Now, we've seen here in our study
that last week our Lord three times asked Peter, do you love
me? Three times Peter said, Lord,
you know all things. You know that I love you. And
then after that, three times the Lord told Peter, you feed
my sheep. And we saw that feeding God's sheep and a love for Christ
go hand in hand. You cannot separate love for
Christ and feeding His sheep. You can't feed the sheep unless
you love Christ. And now as this conversation
goes on, the Lord tells Peter, and He's telling each of us,
you follow Christ. That's the title of the message
this morning. You follow Christ. And we're going to see this,
that love for Christ and following Christ Go hand in hand too, just
like love for Christ and feeding his sheep go hand in hand. You
can't separate love for Christ and following Christ. If you
follow Christ, you're gonna have to love him because the road
won't be easy. The road will be hard. You'll
face many difficult, painful situations if you follow Christ. But if you love him, you'll follow
him. No matter where it is he leads, if you love him, you'll
follow him. Let's look and see if we can't
learn something here. Beginning in verse 18. Our Lord
tells Peter, verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast
young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest.
For thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and
another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest
not. Despite he signifying by what
death he should glorify God, and when he has spoken this,
he saith unto him, follow me. Now Peter, the Lord tells Peter,
when you were young, you pretty much did what you wanted. You
went where you wanted, you did what you wanted. Well, we think
that when we're young. And pretty much, by God's grace,
pretty much that's true. When we're young and in the strength
of life, we pretty much go where we want, do what we want, you
know. But young people, that won't last long. Sooner or later,
the flesh is gonna fail and we'll find ourselves in situations
we don't want to be in. times of sickness, times your
body just started falling apart, you know, your memory loss, you
end up in a nursing home and eventually on your deathbed,
places none of us would rather be. And more than likely, none
of us are going to be like Peter and be crucified, but we will
find ourselves in situations the flesh does not want to be
in because the flesh is going to fail. But our Savior is telling
Peter something more meaningful than that. Peter had been given
a new nature. He'd been given a new heart and
he loves Christ. He truly loves Christ and he
is going to go feed God's sheep. We're still being fed from Peter's
writings today, aren't we? Divinely inspired, but we're
still being fed by Peter today. For some time, I don't know how
old Peter is at this time. Some people think that he was
one of the older ones of the apostles. But for whatever time
he's got left, Peter's going to go about this business of
preaching. And he's going to be doing what he wants to do.
This is what Peter wants to do. He's been given this desire to
feed God's sheep, and he's going to go do it. He's going to do
what the Lord's commanded him to do, and nobody's going to
stop him from doing it until he's an old man. Nobody's going
to be able to stop Peter from doing the Lord's business until
the Lord calls him home. And the Lord's given Peter an
indication that he'll live to be old. But when Peter's old,
he'll be crucified. That's what the Lord means here. And legend has it that Peter
was crucified upside down by his own choice. He didn't feel
worthy to suffer and die the same way the Savior did. Legend
has it he was crucified upside down. I don't know whether that's
true or not, but this is true. Peter was willing to suffer for
Christ's sake. He was willing to do it because
he loved Christ. But no matter how much Peter
loved Christ, his flesh was not willing. His flesh was just not
a willing participant. His flesh was opposed to this,
just like any of us would be. I read a story about a martyr
who was about to be burned at the stake. And there was a man
staking him down, you know, tying him to the post or wherever they
did it. And he told that man, do a good job, tie it tight because
the flesh is going to have its way. The flesh is going to be
opposed to this business, even though I'm willing to suffer
for Christ's sake. Look over a few pages of Acts
chapter five. The flesh is opposed to this,
but the new man is glad to be counted worthy to suffer for
Christ's sake. Acts 5 verse 41, And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name. And daily in the temple and every
house they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. They
counted it an honor to suffer for his name. But you notice
the scripture doesn't just tell us, Peter, when you get old,
you're gonna be crucified, that's how you're gonna die. Scripture
says this signifying by what death Peter should glorify God. Now every believer wants to live
a life that glorifies God. If you know Christ, you want
to live a life that glorifies him. But you know, our death,
in whatever way God ordains, will glorify our Savior. Somehow,
someway, he will ordain the death of his children to glorify him.
