Matthew chapter 4 is our Scripture
reading. Matthew 4, I've been reading for my own
edification and enjoyment through the Gospel of Matthew, as well
as the Psalms. I got to chapter 8, the first
verse speaks of the great multitudes following him, and that stuck
with me, and so the message is about followers of Christ. But
here in Matthew 4, Matthew 4, it speaks of following him several
times. Our Lord had just dealt with
Satan, our adversary. In verse 12, It began with verse
12. Now, when Jesus had heard that
John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. And leaving
Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the
seacoast, in the borders of Zadbulon and Naphthalim. And he did this
to fulfill Scripture, that it might be fulfilled, which was
spoken by Isaiah the prophet, chapter 8. Nine, I'm sorry. The land of Zebulun, the land
of Nathalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of
the Gentile, the people which sat in darkness saw great light. And to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. From that time,
Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. And Jesus, walking by the Sea
of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew,
his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.
And he saith unto them, Follow me. I will make you fishers of
men." And they straightway, immediately, left their nets and followed
him. Going on from thence, he saw
other two 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. And Jesus went about all Galilee
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, healing all manner of sickness, all manner of disease
among the people. His fame went throughout all
Syria. And they brought unto him all
sick people. They were taken with diverse
diseases and torments, those which were possessed with devils,
those which were lunatic, those that had palsy. And he healed
them. And there followed him a great
multitude of people from Galilee, from Decapolis, from Jerusalem,
from Judea, and from beyond Jordan, followers of Christ. Are you
a follower of Christ? I want to be a follower of Jesus
Christ, don't you? Pray with me. Our Lord and our God, in the
name above every name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, King
of kings, Lord of lords, the great Savior of sinners,
Son of the Most High, Son of Righteousness, the Holy One of
Israel, Son of God, in the name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
we come to You today. You have said, You've told us,
You've taught us, all are taught of God, to come unto the Father
by the Son. And Scripture says that He will
receive those that come unto God by Him. So we come, Lord
God, believing on the Son. Believing, trusting, looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ, worshiping Him. We want to Honor the Son
as we honor the Father. We want to worship the Son as
we worship the Father, in spirit and in truth, according to your
Word. We ask you, dear God, that you
would send your Holy Spirit that we might worship truly in spirit
with the inner man. And in truth, Lord, open your
Word to us. Open it to us. Lord, you're worthy
to be worshipped. Lord God, worthy, so worthy,
our great creator, our great provider, our Father which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You're worthy to be worshipped,
all that you are and all that you do. And thy Son and thy Spirit
are worthy to be worshipped. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive all honour, power and glory and strength and riches
and all things. What we want to do here today
is worship You and worship Thy Son and worship the Holy Spirit.
Enable us to do that, Lord, for just a little while. Keep our
minds and hearts on things above. Let not the adversary come and
steal these things away. Oh, Lord, give us attentive minds
and receptive hearts. You're so worthy of our undivided
attention and our heartfelt praise and honor and glory. Thanksgiving.
Lord, we ask your forgiveness of our sins. Christ came preaching
repent. He repent unto thee, oh God,
have mercy upon us for Christ's sake. Ask your forgiveness of
our sins for Christ's sake. And all that we do and all that
we say here this day, and all that we sing, may it be for your
glory and honor, for your worthy. In the blessed name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we do these things. Amen. Somebody requested this hymn. It's sung to three different tunes that I
know of. The one that's old and familiar
to some of you is, come ye sinners, poor and rich. But this tune, ever since I heard
it, I really, really like it. And some of you do, too. This
is the one you're familiar with. But someone requested this. Maybe
they haven't heard this tune. Come ye sinner, poor and wretched,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power. He is able, He is able, He is
willing, doubt no more. Now ye needy come and welcome,
God's free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh. Without money, without money,
Come to Jesus Christ and buy. Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requires,
Is you feel you need of him. This he gives you, this he gives
you, Is the spirit's dimmering gleam. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised
and mangled by the ball. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. No, not the righteous, not the
righteous sinner Jesus came to call. That was written by Joseph
Hart. If you have a Gadsby hymnal,
he wrote so many good hymns. Every one, I've never read a
hymn by him that wasn't just wonderful. All right, go back
to Matthew. Gospel of Matthew chapter 8.
