The King Calls and the Kingdom Advances

Well, last week, as you may recall, we witnessed in the book of Matthew the temptation of Christ.

And so as we come out of that temptation, we see a slight shift as we move from these actions that occur to the preparation for Christ's ministry to the actual open and advancement of that ministry.

We move from preparing to the actual work.

We saw John the Baptist enter. We saw him proclaim repentance.

We saw Christ baptized in fulfillment of righteousness.

We've seen the sun triumph over the enemy in the midst of temptation in the wilderness.

And now, now light shines in the darkness.

This particular passage of Scripture marks the beginning of Christ's Galilean ministry as he, in earnest, begins moving forward, preaching and teaching.

However, what we see unfolding is much more than just the beginning of a ministry.

It's much more than just the beginning of this public preaching. You see, the king steps into a world sitting beneath the shadow of death, sitting in darkness.

He comes proclaiming the kingdom, calling sinners to follow him, calling for repentance and displaying divine authority over all things.

One of the passages, one of the questions, excuse me, that we have been dealing with in this entire series in the book of Matthew this far continues to be pressed upon us here in this text.

And the question is, what will you do with Jesus? What do you do when you hear this truth?

Because the reality is that we see revealed for us in the text is that Christ didn't come to be admired from a distance.

He didn't come with the intention of being just looked at. He comes preaching repentance because the kingdom is at hand.

We'll see in the passage today that he doesn't merely call men to give a nod to him when it is convenient.

He doesn't call men to give lip service to the king.

He doesn't call men to reserve duty where we get one weekend a month and two weeks a year.

He calls and he demands that we drop everything and follow him, that we leave it all behind and follow him.

As he walks, he confronts darkness with none other than his own divine light.

And as he does so, as the rightful king, as our rightful king, as the rightful king over all things, he demands allegiance.

And the truth is, is that the same Christ who called to the

Galileans to repent and follow him still calls sinners to repentance today.

And so as the light shines and the kingdom advances, every man, every woman remains absolutely responsible for our response to the king.

So if you will, take out your copy of God's Word. If you have not already done so, make your way to Matthew's Gospel, the fourth chapter.

We will be in verses 12 down through verse 25 this morning.

So, having found your place, I invite you to please stand with me in reverence for the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, complete, and certain word.

As we look at the fourth chapter, beginning in the twelfth verse of the Gospel of Matthew, we read these words.

Now, when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, he departed into Galilee.

And leaving Nazareth, he came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet will be fulfilled, saying, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the

Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light.

And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned.

From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Now as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called

Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers,

James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets, and he called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

And Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

And the news about him spread throughout all Syria and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs,

I'll get it right in a minute, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. And large crowds followed him from Galilee and the

Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the

Jordan. Our most gracious heavenly father, we are beyond gratitude for the revelation of Christ that is revealed in your word.

Lord, we thank you that you have not left us sitting in darkness, but that by your mercy you have caused the light of the gospel to shine through the coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we confess that apart from Christ we are blind in our understanding, we are rebellious in our hearts, we are still in our sin.

Yet father, we praise you that Christ did come, that he did preach repentance, that he did proclaim the kingdom, and that he does call sinners to himself.

Father, we ask that our eyes are opened to the truth of your word, that we would behold the beauty and the authority of our king, that our hearts would tremble at your word, that every false refuge would be stripped away, every competing loyalty would be removed, every hidden sin is put to death.

Father, we pray that you strengthen us to follow him faithfully in this dark world and for those who remain outside of the gospel, outside of Christ, we pray that the light of the gospel is shown in their hearts.

We ask all of these things in the blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated.

Our passage for today begins with a transition statement that at first glance can somehow seem to be just that, just a transition from one part of the text to the other.

We were here doing this, now we're there doing that. But there's something more here.

There's something significant that is occurring. First of all, you'll notice that Jesus hears that John the

Baptist, the one who had come to prepare the way, the herald of the king, has been imprisoned and he's imprisoned for the reason of the proclamation of the gospel.

But what we see here is that even though John, John who boldly confronted sin,

John who refused to soften the message of God, that even though he is put into imprisonment, the kingdom still advances.

Even in the midst of hostility and oppression, the kingdom still advances.

One of the truths that we see in scripture, one of the realities that we see in this world is that this world does not naturally welcome divine truth.

We don't really have to look very far to find that today. In many years in the past it was often well hidden, it was often kept quiet, but today it's literally on the forefront.

