I invite your attention this
morning to one verse, to verse 14, here in the book of Revelation
chapter 17. These shall make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords
and King of kings, and they that are with Him are called and chosen
and faithful. Now we recognize that man born
of a woman, as he comes into this world, that he by nature
is not with God. He by nature is not in fellowship
with God. He by nature has a heart that
is rebellious and contrary to the Holy God. And here we read
in our text that these shall make war with the Lamb, speaking
of those who have one mind, in verse 13, and those who have
given their power and strength unto the beast, speaking of the
ten kings, which have been referred to in this chapter. And these
represent the harlot religions of the world, and they represent
man in his natural state. And we know that man, as we said,
in his natural state is rebellious, contrary to God. It is true that
war is being made with the Lamb as we sit here this morning in
this place. Men are living contrary to Christ.
We have the Antichrist in the world. We know that all of the
false religions that preach up man's merit and preach and declare
that men are saved through their own works and righteousness,
that this is Antichrist and its warring against the Lamb. We have those both inside and
outside of our churches that are not in submission to the
Lord. We have the workmongers, and
we have the false religions, and we have the natural man.
who is not about to bow his knee and surrender himself over to
the Lamb of God to follow Him, to obey Him, to do His will in
this world. Now in Matthew 12 and verse 30,
it says, He that is not with me is against me, and he that
gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. One of the things that
we read here in our text is that it speaks of they that are with
Him in the last part of verse 14. They that are with Him. But
the Bible says our Lord Jesus, as we just read it to you, He
that is not with me is against me. So we see that there are
many that are not with the Lord Jesus, therefore they're against
Him, and they gather not with Christ. but they are scattering
abroad. They preach not a true gospel,
and they're leading men and women astray, making them twofold more
the children of hell than they were before. Now the Apostle
Paul said in Acts 26 and verse 9, when he was in his natural
state before he was converted, on the road to Damascus, he said,
I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things
contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This man was a religious
man. He was a Pharisee, unconverted. And he said, I looked at Jesus
and I said in my own heart, I ought to do many things contrary to
this man. In other words, I ought to live
in rebellion to him. I ought to have no use for him.
I ought not follow him. I ought not in any way, shape,
or form assist his cause in the world. And then the very next
verse said, and this I did at Jerusalem. And he hailed men
and women. He put them in prison. And he
stood by as men and women who were believers were put to death.
He said, I thought I ought to fight against. the Lamb of God
fight against the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in Ephesians 2 and
verse 3 it says that we which have been born again, we which
have been made alive in the Lord Jesus Christ that we were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others before we were
converted. We were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. And so you see, prior to our
conversion, we were against Christ. We were not with Him. Those of
you that are unbelievers today, those of you that have never
come to the place where that you are trusting in and relying
upon the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're against
him. You're against him. Oh, you say,
preacher, I have no weapon. You can frisk me. I have no weapon.
And I'm not against Christ. I'm not about to do him evil.
But we know that the heart of man is at enmity against God. And that if man, wicked old self-will
and nature could get to God, they would take a butcher knife
and put it in his back and cast him down off the throne because
they're at war with God. They're at war with the Lamb
of God. And we'll see that more clearly
as we go on this morning. But we take note here, but God's
saints are with Him. They're with Him in all that
He is. And our text tells us, does it not, who He is, King
of kings and Lord of lords? Isn't that wonderful? Isn't it
wonderful to be able to worship the sovereign Lord God of heaven
and earth, the King of kings? and the Lord of Lords. What a
title. What a title. But it bespeaks of His sovereignty.
It bespeaks of His wisdom and might and His power. Who He is. He's God over all. God blessed
forevermore. This is the God that we're with. If we're His saints. If we're
believers. If we've been chosen of God and
called of God and put into right relationship with Him. This is
the God that we are with. And we take note further here.
that this God is the God that is the God of judgment and salvation. In other words, we worship Him
not only for who He is, but also for what He does. What He does. We're with Him in what He does.
