Turn with me to Luke chapter
nine. This will be the last of our studies in Luke chapter nine. And as I've told you several
times going through here, Luke chapter nine is about the gospel
and gospel preachers. And it's about Christ and those
he calls to preach Christ. That primarily, it has an application
to everyone in the kingdom of God, but especially to those
who preach the gospel. So let's read these verses together,
beginning with verse 57. Luke chapter nine, verse 57. And it came to pass that as they
went into 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 nowhere 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 the 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 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. Now I find in these three men
and their responses and our Lord's answer to them, three hard sayings. We were just talking about that
before we came in from outside. There's some things in the scriptures
that are hard, hard sayings, not easily understood. Our Lord told his hearers in
John 6, 56, that he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood,
he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. Verse 53 of that chapter said,
except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. And many of his disciples, those
who were following him, those who'd been listening to him,
many of his disciples, when they heard that, they said, this is
a hard saying. Who can hear it? It's a hard
saying. There are things hard to digest,
mysteries, things eternal, principles, if you will, of God, sovereign,
eternal, omnipotent God. A thing strange to our ears sometimes,
but hard or easy, complicated or simple, if our God tells us
something, we have to believe it. I must believe it. I must
believe it. I must submit to it. And I must
pray for understanding. This entire chapter is about
the gospel and gospel preachers. And so the first thing I see
here are three men which he addresses as ministers of God. And certainly
these things have an application to all of us, but especially
those called of God to preach his gospel. One preacher said of these three
men that two were called and one was a fraud. And that's highly
possible. It's highly possible. Matthew
8, 19, it identifies him as a certain scribe, this man who came to
him and just out of the blue, they were just walking along.
The Lord didn't say anything. They were just walking along
and this fellow came up to him and said, Lord, I'll follow you
wherever you go. I'm ready. I'm ready. This man was a religious man,
a man whose station in life was to transcribe the scriptures.
He'd worked in the Word of God his whole life. He was a scribe.
Sometimes we pass over those things and we see a scribe and
we just think, well, that's just another type of religion. No,
they hand-transcribed the scriptures. They spent their life working
in the Word of God. They were familiar with it, with
every comma, Question mark and period. They knew what it was. What our Lord calls jots and
tittles. And his life was a lot like a
Pharisee whose hope was in producing a righteousness by his obedience
to the law. He said, our Lord said to him
on another occasion, and I think it's John chapter five, he said,
you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal
life. You think by searching and knowing
and this type of thing that you have eternal life. And he said,
they are they that testified me, but you won't come to me.
You keep going back to the book. You keep going back to your ancestors. You keep going back to your tradition.
You won't come to me that you might have life. This book is
about me. That's what he's telling them.
It's about me. He was a promoter. of a God he
didn't know and a Christ that he misunderstood altogether.
But he believed that the Christ would be manifested in his glory
at Jerusalem because that's what the old prophet said. And the
Lord already had set his face to go to Jerusalem. That's where
he was going. And this scribe understood that. He believed that the Christ would
be manifested in his glory at Jerusalem, which is true, but
not the way he believed. He believed that the Christ was
gonna be another David, another Solomon, another, like Moses,
whom God sent down and delivered Egypt. God worked wonders through
those men. And they thought that's what
the Messiah was gonna be, another man, he's gonna go to Jerusalem
And there he's gonna be manifested as the promised Messiah, and
then he was gonna deliver them out from under Roman bondage,
and they're gonna reestablish Jerusalem, and Israel would return
to its former glory, be the most powerful nation in the world.
That's what they thought the Christ was all about. The Messiah of whom the Jews
believed was going to do these things. He saw our Lord going to Jerusalem
as an event that they'd long looked for. And he was ready
to follow him there. He wanted him to know that because
he wanted his place in the royal court when the Lord was exalted. Now that's why he wanted to go.
That's why he wanted to go, for worldly gain in the kingdom. And he knew he'd suffer some
contention, but it'd be worth it. He knew he'd suffer some
resistance, some ridicule, but it'd be worth it when he got
there, because he'd be one of his key men in the court. And
our Lord plainly told Nicodemus that except a man be born again,
he cannot perceive, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He can't understand it, he don't
know what it's about. He just speculates. And this man was void of any
inward work of grace. He hadn't been made meat to be
partaker with enlightened saints. And everything to a natural man
is a mystery. The word of God to the natural
man is like a puzzle, like a puzzle. And he looks at it, looks at
it, and looks like, well, it looks like this piece of it over
here, so he plugs out. Yeah, there it is, there it is.
