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John Chapman

Following Christ Will Never Be Easy

Matthew 8:18-27
John Chapman April, 13 2025 Video & Audio
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In the sermon titled "Following Christ Will Never Be Easy," John Chapman focuses on the theological theme of discipleship and the inherent cost of following Jesus as depicted in Matthew 8:18-27. The preacher underscores that Jesus does not conceal the hardships of discipleship, emphasizing self-denial, absolute commitment, and the potential for suffering. He cites various biblical passages, including references to counting the cost of discipleship, bearing one’s cross, and Christ's statement that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head, to illustrate the demanding nature of genuine faith. The practical significance of this message lies in the call for believers to embrace an all-encompassing submission to Christ’s lordship, even amidst trials, societal rejection, or personal loss, affirming that true discipleship is marked by a willingness to endure for the sake of Christ.

Key Quotes

“Our Lord does not fool anyone into following Him and not telling them what it's going to be like. It's going to be a life of self-denial.”

“You cannot serve God and mammon. All men will speak evil of you for my name's sake.”

“If you're going to follow me, it's NOW! Today is the day of salvation! It's not when you get these other things lined up, it's NOW, right now, or NEVER!”

“LORD GIVE ME THE FAITH AND THE GRACE TO FOLLOW YOU AT ALL COST.”

What does the Bible say about the cost of following Christ?

The Bible teaches that following Christ involves self-denial and a willingness to bear one's cross, as outlined in Matthew 8:18-27.

In Matthew 8:18-27, Jesus emphasizes the seriousness of discipleship, calling His followers to count the cost. He communicates that following Him requires absolute commitment, often leading to hardship and sacrifice. With phrases like 'foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head,' He illustrates the realities of a life dedicated to Him, which may not align with worldly comforts or popularity. This is a call to a total and complete surrender to the lordship of Jesus, emphasizing that true discipleship requires a willingness to forsake all for His sake.

Matthew 8:18-20

How do we know that Jesus requires total commitment from His followers?

Jesus explicitly states that being His disciple requires a total commitment, as seen in Matthew 8:21-22.

Jesus makes it clear that following Him is not a casual commitment. In Matthew 8:21-22, when a disciple asks to first bury his father, Jesus responds, 'Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' This highlights the urgency and priority of following Jesus above all else, even above familial duties. The expectation is that His followers must be willing to prioritize their relationship with Him over any earthly ties, demonstrating that true disciples must put Christ first—showing that total commitment is non-negotiable in the life of a believer.

Matthew 8:21-22

Why is it important for Christians to count the cost of following Christ?

Counting the cost is crucial for Christians as it prepares them for the sacrifices and hardships they may face in their faith journey.

Counting the cost is essential because it reflects the seriousness of following Jesus. In the sermon, it is emphasized that many pulpits fail to convey this important message about the hardships of faith. Jesus Himself warned that life as His disciple could entail suffering, sacrifice, and even persecution. Acknowledging these realities helps Christians understand what is expected of them, enabling them to embrace their faith wholeheartedly, even in the face of trials. It is a preparation for what lies ahead, ensuring they do not follow Christ out of blind zeal but out of a sober understanding of what true discipleship entails.

Luke 14:25-33

What does Jesus mean by saying He has 'nowhere to lay His head'?

This phrase highlights Jesus' life of humility and the sacrifices that come with following Him, illustrating that He experienced poverty and rejection.

When Jesus says, 'The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head' (Matthew 8:20), He is underscoring the humility and self-denial that characterize His ministry. Unlike the foxes and birds, Jesus did not have a permanent home or comforts typically associated with security and stability. This statement serves as a stark reminder to His followers that they must be prepared to endure similar hardships and not expect a life of ease. It challenges the notion of prosperity associated with faith and conveys that following Christ may lead to a life marked by sacrifice, rather than earthly rewards or comforts.