Samson's a good example. Samson killed more enemies of
God in his death than he did in his whole life put together.
His death glorified God. Maybe we'll glorify God by keeping
the faith firm until the end. Our sister Ruby Thompson, Lord
called her home this week. Her death glorified the Savior. She kept the faith firm to the
end. Even in death, a believer will glorify our Savior. And
I have to tell you, I'm glad that I'm not like Peter. I'm
glad the Lord has not told me, given me any indication of when
or how my life will end. It's easier for me to concentrate
on what the Lord's given me to do without that knowledge. So
I'm thankful that I'm not in Peter's shoes there. I'm 50 years
old. I don't have any idea whether
I'm gonna live to see 51 or not. So I tell you what, I'm determined
to use each one of those days as a precious day, following
our Savior, doing what it is He's given me to do. I may be
like our sister Norma and live to be 100. I may just be halfway
through my race. Well, I don't want to waste those
next 50 years serving my flesh. I want to use those days serving
the Lord and following Him. And none of us know when we're
going to die like Peter did, but we are like Peter in this
regard. We're going to be immortal until God calls us home. Until
God's time, our days are already appointed to the Lord. And we're
immortal until that time that the Lord calls us home. Well,
then we do well to spend those days, how much ever time it is
the Lord's given us, following Christ. Because this is not just
the Lord's commandment to Peter. This is His commandment to all
of His people. You follow me. And I like that. I like this
commandment of our Savior. It's so simple. Even I can understand
this. Follow me. I don't have to make
too many decisions. I don't have to decide what to
do, how to do it. Just follow Christ. Just follow Him. But
you know the flesh. can mess up anything. Flesh could
tear up a tank with a BB gun. Look at verse 20. This simple
command, Peter, follow me. Then Peter, turning about, seeth
a disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast
at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter,
seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do? Now it
seems like this conversation between the Lord and Peter is
taking place on a private walk. The Lord's called Peter away
from the fire. They're walking and talking.
And it was very interesting to me. John was never told, come
on this walk. But John was following. John
is the disciple whom Jesus loved. And he is a loving disciple,
the disciple who loved the Lord. You see how love and following
Christ are just inseparable. John loved the Savior and he
was following. He wanted to hear this conversation.
He wanted to follow. He wanted to hear every word
that he could hear from the master's lips. And if the Lord ever reveals
himself to you, you'll love him and you'll follow him. You won't
be able to help him. Just like John. Well, as soon as the Lord
told Peter, Peter, you follow me. What did Peter do? I mean, immediately, he took
his eyes off Christ and looked over here at John. Immediately. What's this man going to do?
Now, Peter didn't argue with the Lord about suffering and
even dying for his sake, did he? Peter didn't argue with the
Lord about that. Peter did not argue with the Lord about making
sacrifices for the cause of Christ and for the good of the church.
He's willing to do that. He didn't argue with the Lord
about that at all. But I tell you what he's saying,
I'm willing. But Lord, am I the only one that
has to do this? Am I the only one that has to
make sacrifices to go feed your sheep? Am I the only one that
has to suffer for your namesake? Will I be the only one martyred
for your namesake? As it turns out, all the apostles
except for John were martyred. John died alone, he was exiled. They didn't kill him, but they
exiled him to this island where nobody could see him and he couldn't
affect anybody anymore. Now some of the writers suggest
that Peter's asking this question, what should this man do out of
concern and love for his brother John? Well, I think it's sweet
that they want to give Peter that much credit, but seldom
is that the case with this flesh. And the way our Lord answers
Peter indicates to us, this question was not asked out of love and
worry for John. It was worried about what's gonna
happen to him. Am I the only one? Look at our Lord's answer,
verse 22. Jesus saith unto him, if I will
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou
me. Peter, no matter what, you follow
me. Peter asked the Lord, what will
this man do? And basically, what our Lord told Peter is, Peter,
this is none of your business. It's just none of your business.
