I could sent me those songs the
other day and I thanked him. I've been whistling two of those
different times this whole week. I'm glad we get to sing them
together. If you will, let's turn to John 21. John 21, we've been going through
this book for a while. Looked at it Wednesday night
and I just couldn't slow down. Just wanted to keep looking at it. When we'll finish it up this
morning. I'm thankful to have the Vincents
with us this morning. And I had talked to this well
before I knew they was coming, but the first line I have on
my notes, if we have visitors today, don't listen through their ears.
Most of them, most of y'all know them. If we have visitors, don't
listen through their ears. I wonder what those visitors
heard. Well, did they hear this? Did
they hear that? I'm telling you, don't do that.
You listen. You listen. That's not Thacker,
that's Bible. Do you know that? I don't make
this stuff up. I'm serious. We'll see that in a bit. What's
happened up till now here in John 21? Well, Peter's had just
a roller coaster hasn't he? The Lord came to him and revealed
himself to him there in that Sunday meeting. They got together,
they were afraid, they locked the door and the Lord came right
in the midst of them and revealed himself to them and comforted
them. And then he come the next week, they met together again.
He come right in there and he said now, and that's when Thomas
was there. Thomas missed it the first go. He missed Christ. He didn't miss a service. He
didn't miss a message. He didn't miss a worship service. He missed Christ. But the Lord's
faithful and he revealed himself to Thomas. Treat him just like
a child, his child. And those Pharisees said, we
want a sign. He said, you ain't getting no sign, but Jonah. And
then Thomas said, I ain't gonna believe unless I have a sign,
unless I touch him. And he said, come here, buddy, put your hand.
Come on, touch my hands. That's fine. And then the Lord's
going to come to him a third time. He told him in that second
time, I got something for you to do. You're going to go out
just as I was sent. I'm sending you out. You're going
to do something. If you're a servant, you're going to serve. Not sit
around and just think good ideas all day. You're going to do something.
Well, Peter was just rambunctious. He didn't like idleness. He didn't
want to sit around twiddling his thumbs. The Lord didn't give
him any direction on that. And he had a family to take care
of. He had a wife and things, getting hungry. So they went,
he said, I'm going to go fishing. I'm going to go back to the other
kind of fishing. And shamefully, he led six of his brothers with
him. They said, we'll go with you. And the Lord was there on
the shore. He said, you all got any meat?
Children, do you have any meat? No, cast your net, and they did,
and boy, they pulled it in. Couldn't even get it up in the
boat. And John said, that's the Lord. And Peter put his coat
on, and just embarrassment or excitement or everything all
at once, he jumped in that water and swam 100 yards straight to
shore. The other ones came in, the Lord told them, so bring
it up on here. He said, we got work to do. You bring them fish in
first. I ain't gonna have those wasted. I got some food for you.
We'll eat here in a minute. And they went and there were
coals there, just like those coals that Peter warned himself
with when he denied the Lord, but the Lord made these coals.
It was his fire. And fish, just like they fished
for their lives and they've ate so many times, the Lord made
these fish. And bread, as they ate so much,
the living bread made them a loaf of bread. And he said, come and
dine. Come and dine. They was fishing.
They was doing something else. They wasn't waiting on the Lord.
He come to them. He fed them. And he pulled Peter
off to the side. And he said, you love me? And
he said, feed my lambs. There's little bitty ones out
there that ain't never had a drop of milk in them. You go give
them milk. I'll give you the milk. You go feed them. sheep
that's their lambs that grew up they growed some and in a
marked amount of time in the lord's time they they went from
little sheep to bigger sheep got a little stronger and they
said you feed them they said you love me feed them feed my
sheep feed my sheep and it grieved peter didn't it He was sad, but
the Lord sent him to do this. And he says here in something
in verse 18, barely, very, this is the last barely, very, I think
there's 27 in John. Truly, truly. If he said it was,
if he said it, it's true. If he said truly, and he said
it, we ought to listen. And he says, truly, truly, barely, barely,
we need to pay attention. When thou wast young, thou girdest
thyself and walkest whether thou wouldest. But when thou shalt
be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall
gird thee, and carry thee, whether thou wouldest not. You thought
you was going everywhere you wanted to go when you was younger,
but when you're older, your hands are gonna be stretched forth,
and you're gonna be girded, gonna be tied up. And somebody else
is going to carry you where you would not go. You talked about
going there. You had a good game. Oh, I intend
to do that. No, you wouldn't. Somebody else
is going to do it for you, Peter. And this is signifying the death.