That fits, and he starts plugging pieces in. And if you get disgusted
enough, you'll take a piece of don't fit and make it fit. You
ever did that? Just hit on it? This man looked
at our Lord and he said, I'll follow you wherever you go. And
at first glance, that seems to be a good statement. First glance. You see a man, he says to the
Lord, I'll follow you wherever you go. And this is exactly what
all believers do. They follow Christ. They follow
the lamb whithersoever he goeth. They'll follow him into the storm
or into the fire. They'll follow him in life or
death. They follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth. Scripture said he put forth his
sheep and he goeth before them and the sheep follow him. That's
exactly what they do. But this man wasn't called, nor
did he hear the shepherd, nor did he have any understanding
of what the shepherd was. Christ was going to Jerusalem
to suffer and be rejected of the elders and chief priests
and scribes and be slain with wicked hands. He was going to
Jerusalem to accomplish redemption. How are you going to follow him
there? Will you follow him to the cross?
Will you stretch out your hands as he did willingly before God
and die on that cross? Who's gonna follow him there?
And that's what he was telling this man. Everything in nature,
everything of this world, it has a place to rest. The foxes
have holes and the birds of the air have nests and men have houses
and the Son of God has nowhere to lay his head. He didn't come
here to stay here. He didn't come here to exalt
himself here. He came here to die for sin. He came here to die for those
he loved. And having died, he's gonna ascend
back into glory. And that's exactly what he told
them at the beginning of this chapter. Even those who were true followers
followed him afar off. warmed themselves by the fire
when he was in his judgment. And this poor man, blinded by
religion and a depraved heart, had no idea what it meant to
follow Christ. And he didn't ask because he
didn't care what it meant to follow Christ. His only concern
was worldly advantage. That's what he wanted. And men
and women often make professions of faith not realizing what involved
And they drop out when the hard times come. They drop out along
the way when it becomes difficult. The way of the cross is the way
of suffering, persecution, and rejection. Not just so. I will was the boast of the scribe. I will follow you. And like every
other deceived religionist, He thought his will was the determining
factor. He thought because he was volunteering
for service, the Lord would have him. Believers don't boast in their
will nor their determination. They just follow the Lamb and
hope by His grace to being able to stay the course. If anybody makes it, Lord, surely
I will. Do you know that's a title of
a hymn that they sing in churches? See if you can find any believer,
any prophet, any apostle, any preacher in the word of God who
ever said anything like that. I'll tell you how we pray. Lord,
if you will, if you will. All right, now let's look at
the next example. Now this time the man's not talking
to him, he's talking to the man. That's the way preachers are
called. God talks to you, you don't talk to God. He talks to
you. He talks to you. He said unto
another, follow me. Follow me. But he said, Lord, Suffer me
first to go and bury my father. Now Matthew says this, and another
of his disciples came. This was a disciple of Christ,
not a scribe, not an enemy, not somebody unknowing. This was
a disciple of Christ. And Christ said to him, follow
me. Why did he come? What prompted
him to come? Christ called him. He was over
here with the crowd. He was just walking along with
the crowd. Perfectly satisfied. Listening to the Lord preach. Getting a little light on this
and that as he went along, listening to him preach. Perfectly satisfied. And the Lord said, come here.
Come here. Who? Me? Yeah, you. Come over here. Come over here. He didn't jump to the front like
that boasting scribe. He didn't even raise his head.
His response was a result of his calling. The very first verse in chapter
10 is about other 70 preachers our Lord would send out. And this man was receiving what
Paul called the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He's
been set apart for a great work, a necessary work, and a work
to which one must be called. You can't manufacture preachers.
You can't build a school and just turn them out like you would
carpenters or electricians or something else. They have to
be called. Paul said, would it please God who separated me from
my mother's womb to reveal his son in me? He called me by His
grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among
the heathen. He did not reason it out in His
flesh according to His old ideas and concepts. He did not bow
to the opinions of them around Him, nor did He go to Jerusalem
to discuss His calling. When Paul was called, he said,
I immediately conferred not with flesh and blood. If God calls
a man, I don't need your okay, I have his. I have his. Separated, he said, unto the
gospel of God. And there's no higher priority
in this world than the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is
the reason this world exists. It's the reason for its preservation. There's no higher priority in
this world than our love and submission to the Lord of glory.
