Come back to Matthew chapter
eight. Matthew chapter eight. Now, we would never discourage
anyone from following after the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said often, come to
me. Come to me, all your labor heavy laden, I'll give you rest. But at the same time, our Lord
never duped anyone. He never duped anyone into following
him. And what I noticed here, and
you will notice, is that our Lord warns of the hardships,
the sacrifices to be made, and the absolute commitment required if you're going to follow Him.
It is an all-out commitment. It's all of me or none of me
in following the Lord Jesus Christ. As that lady said in the song
of Solomon's, I am his and he is mine. And that's exactly the
way it is. I am his 1000%. Jesus Christ is not a part of
my life. He's not a part of your life.
He is my life or I don't have it. I don't have life. I don't have him. He's all of
it. The scripture presents him as
our all in all, not part. It's all or nothing. He says over in Luke 14, count
the cost. If you're going to go up against
an army of 10,000 and you've got 1,000, you better sit down
and count the cost. If you're gonna build a house,
you better sit down and first count the cost and see if you
have enough funds to build that house. Because if not, you're
gonna end up being embarrassed. And that's what our Lord says.
It's what he's teaching here. Listen to these scriptures. Strive
to enter in. Strive to enter in. If they hated
me, they will hate you also. You cannot serve God and mammon. He said, all men will speak evil
of you for my name's sake. If you can't take that, you might
not want to join up. If you like popularity, if you
like being popular, you know, if you're like one of those kids
in the school that wants to be the popular kid in the school,
you might want to rethink this. Straight is the gate and narrow
is the way. He tells us there is a cross
to bear. Look over in Matthew 16. In verse 24, then said Jesus unto his disciples,
If any man will come after me, if he's gonna follow me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross, whatever
the cross God sends my way to bear for Christ's sake. Let him
take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his
life shall lose it eternally. Eternally, he said, you're gonna
lose it. You're gonna save this life. You love this life. He said, you're gonna lose your
life in the end. But whosoever will lose his life for my sake,
shall find it. It's not my will, but thy will
be done. That's losing your life. Lord, not my will, but thy will
be done. What has a man profited if he
shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? What have you profited?
If you've saved your life and you've given, and the whole world's
given to you, what have you gained? You gotta die and you can't take
it with you. It's not gonna go with you. Not one thing, material
thing, not one material thing in this life is gonna go with
you, nothing, none of it. And that's why he's saying here,
He said, if you want to follow me, and we're going to see this
here, these examples we're going to see. There's a cross to bear. Now,
what do you think of when you think of a cross? You think of
ease and entertainment? That's how so much of it is presented
in preaching today, isn't it? Wealth, health, health and wealth
religion. No, you think of suffering and
pain. You think of self-denial. That's what you're thinking.
Now, verse 18, the Lord, he's going to leave the crowd. Now, when Jesus saw great multitudes
about him, what an opportunity here. He was popular. Right now he's popular. The crowd
is around him. They're excited, they wanna listen
to him, and he's gonna leave the crown. He's gonna leave popularity. You see, there's a demon-possessed
man over in the land of the gatherings. That's his. And he's gonna leave
this crown, he's gonna leave popularity, and he's gonna go
get this man. Why? Because that man's his,
that's his sheep. He's not gonna leave him over
there. This is opposite of what natural
men do. They seek popularity. But our Lord does not court the
approval of men. He came to save sinners. He came to save sinners. And
sinners are gonna be saved. They're gonna be saved. He's
gonna leave this crowd and go over to the land of the Gadarenes. And there's a man over there
that nobody can, Can't even get close to it. And we'll see this
next week. Lord will. But he gives commandment here.
The Lord, it says he gave commandment to depart to the other side.
Here's a test of discipleship to follow his commands. Or not. You know, our Lord gives us commandments
in his word. They are to be followed. Love
one another. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together. Forsake not those. The whole
word of God is his. The whole word of God is his. He that keeps my commandment
is my disciple, he said. And his disciples desire, his
followers who are his true followers, we desire to know the Lord's
will and to do it. to do it. Now verse 19, it says a certain
scribe, a certain scribe comes to him. A scribe was a part of
the upper class. This man, you have to know who
this man was. He was part of the upper class.
He was a very educated man, very learned man. He was an interpreter
of the law, this man was. Their interpretation of the law
became more important than the law itself. is what they had
to say about it became more important than what it actually said. And to be an interpreter of the
law, well, from what I was reading, one would start his schooling
at age 14 up to age 40, 26 years. And when they came out, you know
what? They were a know-it-all. You couldn't teach them anything.
You couldn't. You couldn't tell them anything.
