If you want to be turning there,
my text will be taken from John chapter 21. John chapter 21. I read the other day about a
preacher who wanted to encourage his people to order their lives
by the word of God and the example of Christ. In the course of his
message, he said, I would like to pass a reform act If everybody
would reform one person, then all would be reformed. And he
finished preaching. And after the message, one of
the fellows heard the sermon and he met him at the door and
he said, that was a good sermon. I'm going home right now and
start to reform my wife. Well, that's a pretty good indication. the way most of us think and
the way most of us hear sermons. We find it very easy to hear
for someone else, to think for someone else, and to apply the
message to someone else. Now that's exactly what had happened
here in John chapter 21. Our Lord Jesus, you'll recall,
had come to Peter after Peter's horrible, lamentable fall. He came to the apostle Peter
with words of grace to restore him from that fall. In verse
15, so when they had dined, Jesus saith unto Simon Peter, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? You remember
what Peter had said? He said, though all these forsake
you, I'll not forsake you. And our Lord said to him, now
Simon, now that you've had opportunity to understand what I told you
you were, and what I told you you are, now that you've had
opportunity to see how you led the way in forsaking me. Do you
still think you love me more than these fellas do? Do you
love me more than they do? He saith unto him, yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. Now notice he doesn't say now,
I love you more than these do. You know that I love you. And
the Lord says to him, feed my lambs. He saith unto him again
the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Forget about the others. That's
not the issue. Do you love me? That's the issue. Do you love me? If any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned. The Lord's coming.
That's Paul's language. Our Lord says, do you love me?
He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, feed my sheep. And he saith unto him the third
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me. Peter was grieved because
he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me. Now the reason
Peter was grieved was not so much that he asked three times,
but he changed the question. Now he asked, lovest thou me? And he uses another word altogether. He's saying, Simon, now let's
get this thing settled. Let's get it settled. Do you
really love me? Do you really love me? Peter was grieved, because he
said, do you really love me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things. For the hypocrite, that's the
most terrifying fact in the world. For the believer, that's the
most delightful fact in the world. Lord, you know what I've done.
You know what I am. You know all things. And you
know that in the depth of my soul, in the essence of my being,
in the reality of my heart, you know that I do love you. You know it. You know it. And
Jesus saith in the hymn, feed my sheep. And then the Lord Jesus
told Peter, how that in the end, he would glorify God by his death
as a martyr. He said, verily, verily, I say
unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest
whither thou wouldest, but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt
stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and
carry thee whither thou wouldest not. That is, Peter, I'm going
to take you and stretch out your hands upon a cross. This spake
he signifying by what death he should glorify God. And he did. Peter did not speak that which
wasn't true when he said, I'll go with you to death. He did
go with him to death. He so loved his master that he
was willing to die for him and did die for him and glorified
God in his death as a martyr in the end. In fact, the tradition
tells us that when they came to crucify Peter, he requested
that he be crucified upside down for he was not worthy to be crucified
as was his Lord. And when he had spoken this,
that is when he told Peter how he would glorify God in his death,
then he saith unto him, follow me. What a command, follow me. Now the end is gonna be death.
In the end, you're gonna die and you're gonna die a horrible
death in the end. In the end, you're gonna glorify
God as a martyr. Follow me, follow me. That's
his command to every one of us. Follow me, follow me. This Peter
heard, and then look at verse 20. Then Peter, turning about,
seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following. That disciple
was John. He identifies himself in the
latter part of the chapter. that disciple who seemed to be
in special nearness to the Savior. Peter saw John, whom Jesus loved,
following, which also leaned upon his breast at supper, and
said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? And Peter, seeing
him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man? And what about this man? What
about John? Now you've told me how that I'm
going to serve you. And you told me how that I'm
going to glorify God. You told me how that in the end,
I must die this horrible death for the glory of God. But what
about John? What's he gonna do? You read
this a few weeks ago or maybe last week, I can't remember.
And I had it rolling over in my mind. Our Lord Jesus spoke
to Peter. in a biting word. Jesus saith unto him, if I will,
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? What business
is that of yours? What business is that of yours?
