If you would, open your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 8. Before we begin our lesson, let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
to be able by Thy grace to call the God of heaven and earth,
the eternal God, our Father. Oh, how thankful we are. Father,
we've gathered here together this morning as your children
to hear word from thee, to commune with our Father, to hear from
our Father, to be instructed, to have our hearts blessed and
comforted and edified and instructed from your word. Father, I pray
that you would be our teacher this morning, that you would
speak to the hearts of your people through your word. That you'd
not let us just hear the words of a man, but that you'd speak
to us, that you would teach us, teach our hearts through your
word. And Father, give us a teachable
heart, a teachable, humble attitude that can hear and believe the
things of our Lord Jesus Christ that we hear preached this morning. Father, I thank you for a place
that you've given us where we can meet together and worship.
I thank you in your goodness and your grace, your sovereignty,
that you preserved a place in our hometown where we can come
and hear the gospel preached. Father, we thank you. We ask
that you make us good stewards of the gospel that you've given
us. And we ask you preserve and protect this place for our sake. for the sake of our children,
our grandchildren, our friends and neighbors. Father, for thy
great namesake, preserve this place as a place where your gospel
is preached, that you might preserve a lighthouse in this world, in
this dark and dreary place. Father, we thank you for all
the blessings of this life you've given to us. And we thank you
for the troubles, the trials, the corrections, Those are easy
words to say. Father, we pray you give us a
heart that would mean them. For those that you brought into
the time of trouble and trial, we know that they've come directly
from your hand, according to thy will. And Father, we pray
that you'd be with your people in the time of trouble, that
you'd give them a special portion of your presence, that you would
enable them to learn the things that you'd have us to learn,
and that you'd provide a way out quickly. All these things
we ask in that great name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
All right, Matthew chapter eight. Our lesson begins in verse 18
this morning, and I've titled the lesson Discipleship. Now, religious people have a
have a lot to say about being a disciple of Christ. They have
discipleship programs. They've made a verb out of discipling,
making people disciples. And I would imagine that all
of us here this morning would say that I want to be a disciple.
I want to be a follower, a learner of Christ, don't you? Well, our
text this morning, the Lord gives us some instruction on being
his disciple. And number one, if you would
be a disciple of Christ, you're going to have to seek after him.
You have to seek him. You know, the Lord is not out
there begging anyone and everyone to be his disciple. Now we know
The gospel call goes out to all men everywhere, doesn't it? The
Lord's commanded us going to all the earth and preach the
gospel to every creature. The gospel call is heard everywhere. The gospel commandment. You come
to Christ. You believe on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ goes all over the world, doesn't it? But the
Lord only calls his sheep. Now with these ears, the gospels
heard everywhere, but to the heart, the only people hear that
call are God's sheep when he calls them and they're the only
ones that will hear and believe. So our goal in preaching, our
goal as a church congregation is not to try to gain as big
of a congregation as we can get at all costs. Please understand
what I'm saying. I would love to see this building
full, wouldn't you? I mean, I'd love to see that
parking lot full. I'd love to see us have to get
a bigger building, but not at all costs. No, by God's grace,
we're not going to compromise the gospel to get a bigger crowd.
We're not trying to gain a multitude of goats. Now we could, we could
compromise the message. We can do things to gain a bigger
crowd, but then we're gonna have a bunch of goats and buddy, Being
another shepherd, God's sheep's hard enough. I just don't want
any part of trying to herd a bunch of goats now. We're not going
to compromise the gospel to get it. If you would be a disciple
of Christ, you're going to have to seek after him. Look here
at verse 18. Now, when Jesus saw great multitudes about him,
he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. Now, our
Lord, could not follow the course that's taught in the seminary,
Soul Winning 101. That's one of the first courses
they teach is Soul Winning 101. And Soul Winning 101 says this,
you go to the population centers so you can get as many people
as possible to follow you. And then, once you get a big
crowd, don't you dare say anything that's going to run them off.
You do everything you can do to keep them. I mean, don't say
anything controversial. Just say what they want to hear
so you can keep that crowd. Well, here our Lord began His
earthly public ministry and He gained a multitude, didn't He?
A multitude is following Him. They heard Him preach with authority,
not as the scribes. In their lifetime, they never
heard anybody preach like this. And they followed Him down from
the mountain after He preached. And they watched Him healed the
sick. And they wanted more of that.