Matthew chapter 8, verse 1. Matthew 8 verse 1 says, When
he was come down from the mountain, our Lord Jesus cried, great multitudes
followed him. Salvation, eternal life, when
the Lord reveals Himself to you, gives you life. He that hath
the Son hath life, faith in the Son. Love with the Son. Belief in the Son. Life with
the Son. From that day on, you become
a follower of the Lamb, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
says in Revelation 14, concerning a great multitude in heaven,
it says, These are they which follow the Lamb, whithersoever
he goeth. wherever He is. They were redeemed
from among men by the Lamb. And they sing of Him, the song
of the Lamb. And Him that loved us and washed
us from our sin in His own blood. So, you become a follower of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, great multitudes followed
Him while He was on this earth. But not all were true followers.
And great multitudes now say they are followers of Christ,
but not all are. Most people then, and most people
now, follow the crowd. If there's something going on
and a big crowd gathers, a crowd gathers a crowd, doesn't it?
It just does. And people gather around out
of curiosity to see what's going on. Most people do that out of
curiosity. And our Lord attracted a great
deal of attention as a man. His miracles and everything.
His fame, it's said, went throughout everywhere. And the crowd, most
people follow the crowd, whatever the crowd is doing, whatever
the crowd is believing. People follow out of curiosity.
People follow their fellows out of pure pressure. You don't want
to be too different, so you follow what everyone else is doing.
That's just so in it. I did. We all do. You follow
what you see, what you perceive to be real. But now real followers,
real followers of Christ, they follow an unseen God, an unseen
Christ, and they follow and they walk by faith. Not, there's nothing,
it's not, there's nothing substantial to follow, but we have his word.
And most people don't believe this is God's word. They really
don't. God's people do. So first I want
to weed out the tares. They're wheat, they're tares,
they're sheep, and they're goats. Okay. Matthew 4, go back there. Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. the word of our Lord then and
hear it now. Multitudes were fed by the Lord
Jesus Christ while he was on the earth. Thousands. You know
those stories of him feeding 5,000 and later 3,000 and later
5,000? That was just men. So there were tens of thousands
of people that were fed by the Lord. And they acknowledged it. And
they seemed to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They seemed to. Matthew 4, verse 23. Look at it. When Jesus went about
all Galilee, teaching in their synagogue and preaching the gospel
of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner
of disease among the people, and His fame went out throughout
all Syria. At his fame, every single person
on the top side of this earth has heard of Jesus. They've all
heard. He went everywhere then, and
now the word has gone out. Paul said in Romans 10, Have
they not all heard? Yes, verily the sound has gone
throughout the world to the ends of the earth. Now, Paul said
that years ago, didn't he? What about now with all this?
mass communication. So everyone has heard the ends
of the word. And all have heard the word of
God and heard some of what Jesus Christ said. So they're without
excuse. Okay? All heard. And verse 23, it says, He healed
all manner of sickness, all manner of disease among the people.
The Lord Jesus Christ, everyone that was healed, was healed by
him. Do you understand? It's still
the same. He's still the one that heals.
Do you understand that? Deuteronomy says, see now that
I, even I am he. I wound. That means make sick whatever happens, whatever injuries. God says, I do that and I heal. That's what he said. He said,
and I make, I kill and I make alive. Now who follows that God? Who believes that God, people
believe he healed me. Jesus healed me. Well, did he
make you sick? Is he the one that sent cancer? Is he the one
that took your child? Is he the one that took your
health? That's what he said. Followers
follow him. The true and living God. Who
believes that? A God like that, that makes sick? I do. Don't you? What comfort
is there otherwise? There is none. There is none. If you don't believe that, you'll
fear everything. You'll fear everything and you'll
listen to everyone but the one who's sovereign over it. Why
would you do that? That's foolish, isn't it? To
listen to the Surgeon General over the great physician. That's
foolish, isn't it? People believe in miracle healings.
Well, you know, God's people believe and are sure that when
God sends sickness, it's good. It's very good. David said, it's
good for me that I've been afflicted. This is good for me. In fact,
if you go through, if you're a true believer and you go through
some of these things, it's often the best thing that ever happened
to you. You can't explain that to the world. It's sudden. It's
sudden. John chapter 6. So people heard
His Word. People were healed by Him. And many claim that today. But
how many claim that He made them sick in the first place? Followers do. True believers
do. John chapter 6. Everyone is fed
by the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that? Farmers don't
feed us. The Lord feeds. The Lord feeds
farmers. The land, you know, we plant,
we water, but the Lord gives the increase. Isn't it mirrored? Don't you
love springtime? I love springtime. It's probably
my favorite time of the year. And that land is so barren, and
the trees are so barren, and it has a beauty about it. But
when things start to just sprout, every year, it just comes up. Things look dead and it just
starts growing. It? Mother nature? No, no, no, no.