Are you with God in what He does? Could you say amen to what God
does? Whenever God sends the heathen,
the unconverted heathen, Whenever God sends maybe even one of your
own family, your relative, when God sends them off into the lake
of fire, will you be able to say, I'm with you, I'm with you,
I'm in agreement with you, I agree with you in what you do, you're
righteous, you're a God of judgment, of true judgment and salvation,
and I'm with you, I'm with you. Whatever it is that you choose
to do, one of the things that we can be most sure of in this
world as we live and worship is that the God of the Bible
is going to do what's right with our own, with our relatives.
Whoever they be, God is going to do what's right. And sometimes
when our relatives, when they pass away, we have no confidence
that they knew the Lord. We have no confidence their sins
were forgiven. There wasn't a day in their life
that we ever remember when there was any evidence that they loved
Christ, when they believed on Him, when they trusted in Him,
when they were relying upon Him, and yet here they are now. They
went off into eternity, and we have no confidence of their salvation. Well, the day will come when
they'll come before the Lord, and we'll be called upon to say,
Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise God! For His
judgment has come, and this One who is true and righteous, this
One has exercised His judgment, and even this One was sent off
into hell because they loved not the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
if any man loved not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema
maranatha. Let him go to hell when the Lord
comes if he don't love our Lord Jesus Christ. And we say amen. God is a God of salvation and
a God of judgment. And in all he says, all the saints
of God are with him in who he is. The saints of God are with
him in what he does and they're with him in what he says. They tremble at his word. They tremble at His Word. You
know, I don't know how much time you spend reading the Word of
God in comparison to the time you spend in watching the television
or entertaining yourself in the world, but my friend, the believer
He spends time with the Word of God. He reads the Word of
God. He studies it. He meditates upon it. Because
he's with God in all that he says. And when God speaks, you
know, the God of the Bible is a talking God. And we hear from
Him in His Word. And He speaks to us. And when
He speaks to us, we say, Amen. Amen, God. That's right. We agree
with what You say. And we take sides even many times
against ourself and believe what God says. Well, the next verse
says, or in this verse, we see that the Lamb shall overcome
all of His enemies. I read in 1 Corinthians 15 in
verse 25 where it says, For he must reign until he has put all
enemies under his feet. This sovereign God, he must reign
until he has put all of his enemies under his feet. And so the saints
of God are with him and they're waiting for that day of victory.
The Lord Jesus Christ has promised that He's coming again and that
every one of His enemies, the last enemy He said that's going
to be destroyed is the enemy of death. He's going to destroy
death. He's going to kill off all of
His enemies. He's going to put them all under His feet and He's
going to reign over them. will overcome. Now they're with
Him. How are the saints of God with
Him? These that have believed and
these that are trusting in Christ and resting in Him and they're
no longer in a state of nature, they've been brought out. It
is as it were that they had received a draft notice from the government.
There came a day in their life when they heard from God. We
want to talk about that a little bit this morning. And they were
changed, they were moved, and God affected them and delivered
them. But how are they with Him? Let
me say first of all that they're with Him by God's eternal purpose
of grace. They're with Him by God's eternal
purpose of grace. Now I mean by that, that only
by the grace of God are we different than other men. If there are
those around us that are against Him and we're with Him, it's
only by the grace of God. Now most of you know that the
Bible teaches that we are what we are by God's grace. By God's
grace. And the scripture says in 1 Corinthians
4, 7, For who maketh thee to differ? And what hast thou that
thou hast not received? And if you received it, then
don't glory as if you had not received it. That's 1 Corinthians
4 and verse 7. So we're with God, we're with
Christ, by God's eternal purpose of grace. And then we're with
Him by our own choice, by our own deliberate choice, after
the circumcision that's not made with hands. In other words, after
God worked on your old heart, you became willing. Why? You
said, I want to be with Him. I want to be with Him in life.
I want to be with Him in death. I love Him now. I'll love Him
later. I want to be with Him. I want
to be with Him. And one old preacher said one
time, he said, God saved me against my will with my full consent.