They were a know-it-all. By the time they got out, they were
40 years old, it was like, you all ask me questions now. You
all ask me, I'll tell you. I got the answers. That was their attitude. The scribes hated Christ, but
this one was impressed with him. So much so, this one was so much
impressed with him that he wanted to follow him. He wanted to follow
him. And he comes to Christ and he
shows respect. He calls him master. Master. He was so impressed with Christ
in his zeal. He said, I will follow thee whithersoever
thou goest. It's zeal, but it's blind zeal.
It's blind zeal. And he was determined. He said,
I will follow. I will do this. I will follow
you wherever you go. You might want to. Boy, I tell
you, we over speak a lot of times, don't we? I will follow you wherever
you go. It's evident he was spiritually
ignorant. Even though he had studied much,
he was ignorant as to who the Lord really is and what a commitment
he required. He didn't understand the hardships
or the self-denial that would be needed to follow Christ all
the way. But the Lord's honest with him.
And he's honest with us. He's honest. He doesn't fool
his followers. And what he does, he warns him
of the hardship. Following Christ means bearing
a cross, whatever it is that he lays on you. It involves denying
yourself. The hardest thing under the sun
to do is to deny yourself. There's nothing more. One of
the greatest, most difficult things to do is to deny your
appetite. Yeah, do that today. Deny your
appetite. See how that goes. See how long
that goes. Just deny your appetite. That's
denying yourself. That's what it is. That's denying
yourself. That's hard to do. It involves mortifying the deeds
of the flesh. And the Lord tells this scribe,
he says here that the son of man has no place to lay his head. Now, you sure you want to follow
me? Huh? That's what he's saying to him.
He's saying that the Son of Man hath no place to lay his head. He said, Jesus saith unto him,
in verse 20, the foxes have holes. They have a place to sleep tonight.
They have a den. They have a home they're gonna
go to. And the birds of the air, they have their nests that they
build and they go to each night. They have their nests, but the
Son of Man, he has no place on this earth to lay his head. Our Lord truly became poor that
we might through his poverty be made rich. He didn't even
own a pillow, not even a pillow. He either stayed with someone
like Peter or the disciples, or they slept out under the stars. He who created the heavens and
the earth did not own a bed or a house to sleep in. That's how poor he became for
us. Rishi. It's easy to follow someone that's
popular. And at that time, he looked popular. That scribe, he was just taken
up with that popularity going on. But that popularity is not
going to last very long. You know that same crowd that
cried, Hosanna, Hosanna, when he rode into town on that donkey?
That same crowd, in a short period of time, cried, crucify him.
Crucify him. How fickle is the crowd. I remember when Dallas Cowboys
used to be one of my favorite teams. Tom Landry was one of
the winningest coaches. Then when they sold it, and I
think it was Jerry, what's that guy, anyway, Jones took it over. They had a losing season. Fired
him. Fired him. How fickle the crowd. How fickle the crowd. Yeah, Hosanna. Hosanna. Then it's crucifying, crucifying. You sure you want to follow me? He said, you might be sleeping
out under the stars tonight. You might be sleeping out in
the dew and out in the weather tonight. The master's truthful with him.
He's truthful with him. Do you really want to follow
someone who is despised and rejected of men? Do you really want to? Now this Jesus, being a priest
today, that wants to save everybody, loves everybody, I mean, just,
that's not the one this Bible presents. The Bible presents
the Jesus Christ, or this Bible is the sovereign God of heaven
and earth, who is despised and rejected of men. And the only
reason we don't despise and reject him now is because he made us
willing. It says in Psalm 110, He made
us willing in the day of His power. He made me willing to
come to Him. He made me fall in love with Him. He enabled
me to believe on Him. That's His work. That's His work. And I'm telling you, the world,
especially this religious world, turns hands down on the Jesus
Christ that's revealed in this book. The sovereign, the sovereign
who does as he will, when he will, with whom he will. He's
the sovereign God of heaven and earth. That's who he is. Don't follow miracles and blessings,
follow Christ, even if it costs you everything. Even if it costs you everything. The Lord would not fool anyone
to get a following. He tells them to go home and
think about it. That's why he's telling the scribe. He's telling the
scribe, you might want to go home and think about this. It's an all out commitment. All
out commitment. Is the disciple above his Lord?
No. that we should expect the same
treatment that he received. The Lord will have nothing but
real, all out committed disciples, followers. Let me ask you something. Is the
Lord Jesus Christ worth losing friends over? Is he? Is the Lord Jesus Christ worth
losing your job over? Is he worth losing your job over? I worked at a place one time,
and I was running it. I was the plant manager. And
there were some bigwigs coming into town, and they wanted me
to take them to a strip bar. And I told him, no, I did. I
said, no, I'm not going to do that. And he said, why not? He says, just business. I said,
no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. He
said, well, you need to do it. I said, no, I'm not. I said,
you can have my job. You can have it. I said, I'm not going
to do that. I love my Lord. I love my family.