This is our great Creator and our great God. And things just
keep growing and all this. And the Lord feeds everyone,
always has, always will, until The end, verse 5, John 6, verse
5, he lifted up his eyes, saw a great company come unto him.
He said to Philip, when shall we buy bread that these may eat?
And he said this to prove Philip. Who'd been feeding all these
people before Christ came? Christ. He's the same yesterday. And Philip said, we don't have
nearly enough money, Lord. Two hundred penny worth can't
feed them all. And he said, well, there's a
lad here. He has five barley loaves. Barley? Read the book of Ruth. What are these monks so many?
And the Lord said, Make the men sit down. And there's much grass
in the place. He maketh us to lie down in green
pastures. So the men sat down, a number of 5,000 men. Men. About women and children. He
took five loaves. And two fish, and broke them,
and fed eight, nine, ten thousand people with five fish. Five loaves
and two fish. He fed them all. Look at verse
11. They were all filled. He gave thanks. Verse 12. They
were all filled, filled, filled, filled. And there was baskets
left over. Verse 13. He said, take the fragments. Five, and there were twelve basket
loads. What did he do with those? Take them in town and give them
to the poor. He feeds everybody. He feeds
everybody, those that believe him, those that don't. His tender
mercies, Psalm 145 says, are over all. The Lord is good in
all. He feeds everyone. Don't you love Psalm 104? I love
it. I never get tired of reading
these psalms. Let me read it to you so you don't have to turn.
It says, He sends the springs, the waters into the valleys,
run among the hills, and they give to drink. Every beast of
the field gets water to drink. You go into the woods. I used
to live in a cabin in the woods and you'd see pads. And there
aren't any people around. Who makes those pads? Deer. Animals. Where are they going?
Water. The Lord provides for them. He
waters the hills from His chambers, causes the grass to grow for
the cattle and herb for the service of man. They bring forth food
out of the earth. And on and on it goes. It says,
They all wait upon Him and He gives them their meat in due
season. God feeds everyone. Do you believe
that? A lot of people say that. And we should acknowledge them
and give thanks. A lot of people say grace and give thanks. Thank
you for the food. Thou givest them, they gather.
You open your hand, they are filled with good. The next verse
says, You hide your face, they're troubled. You take it away, and
they die. Who believes God sends drought
and famine and desolation and death? Who believes that? All God's
people do. They know that if it wasn't for
the mercy of the Lord, we'd just He quit sending rain completely,
wouldn't he? In fact, most judgments in the Old Testament were by
water. You know that? He'd take it away. The first great judgment was
the Lord flooded the whole world by water. And then throughout
the Old Testament, he would withhold rain from, from, why? An ungrateful,
unthankful, unworshipping people. And how many people do they really,
really, worship God and give thanks for the water of life,
especially the Lord Jesus Christ. But do you reckon, John 6, look
at verse 26. Verse 26. He said to the people that gathered
around, he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not
because you saw the miracles, the healing and all that, and
many did, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled.
come and seem to follow Jesus and God because He's, I'm so
blessed, I'm so blessed, I'm so blessed. Give me all this.
Well, you should. You should give Him the glory.
But what about when He takes it away? Let's see if you follow
Him now. These are tests of true followers. Though the Lord feeds, the Lord
provides all things for all people. He's so good. It's so good. Matthew 4. Now
go back to Matthew 4. What is it to follow the Lord? What is it to follow the Lord
Jesus Christ? Alright, let's see what it really
means. It's not for the miracles. It's not for miracle healing.
It's not for, you know, just giving Him thanks for everything.
Alright, here it is. Matthew 4. Verse 18, Jesus walked
by the sea of Galilee and saw two brethren, Simon called Peter,
Andrew his brother, Cassian and Ed, in the sea. They were fishers.
And he said unto them, now they did not see him, they were not
calling on him, were they? No. In fact, they didn't say
anything to him at this time. And he didn't ask them anything.
He commanded them. He saw them, and it says, He
called them. Follow Me. And I will. This is what I'm going to do.
I will make you fishers of men. Straightway. That means right
now. In a little bit, we're going
to see some that say, well, let me do this first. They immediately left their nets. It was their life. And followed
Jesus Christ. How long? The rest of their life. The rest of their life. So, what
does it mean to follow Christ? First of all, it's to be chosen. It's to be called by His grace. It's to hear His Word to you
personally, His voice, His truth, His gospel. And this is what
God uses, what the world calls preaching the gospel. This is
what He used, to call out His people. It's the gospel call.
And all hear it. Have they not all heard? Yea,
verily. But who will hear it? Who will follow Christ? The called
and the chosen. That's what it says in Revelation
17. Those that are with Him. And it says in chapter Chapter 19, there are followers
of the Lamb. Chapter 14. Chapter 17, it says
those that are with Him are called chosen and faithful. What does that mean? They stay
with Him. They never leave. They never quit following Him.
If you ever quit following Him, you never followed Him in the
first place. Right? He didn't hear His voice. He
didn't hear His voice. So it's the called, it's the
chosen, it's those who hear His voice, His Word, called by the
Word, called by the Gospel. I quote this verse, these verses
to you all the time. Why? Because it's God's Word
and because it's my salvation. We're bound to give thanks to
God always for you, resident of the Lord, beloved of the Lord. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you. You didn't choose God. If you're a follower of Jesus
Christ, you know you didn't choose to follow Him, don't you? Anybody that says differently,
he didn't call Him. We're going to see that in a
minute, what our Lord said to the disciples. God hath from
the beginning. From where? When? before the
foundation of the world, Ephesians 1. You talking about an election
preacher? Yes, I am. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful? I stand amazed at such amazing
grace that he would choose me and call me. If he hadn't, I
wouldn't have called on him. I wouldn't be following him right
now. I wouldn't be here. So this is where it began. He
chose you through sanctification of spirit. He made you to differ
from somebody in your family, maybe your husband, maybe your
wife, your son, your daughter, your father, your mother, your
neighbors. He chose you. Why are you sitting
there, sister? Teresa, I call her Mother Teresa.
Why are you sitting there, Teresa? I remember when you didn't come.
I remember when he called you. Well, there you sit. Aren't you
blessed? You didn't choose to do this,
did you? I didn't either. Blessed be God. And belief of
the truth. The truth. The true God. I've
already talked about the living and true God. The one that wounds
and heals. The one that kills and makes
alive. The one that does all these things.
The one that feeds and takes away. So our Lord came along, look
at chapter 4, Matthew verse 21. Going on from thence, now how
many boats, how many boats were in that harbor? You ever been
to a fishing village? I've been to many. And back then,
fishing was the livelihood of all these coastal towns. There
weren't two boats. Two ships in that harbor, Tom,
were there? No, no, there were hundreds. Everybody vying for
a spot. Like up in Maine, you go up there
anywhere, you see fishing villages, harbors are full of them. That's
their life. They've got to catch fish and
they've got to do it every day. Well, he passed by several and
came to another ship. Why'd he do that? Nobody deserved
to be chosen by Him. Nobody deserved to be called
by Him. Nobody on this earth deserved for the Son of God to
come down here and live all 33 years and die on a cross. Did
He? Nobody deserved it. But God,
rich in mercy and great love, didn't call just a few, but many.
In verse 21, He came and He saw James and John, His brother,
in a ship with their father, mending their nets. And he called
them. And what happened? No ifs, ands, buts about it.
John Davis, he's in Fairmont, he and Irene this morning, worshiping
with the church there. He and I love Psalm 71. It says,
Thou hast given commandment to save me. Almighty love, arrest
that man. Apprehend that man. He's one
of mine. That's what the Lord said about
Saul, and He named him Paul. That's what He said about this
Paul. Arrest that man. Lay hold of him. Wrestle with
that fellow. Go down there and lay hold of
that fellow, and bring him down on the ground and reveal yourself
to him. They left their ship, their nets,
and their father. Why? To follow Him. How long? The rest of their lives. They didn't go back fishing. They didn't renounce the faith.
What about their father? Did he believe? I don't know.
It didn't matter to them. They followed Him, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, they all heard the sovereign,
powerful, effectual call and command of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ of Scripture doesn't ask people to accept
Him. He comes and calls them by His
power and by His grace, and they follow Him. No doubt about it. No doubt about it. Alright, what
is it to follow Christ? Had to start there, didn't we?
With His call, with His choice. Matthew 8. Go back to Matthew
8. What is it to follow the Lord
Jesus Christ? It's to worship Him. Worship
Him. That's what this life is all
about. Worship. Look at Matthew 8. He came down
from the mountain, verse 1. Great multitudes followed him.