And that's exactly what happens when God saves a sinner. Oh,
yes, he chose us, but then we choose him in return, do we not?
Oh, where is the man whom God has chosen that has not in his
own heart made a deliberate choice and said, I choose him, I choose
him. Christ I must have, I cannot
live without Christ. We're with him in heart, we're
with him in will, we're with him in desire, and we're with
him in modus. In this text, God's saints are
all identified by three distinct works of grace accomplished by
God on their behalf. Now I want you to notice, we're
going to talk a little bit about how the saints of God are identified
in this text. All who are with the Lamb are
number one, they're called. They are called. And number two,
they're chosen. And number three, they're faithful. Now this is a very important,
a very important message. I want you to listen very carefully
to what we have to say. God's people are identified by
these three things. Number one, they're called. Number
two, they're chosen. And number three, they are faithful. Someone said that in these words
you find the biography of every believer. And I believe that.
with all of my heart. Number one, all who are with
Christ are with him by the almighty, effectual, irresistible call
of God, the Holy Spirit in regenerating grace. Everybody that is with
him has received the effectual call. Now I mentioned a few minutes
ago that we're kind of like those who receive a draft notice from
the government. The government sends out a draft
notice and summons you to come. He doesn't say, you can if you
want to, show up if you want to. He summons you to come. And when God's Holy Spirit, when
God in effectual grace comes down to a poor sinner's heart,
he's been against the Lord Jesus, just like Saul of Tarsus. But
when he comes down, the Spirit of God comes down, knocks him
down, as it were, and brings him low and brings him to himself. He makes him alive in his heart.
And from then on in, That fella is enlisted in the army of the
Lord Jesus Christ. From then on, that fella is in
the army. He's a servant of Christ. He's
a believer on the Lord Jesus. Now these call ones have heard
not merely the voice of a man. but they have heard the voice
of God the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 10 verse 17
it says, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And what that means is that faith
comes by hearing a word from God in the word in the Bible and you'd
be surprised about how many people if we were to ask you this morning
individually what verse was it or what part of a verse was it
that God used in the conversion of your soul. I remember reading
one time about how Charles Spurgeon came into a huge building that
he was going to preach in And he came in and he wanted to test
the acoustics in the building. And so he got up in front, didn't
know there was anybody else in the building anyplace. And he
quoted John 3 and 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And in
a couple of weeks he got a note from somebody that said that
one of the janitors was in a wall, behind the wall, outside of the
auditorium, and that janitor was converted by hearing a word
from God in the Word. And that's how God saves sinners.
You must hear from God in the Word. Now God, it is true, uses
the voice of a preacher, but the call is an inward, it's a
divine, it's an effectual call. This call always produces saving
faith in those who are the called of God. Now listen to these verses,
Romans 8 and verse 30. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. Might I interject this, this
point, that there's over 165 times in the New Testament where
that salvation is attributed to a call from God. And here
it says that those that have been predestinated he also called,
and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified
them in his mind, God already knowing the end from the beginning,
knowing his purpose will succeed to the fall, has also glorified
those he predestinated, those he calls, those he justifies.
In John 6.63, it is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profit
of nothing the words that I speak into you their spirit and their
life John 10 in verse 3 says to him the porter openeth and
the sheep hear his voice and he calleth his own sheep by name
and he leads them out let me say Secondly that this call of
the spirit is the proof and it is the evidence of a person's
eternal election in Christ Now, no man has any reason to believe
that he's one of God's elect unless he has been called to
faith in Christ. Now, if God has spoken to you
and you have come to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you
are one of God's elect. And somebody said, I just wish
I knew whether I was one of the elect or not. Let me ask you
this simple question. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Do you trust Christ? Do you believe
on Him? Have you rested your soul in
the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you trusted in the five
bleeding wounds of the Savior who hung on Mount Calvary? Have
you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Now if you have, you're
one of the elect. You have every reason to believe
it. If you're a believer, you're one of the elect. Now this text
puts calling before election, and this is because we cannot
know our election until we are called. Until we are called to
God. But the election took place long,
my friend, before the calling. It took place long before the
calling. We know that we were chosen in
eternal love before the world was made. And in 2 Thessalonians
2, Verse 13 and 14, but we're bound to give thanks always to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and the belief of the truth, whereunto he called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The fact that we have been called
then proves our election. Called to faith, called to believe
on the Lord Jesus, chosen everlastingly in God's eternal covenant of
grace, made His. Jeremiah 31 and 3, The Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. With lovingkindness have I drawn
thee. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4 and 5, Knowing, brethren, beloved,
your election of God, For our gospel came not into you in word
only, not in word only. Other words, a preacher just
didn't get up and preach and then it ran off like water off
a duck's back. No, the preacher got up and preached
and something happened. The Spirit of God was there.
God was there doing his work. The Spirit of God was there fingering
the hearts of men and women. Our gospel came not into you
in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in
much assurance. God was there saving sinners
by His power and giving them the assurance that they had been
visited by Him and that His word was a word of power and that
it was a word of might and that it was a word of salvation. That's
what happened in the church at Thessalonica. Now in verse 6,
and you became followers of us and of the Lord. That's what
happened after the had been convicted and saved by the power of God
through the gospel. They became followers of us,
Paul said, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction
with joy of the Holy Ghost. Romans 14 and 17, the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. And they that serve Christ in
these things are acceptable to God and approved of men. They
have righteousness and joy, peace in the Holy Ghost. God has visited
them. They've been called and they
are elect of God. or I call chosen and faithful. I want to talk a little bit about
faithfulness to God now. This is a very important practical
part of our message this morning. I don't believe that anybody's
faithful to God that God don't enable to be faithful to Him.
I don't believe that. I don't think anybody can be
faithful to God left to themselves. I trust you as touching the Lord
that you'll be faithful, trustworthy, dependable, that you can trust
Him, that you can predict what you're going to do in different
and various situations based upon the Word of God and the
workings of God in your soul. A man or a thing is nothing more
than God makes them. We can receive nothing except
to be given to us from heaven. If we're faithful to God, it's
because we have received mercy to be faithful. Paul said one
time people were asking him questions and he said, I give my judgment
as one who has received mercy to be faithful. And so if you're
faithful, I mean you can't clap your hands, you can't praise
yourself. It is because of God's mercy
if you're faithful. Now, I have often thought that
this would make a very fitting epitaph on a tombstone, called,
chosen, faithful. And if you want to put it on
mine, that'll be just fine with me. Called, chosen, faithful. But I hope that the last, I believe
the first two applies. I hope that I can be faithful. In the book of Revelation 2 and
10, it says, be thou faithful unto death. and you'll receive
the crown of life. Be faithful unto death. They
that endure to the end will be saved. And be faithful unto God. Now the sure and certain result
of God's electing grace and the Spirit's effectual call is faithfulness. All are born of God, taught to
be faithful by God. God's true saints are faithful,
true. They're honest people. They can be trusted. You can
depend on them as touching the Lord. Now then, they're faithful
to Christ, these people. They're for Him. They're with
Him. And they're faithful to Him. Now, I believe they're faithful
to His gospel. They're faithful not only to
Christ, His person, but faithful to His gospel. I mean, they wouldn't
water down His gospel. And they'd never say amen to
somebody that's preaching an army and perverting the gospel.
They'd never do it. They'll stand fast. They'll be
faithful to the gospel. And if they got anything, it'll
go to the support of the true gospel of God's grace. They will
not stand for the gospel to be perverted. And then they're faithful
to the Lord's church, His living family, His people. What a blessing. And the older you get in the
flesh, and the longer you're in the Spirit of God, and walking
in the Spirit, the more precious God's living family becomes to
you. what a joy it is to know people that believe what you
believe and to be with them and to be encouraged by them and
to be blessed by them and by their fellowship and to be near
and to be around them. Now I want you to turn to Psalm
40 if you will and I want to look here at Psalm 42 verses
that will help us to see where we're going here. Psalm 40 And
it's verse seven and verse eight. Then said I, lo, I come in the
volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will,
O my God, yea, thy law is written, thy law is within my heart. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea,
Thy law is within my heart. Now we know that these words
were the words of David, King David, but we also know that
these words are the words of our Lord because the Spirit of
God has told us so in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 7 through 9.