You follow me. That's your only concern. Follow
thou me. You see, it is not our responsibility
to seek or to judge or in any way determine what the will of
God is for anyone else. Our business is to follow the
master. That's all. Follow the master. But what's
Bill Raleigh gonna do? That's not my concern. But what's
Hubert Montgomery gonna do? That's not my concern. You mean
I'm gonna have to do this all by myself? If need be, that's
all right. That's my only concern. Our business
is to follow Jesus Christ. Now there are numerous lessons
to be learned from this passage of scripture. I want to call
your attention to four very practical lessons. First, learn this. We are all like Peter. prone
to ignore, neglect, or at the very least, to forget quickly
God's message to us. Most of us talk too much and
listen too little, even in the house of God. Most of us do. Most of us are very quick to
express our opinions and we're very quick to say, I think and
I know and I will. We're very slow to hear what
God has to say. I remember hearing Brother Henry
one time speaking in disgust about a fellow who had given
a good bit of difficulty. And I remember exactly what he
said. He said he never shut up long enough to learn anything.
And most of us never shut up long enough to learn anything.
Never shut up long enough to learn anything. In the house
of God, we'd be wise to shut up and listen. Listen to what
God says. Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the
sacrifice of fools. What's the sacrifice of fools?
A lot of noise. For they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven and thou
upon the earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. Listen to what James says in
James chapter one. James the first chapter. The
apostle James writing to us about hearing the word of God and about
the importance of it. He says in verse 19, wherefore
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear and slow
to speak, slow to wrath. Don't so quickly decide what
you heard is going to be something you take offense at. Don't be
so quick to decide that what you've heard is something that
you're just going to cast in the waste bucket. I get a little
upset when I hear comments from folks going out the door that
indicate their disapproval of the message God's given. I'm not intending to be arrogant. I know I've got too much of that
in me. But I'm gonna tell you what,
that's what I've got to say this morning. At least weigh it. At least consider it. I've been
studying this thing for a little while. I'd suggest for you, before
you just cast it aside, you study it a little while. You understand
what I'm saying? Be swift to hear. Slow to speak. Don't get too upset. For the
wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore
lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and
receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able. Oh, this
word is able to save your soul. It's able. This is the word by
which God begets men and you into the kingdom of grace. The fact is our hearts and minds
are so naturally adverse to God's word that we would never hear
it and would never profit from it even if the preacher was Jesus
Christ himself. Was not the one preaching to
Peter here the son of God? Was he not? This is the son of
God speaking. Jesus Christ himself said to
Peter, follow me. And about two seconds later,
it appears that Peter just let it go in one ear and out the
other. And Jesus said to him again, follow thou me. That's what I'm talking to you
about. Follow me. Unless the word is blessed with
the spirit of God to our hearts, nobody will ever hear it. Peter
seems to have paid no more attention to what the Lord had said than
he did to the sand under his feet. The Lord Jesus, the Son
of God, who had just restored him from such a horrible fall,
we would think, because we're such quick judges of men, we
would think concerning Peter, well, surely, surely now this
man will be all right now. He has just been restored from
that horrible fall. I read this passage. And my self-righteous
attitude quickly says, Peter, you ought never to open your
mouth again. And I ought to be saying, Don,
you'll never open your mouth again about what you will or
won't do. Never again. Peter heard Master's word. He
said, follow me. He turned around and looked at
John. He said, what about him? What about him? Who on earth
would you be asking that question? What about Him? Realizing our terrible aversion
to the Word of God and to all things spiritual, we should take
great care to hear the Word of God, to hear what God has to
say to us. You young people who've had my
wife for Sunday school teacher, are familiar with the story,
I'm about to tell. When Spurgeon preached in that large congregation
in England, there was a young man sitting right below the pulpit,
just a little boy, six, seven years old, sitting right on the
front row. And he sat on the edge of his seat with his hands
cut behind his ear like this. And finally, I just got best
as a preacher. And after the service one day, he went down
there and asked that little boy, he said, he said, son, I've noticed
you've been sitting right on the front seat, leaning forward,
your hands cut behind your ears. I said, what, are you having
a hard time hearing me? He said, oh no, no, Mr. Spurgeon. He said,
my mama told me that if God speaks, he's gonna speak to me through
you. And I want to hear, so if God speaks, I sure don't want
to miss his voice. Oh, hear the word with eagerness and prepare
your heart to hear the word, for we are all very likely to
quickly forget it if we don't ignore it and neglect it altogether.