The world is absolutely hostile to the proclamation of the truth.

Within the last two weeks a minister in the United Kingdom was convicted of preaching a sermon.

The message was on John 3 .16. He was standing outside of an abortion clinic.

He was arrested because according to the complaint there was hate speech in his message and that he was being antagonistic towards those people who were coming in for abortions.

He was preaching John 3 .16. You see, men love sin.

Men cherish autonomy. We want to be in control. We want to do what we want to do.

We want to do it when we want to do it and quite frankly we resist authority. Most of us when we are told to do something our initial response, whether it is spoken or not, often tends to be, who are you to tell me what to do?

At a young age it may come out with something like, you're not the boss of me. But this is our natural inclination and so when the proclamation of the truth of God is done, opposition naturally arises.

J .C. Ryle wrote in his thoughts on the

Gospel of Matthew, it must never surprise true Christians if they meet with hatred and persecution.

How far have we drifted in this world now? This is the exact opposite preached from many pulpits anymore.

What we're told in many cases from pulpits is that, oh no, no, no, no, the world should love you because you're preaching a gospel of love.

This man back in 1865 wrote these words, it must never surprise true

Christians if they meet with hatred and persecution. The world hated John the Baptist and crucified

Christ. That world will never love those who faithfully follow the same truth.

But you'll notice that although he was taken into custody, it did not stop or hinder the purpose of God.

Even as worldly forces would claim a victory, the purposes of God advance.

Even when worldly forces oppose the truth, they cannot overthrow the sovereign decree of heaven.

It's not possible. It'll never happen. And so we see

Jesus depart from the Judean hillside and he leaves and he goes to Nazareth and leaving

Nazareth he comes and lives in Capernaum. And Capernaum gives us a little bit more description.

Capernaum is situated in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. We get this because as we've talked about before,

Matthew is deeply concerned as he presents the gospel to us of presenting the fulfillment of Old Testament found in Christ.

And so he points us back to a quote from the prophet

Isaiah. Now I don't know if you've really read this very closely, but if you will, humor me for just a moment.

If you'll take your Bible and flip back over to the prophet Isaiah, back to where we were at our call to worship this morning in Isaiah chapter 9, and I want you to go up to verse 2.

Now leading into this, we get pretty much the exact same terminology that Matthew quotes.

However, when we arrive at verse 2, you'll notice there's something just a slight bit different.

In chapter 2, I mean in verse 2 of Isaiah 9, we read these words, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light.

Now if you go back over to Matthew's gospel, the 4th chapter, the 15th and 16th verse, it says in verse 16, the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light.

Those who were sitting in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has dawned. Do you notice the shift? In Isaiah, they were walking.

Matthew records them as sitting. You're like, okay, so what?

They got tired. Or maybe they just gave up. You see, walking denotes an action, a movement, a something happening.

They're not necessarily satisfied. They're still in motion. However, in Matthew's gospel, he records them as sitting.

As if they're settled. As if they're okay with residing in the darkness.

And guess what? Left to ourself we are. We're perfectly okay with residing in the darkness.

But that's not the only difference. Did you also notice the other difference? You see, in Isaiah's gospel, it says that the people walking in darkness will see a great light.

In Matthew's gospel, it reads this way. The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light.

And to those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light has dawned.

You notice we went from future to present? We went from later to now.

The fulfillment of the prophetic voice of Isaiah occurs.

When we see darkness used in scripture, it is used to describe most often the condition of fallen man.

We use terminology to describe what we see as being totally depraved.

Now, that does not mean that we are without certain things.

What it does mean is that we are never to have an inclination. We will never in our natural state have an inclination towards God left in our natural state on our own.

Something has to happen. That something is the light.

The change is light entered. One of the things that you should just try sometime, and you may have experienced this before, get in a room where it is absolutely dark, no light, can't see your hand in front of your face.

And then just strike a match or use a lighter or turn on a flashlight.

And what you realize is that the smallest amount of light in the midst of darkness eliminates that darkness.

You see, darkness is only defined by the absence of light. And light has now dawned.

Another way to describe this is the spiritual blindness, the moral corruption that humanity has, the reality that we are alienated from God, that we are enslaved to sin.

Scripture later would say, we aren't just alienated from God, we are at enmity. That word enmity means we are at war with God.

In our natural state, apart from the saving work of Christ, apart from the transformation, the regeneration that occurs by the

Holy Spirit, you and I are at war with God. This is so important that we grasp.