These words find their ultimate perfect fulfillment in the person
and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lo, in the volume of the book
it is written, I have come to do thy will, O God. Beloved, how we ought to rejoice
to know that Jesus Christ, the God-man, our substitute, has
fulfilled all of the will of God for us. That's what Paul
had allusion to this morning when he mentioned the book of
Leviticus. If you read that book, I'll tell
you what, it'll stand you on your head. If you've got to obey
all the things in the book of Leviticus to be accepted of God,
you are in desperate trouble. but to know that our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, has fulfilled all the will of God for us. By
his obedience to God in our stead, the Lord Jesus obtained eternal
redemption for us, Hebrews 9 and 12. His obedience to God is our
righteousness. His blood is our atonement for
sin. However, these are also the words,
as we said, of David. He was a sinner saved by the
grace of God. And he said, here's a saint. Not the God-man, but the Saint
of God. I delight. to do thy will, O
my God." Is that all right? I mean, is this something that
believers in one age could say and believers in another age
cannot say? He says, I delight to do thy
will, O my God. These words express the desire,
the ambition, and the driving force of every believer's heart. Bear with me just a few moments.
All who are born of God bear this distinct mark of grace in
the likeness of Jesus Christ. I delight to do thy will, O God. Faithfulness unto God, being
faithful. Somebody said, Amen, I'm called.
Somebody said, Amen, at the doctrine of election. But now we get down
to this business of faithfulness unto God. Somebody said, I think
maybe the preacher's going to get too practical here for us. We like the doctrine, but the
practical application, we don't know whether we want that or
not. Well, most of you here will take it. I'm telling you that
this is the distinct The likeness of Christ that we
delight in the will of God to do his will. From our hearts
we cry, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Nothing is of more
importance to us than the will of God. In Acts 22 and 14, Ananias
told old Saul when he got converted, he said, the God of our fathers
hath chosen thee that thou shouldest know his will, that you should
know his will. I'll tell you, salvation is the
doing of God's will. You may have problems with that,
but you listen to what we have to say. The joy and happiness
of a child of God is not merely in receiving good from God, but
in serving the will of God in their day. Did you get that? The joy and the happiness of
a child of God is not merely in receiving good from God, but
it's in serving the will of God in their generation, in their
day. This is our desire to obey and
serve our Heavenly Father in all things, and to do His will
at all times, not reluctantly, but cheerfully. Cheerfully to
bow our knee to His will. Cheerfully take down every day
the flag of rebellion and put up the flag of submission and
surrender unto the Lord. Do His will. Be faithful unto
God. God's will is our joy and delight.
Our joy is to see the will of God done on earth as it is in
heaven. That's what we long to see. God
the Holy Spirit teaches every believer in the world to pray
with Christ. Thy will be done. Thy will be
done. In doing the will of God, listen
to me, if doing the will of God is not the most important thing
in your life as a believer, I question your call and I question your
election. I question your faith. I say,
if doing the will of God is not the most important thing in your
life, I question your salvation. Salvation is doing the will of
God. Now, the longer we're in the
way, and the more we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus
Christ, the more we're consumed by this holy ambition. And were
it possible to gather all the desires and all the ambitions
and all the aspirations, all of the goals and all of the prayers
of all God's saints in heaven and in earth into one expression,
it would be, thy will be done. Thy will be done. Be done. When the believer cries to God,
I delight to do thy will, O my God. The meaning of his prayer
is, my Heavenly Father, my God and Savior, in my heart of hearts,
from the depth of my inmost soul, I want to fulfill your purpose
in my life. I want to fulfill your purpose.
