Read here in verse 43. It says, the day following, Jesus
would go forth into Galilee and find Philip and saith unto him,
follow me. I want to speak on the subject
of Christ's commandments, Christ's commandments. When we think of
our Lord's commandments, I think we are all prone to think about
the Ten Commandments, or we're prone to think of us reading
His commandments. This was a commandment of our
Lord, spoken from Him and spoken in power. The Lord Jesus is sovereign
God, whose command makes his people do his will. And therefore, he gets all the
glory for anything that we do in spirit and in truth. He gets
the glory. It's his command spoken in power
that makes his people do his will. John said, a man can receive
nothing except it be given him from above. That includes everything,
doesn't it? A man can receive nothing. Paul
said, it's God which worketh in you both to will and to do
of his good pleasure. When Jehovah walked this earth
bodily, our Redeemer was in one place at a time, but he was still
all-knowing God who knew his people, knew where his people
were, and was ever present all the time. Next time we're gonna
see how that the Lord saw Nathaniel under the fig tree. And he knew
his heart, while as yet he was in another location. He's sovereign
God in a fleshly body. And right now, He's in glory,
but He's still present with His people, and He still knows His
people. And it's when He speaks, when He speaks His command into
our hearts that we obey Him. Isaiah 26, 12, He said, Lord, thou wilt ordain
peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside
Thee have had dominion over us. There was once somebody that
had dominion over us. But by Thee only, by Thee only
will we make mention of Thy name. It's by Him. The God of peace,
the Hebrew writer said, make you perfect in every good work
to do His will. working in you that which is
well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory
both now and forever. So as we see how the Lord called
Philip here and all the things he did here, I want you to remember
this is not only what the Lord does in the first hour, this
is what he continues to do for his people all our days as we
walk this earth. First of all, our Savior seeks
and finds his sheep. He says there in verse 43, the
day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee. Why? Why would he go? Why was he willing
to go forth into Galilee? Because he knew one of his elect
was there. He knew one that he had everlastingly
loved was there, and he must go there. He must call Philip
to himself. Another place, you know, he must
needs go through Samaria. The Samaritan woman was there
and our Lord loved her. That was his, he was laying down
his life for her. He must needs go through Samaria
to call her to himself. The son of man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. Our part in this is we were lost.
That's our part in that, we were lost. He came seeking and he
finds his sheep. So then what happened when he
came to Galilee? It says he findeth Philip. Right
now, God's right hand, he's the head of the church who fills
all, in all, his people. With all power, as the almighty
God, he knows where his chosen, redeemed people are. He comes
to us, he seeks us, and he finds us. Now, once he's called us
to himself, we're sheep. Well, you know, that's a good
description of us, because sheep stray, and we stray. We stray. But our Lord's the
shepherd, and he always knows where his sheep is, and he always
seeks his sheep and finds his sheep. The Pharisees were, they
didn't know that they were the worst sinners of the whole lot.
They didn't know that. They're self-righteous, they
didn't know they were the worst sinners. And so they did what
self-righteous folks do, they criticized others. They thought
within themselves they were righteous and they looked down on others.
And they looked down on Christ because he ate with publicans
and sinners. And our Lord gave them some parables.
Look over at Luke 15. Our Lord, talking about Him being
the shepherd, our Lord said in Luke 15, in verse 4, He said, what man of you having
a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety
and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until
he find it? Well, you think the Lord does
that for His sheep? He says, when he found it, he
lays it on his shoulder rejoicing, and when he comes home, he calls
together his friends and neighbors saying unto them, rejoice with
me, for I found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you that
likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth
more than over 99 just persons which need no repentance. And when we joy, who do we joy
in? We joy in Christ. Heaven and
earth rejoices in Christ, the shepherd who did the seeking,
and did the finding, and did the calling, and brought his
sheep home. So when he found Philip, what
did he do? Now, here's where we see this
command. He said to him, follow me. He said unto him, follow me.