Prepare your heart, your body, your mind, and your heart to
hear the word of God. And when you hear it, receive
it with meekness and seek by grace to retain it. I'm afraid
that we often lose the benefit of gospel preaching through our
custom of idle chit-chat about meaningless things when the service
is over. Please understand what I'm saying.
I don't I Don't mean to suggest we ought never in the house of
God talk about anything except The Word of God and the scriptures
and the gospel of God's grace But that wouldn't be bad, would
it? That wouldn't be bad, would it? When Peter heard the Lord's Word
He turned around and looked at John as a good man a man who
is following the master. And John, by Satan's deceit and
by the deceit of Peter's own heart, John becomes an object
to turn him away from the Word of God. Let us take care to retain
what we hear. I suggest, I suggest that you
make notes. I suggest that you do whatever
you have to do to hear the word and to keep it, to keep it. I
suggest when the service is over, you talk to each other about
the message. We're having our conference come up. I particularly
encourage you, oh, please do this. Every man who preaches
to you during this conference, when he gets done, you let him
know your appreciation for the gospel of God's grace you've
heard and let him know you've heard what he's had to say. They
say, well, I'm not comfortable doing that. Learn to get comfortable
doing that. It's best for you and best for the cause of Christ
that you encourage one another with the word of grace. Secondly,
we learned this. Not only are we all very prone
to ignore or quickly forget the word of God, but our Lord here
teaches us that our primary responsibility in life is obedience to Christ. We all have so many responsibilities,
so many cares, so many things that occupy our minds and our
attention and our time. We're all so busy about so many
things. But our primary responsibility,
the matter of first importance, the matter of first concern is
obedience to Christ. Obedience to Christ. How can
I say that enough? How can I say it forcefully enough?
Mr. Spurgeon put his finger right
on the issue when he said, we live in vain if we do not live
to God. We live in vain if we do not
live to God. Now let me address myself to
you who are here without Christ. Will you give me your attention? What a pitiful description of
you. Without Christ. Without Christ is to be without
hope, without life, without righteousness, without access to or acceptance
with God. It's to be without God. Without
Christ. The wrath of God is on you. The wrath of God is on you. I don't mean one day it's going
to be. I mean the wrath of God right
now speaks against you to judgment. The very wrath of God which inflames
the fires of hell now is on you. You're under the wrath of God.
Does that mean nothing to you? The leprosy of sin is in your
heart. You are right now an enemy to
God. An enemy to God. And hell awaits you. Hell. And let me tell you what keeps
you out of hell. Let me tell you just how far
you are from hell right now. Just that far. Just that far. And that breath is in God's hands. Do you understand that? A preacher,
what am I to do? Follow Christ. Obey His command. This is what it says. Look unto
me. And be you saved all the ends of the earth for I am God
and beside me there is no else. Believe him. Trust his blood. Trust his righteousness. Trust
the power of his grace. Trust your soul to the son of
God. Follow him. Follow him. There
is no other matter of concern to compare with that matter of
concern. Nothing else. Nothing else. We raise our children, train
them, teach them by word and by example. As if there were many things
of greater concern, but nothing, nothing. Education, possessions, family,
where you live, career, But that stuff's insignificant.
I mean absolutely insignificant. Absolutely insignificant. In
comparison with this? In comparison with this? My soul,
what difference does it make whether you spend your life digging
ditches or spend your life sitting in a boardroom? As long as you
follow Christ. What difference does it make?
These things are insignificant. This is of importance. Your soul's
at stake. Your soul is at stake. Follow
the master. But our text is addressed to
a man who was a genuine believer. This is the master's word to
all his disciples. Follow thou me. You see, the
believer's life is a life of obedience to Jesus Christ. That's what it is. That's what
it is. It is a life of following Christ. That's what it is to
be a child of God. That's what it is to be a believer.
To be a believer is not just saying, I believe in Jesus, whoopee,
I'm going to heaven. To be a believer is not just
to say, I believe in Jesus. Now I don't have to go to hell.