Behold, there came a leper and worshipped him. Worshipped him. Lots of people were there to
see the miracles and get their bellies filled and all that. They were out of curiosity because
the crowd was there. Well, here came a leper. He came to Christ. Evidently,
obviously, he wouldn't have come to Christ if he hadn't heard
of Him, wouldn't he? He wouldn't have called on him
whom he had not heard. He wouldn't have heard without
a preacher. So he heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's a
leper. He's dying. He has an illness,
a sickness that is killing him. His flesh is rotting. And that's
every single called, chosen sinner whom God saves. They realize
they are lepers. And it's God that makes them
realize that. This is offensive to the multitudes? No, we're
not that bad. Then He hasn't called you, and
you sure won't follow Him. Because only lepers follow Him
the rest of their life. Because they feel this loathsome
disease for the rest of their days. Yes, they do. When Solomon prayed that prayer
in 1 Kings 8, the dedication of the temple, he said, this
is for all those who know the plague of their own heart. We follow the healer of lepers,
the Savior of sinners. And we come to where He is, and
that's my next point. But we come to where He is because
it's where the balm of Gilead is. It's where the gospel is.
And we have to keep hearing it. We have to keep having the Spirit
of God apply this soothing balm of Gilead, this blessed gospel
that tells us about our sins are covered and gone and paid
for and cleansed. And tell me again, this man came
and worshipped Him. And here's what he said, verse
2. If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Isn't that what it says? Now
people, you know, you hear it today. They say if you will,
if you will, he can. That's another Jesus. Right? Another Jesus. And all
who follow that Jesus are going to perish. Because that's another
Jesus. That's another gospel. The gospel
makes a man a leper. Makes him realize he's a leper.
And calls him by his grace. And that person falls down at
the feet and worships the Lord Jesus Christ before he heals
them. Before they get any mercy, before they find out, they don't
know what He's going to do with them, but they worship Him. Do
you remember when you first heard the Gospel thinking, I can't
possibly be one of His own, but I sure believe this, I sure need
this? Do you remember that? I do. I remember thinking, I
believe this, I'm too sinful, I'm too leprous. It can't be
me. And here's what you know. If
He will. It's completely up to His will,
isn't it? He who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. Isn't it? Isn't it completely
up to His will, not man's will? So anyone who talks about free
will doesn't know him as following the wrong Jesus. Right? To follow Him is to bow to His
sovereign will, to realize it's all up to Him completely, up
to His will, if you will. He's able, but will He? Will He? So to follow Him is to worship
Him. Worship Him, the God of the Bible,
the Christ of Scripture, who worketh all things after His
will. Thirdly, to follow Jesus Christ is to follow Him. Follow Him. This sounds plain,
doesn't it? Look at Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well,
it is. When you follow Christ, you're
following Him. You're not following man. You're
not following mankind. You're not following the world.
You're not following anyone else. You're following Him. Right?
Hebrews 13. You need to commit this to memory.
Hebrews 13, verse 8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and
forever. Be not carried about with strange divers and strange
doctrine. It's the strange doctrine, people,
that has God wanting to do things and can't unless man lets Him.
That's strange God. People accuse us of having a
God that's strange. No, the God they believe in is
strange. The One who made the universe without asking anybody,
who just said by His power and by His Word, and it was done.
Let there be light and it was done. Let there be trees and
it was done. But He can't do anything unless
you let Him. That's a strange God. And it's not God at all. It's a strange doctrine. Verse 9 says, It's a good thing
to be established with grace. True grace. Everything is by
grace. A gift. Everything. Everything
is a gift. What do we have that we haven't received? Look down at verse 13. Let us
go forth therefore unto him Let's go to Him. This is the God of
the Bible. This is the Christ of Scripture.
This is the One who made the universe. This is the One whose
salvation is in His hand. Salvation is completely up to
Him. We're all going to be singing
that in glory unto Him. Him. It's all about Him. Where does salvation come from?
Him. Where does righteousness come from? Him. Where does the
truth come from? Him. Him. Him. Let's go forth unto Him
without the camp. Are you with me? Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, is not in modern
religion. Ichabod is over the door of modern
religion. The glory hath departed. And
here's how you know. Here's how you know. The true
test of any church is this. Who gets the glory? I mean all of it. From the call
to the gift of repentance, to the gift of faith, to being kept
by the power of God all your day, to the righteousness imputed,
to the blood that was shed, to the end of time, when He finally
calls you into His heaven, it's all of the Lord, salvation of
the Lord. He gets A-double-L, all the glory. Everything we
sing, everything we do, that's the test of the true church. We don't stand up here and acknowledge
people and this and that and the other. No, no. We're here
to acknowledge Him. To give Him all the glory. Go
forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. If you
follow this God, if you walk with this God, if you believe
this God, if you follow this Lord Jesus, if you believe this
Lord Jesus, The work does all things according to His will
because He will. And nobody lets Him do anything.
