the book of Ephesians chapter five this hour. Ephesians chapter five. For this hour I hope to answer a simple question by asking other questions. Do I follow man or do I follow God? That's a life and death question. Do I follow man or do I follow God?

titled this message, Followers of God. And that's found in our text, Ephesians chapter five, one and two says, be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. Followers of God. Do I follow God? Or do I follow man? I have to know the truth. I need to know the truth. And you're the only one that can answer that. It has to be revealed from the Lord. But you're the only one that can answer that for yourself. I'm the only one that can answer it for me.

But how often are we, with our deceitful heart, we deceive ourselves and think we're, how many times do we think in false religion, Rob, we were following God when we were really following man? How many times, sometimes we still can get called up if the Lord takes his hand off of us for a brief moment, we end up following after something that men say that might not be accurate or true, maybe a tradition or maybe something they think they've discovered. The Lord's gonna have to keep us. Lord's going to have to cause us to follow him.

I like what David said. David said, I would not seek thy face until my Lord said unto me, seek ye my face. That's what we need. I want to follow after him. He said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. The Lord's people follow him. And yet there are times when we find ourself in unbelief, Drowning like Peter when he fell on the water, he walked on the water. That's amazing, isn't it? Peter walked on the water and then saw the storm, saw the sea, took his eyes off Christ, and beginning to sink, he cried, Lord, save me.

I need the Lord to cause me to follow him. Well, how do we follow God? By looking. that what he said about himself, about his salvation, about how he saved his people from their sin, how he saved his elect people, we look at what he says about us. What did he say about me? We don't need a head knowledge, brethren. That's so often what false religion is, is just a head knowledge. We don't need to find out something that nobody else has discovered. No, I want Him. I need to know Him. I want to follow Him. I want to know His truth. I need His righteousness, not my righteousness. I need His everything. That's what I need. I need to follow Him.

Lord, cause me, make me to know I'm following after You. Cause me to see that You're making me follow after You. Don't let me see that I'm following after You. Actually make me follow after You. We'll fall flat on our face if we look and say, look at me following the Lord. Yes, you know we will. Just fall right flat on our face. In Christ alone, he is truth and we are not.

So first question I have for us is what is it to be a follower? of God. It is not seeking righteousness in yourself, not seeking righteousness earned by me in any way, not trying to earn favor with God or look to my works or my knowledge or my biblical principles or my theology. Following after the Lord is just that, following after Him. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you, the scripture says. What is it to be a follower of God? Well, I'll say this, if a man can convince you of something, another man can talk you out of it. If somebody can get you to follow after them, another man can get you to quit. But if you're persuaded of God and you're following after the Lord, there's no man that can talk you out of that because you're kept by his power. That's the good news. That's the good news.

Being a follower of God is seeking the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is being in complete denial of self, of self-worth, when it pertaining to salvation, as far as not that we didn't cost plenty for us to be saved, I'm saying our value, we don't have any value when it comes to us obtaining salvation. We don't have any, I'm trying to figure out how to say this exactly. Our self-worth is not what determines our salvation. What we think of ourself does not determine our salvation. It's what God thought of us, what God's seen us in Christ as.

Now, following after the Lord is a denial of self, complete denial of self, self-power, self-will, self-choice, self-everything. It's to say, truth, Lord, you're right and I'm wrong. But the dogs desire the crumbs that fall from your table. Lord, I need the crumbs of grace. I need the crumbs of mercy. I need to be, can I be your dog? That's following after him. Lord says, you're nothing but a dog. What do you say? Well, you said it, you're right. Doesn't matter whatever comes out of your mouth, it's true. If I'm a dog, can I be your dog? Following after the Lord.

What it means to follow after the Lord is being made to seek wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption that is only found in the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not found anywhere else. It's not to seek man-made wisdom, man-made righteousness, not to pretend that we're getting better and better. It's none of that. No, it's to seek Christ alone, to seek his glory. It is to be made to side with God against self, You've been made to side with God against yourself. Have you declared yourself your own enemy, your own worst enemy? Somebody says, well, that sounds crazy. Not if you've been made a sinner. That's exactly what we've done. Lord, I am the sinner. I am guilty.

