The ABC’s of the Christian Life (3): Following Jesus unto Salvation (1)

Bibles to Mark chapter 8, and we're going to get there eventually.

In fact, it's going to be a while before we get to Mark 8, so maybe you ought to first turn to Isaiah 35.

Now, in our study of the basic principles of Christian living, which we began three Sundays

ago, we spent the first two

Lord's Day dealing with the initial coming to Christ for salvation.

But having come to Christ and repentance and faith, what are we then to do

as new Christians, let's say?

And so we want to say very simply, after coming to Christ, we are now to follow Christ.

That's not that difficult, is it?

We come to Him, but we're not just coming to Him in faith, we're coming to Him with the intention and

purpose to follow Him, or to follow after Him.

And every true Christian does, and every true Christian should.

And so we may see this responsibility for those who come unto Him quite clearly in the Word of God.

Now, in addressing this subject of the Christian life, and again we're

referring to this as the ABCs of the Christian life, I'm attempting to do more than just

explain what it is we're to do.

Oftentimes, this is how we think as human beings, just tell me what I'm supposed to do.

We're little legalists at heart, and I try and avoid

that, giving lists of things that we're to do, although that's important in its

place.

It's also important for us to understand why we're to do what we do.

And so this is a little bit more complex.

And so in our dealing with the ABCs of the Christian faith, I'm not trying to be too simplistic.

I'm trying to be simple in one sense, but I'm trying to be a little broader, to give us a broader

perspective of these matters.

And so this isn't just for new Christians, but it's for us that might have been in the Lord a while longer.

And so we not only want to analyze the truth, and what analyzing is, is basically taking a

subject and breaking it down into smaller parts, so that we understand the subject.

And a lot of what we do is analyzing.

But we want to do more than just analyze, we want to synthesize, we want to bring the parts back together, so we can

see the whole, see the bigger picture of matters.

So we can see the world through God's, from God's perspective, to understand

better what it is, and why it is He would have us do what we do.

And so we can better understand what God is doing through history.

Ultimately we want to stand back and understand this.

It's more than just me and Jesus, you know, in my Bible.

But we should try and understand God, and who He is, and what He's like, but also what He's doing

through history.

And this matter of following Jesus, I think, is an all -encompassing theme that we find

throughout the Bible.

And I want to show that in the beginning this morning, before we get into detail as to what it means to

follow Jesus.

And so in order that we might better understand our subject, we might consider this matter of following

Christ from different vantage points.

And first I want us to consider two Old Testament passages, both in Isaiah, which

will enable us, Lord willing, to see the larger picture of matters.

And then secondly, we will consider a number of instances in which the Lord

Jesus told various persons during His earthly ministry to follow Him.

But then thirdly, Lord willing, if we have the time, we'll zero in on one particular passage, I think, that

is very specific and all -encompassing as far as what it is to follow Him.

And so let's consider two Old Testament passages which speak of the Lord leading His people as they follow Him.

And I've selected Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 52, most of Isaiah 52, all of

Isaiah 35.

Now I might say this, I should have probably put it in my notes, but they're long enough as it is.

You know the early churches, you know, for the first three, four decades didn't have a New Testament.

Yes, Paul's, you know, maybe earliest letter, A .D. 50, that's still 20 years after the crucifixion

and resurrection of Christ.

And some of the other epistles later, John's gospel and his

epistles wasn't written until 60 years after the resurrection, up in the 90s A .D.

We have a tremendous privilege and advantage to those early churches because we

have a New Testament.

But they had scriptures too.

They had the Hebrew scriptures.

They had what we have as our Old Testament.

And when those churches gathered on the Lord's Day, in those first decades, they opened up

what we have as our Old Testament and they preached Christ from that.

They saw from the Old Testament Christ

and what they were experiencing through faith in Him as having been foretold in the Old Testament.

I might just interject this offhand.

I'm always talking about this.

I believe it's because of the sincere but errant views of dispensationalism.

The Old Testament has been largely removed from the thinking and the mind of most

evangelicals.

Well, the Old Testament's for Jews, the New Testament's for Christians.

And that's just not the case.

The Old Testament is Christian scripture.