It's showing he's going to be crucified. It says in verse 19,
This spake he, the Lord spoke that, because signifying by what
death? He should glorify God. The death of every believer glorifies
God, and the death of the unbeliever glorifies God. And he said, this
is how you're gonna die, and it's gonna glorify me. That's
the way I want it, so that's what's gonna happen. And when
he had spoken this, he saith unto him, follow me. Follow me,
Peter, follow me. We all have an end, don't we?
Before Peter was gonna die for the Lord, he said, these others,
they'll forsake you, I'll die for you. and I'm gonna go where
you go, and I'm gonna drink whatever you're drinking. He's gonna drink of that cup,
isn't he? He's gonna go where the Lord went, and he's gonna
die for the Lord. The Lord told him in John 13,
Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where thou goest thou? And he
answered, wherever I go, thou canst not follow me now, but
thou shalt follow me afterwards. I'm doing something different
than what you're going to do, but you got something ahead of you.
Peter then denied the Lord three times and he saw him again. He said, you go tell my disciples
and Peter and Peter. And then he came to him that
first, first service after the Lord was raised, he came to that
second time. And now he's here this third time. I was out fishing. He said he would die with Christ.
And now the master says you're going to. Now follow me. You talked about doing this now
it's time. This is what's going to happen and you know what we
will too. We will too. Turn over to Matthew
16. Matthew 16. Verse 24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me, and follow me. For whosoever will
save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world? What's that mean, power? positions
of authority, titles, money, family. What if I have a great
lineage to pass down, my heritage? What if I have just so many children
and so many people, well, my neighbor, well, I can't follow
the Lord and my children's doing this and my neighbor's doing
that and my cousin's doing this and my sister's coming into town
or whatever. What if you got it? What's that
gonna do for you? What if you gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for a soul? Can you go out and work and earn
something that you could use to buy your soul? Whether that
be people or things or stuff or For the Son of Man shall come
in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall
reward every man according to his works." See, it says works. A friend of mine told me that
one time. It's right then. He said, I will work in them,
and I will walk in them, and I will remember for them. That's
what the Scripture, if we compare Scriptures with Scriptures, what
are we going to say? The Lord did it. The Lord did
it. You did a great thing. I don't
know, the Lord did it. We moved one time and a young
man come up to me and said, it was such an impression on me
that you would take such a drastic change and go across the country
to make sure your children grew up underneath the gospel. And
I said, it was easy. That was the end of the evening.
I didn't sleep the whole night. I didn't have the context with
that. The next morning I saw him and I said, I didn't, I didn't
mean that like it sounded. I said, the Lord pigeonholed
me and got me just in a spot and hedged me about. There was
no other choice. That's why I said it was easy.
And he said, I don't remember what you was talking about. He didn't
pay attention. It weighed on me though. will
declare that it was his doing. He says, verse 28, Verily I say
unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of
death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. I've
got people, there's going to be someone that's going to see
me, see me when I come. It says there, take up his cross
and follow me. And he was telling Peter, signifying what death
he should die to glorify the Lord, he's going to be crucified.
