If you would, go ahead and turn
with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 4. I want us to consider again this
morning the simplicity of the Gospel. Brother Gene, in the
Bible reading, read 1 Corinthians 1, and he made the comment that
it was one of his favorite passages of Scripture, mine too, but he
referenced the simplicity, the simplicity that's in Christ.
Look at verse 18 here, Matthew 4. And Jesus, walking by the Sea
of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew,
his brother, casting the net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he said unto them, 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 followed him." Now, let me say again,
the gospel is not complicated. I'm reminded of a time over 30
years ago when Brother Bob Coffey came here to preach for Brother
Maurice, and Bob had taught a Sunday school class for years at 13th
Street in Ashland, Kentucky, and he had a real gift of explaining
the things of the scripture to those of a young age. And our
daughter Leah, who was very young at the time, I'm not sure how
old, four to seven years old, said to me and Teresa on the
way home, she spoke to me and she said, Daddy, she said, I
understood every word that he said. I'll never forget that. Now she wasn't old enough to
understand the doctrines of grace. She couldn't comprehend man's
total depravity or unconditional election. She didn't understand
the doctrines of limited atonement and irresistible grace. And she
certainly didn't understand the perseverance or the preservation
of the saints. But she did understand every
word that Brother Coffey said. meaning that Bob didn't use words
that were over her head. She understood the words that
he spoke. And he preached in a way that
a young child could comprehend what he was saying, even if she
didn't understand the depths of what he said. And that's the
way we should preach, with simplicity. And understanding the gospel
is very much that way. In preaching it should be easy
to get your mind around the simplicity of Christ and His gospel. It
should be easy to get the picture and make heads or tails of God's
good news to sinners. Now don't misunderstand me. It's impossible to believe without
God divinely intervening. It's impossible to believe the
gospel without God but men. It can't be understood, the gospel
in a natural way, for God's ways are what? They're past finding
out. But the message of salvation
is a simple message. God did for sinners what they
couldn't do for themselves. It's called substitution, and
the definition of substitution is very simple. It's a person
or thing acting or serving in the place of another. That's
not hard to understand, is it? My point is this, the doctrines,
teachings of grace should be preached and explained so that
a young child can understand what we're saying. And I've always
strived as a preacher to preach that way. That's certainly the
kind of preaching I enjoy hearing personally, where there's no
confusion at all about what the person is saying. And people
may not believe what you're saying, but they believe that you believe
what you're saying. I remember one of the first times
that Steve McCarty came, he said, with a little bit of reservation,
he said, I believe that you believe what you're saying. And you know
what? Steve believes it now. The Lord's
12 disciples were simple men. They were fishermen, most of
them. And though the Lord spoke in
mysteries and parables that the wisest of men couldn't comprehend,
his words were yet simple. direct, there was no misunderstanding
to what he meant. Now, many doubted what he said,
and many didn't believe what he said, but they understood
what he was saying, and that's why they often got angry, because they knew what he was
saying, and it's the same today. Here in our text, the Lord uses
two simple words that caused Peter and Andrew and James and
John to leave all that they had, What were they? Follow me. Follow me. Two words, one two-syllable
word and one one-syllable word. That's pretty simple. Every small
child is taught early on as to what it means to follow. If I
was to speak those two words to my five-year-old granddaughter,
she would know exactly what I meant and she would know that I meant
it. I've said it many times, people
understand the gospel that I'm preaching, they just don't believe
it. In many cases, they despise it,
and that's why they get angry. But there's no understanding
as to what I mean. No misunderstanding, I mean,
as to what I mean. Our Lord spoke with simple words,
yet never a man spoke like this man. And this two-word message
is the difference between life and death. Follow me. To present the gospel of Christ
in the simplest forms, I just point you to those two words.
Follow me. That's what Christ said. That's
what it's all about. Follow Christ. The Lord calls
to these men and He says, follow me. And they left everything.
They left their business, they left their home, they left their
families, they left their friends, and for three and a half years,
they literally followed in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't have to stop and
think about it. They didn't have to check their busy schedules. They left all and followed Him.