Matthew 8:20

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Matthew chapter 8 Following Christ Will never be
easy. That's the title following Christ
Will never be easy And our Lord does not fool anyone Into following
him and not telling them that what it's going to be like. It's
going to be a life of self-denial. It'll be a life of separation
coming out from among them, saith the Lord. It's a life of separation. Now our Lord does not tell this
man this or us this the message that I'm going to give you to
discourage us from following Him but to but to be honest with
us. Don't you like it when someone's
honest with you even when it hurts? Be honest with me and
our Lord is always honest and our Lord warns of the hardships
The sacrifice is to be made, the absolute commitment that
it takes to follow Him throughout your whole life until the end. He tells us it won't be easy.
It's not an easy life. He says in one place, count the
cost, count the cost. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HEAR THIS
MESSAGE IN MOST PULPITS AT ALL! MOST PULPITS ARE NOT GOING TO
TELL YOU, COUNT THE COST! GIVE SERIOUS THOUGHT TO THIS!
IF YOU ARE GOING TO FOLLOW CHRIST, GIVE SERIOUS THOUGHT TO IT! BECAUSE
IT IS AN ALL-OUT COMMITMENT! IT IS A TOTAL ALL-OUT COMMITMENT
TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! YES LORD! SPEAK LORD! What would
you have me to do, Lord? Is that what Paul said on the
road to Damascus? What would you have me to do?
It's UTTER SUBMISSION to the AUTHORITY and RULE of Jesus Christ
in EVERYTHING I do. You know, we are told, we are
told to even bring our thoughts into SUBJECTION to Christ. You
know, we're told to do that. WE ARE TOLD TO BRING OUR THOUGHTS
INTO SUBJECTION TO HIM. LISTEN TO THESE SCRIPTURES. STRIVE
TO ENTER IN. IF THEY HATE ME, THEY WILL HATE
YOU. THAT SCRIBE DIDN'T SEE THAT PART. HE DIDN'T SEE THAT PART. YOU
CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON MONEY THIS LIFE. ALL MEN WILL SPEAK
EVIL OF YOU FOR MY NAME'S SAKE. You want to go there? Is that
what you want? STRAITS THE GATE AND NARROWS
THE WAY, FEW THERE BE THAT FIND IT, FIND IT. OUR LORD SPEAKS OF FOLLOWING
HIM AS A CROSS TO BEAR. WE HAVE A CROSS TO BEAR, WE DO. EVERY CHILD OF GOD HAS A CROSS
TO BEAR. When we think of a cross, we
don't think of entertainment, do we? No, you think of shame
and humility and suffering, not entertainment. And He says you
have a cross to bear. Now in verse 18, the Lord leaves.
He's going to leave a place of popularity where He's popular.
See, He'd been healing He healed Peter's mother-in-law and healed
many who had diseases and sicknesses. He was very popular. This is
what the scribe saw. This is what he saw. He saw a
man who was very popular. He saw a man who could do great
miracles and he was going to line up with him. He said, I'm
going to follow you wherever you go. And the Lord gives him
a word of warning. Don't be fooled by this popularity.
It's going to change here in a few days. THIS SAME CROWD IS
GOING TO CRY, CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM, THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE GOING
TO CRY. THE POPULARITY IS VERY FICKLE. MAN, THERE'S NOTHING
ON THIS EARTH MORE FICKLE THAN A HUMAN BEING. WE LOVE SOMEONE, WE DON'T LOVE
SOMEONE. WE FEEL GOOD, WE DON'T FEEL GOOD. WE'RE UPSET, WE'RE
HAPPY. THERE'S NOTHING MORE FICKLE THAN
A HUMAN BEING. And the Lord lets this man know
that what he's seeing is not going to last. It's not going
to last. And He gave commandment for them
to depart, His disciples. Here's a test of discipleship.
Are they going to follow Him or not? Are they going to depart
or not? He gave a commandment. You see,
disciples are obedient. DISCIPLES ARE OBEDIENT. HE THAT
BELIEVES AND IS BAPTIZED SHALL BE SAVED. Well, I don't really
want to be baptized. That's disobedience. You see,
when the Lord makes a disciple out of a sinner, that sinner
does what the Lord commands. If you can't do the very basic
obedience, you sure can't do anything else. CHRIST SAID YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES
IF YOU DO WHATSOEVER I COMMAND YOU. THAT'S EVIDENCE OF DISCIPLESHIP. IS THAT YOU FOLLOW HIM AND DO
WHAT HE SAYS. AND IT SAYS A CERTAIN SCRIBE, WE'RE GOING TO MEET WITH
A CERTAIN SCRIBE AND A CERTAIN DISCIPLE. AND IF I GET TO IT,
