Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. And let's read what will be our
text this morning. That's verses 18 to 27. Matthew 8 verse 18, it says, Now when Jesus saw great multitudes
about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came and
said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou
goest. And Jesus said unto him, 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 another of
his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and
bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, follow
me and let the dead bury their dead. And when he was entered
into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose
a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with
the waves, but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him
and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he said
unto them, why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he
arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great
calm. But the men marveled, saying,
What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
him?" Now, we could separate these
verses into two parts and two messages. One, where the Lord
is speaking to His disciples on following Him. And then another
one on the disciples getting into this ship, getting into a storm, the Lord's
great miracle of calming the storm, We have looked at those
separately before, Lord willing, we will again. But I want to
look at them together this morning and here's the reason why. The
Lord told them, following me is not easy street. And then when they did follow
him into the ship, that was proven to them. So that's why I want to see all
of this together. The Lord is telling us and showing
us something of what it is to follow Him. Now verse 18 says, when Jesus
saw great multitudes about Him, He gave commandment to depart
to the other side, the other side of the Sea of Galilee. And
a certain scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest. That reminds me of Peter. That's
who that reminds me of. Peter said, Lord, they may all
be offended of you, but not me. He said, I never will be. I'll
never be offended. I'll never leave your side. He
said, I'll die with you. And the Lord said, really, will
you, Peter? Verse 19, a certain scribe came
and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou
goest. And Jesus said unto him, the
foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the
son of man hath not where to lay his head. As though he was
saying, what are you following me for, material gain? Now think about religion for
just a second. What is the promise of religion? And the Lord answered this man
by saying, what would you be followed? I don't even have a
pillow. I'm not even carrying a, much
less a house. Did you know that you follow
the adversary for that? He's the one who said, all things
have been given into my hands and I can give great gain to
you. You bow down to me and I can give great gain to you. The Lord
himself said, I have not even provided for myself a place to
lay my own head. I'm traveling through this world
like a pilgrim, a stranger, a substitute. Are you sure you want to follow
me? Are you sure you're willing to
follow me even if those are the conditions I lead you into? Verse 21, and another of his
disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury
my father. But Jesus said unto him, follow
me and let the dead bury their dead. Now let's read how that's
worded in Luke's account. Turn with me to Luke chapter
9. Luke chapter 9. This chapter
begins with the Lord calling His disciples to preach. If you
look at verse 1. It says, then he called his 12
disciples together and gave them power and authority over all
devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the
kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He called them to preach. And in verse 23, he said to them
all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself then
take up his cross daily 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 gained the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed
of me and of my words, Of him shall the son of man be ashamed
when he shall come in his own glory and in the fathers and
of the holy angels. In the other account of this,
he said, whoever is ashamed of me is not worthy of me. That's
what he said. He said, if a man or a woman,
that means man or woman, loves father, mother, husband, wife,
brother, sister, son, daughter, anybody, anything more than me,
he said, that man or woman is not worthy of me. So here's Luke's account of our
text, okay? Luke 9, verse 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 my home, 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. What our Lord is saying in that
is, don't let anything take priority to following Me. That's what
He's saying. The one disciple said, Lord,
let me first go and bury my father. He was not asking for a few hours.
Most of the commentary writers say that what he meant by that
is, my father's in his old age and he's feeble. and he doesn't
have long left, many years, months, years, who knows how long it
is, let me go take care of him, however long that is, and then
once he dies, I'll follow you." The Lord said, no. Let the spiritually
dead handle that responsibility. You follow me. Follow me. The other disciple said, Lord,
I will follow thee. I will, but I have company at
my house right now, and I need to tend to them, and I need to
entertain them first, and then once they're gone, then I'll
follow you. The Lord said, no, leave them
at home. If they don't want to come, leave
them at home. You follow me. Follow me. Don't let anything
pull you away from following me. Nothing is more important. Nothing can take priority to
following Christ. Now, in my sinful flesh, it feels like, it seems like,
everything takes priority. I'm just telling you what goes
on inside me, okay? Everything takes priority in
my mind. I'm constantly begging God, please
let the message I'm about to preach trump what I'm thinking
about right now. In my heart, please let me desire
study. It feels like everything takes
priority. Everything in this old wicked,
sinful flesh, everything for every human being naturally takes
priority to following Christ. I hear this and I am so convicted
by it. I'm honestly so convicted by
it. Here's the good news of the gospel
though. Honestly, in spite of our fleshly ways and in spite
of all of our bad decisions, in my flesh, you're looking at
one huge bad decision. But in spite of all of that, when Christ says to His people,
follow me, they follow Him. In spite of us, when He says,
come, we come. You come when he said to these
disciples, you come and follow me. They had all these excuses
and all these things. And he said, you come and follow
me. They all got in the ship and
followed him. All right, now go with me back to Matthew chapter
eight. After our Lord told them the
reality here and the critical importance of following Him,
verse 23, it says, when He was entered into a ship, His disciples
followed Him. And behold, there arose a great
tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with
the waves, but He was asleep. And his disciples came to him
and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he said
unto them, why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he
arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great
calm. But the men marveled, saying,
what manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
him?" For this message, rather than focusing on the story, I
want us to focus on the subject of following Christ. That's what
we're gonna stay focused on for this message. I feel that this
is a very important message. I feel very, very strongly about
conveying what I believe the Lord has laid on my heart to
convey. And I pray the Lord will honestly let us get ahold of
this. I've titled this message. What
is following Christ? And I believe this is important.
I believe this is so, so important. What is following Christ? He told them that his way. All right. We're talking about
following Christ. And He told them that His way
was not the way that appeals to and caters to the flesh. And then He told them to follow
Him. And He led them into a storm
in the middle of the sea. And we know that he is the one
who raised up the storm. Our brother just read that for
us in Psalm 107. He raises the stormy wind. They
that do business out in great waters, they see the work of
his hand. He's the one doing that. All
right, that storm did not just happen to come upon them. They
weren't accidentally in the wrong place at the wrong time. They
were led to that place on purpose, and that purpose was to follow
Christ. I'm gonna say that again. They were led to that place on
purpose, and that purpose was to follow Christ. What is following
Christ? We preach to men and women, to
do that. We read that we are commanded
to do that. What does it really mean? What
does it really mean? How do we do that? What is following
Christ really? Really? I'll go ahead and tell
you the answer is right here. It's right here. The Lord on
purpose brought them to a place so that they could follow Him. All right, let me see if I can
really emphasize this. They walked after the Lord. He was in front of them, they
were behind Him. He started taking steps and so
did they. and they walked behind Him in
the direction and in the way that He took them so that they could follow Him. Following Christ has nothing
to do with geography. This is really important. Oh,
may the Lord help us. May the Lord help us. I pray
we all might understand this. Believe it or not. I pray that
we all might understand it just because there were people while
he was in his day on this earth who were where he was. And then
when he went to another place, they went to that same place
with him. That does not mean they were
following him. Judas went everywhere he went
for three and a half years, and Judas was not following him. Following him is something much
deeper than that. It's something that happens in
the heart. Not in the hands. All right? Not in obeying the ordinances
of the law. Every jot, every tittle, the
Pharisees did that, the Jewish religious leaders, they did that
and they were not following Him. It's not in the hands, it's not
in the feet, it's in the heart. Now the reason I'm telling you
this is because Following Him does not mean showing up to church. It's not a geographical thing. It does not mean, well, I started
Sunday morning at my house, but I left my house and I came to
church. And therefore, because I went
to church from here to there, I followed Christ today. It does
not mean that. That's not it. That's not it. The Lord may cause us to leave
our house. He may cause us to get up on
Sunday morning and leave our house. And he may lead us to
his house so that we can follow him. But there are people who show
up to church service after service after service, who have never
followed him. It's not a geographical thing. Following Christ has nothing
to do with our feet to get us here, has nothing to do with
our car to get us here. It has nothing to do with the
building we come to. It has everything to do with
a heart, a storm, and a savior. Now I will tell you that it has
pleased the Lord to use the means of leading his people to his
house of worship, to hear his preaching, to read his word,
to believe on him. He has been pleased to use the
means of bringing His people to a particular place where He's
chosen to put His name there so that they can follow Him. But I will warn you that you
may find yourself in the middle of a storm. When sinners follow Christ, He
leads them into the heart of a great storm. Every time. Every time. There's only one
way. And He said, I'm the way. And when He calls and causes
sinners to follow Him, He leads them straight into the heart
of a great storm. Before He leads them there, everything
about them is fine. They feel that they're standing
on the stability of dry ground. They're just happy to be involved
in religion. They feel good about where they
are and they're standing before God. And then all of a sudden,
Christ says to them, follow me. And he leads them straight into
the storm where sin has collided with judgment. Honestly. All of the sudden,
the dark clouds of God's holiness overtakes that center, just like
God did to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration.
