and welcome our visitors and let our folks know that we
will not be having our regular midweek service this coming Wednesday
night. As always, these weekends go
much too quickly, don't they? We're very thankful for the Lord's
blessings already and very hopeful and that he'll bless us again
today. I just want to read one verse
of scripture. Isaiah chapter 64 verse one. It's always our
prayer every time we come together. Oh, that thou woulds rent the
heavens that thou woulds come down that the mountains might
flow down at thy presence. Let's stand together. Brother
Tom's going to come and lead us in number 2 23 and your hardback
terminals number 2 23. If you read music, we sing this
to the tune Lennox, which should be familiar to everybody. Arise, my soul, arise, shake
off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my
behalf appears. ? Before the throne my surety
stands ? My name is written on his hands ? My name is written
on his hands ? He ever lives above ? For me to intercede ?
His all-redeeming love ? His precious blood to plead ? His
blood atoned for all my sins ? And sprinkles now the throne
of grace ? And sprinkles now the throne of grace Five bleeding
wounds he bears, received on Calvary. They pour effectual
prayers, they strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive,
they cry, nor let that ransomed sinner die, nor let that ransomed
sinner die. The father hears him pray, his
dear anointed one. He cannot turn away the presence of his
son. His spirit answers to the blood,
and tells me I am born of God, and tells me I am born of God. My God is reconciled His parting
voice I hear He owns me for His child I can no longer fear. With confidence I now draw nigh,
and Father, Abba, Father, and Father, Abba, Father, cry. Please be seated. You'd like to open your bibles
with me. We're going to read from Psalm 19 Psalm 19. We'll begin reading at verse
seven. The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise
the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey on the
honeycomb. Moreover, by them thy servant
is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can
understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from my secret
faults, Keep back thy servant also from, you notice the word
sins in this verse is in italics, which just simply means it's
not in the original text, it was added by the translators.
But I looked up the word presumptuous and this is the only place where
it's translated presumptuous. Every other time it's translated
pride. Is that not the root cause of
all of our presumptions? Pride. Keep back thy servant also from
pride. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from
the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my strength. and my Redeemer. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we are thankful that you give us thy spirit, enabling us to
cry as we just sang, Abba, Father, giving us hope and confidence
to approach your throne of grace in the name of thy dear son,
knowing that his work was successful in putting away all the sins
of all thy people and establishing for us a righteousness before
thee so that we find our acceptance in the beloved and we can come
confident that that he has made the way and that Lord, we can
we can call you our father. We thank you for the revelation
that you've given us, thyself, of the Lord Jesus, and thy word. We pray, Lord, that you'd be
pleased this morning again to send your spirit in power, rend
the heavens and come down. Bless your word to the hearts
of your people. Give us faith to believe all that you've said. Lord, forgive us of our unbelief. We ask it in Christ's name, and
for his sake, amen. I think Adam's going to come,
right, and lead us in the special music, and then David will come
after that. Adam. In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song This cornerstone, this
solid ground Firm through the harshest drought and storm what
heights of love what depths of peace when fears are stilled
when strivings cease my comforter my all-encompassing Kept by the love of Christ alone
In Christ alone Who took on flesh Fullness of God in man ordained
This gift of love and righteousness. Scorned by the ones he died to
claim. Still on that cross my Savior
died. The wrath of God was satisfied. His people's sin on Him was laid. I live in the death of Christ
alone. There in the ground His body
lay. Light of the world by darkness
slain Then bursting forth in glorious day Up from the grave
He rose again And as He stands in victory the stain of sin is
washed from me for I am his and he is mine bought with the precious
blood of Christ No guilt in life, no fear in death This is the
peace we have in Christ From life's first cry to final breath Saints persevere as God abides
No power of hell, no scheme of man Can ever plug me from His
hand Till He returns or calls me home I'll rest in the power
of Christ alone. Thank you, Adam. That was beautiful. Just take a moment to say how
thankful I am to be here. And Tricia and I both appreciate
your hospitality. Everything's just been wonderful.
Greg, you and Tricia are just great, great hosts. And to be
able to stay at Elquist Manor is a real privilege. Thank you so much, each and every
one of you. Turn with me this morning, if
you would, beginning in Matthew chapter four. While you're turning,
I will remind you of what Paul wrote to the church at Rome in
Romans chapter 12, concerning teaching and preaching. He that
teacheth and he that exhorteth, let him do it with simplicity. Simplicity. Simplicity means
just what you would think it means. It means plain, straightforward,
simple, clear, understandable. In preaching we use words, we
use language that people understand. How else can we communicate something
if we don't? Now the message of the gospel
is a simple message. It really is. And God did for
sinners what they couldn't do for themselves. Isn't that right?
That's simple, isn't it? It's called substitution. And
you know, the definition of substitution is simple. It's a person or thing
acting or serving in the place of another. We that enjoy sports,
we know what a substitute is. The means to eternal life is
simple. How about this? He that hath
the Son hath life. Is there anything about that
you don't understand? He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Well, brother, you know election
is complicated. No, it's not. The Lord Jesus
said, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. There's nothing
hard about that. That's a simple declaration. He that teaches and preaches,
let him do it with simplicity. Now listen, people don't believe
the gospel because they don't understand it. They refuse to
believe because they hate it. The Lord spoke in mysteries and
in parables that the wisest of men could not comprehend, but
his words were simple. And they were direct. And you understood what he was
saying whether you believed it or not. And that's why many doubted
what our Lord said because they understood what he was saying.
And that's why they often got angry because they hated what
he was saying. And it's the same today. People
get upset when you tell them the truth, the simple truth of
the gospel. Now here in Matthew chapter four,
verse 18, we read, and Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee,
saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother,
casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith
unto them, follow me, follow me, and I'll make you fishers
of men. And they straightway left their
nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he
saw two other brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his
brother in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets,
and he called them. And they immediately left the
ship and their father and did what? Followed him. Here the
Lord uses two simple words, three syllables. Follow me. Is there anything about that
you don't understand? Two words. That's pretty simple. If I was to speak those two words
to my five-year-old granddaughter, she would know exactly what I
meant. And she'd know that I meant it. And she'd follow me. Our Lord spoke with simple words,
yet never man spake like this man. This two-word message is
the difference between life and death. To believe Christ is to
follow him. And these men did. They left
everything. They left their business. They
left their homes. They left their families. And
for three and a half years, they literally followed the Lord Jesus
Christ in his footsteps. Do you remember that parable
our Lord told about the certain man that invited many to a great supper? He bade
many to come, the scripture says, and with one consent, they all
began to make excuse. Now that word consent means to
rehearse. They begin to rehearse their
excuses. Have you ever done that? I have.
Well, what are we gonna say? We can't make that. What are
we gonna say? Well, let's rehearse what we're gonna say. And we
do. They begin to rehearse their
excuses and what pathetic excuses they were. Look over at Matthew chapter
nine with me. Verse nine, Matthew nine, verse
nine. And as Jesus passed forth from
thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom.
And he saith unto him, follow me. And he arose and he followed
him. Jesus passed by and he saw a
man named Matthew. Matthew didn't come to the Lord
Jesus. The Lord Jesus came to him. And it says the Lord saw
man. Well, of course Matthew was a
man, but that's not what this is talking about. What the Lord
saw was a sinful, wretched, depraved sinner who was a publican, a
tax collector. But the Lord said, follow me,
and he arose and followed him. And he too left all behind him
to follow him. These words didn't only apply
to the 12 apostles. Look over to Matthew chapter
16, verse 24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
if any man, whosoever, if any man will come after me, Let him
deny himself and take up his cross and what? Follow me. A couple more pages, Matthew
chapter 19. That rich young ruler. In verse 20 he asked, Lord, what
yet do I like? And the Lord plainly, directly,
and simply said, if thou will be perfect, and by the way, you
gotta be perfect to be accepted. That's our dilemma, isn't it?
We can't be perfect. We don't know anything about
being perfect. But he said, if thou will be
perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. You think that man understood
what he said? He absolutely did because he
went away sorrowful. He heard exactly what he said.
He had great riches. I got to give all that away and
give it to the poor? Oh, he heard what he said. He
heard what he said. This is the way, friends, to
eternal life. Following Christ. One of the
definitions for the word follow is to come hither. How do we
come to Christ? We follow him. That's pretty
simple. Well, preacher, what about election?