WE'LL MEET WITH THE COST OF FOLLOWING CHRIST. But here a certain scribe,
you know a scribe was the upper class. Not many mighty, not many
noble were chosen. Not many of them were going to
follow Him. Remember that rich young ruler? The Lord said, Go
sell all you have, give it to the poor, come follow Me. He
went away sorrowful because he was very rich and he was very
covetous also. That's why he couldn't sell it
and give it all away and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. But this scribe here, he's a
part of the upper class. He's a very educated man. He's
an interpreter of the law. And you know, they were counted
more important. It got to where they were counted.
Their interpretation of the law was more important than the law.
That's what's sad. And for one to become a scribe,
I read this somewhere, but for someone to, for one to become
a scribe, he went to school at about 14 years of age and he
graduated when he was 40 years of age, 26 years. And after that, you couldn't
tell him anything. He knew it all. HE KNEW IT ALL! THAT'S WHY THEY HAD SUCH PRESTIGE
AND AUTHORITY! THEY SPENT SO MUCH TIME STUDYING
WHEN THEY GOT OUT, WHEN THEY BECAME WHAT THEY CALL A SCRIBE,
IT WAS LIKE, YOU CAN'T TELL ME, YOU DON'T NEED TO TELL ME, I
CAN TELL YOU! YOU KNOW, I'M THE TEACHER! I'VE LEARNED, I KNOW IT ALL,
I'VE DONE THIS FOR A LONG TIME! HE DIDN'T REALIZE, HE DIDN'T
KNOW ANYTHING! I'm sure most of his interpretation
of the law was wrong. Any man that interprets the Word
of God will interpret it wrong, they will. If God leaves me alone
to this book right here, I'll rest the Scriptures to my own
destruction every time, every time. Now, we know in the Word of God
that the scribes hated Christ, But this one was impressed with
him. He wanted to follow him whithersoever he went. Wherever
you go, I'll go with you. He even called him Master, a
show of respect. Here's a scribe, now listen,
all these years in school, and this is a guy that's a real know-it-all,
and he calls him Master. So you have to realize and understand
the respect He is giving the Lord as far as He is concerned.
As far as He is concerned, He is giving Him the highest respect
because He is MASTER! And He calls Him MASTER! He is
that IMPRESSED with the Lord Jesus Christ! And in His zeal,
He says, I will follow you wherever you go. You know, religious zeal
without Christ is NOTHING! It is EVIL! Paul said over in
Romans 10, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Just because somebody's religiously zealous doesn't mean they're
right. No more than somebody, and I told this to a man once,
he got upset with me about it, but I said, just because a man's
religious doesn't mean he's saved. He got upset with me about it.
I said, he believed that if you're sincere about what you believe,
you're all right. No, you're not all right. You
can be sincerely wrong, you know. You can be sincerely wrong. And this man was determined,
I will follow you. Peter said, I'll die with you. I won't deny you. Yeah, well,
it didn't take long. He denied him three times. You
see that zeal we have? We can have, zeal can be wrong,
it can be wrongly placed. And what s revealed here is his
spiritual ignorance. He was spiritually ignorant even
though he studied a lot, he was spiritually ignorant. He didn
t understand the hardship or the self-denial that comes with
following the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the disciples, the
12 disciples there, of course, Judas being in one of the seat
of Satan, but the others, one of them said, I think it was
Peter said, we've left all, we've left everything. We've left everything. Paul said
this, I have suffered the loss of all things for Christ's sake.
Paul was a very rich man. Many think he was that rich man
that went away sorrowful. Many think that's who that man
was. I don't know whether it was or
not. But Paul says this, Paul being a rich man, he said, I've
suffered the loss. I've lost everything. He lost
everything. FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! And he said,
I also count everything I've lost as done. It's all done. It's not going to do me a bit
of good. That's all it is. But the Lord is honest with the
scribe. He's honest with him. He's not
trying to fool anybody. He doesn't fool his followers.