No, no, no. A thousand times no. To be a
believer, according to this book, Rex, is to follow Christ. It's
to follow him. Did he not say, take up your
cross and follow me? You'll be my disciple. If you
don't, you won't. Isn't that what he said? Did
he not say, whosoever shall save his life shall lose it? But whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake in the gospels, the same shall
find it. What is it to be a believer?
It is to follow Jesus Christ conscientiously, consistently
through life. That's what it is. That's what
it is. Read Luke chapter 14. Ignatius
was pastor of the church at Antioch. You remember in Acts 16, I believe
it is, we read that the disciples were called Christians first
at Antioch. You remember that? They were
called folks like Christ first at Antioch. Well, Ignatius was
pastor of the church at Antioch, and Ignatius was one of the first
martyrs to be fed to the lions in the Colosseum at Rome. because of his faith in Christ
and his preaching of the gospel. Ignatius now was a brilliant
man. His writings, I have some that
are preserved back here in my office, been kept for us through
the ages. Ignatius was a man gifted, talented. Ignatius was a man faithful to
the calls of Christ and faithful in preaching the gospel. But
when Ignatius was fed to the lions at Rome to make sport for
a barbarian king, This is what he did. As the lion came toward
him and the crowds watched, Ignatius stretched out his hand and said,
now I begin to be a Christian. That's what it is to follow Christ.
It's to sacrifice your life to him. That's what it is. Oh, you
say, not everybody can go to the Coliseum and suffer like
that. Oh, nobody will ever do that who hasn't already sacrificed
his life to Christ. You are my witnesses. You are
my martyrs, men and women who have laid down their lives in
the cause. When Peter introduced Paul and Barnabas into the council
at Jerusalem, that first Bible conference in the early church,
he spoke of them and said, these are men who have hazarded their
lives for the gospel. That's what it is. I read a letter
yesterday, a portion of it. First time I've heard this man's
name, I read this man's name. So you forgive me if I get it
wrong. He's an Iranian. Mehdi Dibaji, I think is the
way pronounced, as close as I'll get. He has been in prison in
Iran since 1984 for preaching the gospel of Christ. No likelihood
of him getting out. But he wrote a letter to his
17-year-old son on his birthday, and this is what he said. He said the plan that God implemented
for Daniel's friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego teaches
us this great lesson, that if we want to walk close to Jesus,
the son of God, we must go into the fire because it is the safest
place for us. Not only will our socks not burn,
our clothes will not smell of the fire, he continued, writing
to his boy, whom he probably will never see again. I praise
God that during these seven years, the Lord Jesus Christ has been
my strength in such a way that not only do I walk close to him
in the midst of fire, but I go forward as well. This is the business of life.
Follow Christ. in the course of your life, mold
your character after the character of the Son of God. Just do that. Just do that. I give you no rules. I give you no regulations. I
give you no stipulations saying you must do this or you must
wear that or you must act this way. I do give you this general
guide in all your life. Seek conformity to Jesus Christ
the Son of God. Just do it. Rather simple rule may seem trite
to some. It's a rule I learned here when
I was a 16 year old boy. A rule I hope I'm learning here.
Anytime you're faced with two decisions Anytime you're faced
with two decisions Anytime and you got question about what you
ought to do Really? There's really a way to find
the answer What would my lord do? That's easy enough, isn't
it? That's simple enough, isn't it?
How would he behave? The Lord Jesus left us an example
that we should walk in his steps. Those are the steps of self-denying
consecration to the will of God. That means it doesn't matter
what I want. It doesn't matter what pleases
me. It doesn't matter what I desire. It doesn't matter what's in my
best personal interest. The only thing that matters is
what is God's will. What is it? Nothing else is of
concern. We were down at, in Merida visiting
Walter Groover years ago. He and Henry and I were walking
around in one of the squares down there. It's the Meharis. And I heard Henry ask Walter.
He said, Walter, you like it down here, don't you? Are you
happy? And Walter said, Brother Henry,
happy doesn't have anything to do with it. I'm where God would
have me to be. But that's it. Happy doesn't
have anything to do with it. My pleasure doesn't have anything
to do with it. My desire doesn't have anything
to do with it. The people of God, our Lord Jesus,
Took a bowl of water and a towel. His disciples sitting in the
room with him, and he knelt down and washed their feet. Wash their feet? You're not going to catch me
washing anybody's feet. I know. But if you follow the Son of
God, you will. You mean, Preacher, we ought
to start foot washing? No. I mean, we ought to start serving.
I mean, we ought to start caring for one another. I mean, we ought
to start ministering to the needs of one another. That's what it
was, wash their feet. They're tired. Washing your feet
is just a customary act of courtesy. Washing their feet, just providing
the basin and the towel for them to wash their feet was courteous.
but all for that weary one to set back and have his dirty,
tired, hot feet bathed by the hands of another with cool, refreshing
water. That's service. That's service. That's what it is to follow the
master. To walk in his steps is to walk in the steps of self-sacrificing
love to the Lord God and to his people. This is what I'm saying. Make
it the business of your life to follow Christ. That's it. The business of your life. We
have men here who are plumbers and carpenters and cabinet
makers and store owners, all kinds of different walks of life.
Let me tell you something. Rex, God didn't put you in business
over there to be a cabinet builder. You're more noble than that.
He put you in business to follow his son. God didn't create you to be a
plumber. He created you to follow his
son. That's the business of life. That's the business of life.
so that whatever your circumstances are, wherever you find yourself,
whatever your employment is, there, follow Christ. Right where you are. Let me show
it to you. Turn to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7. Verse 20. Boy, I'd follow Christ
if my circumstances were different. No, if you follow Him at all,
you'll follow Him where you are. I'd follow Christ if I had more
to do. No, if you follow him at all, you'll follow him where
you are. Look in 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 20. Let every man
abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Aren't thou called
being a servant? Anybody ever been called? That
is called by the grace of God to life in Christ, being a slave. Anybody? That's what he says. Has God called you in slavery? Well, don't pay any attention
to that. Care not for it. That's insignificant. Doesn't
matter whether you're slave or master. It doesn't matter whether
you're ditch digger or officer in the bank. It doesn't matter
what you are. But if thou mayest be made free,
use it rather. That is, use the circumstance
God has put you in. For he that is called in the
Lord being a slave is the Lord's free man. He's not serving men, he's serving
Christ and he's free. And also he that is called being
free, he's Christ's servant. He's not free to do what he will
his own life, he's servant of Christ. That means Jay Hart and
Don Fortner are both the servants of God wherever we are, if we
are called of God. Follow thou me. Now thirdly, if we are to follow
Christ, there are a good many things we must simply leave alone. The Lord Jesus commanded Peter
to follow him. But Peter could not and would
not obey the command as long as he concerned himself about
John. And therefore, when he asked,
what shall this man do? The Lord Jesus said, what's that
to you? That's none of your business. Your only concern is to follow
me. And you will never follow me as long as you keep trying
to determine what John should do and how John should serve
and how John should glorify God. You follow me. What does that
mean? That means that we must not concern
ourselves with how other believers serve their master. We must not be censurous of one
another. We must not seek to control one
another. We have no concern about what
others do for Christ, except as we help them, encourage them,
and pray for them. That's all. Our only concern
about what somebody else is doing for Christ should be to help
them, to encourage them, to pray for them. That's all. No, we
got to stick our noses in and try to be the spirit of God for
everybody. I had a lady come visit me one
time. Now, please understand, this
is a gal. who left her husband and found her another fellow,
and she's retaining her religion. And she sat down to visit me
one time, and her concern, you can kind of tell when the object
of the visit is not their problem, but somebody else's. She said,
now, Brother Don, what do you think about a man or woman in
the church working down here at this place, doing this, that,
and the other. Well, I didn't throw her out. But I said, I think it's none
of my business and none of yours. None of my business and none
of yours. That's right. None of my business
and none of... My folks, why, they dance down there. And sometimes
somebody will come in there and they get into difficulty. None
of my business and none of yours. That's not for us to take care
of. That's your business. Yours alone. What you do, where
you serve Christ, yours alone. Now, you might come to me and
say, Brother Dog, what do you think about me doing something?
That's another story. That's another story all together.
I'll try to give you some advice that I think will help you. But
you come and say, Brother Dog, what do you think Brother Pontius
and his wife, Sally, ought to be doing? That's none of my business. And that's none of your business.
That's their business. Don't you understand that God's
people are God's servants and we stand or fall before our own
master, not before you? We must not sit in judgment or
try to manipulate or control the ministries of other faithful
congregations and other gospel preachers. I want you to read carefully
the article in the back of today's bulletin. A lot of times our heads get so
swelled that we think we know what's best for this pastor or
this congregation. I've been pastoring almost long
enough to find out I don't even know what's best for this pastor
and this congregation. much less somebody else. I was
down at Brother Dan Park's and he was asking me about something,
whether or not I approved of the way he did something. And
I said to him, Dan, you have my 100% support as missionary
on this island and as pastor in this congregation because
you preach the gospel of God's free grace. How you conduct things
is of no concern to me. And I mean of no concern. None
whatsoever. But what will this fellow think
of that? That's of no concern. That's of no concern. The Lord
Jesus still walks in the midst of his churches. And he still
holds the angels of his churches in his right hand. He's got perfect
capability to take care of them. They don't need to be manipulated
by me. They don't need to report to me. They don't need to be
controlled by me. And I certainly don't need to be second guessing
what they do. The same principle holds true of good many theological
questions. I remember hearing a fellow preach
one time years ago, years ago. He brought up a pretty good study,
I reckon, on the origin of evil. And he went way back and started
dealing with philosophies, these things that men have speculated
about and dealt a little bit with the scriptures and all that.
And while I sat and listened to it, I thought to myself, If
the thief were to break into my house, I wouldn't be too terribly
concerned about where he came from or how he got in. My only
concern is to get him out. And when it comes to evil in
this world, I'm not too terribly concerned about how it got here
or where it came in or when it came in. I only want to get it
out. That's my only concern. Men debate and divide over divine
sovereignty and human responsibility. And we preach those things and
we rejoice to declare they're both taught in the word of God.
But I recognize that some people will never be able in their minds
to reconcile those two things because they think that they
are enemies. They're not enemies, they're
friends. You see, the word of God teaches these two facts. Salvation is all together by
the grace of God. And damnation is altogether the
result of man's sin. God chose in Christ and predestinated
an elect multitude to salvation and eternal life before ever
the world was. And whosoever believeth on Jesus
Christ shall be saved. This the word of God teaches.
God alone will have all the glory for his saving work. And man
alone will have all the blame for his eternal damnation. The
mysteries of prophecy are what is that to you? You'll get some
fella corner you a little bit and he'll want to know your position
concerning the second coming of Christ. Folks get upset and they break
fellowship. They won't have anything to do
with you. You don't agree with what they think is the right theory
about the prophetical scheme of things. Well, so far I hadn't
found the right theory. Just hadn't found it. Somebody
said, you pre, post, or are millennial? I don't know. Just call me whatever
you want to. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter to me.
This matters. Christ is coming again. Is that
good enough? That's what the book teaches.
So what about time? I don't care when he comes. He
can come right now. He can wait 5,000 years. I don't
care. Whatever he's pleased to do is all right. Well, don't
you think there's signs and times and seasons we're looking for?
Oh, no. Unbelievers look for those things. We're looking for
him. I know that there is going to be a resurrection of the dead.
I know that. But what about the division of
the resurrection? I don't know. I don't care. I
don't care. I know that we're going to spend
eternity somewhere either with God in the bliss of glory or
in hell in the torments of the damn. But I don't know where
they are. That's all. It's just reality. We know he's coming. Concerning
other things, what's that to you? What's that to you? Our
business is to follow Christ. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present evil world, looking for and hastening
unto the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
the blessed hope. Jesus Christ is coming again.