You remember this parable where a certain man made a great supper
and he bade many to come, and the scripture says they all began
to make excuse, and they were pathetic excuses. When the Lord
affectionately calls, people affectionately follow. Turn over
a few pages to Matthew chapter nine. Matthew chapter nine, I want
you to look at verse nine. Matthew 9, verse 9, and as Jesus
passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting
at the receipt of custom. He was a tax collector, he was
a publican. And he saith unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed him. Now some quick observations here.
Jesus passed by and saw a man named Matthew. Matthew didn't
come to the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus came to him. Jesus
saw a man. Well, of course, Matthew was
a man, but that's not what this is talking about. The Lord saw
a man, a sinful, wretched, depraved sinner, who was a publican, a
tax collector, who the Jews hated. Why? Because these tax collectors
took more than they were supposed to, and that extra was for themselves. I understand personally how difficult
it is to be joyous about paying taxes. But when more than is
required is exacted and wasted, it upsets folks. I remember hearing
one time that a government agency spent $200 on an ordinary everyday
hammer. That upset me a bit. What a waste. Now Matthew, he's the type of
fellow that wouldn't have won any popularity contest. Not among
the Jews anyway, even though he was a Jew. And he's no doubt
a wealthy man. I'm sure he had horses and chariots. I'm sure he had a very nice home.
I'm sure he had a savings account. But the Lord said, follow me. And he arose and followed him. He too left behind all to follow
the Lord Jesus. Have you? Have you? Now these words didn't only apply
to the 12 apostles, 12 disciples. Look at Matthew chapter 16, just
a few pages old. Matthew 16, verse 24. The Lord spoke to his disciples,
but he's addressing a much larger group here than just them. And he's addressing any man and
every man that has the desire to be saved. He's addressing
the whosoevers that have a need and a desire to be made whole,
not those who are well, but those that are sick. And in verse 24,
then Jesus said unto his disciples, if any man, if any woman, whosoever
will come after me, Let him deny himself and take up his cross
and what? Follow me. Follow me. Turn over a couple more pages
to Matthew chapter 19. The rich young ruler asked the
Lord, he said, what do I lack? And the Lord very plainly and
very directly and very simply said to him in verse 21, if thou
would be perfect, if you desire to be saved and you gotta be
perfect before God will accept you, we're only made perfect
in Christ. If thou will be perfect, go and sell that that thou hast
and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven
and come and what? Follow me. So you think that man understood
what he was saying? Well, of course he did. That's
why he went away sorrowful, because he had a lot. He had a lot. So simply put, friends, salvation, the way to eternal
life, is following Christ. One of the definitions of 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 and what about predestination? Well, when
John speaks of Christ in John chapter 19, those God gave Christ
to save, he speaks of them as a flock of sheep. Appropriately
so. You know, sheep are dumb, they're
helpless, and they stink. That pretty well sums us up.
Christ came to save dumb, helpless, stinking sheep. So turn with
me to John chapter 10. The Lord identifies His elect
people speaking of a shepherd and his sheep. John 10, verse
four. And when he putteth, speaking
of the shepherd, putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before
them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. In verse
27, look down at verse 27, the Lord said, my sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and what do they do? They follow me. Who are these elect? Well, in
Revelation chapter 14, you don't have to turn there, verse four,
it tells us, these are they which follow the Lamb withersoever
he goeth. That's how you know who the elect
are. The people of God are identified by their leaving everything and
following Christ. And I'll be honest with you,
I can't make it any plainer than that. That doesn't necessarily
mean that we sell everything we have and live like hermits.
I told you the story one time when in religion, you know, got
rid of my TV and all my rock and roll albums, thinking that
that made me holy and it wasn't long after that I was back at
that dumpster looking for them. Leaving everything and following
Christ means what it says. Other things don't come first.
Every called child of God is willing to give up all. You see,
there's only one thing needful. When you get it right down to
the bare knuckles, there's only one thing needful, and that's
Christ who they follow. We're told that Matthew arose
and followed immediately. Have you left all to follow Christ?