What the Lord does with one servant is really not the business of
another servant. What the Lord does with one servant
really isn't impacting what he's doing with another one of his
servants. What's the job of a servant? To be faithful. The job of a
servant is to be faithful in doing whatever work it is the
master's given you. Knowing what the master's doing
in the rest of his kingdom and what's going on in the rest of
his kingdom is beyond our pay grade. Just stick to what the
Lord's given you to do, what the master's given you to do.
Now, when I say that, don't be mistaken. I do care deeply about
our brethren, what happens to them in other places. I pray
that the Lord be pleased to bless his word everywhere that it's
preached. But what other servants are doing and what the Lord's
doing with his other servants in other places is none of my
business. My business is to preach the
gospel in Ashland, Kentucky. My business is to glorify God
and feed God's sheep in Ashland, Kentucky. That's my business. And that business, what the Lord's
given me to do, is unaffected by what he's doing with his servants
in other places. Now, that doesn't mean that we're not supposed
to care what the Lord's doing, or we're not even supposed to
know what the Lord's doing with our brethren. We should be willing
to weep with those that weep, rejoice with those that rejoice,
have these times that we have, fellowship with each other. We've
got to be willing to serve one another, but not control one
another. Now, I'm just speaking to us
here. I'm not talking about other congregations. I'm just talking
about us. I'm not real big on giving you advice on how to run
your life. Now, I'll tell you what God's Word says. By His
grace and He gives me the ability, I'll tell you what God's Word
says. But I have no interest in running your life. None whatsoever.
I got a full-time job running my own. It's all I can handle.
So I'm just not interested in running your affairs. I have
no interest. As a matter of fact, I make sure.
I've got no idea what anybody gives in offering. I've just
got no idea. You know, usually when somebody
wants to know that, they want to know so they can, you know,
encourage people to give more. I've got no interest in that.
You give what the Lord's laid on your heart to give, and the
Lord will supply the need. I meant to say this last week,
and I skipped it, but let me just tell you this. Since I've been pastor, we had
three special meetings. And never one time have I mentioned,
you know, we got this meeting, we got extra cost or whatever.
Never have mentioned it. All three of those times, we
had to, and we did have extra cost of things. The month that
we had those extra meetings, every time, the bank balance
at the end of the month was more than what it was at the beginning.
Y'all outgave the expenses. I don't have to tell you what
to give. You give what the Lord lays in your heart. See what
I'm saying? I've got no interest in controlling who takes the
Lord's table. I'd usually just try to keep
my head down. I don't even want to know who's taking the Lord's
table, because that's none of my business. Let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat. The Lord's table's not mine,
it's his. It's between you and the Lord. Examine yourself. You've
got faith in him, you eat the table. I've got no interest in
knowing where people are going and what they're doing. And so
I can try to, you know, control it, make it better. Oh, the Lord
leads you. You follow the Lord. No matter
what it is, the Lord's doing with his other people. You follow
Christ. Someone may be in a time of deep
trouble and trial. You know, we get in those times,
we may be like our brother Job saying, do things while not do.
That might be the case, but if it is, you follow Christ. The Lord made an extraordinary
way, blessed one of our brethren. Well, that really doesn't impact
you any. You follow Christ, see that? Look at verse 23. No matter what it is, Lord's
doing to the other people, you follow him. Then went this saying
abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die.
Yet Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die. But if I will
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? And the Lord
didn't say John was gonna live till Christ returns, but if he
willed it, it would happen, wouldn't it? But even if he did will it,
what business of that is mine? None. No matter what the Lord
does with the Apostle John, Frank, you follow Christ. That's the
Lord's commandment to me. And no matter what it is that
the Lord's doing in some other congregation, it has no impact
on us in this way. You follow Christ. Now, you know,
if it's a time of sorrow, we sorrow with them. If it's a time
of joy, we enjoy with them, but it's not gonna change what we
do, because our business is to preach Christ here in Ashland.