And nobody can thwart Him. Nobody can depose Him. Nobody
can do it, say anything about it. You will bear the reproach. You will bear the reproach. He
said, we don't like that. That's what they said to Him. Outside the camp. outside the
camp. That's where He is. Hebrews 12,
look across the page. Hebrews 12. You go to follow
Christ, you must go where He is. Okay? You must go where He
is. Revelation 14 says, Withersoever
they follow the Lamb, withersoever He went. Wherever you go. Well,
where is He? Look at Hebrews 12. Look at verse 22. We are come
to Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, to heavenly
Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.
Their names are written in the Lamb's book of life. When? Before
the world began. To the God, God the judge of
all, the spirits of just men, justified men. How are they justified? By Him. made perfect, to Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant, the blood of sprinkling, and
on and on it goes. Where is Christ? He's in His
church. I was going to go to Psalm of
Solomon. The bride, the beloved said,
where is my beloved? And they said, he's in his garden.
She kept looking for him. He's feeding among the lilies.
That's where you'll find him. And he even said to her in chapter
5, Come, my beloved, my sister, my spouse. I've prepared my wine
and so on and so forth. Come into my garden. He's in
his church. He's with his church. Those who
say, I don't have to go to church. to worship God, clearly revealed
He didn't call them. They're not following Him. Whithersoever
He goeth, where is He? What did Christ say? There are
two or three gathered by now in the congregation. David said,
oh, it's an amiable tabernacle. He said, that's where I want
to be. I'd rather be a doorkeeper there. Why? Because that's where
God is. That's where Christ is. In the sanctuary. Are you with
me? Are you still with me? I worked
a long time on this. Can you just hang on a little
bit? Are you a follower? Do you go to church because you're
supposed to go to church? Well, you come here. That's where
Christ is promised to be. It's where His bride is. You
love Him, you love His bride, don't you? Yes, you do. He's
always with His people. He was always with His people.
He was always with his disciples, always. He wanted to find Christ. There was a woman one time looking
for him and somebody said, he was in that house. Who else was
there? His disciples. They couldn't
stay away. They were always together. It's
a marriage. You fall in love with one another.
And you live with one another. No, you abide with one another.
What does that mean? You abide with Christ. You abide
with His people. If it's a real marriage, it will
never end. Right? If it's real love, it
won't end. My wife, by the grace of God,
is still with me. Faithful. We fell in love. And she's been with me for 40...
1979, 46 years. Some of you a long time,
longer than that. Why? Love. It's marriage to a
one. You're not going anywhere. It's
real love, isn't it? You're not going anywhere. It's
a union. Alright? As long as the two are
still living, if you go over to the Sheisley's house to look
for John, who are you going to find there? Earlene. Or if you're looking for Earlene,
and go over to that house on Riverview, Riverside, Riverview. You're looking for Earlene Sheasley,
you know who you'll find there? John! I don't have to go to church.
Yes, you do. If you're looking for Jesus Christ,
you do. I ain't going down there." Then
you're not going to hear from him. Somebody one time said to a fellow,
I'm not going down there with all those hypocrites. And he
said, well come on, one more won't hurt anything. Now this is life. If Christ is
your life, it's church, it's people, it's worship, it's not
part of your life, but somebody says, Family first, Jesus. I don't know him. Christ is a big part of my life.
I don't know him. It meant a big part of my life. She's the one. I can't go a day
without thinking about her and vice versa. Isn't that right?
That's marriage. And that's this relationship
of a believer in Jesus Christ. You understand? Sure you do. Where he is. All right, to follow
him, look at Matthew 8. Look here. And I'm almost done. I wish I could preach till midnight
and you'd pay attention. But I won't. Matthew 8. Matthew
8, to follow Him is to go through troubles and trials. Because our Lord said you must,
through much tribulation, enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He did,
didn't He? When He came down here to save
us, He was tempted at all points, like as we are, yet without sin.