I've had people ask me before, why do you keep talking about it? Because it's important. It's of utmost importance.

Because you see, it doesn't make any sense until you understand that. Until you understand the deepest need, you'll never understand the greatest cure.

It's necessary that we understand because humanity, the world, wants to teach that, well, we're basically good.

You don't believe me, go to a funeral. 99 out of 100 people that walk by at a funeral will say, he was a good man.

He was a good woman. Regardless, regardless of the eternal situation of that man or woman.

I said 99 out of 100 because you always got that one out there person. I've been to enough funerals and visitations to know.

They hate everybody. But the reality is, this is how the world portrays people.

Oh, they're basically good. This is why we have the question, well, what about the good person in Africa who dies without hearing the gospel?

There is no good person in Africa. If there were, if there were a perfect person in Africa who died, perfect, understand, perfect, that means from the moment of conception all the way to the end of their life, they never disobeyed

God. They never went away against the word of God. They never rebelled against God. And they died, then yes.

But that doesn't exist. It's not real. It's an illusion generated by the enemy sold that we buy hook, line, and sinker.

We also get this idea that we need this moral guidance or moral education or moral improvement.

That's the whole purpose of scripture. Oh, it's just to show you how to live your best life or show you how to live good now or show you how to be a better husband or show you how to be a better wife.

No. The word of God exists for the purpose of showing you that you are lost and in need of a savior and proclaiming the truth of that savior to you and then leading you into all things necessary, not just for salvation, but unto life, but you don't have life until you know him.

See, humanity, apart from God, humanity, without the word of the

Holy Spirit, humanity, unregenerate, is dead.

Ephesians chapter 2, but you were dead, not sick, not ailing, not on death's door, not in hospice.

You were dead in your trespasses and in your sins, and the truth of the matter is dead men cannot rescue themselves.

Dead men cannot reach up and grab the life preserver. You're not out there with your hands stretched above water, slowly sinking.

You're at the bottom. You're wrapped in chains. You're dead.

And Christ revives. Dead blind men cannot create sight.

Darkness cannot generate light. R .C. Sproul wrote, the coming of Christ into the world is the invasion of divine light into the deepest darkness of fallen humanity.

This is precisely what we see happening as Christ moves into Galilee or through Galilee and begins to preach in the region of Capernaum, Capernaum.

There's a funny joke behind why I said it that way. I'll have to tell you another day. But the other thing that the text says, again, is that they were sitting.

They were lovers of darkness. Jesus later would say in John chapter 3 verse 19, men love the darkness rather than the light.

Why? For their deeds were evil. Notice the people didn't ascend to the light.

The light came to the people. We don't get to the light through moral reform, through righteous or religious effort.

The light comes to us. Salvation begins not with us seeking

God, but with God moving towards sinners. Salvation belongs to God and God alone.

A .W. Pink observed, the Lord Jesus is the light because he alone can illuminate the darkness of fallen men and bring life where death reigns.

Matthew specifically identifies this ministry as occurring in the Galilee of the Gentiles.

Now, if you'll recall, we've talked about before, there's a passage in scripture that the question is asked, what good can come from Galilee?

And the answer that is given is nothing. You see, Galilee to the

Jewish leaders of that day was seen as a spiritually inferior and culturally compromised place.

That's why they thought nothing good could come from Galilee. These people were dumb. They were idiots.

They were backwood hicks. Today, we call them all kinds of names. Yet this is exactly where the light begins to shine.

This is exactly where the kingdom begins to be proclaimed. This should help us to remember that the kingdom, that the grace of God, does not operate according to human ideals.

It doesn't come to places where we think it should come. It doesn't come to places of prestige.

It can exist there and it can come to there, but that's not the only place to which it comes.

We spend billions of dollars in this country building monoliths to our earthly kingdoms.

And there are people who've never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if we don't have that hundred million dollar building, we can't preach the gospel.

If I don't have that jet that zips me from one side of the continent to the other, I can't preach the gospel.

That's funny. Seems to me like the gospel has been preached for many years without any of those things.

Specifically here, it was preached in the Galilee of the Gentiles.

Christ comes to the spiritually dead, to those who are sinners, to those who are not even aware of the darkness in which they sit.

Charles Spurgeon once wrote, the grace of God delights to shine where darkness is deepest and where human pride least expects it.

Why? Because I'm just going to tell you, if there is even an inkling that we could take credit for it, we will.