No matter what happens, you follow Christ and you keep following
him. Verse 24, this is the disciple which testifieth of these things
and wrote these things, wrote this book of the gospel of John.
And we know that his testimony is true. Now here's the reason
we follow Christ. He is truth. His word is true. There's no mistakes in it. Every
word of it is absolute truth. His way is true. His salvation
is true. Salvation in Christ is true to
the character of God, both his justice and his mercy, both his
holiness and his love and pity for his people. His promises
are true. Every promise he's made his people
is true. He'd bring it to pass. So we
follow him. In verse 25, there are also many
other things which Jesus did. to which if they should be written
everyone, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain
the books that should be written. Now, I don't know everything
there is to know about God, nobody does, but God has revealed enough
of himself in his word for me to trust Christ, for me to love
Christ, and me to follow Christ. He's revealed everything that
I need to know to trust Christ, to love Christ, and to follow
Him. So follow Him no matter what. It constantly amuses me,
people who, they find these ancient writings, you know, and say,
you know, there's other writings that should have been in Scripture,
but they were excluded. There's so many other amazing
miracles, you know, the Lord did, and people should know about
all those miracles. Let me tell you something that's
absolutely certain. There is not one word of God,
not one, not one divinely inspired word of God that has been left
out of this book. Not one, not a single one. And people get so caught up in
that. But I promise you, we have all
of the word of God to his people. We're not missing any divinely
inspired writings. If we were, you know what that'd
mean? God failed to get his message out to his people, and God doesn't
fail. But this just shows you the depravity
of human nature. People spend years, I see this
on the History Channel, it just amazes me. People have spent
years studying writings that were supposed to come from some
of the other apostles. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't,
I don't know. But they say, well, we gotta study these things,
because they are supposed to be in the canon of scripture if
they're left out. Even writings that were supposed to have been
written by Judas Iscariot, they spend all this time studying. And they know it. I mean, buddy,
they know it frontwards and backwards. They've spent years with it.
But now let me ask you, who cares what Judas Iscariot wrote? I
mean, who cares? My goodness. And the sad thing
is that they haven't studied God's word like that. They haven't
studied what we know is God's divinely inspired word, but boy,
they want to know what Judas Iscariot's is. Well, there are
many other things the Lord did. John tells us plainly many things
that the Lord Jesus did that were not recorded, but that's
all right. That's all right. We don't have
to satisfy our curiosity about those things. There's more than
enough recorded for us to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If you don't believe on Christ, I want you to answer
this question. Why not? God's given you everything
you need. It's been preached to you to
believe on the name of Christ. Look back in chapter 20, verse
30. Many other signs truly did Jesus
in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this
book. But these are written, why? That you might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. And that believing, you
might have life through his name. God has given us several lifetimes
worth of material in this book. This is the second time that
I've talked through John's gospel. And it amazes me how much more
I've learned in this time. Why didn't I see that before?
God's given us plenty, plenty to fill up this lifetime in his
word to learn of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't worry about what
the Lord has not been pleased to put in his book. Just concern
yourself with what he has. It's enough. It's enough to give
us life in Christ. This is sufficient for us to
know Christ. to love Christ, and the subject
this morning is to follow Christ. He's given us plenty so that
we follow Christ. Well, I want to ask you this
question and answer it from scripture. What is it to follow Christ?
The Lord said, follow me. All right, what is it to follow
Christ? Well, look in Luke chapter nine. Here's the first thing
I know. Following Christ starts with
Christ calling us. Following Christ is not something
that we can just make our own decision to do and do it. Following
Christ starts and can only be done by Him calling us first. In Luke 9, verse 57, And it came to pass that as they
went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, he just
comes up to him and starts this conversation. Lord, I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, foxes
have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man
hath not where to lay his head. Lord seems to be telling him,
no, you won't. You're not going to follow me in the places where
I go. I don't go to comfortable places. I'm not going to, you
know, the things, places where this world would like to go to.
