Matthew 8, 18. 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 saith 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. These five verses here are clearly
a context within themselves. This brief passage of scripture,
it's an isolated incident. in the narrative. And every verse,
every word of the scripture as we've seen, we've been together
for a while now, we've seen in God's word that every word has
meaning and every word must be taught in the context, in the
immediate context of that word, the verse and the verses around
it. And then You take another step back, so to speak, and you
see the greater context of perhaps the chapter at times, or the
incidents that occurred in our Lord's life that surround that
particular incident. Like we saw, He healed that leper,
picturing our soul's disease. He healed that centurion's servant,
showing that the hope of our loved ones is the master. He
touched that woman's hand, and she rose up and ministered, showing
that if we're gonna do anything for God, He got to do something
for us. And so we see the greater, and
then you back up, as it were, even further, and you see the
context of the whole book of Matthew. And we'll talk about
that a little bit, and then the entire word of God. No scripture
can be taken out of the context of the entire word of God. God's
word is one word, one scripture, old and new. It's Christ and
Him crucified, clearly in every page, in every verse, in every
context. The first two chapters of Matthew
deal with our Savior's birth and the circumstances surrounding
His glorious birth, His entrance into this world, the angels heralded.
the entrance of the babe, whose name is, I'll save my people
from their sins. And then chapter three begins
with how John the Baptist came preaching Christ, the forerunner
that our brother alluded to, read the scripture concerning
him in the Bible class. He comes preaching Christ, the
promised Messiah. He comes preaching Christ, the
lamb. of God that takes away sin. And then chapter 3 ends with
Christ coming to John to be baptized of him. And John says, no way. I have need of being baptized
of you. And comest thou to be baptized
by me? And the Lord said, suffer it
to be so for now. For thus it behooveth us, Christ
and all of his, to fulfill all righteousness. As he fulfills
all righteousness, that's us. In him our righteousness, fulfilling
the righteousness of God in our substitute, in our redeemer,
our representative. God Almighty there at the end
of chapter three spoke from heaven, identifying the one being baptized
as the beloved son of God in whom he's well pleased. And then
in chapter four, the Lord is led up of the spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of Satan before he enters upon his public
ministry as the preacher of the gospel. He's tempted of Satan
in the wilderness. And then John there in chapter
four is imprisoned, the one who preached the kingdom of God and
the lamb of God who preached, there's one coming after me who
is preferred before me. the latchet of whose shoes I'm
not worthy to bend down and fix. He's coming. He's coming. But he's put in prison and then
our Lord begins to preach the kingdom. The same thing that
he sent John to preach. The same gospel that the prophets
preached. The same word from God that we've
had from the very beginning. Salvation by the blood of a substitute. And as he goes about preaching
repentance in the kingdom of God, he begins to hand pick his
apostles. He found Peter and Andrew casting
a net into the sea. And he said unto them, follow
me and I'll make you fishers of men. I'll have you casting
my net into the sea and catching men, bringing men. He found James
and John in a ship with their father Zebedee, and he called
them, and they followed him. That's what happens when the
Lord calls. Did you know that? The gospel call will go out this
morning, and some will hear and have no interest, have little
thought for it whatsoever. But if the Lord calls you, you'll
follow him. And this is how he does it, by
the preaching of the gospel. And then at the end of chapter
four, for the first time, it says that multitudes began to
follow the Lord, like in our text this morning. This is why
I'm giving us somewhat of an overview this morning. For the
first time, multitudes, it says, began to follow him. Why did
they do that? Why did the multitudes follow him? Listen to Matthew
4, 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom. good news that God's kingdom
has come. And healing all manner of sickness
and all manner of disease among the people, showing how God's
kingdom comes and how his work of grace is done, pictured by
these healings, by these miracles. And his fame went throughout
all Syria. That word fame there is hearing.
They heard of him throughout all Syria. And they brought unto
him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and
torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those
which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy. And we saw
how that spiritually pictures us. Everything that he said was
the gospel of the kingdom, and everything he did revealed the
gospel of the kingdom. He heals the lunatics. We're
mad men living among the tombs and cutting ourselves. But when
the Lord comes, we're sitting in clothes and in our right minds.