He came out of this world of trouble and troubled Himself.
put himself through a great deal of trouble. Why? Because we're
in trouble. To get us out of trouble, he had to go through
trouble. In a world of sin, he had to
come down here and be made to sin. And take our sins in his
body, on the tree, to put away our sins by the sacrifice of
himself. A whole life. Him coming to this
earth is like us living in a septic tank for 33 years. I'm telling you the truth. For
His holy, spotless, sinless, pure mind and heart and life
to come to this, Scripture calls it this present evil world. Our Lord called it adulterous
generation. It's for like us to live in a
septic tank for 33 years. And that's not even telling it
like it is. And He did. And we're going to
go through troubles and trials. Verse 23. Matthew 8, verse 23. When He was entered into a ship,
His disciples followed Him. Where are you going? They didn't
know where He was going for one minute than they did. They didn't
need to. They just needed to trust Him. He's leading them. See? Who's leading who? He's
leading them. They're following. Where did
He take them? Behold, there arose a great tempest
in the sea, and the ship was covered with waves. You ever read that psalm that
says, All thy waves and all those billows are going over me? Oh,
they went down into the sea with Him in deep waters. Listen to this. Don't you love
this? You know these verses. It says
that those that go down to the sea in ships, those that are
in the ark with Christ, those that have Christ in them and
they're in Christ, they're going to do business. They're going
to do business in great waters, deep waters, fiery trials, troubles. No, no, no. When you start following
Christ, your troubles in this world are not over. They have
just begun. You're going to realize troubles
you've never had before. You didn't have trouble before.
You will now. Your trouble with God is over. When Christ comes and calls you,
the first thing He's going to say when He really speaks to
you by the gospel is, your sins are forgiven. And now. Now He put away that trouble
that will never plague you, and everything else is for your good. Nothing else is punishment. Nothing
else is out to get you. Oh no, He's out to do you good.
He's going to send you through trials. He's going to test this
faith. He's going to reveal to you that
His Word is true, that He is true, and the faith He's given
you is real. It'll make you trust Him and
no one else. It'll make you follow Him and nobody else. When you're at your wit's end,
when you're about to drown in sorrow and trouble and sin and
sickness, then and then only. It says,
these that go down to the sea and great waters, they see the
works of the Lord. His wonder in the deep. Deep
trials. He's the one that sends them. He commands and raises
the stormy wind and lifts up the waves thereof. He's the one
that does it. He's the one that kills. He's the one that takes
away. Right, Job? They go down. They mount up to
the heavens and they come crashing down. Their soul melts because
of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger,
one right after the other, trouble after the other. And at their
wits end, then they cry. Who are they calling on? Who
are they going to call on? Who's their help? They call unto
the Lord and they're troubled. And what happens? He brings a
man. He makes the storm calm. And the waves are still. And they're so glad. And they
be quiet. So He took them through this
storm. And all God's people go, if you follow Christ, you're
going to go through great trials. And he said in Isaiah 43, when
you go through the deep waters, I'll be with you. Didn't he? Where was he when they were going
through his trial? He was in the ship. He was in
the hindership part of the ship. I've shown you before that the
captain's quarter, the poop deck is right back there. That's where
the helm is. Charles Westwood. That's where
the rudder is. Who's controlling this ship?
The captain of our salvation. What's he doing? Sleeping. Resting. He's our rest. As I've said before, you know
what they should have done? They, you know, went and woke
him up. Oh, don't you care? And we do it all the time, don't
we? Care? This is why he put you through
this. He doesn't put the world through it, he doesn't care about
that. He cares for you so much that
he's not going to see the world overcome you and take you and
you'll be taken up with it so that it's your life. No, no,
he's going to take it away from you. That's how much he cares.
He cares so much for you, he loves you so much, he's going
to take these things away from you if they get a hold of you. That's how much He cares. They should have just crawled
back there and said, Lord, like Ruth, let me at Your feet. I'll just lay down right here
until You finish this thing. And we'll all go down together. It's to go where He is. It's
to go through trials. It's to leave all. We saw there,
look down at Matthew 8, verse 21. You remember the disciples left
their father? Another of his disciples, verse
21, said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. And
our Lord said unto him, follow me. Let the dead bury the dead. Didn't it? Don't follow the dead or you'll
end up where they are. Don't follow the blind. you end
up in the ditch. Don't follow the world, it's
perishing. Don't follow fools who say there's
no God, you'll end up perishing. Follow Him. Follow Him. And to follow Him is to leave
all Leave all. In the next chapter, Matthew
was sitting there at his receipt of custom, all his riches and
his money. He'd lived his whole life for
making money. Money was his money man. That
was his occupation. And when our Lord came by, he
said two words, follow me. You know what Matthew did? Followed
him. Dropped his riches. No longer
pursuing money. Oh, no, no. You can't follow
God and mammon. You're not out to make money.