In fact, he warns of hardship. This is going to be tough. be tough some are going to be
martyred some going to be burned at the stake there have been
we've had brothers and sisters we have had brothers and sisters
burned alive we've had brothers and sisters sawn asunder we've
had brothers and sisters fed to the lions we've had brothers
and sisters at nero's stuck up on a pole in his garden and set
him on fire to light his garden That's our brothers and sisters. And our Lord is saying, there's
a cross for you to bear. There's a cross I'm going to
lay on you. There's suffering that's going
to happen. There's mortifying the deeds of the flesh. That's
not easy. Paul said in one place, I keep
my body under subjection lest when I preach Christ I myself
be a castaway. There's that constant mortifying,
there's that constant fight of that inward nature, that lust
of the flesh, it's a constant battle. It's a constant battle,
it never lets up. That's a cross to bear. That's
suffering. Suffering under the attack of
that old nature all the time. It's there. It's there. And the Lord told Describe, HE SAID, THE SON OF MAN, NOW
YOU SAY YOU WANT TO FOLLOW ME WHETHERSOEVER I GO, LET ME INFORM YOU, THE SON OF
MAN HATH NOWHERE TO LAY HIS HEAD. YOU SURE YOU WANT TO FOLLOW ME?
YOU MIGHT WANT TO RECONSIDER. IT'S EASY TO FOLLOW POPULARITY,
ISN'T IT? IT'S EASY TO FOLLOW SOMEBODY THAT'S POPULAR. NOBODY
WANTS TO FOLLOW SOMEONE THAT'S DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN. NOBODY WANTS TO FOLLOW THAT. AND HE'S TELLING HIM THAT. AT
THIS TIME HE WAS POPULAR, BUT HIS POPULARITY IS GOING TO BE
SHORT-LIVED. IT'S GOING TO BE SHORT-LIVED. AS SOON AS HE REVEALS
HIMSELF, AS SOON AS HE BEGINS TO PREACH THE MESSAGE, AS SOON
AS HE BEGINS TO IDENTIFY HIMSELF AS THE SON OF GOD, AS THE MESSIAH,
THEY'RE GONNA TURN ON HIM! THEY'RE GONNA TURN ON HIM! He
said in Luke 20, verse 46, BEWARE THE SCRIBES! BEWARE THE SCRIBES,
THEY'RE GONNA TURN ON ME! THE HEALING AND THE POPULARITY,
IT WAS ALL EXCITING! IT WAS EXCITING! But that's going
to leave shortly. And the master is truthful to
him there. He says, the animals have a better place to sleep
tonight than I have. They have a better place. Look,
Jesus says unto him, verse 20, the foxes have holes. They have
a den to go to tonight. And the birds of the air, they
have a nest to fly to in the late evenings when they go to
rest. They have a nest. But the son of man, he has no
place to lay his head. He didn't own a home. He didn't
own a king-size bed and a nice pillow. He slept in the open
or he slept in a house with one of the disciples. You know, he
went to stay with Peter. BUT THE CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND
EARTH DIDN'T OWN ANYTHING ON EARTH AS A MAN. AS A MAN HE OWNED
ZERO. HE LIVED IN POVERTY. BECAUSE
THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE SPIRITUALLY. EVERY ONE OF US. AND HE IDENTIFIED WITH US. DO YOU WANT TO FOLLOW ONE WHO
IS DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN? Is that the one you want to follow?
Because that's who He is. It's not this popular Jesus going
on today. I'm telling you, it's the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Sovereign. That's who He is. Are you willing
to lose all for my sake? Everyone who follows Christ,
you know the first thing you've got to lose when you follow Christ?
Yourself. yourself the scripture says he
that hates not his life that's what he says but i tell you this it's worth
following christ at all cost at all cost Even if it costs me my life,
I'm going to die anyway. I'm going to die. I'd rather
die in honor of Christ than to run like a fool and then
die and still die. He's still going to die. But
the Lord's not going to fool anyone and get them to follow
Him. He's not going to do that. He's
telling this scribe, you might want to think about this. Because
he knew it was blind zeal, he knew that. I've seen people,
and I've seen this, and I've seen people that get caught up in the sermons
and in the messages, and several of them get baptized, and then
I've watched some of them leave. I've watched some of them leave.
One or two stay around, and then I've watched the others just
leave. They got caught up in the excitement of it. You know,
when the Lord saves someone, it's like you sit down and think
about what you're doing. That's the truth. You sit down