And he healed them. And there followed him great
multitudes. That's the first time it says
that great multitudes followed him. And that's why, because
of these miracles that we have inside in the book of John and
other places. Why? They followed him simply
for the sensationalism of these supernatural acts that he was
able to perform. from Galilee, from Decapolis,
from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. And then
in the beginning of chapter five, just following that passage there
where the multitudes follow him, something interesting is recorded
that our Lord did. And it has direct bearing upon
our text in chapter eight. Matthew 5, one, and seeing the
multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, His disciples
came unto Him. There are multitudes, and our
Lord leaves and goes up into a mountain. And His disciples
came, followed Him up there. And He sat down and taught His
disciples. There were multitudes, and then
there were disciples. The word multitude means crowd.
and disciple means learner or student. The title of the message
this morning is Multitudes, Disciples, and the Elect. In chapters five,
six, and seven of Matthew, we saw the teachings of our Lord
from that mountain. When he was set in that mountain,
he began to teach his learners, his students, those who followed
him up even there into that mountain. And those chapters tell what
he taught. Five, six, and seven. And then
in chapter eight, he came down from the mountain. And when he
was come down, interesting, eight, one, verse one of chapter eight.
When he was come down, after he had come down from the mountain,
then the multitudes followed him again. You see what happened
there? The same thing that happened
in our text. When he saw the multitudes, he said, let's go
over here. Let's go to the other side. And
then that leper met him as he was coming down out of the mountain. One of them was a leper. One
among that multitude was a leper. And he came and begged for mercy. And the Lord had mercy on him.
And then that centurion came and met him. And then he healed
Peter's mother-in-law. who was sick of a fever. And
then comes chapter eight, verse 18. Now, when Jesus saw a great
multitudes about him, perhaps even more than there were when
he went up into the mountain, because word is just now spreading
that he's able to do miracles. He gave commandment to depart,
to get away from the multitudes and go unto the other side. Now, our Lord clearly was not
in the same business that the religious organizations of our
generation are in. They would have said, multitudes,
but they're not big enough. Let's get more in here. Let's
put a plaque up. Let's count them and put a plaque
on the wall and see how many there are today. And then we'll
do it again next week and see if we got any more. Our Lord
wasn't in that business, was he? Clearly. He did not speak
to and teach great multitudes with the intent of saving everybody. That wasn't his ministry. This
is why he told some that he healed, not to tell anyone about it.
It wasn't about the multitude. He wasn't interested in the fame
of this world. Though he tended to attract it,
and he still does, doesn't he? People that have no idea who
he is, or what he did, why he did it, and yet he tends to attract
just his name, his book tends to attract the multitudes, but
neither then nor now are the multitudes attracted to the person. And they're attracted to what? What were the miracles about?
The miracles are about What's in it for me? What's in it for
me? That's what the multitudes are
still interested in. With religion, the greater the
multitude, the better. But our Lord, as we saw here
and in other places in the scripture where this is borne out, he clearly
tended to avoid the multitudes. He spoke to great crowds at times. That's not what I'm saying. But
we see here clearly that he tended to avoid that and to teach those
who were truly interested. There were times when he taught
great crowds and then his disciples would come to him and say, what
did you mean by that? And he would teach them privately
and say, here's what that is. This is the spiritual truth that
I taught in that earthly story. And he said, And they said, why
do you speak to them in parables, but when you're talking to us,
you just tell us plainly. Unto you it's given to know the
mysteries, but to them it's not given. Many thronged him to see
the miracles or to get a free meal, to be part of the excitement.
And when they did, our Lord said, let's go over to the other side.
And it's no coincidence that in verse 23, of chapter eight,
look at verse two, when he was entered into a ship, his disciples
followed him. You take that with verse 18,
when the multitudes were about him, he said, let's go to the
other side. And when they went to the other
side, he went into a ship and his disciples went into the ship
with him, not the multitude. It's no coincidence that those
two verses taken together correspond exactly with Matthew 5.1. There
were multitudes, he went up into a mountain and his disciples
followed him up there and he taught them. Now let's look at
what happened in between verses 18 and 23. Verse 19, and a certain
scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever
thou goest. This man seems to have had some
sense of the fact that our Lord was deliberately leaving the
multitude as he had done before. Because notice what he said.