I mean, word had spread like wildfire about this man. And
a multitude's following the Lord. Now what did the Lord do when
he gained a multitude? He went away from them. And he
made a pretty serious escape about it. He went to the other
side of the sea. If you want to be a disciple of Christ, you're
going to have to seek And you're going to have to seek Him where
He's found. If you want to be a disciple
of Christ, you're going to have to follow Him wherever He leads. And He's going to lead to places
naturally you don't want to go. You're going to have to follow
Him even to the other side. The other side. The other side. What religion calls the dark
way. The way of heresy. The dark side. You're going to have to follow
Him there. Now the Lord knows the hearts of all men. And it
appears that he knew these people were following him for the miracles.
It wasn't for himself. It wasn't for his teaching. It
appears that he knew they were following him for the wrong reason. And that's why he hid himself
from them. If miracles are what you're seeking, I'm telling you,
you won't find the Lord. These people were seeking the
miracles and the Lord hid himself from them. And he will, you too,
if that's what you're seeking. Look over at John chapter six.
Here's another time the Lord attracted a multitude. John chapter
six. You know this chapter, how the
Lord had fed the great multitude, the 5,000 with just the few fishes
and few loaves. In verse 15, a multitude followed
him. When Jesus therefore perceived
that they would come and take him by force to make him a king,
he departed again into a mountain himself alone. Now here you see
it again. The Lord could never pass soul
winning 101, could he? He could never pass that course.
People were trying to make him king. You just think what would
happen. I mean, I think this sometime,
oh, what would happen if God would raise up a believer like
Daniel? to be president of these United States. I said, he don't
do it, does he? Oh, just think what we could
get done. Let's think what the Lord could do if they made him
king. He could just do anything he
wanted. His will would, now wait a minute, wait a minute. Could
they make him king? No, they couldn't, could they? He was already doing his will
because he is king. They wanted him to be an earthly
king, to set up an earthly rule that they could benefit from.
You know, they want to be his cronies and get all the inside
government jobs. And the Lord hid himself from
the people who are trying to make him king. Next time you
hear somebody saying, won't you make Jesus king of your life?
Might want to follow the Lord's example and hide yourself from
them. That's what the Lord did. And later that night, the Lord
walked across the sea. Now, partly to escape this crowd,
partly to to demonstrate something to his disciples in that storm,
but he walked across the sea to get away from him. And verse
24 says, when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there,
neither his disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum
seeking for Jesus. And when they found him on the
other side of the sea, they said unto him, rabbi, why camest thou
hither? Jesus answered them. So he knew
why they were seeking Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek
me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the
loaves and were filled." Now, it was the miracles. You're not
seeking the miracle workers. You're not seeking him who has
all this power. You're just wanting a free lunch. The one who's got
the power to do that. And he tells them, labor not
for meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Then they say unto him,
what shall we do that we might work the works of God? And to
answer that question, our Lord preached the gospel to them.
You can just read these verses later this afternoon. He preached
the gospel to them. He told them salvation is not
in the law. Salvation is not in all the ceremonies
of religion. Salvation is in a person. It's
in him, in this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that salvation
is received by believing him through faith. in Christ. Salvation is a vital union with
Christ. Not a vital union with ceremonies
and law and doctrine. Salvation is a vital union with
Christ. He is all that matters. He preached
unto them the unvarnished truth of the gospel. He told them all
men are dead in sin. They cannot save themselves.
They can't even come to Christ unless the Father chooses them
and draws them. Men and all men everywhere are totally, completely
dependent on God to save them. God's grace and the Lord Jesus
Christ. All right, look at their reaction, verse 65. Here the
Lord concludes his message to them. And he said, therefore
said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were
given him of my father. From that time, many of his disciples,
many of these followers, many of these learners went back and
walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve,
will you also go away? And Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the son of the living God. Now here the Lord gained a multitude
again, didn't he? And through his preaching, he
didn't have to be mean to him, he didn't have to be ugly to
him, he didn't have to be abrasive, through his preaching. By refusing
to compromise the truth of the gospel, he ran that whole multitude
off. Of that whole multitude, all
that was left was 12. And then he didn't panic and
think, well, I better hang on to these 12. He made sure those
12 knew, I'm not holding you here against your will. You're
free to go. And Peter spoke for every believer. To whom shall we go? We're not
leaving you. And here's the lesson to us and aren't the ministry
that God's given us to follow our Lord's example in preaching.