And oftentimes we will, even when there's not even an inkling that we could. We'll figure out a way.

Because we want it. We desire it. We crave it. This is a truth that people hear and they go, man, you're being awfully harsh.

No, this should be encouragement. Because this says that where there is no hope in our eyes, in our ability, in our thought process, there is hope.

That even when darkness seems to be the greatest, Christ came precisely to overcome that darkness.

And then as believers, this should, I don't know, take us down a peg or two.

Some of you are like, I've never heard that saying before. Put us on our face, humble us before God.

Because we're reminded that the only difference between a

Christian and an unbeliever is not your natural wisdom.

It's not your natural charm. It's not your superior morality.

It's not your self -produced righteousness. The only difference between a

Christian and one who is not a Christian is the grace of God.

That's it. It's the only thing left to ourselves.

Had God not entered into my life, I'd be sitting right there in darkness just as happy as a pig in slop.

I'd be tickled to death. I'd love every minute of it. I'd be in bondage and be dead and have no true hope.

This should generate in us compassion towards lost.

This should generate compassion towards people who are still without the gospel.

Because the world is not merely uninformed. It's literally being led by spiritually blinded men.

It's literally being led by the blind and the blind are leading the blind.

They don't need better hearts. They don't need better habits. They don't need better circumstances.

They don't need a new house to live in. They don't need a new car to drive. They don't need new clothes to have. They don't need a new job to satisfy them.

What they need is a new heart. What they need is to be regenerated by the work of the

Holy Spirit. What they need is the light of Christ. This is why faithful evangelism, faithful proclamation of the gospel is necessary for true faithful evangelism.

Because the truth, the truth of the gospel, the truth of the light of Christ is the only truth that can bring life where there is spiritual death.

And then we get to verse 17. And in verse 17, a very simple verse, but I think it's also very profound.

It says, From that time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The earthly ministry of Christ began with the words,

Repent. And it wasn't a suggestion. It's a command.

It's not him saying, Hey guys, if you feel led, right?

We're going to turn the lights down. We're going to get some nice music going. And we want everybody head bowed, eyes closed.

And if you feel so led, if you felt something move, it was probably lunch.

No. We generate this thing, but that's not what he says.

His ministry begins with the simple word, repent, repent.

You're like, well, but this isn't the first time we've heard repent, right? We saw it in John the Baptist. Do you understand the difference in the authority of John the

Baptist and Christ? I don't, don't misunderstand. John the Baptist did exactly what he was called to do.

John the Baptist preached the message that he was called to preach. He, just like any other preacher should be preaching.

He preached the word of God. But brother, there ain't a preacher who's ever been alive.

That carried the authority that Christ carries when he says repent. All mighty

God and human flesh is commanding you and I to repent.

And listen, these are foreign words today. The reason they're foreign is because, well, we don't want to make you feel uncomfortable.

We don't want to make you feel like you've done something wrong. We don't want to make you feel like you are less than.

The truth of the matter is, is that as, as this statement confronts our modern distortions, we begin to, to recognize that, man, people talk about Jesus in all kinds of ways that, and just because they use the name

Jesus don't mean they're talking about Jesus that you know. Because in today's world,

Jesus can be, I don't know, a self -motivating esteem building platform labeled as Jesus following Christians.

It could be emotional comfort. I don't misunderstand all of these things are, are, are not bad things in themselves.

But when we, when we begin to cross the lines and make them the gospel, then we ultimately fail because first and foremost, you got to have the gospel.

You'll never, listen, you'll never have emotional support. You'll never have moral clarity.

You'll never have any of these things apart from Christ. Because you have no objective truth upon which to build any of them.

There's no earthly fulfillment. The thing that we have to be very careful of is the use of the word repentance and distorting what it means to repent.

Oftentimes we, we see someone who is in the act of repenting and they're, they're, they're crying a river and they're sobbing and they're all, they, you know, they got the whole ugly cry thing going on.

It's that bad. And they're saying how sorry they are and how, you know, how bad things are.

But have they really repented or are they just upset that they got caught?

Repentance is not an emotional rollercoaster. There may be emotions involved. Don't misunderstand me.

But it's, it's not you getting sorry, you feeling bad, you crying a little bit, you saying, I'm sorry. And then you're moving on to the rest of your life.

Repentance, repentance is a true turning of the heart from sin toward God.

It means that the sin that you used to desire, you seek to put to death.