He said, you came here and you go there and now you're leaving
again. I'll go wherever, I'll follow you wherever you go. The Lord deliberately left the
multitude and made it difficult for them to follow him, didn't
he? It has never been convenient to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's not going to get that way. It's not going to be that
way. It's deliberately not convenient
to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Some are looking for a more convenient
experience. You'll have to leave the Lord
Jesus Christ in order to find it. But look what this man says,
yet our Lord knows what's in his heart. And like those in
John chapter two to whom he did not commit himself because he
knew what was in their hearts, he discourages this man. Notice
what he said. He started out, the first thing
he said was what? Those two words that we've seen
before in our studies. I will. I will. He says, Master, Teacher. And you notice what the other
man that came called him, Lord. There's a difference in the two
words. Teacher, I will. What was it that Peter said?
I will not deny you. I will be there with you. I won't go away. These others
might, but I won't. Will go and die with you What
did Satan say? Just before the Lord cast him
out of glory. I will be as the Most High I
will Now we've got to understand something
here that though the Lord Jesus Christ knew this man's heart
and instead of saying Good for you. Come on and follow me. He
said something else, and we're going to look at it more closely
in a minute. But let me caution us here. We don't know anybody's
heart. We don't even know our own hearts. And we're not ever
taught anywhere in the word of God to discourage anybody with
regard to following Christ, with regard to the gospel, never anywhere. But what our Lord does here as
the one who sees all heart teaches us some very important truths. Our business is just to preach
to every creature. This part is up to our Lord.
But this does teach us some very important things. What was in
this man's heart? What was wrong with what he said
other than, I will? The obvious. What was in this
man's heart? Well, if you look at what our
Lord said to him that discouraged him, it reveals what was in his
heart, doesn't it? Look at verse 20, and Jesus saith
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. If you follow me, you're not
going to find what you're looking for. There's not going to be
anything in it for you. Not of this earth, not anything
for the flesh. And that's what this man was
looking for. It's clear from our Lord's response, isn't it?
He's looking for something. And you can imagine, here's somebody
that's healing lame people before everybody's eyes. People that
everybody knows can't walk. He's saying, take up your bed
and walk, or be thou healed, or touching them, or all the
different ways that he did it. But he healed all that were lunatic,
and lame, and sick, even deformed people. He was healing them. And you can imagine what was
in this man's heart. I'm going to get in on that.
He was like Simon in Acts chapter 8, 18. Let me read it to you.
And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands,
the Holy Ghost was given, they were able to speak in languages
that they had never learned. And they were able to take up
poisonous serpents and it did them no harm. And they were able
to heal people. Peter and John healed a lame
man. And when Simon saw that, he said,
I'll give you whatever it was. He offered them money. We don't
know how much. It says he offered them money saying, give me also
this power that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the
Holy Ghost. He saw a business opportunity
here, didn't he? Who wouldn't? But Peter said
unto him, thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought
that the gift of God may be purchased with money. He saw a great business
opportunity who many since have taken advantage of. Though they
don't have any real power from God, they pretend to. Why? Because it's good business,
that's why. It's good business. And this
man, he didn't just determine in his heart to follow Christ
no matter what, and then do so. He made sure the Lord knew how
committed he was. Boy, that's a red flag every
time. Some might start talking about how smart they are, or
how much they know about the scriptures, or how long, you
know, I've been serving the Lord for this many years. Boy, that's
a red flag every time. God's elect tend by his grace
not to glorify the flesh. They just tend not to. I know
a bunch of them. And they tend not to glorify
the flesh. The flesh glorifies the flesh.
It always has and it always will. But by God's grace and transforming
creative power, his people tend not to do that. I've noticed
that about them. He didn't ask for mercy. in any
matter for himself or for anyone that he loved, the subject of
his entire statement was simply to brag on himself. Did I miss
something? I'll follow you wherever you
go. I don't find that Peter and John said that when they, when
the Lord came where they were, they just followed him. You ain't
got to talk about it much, do you? We talk about what the Lord did
for you. We talk about what you're gonna do. That's a problem, isn't
it? That's a problem. And then another
man comes in verse 21. Another of his disciples said
unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. His
statement was pathetic compared to the other. The other man said
something impressive, didn't he? Well, I'm gonna follow you
no matter where you go. I don't care if you leave here,
go to the other side, and then you leave again. I'll be with
you. That's impressive to the flesh, isn't it? What this man
said, he sounds like he's weaseling out of following the Lord. It
sounds like a bad excuse for not following the Lord. Doesn't
it? And yet, look what the Lord said
to him. We'll look at it in a minute.