And it's old writers say that Peter, which sounds really good
for Peter, he wouldn't take the honor of being crucified as the
Lord was. And he said, you crucify me upside down. And if Peter
did that, that was the Lord's doing. He gave him the faith
to do such a thing. What is it for us to take up
our cross? What is it for us to be crucified with Christ and
to follow him till the end? What's that look like? Paul wrote
about it. Turn over to Galatians 2. Galatians 2. In providence and in activity, Those that the Lord speaks to,
those that He commands, they take up our cross and they follow
Him. We're crucified with Him. It says in Galatians 2 verse
20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. and the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. To take up our cross and to follow
Him, that already took place. I was in Him when He hung on
that cross. And He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. But as we go through this life, I'm not my own. In the providence, I can't believe
that happened to this body. This ain't my body. I'm trespassing
on this land. This ain't my land. This is the
Lord's. This is His oxygen I'm breathing.
If there's anything that's done in me, it's Christ that lives
in me that does it. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. For the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of. Well, I have strong faith. You
better have a strong Christ is what you ought to. It's His faith.
It's a gift. He gave it to us. The faith of
the Son of God. What about that? He loved me.
He saw us, and heard us, and knew us, and he's redeemed us.
He's delivered us, hasn't he? He loved me, and he gave himself
for me. That's how we walk through this
world. That's part of it. It ain't my
job to teach people how to live. It's my job to teach you how
to die. We all have an end, and that may be today. I hope we
can pay attention, Lord, and perk our ears up. That may be
today, but we also live in this world. We've walked through it
and we ought to be looking to him and what he's done for us.
Paul also said that. He said in Philippians, for me to live
is Christ and to die is gain. He said, but if I live in this
flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. He said, I'm going straight
between the two. He said, I have a desire to depart.
I want to go be with the Lord. I know him. He's revealed himself
to me. He loved me with an everlasting
love. And I see something of his awesomeness, of his glory. And I want to be where he is.
That's far better. He said, but if I abide here
in the flesh, he goes, that's more needful for you. Like Peter,
Lord said, feed my sheep. And Paul said, well, I'm here
to feed sheep. I'm a sheep feeder. I'm one of the Lord's remembrancers.
I'll just tell you what he said. He said, so I'm going to stay
here. And if the Lord wants to kill me, that's his business.
Whenever that time is, he appoints it. I don't. And I'll be glad
to go. But until then, I have something to do. That's in providence. That's
in our activity as well. But that's also an attitude.
You know, to take up your cross and to follow him, that's an
attitude. That's an attitude. Turn over Galatians 5. We've been to a couple potlucks
this weekend, and we missed a couple of them. We were invited to more
potlucks than we could attend. And he was always concerned about
what somebody was bringing. What if everybody brings chili?
Well, you can be sad and kick rocks down the road, or you can
go to Texas and pay $20, because that's called a chili cook-off.
What's the difference? Attitude, right? To take up our
cross and to follow Him, the Lord gives us an attitude with
that. Look here in Galatians 5, verse 22. Paul lists so many things that
we see in ourselves, don't we? But he says here in verse 22,
but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against
such, there's no law. There's no limit to that. Do
it all you want. And they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Well, that means you cleaned
up your act and you stopped reading books that had bad words in them
or stopped watching movies that wasn't Christian. No, that ain't
what he's talking about. I'm dead to this flesh and I want
to be. There's things I do, I don't want to. That's what Paul was
talking about, wasn't it? The things that I want to do, I don't do.
And the things I don't want to do, that's exactly what I'm doing.
I'm a mess. I don't want to do those things.
I'm not able to stop sinning, but I want to. I want to. And seeing that sin and that
affliction is why we cry out, right? And how can we judge our
brethren? We'll see that in a minute, what Peter is doing. How could
I look to somebody else and be encouraged or discouraged? I
know what I am. I know what I am. And this is
one-on-one. Well, if I was on deserted island, would this word be true? That's the attitude, isn't it?