That which you desired, you now seek to eliminate. It's not regret over consequences.

It's not outward religious activity. It is genuine inward transformation involving a hatred of sin because sin is now seen rightly as an offense to Almighty God.

In Calvin's Institutes of Religion, he wrote, a true turning of our life unto

God proceeding from a pure and earnest fear of him. That's his definition.

And it consists in the mortification of our flesh and of the old man and in the vivification of the spirit.

To put into death of the flesh, to put in death of the old man and the life of the spirit.

It captures the depth of what Christ is calling for here. Because repentance reaches into our desires and our loyalties and our affections and into all of the places that we don't want it to go.

Because that means we'd have to give up something that we dearly love. The problem is, is we've made an idol of whatever it is.

Because we love it more than Christ. We love it more than God. And repentance is necessary, why?

Because the kingdom is at hand. So there are a lot of ideas and conversation around the kingdom of God and what that exactly means and when does it enter and all of these things.

What you need to understand is the kingdom is already, but it's not fulfilled.

See, the kingdom entered when the king entered. But we see its fulfillment in the final consummation of things when all of God's people enter into New Jerusalem.

The kingdom itself refers to the saving reign of God breaking into history in the form of Christ Jesus.

That's the kingdom of heaven. We'll see the kingdom of heaven much in the book of Matthew.

Often we'll see it interchanged with the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. But it is the ushering in of that kingdom because the king had arrived.

And now that the king has arrived, rebellion must cease.

In order for rebellion to cease, repentance must occur. As we work through the gospel of Matthew, we will see this theme time and time again.

In fact, after we're done with this in six years, you may be tired of hearing it. But guess what?

We'll keep right on because every one of us needs a reminder of this every day.

We need to be preaching the gospel to ourselves daily. If you are preaching the gospel to yourself daily, then you need to start.

You need to start. Just because you're a believer doesn't mean you walk away from the proclamation of the gospel.

It means you more deeply cherish that proclamation, even to yourself.

A .W. Pink wrote, the demand for repentance was necessary because the king did not come to tolerate sin, but to establish the rule of God over the hearts of men.

Christ did not come to tolerate rebellion.

Again, the kingdom is not future. This is part of the issue. When people start talking about, oh, the kingdom is not here yet.

The kingdom's not here yet. The kingdom's in the future. We haven't got to the kingdom. When we have that opinion, then we have no king.

Because if the kingdom hasn't come, then neither has the king. And so it becomes really easy in that situation, in that scenario to say, okay, well, you know, since the king hasn't come, then

I can live however I want. I can do whatever I want because I have no reigning authority in my life.

And so repentance remains urgent because the king has come and every man must respond.

Respond. One pastor in his sermon wrote, the evidence that a man has believed unto salvation is that his life is being transformed by the power of Christ.

The evidence that a man has believed unto salvation is that his life is being transformed by the power of Christ.

Mr. Paul Washer said that in his sermon,

True Conversion. What does it mean to truly be converted?

But understand, repentance does not earn salvation.

Salvation is and forever will be entirely by the grace through faith in Christ alone.

However, genuine saving faith always includes repentance.

If you truly believe, if you truly have faith, if you truly know that this is the word of almighty

God, then you cannot stand against it.

This is where false religion, false

Christianity begins to fall because false

Christianity will always say you can have Christ and Christianity, the word of God, the king of all things says you can only have

Christ. Now that doesn't mean you don't have family and friends and loved ones and things, but what's the most important thing?

What stands out above everything else? Is it Christ? Or is it your stuff?

Or is it your family? The urgency reminds us that neutrality is impossible.

Kingdoms at hand, decision time. You're like, oh man, we got to be careful of that word decision.

Do you believe? Are you faithful? Do you know who

Christ is? Have you repented? You see, the gospel is a command as truly as it is an invitation.

In his message on this same passage, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said that.

The gospel is a command as truly as it is an invitation.

Normally when we think of the gospel, we only think of one thing. The good news. That's all we think about.

But we need to understand not only is it the good news, not only is it the truth of who Christ is, what he came to accomplish, what he still accomplishes, what that word means in our lives, the gospel is all of those things, but it is also a summons of the king himself to repent and believe.

For the kingdom is at hand. And because the summons has been received, procrastination becomes spiritually dangerous.

Listen, when we don't respond, hearts continually get harder.

Refusal leads into deeper rebellion. The kingdom has come near, sinners are called to repent.