In Luke 9, 59, We're told clearly in Luke 9.59,
if you wanna jot it down, we're told clearly there what's implied
here. It's implied here that the Lord
said to him, follow me, isn't it? Because why else would he
say, let me first, let me first what? What are you talking about?
Well, the Lord said to him in Luke 9.59, this same man said,
follow me, two words, follow me. And this is the man's response,
Lord, not just teach you, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury
my father. He doesn't refuse the call, but
he asks humbly here, Lord, suffer me. He didn't say, here's what
I'm gonna do, like the other man did. He said, Lord, if you'll
give me permission, I'll go bury my father when my father is dealt
with with respect and in the right way. The way the Lord teaches
in his word to do so. No question about it. And it
seems a reasonable favor, doesn't it? But what our Lord teaches
us here is the difference between the multitude, a disciple, and
his elect. Our Lord had just dismissed this
first fellow. If you follow me, you're not
going to have what you want. You don't want to do that. And
now here's another man. He says to him, follow me. You follow me. Like he did to
Peter and John and Andrew and all of his chosen ones. He handpicked him out of a crowd,
out of the multitude and said, you follow me. That's what He
did for me. He handpicked me. The base, the
foolish, the vile, the weak, the things that are not to bring
to naught the things that are. He just flat handpicked them
and said, follow me. And the man makes an excuse at
first, doesn't he? The man had important business
to attend to first. But then the Lord taught him
what's truly important. what's vital and what's not vital.
This is in no way teaching, no way whatsoever is this teaching
that the dead should not be properly buried and respected. The Lord makes it clear that
that will be taken care of by others. But he also makes it
clear that in this case, it won't be done by this man at this time. And there's a good reason for
it. All things else being equal, That's exactly what this man
ought to go do, is bury his father. That's the right thing to do.
But one thing, that should be done. That should be done, everything
else being equal. But there's one thing that must
be done. One thing is needful. To the exclusion, if necessary,
of everything else. In Luke 9, in the account of
this same event, there in Luke 9, we have another detail that's
not recorded in Matthew 8. Luke 9 in verse 60, listen to
this. It says, Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their
dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. What's more important than anything
else in this world? Christ and his gospel. Have we
seen that anywhere else in the Word of God? We've seen it just
about everywhere, haven't we? In Genesis, in Exodus, in Matthew,
in John, in 1 Thessalonians, in 1 Peter, in 2 Peter, in the
book of Acts. You read the book of Acts and
see what God's gospel, the gospel of Christ, has to do with that
book, with everything that was done by God and his people in
that book. everything. You go and preach. The dead will
bury the dead, but you go and preach. That's our business in
this world. There is other important business
in this world, but then there's vital business. And when there is conflict between
the two, the vital takes precedence over the important. If I could
learn this one thing, it would change everything. The gospel ministry, which is
the honoring and worship of Christ and the cause of Christ in this
world, is vital business. Verse 22, but Jesus said unto
him, follow me and let the dead bury their dead. May he teach
me. what he taught this man the day
he met him. Now today, as then, there are
multitudes, there are disciples, and there is God's elect. Where
are the multitudes today? They're still doing what they
did then. What were the multitudes interested in? Well, what were
they interested in then? They were interested in that
which excites and entertains and profits the flesh. That's
why our Lord said, don't labor for the meat which perisheth. Don't just be looking for that
which benefits the flesh in religion. They're following the miracle.
They still are, aren't they? The miracles, that's the excitement,
the religious entertainment. I'm sure that was something to
behold, don't you think so? To see our Lord perform those
miracles. They didn't have any interest in Him. It was the flesh. What excited the flesh and would
profit the flesh if they could figure out a way to get in on
it like this one man wanted to do. Like Simon also wanted to
do. And many have figured out a way
even though they have nothing from God. They figured out a
way to profit from our Lord Jesus Christ to profit in the flesh. And they're still doing that.