You died for me, you loved me, you gave yourself for me. You
own me from old eternity. You don't touch a man unless
you've got a purpose and a will for his life. And you've touched
me and I must serve your will and do that which is right before
you and walk in your way. I delight to satisfy God's will
of pleasure, don't you? Satisfy His will of pleasure.
God has some things that pleases Him. And I want to do those things. I delight to obey the will of
precept. When you're reading through the
Psalms, you're reading through the Word of God, you find precepts.
And I delight to do the will of precept. I delight to submit
to the will of providence. God's working every day in our
lives. Some people got a tough road to hoe. Some people have
heavy burdens. Some people, I mean, they can't
ignore the burdens they have. I mean, they can't go on and
amuse themselves with something. No! The weight of their burden
is there all the time. And they can't get away from
it. And they have to deal with it before God. And I got a report
this morning about Brother Mahan. He's a very sick man. Cancer. And the brother said, well, he's
having difficulty with Romans 8, 28. Some days he can believe
it, and some days he can't. All things work together for
good to them that love God. Do you ever have a day when you
have trouble with that? I'll tell you what, submission
to God, following the Lord in providence. Lord, I know you
sent it. I know nothing happens, nothing
falls out to your people except you have a hand in it. And I
bow my knee and I submit to your God of the universe. I agree
with you God. You've done the right thing.
I'm afflicted, but you've done the right thing. I'm deprived,
but you've done the right thing. You put me where I'm at, but
you've done the right thing. I don't have things like I want
them, but you've done right. And I bow my knee to your providence. That's what I'm talking about.
Faithfulness to God. You're going to keep on trusting
God whatever you have or don't have. You're going to keep on
trusting Him. You're going to keep on following
Him and believing on Him. I delight to do your will. In
short, I'm with you. I'll follow you. wherever you
lead. I'm with you, Lord. I'm with
you, and wherever your will leads me, I'll be there. That's where
I'm going to be. I'm going to follow you the best
I can. Now, there's some... Oh my, the time has really gotten
away from us. Let me just share one thing with
you. Turn to the book of John, chapter
21. John chapter 21, and I want us
to look at something here. I trust that that we'll be able
to profit some from this. My, my. I almost could preach
another sermon. You got an update? Well, we don't like to keep people
over because we know that sometimes they're on a schedule and they
got other things to do. But notice, if you will, here
in John chapter 21. I want to start with verse 19. This spake
he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. He's talking
here to Peter and John. And he tells Peter in verse 18,
verily, verily, I say unto you, when you were young, you girded
yourself, you clothed yourself, you walked where you wanted to.
But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands,
and another shall gird you, and carry you where thou wouldst
not." In other words, somebody's going to take over your life,
and they're going to control you. This make he signifying
what death he should glorify God. You know, Peter was crucified
upside down on a cross because he would not be crucified like
his Lord was. He was crucified upside down.
Then Peter turning about, and listen to what Jesus said. He
spoke concern of the death, which Peter would experience, suffer
to glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he said unto him, follow me, Peter, follow me. Then Peter
turning about, seeing the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which
also leaned on his breast in supper, talking about John, and
said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing
him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Speaking
of John, Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till
I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. You follow me. What's it to you? I want you
to follow me. Now, beloved, we need to remember
this. Many, many times we get really concerned about what other
people are doing and what they're not doing. The thing I need to
be concerned about is what God's will is for me. Whatever God
wants to do with you is His business. And whatever you, listen, every
servant of God stands or falls to his own master. And I'm not
responsible for what you're supposed to do. You're not responsible
for what I'm supposed to do. We're each one to follow the
Lord as He directs us to. And so the Lord Jesus here says
to Peter, he said, Peter's inquisitive. He said, what's going to happen
to this man? You told me I'm going to die here and I'm going
to experience a death and I'm going to glorify you. I must
become a martyr. Now what about this man? What
about this man? And Jesus said, what's that to
you? You follow me. Just follow me. And then went
about this saying among the brethren that that disciple, that John,
was not going to die. Yet Jesus didn't say he wasn't
going to die. But if I will that he tarry till
I come, what's that to you? If I got a will for him that
you don't understand, then what's that to you? You follow me. You do what I want you to do.