The Lord has to stir up our pure minds for that to happen. Pride
comes naturally. I ain't got no problem with getting
puffed up. I do that all by myself. When
the Lord stirs us up, that changes our attitude, not just in the
providence that we have of taking up our cross, but in the mindset
that we have while we're doing it. There in Galatians 6, here's
the motivation for that. Galatians 6, 14. But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." I'm dead to
this word. For in Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. That cross that he died on is
why I have life. Him coming to me and speaking,
follow me, is because I have a life to follow him. I'm dead
to this world. I'm dead to that law. I'm dead
to Satan. I'm his. I'm not my own. I'm bought with
a price. And there's a new creation. And
that's the love that we have linked to him. I got to watch
some things come up somehow. Cheap places to live in the world
for expats and all that. Thailand is beautiful and it's
cheap. Do you know that? I can't move to Thailand tomorrow. Why? I got children, right? I'm gonna pack them up, take
them to Thailand. Well, no, of course not. I'm a father. We
understand that. Joe Blow walking down the street
understands that, don't they? I can't move to Thailand. I'm
not my own. I'm God's, and I'm here to feed sheep. Well, you
can do it online. No, you can't. You can watch
Burger King ads on TV, and that ain't gonna make you stop having
hunger pains. That's what the Lord's putting
our hand to do. There's a new creation. And I
pray I look to Him till I die. I pray I follow Him to the end.
And whatever cross I have to carry and bear between now and
then, as long as He makes me faithful. That's what's required
of a steward. Not to have a big congregation,
not to put out good bulletin articles, not to be eloquent
or kind or personable or anything. It's to be faithful. Be faithful. And he has to do that. And keep
us faithful to the end. That's a privilege. I couldn't
imagine going into an eternity without looking to Christ. And
to rely on decisions we've made or actions that we've done or
looking to ourselves and standing before a holy God by myself.
Are you crazy? But to look to him. He's revealed
himself to us. He's come to us. He sent us somebody
to tell us about him. And we believed him. and are
confident. And to go into eternity knowing
him, that's a privilege. Now the cross is done. The race
is over. The fight's been, the battle's
won. It's time to go home. That's a good thing. And how's
that happen? He commands, follow me. Now you're going. He didn't
say if you want to follow me, he said follow me. Wisest man born Adam. It's better
to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.
For that's the end of all men, and the living will lay this
to heart. We'll know so. Now, the dead won't. They won't
lay that to heart. The living will. This is a good
thing. Lord said, it's going to get
rough. Isn't that nice to know? I don't like to be surprised
by pain. If they're going to give me a shot or something, it's going to burn.
Thank you for telling me. I think I can handle it a little
bit better, instead of you just sneak up and surprise me. The Lord
tells that this life's short and it's full of trouble, and
there's going to be affliction, and sometimes it's going to be
bad, real bad, and I'm with you. Just follow me. Look to me. Look
to me. To be made faithful to the end.
Look over Matthew 24. I have a longer text. The Lord's speaking to his disciples
privately here at the Mount of Olives. They come to him discreetly
and ask him some questions, so he's answering them. Matthew 24, verse 3. And as he said upon the Mount
of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell
us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of
thy coming and of the end of the world? What's going to be
the end? Either our end or everybody's end or something about this.
We don't even know what's going to happen, but you tell us. And Jesus answered
and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. That
means they're going to try to. For many shall come in my name,
saying, I am the Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall
hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled,
for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet."
That's not the end. He said, well, the end is going
to be, that's going to be the end of it. It's going to be rumors, wars.
No, he said, that's not yet. For nations shall rise against nation
and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines and
pestilence and earthquakes in all kinds of different places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows. When we look at the
first hour, why did those children of Israel cry out? By reason
of their taskmasters. Well, there's a great famine
and wars going on and tsunamis and all these things that we
just go, oh, we're so troubled and what are we going to do?
That's the Lord saving his people. I've given nations for you. You
think he's going to lose one? What's taking place right now?
God's saving his people. His will's coming to pass. And
I tell y'all, like Maurice said, go get you a ham sandwich. It's
underneath a shade tree. Lord's on his throne. Calm down.