Have you left all that you were taught in religion? Some people
can't let it go, even if it was wrong. Have you left your works
and your decisions? There's folks that are clinging
on to them even today, onto their baptism. Well, I was baptized
at such and such date, such and such time. Have you left your
will and your righteousness behind? Have you left all to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ? Have you been made willing to
do so? It's a sure sign that you're
one of His, if you do. In my hand no price I bring,
simply to Christ's cross I cling. You see, He is the one thing
needful. John Newton wrote this, this
world and the things of it have all lost their sweetness to me.
When we follow the Lord Jesus, December's as pleasant as May.
That's what the song says. And we are content with beholding
His face. Well, Brother David, what about
faith? Are you substituting a life of following Christ for that
free gift of grace and faith? Are we substituting our following
Christ for our believing in Christ? Well, isn't following Christ
a task that we perform, a work that we do? Well, I don't consider
work being work if you enjoy doing it. Work involves a mental or physical
effort in order to achieve a particular result. Following Christ is not
a labor, it's a pleasure. This commandment to follow presupposes
faith. You don't, faith, you don't follow
Christ and leave everything if God hasn't already done a work
of grace in you. If God hasn't already given you
faith in Him to believe. Life comes before believing. A dead man can't believe. A dead
man can't do anything. God must first give him life. It takes grace and faith to do
so. Lazarus come forth and he that
was dead came forth. So was his coming forth his salvation? Or did salvation come to him
before he came forth? Well, he was dead. That's a pretty
simple question. Pretty simple answer. Life came
before. Life must first be given before
we can follow the Lord. Isn't that right, Amy? So in
that respect, faith is not a gift given apart from following Christ.
Following Christ is the proof of life and grace and faith. And what a great paradox this
is. The gospel requires you to lose
your life before you can find it. The gospel's free, but you must,
in your heart, leave everything behind to believe it in the habit. The apostles believed God and
they followed Him. But the apostles also followed
Christ and believed Him. Does that seem controversial
to you? Well, I know this, without controversy, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh
and we believed Him and we followed Him and we followed Him and we
believed Him. Teresa and I have a little thing
between us and the 41 years we've been married is, which came first,
the chicken or the egg? I wouldn't have done this if
you hadn't done that, and I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't
done this. Which came first? Well, we still haven't figured
it out. It's a great paradox, it's a
great... Turn to John chapter 12 with
me. I won't turn to you any... Any
other places? John chapter 12, verse 25. John 12, 25. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. And he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve
me, what? Let him follow me. And where
I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him
will my father honor." To serve Christ is to follow
Christ. That's a simple message. We've
already said it's to come to him. How do we come to follow
him? Well, first, the personal presence
of the Lord has to be involved. Someone asks you to give them
directions to Walmart or to Bible Baptist Church, and well, you
can either draw them a map, try to explain to them how to get
there, or you can say, come on, follow me. The Lord's directions
are not a map that says turn right and go straight. That's
what people tell you today. His directions to life are, follow
me. It requires the presence of the
one that we're following. The way to eternal life is to
follow Jesus Christ, and religion gives us directions with a man-made
map. The gospel shows you the way
by following Christ. Salvation requires following
in the footsteps of Him, trusting His work, standing in His righteousness. Big difference in following a
map and following a person. We follow Him by giving attention
to what He says in the Scriptures. And that's why I said in the
first hour what I said, this Bible, the Scriptures, the Word
of God is the most valuable thing that a believer possesses. We
reveal ourselves to others by our words, don't we? How do we
get to know one another? Many of you I've known for many
years, and we've gotten to know one another by putting our thoughts
into words and communicating with one another. I know your
likes and dislikes, you know mine, we know a lot about each
other by communicating with words. Jesus Christ is the Word of God.
And the Word of God is Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1.1, God who
at sundry times and in divers manners spake, in times past
into the fathers by the prophets, but happened these last days
spoken unto us by His Son." I have never heard an audible word from
our Lord. I haven't. But I've heard from
the Lord through His Word. And they're one and the same.