See, the Lord is telling him, no, you won't. You made this
decision to follow me, but no, you won't. But look at verse
59. And he said unto another, follow
me. And he said, Lord, suffer me
first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, let the
dead bury their dead, but go thou, you go and preach the kingdom
of God. And that's exactly what he did.
He kind of thought like there was something else he wanted
to do, but when the Lord said, follow me, what'd he do? He followed
Christ. Now look at verse 61. Then another
also said, Lord, I will follow thee. But let me first go bid
them farewell, which are at home at my house. Jesus said unto
him, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back
is fit for the kingdom of God. See, the Lord didn't call this
man. This was his idea. Lord, I'll follow you too. And
this guy's going to turn back forever. Got started. Now that's
not following Christ. You don't follow him and turn
back and go back and forth. Following Christ is a constant
thing. There's no turning back. And it begins with the Lord calling
us. The Lord in John 10 said, my
sheep hear my voice. He calls them, calls them by
name. And what do they do because he
calls them? They follow me. When they hear his voice, they
follow. We follow because Christ calls
us. Second, look at Matthew chapter
four. Following Christ means that we leave all other ways,
all other means, all other hopes of salvation, and we follow Christ. We put all of our hope on him.
Matthew four, verse 19. Well, look at verse 18. 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 and I'll make you fishers of men. And straightway they
left their nets and followed him. They followed him. In verse 21, and going on from
thence, he saw two other brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and
John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending
their nets. And he called them, and they immediately left the
ship and their father and followed him. See, following Christ begins
with that irresistible call of Christ himself. He walked by
those boats and saw those men and said, follow me. I'm going
to show you a new way of life. Not fishing in these seas, but
I'm going to make you fishers of men. Now, if we're going to
follow Christ, we've got to leave every other way of supporting
ourselves, we've got to leave it behind and follow Christ. Now, I'm not saying leave all
your earthly possessions and take a vow of poverty, not at
all. But I'll tell you what, when
we follow Christ, all those other earthly things now take a back
seat because there's a new master in town. We're going to follow
Christ. He is more important. But if we're to follow Christ,
we will leave all other ways of salvation. Whatever false
religion it is we've been in, we're gonna leave it behind.
We're gonna leave behind every way of saving ourselves, every
way of feeding ourselves by fishing our own self, and we're gonna
follow Christ. That's what we do. We have to
leave every other means, every other hope of salvation and follow
him. Look over a few pages at Matthew
chapter nine. Thirdly, following Christ means
leaving behind our old way of life and following Christ. In Matthew 9 verse 9, as Jesus
passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting
at the receipt of custom, and he saith unto him, follow me. Now you think about this guy,
I mean he's a publican, and you know what a publican does, he
collected He's a Jew, collected taxes for Rome, and he overcharged
people and took a cut for himself. Well, there's this fella. I mean,
I'm sure he's rich. He's got lots of money. I mean,
he's got a powerful position and he's sitting there, you know,
and all his stuff, all of his money gathered around him. And
this homeless man comes up to him and says, follow me. And
what did he do? He arose and followed him. He
just got up. Luke said he left all and followed
Christ. That's the irresistible call
of Christ. It began with the Lord's call
to Matthew and Matthew followed Christ. And when we're born again,
that old man is still there. You know, we talk about Matthew
being a publican, you know, that's a, what a shameful thing. Our old man makes Matthew, the
publican, look like a saint. I mean, vile, wretched, sinful
men that we are by nature. Christ comes and causes. Causes
us to be born again. Now, like I said, that old man,
he just, he's still there. He's unchanged, just as strong
and vile as he ever was. But there's a new master. The
Lord's come on the scene. And we forsake that old way of
life and we follow Christ. Now, this following is not going
to be perfect. Or like Peter, we're going to
get our eyes off the master and we'll stray from time to time.