It's fine. I'm talking to myself. I need
to put a mirror in front of me. I need to hear that too. That's
just the beginning of sorrows. Lord's saving his people. Verse
nine, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall
kill you. You're going to be preaching
when this happens. And you shall be hated of all nations for my
name's sake. And then shall many be offended
and they shall betray one another and shall hate one another. Many
false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. It's going
to take place. And because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure to the
end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
the nations, and then shall the end come." After that takes place,
then the end's gonna come for this world. All those different temptations,
and all those crafty ways of putting things, and that little
bit of leaven. Thankfully, the scriptures say
if it were possible, the leaped would be deceived. But it's not
possible. Why? Because he's faithful. He
told Peter, he said, Peter, I'm gonna let Satan, he desires to
sift you like wheat, and I'm gonna let him do it for a little
bit. You're gonna deny me, and the cock's gonna crow, and then
I'm gonna look you eye to eye. Whatever's in the way, if there's
a pillar or a person, it's going to part and he's going to lock
eyes with him. And he's going to weep bitterly. Weep bitterly. But that's for your good. And
he said, and when you're converted, wasn't he already converted?
Yeah. When you're converted that day, then you go tell your brethren
and you encourage them. That's what you're going to do.
He's the one that's faithful. I'm back in our text from John
21 verse 19. This spake he, signifying by
what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he saith unto him, follow me." How far? All the way. Follow
me to the end. That's a privilege. That's eternal
life. For a believer to die looking
to Christ is such a blessed thing. And so it is to live looking
to Christ. We all want that dying grace.
I need living grace for today, don't you? Walk through the earth
that way, following Him, following not man, following Him. Verse
20, Then Peter turned about, seeth the disciple for whom Jesus
loved following, that's John, which also leaned on his breast
at supper and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter
seeing him, looking at John, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what
shall this man do? What about him? You just told
me that I'm gonna be crucified and I'm gonna die. I'm gonna
feed your sheep until the end and I gotta follow you. What
about him? I've gained all this experience.
I've had so many failures and I've learned from my failures
and now I'm really gonna follow you this time. What about him? I grew past John. What about
him? Poor Peter. Poor us. I don't
look down on Peter. I think I'd probably do even
worse. Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till
I come, if it's my will that he lives for 2,000, 6,000, however
many thousands of years it is until I come, what's that to
you? Followest thou me? Don't you
worry about what I'm doing, John. You worry about you. If you mind
your own business, then you won't be minding mine. That's what
they used to say. Mind your own business. Well, that's rude. Lord said it. He told Peter.
He said, what's that to you? I gave you something to do. You
do that. Isn't that such a sad thing, I thought? Here, Peter,
the Lord said, I'm going to keep you faithful to the end. And
it's going to be rough, but you follow me. And he turns around
and says, what about the end? Are they going to die a rough
way too? What a sad place to be. That's a sad mindset, isn't
it? Why not say, Lord, how about don't let them be crucified?
Let it be me. Don't let don't just keep them
happy. Send them on a cruise somewhere until you give them
room service. Let me bear that for my brethren. Peter felt like he's getting
a short stick, didn't he? He felt like he was the only
one doing all the work. He didn't say, Lord, let me be
crucified and let these go. That's what our Lord did. That's
the mind of Christ, isn't it? Man ain't nothing, and he's all.
I was trying to think of the best way to say it. We're grass.
I ain't fluffing up nobody. And I'll do 10 times worse. He's
all. He's all. The Lord said, take me and let
these go. Let these go free. He bore our
sin in his body on a tree, not just he got arrested by a bunch
of people 2000 years ago. He stood in our stead and before
God's judgment. On our behalf, while we while
we were enemies. Well, we hated him. Verse 22. He said, what if I will that
he tarry till I come? What's that to thee? He's the faithful one. He's the
compassionate one. He's the caring one. The Lord is. And if he's pleased that John
lives to his return, what's that to you? He's the wise one. He knows what's best. He says,
mind your own business, Peter. You know, there's a negative
thing where we say, I hope so-and-so hears that. I told you not to
listen to other people's ears. There's times I've heard something and
I thought, man, either negatively, I hope so-and-so hears that.
That'll sort them out. Or positively, I hope somebody
hears that. I hope my loved ones hear that.