John 1, 1 and 2, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with
God and the Word was God. And the same was in the beginning
with God. And then a few verses later in
verse 14, it says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of 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, one and the same. So
it's in, and it's by, and it's through the Word of God that
we are revealed this glorious person. And it's how we hear
from Him. If salvation is to follow Him,
then it requires His presence, right? That's pretty simple.
Secondly, to follow someone implies that they're ahead and we're
behind. That's what it is to follow.
Have you ever had someone follow you and then when they thought
they had it all figured out, they pass by you? And they usually,
many times, wind up lost. The Lord is not someone who knows
the way and then tells you, okay, go on. He is the way and He tells
you to come. Come to Me. Come to Me. You that are heavy laden and
burdened with sin, come to Me and I'll give you rest. The command
that our Lord gives us is to follow Him. Not to go on ahead
on our own. That's a sure way to get lost.
And the beautiful thing about that is that He does it all for
us. Back in the late 80s and early
90s, they had those WWJD bracelets. You remember those? Everybody
wore them. WWJD. What would Jesus do? That's not
the issue. It's not. The issue is what Jesus
did. They should have had WWJD on
there. Christ has done for me what I couldn't do. That's what
the Bible reveals to us. That's what Christ, the Word
of God says, what He did for sinners. He bowed, He stooped,
He suffered, He served, He gave. He bowed to the law of God in
our room instead. We wouldn't bow. He bowed forth. He stooped from his throne of
glory in heaven to become a man and to die 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 bring us to God. He gave His
life. He died in our place. He fulfilled
the law. He satisfied God's holy justice
for us who could not. He leads, we follow. That's what Jesus did, and that's
the issue, not what He would do if you follow Him. Following
Him and His word will reveal Him to you. The gospel is what
Christ did for His people. Are you following Him? The call
and command of Christ is not coming up with some new innovative
and creative way to save ourselves. I never cease to be amazed at
the new things that religion comes up with. Salvation is to
simply follow Him. We don't blaze new trails. We
follow Him through the straight and narrow gate. We follow Him
on the narrow way that leads to life. Salvation's following
Him. This call and command is a simple
one. Following Him, it's not optional. It's essential. It's
not, first let me bury my father. Let the dead bury the dead, the
Lord said. Thirdly, this call and command is all conclusive. Teresa and I lived in Nashville.
area for about four years, and it seemed as though everybody
everywhere in the Nashville area was a musician or songwriter.
And my barber, he wasn't a barber, he was a songwriter. I often
thought, why are you cutting my hair? Your waiter or waitress
served tables, but they were really aspiring stars in the
music business. Waiting tables is just what they
did to make a living until they made it as a musician or songwriter. Following? Follow me? Being in
the business of music is what they were dedicated to. Whatever
they were, whatever they did, it was simply their means to
pay their bills. They believed that their calling
was in music. Friends, the Apostle Paul, who
wrote the majority of the New Testament, made tents to live. But He first and foremost was
a disciple of Christ. And that's what a disciple is.
You know what the definition for a disciple is? A follower
of Christ. You can look it up in your dictionary.
You know, every now and then Webster's gets it right. 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. What we do, what we are, are
often two different things. Preaching is not my hobby. It's
not. I have some hobbies, but preaching
isn't one of them. Preaching is my life. Someone
once said to me, Jesus is the most important part of my life,
not mine. No, He's not a part of my life.
He is my life. Paul wrote, when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall you appear with Him in
glory." Christ is the believer's life, and what do they do? They
follow Him. We say with Peter, to whom else
would we go? Every child of God's been brought
to that point. Are you gonna leave me also?
Where else will we go? Thou hast the words to eternal
life. Whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians
10 31. You see, this is a spiritual
calling and command. Follow Christ. We can't see Him. We can't physically touch Him.
We walk and follow Him by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight.
In the person of the Spirit of God, yet Christ is here right
now. Can't see him, but the scripture
says when two or three are gathered in his name, he's in their midst.
