking in the same direction to the Lord
Jesus. And our desire is to follow him. and not to bring shame upon his
name by looking back, by ploughing wonky furrows. We've put our
plough into the ground. We've cast our lot with the Lord
Jesus Christ and we've got to keep going. Do not look back
like Lot's wife. Do not grumble and complain like
the children of Israel and displease our heavenly Father. But keep
going, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the way
is tough, when the way is difficult, keep looking at him and not to
be distracted. Keep your focus upon heaven itself. Obviously by our nature no one
is fit for the kingdom of God but Christ makes us fit for the
kingdom of God. No man having put his hand to
the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. May
we be enabled to keep looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. To conclude with our final hymn
from Hymns for Worship, number 35. Psalm 46. God is our refuge and our strength,
in straits of present aid. And therefore though the earth
remove, we will not be afraid. Though hills amidst the seas
be cast, though troubled waters roar, Yay though the swelling
billows shake the mountains on the shore. Hymn number 35, tune
267. God is our refuge and our strength
in straight and present aid. And therefore, although the earth
remove, we will not be afraid. The quills amid the seas because
the troubled waters flow. Yea, though the sweating billows
shake, the mountains on the The way that a list through streams
may grant the city of our God. The holy place wherein the Lord,
most high, hath his abode. God in the midst of hell doth
dwell, nothing shall her remove. God unto her own helper will,
and that right shall he prove. Be still and know that I am God,
among the heathen I. Will be exalted by your love,
will be exalted by The Lord of hosts is on our side,
our safety to secure. The God of Jacob is for us a
refuge. Now may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, to rest and abide with
you each now and for evermore. Amen.