Matthew 8, verses 18-23. The
title of the message tonight is, Two Would-Be Disciples. Two
Would-Be Disciples. Here in this text, we have before
us two men. that had the desire, had the
will to be the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture says in verse 18,
Now when Jesus saw the great multitudes about Him, He gave
commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe
came at Him and said, Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever
Thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, The
foxes have holes, the birds of the air have their nests, but
the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And another
of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me to go first and
bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow
me, and let the dead bury their dead. And when he was entered
into the ship, his disciples followed him. Now, we have before
us in this text, immediately before this, the Lord Jesus Christ
came into Capernaum and He had healed the great multitude of
sickness and cast out devils in that city. You can imagine
the... stir of excitement. You can imagine
that this town was in an uproar. This town was, this thing was
miraculous. Imagine if all of a sudden everyone
was healed in a hospital. Just everybody got up. And would
you not think that would cause such a stir in this city? Of course it would. People would
be excited about religion. They would be stirred up in their
hearts. And no doubt this man, these
men here, they come from this and they were stirred up about
this. They were stirred up. They wanted
to follow Jesus. These two men came out of this
longing to follow Jesus. Friends, in great times of difficulty
and times of pain, the preaching of the gospel is a welcome gift
among men. It is. To see the excitement
of believers in Christ worshiping around the gospel is a contagious
thing. It is. People will become curious
about this. We see this over and over in
our study in the book of Acts. How that men were curious about
the gospel after the Lord had done a great work and saved a
number of people. And so it is when the gospel
is accompanied with power and demonstration of the Spirit.
When sinners come to life, there's excitement. There's excitement. Especially when there's a great
number of them coming at once. When there's a great excitement
building because sinners are healed and saved by the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And because of this, many will
come longing to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Not that they
might be forgiven of their sins, not that they might be healed
of the disease of sin, but they'll come to be disciples because
of the excitement. They'll come because they see
a change in other people and they might want and desire that
change. And they might be caught up with
all the feelings and the emotions of the moment. These men, for
the most part, were caught up in the emotion of the moment. The emotion of the moment. First
of all, I want us to see this. Will does not make a disciple. Will does not make one a disciple
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this man here in verse
19. It says, A certain scribe said unto him, Master, I will
follow thee wherever you go. I will. This man, can you not
see he was willing to follow Jesus? This man was willing to
be a disciple of Jesus Christ. But notice this man was not called
to be a disciple. Jesus didn't call this man to
be a disciple. Yet this man was willing to be
a disciple. He was not asked by Jesus or
any of the other disciples to come along. He took it upon himself
to say, I will join your group. I will. I will follow you. Now, on the outside, this man
seemed to even have the right attitude, didn't he? I'll follow
you wherever you go. That sounds good, doesn't it?
That sounds pretty good. Now, in our day, false freewill
works religion. This man would have been gladly
accepted. Wouldn't he? He would have been
gladly just taken in. This man would have been given
the right hand of fellowship immediately. He would have been
given a position in the church. They would have estimated what
kind of talent this man had, and they would have put him in
that group. If this man was a great businessman,
don't you think that the false church would put him in the finance
division? If this man could have a great
voice, do you not suppose they would put him in the choir or
have him singing specials? If this man was a carpenter,
don't you think they'd give him a hammer and tell him all the
things that need to be done around the church? Of course he would. Why? Because this is how false
religion requires for all of its discipleship, is that a man
be willing and that this man make a decision for Jesus, and
then Jesus is obligated to accept him as a disciple. Free will works religion is nothing
more than to deny the sovereignty of God and salvation of the souls
of men. It is to believe that Jesus Christ
accomplished salvation for no one, but made it possible for
everyone. It is to set the will of man
above the will of God, while at the same time it robs
God of His sovereignty and robs grace of its meaning. That's
what freewill works religion does. This man would have been
gladly accepted. Why? Because he made a decision
to follow Jesus, and he would have been gladly accepted. There are many men today like
this man who would rush madly into the presence of Jesus, demanding
of Him to be accepted, based on some decision that he
made. Demanding of Jesus to make him His disciple, as though He
would be thankful to have him. This man, he was a scribe. He
sure said, well, I'm sure Jesus would be thankful to have me.