He commanded Philip. He commanded him in power and
the result was Philip followed him. He followed him in saving
faith. When we think of God's commandments,
I know we think of the Ten Commandments, but this right here, This is
the commandment. This is Christ speaking his commandment. A man can go to the Ten Commandments,
and he can determine within himself, well, I'm gonna live by these,
and I'm gonna keep these, and maybe he'll do a pretty good
job outwardly. But until Christ has spoken in
our heart, we've done nothing. We've done absolutely nothing.
There's no righteousness in anything that we've done. But this commandment,
when this commandment comes, when Christ speaks in power,
there's gonna be a new heart. You take all the doctrine of
regeneration and sanctification and mortification and obedience,
we can talk about that doctrine and we can really go into detail
about it. But really and truly, it's all
summed up right here. It's Christ speaking, saying,
follow me. Think about that. His word coming
from him to us gives spiritual life. That's how spiritual life's
given. Somebody can learn some doctrine
and they can begin to follow Christ. A great multitude did
that in Christ's day. But before long, they're gonna
get offended about something. It's always somebody else's fault,
and it was Christ's fault to that multitude. He said something
that offended them. And our Lord turned to his disciples
that he had spoken his command to in power. He turned to them
and he said, will you go away also? Why aren't we out running
around trying to corral folks and just trying to get folks
in? Because when Christ speaks affectionately
in the heart, he never stops speaking affectionately in the
heart. Oh, we want to be used to the Lord to let people know
we miss them. But Christ has to do this work
in the heart. And he turned to them and he
said, will you go away also? And they said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou has the words of eternal
life. His command brings life and it
brings assurance. They said, we're sure you are
the Christ, the son of the living God. We know this. And that's
what his word work. It brings life. It brings understanding. It brings a true faith in him. If he hadn't spoken to a sinner's
heart, a sinner cannot make himself follow Christ together with the
Lord's people. He can do it for a while, but
he can't make himself continue. But once Christ has spoken to
your heart, you cannot do otherwise. You can't do otherwise. It's
because Christ's word purifies, his command purifies, his command
sanctifies. He said, sanctify them through
thy truth, thy word is truth. Christ gave himself on the cross,
laying down his life to redeem his people, to put away our sin.
Scripture says that he might sanctify and cleanse the church
with the washing of water by the word. Christ did a work for
us on the cross and Christ does a work in us through the spirit
of God, through the gospel where he speaks and he sanctifies and
he cleanses inwardly and brings us to behold him, that he alone
can present us without fault before God. When his word sanctifies,
his word gives a new will, a new will in your heart. You have
a new willingness that wasn't there before. How does that come
about? Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. His word gives ability to obey
him. When he said, follow me, in his
heart, Philip left everything. He left his business, he left
his family, his friends, and everything else in his heart
when Christ said, follow me. And then he followed him with
his bodily members. Whenever he called Matthew, Scripture
says he left all. That's in his heart, he left
everything. And then he rose up and followed
him. You can struggle and you can
struggle and you can struggle. You know this, brethren, I know
you do. You've experienced this. You
can struggle and struggle and struggle and wrestle against
your flesh and not overcome it. be just a constant, troubling,
besetting sin, or what have you, and you're begging the Lord,
help me. And sometimes he comes immediately
and helps his people. Sometimes he does like he did
Mary and Martha, and he waits a few days. Sometimes he waits
a long time. But here's the thing, when he
speaks, He sets your affection on Him
in such a way that you mortify your flair. You treat it like
a dead, worthless, sinful thing, and you just let it go. But I can't do that, and you
can't do that. We're told to do that, but what's
going to have to happen? That word's going to have to
come with Christ's power. He's going to get the glory,
all of it. Lazarus, come forth. He probably
spoke that. Ain't no telling how he spoke
it. But what happened? Lazarus came
forth. Here's a man never been able to stretch forth his withered
hand, never even been able to use this hand. Stretch forth
thy hand. Here's an impotent man, never
used his legs. Lord said, rise up and walk.