and think about it. You count the cost. I think that's what Felix did
when he trembled and he looked, I think he counted the cost.
And he said, the cost is too much for me. I'm not giving this
up. Let me ask you this. Is Christ
worth losing friends over? My friend said to me, I wish
the Lord hadn't saved you. It separated us. We were still
friendly, I mean we were still friendly, WE DIDN'T RUN NO MORE
TOGETHER. WE DIDN'T DO IT. COULDN'T DO
IT. IS CHRIST WORTH LOSING YOUR JOB
OVER? IS HE WORTH IT? I'M GONNA GIVE
YOU, I'VE GIVEN THIS TO YOU BEFORE. HENRY TOLD US IN THE PREACHER
SCHOOL, DON'T USE YOURSELF AS AN EXAMPLE, BUT SOME OF THE THINGS
I HAVE TO USE BECAUSE I EXPERIENCED THESE THINGS. The place, I used to be a plant
manager, and they wanted me to take a big customer, big-time
customer, one of the biggest steel mills in the country. And
they was coming in to tour the shop, and he wanted me to take
him to a strip club. And I said no. I said no. He said, what do you mean no?
I said, no, I'm not doing it. He said, it's your job. I said,
you can have my job. I said, you can have it. He said,
you serious? I said, I'm serious. You can
have my job. He said, well, then he smiled
and said, well, we'll just get the salesman to do it. And he did it. He was
glad to do it. But I told him he can have my
job. I wasn't doing it. Are you ready to lose your job
for Christ's sake? Some of the things, if I was
a teacher, and some of the things they would try to make me teach,
I'd have to lose my job. I promise you, I'd lose my job. There's a lot of ways to make
money as far as that goes, pay your bills. But I'd lose my job. Are you willing to do that? What about your spouse? You know,
the Bible teaches us the wife is to be in subjection to her
husband. If her husband said she couldn't come here, he just
overstepped his bounds. You know, that doesn't mean to
be in subjection to absolutely everything. If it's wrong, it's
wrong. And you don't violate your conscience. You don't do
that. he said you can't come here i
said you got a problem you got a problem because i'm going to
hear the gospel it's like a boyfriend or girlfriend one believes and the other one
doesn't you were you willing to lose
it to lose that one if you follow christ you will OUR LORD IS WORTH LOSING EVERYTHING
FOR AND FOLLOWING HIM, EVEN UNTO DEATH." We need to hear these things,
don't we? We must bear reproach for Christ's
sake, He's worth the price! And then we have another disciple,
verse 21-22, He wanted to go home and bury his father And
I think this is what he wanted to do, and a lot of the commentators
I read think this, that he wanted to go home and take care of him
until he died. I'll come back and follow you after that's over
with. You see, we don't dictate to
the Lord what we're going to do and when we're going to do
it. You don't dictate to the sovereign. And our Lord's not
being cold-hearted here. He's not being cold-hearted. You see here in verse 21, another
of his disciples said to him, Lord, suffer me at first to go
home and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, you follow
me and let the dead bury the dead. It's evident his father
was an unbeliever. Because the Lord called him a
dead and let the dead, he said, let the unbelieving bury the
unbelieving. You know, I'm of the opinion
now that I've gotten older, I say, let the dead bury the dead and
I say, let the dead marry the dead. Let the dead marry the
dead. Go to Justice or the Peace. Our Lord teaches us to seek first
the Kingdom of God. Christ is to have the PRE-EMINENCE
over ALL THINGS! ALL THINGS! The Disciple doesn't
pick his place or time of service. You see, what the Lord did with
that man, He made him FACE the REALITY of following the Lord
Jesus Christ. The reality for me in following
Christ is leaving my family, everything that I had back there,
and coming here. I don't regret that, but that's
the cost of following Christ. Now most of you are never going
to be asked to sell your home and leave your family and your
kids, your grandkids. None of you probably won't be
asked to do that. But I'll tell you what, if he
does, you better be willing to do it. that young man whom he said go
sell all you have give it to the poor come follow me he probably
wouldn't have had to actually done it but he had to be willing