I will follow you wherever you go. I will. Oh, really? This man, he would
have been accepted today. But will does not make a disciple.
Man could be willing to be a disciple, but that doesn't make a man disciple
of Jesus Christ. Number two, talent does not make
a disciple. This man, is this not what the
slick, smooth-talking, soul-winning preachers are doing? They tell
men to esteem themselves highly, and they esteem God very lowly. Is this not why they are trying
to exalt men in their messages? Of course it is. It's because
they think that men can add value to God. This man thought he could add
something to God. He thought he could add something.
This man in our text, he was a scribe. He was a teacher of
the law. This man was an educated fellow.
And there was Jesus. At this time, He didn't have
all of His disciples. He had just a few fishermen.
This scribe come up and surely he thought, he said, well, man,
I can add to this group. This group's a couple of fishermen.
I can do better than that. I'm sure this group needs me.
I'm sure that Jesus needs me. I'll follow you, Jesus, and I'll
help you out. This man, no doubt, was talented.
And he, no doubt, was willing to follow Christ. But friends,
talent and will does not make a disciple. This is the idea of false religion,
that God will be pleased to have a person and his talents. Therefore,
false preachers cater to men and they tell them how much God
needs them and how much their talents could be used in the
service of God. They say, if you're rich, God
needs your money. If you're a businessman, you're
good in business, God needs your business sense. They see these men all the while
dropping hints that God needs them. I knew in my walk with Christ,
I knew a man in the church, and he professed to be a believer.
And I sure hope he is, I don't know. I don't know, he's gone
out from the church and he doesn't have anything to do with the
gospel being preached and hear the gospel anymore. But I used
to hear him say something that always kind of got to me and
I didn't understand why until I read this verse. He said, you
know, I was a rich businessman and I know God put me in business
so that I might help out the young men of the church. And
he sure did. He helped them out of their money.
He helped them out of their time and energy. And nothing he did
accomplished anything. It all came to nothing. Why? Because God does not need
him. God did not need his talents.
God does not need anybody. I want to make that as clear
as I can. God does not need your talents or money or anything. The church of Jesus Christ does
not need wealth or abilities or talents to accomplish God's
purpose. God's purpose will be accomplished
no matter what. His purpose will be accomplished
no matter what. Matter of fact, I love this Scripture.
God says He has chosen the weak things. The untalented people. Isn't that great? That's great. God's chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty. And it
does every time. It does. I heard this on the
radio. They did a survey. Do you realize
that this, I don't know if it's this city or this state, but
one of them is the most unhappy city or state in the United States. Do you realize that? Yet, I guarantee
you, per square block, we have more churches than any other
city. And yet, this is the most unhappy
city. Why? Because there's no joy in
false religion. And yet there's joy in such a
small group. There's a joy for the gospel. There's a love for Christ. And
they can't understand that. They can't understand it. God
chose the weak things. God doesn't need our talents. And so everyone that thinks themselves
to be a benefit for God's glory can be assured of this. God will
not use you. He may use you as an example
of what not to be. He may use that talent that way,
but He will not use it for your glory. He will not use it for
man's glory, He'll use it for His own glory. Scripture says,
we does this, that according as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. God will have the glory. Have
you ever heard this, when some false preacher stands up and
preaches a funeral, that heaven is a better place because so
and so is there? Have you ever heard that? That
drives me insane. I can't imagine someone adding
to the glory of God. You can't. That's the most foolish
and prideful statement, yet this is how men think, that they can
add something to God. That God will be pleased to have
them. That God would be gracious to
have them. He would say, oh, I'd love to
have this man. If God wants that man, He'll
put him in the dust before He has him. I like this illustration. Take
a bucket of water. And you put your fist in the
bucket of water. And when you pull it out, Look
down and see what impression you made in the water. That's
how much God needs you. That's how much God needs you.
He does not need us. God is altogether glorious and
self-sufficient in Himself. And any man that says God will
make him a disciple because he has talent, that man is a fool.
