But beloved, we see also the wonderful working of the Holy Spirit in changing these men. and committing to them the writing of the scripture, some of them, and committing unto them the future, the ministry of the church. And God was able to rule and overrule their weaknesses. So beloved, do not think that you are of a wrong temperament ever to either receive the Lord, especially not to receive the Lord, but then also to serve the Lord. So they're the called. In a way, we would say they're fairly common men, nothing distinguishing them in society. They're busy in the work of the Lord, but the Lord has appointed them. It is the Lord who calls them. He doesn't ask them. He doesn't say, would you like to come and work with me? What does he do? He says, come. Very direct command. And immediately, we see that they responded. They had a very prompt response. When Jesus says, come, they immediately leave everything. Even, we're told that James and John leave their father, Zebedee. And Jesus says later that he does come at times to guide families. That shouldn't be our aim. It should not be our goal to divide families, but the gospel often does do just that as the Lord calls people out of the world and into his kingdom. So here we notice particularly they have a very prompt response and no questions asked. We want to focus this morning on the calling. The Lord Jesus says, follow me. Again, effectual calling is a command, not a request. And the Lord calls all men everywhere to repent. And in a way he expects a prompt response. And we also realize from reading the biographies of Christians that not everyone comes immediately. Do they? Some people struggle with a guilt of sin. for a long period of time as they come to understand the greatness of the grace of God. But a prompt response is the very best response, isn't it? How is it then that we follow the Lord Jesus? We have the command. Jesus comes and says, follow me. What does it mean, beloved, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We hear his command, follow me. How are you going to obey that? One of the first ways, and there are, in a way we can say it's all of the Christian life, but let's focus in this morning on a few particulars. One of them involves self-denial. We have these words of Jesus to his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? The Lord says, In order to follow me, you must die to yourself. He says coming up in the Sermon on the Mount in the next few chapters, no man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will love the one and hate the other. It's impossible, you cannot serve God and mammon. So we have to die to ourselves and trust God. completely in the Lord, to provide for us even materially, but provide especially for the welfare of your soul. Isn't your committing your soul, the very essence of who you are, to a holy and sovereign, but loving and gracious God? You will not be a loser in a transaction like that. and it is to believe that God will care for your soul in all events, that He loves you and has compassion upon you. Just reflecting this past week on how this verse, I think actually it was from the reference in Mark. Some of you may remember That verse was painted on the sign side of an old grain elevator as you drove into Edmonton from the south. Beautiful testimony. Every time you came into Edmonton, you would read on this large grain elevator right beside Calgary Trail, what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? and wondered about that testimony. And whoever owned that, and I have no idea of the history behind that, but he would have it repainted every once in a while so that it was readable. And here came all these people driving to Edmonton. In a time of financial prosperity, it was good for them to hear that warning, wasn't it? It was good for all of us as we drove by. Coming to Edmonton perhaps, perhaps to visit, but perhaps to do business. What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world? The Lord prospers business, but he lose his own soul. And how many people drove past that day by day and it just became a routine thing and they were able just to ignore it. But some we trust took heed. The Lord uses means and perhaps arrested their soul and made them think, I'm going into Edmonton today to do business. What shall it profit me? if I'm successful in this transaction, but I have no regard for my soul. And we trust that the Lord will have used those good things. But how important it is and how drastic this is, dying to self and committing the soul to Christ. Four times in the gospels, the Lord says, take up your cross. Follow me, take up your cross, dying to self, living to Christ. And that's something that is completely opposite to what we are inclined to do. We're very much inclined to guard our own souls and keep our own souls in our own strength because who knows my soul better than me? But beloved, when you recognize that Christ is able to save and keep your soul through all eternity, through his dying, his resurrection. These are glorious things. But we follow Christ by dying to ourselves. We follow Christ by sacrifice, by sacrificial living. Remember the rich young ruler who came to the Lord Jesus, and what must I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord Jesus says, keep the 10 commandments. So all these have I kept from my youth up, no problem. I've been a good boy since I was little. I've always done everything that you've told me to do. But Jesus, being God, knew his heart, didn't he? And he struck at the very thing that he had not given over to the Lord. He thought he had given much over to the Lord. He knew his heart, and Jesus said, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. We can't take this as an