Paul said in Romans 8, for as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. Led by the Spirit of God,
that means we're following. And if we're led by the Spirit
of God, if we are the sons of God, we're gonna follow Christ,
not physically, but spiritually. A lot of folks are following
Jesus physically. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. That's how they fall. But they're
perishing with the using. These are the doctrines of men,
not God. We follow in the steps of Christ.
Our following of Christ may be different from each of us. Daniel's
not here this morning, but he works out at GE, he has for many
years, and he does a specific task there. But not everyone
that works at GE does what Daniel does. Some of them work in the
office, some in assembly, some in engineering, some in tool
and dye, some work in shipping, some work in inventory, some
sweep the floors. But they all work together to
one end. What Christ will have me to do
may not be what Christ has you to do. But we all have the same
goal. We all have the same Savior.
We all have the same salvation. And we're working together, for
lack of a better term, to accomplish the same end. And that's to follow
Christ. Not everyone's a preacher. I
hadn't always been a preacher. after the Lord delivered that
demoniac. You remember that? In the country of the Gadarenes,
he sat with the Lord in his right mind. He who once cut himself
with stones and tried to kill himself now sits in his right
mind because the Lord cast a legion of demons out of him. And he,
the one who was possessed with the legion of devils, pleaded
with the Lord that he might go with the Lord and follow him. But the Lord said this. He said,
go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord
had done for thee and hath had compassion on thee. And you know
what he did? He did just that. He departed
and he began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done
for him and everyone that he told marveled. He told Peter
and And James and John and Andrew, he said, come. He told this man
to go. We follow in different ways,
but we all follow Christ. Now, I've got to hurry, but if
God sent one angel to earth, and I don't know who said this,
was it Brother Montgomery or Mahan, one of the preachers. said if God sent one angel to
earth to do some great thing, and if God sent another angel
to sweep the streets, they would both consider it a great privilege.
So whatever we're called to do, we should do unto the glory of
God. It's not what we do that really matters, it's who we do
it for. So let me close by turning you
to John chapter 21. You're not far from there. I
think I left you in John 11. John 21, I want you to see this
and I'll finish. You know, when the Lord resurrected
and He walked with Peter there on the beach, three times He
asked Peter if he loved Him, and each time Peter would say, He would tell Peter, if you love
me, feed my sheep. And look at verse 18, John 21. Yeah, when thou wast young, verily I say unto thee, when
thou wast young, thou girdest thyself and walkest, whither
thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou
shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee,
and carry thee, whither thou wouldest not. This spake he signifying
by what death he, Peter, should glorify God. And when he had
spoken this, he said unto him, follow me." You know, we used
to walk the way that we wanted to. But now we follow him, a
believer does. Look at verse 20. Then Peter
turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved, that being
the apostle John, and he was following, which also leaned
on his breast at supper and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth
thee? Speaking of John, verse 21, Peter
seeing him, John, saith to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do? And Jesus said unto him, if I
will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you? What business
is that of yours, what John does? I'm talking to you. Follow thou
me. So I want you to see lastly that
this commandment to follow the Lord is always successful. That's what Peter did. He followed
the Lord. The one who calls us is the one
who equips us. He enables us to do what we can't
do. With the commandment comes the power. Lazarus come forth,
he that was dead came forth because it was God's power that gave
him life. The one who calls us is the one
who equips us. He makes us willing when in the
day of his power. Now listen. I haven't decided
to follow Jesus. I've sung that most of my life,
but it's not true. I have not decided to follow
Jesus. Christ decided that I would follow
Him. He called me and He said, follow
me. And I followed by His grace. He gave me the power to do so.
Once again, God gets all the glory. Now, is there anything
about following Christ that you don't understand? Then following,
follow Him. May God be pleased to enable
us to do just that, follow Him. And if you follow Him, you'll
follow Him gladly and joyously. There's nothing like following
the Lord. He'll never lead you wrong, never
lead you in the wrong place. He's out to do you good. He's
out to do you good.