Our business is to follow him, that's all. Well, why must we devote ourselves
to this one thing only? I'll give you three reasons real
quickly. Our abilities are so limited. I'm not a man of great strength
or great ability, but I have my limitations. One of those
Dirty Harry movies I saw with Clint Eastwood, he said, man
got to know his limitations. Well, we need to know our limitations. What limited ability and strength
I have, I want to devote entirely to
my master's service. Entirely. I mean entirely. to the preaching of the gospel
and to ministering to the needs of his people. Not only are our
abilities limited, but our time is limited. The time is short. Very short. At the very most, at the very
most, and it's all just speculation, I may not have another second
to live. And that's all right. What is that to thee? That's
not my concern, that's his concern. But at the very most, I've only got about 30 years
at the very most left in which to do anything for the glory
of God. And I've wasted that much already. Time's limited. Whatever you're
going to do, do it now. Whatever it is that God gives
you opportunity to do now, do now for the glory of Christ.
Don't wait for tomorrow. and multitudes are perishing.
Let me ask you something. Are you a follower of Christ?
Are you? A follower of that man who looked
over Jerusalem with a broken heart and said,
oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her
wings and you would not. Who looked over the people of
Israel with a broken heart because he saw them as sheep scattered
having no shepherds. I'm astonished that we can call
ourselves followers of Christ and be so very little consumed
with the needs of eternity bound sinners. Doesn't it astonish
you? I'm astonished. I'm astonished
that a man can be a, can with a good conscience, call himself
a follower of Christ and work side by side with a man for days
and weeks and months and years and never attempt to bring that
man into the fold. That astonishes me. I'm astonished
that a man can be one who calls himself a follower of Christ
and live right beside a fellow, live right beside him for days
and weeks and months and years and make no effort to get that
man the gospel of God's grace. That astonishes me. That astonishes
me. Oh, immortal soul, you who are
lost under the wrath of God, hovering over hell today, kept
from the pit of destruction only by the breath that's in your
nostrils. I urge you to come to Christ.
Follow him now. And as the Lord Jesus had something
for Peter to do and something for John to do, I can't help
wondering for this congregation and this
preacher what he has for us to do. What's he got for us to do? You're free men and women. I
make no attempt to control your lives, but I want every one of
us to live to serve Christ. by serving the souls of men and
women. That's how you do it. That's
how you do it. Serving Christ is serving the
souls of men. That's what it is. Serving Christ
is serving the needs of people for whom Christ died. Serving
Christ is serving one another. We've got tracks back there.
hanging in the bulletin rack for years, because nobody wants
to distribute them. And Shelby will be going back
through there a few days and taking the ones out that have
gotten dingy and dirty and throw them away. Well, that's not important. Well,
let's see. Brother Farrell Griswold years
ago told a story. He and I were preaching together
down at Madisonville. He got a letter from a young
man in Nairobi, Kenya, who had picked up a tract that
just had a little bit on it, and right at the bottom of it
had Farrell, Griswold, First Baptist Church, Minor Heights,
Birmingham, Alabama, his address. And that fella got just that
little bit off of there and went and found a missionary, Could
explain a little bit to him about what Pharaoh meant about believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ This is a true story And then he wrote
to Pharaoh The young man was 16 years old Pharaoh said I got
to looking through my records to discover that 16 years prior
to getting that letter 16 years ago Our church in Minor Heights
printed 50,000 tracts and shipped them to Kenya in Africa to be
distributed by folks there. And here, 16 years later, This
young man whose heart has been troubled with his false religion
and been troubled with his sin and his depravity and he doesn't
know where to turn for help, but he's walking along in a path
in the heart of Africa and picks up a tattered piece of a worn
track. How could that happen? God in
his providence does what he will with what we do for his son. That's how it happens. I got a letter this past week
from a fella in India, who was visiting in Tortola, who picked
up some bulletins. Somebody head there in Tortola
and wants to know if we'll let him translate them into his language
in India to distribute there. If I could do it, I'd translate
for him. Yes, sir. You can do whatever you want
to with it. We got tapes back here. Tapes of this message,
tapes of others. That just might be the thing
God gives. to give life and faith to somebody
that you come in contact with. It might be. Oh, I don't want
to be looked on as a radical. I tell you what, I've been looked
on as a radical for 25 years. It ain't bad. It ain't bad. Follow Christ. Just follow him. Homes to be visited. Yeah, there's a good bit to be
done. And that which it is your responsibility
to do, nobody, nobody, nobody else has
the responsibility to do. Just you. Just you. Just you. Bless your word to the hearts
of your people and give us grace to follow Christ. Amen.