What about predestination? Well, in John chapter 10, the
Lord identifies his elect as his sheep. Now, let me give you
three quick characteristics of sheep that you already know.
They're dumb, they're helpless, and they stink. That pretty well
sums us up in the eyes and nostrils of God. Christ came to save dumb,
helpless, stinking sheep. And the Lord said, verse 26,
and when he, the shepherd, put forth his sheep, he goeth before
them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And
then the Lord said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and what do they do? They follow me. Follow me. Years and years ago, I went to
a livestock auction with my dad. He had like 20 acres and he was
always an aspiring farmer, so to speak. And when it came time
to sell the goats, they had goats for sale and then sheep, but
when it came time to sell the goats, they opened up the gate
and these goats just come running out and running everywhere. But
when it came time to sell the sheep, they opened the gate and
nothing happened. And then it wasn't within just
a short period of time, a fellow walked out. It was the shepherd.
And the sheep followed him out into the arena. What a pitcher
that is. Oh, sheep need someone to lead
them. And sheep follow the shepherd,
don't they? That's what our Lord's saying
here. My sheep hear my voice. and they follow me. Who are the elect? Well, Revelation
chapter 14 verse four tells us that they are they which follow
the lamb whithersoever he goeth. We know who that lamb is, don't
we? That's how we know who the elect
are. The people of God are identified by leaving everything and following
Christ. And I just, I can't make it any
plainer than that. Now that doesn't mean we sell
everything and live like hermits. I remember one time when I was
very religious, I threw away all my rock and roll albums.
And I must have looked ridiculous a day or so later going through
that dumpster trying to find them. But leaving everything
and following the Lord Jesus simply means nothing comes before
following him. Every child of God is willing
to give up all. And as Caleb told us, there's
only one thing needful. And then I think about what Paul
said. He said, the Lord shall supply all our need. That's singular,
not plural there in that verse. All our need. God's gonna supply
all our need by his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Christ is our only need. He's
the one thing needful, and it's Him that we must follow. We're
told that Matthew arose and followed Him. Have you left all to follow
Christ? Have you left all that you were
taught in religion? Have you left your works and
your decisions? Have you left your will and your
righteousness behind? Have you left all to follow Him? If you have, you've been made
willing to do so. It's a sure sign that you're
one of His. Jesus Christ is the one thing needful, and you must
have Him. Well, preacher, what about faith
and grace? Aren't you making following Christ
the means of salvation apart from God's free gift of grace
and faith? No, this commandment to follow
Christ requires faith. You don't leave everything and
follow Christ if he hasn't already done a work of grace and given
you faith in him. Life comes before believing.
A dead man cannot believe. A dead man can do nothing. God
must first give them life. It takes God's grace and gift
of faith to do so. When did Lazarus receive life?
Have you ever thought about that? before or after he came? Well,
modern day religion says after he came, he came forth and received
life, but he was dead. Matter of fact, that's what the
scripture says, Lazarus come forth and he that was dead came
forth. He was dead when the Lord called
him, but with the command to come came the power to become,
came the life to come. And he that was dead, Came for
it, he's alive. He didn't receive life after
he came. Life must be first given before
we can follow the Lord Jesus. Following Christ is the proof
of life. And it's the proof of grace and
faith in him. And what a great paradox this
is. You know, the gospel requires
you to lose your life before you can find it. And the gospel's
free, but you must, in your heart, leave everything behind to believe
it and have it. And then you get everything. Turn with me to John chapter
12, if you would, verse 25. John chapter 12. Here in verse 25, our Lord said,
he that loveth his life shall lose it. And he that hateth his
life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life. And then
in verse 26, he says, if any man serve me, let him what? Follow me. To serve Christ is
to follow me. Let him follow me and where I
am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him
my father honor. Him will my father honor. To
serve Christ is to follow him. And to follow Christ is to serve
him. What is it to follow Christ? Well, we've already said it's
to come to him. How do we come to follow him? Well, first, The personal presence
of Christ has to be involved. Someone asks you to give them
directions to Grace Gospel Church. You can either draw them a map
or, of course, today we have phones and Google, but in the
old days we had maps or we had to draw them, or you can say,
come follow me. Follow me, I'm going there, you
can follow me there. And the directions of this religious
world are turn right and go straight. Well, I can't. Our Lord's directions
to life are follow me. Follow me. It requires the presence
of the one that we're following. The way to eternal life is to
follow Jesus Christ. That's not hard to understand.