That man is a fool. I'll tell you what, a man that
comes to be a disciple, he will come willingly. He will. But all that come to Jesus on
the grounds of their will or their talent will be dismissed. This man was dismissed. And so
will everyone else who comes in that manner. False religion teaches Jesus
longs to save them. but He has no power to oppose
their free will. False religion tells us that
Jesus loves them, but He cannot save them unless they submit
themselves to Him. Can you not see how this lie exalts men to think Jesus needs
them? Can you not see how that would
cater to that? How that would yield to the exaltation of their
talents and will? If He can't open the door of
your heart without permission, what can He do? Nothing. And that's exactly what their
Jesus can do. Nothing. He can't save anyone
because He's not Jesus. because He's not the Lord Jesus,
and they are not the disciples of the Lord Jesus that believe
such. Number three, prosperity is not
a motive for discipleship. Will does not make a disciple,
talent does not make a disciple, and prosperity is not the motive
of a true disciple. Another reason this man was willing
to come to Christ and willing to be His disciple was not only
he thought God could use him, but that he could use God to
get what he wanted. And so many come to Jesus willing
to be His disciples so that they might have all their physical
needs met. Some come with the idea that
Jesus is nothing more than Santa Claus. That He is nothing more
than just sitting in heaven waiting to fulfill your every physical
desire. Friends, that's not Christ. Christ
is seated in heaven and He does whatsoever He wills. Not what you will. Not what I
will. Many times He answers our prayer
in gracious kindness, doesn't He? But that's because it's according
to His will. Not because of ours. Not because
of ours. Many believe that because they
are willing disciples, willing to be disciples, that He will
give them money and He will give them fame and things that they
desire in the flesh. I was watching this video. Some
lady posted this on Cheryl's Facebook. It was a video of a
man in his apartment. He walked out of his apartment.
There's a tornado coming. And he looked at this tornado,
and he had this guy video behind him, he said, watch this. And
he said, in Jesus' name I rebuke you, and he sput out some gibberish.
And sure enough, the tornado, it vanished. Vanished. Immediately. And then the tornado
moved over his house and hit on the other side. You see, some men, desire Jesus,
to be a disciple of Jesus so they can perform miracles. They want Jesus to give them
some kind of power over elements and things. This man, he did
say that and the storm did move. Now this man and those like him
think that God is there to accomplish their wills, to save their homes,
and to deliver them from physical damage and physical hurts. That's
what they believe. And they give no heed to their
spiritual bondage. They give no heed to their spiritual
need of grace and revelation of the Word of God, but rather
they are blinded by God and given what they want so that they would
be twofold more a child of hell and God would let them go on
in their religion. Scripture says in Matthew 24
or 24, it says, for there shall arise false Christs and false
prophets. And listen to this. and show
great signs and wonders, insomuch if it were possible, the very
elect would be deceived." How do I know that that man was a
liar? How do I know? I'm not going
to know by looking at the miracle that happened in his home, or
the wonder that happened in his home. I'm not going to, by looking
at that video, know what this man is. How will we know? By His message. What is He preaching? What is He teaching? It doesn't matter if a man raises
someone from the dead, moves storms, or causes earthquakes.
If he is not preaching the salvation of God by Jesus Christ alone,
by the grace of God through faith alone, in Christ alone, he is
a liar. I don't care what he does. It
doesn't matter. We're not deceived by these things. Men that preach that Jesus only
wants for us to do good things for us are what we think is good.
See, it's not that they don't... They believe Jesus wants to do
them good, but their kind of good is only what they think
is good. They're going down the road and
they have a flat tire. They don't think that's good.
A storm come and destroy their home? They don't think that's
good. But God's people know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. They believe Jesus wants you
to be healthy, happy, and prosperous in this life. But Jesus said,
nope, in this world you shall have what? Tribulation. He didn't say you were going
to be happy, healthy, and wealthy all your life. That's not a promise
of Scripture. That's rather a lust of evil
men. It is the Word of Jesus Christ
and the cross that gives us comfort and peace in the midst of our
troubles. This is the reason Jesus responds
to this would-be disciple. Look at His response in verse
20. Jesus said, "...the foxes have
holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath
not where to lay His head." You see, Jesus saw through this man's
speech. He saw right to his heart. He
knew this man's motive for wanting to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, you want to be
my disciple? Here it is. I don't have a place to lay my
head. How in the world do you think you're going to get wealth?