And as we continue, we see an example of what it really means to follow

Christ. See, sometimes we read this passage and we break this part. We'll teach on the first section about his ministry beginning.

Then we'll teach about his first disciples. Then we'll teach about the ministry in Galilee, or maybe we'll teach about the ministry.

We'll cut out the portion of the disciples, come back and do a whole nother thing on that. But the reality is, is they're all connected.

The command that we're left with at the end of verse 17, from that time,

Jesus began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is a hand. And then we move directly into verse 18, which says, now, as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,

Simon, who was called Peter, Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And he says to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

And Andrew and Peter sat and they thought and they talked about it and they chatted with their dad about it.

And they gave it some more consternation. You know, they spent a lot of time reflecting it. No, what does it say?

And immediately, immediately, immediately, they left their nets and they followed him.

There was no delay. The response was instantaneous. Further down as he approaches

James and John, and he calls James and John, James and John immediately put down their nets.

And he goes a step further with James and John. He says, immediately, they put down their nets and left their father and their boat and they followed him.

There's no negotiation. You know, I can picture this for just think about it this way.

I can imagine Jesus walking along. He comes to the point where Peter and Andrew are.

And maybe he stops and looks over at Peter and Andrew and says, you, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.

And then you know what I imagine? I wasn't there. We don't know. Scripture doesn't say.

I'm not saying that this is what happened. But in my mind, I can see Jesus just keep walking because he already knows.

Listen, the authority is there. In our world today, men will need to work up courage to generate authoritative voices.

And a deep booming voice gives you more authority. But can you imagine

Christ walking by and just saying, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men and nets drop off the boat.

They come and right on his heels. That is what it looks like to follow.

He didn't try to win them with some great argument.

He didn't say, follow me and your life's going to get better. He didn't say, follow me and you'll have everything you ever desire.

He didn't say, follow me and you get the wishes of your heart. He didn't say, follow me and you'll get all of these things and your family will be well off and they'll have everything they need and you'll never have to fish again because now you own a fleet of fishing boats and all the money you could ever, he just, he says, follow me.

And they drop and follow. John MacArthur wrote, the call of Christ carried sovereign authority because the one speaking was not merely a teacher inviting his students, but the divine king summoning his subjects.

Listen, brothers and sisters, I'm just going to tell you, following Christ is not casual association or occasional admiration.

It's not a weekend warrior gig. It's a day in, day out, life commitment.

They followed immediately. Genuine faith, genuine faith responds decisively to Christ.

Genuine faith looks like when you see that you're going in direction

X and you're supposed to be going in direction Y. You stop. You don't go a little bit further and say, just let me finish this.

No, you stop and you turn and you follow. Peter and Andrew, James and John, they didn't say, let us get one more cast in.

In fact, a little later, we'll see this gentleman approach and Jesus, he say he wants to follow

Jesus and Jesus say, okay, leave everything you have, come follow me. And the guy says, well, let me first go bury my father.

And he's not talking about because his father's dead and he just needs to go put him in the hole.

He's talking about, let me finish my worldly things before I follow you.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

Now, there are a lot of things theologically we may differ with Bonhoeffer on, but we cannot, we cannot dismiss the accuracy of that statement.

And it has, it reflects serious discipleship. Christ says, pick up your cross, follow me, be prepared to die for me daily.

What are you dying to? Well, it may be a physical death today, but most importantly, it's the death of the old man.

It's the death of the sinful man. It's the death of the flesh that you're putting it to death daily.

Matthew 10, 37, Christ says, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

Luke uses the word hate. I remember the first time I preached on that, I had a, I had a older, uh, former pastor sitting in the congregation and he stopped me at the back door.

And he says, brother, you know, Jesus don't hate anybody. I said, I never said he did.

But what he did say was, if you don't hate, if your feelings towards all your loved ones are not like hate compared to your love for me, then you've not done what you've been called to do.

Christ calls these men. He does not become one priority among many.

He becomes supreme. Yet I would also invite you to note the grace present in his words.

See what he calls them to come with me and I will make you fishers of men.

That's a passage that oftentimes is get distorted, but, but remember he's talking to fishermen and, and above all things, fishermen understand fishing.

If they don't understand fishing, it's time to find a new line of work because they're going to fail.

Okay. If you don't understand the work you're doing or understand about the work you're doing, you're not going to be successful at it.

So these men understand fishing. So Jesus speaks to them in a manner that they understand. They understand about fishing.

They're not, they don't have worldly prominence. They don't have religious prestige. He didn't say if you, if you'll deliver a three point sermon with an amazing conclusion, make sure you land that plane just right.

You dim the lights, you roll out the fog. You get the music going, you, you generate the emotions and then bam, you hit them with the invitation and you get them all feeling good.

And then you hit them with the one, two punch and, and they all coming down because you've worked them just right.

He didn't do any of that. These guys don't know anything about that. All he says is, listen, I'll make you fishers of men.

I will help you and show you and transform you into instruments for kingdom work.

Brothers and sisters, you are being transformed into instruments for kingdom work.

You're not called just to learn your Bible for the sake of you knowing your Bible. You're called to know it, to live it and proclaim it because you're supposed to be about the work of the kingdom.

You know, we get to the end of Matthew. There's that whole thing about the great commission where he says, you know, go into all the world, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the

Holy spirit, teaching them all the things that I've commanded to you. That's not just to the disciples.

That's not just to the preachers and the elders and the deacons and the Sunday school leaders and the missionaries.

That is a call to every single believer everywhere in all times.

We are to preach the gospel. But you'll notice he says,

I will make you fishers of men. You know how to fish for fish, brother.

Now, let me show you how to fish for men. Charles Spurgeon said the Lord does not choose men because they are sufficient, but because he intends to make them sufficient through his grace.

This is why you studied the word of God. This is why you know the word of God. This is why you spend time in the word of God.

So that when the questions come, when the challenges arise, when the things happen, you can speak truth.

Christ shapes them into that purpose. He calls them to participate in the gathering of his people into the kingdom.

But I want you to also note that as the net is cast to gather these sinners into the kingdom through the proclamation, it should be cast broadly.

But we should also be reminded that as that net is cast, fishermen don't create fish.

And we don't create sinners, us saints. We don't save people.

There is nothing in us that can create spiritual life.

When we become the point of focus, when we become the center of attention, it's drawn away from Christ.

Jesus didn't say, if you're raised up, you'll draw men to me. He said, if I'm raised up,

I will draw men. You hold up Christ to the world.

You show Christ to the world. We live in a world where churches use anything and everything they can to attract people.

And the problem is, is that when you do that, and you bring them in, and they're here because you have a great kids program, or youth program, or softball program, or soccer program, or whatever, they're not there because of Christ.

And as soon as there's a hiccup, and you have a losing season on that soccer program, see ya.

They're going to leave. They're going to leave. Christ is to be proclaimed.

Listen, this protects faithful ministry, your faithful ministry.

It protects you from two things. One is pride, because you remember that you didn't do it.

And the second is despair, because even when opposition arises, and the success that you think should be happening is not happening, you know that it's because you've done everything you can, and the rest is not your job.

It is Christ. It doesn't depend on our human ability. Christ built his church.

And then we have this last blurb here at the end, verses 23 through 25.

It says, And Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

And the news spread about him throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, and the paralytics, and the demoniacs, and the epileptics, and he healed them.

Think about the ministry of Christ. Think about the work that these miracles that occur, as all miracles in scripture, speak to authority.

As he reveals truth, as he proclaims the kingdom, his miracles work alongside it to demonstrate the authority.

Since the fall, these things have plagued mankind. As Jesus enters, he begins to heal.

They reveal that the kingdom has entered through the one person of Christ.

R .C. Sproul explained it this way, the miracles of Jesus were signs of the in -breaking kingdom of God, visible demonstration that the king had arrived.

Notice the level of completeness and comprehensiveness that Matthew uses here.

He says, Every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

One of the things that we've got to be careful about is when we read this, okay, well, these are the only things he healed. No, these are just examples of the things that he healed.

What Matthew says he healed is every kind of disease, every kind of sickness. It's all comprehensive.

Nothing lay beyond his authority. Nothing proved too difficult for him. But the other thing it shows us is that Christ is not just revealing divine power, but also divine compassion.

That Christ is not indifferent towards human ministry or misery, excuse me.

And that he has this compassion that overwhelms everything else.

Thomas Watson in A Body of Divinity wrote, Christ is more full of compassion than sinners are full of misery.

How wonderful is that? You ever met any miserable people?

If you haven't, maybe look in the mirror. People are miserable.

Christ has more compassion than all of that.

His mercy exceeds the misery of fallen humanity.

These physical healings point to something much greater.

The reality that ultimately he will heal us from the greatest illness, sickness, deathness that we will ever face, and that is sin.

That the bondage would be removed. The spiritual redemption addresses our eternal death.

Every disease healed ultimately points towards this complete restoration that Christ came to accomplish.

But even here, Matthew subtly warns us about this superficial response that would occur.

And it still occurs. Note what he says in the very last verse, verse 25, and large crowds followed him from Galilee and the

Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. Large crowds had come.

We know as we read the Gospels and as you've read your scripture, you know that large crowds follow

Christ. But large crowds don't equate being right.

Large crowds don't mean that they're right when it comes to Christ.

A lot of times it is miracles, excitement, emotions.

All of these things play in. And we see as we study the life of Christ that many of the people who followed him wanted healing, but they didn't want holiness.

They wanted to be made better. They just didn't want to be holy. They didn't want to live right. Many wanted to be fed, but they certainly didn't want to repent.

J .C. Ryle warned, thousands are ready to crowd after Christ for loaves and fishes who have no heart for his truth and no desire for his salvation.

That is a necessary warning that remains today. Because it is absolutely 100 % possible to be outwardly associated with Christianity while remaining spiritually unchanged.

And we have made it easier and faster than ever before in our church today.

In fact, now we encourage it because we don't call people to what scripture calls us.

Men admire Christ intellectually. They participate in religious activities externally, but they never bow before him as king.

Listen, it's got so bad that there is this movement that pushes against what they call lordship salvation.

Fundamentally, what they're trying to say is that, oh, you're adding to the gospel. That's what they're trying to allude to.

Though, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You don't have to acknowledge Christ as Lord to be saved.

Let's put the record straight here this morning. He's Lord. Period.

Safe, unsafe. He's Lord. It's crystal clear.

A little bit later in the book of Matthew, we get this glorious verse. Jesus is speaking to his disciples just before he ascends, just before he gives them the great commission.

In fact, he looks at them and he says, hey, all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Pretty much makes him Lord, right? Of what? Everything.

In heaven and on earth. All things.

Now, as then. Large crowds and big congregations are not necessarily signs of genuine conversion and faithful disciples.

It's just a bunch of people. Because the question's not, are we near to Christ externally?

The question's not, are we close to people who love Christ? The question is, do you truly follow him?

The question is, do you really have faith? The question is, have you repented and do you repent daily?

This passage places the glory of Christ right in front of us.

With unmistakable clarity. There's no way we miss his authority.

There's no way we miss the call. There's no way we miss all that he is.

The fact that he is this light in this passage. The king has come into the darkness.

He's brought the divine light. He proclaims the repentance. He tells us the kingdom is near, is at hand.

He calls sinners to follow him. He displays authority over all of these worldly illnesses and sicknesses and demons and suffering and even death itself.

And everywhere he goes, the kingdom advances. And this king is not asking for you to just admire him.

This king is demanding allegiance. This king is telling you that neutrality before him is not possible.

It's not an option. Neutrality doesn't exist in this scenario.

If you want to live neutrally, you are against.

There is no neutral. There is no neutrality. You either repent or you remain in darkness.

So the light has dawned. The kingdom is here. The king is still calling and the question still remains.

How do you respond? And you go, but wait a minute, preacher, I'm a believer. I've already responded.

Yeah, but you get, guess what? You still keep responding every day. You keep responding every day.

You still have to answer the question every day. What will

I do with Christ? And as you answer that question every day, if the answer to that question is, well,

I'll just put him on the shelf for today, then maybe you need to reevaluate where you really stand. Maybe you need to reevaluate if you have true faith.

Because the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.

That light is the Lord Jesus, our most gracious Father.

In many cases, words escape us to truly thank you. Thank you for Christ.

Thank you for the light that dawned. We thank you for the king who came, preached repentance, who calls sinners, who bound up the broken hearts, who replaced, regenerated us.

Grant that we would not simply admire from a distance, but truly follow him in faith and obedience.

We would worship him, not just this morning in our time together, but in our lives, that we would celebrate him, that our prideful hearts would be brought low, that our false refuges would be exposed.

Father, that we would be faithful to proclaiming your truth.

We pray that you give us the strength to stand firm, to walk as those who truly belong to the kingdom of heaven.

To those who truly belong to King Jesus as his.

Father, we thank you. We praise you. And we give you the honor and all of the glory.

ask all of this in your most holy and heavenly name. Amen.