In Matthew 10, 34, he said, thank not that I'm come to send peace
on earth. I'm not come to send peace, but
a sword. A sword. For I am come to set
a man at variance against his father. You know, the very first
one that I told what I thought I knew about the gospel. Showing him in the word of God
a man I knew was my father. I knew he'd studied this book
front to back. And I wanted to show him this. And I read it to him. And boy,
he got angry. Angry. Why? I'm come to set a manic
variance against his father, and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's
foes shall be those of his own household. Why? Because they're the closest to
him. You listen to them. I ain't gonna listen to old Joe
Blow who lives down the road. I ain't gonna listen to him.
But now if my dad comes, I'm gonna listen. That's why.
A man's foes, great foes, those who can get to him, those who
can cut him and cause him damage, are those of his own household.
And our Lord said, he that loveth father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me, and he that taketh not his cross and
followeth after me is not worthy of me. Listen to this. Know ye not,
Romans 6.16, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to
obey, his servants you are, to whom you obey? Whether of sin
unto death or obedience unto righteousness. And this world
is full of dead sinners. That's where he found us, isn't
it? You, Hathaequen, who were dead. You were dead. You were dead. You didn't know
anything. You had no ability. You had no understanding. You
didn't know who God was. You didn't even know who you
were. You're dead. Full of dead sinners. And they're
pictured. Old Ezekiel, the spirit carried
him out and showed him a valley full of dry bones. He pictured
all humanity. Here they are. All of God's elect. Here they are. Dead, dry bones. Son of man, he's sick and he's
born to live. Oh Lord God, thou knowest. Thou
knowest. He said, preach to them. To bones? Yeah, to bones. Dead, dry bones. There's very many and they're
very dry. preached to. By the Spirit of God and the
preaching of the gospel, he gave life to dead sinners. And the
Lord said this to this young preacher that he called. He said,
let the dead bury the dead. I called you to do something
and I've sent you somewhere. I've sent you somewhere. Now
you just let the dead bury the dead and you go do what I told
you to do. Is that a hard saying? Yes, it is. Yes, it is. And then
very quickly, let's look at the third man, verse 61. And another
also said, Lord, I'll follow thee, but let me first go bid
them farewell, which are at my house. They're in my home and
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 in the world is he talking
about? He's talking about trying to smooth things over with your
family before you go obey him in your calling. That's what
he's talking about. They're sending you out to preach. Oh, you ain't
going to preach out. You ain't going to preach election, are
you? Huh? Why you going way down to Arkansas
to preach? There's churches on every corner up here. Just spend
a few months, go to their seminary, pop out, you can make $100,000,
$150,000 a year. They're looking for people. Huh? You ain't going way down.
Yeah, I'm going down there. I'm going down there. That's
what people say who don't know anything about God's calling
and they don't know anything about his gospel or his son or
even God. God called us out of darkness,
ignorance, deceit, and worldly religion. And we practiced all
these things and shared a common ground with all of our relatives
and friends, but when God intervened, stepped into our lives and called
us out from among them. Come ye out from among them,
be ye separate, saith the Lord. Separated us by his spirit and
his gospel. Do I still care about my family?
Absolutely, I care about my family. Do I still love them? I still
love them. I still love them. Do I want them to know I care?
Yes, I do. Yes, I do. But not according
to their ways and means. There's nothing that you can
do. Now you hear me. I want you to understand this.
There is nothing that you can do for your children more than
set an example by being in this place every Sunday. You want
to serve witness to your family? Show up here every Sunday. Every
Sunday. When they have their big, whatever
it is, family reunions or whatever, if it interferes with what you're
doing in the kingdom of God, I'm going to have to miss it
this year. If they come to visit you on
a Sunday and try to get you to stay home, you tell them I'm
going to church. I'll be back in about two hours. There's nothing
you can do. that'll give a more honest testimony,
a more meaning testimony to your children and your friends and
your family than being right in this place. Now that's just
so. I know where they are and why,
and I know how Satan works in men and women. The only thing
I can do for them is what I'm doing right here. And that's
what our Lord was saying to this young man, you want to do something
for your family, go do what I'm calling you to do. Just be faithful to God, his
dear children. And pray for them, encourage
them to hear. Bring them if they'll come. Bring
them. Well, I brought them once before
and they didn't do it. Bring them again. Bring them
again. Pray for them. But your calling
as disciples is not a matter of family opinion. And those who would serve the
Lord must serve him with undivided hearts. Moses had to leave the
woman who raised him as her son, for Christ's sake. Took him as
a baby right out of the river, raised him to adulthood. Abraham
had to come out of his father's house. Lot had to walk out of
Sodom. And God turned his wife into
a pillar of salt for looking back. God help us to see these
great principles he's given us and given us the love and loyalty
of heart to follow him in spite of everything that goes on around
us. May the Lord give us always.