In fact, it was Peter who declared that all of those things were written, not for them, but through the prophets were written

for us.

And so I am confident that the Apostle Paul picked up Isaiah 35

and preached Christ in New Testament Christianity.

And he did the same with Isaiah 52 because there are some words in Isaiah 35 and

Isaiah 52 that may be found in Paul's epistles, which clearly reveal he was,

you know, he was alluding to these passages that spoke to this Christian

life that we are currently enjoying.

And so let's consider Isaiah 35.

There are 10 verses.

Isaiah 35, again, might at first appear to be an irrelevant passage to our subject.

You're talking about following Jesus, and you're going back to Isaiah 35.

Well, here we read of God's promise to a remnant of Israel, a small surviving number

of Jews who had undergone God's judgment for their sin.

And we're talking about the sixth century BC.

Isaiah had previously predicted God's destruction of his people in Jerusalem through his use of the

Babylonian armies, a significant event in history.

And this occurred in 587 BC, for Israel had broken its

Mosaic Covenant, and the curses of God came upon Israel.

And through God's judgment, the land had been decimated, Jerusalem destroyed, and the temple razed to the ground.

But Isaiah also foretold that after 70 years of exile, God would extend

mercy to this remnant of Jews who were living in Babylon, and bring them to experience his

salvation from judgment.

The time would come when God would deliver his people from Babylon, and this deliverance

from Babylon is mentioned in many places in the Prophets.

And a number of times it's set forth as a second exodus.

The first exodus, Israel coming out of Egypt, traveling through the wilderness onto the promised land.

This second exodus, people coming out of Babylon, traveling through desert,

wilderness, in order to travel back to Jerusalem.

And so God promised through Isaiah and others that he would send a deliverer, the Messiah,

who would bring them out of captivity.

Now in the historic setting, bringing a remnant back from Babylon, he raised up Cyrus, a

Persian king, a pagan king, and he set forth as an anointed one.

He was a type of Jesus Christ who would later come to deliver his people.

Well again, they would then journey after they escaped Babylon, after Babylon was destroyed, and they were

allowed to escape their slavery.

They would journey through the wilderness to their homeland.

Again, just as Israel once had journeyed from Egypt, through the wilderness, to their promised

land.

And God declared through his prophet that he would lead them, and that they would follow him.

And there you have the idea.

These exiles being released from Babylon, and they're now following, as it were, God who is

going before them and going behind them, just like the Shekinah Glory leading Israel through the

wilderness out of Egypt, even onto the promised land.

And so he would lead them, and he would follow them, even as he directed them and provided for them in their return.

And so he would lead them to their promised land, even Jerusalem, that he would rebuild for them.

But the Lord had a greater, far -reaching message through Isaiah's words, than just a literal

return of some Jews from literal Babylon, to literal Jerusalem, and a

literal rebuilt temple.

This salvation that Isaiah is talking about, both in Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 52, if you read it

carefully, you'll see it's not just a physical deliverance from slavery.

From a physical captivity, a deliverance from enslavement in the capital city of Babylon, to the liberty of

living in their homeland of Israel, in a restored city of Jerusalem.

Our dispensational friends, that's all they see, though.

And they actually project it even, they claim it's taken place now, since the foundation of Israel in

1948, and Jews returning to the land.

But the Jews that are returning here that are mentioned, they're all redeemed.

They're all holy.

He's not talking about unconverted people, returning to a literal, physical

Israel.

He's talking about the redeemed of the Lord, traveling a highway of holiness, onto their final

destination, a heavenly Zion.

And this is how the early churches would preach these passages.

And so Isaiah 35, and other places also, are very rich, and yet

they're so obscure.

People don't see them.

They don't see the glory in them.

And I want us to see this.

And so Isaiah 35 is a prophecy of the coming Messiah, ultimately.

Even the Lord Jesus, who would come and deliver his people from condemnation and enslavement to sin itself.

And he would lead them out of the fallen world.

Not just out of Babylon, but Babylon becomes an emblem of the world system.

And he leads us out of this Babylon, an emblem of the fallen world system.

And he directs his people, Christians we would argue, to their final destination, the fully

realized Kingdom of God, even the Jerusalem that is above, the city whose builder and maker is God,

that the writer of the Hebrew speaks about so wonderfully in Hebrews 11.