But a believer, the general tenor of his life, he's following Christ. He'll go after Christ. Fourth,
following Christ means this. Look at Matthew chapter 16. Following
Christ means taking up the gospel of Christ. Following Christ means
preaching the gospel of Christ. It means identifying ourselves
with the gospel. It means supporting the gospel
in every way openly following Christ and his gospel. 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. Now, this doesn't mean you're
supposed to take up a piece of wood, you know, shaped like a
cross and carry it around. It means take up the gospel of
Christ. The cross is what Christ accomplished
on the cross. That's the preaching of the gospel.
What did Christ accomplish on the cross? Taking up the cross
means taking up the confession what the cross says about me.
What does the cross say about me? Tell you what it says. The cross says I am so sinful. I'm so filled with sin. I'm so
depraved with sin that the only way God could save someone as
awful as me is by sacrificing his son as my substitute. That's
what the cross says about me. Taking up the cross is taking
up the confession that I'm so depraved I don't deserve mercy
and I can't do anything to deserve mercy. The only way God could
be merciful to someone as vile as me is Christ earning it for
me by dying the death that I deserve, by bearing all the curse of my
sin away. That's the only way God could
be merciful to someone like me. Taking up the cross also means
taking up the offense of the cross. If your confession is what I
just said, that's true about yourself and about all men, persecution
is going to come with that confession because that's opposed to the
flesh, that's opposed to the way of the world. But following
Christ, we know the truth of that. We've seen by faith salvation
in Him. Well, nothing will sway me from
that. No amount of persecution, no amount of dislike, nothing
will sway me from that because I see Christ as all my salvation.
I'm following Him. I'm confessing who He is and
what He's done for me. Fifth, following Christ means
denying our flesh and following Christ. He goes on here in Matthew
9 verse 25. 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 and lose his own soul? For what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? If we're going
to follow Christ, we must deny self. That's what the Lord says
in verse 24, let him deny himself. We've got to deny self. We've
got to deny self-righteousness. We've got to deny self-interest.
We've got to deny self-glory. We've got to deny self-credit.
If we're going to follow Christ, we've got to do away with self-promotion.
We've got to do away with self-respect. There's nothing about us to respect.
We must be found following Christ, begging him for mercy. Six, look
in Luke chapter 18. Following Christ means giving
Christ all the credit and all the glory for salvation. Luke 18, verse 35. And it came to pass that as he
was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside,
begging. And hearing the multitude pass
by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus
of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. They which went before
rebuked him that he should hold his peace, but he cried so much
the more. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. And Jesus stood still. I love
that verse. The cry of a needy sinner caused
the Lord of glory to stand still. Jesus stood and commanded him
to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he
asked him saying, what wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And
he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto
him, receive thy sight. Thy faith has saved thee. And
immediately he received his sight and he followed him, glorifying
God. And all the people, when they
saw it, gave praise unto God. He couldn't follow Christ saying,
my faith saved me. He couldn't follow Christ saying,
it was my call that made the master stand still. He couldn't
follow Christ saying, well, there are all these other blind people,
but he didn't heal them because I was the only one that cried
to him. No. He couldn't follow Christ that way, could he? He
followed Christ, glorifying God. He glorified God by saying, I
was sitting there blind. Couldn't help myself. God came
where I was. He revealed himself to me. He
made me cry. He gave me faith. and he healed
me. Following Christ, if we're gonna
follow Christ, we confess, I didn't do anything to deserve eternal
life. I was dead, I couldn't do anything to deserve eternal
life. Christ gave me life out of his free grace. Following
Christ is confessing, I didn't do anything to have my sin forgiven.
How can a sinner do anything to deserve forgiveness? All we
can do is deserve wrath. Christ just forgave me. and washed
me in his blood. Christ saved me by himself, by
his power, by his grace, by his sacrifice, by his righteousness.
And following Christ is confessing, I can't do anything to keep myself
saved either. Christ keeps me saved by the power of his grace.
I didn't do anything. I didn't find Christ. And you
know, people ask, would you find Jesus? Well, the question is,
did he find you? I didn't find Christ and start
following him. He found me. He revealed himself to me and
called me. So I follow him. Following Christ
is giving him all the credit for salvation. And last, look
at Numbers chapter 14. Following Christ is following
a person. Following Christ is not following
a set of doctrines. Following Christ is following
the person of Christ. Now this is pretty simple, but
that's best normally. If you're going to follow someone,
don't you have to look at them? You can't look at things about
them. You can't look at other people that are following them.
You've got to look at him, at who you're following. It's like
follow the leader. You know how I could have every
of every child completely fastened on me. You know how I could do
that? By saying, let's play follow the leader. And if we play follow
the leader, everyone who's playing is going to have to look at me.
And they can't take their eyes off of me. Because if they take
their eyes off of me, we're playing follow the leader, they don't
know to wave the right hand in the air if they don't look at
me and see me doing it. They don't know to walk like
this. If they take their eyes off me, they don't see me walking
like this. What is it to follow Christ? It's to look, to look
to a person and never take your eyes off of him. Following Christ
is following, looking to him and it's believing on him and
acting in faith. And look at Numbers chapter 14
verse 22. This is after Moses has sent
those spies into the land and they came back with a bad report. Because all those men which have
seen my glory, these men, they saw all the miracles in Egypt. They saw the parting of the Red
Sea. They've seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt
and in the wilderness. and have tempted me now these
10 times and have not hearkened to my voice. Surely they shall
not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall
any of them that provoked me see it. But my servant Caleb,
Caleb came back and said, we can take this land. Yeah, there's
giants there, but God gave it to us. We didn't just walk in,
boys, let's just walk in and take it. God gave it to us. My
servant Caleb, because he had another spirit within him, hath
followed me fully. How do we know Caleb followed
the Lord fully? He believed the Lord, and in faith, he acted
on it. Caleb's message was, we can take
the land. How did he know that? He was following Christ, and
he acted on that faith. He hath followed me fully. Him
will I bring into the land whereunto he went, and his seed shall possess
it. I pray God will make us like
Caleb. that will follow Christ fully. And if we're following
Christ fully, we're looking to Him. Looking to Christ is looking
to Christ as your only Savior. You're not looking for another
way of salvation. You're looking to Christ alone. Looking to Christ
is seeing Christ as your righteousness, is seeing Christ as your goal
to win Christ and be found in Him. Looking to Christ is seeing
the death of Christ as your death. as your death to sin, as your
death to the law. Looking to Christ is seeing the
death of Christ as your payment for sin. I know how my sin was
paid for. Christ suffered and died for it. Looking to Christ
is seeing Christ resurrected as evidence of your justification.
He was raised again for our justification. Looking to Christ is seeing Christ
He's on the throne. He's not worried about anything.
He's on the throne. And what's he doing there? Interceding
for you. Interceding for you who believe. You know what heaven's going
to be? A continuation of that. Of looking to Christ. Except
Wayne there. Oh. We'll see him perfectly. With nothing between. Now we
see by faith, we see dimly, but then face to face. That's why we can say with the
bride there in Song of Solomon, Lord hasten the day, come quickly. I hope the Lord will bless that.
Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you for your gracious commandment to your
people to follow you. And Lord, we pray for the grace.
We pray that you put the spirit in us, that we be like your servant
Caleb, and be found fully following the Lord Jesus Christ. How he's
worthy that we follow him. How he's worthy that we believe
him. How he's worthy that we look to him as all of our salvation,
all of our righteousness. Lord, we thank you. that in your infinite goodness,
mercy to your people, that you reveal your son to us, reveal
him to us today, reveal him to our hearts today, who calls us
by your grace, by your call to follow him, we pray. It's in
his precious name, for the glory of his name, we pray.