Hear that good news, don't we? Yes, others need to be saved
and others need to be corrected. People need chastened and they
need comforted, they do. But I need saved and I need corrected. I need to be taught of God. I
need to grow. I need to be matured, don't I? Have this mind in me. If I could
just keep quiet and listen to what the Lord says, I wouldn't
have so many troubles. I talk for a living, technically. I talk a lot. Can't really tell
you, children will. If I could just hush and listen
to what God has to say, I would have so fewer troubles. That's
what his word says. I was reading that the other
day on the 21st, Proverbs 21. Whoso keepeth his mouth and his
tongue keepeth his soul from troubles. That's good for me. Like Peter, though, I pop off.
I know. But the Lord says, follow thou
me. He was looking to John. He said
he saw John, he was looking at John, and he asked the Lord.
He was looking over here and asking over there. And the Lord
said, follow thou me. Don't you follow John. Don't
look to John. Don't look left. Don't look right. Don't look at yourself, Peter. You look to me. That's too simple. No, that's too complicated. That's
too hard. That's why we can't do it. He said, you look to me.
He said, I've given you a big job. You just keep looking at
me. If we look to our brethren, we're
either gonna be filled with pride or content. We'll say, we did
it better than they did, or envious, I wish I could do as good as
they did, if we esteem them higher that day. Or we're doing more,
just like Peter did. I got more to do, what about
him? If we look to our brethren. If we look to ourselves, if the
Lord makes us honest, we ain't gonna be nothing but discouraged.
and downtrodden and sad. And that accuser, the brethren
that lives inside of this head, that says there ain't no way
in the world you're a child of God. That's when we look to ourselves.
But if we're made to look to Christ, I thought for a long time, a
couple hours a day, how I'd word this. And I typed it out three
different ways and I deleted it all. You that Christ has revealed
himself to, child of God, What is the state of your heart and
the state of your mind and your emotions or whatever when you
just look at Him? When you just follow Him? When you look to
Him? When you just quietly go where He goes and you quietly
hear a word from the Redeemer when He speaks to your heart?
What's that like? Some of you know, that's a good
place to be, isn't it? That's comfort, isn't it? That's not
sad, that's not downtrodden, that's not contempt and contentious
and murmured. No, that's just peace. That's
peace, isn't it? That's contentment, happiness,
joy. We read there for scripture in
Matthew four, Lord walked by and he saw Simon called Peter
and Andrew and they were casting a net in the sea. And he said,
follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. You're already fishermen.
I'll make you fishers of men. And they straight way left the
nets right then. Dropped them. Whatever you do
for a living, take those tools or that knowledge or that computer
or those HVAC tools or those kettle corns or whatever, leave
it. Well, that's my livelihood. Yeah, they straightway left that
and they followed him. They did. Hadn't Peter followed
the Lord already? Why would the Lord come to him
and say, Peter, follow thou me? He said, follow me. He said,
what about John? He said, follow thou me. You follow me. Hadn't
he told him that before? He'd been following the Lord
for many, many months. He'd been following the Lord
for 36 months. That's almost 1,100 days. I've been following
the Master for 26,280 hours. That's 1.5 million minutes he'd
been following the Lord. And guess what Peter needed to
hear? And guess what we need to hear?
Follow thou me. What kind of message is that?
Lord saved Peter and them fishermen. He just said, follow me. And
in that command, they did it. Okay, here we go. I need that. I needed it yesterday. I need
it today. And as long as I'm walking this earth, I need it.
You do too. If the shepherd tells the sheep
to follow him, They'll follow him over and over. We got, y'all
know little Lola there at the house, that little dog. She follows
me. I always said Zoe, the bigger one. I said, she listens real
good until she don't. But I'd say, come on, inside, whatever. I've said inside 15,000 times. And sometimes she comes in, sometimes
she don't. But I got to keep telling her. She don't just know
that when I go to that door, she's got to come inside. You'd
think she'd get it by now. I'm just a dumb dog. Lord has
told me over and over and over again, follow him. Look at me,
look at me. Don't look to you, don't look
to your brethren, don't look to the world, don't look to wars, don't look
to the economy. Look at me, look at me. Aren't you thankful the
Lord's a good shepherd? And he's the great shepherd.