I said, I'm not doing that. And then he just sat back and
smiled and got the salesman to do it. The salesman did it, but
I would not, you know, is Christ worth losing your job over? Is
he worth losing friends over? Is he worth losing spouse over?
Is he worth following to death? There have been people burned
at the stake for Christ's sake. If this is what it takes, he's
worth it. He's worth it. Paul said, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. Look over Matthew 10. In Matthew 10, verse 34, This is going to sound like strange
language here, but think not that I am come to send peace
on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am
come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter
against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foe shall be they of his own house. You know, they
tell me that, and I've heard this, that especially in that
time, and I think even now, for a Jew to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, that a family would actually have a funeral service
for them. They were dead, they considered them dead. Gone, out
of the house. The gospel will divide, now I'll
tell you, the gospel itself will divide. It won't divide brethren,
it brings brethren together. It will divide the sheep from
the goats. It will divide the tare from the wheat, won't it?
It will. It'll divide truth from a lie.
That's exactly what he's saying. Man's foes shall be they of his
own house. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross
and follows after me is not worthy of me. He that finds his life
shall lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake shall find
it. That's all out commitment. That's
not saying I can't love my father, mother, or sister, brother. I
tell you what, we ought to love our mother, father, sister, brother
as much as we love Christ, but nothing more. You notice he said
more. Here's another disciple. He wanted to go home. He said,
I'll follow you. I want to follow you. He said,
but first let me go home and bury my father or take care of
him until he dies. I think that's what he's asking.
Take care of him until he dies. But the lesson here, our Lord,
is teaching him and us. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. That's first. That's first. The Lord Jesus Christ is to have
the preeminence. He's God. He's God. He's God over all. The disciple
does not pick his place of service, nor his time of service. nor his time of service. It could be a difficult journey. Abraham had to pack up and leave
his country, his family there, all his friends and whatever
he was he was doing there, he packed it up and left. And then here, last of all, Our Lord tells his disciples
to enter into a ship, and they do. And while they followed him,
while they were doing his bidding, trouble came. Real trouble. Their lives were in trouble.
Their lives were not in danger, but they were in trouble. They
thought their lives were in danger. My life's never in danger. Really? When God told Satan he could
touch Job, what'd he say? Don't touch his life. The reason
I say my life is not in danger because my life is seated at
God's right hand. That's where my life is. It's
in Christ. Christ is my life. Following Christ does not exempt
us from the storms of life. We shouldn't be so disappointed
and say, why me? Why is this happening to me? Well, who am I? Why not me? Why not me? We will endure hardships. We
will endure losses. We will endure crosses like everyone
else. You know, in another part, another
gospel, when they were in this storm, it says there were other
little ships in the area. They endured the same storm. Stephen was stoned to death while
preaching the gospel, while telling the truth. He was stoned to death
there in Acts chapter 7. And this storm arose, now listen,
this storm arose by providence. The scripture says he hath his
way in the whirlwind and in the storm. They're his. That storm is his storm. It's
not a storm, it's his storm. And his disciples are going to
learn something. You know what they're going to learn? that
they don't have much faith at all. They don't have what they
think they have. Not at all. It's gonna reveal
their little faith. You know, it only takes certain
situations to bring out what's in us or what's not in us. Faith must be proven by great tempest sometimes. Sometimes
God sends a hard one, and it'll last a while. Sometimes he does. But the forces of nature, the
forces of Satan, the forces of the unseen world have no power. They have no power except they
be carried out by divine force. Old Pilate said, don't you know
I can crucify you? Or don't you know I can let you
go? And the Lord said, you can have no power at all against
me except to be given to you from above. We can say that same
thing if we're His. Now, if we are His, there's no
power against us except God allows it to have power against us. What is our comfort in such times? These disciples were doing the
Lord's bidding, they were doing the Lord's will, they were obeying
his command, and yet they run into this storm that looks like
it's going to take their life. Here's our comfort at all times,
especially at these times. Christ is with us. He said, I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. He was in the boat in the storm that they were in. There's nothing we'll experience
that he hasn't experienced. Nothing. No one can perish who has Christ
in them. Noah was safe in that ark no
matter how stormy it got. The flood just kept rising and
rising, but you know what happened? That ark just kept going rising
and rising right on top of it. It never sank. It never sank. Look over in Isaiah 41. In Isaiah 41, look in verse 10. This is special. Isaiah 41 verse 10, fear thou
not, fear thou not for I'm with thee. He doesn't say, don't be afraid,
I'm watching. No, that's not the comfort, here's
the comfort. I'm with you, I'm right there, I'm right beside
of you. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Who's
that? Jesus Christ. I'll uphold you with the right
hand of my righteousness, which is Jesus Christ. He's my strength in the time
of trouble. He's our companion. But note
their reverence here in all this. They say, Lord, they call him
Lord. As fearful as they were, they still showed reverence to
him. They said, Lord. They recognized their need of
him. Lord, save us, we perish. In another place, it says, carest
thou not that we perish? Absolutely. That's why he came. That's why he came. If the Lord does not save us,
we will perish in our sin and guilt, but the Lord is with us. He's with his people. He's with
them. And look at the Lord's response. Why are ye so fearful,
O ye little faith? The first thing, the first thing
the Lord rebuked was not the wind and the waves. It was their
little faith. It was their mistrust of him.