You obey my will as I reveal it to you. That's your responsibility. Faithfulness unto God. Following
the Lamb, whether so ever He would lead you. Whether so ever
He would lead. Now this is nothing more than
the commandment of the Gospel. And many people, I tell you,
this is the commandment of the gospel. And many in our day,
they try to separate salvation from discipleship, saying that
you can have the benefits of Christ's death. and never bow
your knee to His Lordship and follow Him. And I'm telling you,
that's a bunch of hogwash, there's no truth to it. If God has hung
His Son on a cross and His Son has died for you, His Son has
laid down His life in order that you not perish eternally, Then,
my friend, He owns you. He owns you like stock and barrel,
and every part of your life belongs to Him. It all belongs to Him.
Somebody said, Oh, I give tithes. Listen, what about the other
90%? What if God says, I want that too? What about that? You
see, the silver and gold, He said, is mine. He can call it
any time He wants to. It belongs to Him. A fellow said,
Well, I've done this, I've done that. Well, the Lord owns you,
my friend, if you're His child. He owns you. You belong to Him. And in Bible terms, to believe
on Christ is to follow Christ. Faith is just not something that
is just something that we got up here or we got in here, but
it's action. It's following Christ. Matthew
4, 18 through 22 talks about, now if any man will come after
Him, let him deny himself. Take up his cross. And do what? Follow Him. Follow Him. Follow Him. To be saved, then,
is to follow Christ. Faith is not mere belief. Faith,
Bible faith, is belief turned into following the Master wherever
He leads. God commands every sinner by
the Gospel to follow Christ. Follow Me. Have you been washed
in the blood? Have you been robed in His righteousness?
Have you been born again by His Holy Spirit? Our Master's word
to you is The same as it was to old Peter, follow thou me. Be trustworthy. Be trustworthy.
Obey me. You say, well, you know, my,
my daddy or my grandfather, he never did. He was never, he never
was much in religion. They never done much. They didn't
go to church much. Well, he, they were never baptized. They never, they never got too
involved in this thing. But what's the will of God for
you, my friend? That's what you need to be asking. What is the
will of God for you? What is it? What does God have
for you? What kind of service can you
render to Him? Who is it that you could say something to? Whose
life could you affect by the life you live? How about it? Is there not something that we
could do for the Master, for the glory of His name, for the
praise of Christ? Could we not follow Him, obey
Him? What will happen if we're ever
seized by the authorities and must give witness unto death
for Christ? What will we do? What will we
do? Well, we never took it very seriously about minding God while
we're in this world so far. Well, I think we'll recant. I
think we will. Somebody said, well, you just
deny that Christ, deny that he ever died, deny that he's the
Savior, deny his blood atonement, deny it. Deny his effectual grace,
deny this doctrine of election and particular redemption, deny
it. And you'll be just fine. We'll
never lay another hand on you. You'll do it. You'll do it. Unless you're with him. unless
you're with Him. All the way, you're with Him.
And then when it comes time to die for Christ, you'll be able
to step right up. And like some of the old martyrs
of old say, well, it's the greatest day I've had in my life. I get
to glorify my God. I get to pay. I get to glorify
God. I get to do something in honor
of my Master. I'll follow Him to the death.
Be thou faithful unto death. These are the three marks. Called,
chosen, and faithful. And don't forget the third one.
As you're rejoicing in sovereign election and grace, just remember,
God owns you. And you need to be faithful to
Him. Father, in the name of Christ, take this message, use it, and
may your great name be exalted and honored and glorified. May
each one of us be Enable our Father to more fully, as much
as you are imitatable, that we will imitate you. May we walk
as you walk, the best we can in this world. Forgive our sins
and strengthen us. Oh God, strengthen us. Each one
of us right now are crying out in our hearts. Strengthen us. Strengthen us with might by the
Spirit in the inward man, that we shall not fail. our God. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.