And he's the chief shepherd. And what's so disdained in this
culture we live in now, we're just sheep. People say, oh, are
you a sheep? I hope. God save me I am good
I won't follow him you just mindlessly following
him no it's on his command and I want to I want to verse 22
if I will that he tarry till I come what is that to you to
thee follow thou me Then went this saying abroad among the
brethren, that the disciple should not die, yet Jesus said not unto
him. John's the one writing this,
and that's who he's talking about. And he said, after the Lord said
that, everybody, they heard what he said, they listened to what
he said, but they didn't hear what he said. They didn't know
what he meant. And they said, oh, well, John's
gonna live forever. That ain't what he meant. And John writes
here halfway through verse 23. He said, yet Jesus said not unto
him. That ain't what he said. That
ain't what he said. He shall not die. But, here's
what he said, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is
that to thee? That's a beautiful verse. You
know what just took place? John was correct in error, and
he said, that ain't what the Lord said. I'm just gonna tell
you what he said. I'm just gonna tell you what he said. John's
writing about what the Lord said concerning himself, and that
seems so simple, but that's a miracle of God. John told the truth about
what God said. That's amazing. The Lord listed
those miracles. You should go tell John the Baptist.
You should go tell him things you've seen and you heard. He
said the blind get their sight and the deaf hear and the lame walk. He listed
miracles. Those are miracles, right? And
the poor have the gospel preached to them. That's a miracle. He told the truth. We ain't wired
to do that. He said, I was going to live
forever. Y'all better follow me. And that's what would happen,
wasn't it? And Johnson, he did not say that, here's what he
said. The scriptures don't say that, here's what the scriptures
say. That's a miracle, to know and understand it. He just said
what the Lord said. I got somebody, I don't do counseling. And if I did do counseling, you
wouldn't want me counseling. In the military, they made me
a suicide intervention officer. I was the dumbest one you could
have picked for that one. I'm not comforting at all, but I
don't do counseling. Somebody wouldn't meet me in
person for counseling. They won't take it over the phone, and they
won't come hear the gospel preached, but they want to meet with me
personally for me to counsel them. I said, no. And I know why. I've been at this a little bit. It's because they think that
if through their tears in person, I may have some compassion, I
may give them the yes. You go looking for a yes, you're
gonna find it. Unfortunately, sooner or later. But if God makes
me faithful and makes me follow him, I'm gonna have the same
advice in that office as I do on the phone, as I do from this
pulpit, because that's what he said. It ain't my opinion. Other people get real mad at
me because I said, that's what it says. And they say, I know it
says that, and I don't like you. I said, well, you gotta like me. It's
the Lord's word. I get it, but it's so, isn't
it? If the Lord's pleased to make
me faithful and this word don't change, anything I got to say
won't change. Verse 24, this is the disciple
which testifieth of these things and wrote these things. And we
know that his testimony is true. We've covered a whole lot in
John, haven't we? Been here for a long time. Had a lot of messages
out of it. A lot of verses and points and
I didn't even skip a rock on the surface. I didn't even scratch
it. And if I did, if I understood all things, I could prophesy
all things and I could really enter into it. Verse 25, and
there are also many other things which Jesus did, to which, if
they should be written every one, I suppose that even the
world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
The molecules he controls and the lives he's impacted, and
this one's experience and that one's experience, and those that
are faithful, the Lord's made faithful, they say, here's what
he did. Scheduled our whole lives the
last couple months and and he did this and he did that and
you just couldn't write it all down Paul said you're my testimony. You're my testament. He said
you're my epistle I Ain't gonna write nothing down. That's you
and what's that mean the book of Thomas? You know that the
Lord wrote that it is doing it How's he in? Amen I Where am I?