to do it but he wasn't even willing to do it following Christ is a difficult
journey it's not a picnic Abraham left his country I can imagine
can you imagine him going in and say Sarah THE LORD REVEALED HIMSELF TO
ME, I MET THE LORD TODAY. Because you see, he wasn't in
idolatry, he was idolatry. But the Lord met with me, I met
the Lord and He revealed Himself to me, and He told me for us
to leave. And where are we going? I don't
know. I don't know. Just pack your bags. Pack your
bags. I don't know where we're going,
but I'm going. He said to go and I'm going. And they went. She went with Him. She went with
him, not like Lot's wife. Not like Lot's wife. Like Ruth to Naomi, where you
go, I go. Your God's my God. Christ, now you listen, listen
to this. The Lord Jesus Christ comes before
all family. He comes before the family. Now we're going to get to the
last, I'm going to cover this last, but I'm going to do it briefly.
We see the cost of following Him. The disciples entered the
ship and they followed Him in verses 23 through 27. They followed
Him and while they followed Him, trouble came. Trouble came. Their lives We're in trouble,
not in danger. Our lives can be in trouble,
but not in danger. We're never in danger of losing
our lives, you know that? Our life is here with Christ
in God. Can't lose it. I tell you what, if you really
ever really learn that for the first time, you'll start to live.
When you learn, you can't lose your life. You won't be afraid
of everything coming and going. WE HAVE A REAL TENDENCY TO LET
FEAR TAKE US OVER. WE GET FEAR OF WHAT'S OUT THERE,
FEAR OF GERMS, FEAR, YOU KNOW, NOTHING IS GOING TO TAKE US UNTIL
THE LORD'S TIME. WE'RE NOT GOING OUT THERE AND
BE STUPID, I KNOW THAT! GOD'S GIVEN US WISDOM! WISDOM! And I'm not going to
live on God's earth calling God my Father and walk around in
fear. That just doesn't go together. If God is God and He's my God,
why do I have to fear? I don't. I don't. But following
Christ does not exempt us from trouble. Ask Job. But I tell
you this, Job would tell you right now, THAT ALL HIS SUFFERINGS
WERE JUST LIGHT AFFLICTIONS COMPARED TO THE GLORY HE'S GOT NOW IN
HEAVEN WITH CHRIST. IT'S JUST LIGHT AFFLICTIONS.
WE'LL ENDURE HARDSHIPS, LOSSES, AND CROSSES IN THIS LIFE, BUT
THIS LIFE IS VERY SHORT, IT'S VERY SHORT. BELIEVERS HAVE SPIRITUAL
TRIALS THAT THE WORLD KNOWS NOTHING OF. THERE'S A TRIAL THAT'S COMMON
TO ALL MEN BECAUSE OF SIN, BUT THERE'S SPECIAL TRIALS THAT'S
ONLY COMMON TO ME AND YOU BECAUSE OF OUR RELATIONSHIP TO CHRIST. Stephen was stoned to death because
of his relationship to Christ. Now this storm that they're in
arose by the providence of God, not Mother Nature, by the providence
of God. He hath His way in the whirlwind
and in the storm and He's having His way in this one. You know
what He's going to do? He's going to prove their weak
faith and the power of the Lord to keep them. That's pretty much
what happens every time we go through a trial. The Lord reveals
our weak faith and His ability to keep us. THAT'S PRETTY MUCH
WHAT HAPPENS! And this proved it, this proved
it. And faith has got to be proven, the disciple's faith has got
to be proven, and the Lord's going to prove your faith whether
you have it or not, whether you're a true disciple or not, He's
going to prove faith. YOU KNOW WHEN THE LORD SAID THAT
HE MUST EAT MY FLESH AND DRINK MY BLOOD? AND YOU KNOW IT SAID
MANY OF THEM, MANY OF HIS DISCIPLES WENT BACK AND WALKED NO MORE
WITH HIM. WALKED NO MORE WITH HIM. THEY
SAID THIS IS A HARD SAYING. WHO CAN HEAR IT? YOU THINK WE'RE
A BUNCH OF CANNIBALS? But those who've been given spiritual
life, they understand that by faith we eat, drink His blood,
and eat His flesh. By faith we do. He's the sacrifice. You see, listen here. The forces
of nature have no power except they be carried out by divine
force. His force. Now what's our comfort
in such times? Here's our comfort that Christ
is with us. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. He's in the boat. He was in the
boat in the storm with them. Listen to this, Isaiah 43. When thou passest through the
waters, not if, but when. It's going to be when. When thou
passest through the waters, I'll be with thee. HE'S RIGHT THERE
IN THAT BOAT WITH THEM, AND THROUGH THE RIVERS, THEY SHALL NOT OVERFLOW