The religion of health, wealth, and heaven when you die. They're
still where they always were, aren't they? The multitudes are
still there. That's where you'll find them this morning. But his
disciples now, his disciples you'll find where the true gospel
is preached. A disciple, a learner, a student
of the word of God He can't tolerate the shallow, fleshly, freewill
religion of the masses. He's interested in the Word of
God. He wants to hear the truth. He's a learner, a student of
God's Word. And a true student of God's Word
can never hear that which is contrary to the Word and be satisfied. But even among the disciples,
At times, there were found those who honor Christ with their lips,
but their hearts were far from him. Judas is the most prominent
example. He was one of the apostles. The
Lord said he's always been a devil. He's always been a devil. They
follow the true teaching, many, but when it begins to be costly
to the flesh. And there are many kinds of costs
out there. Money is the least of them, really.
Even the masses are willing to give their money, aren't they?
Before anything else, they'll do that. There are lots of different
kinds of costs. And when it begins to cost something, that has its effect, doesn't
it? When my own interests have to be set aside. The Lord said,
if any man will follow me, let him deny himself. That's what
the flesh can never, ever do. It can physically follow, it
can serve, it can give, it can do all kinds of, but it can never
deny self. When it comes down to me or Christ,
the only one that can choose him are the ones that he chose,
the elect. we choose him because he first
chose us we love him because he first loved us and so like
the rich young ruler he wanted to inherit the kingdom didn't
he until he found out the price tag but then also among the disciples
you will find those who have counted the cost and have sold
everything that they have and the reason that I choke up a
little bit when I say that is because To even say that about
me or anyone in this world, any sinner, is a miracle of God's
grace. It's an absolute miracle of God's
grace. That's what He's teaching us
by doing these miracles that healed body, every aspect of
the body, the whole body, parts of the body, the sight, the hearing,
the loved ones. is that it takes a miracle that
only Christ can do for a sinner to be saved. For a sinner to
come to the place where he counts the cost and willingly gives
it. Sold all that they have and committed
themselves to a person, a person. not just dazzled by events or
spectacle or the wisdom and grandeur such as it is of the flesh, but
a person. They've committed themselves
to a person. They understand now that though there are dead
that need to be buried, there's more important business than
that. They understand, like Mary, they know that there's work to
be done in the kitchen. You think Mary didn't know that? And I'll
tell you this, Mary would have been the best help in the kitchen
of anybody around when it was the right time. And not anybody
I would rather have had in that household serving me than Mary. But right now, she said, the
master's speaking. And there's a place at his feet
for me. As long as there's a place at
his feet for me, and he's willing to speak to me, may God give
me grace to be willing to hear. To be willing to leave everything
else off to be there. Who are these ones who have counted
the cost? They're the ones that Christ
handpicked. The ones to whom he said, follow me. And they
did. They're the ones among the multitude
and among the disciples who are the people of God, the chosen
of God. Those to whom God revealed His Son. Paul said, when it pleased
God, He revealed His Son in me. He revealed to me that He had
sent His Son into this world to redeem me from my sins with
his precious blood to represent me in holiness and righteousness
before God in obedience in fulfillment of the law and to die in my stead
to the satisfaction of God's justice righteously against me. He revealed his son in me. God
picked him out in eternity because he loved him. He sent his son
to redeem them by his precious blood, the Son of God obtained
eternal redemption for them. Is there anything that separates
God's people from the rest of the world like that? The precious
blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit, who the Lord
said to John, he goes where he pleases, came where they were,
where they were, the elect, and only the elect, and breathed
into them the breath of spiritual life. He's been choosing us out
from the beginning. He chose us in love. He separated
us with His precious blood from all else. And He gave us life
from the dead by His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came and revealed
the Savior to us and in us and made us new, made us new creatures
in Christ Jesus. And now they're not like anybody
else. by God's almighty grace. There's
the multitude, there are disciples, and there's God's elect. He calls
us a peculiar people, His peculiar people, zealous of good works,
that is, they do all that they do by His grace. for the honor
of and for the sake of the ministry of Christ. May God make it so. This flesh prevents it. This
flesh fights against the spirit, and warth daily, moment by moment. But may God give us grace to
honor him and to be about his business. Let's bow in prayer.