If I'm not wealthy, how do you think you're going to get wealthy? And I want us to recognize this.
This is the first time Jesus uses this term, Son of Man. Do
you see that? He said, the Son of Man. This was a term that
Jesus loved to use for Himself. He used this many times. When
you see this term, I want you to understand that Jesus is talking
to us about His humanity. He's speaking to us of His humanity. When Jesus, who is the Son of
God, came down, He actually became a man in every sense of the word. He had a body. He had a soul. He could feel. He could have
emotion. He could have passion. He was
a man in every sense. It said, it behooved him to be
made like unto his brethren, that he might be a faithful high
priest. that He was touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
This man, Jesus, was poor. He was in poverty all of His
life. He had to get His tax money from
a fish's mouth. He had none. He had nothing. The only thing the Scripture
says that Christ had was His coat and His vesture. And they
took that at the cross. He had nothing. He had nothing. How much better do you think
His disciples should fare in this world? If our Master had nothing, would it be wrong for us to have
nothing? Is it wrong? Is God doing us
wrong if He takes everything we have? No. Why? Because we're not better
than our Master. Our Master was poor. Scripture says that He became poor. And that through His poverty,
we might be made rich. Not in the wealth of this world,
but in grace, in salvation. There's the riches of God. There's
the greatness of God. There's the treasure of God.
It's in his salvation, in Christ, his son. He is the treasure of
wisdom and knowledge. And having him, we should be
content. His disciples don't seek after
the things of this world. A disciple, a disciple of Jesus
Christ must then expect to suffer in this world. And this is my
next point, count the cost. In other words, Jesus is telling
this man, you want to be my disciple? You better count the cost before
you make such a hasty decision. Count the cost. Is there any
here who would follow Jesus Christ? Are there any here who would
be His disciples tonight? You, that I'm talking to you.
Do you desire to be the disciple of Jesus Christ? If so, you better
count the cost. You better count the cost. Don't
come in haste. Don't come without counting the
cost of what it is to be a disciple. Now some overzealous soul winner,
he tells them, Jesus loves you, Jesus died for you, make a decision.
And some man says, well, what's the catch? And the man says,
oh, no catch. Don't worry about it. You don't
have to give up anything. Just make your decision. You see,
that unregenerate man knows more than that soul winner. He knows
that there's something's got to go. He cannot have Christ
and His sin. He cannot have Christ and this
world. He knows better than that overzealous
man, overzealous false preacher. Go to Luke chapter 14. This is
very important, Luke chapter 14. And look at verse 25. Please, if you don't get anything
else, you better get this tonight. You better pay close attention
to what Jesus here says, because this is altogether qualification
for discipleship. I didn't say it. It's not my
opinion. This is exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ says about those who would be His disciples. Luke 14, verse 25, and there
went a great multitude with Him, and He turned and said unto them, 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. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Now friends, that is plain language. And the first thing men want
to do is reason that away. Well, Jesus really didn't mean
these things. He meant something else. No,
He meant this. He meant this. Well, surely,
pastor, you're telling me not to hate my father and mother.
What Jesus is telling you is anyone that opposes Him or sets
himself above Christ, you are to hate him. You are to oppose
him. You are to violently cast him
away from you. Christ must be all or he will
be nothing. He will be first. Are you and
your loves in this world will die in your sins? He must be
first. He must be first. All relationships that oppose
the gospel must be done away with. Well, pastor, that sounds
too radical. I'm sorry. It's not my word. It's his. Flip back to your text and look
at this second man. Jesus said in this second man,
follow me. It says the other man, the other
of his disciples said, Lord, suffer me first to bury my father. Sounds like a good excuse, doesn't
it? Jesus said, follow me. The man
says, well, let me go bury my father. I want to follow you.