Let's never, ever, ever take the edge off of the gospel because
we're trying to get people to say, you know, if you know somebody
out there has got a pet doctor and it's wrong, don't dare shy
away from it. Preach the truth of the word
of God. There's just, it's not worth it to try to gain a big
crowd. If you care about people at all, and that's a big part
of the reason false prophets do what they do, trying to gain
big crowds, they don't know nor love the Lord and they don't
care about people. And that's all there is to it.
That's the only reason they lie to them like that. They're just
trying to use them to get rich. If you care about people at all,
tell them the truth of God for their own good, for their own
souls, no matter what it costs you, no matter what it costs
you. Well, what if you run them off? What if they hear and stay? What
if they hear and God saves them? He's not going to save them through
a lie, is he? But tell them the truth. Tell them the truth. And
that's just exactly what the Lord did. Now, the goats left,
didn't they? But the sheep stayed. Judas was there for a while.
He eventually left, too, didn't he? But the sheep all stayed.
Even the disciples left for a while, didn't they? They left the shepherd
alone, that the shepherd might be smitten, that the sheep, you
know, be spared. But they came back. They came
by the sheep's day. And the point of all that is
this. If you would be a disciple of
Christ, you must seek Christ. You must seek him. Disciples
don't seek the blessings. They seek Christ. They seek the
blessing. Disciples don't seek things about
Christ or things that are associated with Christ. They seek Christ. Now if you are a disciple of
Christ, if God saved you, you know some things. You know the
Lord chose you first. You didn't choose Him. He chose
you first. You know that the Lord loved you first. You didn't
love Him first. He first loved you. You didn't even seek Him
first. He came seeking you. You're the
sheep out there lost in the wilderness. The shepherd came seeking you,
didn't he? And he found you. He's the one that called you
first. He's the one that gave you that heart, that desired
Him, that believed Him first. He did it all, didn't He? But
you're still going to seek after Christ. And you're going to follow
him no matter where he goes. And it's not because of the blessings.
You're following him because you need him. Now you're following
him because he keeps you. Absolutely so. But you're not
trying to run away from him either. You're following him. You're
seeking him because you need him. All right. Number two, if
you would be a disciple of Christ, count the cost. Verse 19, back
in our text, Matthew chapter eight. 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. Now this man that came to our
Lord was a scribe. This, I mean, he was a serious
student of the scriptures. This is all he did. And he appears,
to want to learn more from Jesus. He heard Jesus speak with authority
that he knew he and the other scribes did not have. Maybe he
was interested in seeing if he could learn to have it. Could
he learn to speak with that kind of authority? I'm not exactly
sure, you know, all the reasons why, but I mean, he was impressed
with this man, Jesus. And this scribe is somebody. I mean, now scribes are highly,
highly respected in the Jewish trying to find the right word,
not civilization, but their, you know, their, their lives.
I mean, this is just a highly society. That's the word that
highly respected. Now back to the seminary soul
winning one-on-one teaches you, you get as many influential people
as possible to follow you. Just, just find some, some rich
people and get them to follow you because now you get rich
people and you get rich people given. and you're going to get
more stuff done. You're going to have connections
and get stuff done. That's not what the Lord did,
did it? Now, he didn't tell the scribe, no, you can't follow
me. He did not say that, but he didn't try to keep him under
false pretenses either. Now he told him the truth. And
this is something that's so vital for us to remember. We're not
to try to get people in here and say we agree with their wrong
theology, their Armenian free will theology, and get them in
here and get them used to coming here and then spring the truth
on them later. No, sir. We follow our Lord's example.