You've got to make money to make your payments right. But that's
not what you're after. You're after true riches. That's
right. To follow Christ, to leave all. One time he said in Matthew 10,
he said, if it's me you're after, you're going to have to deny
yourself. It's to deny yourself. It's to
deny your self-worth. It's to deny your self-righteousness. It's to deny your ability. It's to deny your will, your
wants, your desires, your ambitions. Deny all that and follow Him. Say, what will you have me to do? To follow Christ is to deny
family. This is the greatest test of
all, and it's the sure test, and the Lord's going to test
everybody. And this is the one. This is the one. This is the
one that puts everybody to the real test. It just is. Our Lord said, If you love father
or mother, husband or wife, son or daughter more than me, you're
not my son. And if they don't believe me, and if they leave
me, and if they won't follow me, and you follow them, You don't
love me. Isn't that what he said? That's
right. Pilgrim and Pilgrim's Progress
told you this story. The Lord came to him and put
a burden on his back because he had a book in his hand and
a burden on his back. And he had this one great desire
to get this burden of sin off his back. And the evangelist
told him, you go through that wicked gate, that straight and
that narrow gate, you go. Whether anybody goes or not,
you go. And keep your eyes straight on. You look and you'll see a
cross and a man hanging on that cross. If you want that burden
off your back, look to that one hanging on that cross and your
burden will fall. And he did. Because he had a
burden of sin. He had a book in his hand. He
believed what God said. He believed what the man preached
to him. He believed he needed Christ.
And he had his eyes straight on Christ. He wasn't looking
to the right or looking to the left. And his wife, his children,
his neighbors, and everybody said, you're a fool. Don't go,
honey. We don't believe that. We don't
believe that. Surely God's not that way. He put his fingers
in his ears. And he looked straight ahead
to Christ on the cross and said, Life! Life! Eternal life. I'm gone. And he did. Where is he now? Worshipping
the Lamb. Where are they? Well, you know,
bless God, his wife, after he was gone, Ended up with the same burden
on their back. The same call. And a couple of
their children went with her. They used to leave everybody. You're going to lose them anyway. You're going to lose them anyway. To walk with Christ, to follow
Christ is to walk with Christ, not the world. It's to leave
everyone and everything to follow Christ. Oh, we're in the world,
but we're not following them. We're in the world, but we're
not after the world. We're in the world, we don't believe the
world. We're in the world, you may go to school and, you know,
a student in school, we're disciples of Christ. You have to study
these books and you have to give your answer. That's not what
you believe. This is not what you believe.
I mean, these textbooks and all that. You believe His book, His
truth. You follow Him. To follow Him
is to walk with Him, not the world. To follow Him is to walk
like Him. To follow His example. If you
really love Him, you want to be just like Him. You hate yourself. You loathe yourself. And you
want to be made conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. You
want this old fellow dead. Don't you? And you believe he
was crucified on that cross. John said, He that saith he abideth
in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. And true
lovers, true followers of Christ, they admire him, they want to
walk like him in faith, in love, walking paths of righteousness
for His name's sake, meekness, loneliness, humility. He went
about doing good. I do too. I'm tired of it. A servant. What is it to follow Christ?
John 6. Go read it. I'm out of time. And our Lord said many things
about His sovereign self, about man, about salvation. He said,
except you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no part in
Me. If I'm not your life, your food and your drink, if I'm not
your all, you have no part in Me. That's what He said. And
you know, after He finished saying, He said, no man can come unto
Me except God. And there were multitudes following
him and they said, this is too hard, this is too narrow, this
is too, that cost, they counted the cost and this cost too much. I got to forsake everybody. And
it says, many went back and walked no more. They quit following
him. Many. And I've seen it, and I'll see
it again. People count this cost. Christ
is not worth my family. I need a job and a good house,
and I need money and all that. I'm not going to scrape and skimp.
I'm going to go where the money is. No gospel there, but I'm
going to go where the money is. Christ is not worth dealing with
that. He's not worth it. How about you? What's he worth to you? He's either all or he's nothing
at all. Right? And though he takes everything
from you, like Job, and he's going to, as a test, as a trial. And you know what you're going
to say? If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you're going
to say, the Lord gave it and the Lord take it away. Bless
his holy name. mess is over now. Okay. That's saying a closing here.