Religion gives you directions with a man-made map. The gospel
shows you the way by following Christ, trusting his work, standing
in his righteousness. Big difference in following a
map and a person. And we follow him by giving attention
to what he says in the scriptures and that's why the Bible is the
most valuable possession that any of us own. It is. We reveal ourselves to other
by our words, don't we? How do we get to know one another?
Well, we commune with each other. We talk, we get to, we put our
thoughts into words and we can communicate with one another
and get to know one another. Well, friends, Jesus Christ is
the word of God. And the word of God is Jesus
Christ. The writer of Hebrews told us
that very plainly. God who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, but hath in these last days spoken unto us, how? By son. God speaks unto us by
his son. Now I've never heard audible
words from the Lord. There's folks that claim they
have, I haven't. But I hear from the Lord often
through his word. In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus Christ
is the Word of God and the Word of God is Jesus Christ. They're
one in the same. Do I understand that? No. But by His grace, I believe it.
So it's in and by and through the Word of God that He reveals
to us this glorious person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do
we do? We follow Him. If salvation's
to follow Him, then it requires His presence. Secondly, to follow
someone implies that they're our head and we're behind. That's
what it is to follow. Have you ever had someone follow
you, they didn't know how to get to a place, and you say,
follow me. And when you get so far along,
they think they figured out the way and they pass you? I don't like that. I'm like,
well, if you knew the way, why didn't you just go on and go? But they pass you and most of
the time they get lost. The Lord is not someone who knows
the way and then tells you to go on. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. And we must follow
him. In Genesis 7-1, I've often thought
about that, the Lord said to Noah, he said, come thou and
all thy house into the ark. Where was he when he said that?
He was in the ark. He was in the ark. God was in
Christ, our ark, and if we come to him, we've got to follow him
there. Those of you around my age remember back in the 80s,
late 80s, early 90s, they had those bracelets, WWJD, do you
remember those? You don't have to raise your
hand, I know you tell your age if you do. What would Jesus do? Well, that's not the issue. The
issue is what Jesus did. Christ has done for me what I
couldn't do for myself. And that's what the Bible reveals
to us, that's what Christ the word says to us, what he did
for sinners, what did he do? He bowed, he stooped, he suffered,
he served, he gave. He bowed to the law of God in
our room instead. We couldn't bow, he bowed for
us. He stooped from his throne of glory and became a man and
he died the death of the cross so that we might ascend from
the dunghill and be set among princes. He served as the just
one who died for the unjust, that he might what? Bring us
to God. And how does he bring us to God? By us following him. He gave his life, he died in
our place, he fulfilled the law, he satisfied God's holy justice
for us. That's what Jesus Christ did. What would I do? None of those
things. I would not come that I might have life. I could not
come and I would not come. That's what the Lord did for
us, not what he would do if we follow him. Following him in
his word is how he reveals it to us. The gospel is what Christ
did for his people. The question is, are you following
him? The call and command of Christ
is not coming up with some new innovative, creative ways to
save ourselves. It's simply, follow him. We don't blaze new trails. Caleb
said last night, if it's new, it's not true. That is true. We follow him through the straight
and narrow gate. The sad thing is only few there
be that find it. We follow him on the narrow way
that leads to life. Salvation is following him. This call and command is a simple
one. Yet impossible apart from God's
mercy and grace to us. It's not first let me bury my
father. Christ said let the dead bury
the dead. You follow me. And thirdly, this call and command
is all conclusive. You know, Teresa and I lived
in the Nashville area where Chris and Vicki and Bob and Judette
now live. And you know, it seemed like
everybody that we ran into in Nashville was either a musician
or a songwriter. And my barber wasn't a barber.