THEE. THEY WALK THROUGH JORDAN, NOT WHEN IT WAS AT ITS LOWEST,
WHEN IT WAS AT ITS HIGHEST. THEY WALK THROUGH JORDAN. THEY
SHALL NOT OVERFLOW WHEN THOU WALKEST THROUGH FIRE. SOME TRIALS ARE FIERY TRIALS. FIERY TRIALS. WE'VE BEEN THROUGH
SOME FIERY TRIALS. hurt they hurt you get burned
it hurts doesn't it that's fiery trials some of you going through
fiery trials right now thou shalt not be burned you're
not gonna come out of it scorched and your hair singed like the
Shadrach Meshach and Abednego they come out of there they're
not even they didn't even smell like smoke Neither shall the flame kindle
upon you. The flame didn't even kindle
upon Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their clothes never caught on
fire. It didn't do it. We ought to
eat and live this. The Lord will keep us. No one
can perish who has Christ in them. Noah could not perish. He's in the ark. Everyone outside
the Ark perished. But note their reverence. Note
their reverence here. They called Him Lord. When they
went to wake Him up, LORD! It s funny to have reverence
and little faith at the same time, but they had reverence.
They called Him Lord. Fearful as they were, they showed
some reverence. They recognized their need of Him. Lord, Over
Mark it says, they said, Lord save us, we perish over Mark.
He said, carest thou not that we perish? Yes, he cares. That's why he's
hung on Calvary's tree. And the Lord said to them, and
the first thing our Lord did in verse 26, you know what the
first thing He did? He rebuked their unbelief before He rebuked
the wind and the waves. You see, that's far worse than
the wind and the waves. The problem here is not the wind
and the storm, it's not the water coming into the boat, that's
not the problem. The problem is your little faith. Little
faith saves, but little faith doesn't honor God. Because if you have faith as
a grain of mushroom seed, you're saved. The wind and the waves are far
less troublesome than unbelief. How is it that we doubt our Lord's
love and ability to keep us? How do we do that? Was Calvary
not enough to prove that He cared for us? If Christ has bid us to follow
Him, will He not keep us safe? He didn't say He'd keep us out
of trouble. No, you're going to walk into
trouble. As Scott Richardson said, you're either going into it, going through
it, or coming out of it. That's the way life is. Why do we doubt His power? Oh,
He said, Why are you so fearful? Why, why, why are you so fearful? Little faith causes great fear.
When I see someone, and myself too, When I see myself and others
getting so fearful, you can be sure that little faith is going
out. It's just a little glimmer, like
a candle, just like a candle. That's all that's there. It's
still there, but it doesn't give off much light, does it? A candle
doesn't give off much light or much warmth. We have no reason to have little
faith. Has Christ ever failed? Has He ever left us alone? He
said, I'll never leave you. Even when you can't detect Him
being there, He's there. Has He ever ceased to be God?
Why are you so fearful? You see,
here's the cost of discipleship. The scribe, he was just all ready
to go. And the other disciple, he had
some things he wanted to take care of first. You know, I've
got a parent over here, I'm going to take care of him, and then
when he dies, I'll come and follow you. No, you won't, you'll follow
me NOW! If you're going to follow me, it's NOW! Today is the day
of salvation! It's not when you get these other
things lined up, it's NOW, right now, or NEVER! And here's His
mercy, then He arose and rebuked the winds and the waves, And
the sea calmed down, and they said, What manner of man is this
that the winds and seas obey? They've been with him, they've
seen miracles, and they asked this question, What manner of
man is this that the winds and seas obey? Well, he's the God-man,
that's the kind of man he is. He's a gracious man, he's a righteous
man, he's the only man that can save us. LORD GIVE ME THE FAITH
AND THE GRACE TO FOLLOW YOU AT ALL COST. All right.
John Chapman
About John Chapman
John Chapman is pastor of Bethel Baptist Church located at 1972 Bethel Baptist Rd, Spring Lake, NC 28390. Pastor Chapman may be contacted by e-mail at john76chapman@gmail.com or by phone at 606-585-2229.
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