He jumped for joy. He was leaping. And now here's the important
thing. Here's the important thing. The object of the command is
always Christ himself. Follow me. Look unto me. Come unto me. That's always the
command. Our affection has to be set on
Him. He's the power and wisdom of
God. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification. He's our redemption. He's our
comfort. He's our strength. He's everything
to the believer. We have to have our affection
set on Him, and He's the only one that can do that. Now, let
me give you a few examples. When a gospel is preached, or,
you know, you first started out, you couldn't hear the gospel.
Or maybe after you've heard the gospel, there's some doctrine
that you hear, and you just can't get an understanding of it. You
can see bits and pieces, but it just doesn't fit together
for you. It's troubling to you. But Christ speaks into our heart,
and that commandment comes, and he says, look unto me. And in
his light, He sheds light, and in your heart, and on the doctrine,
and you see, and you understand, and you have a true spiritual
understanding. Because He's the truth. He is
the truth, and He speaks in our heart through the spirit of truth,
and He guides us in all truth. When our faith is weak, and our
unbelief is strong, don't you hate being there? Your faith
is just so weak, but your unbelief is just about to dominate you. Christ comes and he says to you,
let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my house are many mansions.
If it wasn't so, I'd tell you, I'm going to prepare a place
for you. For us, he says, I've gone and prepared a place for
you. That where I am, there you may be also. And if I've gone
and prepared that place for you, I'm going to come again for you.
And faith just, you just, you know, yesterday you was weak
and you was faltering and you was in unbelief for the last
hour or minute, and now. You just see Him, and you believe
Him, and you're assured in your heart, He's not gonna let me
go. He does that, brethren. He brings that assurance. Your
love's not strong. Your love starts growing dim,
and your love for Him, your love for your brethren, your love
for the gospel, everything, just love starts to fade. You want
to, you know, isn't love just a mysterious thing? You can't
just make yourself love. But he comes. And he says, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. In spite of your sin, in spite of
what you are, I've loved you with an everlasting love. And
so in love and kindness, I've drawn you. That's the love of our love.
That's the strength of our love. That's what makes you love. when your peace is disturbed.
Maybe it's your own sinful flesh, maybe it's enemies round about
you, but you just, your peace with God's disturbed, it's broken. You can't, you don't have peace
and you can't find peace. It's just trouble, there's just,
but isn't it amazing? In the midst of it, he does,
you, we try to change our circumstances. We think that's gonna give us
peace. You know what happens when we change our circumstances?
We got a new set of circumstances, and it's just as much trouble
as what we had. But he doesn't change the circumstances. He didn't take away Peter's thorn
in the flesh. What did he do? He came and said,
peace be still, and the wave ceased. It's showing us it's
not the circumstances, it's not something we do, it's His grace
that's sufficient. And you know that, you've experienced
that, when He does that, everything's right with the world. Even though
the waves are raging, you got peace in your heart. You know
who's ruling the waves, don't you? And you have peace. You know
that being justified by faith, we have peace with God. And I'll
tell you, it don't much matter what else is, what other waves
are raging. If I got peace with God, that's
a calm sea, a smooth sailing. When you grow fearful, oh, we
get fearful, don't we? We get fearful, we start, and
you can be fearful of just anything. fearful of things, things that can't do anything. And our Lord comes and he says,
fear not, for I've redeemed thee. Thou art mine, I've called you
by your name, you're mine. When you pass through the waters,
you're gonna pass through the waters, but I'll be with thee. You're gonna pass through the
rivers, but they won't overflow you. You're gonna walk through
the fire, but you will not be burned. The flame won't even
kindle upon you. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel. I believe sometimes that when
we become fearful of death, fearful of a disease or what have you,
I think that if the Lord just opened our eyes to see, when
you draw near to death and we're fearful and we're praying, Lord,
save me from this, save me from this, if we could just see on
the other side of that river the joy and the bliss and the
wonder of being in Christ's presence, But then the Lord, he'll save
us from it. And if we could see that, he
brings us back into this desert and gives us a little more time
in this thorny, waste, howling wilderness. And if we could just
see how close we were to no sin and perfect righteousness and
joy and communion with our Lord and what that would be like.
We'd be like the old, old brethren that have suffered a while that
start praying, Lord, let this be the night. My grandmother,
every time I talk to her, she's in and out of her right mind.