absolute command that all of us have to sell everything that we have. But he knew that that young man, his heart was tied to his bank account, so to speak. His heart was tied to his earthly possessions. And he was not willing to yield those for the sake of Christ. And Jesus said, this one thing I want you to do. And that man walked away from Christ very sad, and he at that point at least, was not willing to leave all of his possessions. The Lord Jesus calls us when you follow him to so without excuse. If you turn with me to the book of Luke, the gospel of Luke chapter nine, in verse 57, Luke 9, verse 57, and it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. What a great spirit this man has. Wherever you go, I'm willing to follow you. And Jesus, rather than being very quick to sign him up, so to speak, he almost seems to push him away, doesn't he? He says, I want you to count the cost. Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. You're gonna follow me, your circumstances are gonna change in the way that you live. We may be looking for a place to sleep at night. That's the offer of following. Another one, the Lord Jesus says to him, follow me, verse 59. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. And of course, we're not supposed to ignore the needs of the dead, we know that. But why did he mention this? It's an excuse, isn't it? I've got things to do before I can follow you. They're important things. Jesus, I don't think Jesus would have forbade him and said, well, you know, if you're too busy for me, no. But he presents this immediately as an excuse. Suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus replies by saying, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. So leave them to their work. Don't present excuses to the Lord. Another also said, verse 61, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. So again, he wanted to establish those relationships. What an example John and James are, aren't they? They immediately left their father with his servants. and said, God is going to take care of Father's business. Everything will be in good order. We're not essential to Father's business because Christ has called us. So there is the idea of following Christ without excuse. Beloved, lay aside all your excuses. I can't serve Christ now because of this or because of that. Serve the Lord with your whole heart, your whole being. when you consider all that he has done for you. Beloved, we first follow Christ when we listen to the voice of the shepherd. Please turn over to John's gospel and chapter 10. John chapter 10. Where the Lord Jesus speaks of The great shepherd himself is the good shepherd. Verse four, and when he put it forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. The stranger will they not follow but will flee from him for they know not the voice of strangers. In verse 27, he says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So they hear, they're listening for the voice of the Lord Jesus. They hear the voice, they distinguish that from a false teacher, one who offers them hope for their soul, which is only vain, which appears to be very religious, but sets aside the true Christ. Isn't that true, beloved? Do you listen for the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ? We're not talking about some spiritism here or a strange spiritual experience. But as you're acquainted with the word of God, you know what's true. You know what's false. As you, uh, are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who will guide you into all truth. He'll give you wisdom in discerning what the scriptures say, and to hear the voice of your master. Where Christ goes, I must follow. And praying, also, do you pray that you will hear well the voice of your master, that you won't be distracted by something that sounds very good, but is not, in reality, not the real thing. listening for the voice of the master, listening to the voice of the shepherd. And the false shepherds do not care for your soul. Isn't it beautiful the way the Lord Jesus describes himself as the shepherd? Peter calls him the shepherd and bishop of your souls. He cares for his people. And when you follow him, you will know his good care for your soul. When you turn over to John chapter 15, We read Christ's exhortation to abide in him. John 15 verse 4, abide in me and I in you. And the word abide here is a word we don't use so very much, but it means to remain. Don't wander away. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. Verse seven, he says, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. abiding in Christ, remaining in him, dwelling in him. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, Paul says. Here's Christ, you abiding in Christ and his words abiding in you, dwelling with you, becoming part of your everyday life, abiding in Christ. Now Satan hates to see you abiding in Christ. Now, true, he wants to lead you astray, lead you somewhere else, because there's comfort, joy, and peace in abiding in Christ. So beware of that temptation when he wants to draw you away to something perhaps more interesting, more fascinating, more, he would say, more thrilling. Beloved, where are you in Christ today? It's a hymn that says, I guess more of a solo type of number, all that thrills my heart is Jesus. Isn't that a beautiful expression? Nothing that thrills my heart like the Lord Jesus. We had the privilege of going to hear a beautiful oratorio on Friday night called The Creation by Joseph Haydn. Just a wonderful piece of music. You know, and I tried to prepare for this by listening to the music. It's not the same. You're sitting there at a live performance and the words and the music just come alive with the praise and the glory of Christ in his creation, in his having made creation, having brought together Adam and Eve, just glorious and delightful. I tend to be one of those people that music moves me. It's hard for me to sit still sometimes when I listen to music. So I was getting kind of involved with things. But the music does that. The music and the words, the words of this is my God, my Savior who created everything around me, created it all perfectly. And it moves my heart to think about what God did. The world has all kinds of thrills and entertainments, but beloved, what thrills your heart more than You know, the world is making movies to entice us, right? They have to make them more and more thrilling in order for us to go, right? Because if you just wait a few months, they show up on your TV or DVD or whatever. So they have to have 3D, and they have to have surround sound, and they have to have an experience. They call it that. It's an experience. And they're trying to thrill you. But when you go, beloved, how often is it a lacking experience? There's nothing deep here. It does something to my senses. There's no question it's marvelous in its technology. But does it thrill your soul the way the Lord Jesus himself does? To read the scriptures and to have your souls thrilled with the beauty of his holiness. This is what it is to abide in Christ. This is my life. And then the Lord Jesus calls us also to follow him if necessary to death and possibly even the death of martyrdom. We don't want to dwell on those things. It's possible. It's usually a very few number that are actually called to suffer for Christ to the death. We read of that, as we've read of the calling of Peter, we turn to John chapter 21, we read of the Lord appointing the manner in which Christ, sorry, the manner in which Peter is going to die. John 21 verse 18, verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou is 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. And here he's not just speaking about old age and needing help. But the Bible says, this spake, he signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, follow me. Follow me even though it may mean your death at the hands of the ungodly. Notice Peter's response here. tend to deflect the hard things of the Lord, right, and move them. This is starting to grip my heart, and I feel like I want something else to think about for a while. Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. So, beloved, it's a very dramatic thing when you hear the words of Jesus, not just The historical words that he said to Peter and Andrew, follow me. James and John, follow me. But when you hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and he says to you, follow me. Leave all of the vanity of this life. There's nothing there for you, follow me. Though all of the crowds are going on that broad road that leads to destruction, follow me. And the Lord doesn't hide anything from you. He said it's a narrow way. It's straight. You have to edge your way through. Sometimes you might have to turn sideways to get through. It's a narrow way. And there are few there be that find it. These are the hardships. We like to have friends. And there are times when we have to say no to our friends for the sake of the gospel, not just to be obstinate, not just to be contrary, But to know in your heart, Christ doesn't want me to go to that place. Christ doesn't want me to company with sinners where I don't have a testimony there. Where I'm not there appointed by the Lord to do good for the sake of the kingdom. Those are hard things, aren't they? It's hard to have to say no sometimes to your closest friends. sometimes even James and John, to their own father, to family members, to say, my Savior won't allow me. They're hard things. They're not done without prayer, beloved. They're not done without an earnest depending upon the Lord. And I think probably I can say I've done it wrongly, I've done it badly. sometimes with too much personal animosity, but to do it with a love and compassion for the souls to whom you have to say no. Say, I'm doing this because I love my savior. Really, I'm doing it because I love your soul as well. I want you to be in the kingdom of God. I want you to follow Christ with me. Beloved, it's a difficult thing to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, difficult in the flesh. You cannot do it without the help of the Holy Spirit, without a love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And that love is based on the knowledge of what Christ has done for you. And it becomes very specific. Christ has died for my sins. Can you say that? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descended from heaven so that my sins would be forgiven, so that he would give to me hope of heaven. Beloved as we consider the consequence of this we've just considered primarily this morning this command of Christ follow me at all expense follow me die to yourself follow me. What will Jesus do? It's not a conditional statement of course, he commands and he gives the ability to fulfill that command, the desire to follow him and to lay all of the beauty and the pleasures of life behind for the sake of the richer and greater beauties of the gospel. But he says, follow me, what will Jesus do? And I will make you fishers of men. So often we have this command, be fishers of men. Be fishers of men, and some of those are, Thomas Boston wrote a wonderful book about man fishing, and it's a very commendable book. But it's Jesus who makes you a fisher of men. He says to you, follow me, follow me. And we ought to look for opportunities to present the gospel, but that may look a little bit different sometimes than what you may expect as well. So it's important to understand following Christ will result in being fishes of men. Some will be more successful, if I can use that word, in a spiritual way. Some will be very, the fruit of their labors will be very, very evident, and we'll bless the Lord that the Lord does make some very fruitful in that labor. but it's Christ that makes fishers of men. It's Christ's work in you, not your work for Christ, isn't it? Does that change the perspective a little bit, what you do? And beloved, all who are in Christ have a testimony. They have something to say of what Christ has done for them. And we have to just be free with that declaration, with that awareness, so that we forget even who we're talking to and just say, the Lord has done great things for my soul of whereof I'm glad. Remember the man in John chapter nine, the man born blind? And he was already under the judgment of men when the disciples said, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Still haven't figured out how he could do sins that he would be born blind. But anyway, that was the question of the disciples. Judgment here, this is God's judgment if you're born blind. But Jesus went ahead and healed him. And the Pharisees and scribes were watching all this, all around. And they said, we've got to get Jesus on account of this. We've got to use this against him. And so they cornered the man. So what happened to you? And he said, I don't know, who is this Jesus? I don't know. What happened to you? He said, all I can tell you is this morning I was blind, now I can see. Jesus gave me sight. That's very simple testimony. And when you read through John chapter 9, a beautiful passage, his simple testimony embroils and inflames the Pharisees, makes them very, very angry. And all these, I don't know, it's great. I was blind before, now I can see. And he gets a little bit sarcastic there in a way. And so they keep pressing him for information. What exactly happened here? He said, are ye blind? Would ye see also? He says to them, just kind of putting it back in their plate, right? He says, oh, maybe you're the ones there, but maybe you're the ones that need to have your sight restored. And to good effect. So there's, I don't know, I can't give you a doctoral dissertation. I can't give you a big theological treatise about what happened. Don't you have a testimony like that, beloved? I was blind. I was born blind. I had nothing to commend me to a holy God. And God had mercy upon me and gave me spiritual sight. And he's enabled me to see Christ in all of his glory. The Christ that I once hated, I now love. The Christ who was once my judge is now my elder brother. And it's glorious. I have peace with a holy God. And that peace comes to me through Jesus Christ, who's had mercy upon my soul. And I bless his name every day for all of the benefits that he gives me day to day. Beloved, as we consider these things, You have a testimony. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. They know that you have a heavenly Father, even not just by the way you live, but by your verbal testimony as well. They know that you don't belong to yourself, that you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ who has loved you and given his life for you. So when we think to apply these things, which we have been along the way already, When you focus your life, are you trusting that it's God who's going to make you a fisher of men? That the Lord calls upon you to follow him, forsaking all others. Isn't that a beautiful gospel aspect to our marriage vows? Forsaking all others. The husband says to his wife and the wife says to her husband. Isn't that really that comes out of the gospel, isn't it? We forsake all others for the sake of our master, our loving husband. Beloved, we ought to be aware of our need of the Lord's help, even in following him. We can't follow him without his help, isn't it really coming down to what you desire? What do you desire for your soul? Do you desire to follow Christ? That is everything, isn't it? If God has placed that desire in your heart, and you're desiring to follow the Christ of the Scriptures, the God of the Bible, then as that becomes difficult, and it will become difficult as you are confronted with temptations to draw aside, you will need the Lord's help, even in following. And then ask the Lord, make me a fisher of men. Make me one whose words and lives draw men to the Savior. Make me attractive to those who are apart from Christ, who are lost in sin, who know the darkness of sin and desire to be released, who feel the burden of the weight and the guilt of sin and want that burden lifted. May I be one, a beacon to direct them to the Lord Jesus Christ. In closing exhortation, beloved, next Lord's Day we gather in the appointed time for the Lord's Supper. We want to come together and we want to eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood, spiritually speaking. Is it your earnest desire to follow Christ? Isn't that the primary injunction we have before us this day? Do you desire to follow Christ and to see in Him and in Him alone the forgiveness of your sins and the beauty of His way of salvation? Let us pray. Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee also for Thy promised Holy Spirit, who enables us to obey and respond to that command. We ask of Thee this day that we may respond with loving hearts, with joy in having been released from the guilt of our sin. the joy of knowing the glory and the beauty of heaven and the grandeur of thy holiness. Lord, fill us with thoughts of who thou art and who the Lord Jesus is and what he has done for his church. Lord, hear our prayer this day. Make us to be faithful followers. Will Thou be pleased to make us fishers of men? We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen.