We want to read from the scriptures now in the Gospel of Matthew, and the chapter 4 in Matthew's Gospel, the Gospel of Matthew, and the chapter 4, reading from the second half of this chapter. The early part of Matthew chapter 4, of course, contains the account of the temptation of Christ. We take up the narrative at verse 12. Matthew chapter 4 and verse 12, Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee, and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephilim. that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephilim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up." From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going on from thence he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy. And he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan." We end the reading there at the close of the chapter. May the Lord bless each and every heart of reading of His own precious Word here today. My text today is to be found in the well-known words of the verse 19, Matthew chapter 4. And He, that is the Lord Jesus, saith unto them, Follow me. and I will make you fishers of men." The words spoken on this occasion were remarkable, chiefly because of the circumstances in which they were uttered. You may recall how the Lord Jesus Christ had announced His mission as Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel. However, this preaching ministry was not to be carried through by Christ alone. And so early in his public life, the Lord sought for a band of men who would stand with him and share in the burden of evangelism. Who would think of searching for such in a small fishing village in an obscure part of this vassal country. Who but Christ? It is Paul who reminds us that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God has chosen the foolish things of the world, the weak things, the base things, the things which are not. And so the Savior recruited his choicest servants from among the fishermen in the service of God. It is not what you are. but what you may become that matters. You may disqualify yourself from being actively engaged in God's work because of your social status, your educational shortcomings, or your limited abilities. When we say such things of ourselves, In many instances they are true, perhaps more true than we would like to admit. But I say again, it is not what we are, but what God can make us into that counts. The import of our text and its bearing upon us is simply that In consequence of our being in fellowship with Christ, we become fishers of men. That is the calling of the Christian. And we are guilty of denying that calling if we show no real concern for the unsafe. Now I want to just look at the words here, very familiar words in verse 19, and as we Focus on what the Savior said to these men. There are three simple things that I would identify for you. First of all, let me point out that in this there is a captain to follow. A captain to follow. He saith unto them, follow me. The essence of being a Christian is to follow Christ. That's what it's all about. Being a Christian in practical terms means that we follow Christ. Peter and Andrew were asked to forsake their former life in order to come and follow Him. Of course, we believe that these men were already associated with the Lord. We believe a change had already taken place in their lives. The Lord is here calling them to be His apostles. But the point is that the Christian is not just called to believe in Christ, he is called to be a servant to his Master, to be a soldier in the battle, to be a sower of the seed. He is called to follow Christ, to leave the old ways behind, and to set off down a new road in the company of the Savior. The true Christian is always a follower of Christ. That is how you can distinguish between the true and the counterfeit. The genuine believer is, in every situation, seeking to follow after Christ. I wonder if that is our object as we review the details of our own lives here this morning. Are we seeking to follow Christ? What does it mean? What does it mean to follow Christ? Well, let me suggest a number of lines of thought in response to that question. First of all, it means to make yourself over to Christ. To be ready to do anything that He requires of you. To have come to that place where you recognize that Christ has the disposing of everything that you have. Your time, your talents, your strength, your very being. We were singing of this in the hymn just a few moments ago, Take My Life. And let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. And then, of course, in the lines and the verses that follow, we have how this applies in a very practical way to all that we have and all that we are. How does the Savior put it? We have His words a little further over in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 24. Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after me, in other words, if any man will follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. There is a denying of self. There is, in other words, a subjugating of every selfish interest in order to go after the Lord. In another context, It was just that requirement that caused the rich young ruler to go back. If we turn the page once more in Matthew's Gospel, this time we're in chapter 19. And you'll remember this conversation which the Lord had with this young man who was very interested and very zealous in relation to many aspects of spiritual life. The Lord challenged him. about the commandments and the necessity to keep those commandments. And in verse 20, the young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, 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. Follow me. In essence, of course, what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying to this young man is, this is what it will mean for you if you are really going to follow Me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. The young man was not willing to do it. He could not bear the thought of losing his possessions. He could not live without His money and all that it might bring. I'm not saying this morning that we will ever be asked to give up every material possession. We may not. But if Christ should ask that of us, we must be ready to do it. Following Him must be our priority. If we are going to follow Christ in the way that He desires, then that means the making of our lives over to Him and the laying of those lives on the altar. May I say furthermore, this morning, to follow Christ means to abide in His company. To abide in His company. The company of Christ must be the permanent abode of the child of God. In every situation, follow Christ. Under all circumstances, follow Christ. At every season, follow Christ. The earthly ministry of the Savior and indeed the subsequent history of the church, both in the New Testament and beyond, is littered positively littered with examples of those who followed Christ for a time. And then they stopped. They stopped. We have a very telling illustration of that over there in John's Gospel in chapter 6. This is a very lengthy chapter and if you go almost to the end, We find the Savior teaching, of course, here. He has been brought to teach on the whole subject of the bread of life. Of course, Christ is the bread of life. He is sufficient to meet the spiritual appetite of every man. And by and by, as He taught very directly and very plainly on this subject, there were those who could not stomach, if I may put it like that, they could not stomach what He was setting before them. And we read in verse 66, of John 6, from that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Such was the teaching of the Savior and so stringent were the requirements that He was now setting before these people who professed to be His followers that they could not take any more. And so they did not follow Him to the end. Is it any wonder? If the Savior looked then to those who were closest to Him, in verse 67, He spoke to them and He said, Will ye also go away? Are you going to leave Me as well? This is a question that has to be asked again and again and again. My dear fellow believer in this gathering this morning, how closely are we walking with the Lord? How closely are we walking with Him? I think that a most wonderful statement in John's vision of heaven over there in the last book of Scripture, the book of Revelation. And in the chapter 14, and the verse 4, we have these words, Revelation 14 and verse 4, These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. These are they, right in the center of that verse. These are they which follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth. Isn't that beautiful? And that's the ideal, you know, not just in what we have described for us here in a heaven that is future. But right now, on this earth and in this world, that's what we must be striving for. To go on, to go after, to go through with Christ. Just to be in His company. To abide with Him. And of course, in that way, to follow Him. Furthermore, let me point out today that to follow Christ means to place yourself under His authority. Place yourself under His authority. Isn't it true to say that many claim to be followers of Christ, when in fact they are but a law unto themselves? They do as they please. They make their decisions and they determine how they're going to conduct themselves in life, often without the slightest reference to the wishes of Him whom they profess to serve. Obedience to the commands of Christ, that is the supreme test, the ultimate test of our discipleship. We can say what we like, we can claim to be this or profess to be that, but if we are always flouting the orders that are given to us by our captain, we cannot really say that we are following him. And the truth of the matter is, dear child of God, there may be times when the Lord will lay His hand upon us and direct us to go down a road that we would never choose. He may be commissioning us to engage in some form of servants that we shrink away from. But ours is not to reason why. Ours is to obey without question, without argument, without complaint. I often think of that little detail that is given to us there in Paul's first letter to the Galatians. where he talks about his own experience and the way the Lord had led him. In Galatians chapter 1 verse 15, if we break in there, he says, When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Paul is speaking of that time when he was directed down to the wilderness or the desert, if you like, away from every other influence. The Lord said, I want to bring you to this place. I want to deal with you there. I have something to say to you. Paul might have thought that a very strange request. And the temptation might have been to confer with others and to seek the advice of those who were longer on the road, but the Lord was speaking to him so definitely and so directly that he knew he had to obey. And he didn't question because he had placed himself under the authority of the Lord. What wilt thou have me? to do. May I say also that to follow Christ means to commune with Him, listening to His voice. It is only the true followers of the Lord who hear what He has to say. Do you ever think that a very great part of what is recorded in the Gospel record was not heard by the multitudes? You can work that out for yourself if you go through the Gospel record and think of all of those places where Christ is teaching. Very, very often He is teaching just a handful. Oh yes, there are occasions where