Cast all your cares upon him, for he cared for you. The wind
and the waves are far less troublesome than our unbelief and fear, really. Afraid of some earthly losses? If we let these things go now,
they won't hurt so much when they do finally leave. If we
can learn to just let them go, hold loosely to them. How is it that we doubt his love?
Was Calvary not enough? Was dying under the wrath of
God not enough for me? Was it not enough? What more
proof do we need that Christ died on Calvary's tree? If the Lord bids us to follow
Him somewhere, He'll keep us safe. Do we doubt His power to save
us from all things? Do we? Is Christ able to save? Is He able to save unto the uttermost
them that come unto God by Him? Is He able to deliver us from
every trial and trouble? And why are you so fearful? That's
why He said, why are you so afraid? Little faith causes great fear.
Little faith causes great fear. Has Christ ever failed? God said,
my servant shall not fail. Has he ever left us alone? He
said, I'll never leave you, nor forsake you. We have his word
on it. Has he ceased to be God? Has his blood and righteousness
ceased to have their power? Then why are you so fearful?
Why? The cause is found in us, is
this, little faith. You know, little minds do little
things. Little minds do little things. And yet they make great mistakes. There's never a reason to have
little faith in God. Remember that. There's never
a reason to have little faith in God. Now we'll close. In verse 26, it says, He arose
and He rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great
calm after addressing the real problem. It wasn't the storm,
it was unbelief. You know, Peter walked on water.
As long as he was looking at Christ, he walked on water, but
as soon as he took his eyes off Christ, he began to sink. Every
time we are fearful, you know the problem. You know the problem. You're not looking to Him. You've
taken your eyes off of Him. You've forgotten that all things
are of God. And you've forgotten that the Lord is sitting on the
throne, ruling and reigning over absolutely everything. You've
forgotten it. All things are controlled by
our master. He rebuked the winds and the
sea, and there was a great calm, just like that, a great calm.
You know, all he has to do is speak, and he can calm my mind
down, my heart down. He can just, if he, this morning,
if he just speak a word to you, a word of comfort, he can calm
the greatest fear, he can run it out. He can calm your mind,
calm your heart, Calm you right down. Calm you right down. Like he did that of the ocean. I mean, this sea and this wind,
this storm, and this storm now. He just spoke and it stopped
like that. Laid down at his feet. That storm laid down at his feet. Our Lord can give real peace
of heart When sin raises its ugly head, the Lord Jesus Christ
can make it quiet down with just a word. Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. Well, if you speak that in power,
it'll calm your heart. And here's a good question. Verse 27, what manner of man
is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? He's the God man. He is God incarnate. That's who he is. He's a gracious
man. He's a gracious man. He's a righteous
man. He's the only man who can save
us. He's the only one that can save us. the one that rebuked
the wind and the rain, the wind and the sea. He can rebuke Satan, and we're
gonna see that when he goes over the land of the Gadarenes, cast
out a legion of devils, that's around 2,000, with a word, just a word. Following Christ will never be
easy, It's not easy if you're really following Him and you're
committed to Him and you're telling the truth on Him. You're not going to be popular.
You're not going to be popular. It's not going to be easy. But
I tell you this, it ends well. It ends well. If I have to lose
everything I've got in this world for Christ's sake, I can tell
you this, it still ends well. New heaven, new earth, spoke
about that a little bit this morning. Be with him, be with the Lord. You know Lazarus? Poor Lazarus,
the poor man Lazarus, laying at that rich man's gate? Who's
rich now? And who's penniless? The rich
man is now penniless and the poor man is now rich. I want those eternal riches. Lord, give us the eternal riches that never fade away. All right.