We tell them the truth from the beginning. And you really won't
have a problem with that if all you preach is Christ. But just
teach them the truth from the beginning. Now the words, I'm
not a Greek scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but I can't
read English what other people say about it. The meaning of
these words, this is what I read, indicated this scribe made a
rash on the spot decision about this thing to come ask the Lord
and tell him, I'm going to follow you, follow you wherever you
go. So the Lord told him, okay, that's fine. Okay. But he told
him, you count the costs. There's costs associated with
this thing. He told him the animals of the forest, the birds of the
air that you don't care about and I ever think about. He said,
you need to be aware. They got better homes, better
places to go sleep at night than I do. They got homes. I don't,
I'm homeless. So you're not going to get rich
and influential in this world by following me. That's what
the Lord's telling him. And it seems that the cost was
too high because we do not read any more about this man. We don't
read any more about this scribe following the Lord. He said he'd
follow him anywhere, but evidently not to poverty. I mean, he was
impressed with the multitude and all this, you know, hoopla
surrounding the Lord, but he wasn't willing to follow him
into poverty. He'd willing to stay in these circumstances where,
you know, everybody's loving him and the multitude, but not
to poverty. And the point of all of this is this. If you would
be a disciple of Christ, you count the cost. Count the cost. Certainly there will be a cost
in this world. Now, the world, this world in
which we live, hates the Lord Jesus Christ. This world hates
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. So if you're
going to follow somebody that the world hates, there's going
to be costs associated to you. The world's just not going to
think much of you either if you're following this one that they
hate. If you would be a disciple of Christ, you're going to have
to come down off your high horse. And you're gonna have to give
up the applause of this world. You're gonna have to give up
fellowship with this world. You're gonna have to give all that up to follow
Christ. There's a cost associated with
this world. And there will be a cost to your
flesh, to you personally, to your flesh, to your fleshly nature.
You're gonna have to give up if you're gonna follow Christ.
You're gonna have to give up everything spiritually. Your
flesh counts as valuable. You're gonna have to give up
self-righteousness. You're going to have to give up any self-glory
because you can't contribute anything to this thing of salvation.
You're going to have to give up all appearance of self-reliance
and depend on Christ alone. You're going to have to see yourself
accurately. That's no better than any other
son of Adam. And you're going to have to seek
mercy, not merit. Look at Luke chapter 14. Here's
another example of this. Luke chapter 14. Verse 25. Here's another great multitude.
There went great multitudes with him. And he turned and said unto
them, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother
and his wife and his children and brethren and sisters, yea,
in 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, intending to
build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest, happily, after
he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it,
all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to
build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to war, going
to make war against another king, sitteth not down first and consulteth,
whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against
him with 20,000. Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage and desireth conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple. You see what the Lord's saying
here, don't you? Count the cost. Count the cost. Everything, if
you're gonna be a disciple of Christ, everything about you
is going to have to come secondary to him. But listen, look at Romans
chapter eight. While you're counting the cost,
be sure to count the gains too. While you're counting the cost,
make an accurate accounting on both sides of the ledger. Gain
and loss. Because the gain in this equation
is Christ the Savior. Romans 8 verse 18. For I reckon,
and that word reckon is not like we use. I say I reckon, that
means I guess. I don't know. This is an accounting
term. Paul is reckoning. He's making
an accounting here on both sides of the ledger. He's counting
the cost. I reckon, I count that the suffering
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. See, that's Paul counting
both sides of the equation. Now back in our text, the first
place, this is the first place in scripture. Our Lord calls
himself the son of man. Now often through his earthly
ministry, he called himself the son of man, but this is the very
first time. And there's something to be taught
here, something to be learned. The Lord Jesus has two natures
in one body, two natures in one man. He is both equally the son
of God and he's the son of man. For Scott Richardson was famous
for saying the Lord Jesus Christ is as much God as if he were
not man, much man as if he were not God, 100% God, 100% man. And the title, the son of man,
our Lord uses shows us the glorious condescension of our savior.
This is the son of God who thought it not robbery. It wasn't wrong
for him to say he's equal with God because he is God. Oh, but
he willingly humbled himself to become a man so that he could
redeem all the sinful men and women the father gave him to
save. The son of man became poor so that he could save his people
from their sin. He became poor to take on him
human flesh, to hide his glory for a time behind human flesh.
Oh, how he humbled himself. He became so poor. He became
poor of righteousness when he was made sin for his people.