But when I do talk to her and she's in her right mind, that's
all she talks about. Oh, I just hope this will be
the day the Lord takes me home. And when you're about to preach,
You fellows that preach, when you're about to preach, sometimes
you feel like you don't have anything, you feel like you're
empty, or you're preaching in some place you never preached
in, you know you're gonna be opposed. What do you do about that? Christ
comes and he says, be not afraid, but speak, hold not thy peace. I'm with thee, no man have set
on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. That's
where your strength comes from. When we're in a trial and we
don't know what to do, and we don't ever know what to do really,
you know. We have principles that the Lord
has taught us and we try to live by those principles. But when
it comes to actually what should I do, we have the principle of
what's gonna glorify the Lord. We have the principle of what's
gonna be best for my brethren. We have the principle of what's
gonna promote unity and things like that. We have these principles.
But when do you really know and have that assurance And you know
you've had this. There were times in your life
when you just couldn't make this move, or whatever it was. And
then one day you know it's a certain that this is what you're supposed
to do, and you do it, and you do it with ease. How come? Our
Lord said in Isaiah 30.20, though the Lord give you the bread of
adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be
moved into a corner anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy
teachers and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying,
this is the way. Walk ye in it when you turn to
the right hand or to the left. This is the way. And you know
the way is always Christ. Whatever it is that gives him
the glory, that promotes your good and the good
of your brethren and helps his gospel go forth, it's Christ. He says, this is the way. And
you know, you know. This is my comfort and my affliction. Thy word hath quickened me. From
the first hour to the last, brethren, it's the word of our Lord. And
the object is always follow me. It's always follow me. Look unto
me and be ye saved. Don't you love that? Look unto
me and passively be ye saved. Wherever you are, to the ends
of the world, for I am God and there is none else. He's the
Savior, He does the saving. Look unto me, He said, and be
ye saved. In every trial we're in, in every
need we have in this life, in every aspect of salvation, in
every need of salvation, whether it's our salvation in eternal
matters or our salvation right here in this earth, Christ meets
every need. He meets every need. And I'll
tell you, if he didn't speak, if he did not speak this word
and make it effectual in our hearts, brethren, you know what
we would do? We would be like those who got offended and went
away from Christ. But He has the words of eternal
life, and He's going to keep you set on Him. That's why we come here. This
is the children's bread. And He promised us. He said,
this is where I'm going to speak to you. Now, that doesn't mean
He doesn't speak to us outside of these four walls, but He says,
where I've gathered together my people, there I am in the
midst of them. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe, so that no flesh glories
in his presence. This is the one time where we
sit and listen. And he says, in that way, when
I speak into the heart, he that glories, he'll glory in the Lord. You're all troubled and you're
trying to run in your own strength and he says, be still and know
that I'm God. Be still and know that I'm God.
I'll be exalted among the heathen. I'll be exalted in the earth. Don't you fret that I'm not gonna
be exalted. Don't we, we always see in that
ark teeter and we're always wanting to put our hand to it to steady
it, aren't we? He said, you just be still and
you'll see I'm the Lord. I'm gonna be exalted. I want him to speak like that
to me constantly. I wanna know that. And I'll tell
you what, I believe he's done this and I think, wouldn't it
be wonderful today if you could read our text and it would say,
and he would go forth into ewing. And he findeth, and put your
name there. And he spoke, and he said, now
follow me. There's the answer to our problems.
Whatever your personal problem is, whatever mine is, there's
the answer. I pray that's what he does. Let's stand together. Oh Lord, we ask you, come to
us and find us and speak your word to us. Lord, we have brethren
that are burdened and suffering and all different kinds of trials. Lord, you're the Lord of the
trial. You're the Lord of the trial. Don't let the trial take
our eye off of our true need of salvation. And Lord, come and speak and
comfort us and make us see you are our only need. And strengthen
that faith and that love. that zeal and that submission. You keep us holy, Lord. We ask
you. We want to see you glorified
before the heathen. We want to see your name exalted
in our hearts, in our midst, and before everybody in this
world. Lord, we ask you, for Christ's
sake, amen.