We heard the first hour about David, whenever he had, uh, sinned with Bathsheba. Nathan came and said, uh, David, there's man had many flocks and herds. He was rich and another man was poor. He had one new lamb and the rich man took the lamb for a feast rather than using one of his own flocks and herds. And he said to David, what should be done to the man? David said, he should surely die. He said, David, you're the man. And he goes on to say, you know what David said? I have sinned against the Lord.

See the Lord, every time he came to a sinner and revealed that sin, he would say, come to them, wilt thou be made whole is another example. And the man said, sir, I have no man to help me into the pool of Bethesda. When the water's troubled, somebody jumps ahead of me. Pool of Bethesda would heal you if you could get in before anybody else. And the angel of the Lord stirred it. He drew the confession, I have no man. This body can't help me and nobody else can help me. It's the same confession. To follow after Christ is to have the same confession. Christ is all in salvation. I am impotent. It's not just that I'm weak. It's not just that I got a broken leg. No, I'm lame. I'm dead in trespasses and in sin. It's not that I, I don't need a quadruple bypass for my heart because it has clogs in it. I need a brand new heart. Brand new heart. To be made to side with God against yourself and everything is to say truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. I'm false and full of sin, but thou art full of truth and grace.

I love what the one man said. He came to the Lord. He said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole. What does that mean? That's confessing I'm not whole. I'm not whole, I'm not complete, I'm broken. I'm broken. Do you know, our flesh will never confess that. Our flesh will never confess that it's broken. That's the new man that cries that. That's the new man. Lord, if thou will, thou can be made whole.

To follow after God is to see him as he is, as sovereign. To see him seated as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and to see him high and lifted up. It's to see him as the successful redeemer of his people. To follow after God is to see ourself, on the other hand, as weak, decaying, dying, impotent, none good, no, not one. Following God means you've been given repentance to forsake yourself. and faith to believe him, faith to believe him.

Which brings us to our second question. Who is a follower of God? Is it those that have chose to become a follower of God? Do you ever heard this song? I have decided to follow Jesus in every way and every day. No turning back, no turning back. I have decided to follow Jesus.

I don't trust my decisions, brethren. I don't trust because I don't trust my emotions. I don't trust my nature. See my nature is bound to it's the nature of sin. I don't trust it. No, I didn't decide anything. God decided he chose who would be a follower of him. He chose his sheep in the covenant of grace. He elected a people according to his own will, according to his own purpose.

Well, maybe, maybe because I prayed a perfect prayer, I'm a follower of God. Maybe I prayed a perfect prayer, because that's what God requires is perfection. Well, that's to say we don't need Christ then, isn't it? If we can pray a prayer that makes God save us, no, the prayer that we pray unto the Lord, Lord have mercy on me, the sinner, that's the result of salvation, not the cause of it. That's the result.

So who then can be a follower? of God, His chosen people, those who He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, those who He adopted, He saved, He prepared a people and gave them eternal life. Those are the ones that follow after Him. Those are the ones that follow after Him. He calls them His beloved. It's who He loves. And this is all by His grace.

Isaiah 43 one tells us this. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. Why? Well, he tells us in another place, I have loved you with an everlasting love. It never had a beginning and it never had an end. Those are the ones that follow after the Lord, his chosen people.

I love the confession that David said. He said, I have sinned against the Lord, but just as it said here, fear not, I've redeemed thee. Nathan said, fear not David, the Lord hath put away thy sin. The one that follow after the Lord are the ones, or follow after God, are the ones whom have their sin put away by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. I quoted that verse, he loved you with an everlasting love, but it goes on to say, therefore, I have drawn thee, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. To be a follower of God doesn't mean that we've cleaned up our life. No, it means we've been drawn of God. We've been called of God. We've been brought of God and made to follow him, made to need him.

You know, if we don't have a need, if we don't have a need, then you'll never follow the Lord, you'll follow self. But when the Lord makes a need that only he can fill, we find ourself following him, seeking him, his way.

Some people say, well those that follow the Lord, they clean up their life, they turn over a new leaf, they got saved. I used to do this, I don't do that anymore. Used to go here, I don't go there anymore. That's not following after Christ, that's saying look at me, look at me. No, faith looks to Christ alone. It doesn't examine ourself as to what we are doing or have done or don't do anymore. It looks to Christ alone. That's how we follow God. We look to him.