there were great crowds, but more often than not it was just His disciples or maybe even on a one-to-one basis or just two or three. What he was saying was not heard by the multitude simply because they were not with him at that time. They had not followed him as they might. Communion with Christ will be a shallow and empty thing unless there is a following of him, a going with him all the way. So that we're always there ready to listen, ready to hear. Savior said, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but he will have the light of life. Are you following Christ in that way, communing with Him, listening for His voice? And then there is one other thing I will mention before moving on, but to follow Christ really means to emulate His example. To emulate his example, I think immediately of that statement that we find in 1 Peter 2 at the end of the chapter where Peter, of course, is trying to encourage the believers in a very difficult period for them. They were subject to persecution. They were being spoken against and acted against in a whole variety of ways. From the very beginning of this letter, he talks about the trial of their faith. It was a very trying time, a very testing time for them. How are they to respond to that? Well, in verse 21 of chapter 2, 1 Peter 2, 21, For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps. Following Christ means emulating His example. Now, there's a context here. And of course, what Peter is saying has to do with the way in which the Lord Jesus Christ responded to persecution. People spoke against him, they railed against him, they hounded him to the cross. He did not call down on them vengeance from heaven. He suffered, he bore it, he endured it with long suffering. And Peter is saying you need to respond in the same way. But I'm suggesting to you today that this principle can be applied across the board. Christ has left us an example that we should follow His steps. Following Christ means emulating His example. If you look at Christ in the Scriptures, look at Him as a boy, look at Him as a young man, look at Him in His years of maturity, in every situation, in every relationship, He is the example to follow. We have a captain to follow. Jesus said, follow me. Follow me. And then we look at our text again, and the second thing I want to mention, and it will be much more brief, but the second thing I want to draw your attention to, we have here a character to fashion. Not only a captain to follow, but a character to fashion. Jesus said unto them, follow me and I will make you Fishers and men. I'm emphasizing, of course, these words, I will make you. As the believer follows, the Lord does a work in his or her life. The words that we have here translated, I will make you, one meaning of that Greek term is to cause someone to become. To cause someone to become. The work of God in the lives of His children does not end at the moment of conversion. The Bible teaches, of course, that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. But God continues to work. However, it's only as we present ourselves to Him and as we truly follow Christ that He can do all the work that He desires. The testimony of Scripture is clear to the end that God does work and continues to work in the hearts and lives of His people. Philippians, in the opening chapter of that letter, Philippians chapter 1, familiar words, we have referred to them before, verse 6, being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Here's Paul writing to these believers at Philippi, and he says, I'm sure, I'm confident that the God who has started out working in you, He has begun His work. He's going to carry that work on until the end. Until the day when Christ comes again. In chapter 2 and verse 13, it is God which worketh in you, or is working in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. God is working. in His people. We cannot just say God has worked. He is working in His people. Seeking to lead them forward in holiness. Seeking to conform them more and more to Christ. Seeking to enlighten them concerning the great responsibility of bearing witness to the Kingdom of God. He is working. And yet His work in some hearts is not as it might be. Because they are following Christ intermittently, half-heartedly, at a distance. In fact, they are resisting the work of God, and so the degree of God's working in their lives is so much the less. Dear child of God, we must follow Christ fully. We must follow Him closely, constantly, if God is to do with us as He wills. How does God work in His people? Well, He does it, first of all, by His Spirit. He does it by His Spirit. Paul talks about this in that wonderful chapter, 1 Corinthians 12. This chapter is about the body and individual Christians as members of that body. He uses the physical body to illustrate what the church is and what believers are as they are part of that church. In 1 Corinthians 12, he says, for example, in verse 4, there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministrations, but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations, but it's the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit, verse 7, is given to every man to profit withal. Verse 11, "...all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." Paul is talking here about God continuing to work in individual believers by His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God's agent in the life of a believer. It is the Spirit who seeks to promote divine interest within our souls. But remember this, He is a person. The Holy Spirit is a person. And because the Holy Spirit is a person, that means He can be grieved. He can be resistant. His work can be hindered. His influence can be quenched. And what a tragedy, what a travesty when that happens in the life of one who claims to follow Christ. And so the question we must all address this morning is this. Am I cooperating? Am I cooperating with the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life? Am I responding willingly and promptly to His leading? Because God wants to work in me by His Spirit. And then God works through the Scriptures. Not only by the Spirit, by His Spirit, but through the Scriptures. Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, and he recalled the way in which the Lord had worked in the hearts and lives of these people. It thrilled his soul just to think of what had been done. And in the first letter, in chapter 2, verse 13, he says, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye receive the word of God which ye heard of us, You received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that belief." God had worked and was working in the lives of these people through the Scriptures. I want to emphasize to you, dear believer, this morning that it is still God's intention to work in you through the Scriptures. You never engage with God's Word. If you set aside the study of the Scriptures in a personal and prayerful way, you're shutting the door on one way that God wants to work in your soul. We cannot expect to thrive as Christians if we are not prepared to hear and to heed God's Word. Remember what the Lord Jesus said to those who listened? He said, If ye continue in my Word, Then are ye my disciples indeed. We've got to continue in the Word. We've got to make use of every opportunity given to us to engage with God's Word, whether that Word is read or heard or preached. God wants to work through the Scriptures. Then when God works, he will do it thirdly with certain signs. Certain signs. When God is working, the evidence will be there. It'll be there in the character and in the attitude and the behavior of the person concerned. If you look at that person, you will expect to find increasing grace in that life. You'll expect to find a faith that is growing. We're none of us so filled with faith that we have no room for more. Oftentimes our faith is weak and wavering and fickle. We need to have more faith. Lord, increase our faith. When God is working, you will see an individual who is enthusiastic and an individual who is made able to serve. We need that. We need enthusiasm. We need a fervency of spirit. We need to serve the Lord so that nothing is a burden to us. Oh, that God would work in us See us following after Christ and begin to renew us and make us more and more what we ought to be. So we have a captain to follow. We have a character to fashion. And then, of course, very obviously, if you look at the text, you will see we have a calling to fish. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. The consequences of our following Christ and of God working in us? Well, the consequence is that we become fishers of men. We become fishers of men. It's a wonderful image, this idea of fishermen going about their business. And the more you think of it, the more you will realize how appropriate it is for one who is participating in the service of God. The fisherman labors when others sleep. And the true servant of the Lord will see that there is work to be done while others cannot see it. They are oblivious to it. We live in an age and in a time when there is so much to be done in the service of God, not least in reaching out to the souls of men. But there are believers and they cannot see it. The work of the fisherman is a dangerous work and a difficult work. It's a hazardous occupation. And it is not easy if we're going to serve the Lord aright. But of course the fisherman must labor in faith. Gets in his boat and out he goes and he doesn't know from one journey to the next what exactly he will gather in or whether he will gather anything at all. He must go in faith. And that's how we must step out in serving the Lord. We must go in faith, trusting the Lord to bless, depending on His benevolence, His purpose. Then, of course, the fisherman needs to go to where the fish are. Not only must he set sail on the open water, but he must go to the place where he knows the fish will be. There will be productive grounds there. Other places will be of no account. As the Lord enables us and in every legitimate way we have got to reach out, we have got to go to where folk are. Meet them where they are. The Lord Jesus Christ went to where people were. Now we could spend many, many hours following through these ideas, and no doubt there are many others you can add to them, but let's not miss the point. We are to be fishers of men. That's what the Savior said. Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. Your calling is to reach out to men. men and women, young people, boys and girls, those who have needs that can only be met as and when they are brought into confrontation with Christ. You've got to go and gather them in. If we are not fishers of men, if we do not do this work, We might say it's because God is not working in us as He might. And if He is not so working, then that is because we are not following Christ. That's the root of the matter. The whole purpose of God's work in us and of our following Christ is that we might become fissures of man. We might be those whom the Lord will use in reaching out to others. Oh, my dear fellow believer, may it be for us in due course as it was for those men on that occasion when the Savior directed them to go and cast out the net again. And even though they had failed already, The Savior ordered it that they gathered in such a great number of fish that their nets break. May it be so for us. May the Lord bless all our endeavors and help us to follow the Savior.