I want to be your disciple. I'm willing. Just let me go bury
my father." This word here doesn't mean that
his father was dead yet. This means that his father was
at the point of dying. In other words, he was an elderly
man at the point of being dead. And he said, let me spend my
last days with my father before I take up and follow you. And Jesus said to him, let the
dead bury the dead, you follow me. Does that sound cold? Does that
sound indifferent to you? Jesus said, I will be first if
you would be my disciple. You must give up all relationships
that oppose me. His father was dead and the people
around his father were dead. They were opposing to Christ.
And He says, you must reject them and come to Me. All relationships must be done
away with. I know of men who live in places
who do not have any worship of God, and yet because of their
parents, because of their families, because of their jobs, they will
not get up and leave to go where God's Word is being preached.
Why? Because they cannot cast off
their relationships in this world for the gospel. Christ's disciples will cast
off all relationships for Him. If any relationship would hinder
them from the gospel, they'll put it aside. Christ must be
first. Friends, being the disciple of
Christ will cost you everything. Who would be His disciple? Who
would be His disciple now? This cost is not for salvation,
but it's because of it. Christ says, I've accomplished
all salvation, come unto Me and count all things but dung, that
you may win Me. That you may be found in Me as
all your righteousness. and all your standing before
God." Paul said, "...Yea, I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, for
whom I suffer the loss of all things, and do count them but
dung." You see, Paul counted the cost. And what did he find
out when he counted? He counted all his righteousness
dung. He counted all of his religion,
dung. He counted all of his past associations,
dung. He counted all of those Pharisees
and all of his connections and all of his righteousness as nothing. And he said, I want Christ and
I want nothing else. And anything that got in the
way of Christ, Paul cast it aside. And so does every disciple of
Jesus Christ. Every one of them. Otherwise,
you cannot be his disciple. Is this not just reasonable?
Paul says that this is our reasonable service. It's reasonable to cast off everything
for Christ. Did He not cast off everything
for us? Did He not cast off all of the
glory and praise that was due His name to become a man so that
He might offer Himself to God without spot for us? And should we not easily let
go of the garbage of this world? If you would be His disciple,
you must. You must. And lastly, a disciple of Jesus
Christ must be called. If you would be a disciple, your
will has nothing to do with it. Your talents have nothing to
do with it. It's not about the prosperity of your flesh. It
is about the exaltation of Christ. What made the difference in these
two men in our text? Why was one cast off and the
other accepted? Look at that in verse 22 and
you'll find the reason. Jesus said, follow Me. That man was called. That man
was called. The difference was the calling
of Jesus Christ. A man may be willing all he wants
to follow Jesus of false religion. He may even make an effort to
follow the true Son of God, but that won't last very long. Disciples of Jesus Christ are
called by the power of God The Holy
Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. Jesus said, no
man can come unto me, except what? Except the Father which
hath sent me draw him. Matthew 11, 27, all things are
delivered to me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but
the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son,
and to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. So then we see discipleship is
a result of the power of God. You cannot leave off everything
to follow Christ unless the Spirit of God give you that power. Except God Himself reach down
His hand from heaven and regenerate your dead rotting soul and bring
it to life. And in life we begin to see our
sin and need of Christ. And it's by this that we can
hold on loosely to the things of this life and when they come
to, and everything will, it'll come to a point where it'll usually
want preeminence over Christ. And we must hold loosely everything
in this world so that Christ might have the preeminence in
our hearts. And we that have the power of God, the Spirit
of God, we do that. His disciples do that. I gladly forsake all my worth
and merit for His salvation. Don't you? I gladly forsake all
my religious deeds for His grace. I gladly hold fast to Jesus Christ
alone for my salvation and will by His grace gladly leave off
anything that would hinder my love for His gospel and His person. And lastly, His disciples continue
in His Word. Jesus said in John 8, 31, If
ye continue in My Word, then are you My disciples indeed. In other words, this discipleship
is not just a sprint, it's a marathon. Everyone that is called to be
a disciple of Christ and comes to Christ, they will continue
to believe on Christ. They'll continue to cast off
these things, continue to follow Him, continue to love Him, continue
to serve Him. Jesus said, if any man put his
hand at a plow and turn back, he is not worthy of me. Would you be a disciple of Christ?
I would. I would. Then we must cast off
everything for Christ. Christ must be first. I pray this will be a blessing
to your heart. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.