They didn't know. You know, Peter said what he
said because he was so scared he didn't know what to say. Usually,
that's a moment to do like Job did. Let's put our hands over
our mouth and say, I think it's time for me to shut up. Oh, the fear, the fear, the fear
in seeing the absolute holy wrath of God against the indescribable sin
and vileness that I am before Him and against Him. Seeing the storm of those two
things collide. in sinking down with utter despair. The heart of the sinner who sees
that will cry, look with me at the end of verse 25, Lord, save
us, we perish. Verse 23 says, When he was entered
into a ship, his disciples followed him, and behold, here it is,
there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship
was covered with the waves. They were being overtaken. But
he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him saying, Lord, save
us, we perish. In that moment, when that cry
comes forth, that's following Christ, honestly. when the soul of a
sinner is not out there in those unstable waters, fearing the holy storm of God's
wrath coming down on him or her, knowing it's because of everything
that he or she is and has done against him, When a soul is not sinking down
in the weakness, those big strong sailors out there doing what
they do best, sinking down in utter weakness. When a soul is not crying from
the depths, Lord save me or I'm going to perish. When a soul is not there, that
soul is not following Christ. If Christ ever calls a sinner
and says to that sinner, come here, it's time for you to follow
me. If Christ ever calls a sinner
and says that, he will bring that sinner to see his or her
sin. and God's judgment against his
or her sin. He will. He will. A person who has never known
the experience of sinking down, I mean drowning, drowning in
his or her own sin, crying, Lord, save me, or I'm gonna perish. When Peter cried, Lord, save
me, he meant right now. I mean right now, a soul who
has never cried that has never followed Christ. Oh dear God,
examine my soul. David said, search me and know
my heart. If a person does follow Christ
though, if he ever leads a person to this place, of crying out to him for mercy. I mean, right now, I'm in trouble. There's no doubt in my mind.
I'm convinced if you don't, if you don't save me right now,
I'm sinking and dying right now. If the Lord ever brings a sinner
to that place, from that place, it starts in that place of peace
and If the Lord brings a sinner to that place, from that place,
He will say, once the cry goes out, Lord, save me or I'm going
to perish. He will say to that soul, follow
me. From the place of despair, He
will lead that soul to a cross from the depths. He will say,
you follow me now. You come with me and follow me.
And he will lead that soul to a cross, a cross that was lifted
up right under the storm of all that judgment. That black,
those black clouds that came over Peter, James, and John.
Oh, there was utter blackness in the sky above him. From that cross, he will reveal
a substitute who hung under all that judgment to bear the storm,
the fury of the blast for the people he hung there
for. From that cross, he will lead
that soul. He will say, from that cross,
you follow me. And he will lead that soul to
a tomb where the storm of God's judgment
literally exhausted, I mean, emptied to the point that there
was nothing left. All the thunderings, all the
lightnings, all the rage emptied it all. right there in the tomb. And after all that is exhausted
on the Savior, the One who made Himself to be the substitute
for His people, to bear all of that for them in their place,
after it's all exhausted, He will say, follow me. And He will
lead them to a resurrected, ascended glory. They will start in the
depths. They will be brought to a cross.
They will be taken to a tomb, and He'll lead them to a resurrected
glory, to be seated with Him where He is. That's following
Christ. That is following Christ. And
the only way that a sinner can follow Christ is if he calls
the sinner to come. That's the only way. I will tell
you that if you've never been called to follow Christ in this
way, That storm of judgment and sin that rages in the heart and
the soul of a child of God, it is fearful, honestly. It is a
fearfully great storm, but it is the only way that leads to
a great calm. It is the only way, there's only
one way. Starts in the depths, goes to
a cross, leads us to a tomb and carries us to glory with Him. It's the only way. After they
cried, Lord save us or we're going to perish, the end of verse
26 says, and there was a great calm. That's where the sovereign God
who controls even the winds and the sea, That's where he leads
his people to a great calm. They have that calm knowing he's
the one who stilled the storm. He's the one who started the
storm, thank God. He's the one who stilled the
storm. If the Lord is willing, we are
going to look more this evening at this great calm. There's more
for us to see in it, but it's too much for one message. So
if the Lord will bless us, We'll look at this great calm some
more tonight. All right, Brother Eddie, you
come.