Following God means we believe everything he said. Everything? Everything. Everything he says. Whatever he says, truth, Lord, doesn't matter. What did it mean? It's truth, Lord. We take him at his word, using scripture to define scripture. We don't define scripture with our opinion. I said the first hour, you don't need my opinion. You need God's authority. You don't need my opinion. My opinion's irrelevant. My opinion's not worth anything. I wanna hear what he has to say, because he has the final authority. My opinion doesn't matter.

Which brings us to our third question, how? Are we followers of God? Well, he tells us in 2 Timothy, chapter one, verse nine, God saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us, his people, from the foundation of the world, but is now made manifest through the preaching of the gospel. He said, my sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life. They follow me.

Why? Well, it's not that they follow him and then he gave them eternal life. He gave them eternal life and they follow him because he gave them eternal life. Do we see that? He gets all the glory in this. Romans 9 tells us, before Jacob and Esau were even born, not having done any sin, that the purpose of election might stand. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. This is how We are followers of God. It's by His choice, His work, His power, His will.

You know what that means? That means I can't mess it up, and you can't mess it up either. If I'm His, I've always been His. And if I'm not His, it's my own fault, because I wouldn't come to Him, and I might have eternal life. My flesh would say, you don't have this man reigning over me. He gets all the glory either way.

We are followers of God because of his divine sovereignty, his divine purpose. He saw his people dead and trespassed and sinned, just like in Ezekiel, when he said, you were born, your nativity, the day of your nativity, you're covered in blood. He said, no one swaddled you, no one washed you, no one took care of you, you were dead. But he said, I spread my skirt over you, I took you in, I fixed it, I fixed it, I cleaned you up, I washed you. He washed us in his precious blood all by his grace, gave us a robe of righteousness on our back, a ring on our finger of sonship. He established our goings and changed the song that was in our heart. A new song, praise unto the Lord. These are the ones that he elected in the covenant of grace before time. He secured their eternal redemption by choosing to redeem them. Christ became flesh is how this was accomplished.

The ones that follow after the Lord, rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ completely. And we rest in him complete. We don't need anything else but him. We don't need to learn anything else but him. Tell me more about him. Tell me, I want to follow him. I don't want to follow tradition. I don't want to follow man's opinion. I want to follow him.

Christ became a man of the flesh, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He chose to take the blame, the place of his people on the cross of Calvary that we might be redeemed back to God. This is why we follow Him. This is why we follow Him. He took the death penalty due us.

Now, of all the mysteries of the scripture, the scripture tells us the Lord is from everlasting for to everlasting thou art God. He was referred to as Melchizedek had neither beginning of days nor end of life. And he's referred to as the God that cannot die. And yet he died on the cross of Calvary. You wanna explain that? It's a mystery. We just believe it. We just believe it. It's our only hope.

All the mysteries that the Lord has said, we can only receive and believe by faith, brethren. There's no explaining that. We're not gonna go, we don't need, as a matter of fact, we don't need to know. Truth, Lord, you died. The eternal, omnipotent God laid down his life for the sheep, that they might be set free. How could God become dust? That's what this flesh was made out of, dust. How could that be and remain God and yet he did? How could he be made sin and yet remain spotless? It's just a mystery, the Lord does this.

so that we have to do one of two things. Either our flesh says, no, I'm gonna figure this out. I'm gonna make sense of this. I'm gonna go here and here. I'm gonna see what I can come up with. Or we say, Lord, such things are too wonderful for me that they're high. I can't attain to them. Whatever you have said is true. I want to follow you, not man's opinions, not for man's approval, not because I don't like somebody. I want to follow you because you give me a heart that loves you, that desires you alone. We want to follow Him.