He was a songwriter. And waiters and waitresses were
aspiring stars in the music business. If you asked them, what do you
do for a living? They said, well, I wait tables
for a living, but I'm a guitar player. Waiting tables is just what they
did to make money. Being in the music business is
what they were dedicated to. You know, the apostle Paul made
tents to live, but he never introduced himself as a tent maker. He first
and foremost was an apostle. His calling was as a disciple
of Christ. And that's what a disciple is,
a follower of Jesus Christ. Are you a disciple of the Lord? If you're following him, you
are. It's an all-conclusive calling. And no matter what we do to pay
the bills, we must follow the one who paid our sin debt. We're followers of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, following
Christ is not our hobby. It's our life. Someone once said
to me, Jesus is the most important part of my life. And he was shocked
when I said, not mine. He's not a part of my life. He
is my life. He is my life, and by God's grace,
he'll always be my life. That's what Paul said. He wrote,
when Christ, who is our life, he is our life, shall appear,
then you shall appear with him in glory. How do we appear with
him in glory? By following him. Following. Christ is the believer's life
and they follow him. And we say with Peter, to whom
else will we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. There's no place else for us to go. Whether you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Christ
is the believer's life and we follow him. We can't see him, we can't physically
touch him. We walk by faith and not by sight. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they're the sons of God. Led by the Spirit of
God, we follow. Many people are following Jesus
physically. They trust in touch not, taste
not, handle not, and that's how they follow. But they're perishing
with the using. For these are the doctrines of
men, not God. our following of Christ may be
different for each of us. My friend, Daniel Montgomery,
brother Montgomery, Maurice Montgomery's son, he works at GE Aircraft
Engines there in Madisonville, Kentucky, and he does a specific
job, task there, but not everyone that works there does what Daniel
does. Some work in the office, some
in assembly, some in engineering, some work in tool and die, some
in shipping, some work in inventory, There's some there that sweep
the floors. You know, Brother Montgomery
said this on more than one occasion. He said, if God sent one angel
to earth to do some great thing and sent another one to sweep
the streets, they both would consider it a great privilege.
You see, the employees at GE all work together to one end.
And what Christ would have me to do may not be what he has
you to do, but we're all in this together. And we're following
him for the end. Not everyone's a preacher. I
hadn't always been a preacher. Some would say not much of one
now. But we all, The Lord has us do different
things, doesn't he? You know, after the Lord delivered
that demoniac of the country of the Gadarenes, he sat with
the Lord in his right mind. Caleb mentioned that. And he,
the one possessed with the legion of devils, pleaded with the Lord
that he might go with him. Do you remember that? And he
wanted to go. He wanted to follow Christ. But
the Lord said, go home to thy friends and tell them how great
things the Lord has done for you. and how he's had compassion
on you. And that man departed and began
to publish everywhere he went how great things Jesus had done
for him and all men did marvel. We all follow in different ways.
Sometimes to go is to follow. But all God's people follow Christ. So whatever we're called to do,
we do it all for the glory of God. And it's not what we do
that saves us, it's who we follow that does. Turn with me to one last place,
John chapter 21, verse 18. You remember this scene, the
Lord is risen, he's with his disciples, on the seashore. And in verse
18, the Lord speaking to Peter said this, when the Lord walked
with Peter after the resurrection, that's when this is, three times
our Lord asked Peter if he loved him. And in verse 18, the Lord
told Peter, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself and walkest
whither thou would. But When thou shalt be old, thou
shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and
carry thee whither thou wouldest not. Speaking of how Peter would
die, Peter was crucified. Some say upside down. Verse 19,
this spake he signifying by what death he, Peter, should glorify
God. And when he had spoken this,
he said unto him, Follow me. We used to walk the way we desired,
but now we follow him. Verse 20, then Peter turning
about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, John was
following, which also leaned on his breast at supper and said,
Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? And Peter seeing him saith
to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? And Jesus saith
unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come,
what's that to thee? Follow thou me. So lastly, this commandment to
follow the Lord Jesus is always successful. The one who calls
us is the one who equips us. And we're made willing to follow
Christ when? In the day of His power. Not
in the day of our decision. In the day of His power. Now I used to sing, I have decided
to follow Jesus. I don't sing that anymore. Christ decided that I'd follow
Him. We need to change a lot of words
these old songs. They got good tunes, but the
words no good. He called me and he gave me the
power to do so. And that's why he gets all the
glory. May God be pleased to give each of us this mercy and
this grace to follow him. Lord, help me to follow you. Thank you. Thanks, Greg.