He was made poor of life. Life himself was made poor of
life when he died for the sins of his people. And as a man on
this earth, he lived physically poor. I mean, so poor in such
deep poverty, he was homeless. Now, if we would be his disciple,
we would be this man's disciple, the son of man. We're going to
have to become poor. We're going to have to lose all
of our righteousnesses. We're going to have to lose all
of our good works and trust Him alone. You have to give it all
up. Are you willing to do that? Now that's counting the cost.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 8. While you're counting the
cost, be sure, like I said, you count all the costs. Count both
the loss and the profit. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Oh, you follow him. You give
up all to follow him. You give up everything about
you to follow him and you'll be rich. The riches of Christ
can't compare to anything this world has to offer. I mean, you
just can't compare. Look at Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians 1, verse 16. Well, verse 15, Ephesians 1,
verse 15. Paul says, wherefore I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto
all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation and the knowledge of him Now, here's what Paul's
saying. I pray that the Lord will give
you eyes to see things as they really are, to see Christ as
he really is, so you can completely evaluate this thing. Verse 18,
that if the Lord give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
of knowledge of Christ, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what
is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
See, nothing is more valuable than the riches of glory with
Christ. To be made like Christ, to be
with Him face to face, that's glory. And if the Lord shows
you that, if He shows you the glory of Christ, you'll be Christ's
disciple. You'll give up anything about
you to be with Him. All right, here's the third thing,
the last thing. If you would be a disciple of
Christ, Christ will come first. It's not that Christ will be
first in your life. Christ will be your life. Matthew
8 verse 21. And another of his disciples
said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
But Jesus saith unto him, follow me and let the dead bury their
dead. I would imagine that it would
be very easy to take these verses and make them mean what they
don't mean. The Lord is not teaching us here that we should ignore
our family. They're not teaching us here
we have to sacrifice our family's needs, not at all. No, you take
care of your family. You take care of your family.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul told Timothy. 1 Timothy 5 verse
8 says, if any provide not for his own, especially for those
of his own house, he hath denied the faith. He denied the faith. He's denied the gospel and he's
worse than an infidel. So you take care of your family.
The gospel teaches you to do that. Well, then what is the
Lord teaching us here? I think there's two things that
could be helpful to you here. Number one, you take care of
your family. Nobody ought to have to tell
you that. But while you're taking care of your family, never choose
your family over worshiping and serving the Lord. If we only
worship the Lord, when we don't have something better to do with
our family or something else to do with our family, we're
never going to have time to worship at all. I mean, never, never. And if we never want to worship
the Lord, we never make the time to worship the Lord because we
always got something else going on. I really don't think we're
a true disciple of Christ, do you? I don't think so. I do know
this. Take care of your family. But
while we're taking care of the responsibilities that the Lord
has given us in this life, people will do what they want to do.
I'm just telling you, people will do what they want to do.
They'll do what their heart truly desires to do. And if our heart
truly belongs to Christ, other things are not going to stop
us from worshiping him all the time. Now, you understand, when
things happen, there's things we've got to do, I understand,
but not all the time. It should be infrequently if
our heart really belongs to Christ. It is hard enough to follow Christ.
Remember the first point? If you're going to be a disciple
of Christ, you have to seek after him. You're going to live in
this world behind enemy lines. It's hard enough to follow Christ
without looking for more things to do that will keep us from
having time to be in the worship service with God's people. You
know, there's enough stresses on your time without looking
for more things to do that'll keep you from having the time
to read God's Word, to pray, to think on the things that you've
heard. Your family needs you. Your family
needs you. Now you take care of them. And
while you're taking care of them, you remember this, that you and
they, I'm speaking particularly to fathers and parents here,
while you're taking care of your family, you remember this, You
and they need Christ more than anything else. Your children
need to do well in school. I mean, they got to, they got
to be educated to get a job. They got things that they've
got to do, but you do too. But you remember this, you and
they need Christ more than anything else. Don't get so busy doing
other important things. Taking care of your family is
important. Don't get so busy doing other important things
that you neglect the one thing needful. I think that's a good
guide in this, don't you? While you're taking care of your
family, you just remember that one thing, you and they need
Christ more than anything else. Here's the second thing I believe
the Lord could be teaching us here. Let the spiritually dead
take care of the things of this dead world. Now, be a good citizen,
be a good citizen, be part of your community, be part of your
schools, be part of your job, be a good neighbor, be a part
of all those things. But don't be so taken up trying
to run those things that you don't have time for worship.
I believe that's probably one of the number one reasons the
Lord does not put a believer in the Oval Office. You've got
better things to do than the President of the United States
if you're a believer. Let somebody else, let the dead
run them things. You seek Christ and His life
first. That's being a disciple of Christ.
All right. Oh, Lord, bless that.