Do you know who all this is not a mystery to? God. God. And whenever I say this, I say this, I hope this comes out right. Leave it there. Don't touch it. I used the example one time of canning and I got in trouble canning. I don't know if everybody here knows this. I tell it myself all the time when I tell this story. My wife's canning, and I didn't know the rules. Cannery's done. Take the cans out, the glass jars, the mason jars. And they got a button on the top of them. I'm a button pusher, just what I am. By nature, I'm a button pusher. If you're not, be thankful. Praise the Lord for it, because I am. I'll push every button I see. Well, I decided I needed to push those tabs down because it wasn't sealed. And my wife flipped. She said, no, you can't do that. You'll mess it up. It has to seal on its own. Well, I thought I was helping. Well, sure enough, not a single one of those things sealed. We ended up putting them in the fridge. We got to eat it because it didn't go bad. We didn't let it go bad. But that's the whole point. When it comes to the things of the Lord, don't touch it. Leave it there. Because as soon as we take or put our hand to anything of the Lord, we just declare his truth. We don't try to assert ourself in it. We mess it up.

Can't explain how God became a man. Can't explain how we've been made the righteousness of God in him right this very second. Can't explain having his spirit indwelling in us. Can't explain having a new nature. Looks to him by faith. I can't explain any of that.

New creature in Christ. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. Can you explain that? No. So what do you do? You declare it and say, okay, Lord, Thank you. To God be the glory. And we follow after him. We follow after him.

Faith just looks to God. It hopes in Christ alone. Believes him alone. It believes his word over anything else. Anything else.

The last question I have for us is this. How do I know if I'm a follower of God or a follower of man? Well, do I follow a man in his opinion? Do I follow a man in his opinion? Or do I follow the Lord? That's the question.

Paul said it like this to the church. I can't remember which church it was, but he said, follow me as I follow Christ. Meaning follow Christ with me. That's what he was saying. Follow Christ with me. He's like, I'm trying to lead us to Christ. Follow Christ with me.

And that's a good way to put it. As a pastor, look to Christ in all things. Pray to Him. Pray for me. Pray for me. It is a position of leadership, but it's not a position of, men use it as like authority and dominance. No, no, my job, my number one job is to lead us to the Lord, to seek His face, to declare His truth. That is my responsibility. If I fail in that, I failed in everything. That's my job. And if the Lord be my strength and my helper till the day that I die, I think that's probably how long I'll have to do this, That's what I desire to do. He's put that desire in my heart.

So don't follow me. Follow Christ with me. As I follow the Lord, follow after him. Follow after him.

How do I know if I'm a follower of God? Well, I'm not following man and his opinion. I'm not following anybody out of pride. I'm following the word of God. I'm following his truth. I want to know what he has said.

Joshua said this, and this is, we're coming to an end here, and this is why I put it here, but Joshua says, if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, to serve, and that word also is follow, it's also follow, if it seems evil unto you to follow the Lord, then choose you this day your gods, whether it be the gods of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Amalekites, and all the other ites, he kept going on. Choose the one that you think's best.

Now he wasn't saying there's a bunch of different gods. He was saying, choose the flavor of God that makes you the happiest. But as for me and my house, we're gonna serve the one true God. We're gonna follow him. We're gonna follow him. We're not gonna follow after what we want.

So ask yourself, are you following after what you want, or does the Lord give you a new want to? to give you a new want to. Do you desire to follow him? Do you desire to seek his face, to know his truth? Do you desire to hear his voice?

Joshua was saying, pick your flavor of the false god you want to serve. They don't exist. They don't exist. Well, the one that makes you feel the best, go ahead. I'm going to serve God because he's God. Do not be deceived, brethren. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If you sow to the flesh, he shall of the flesh reap corruption, but if you sow to the Spirit, he shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

How do you sow to the Spirit? Look to Christ. Follow Him. Desperately seek His face. Get in the Word. Ask Him to reveal Himself. Talk to Him. Pray to Him. If you have nothing else to pray for, pray for me. And I hope you always do, whether you have other things to pray for or not, but pray for one another.

Whenever you cry out unto him, he said, one look, one look from her, my bride, ravishes my heart. The Lord said that about you, his people. Isn't that me? I ravish his heart. That's what he said. That's what he said.

Those who follow God do not have a vendetta, no underlining need or praise of praise or need of approval from man. We desire Christ, all the glory. We desire his approval and we know that approval lights on one person, one person alone, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We are completely a base to nothing, desiring to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's my only hope for salvation.

Ask yourself, does that describe you? If so, then you're following after Christ. You're following after God.

Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would take these words and bless it to our understanding for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.