And so here's Isaiah 35, which describes their wilderness, but notice I put wilderness in

quotation marks, their wilderness journey.

And the application for us, this wilderness journey, is the difficult life we're traveling

through right now, as Christians.

It's like a wilderness, traveling through this fallen world, even on to our heavenly destination.

But thankfully, God refreshes us, and feeds us, and protects us

in this journey.

And so he makes the desert blossom like the rose.

That's a metaphor of God making difficult things and situations pleasant for us.

And there's pools of water that refresh us, assuage our thirst, even as we travel.

And so, as we read this passage, attempt to understand it, not

only in its historical setting or context of the 6th century BC, but consider its greater

realization through the salvation God has given us through his Son, Jesus Christ.

And attempt to recognize those words and phrases, for those of you that may be more familiar with the

scriptures, recognize those words and phrases in this passage that are directly quoted or

alluded to in the New Testament record of God's dealings with our salvation.

Again, I think the Apostle Paul preached from this passage.

He quotes it in some of his epistles.

Isaiah 35,.

The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and

blossom as the rose.

It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it the excellence of Carmel, that's Mount Carmel, and

Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.

Does that look familiar to you?

The writer to the Hebrews quoted that, referring to Christians, right on our pilgrimage in Hebrews 12.

Say to those who are fearful -hearted, be strong and do not fear.

Behold, your God will come with vengeance.

With the recompense of God, he will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened.

The ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

That's prophetic of the Lord Jesus's ministry, isn't it?

Quite clearly.

And then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.

For water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.

In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness.

See, this is a spiritual highway, isn't it?

I'm talking about a literal roadway from literal Babylon to

literal Israel.

We're talking about spiritual reality.

A highway of holiness.

And I want you to notice as we read, only the redeemed walk in this.

This is not talking about unconverted people here.

This is talking about people who have been saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

It should be called a highway of holiness.

The unclean shall not pass over it.

See, those that are not right with God.

This is not talking about physical Jews returning from physical Babylon.

This is talking about people who were saved by the grace of God, who are on the

spiritual journey, traveling.

And it's a highway of holiness.

But it shall be for others.

Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray.

See, everyone makes it.

Now, that ought to be encouraging to every one of us, right?

You and I might be fools, but we're going to make it.

Everyone who travels this highway of holiness makes it to their destination.

God sees to it.

No lion shall be there.

See, nothing can actually threaten your travel and your

arrival.

Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it.

It shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.

He's talking about saved people.

And come to Zion with singing.

He's not talking about physical Jerusalem.

He's talking about a heavenly Jerusalem.

Heavenly Zion.

With everlasting joy on their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness.

And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

And so we see this journey that Isaiah is speaking about.

It was in the context of Israelites being in bondage to Babylon

and the release that was coming, but it speaks beyond that.

The true reality is for those who have salvation through Jesus Christ.

And so if we read this passage carefully, we might conclude that the Lord was revealing much more than a

physical deliverance of Jewish people from Babylon, enabling them to return to the Promised Land.

These people who are traveling this highway of holiness are all redeemed.

On this journey to Zion, the unclean shall not pass over it.

It is only those who are clean in the sight of God, only those who have salvation.

And verse 10 declares that only the ransom of the Lord shall return.

The Lord will see to it that the that their journey is successful.

Now, there would be those that would accuse me of spiritualizing the passage.

I would say not to understand it this way is to carnalize it,

to fail to see the spiritual reality that clearly the Lord was intending to convey.

No one in this journey will fail to arrive at the destination.

Whoever walks the road, even though he is a fool, shall not go astray.

Verse 8, thank the Lord for that.

The Lord delivers people from their captivity, the enslavement to the fallen world, and he secures the

final arrival of every one of his redeemed ones to their eternal inheritance.

No ravenous beast will harm them.

Even in their journey through the desert, he will provide water and food for them.

He'll see to it that they arrive at the destination that he had prepared for them.

And the whole, what we're emphasizing here is that God has delivered them.

God is leading them and he's going on before them and behind them.

And what I'm arguing or setting the case for is when the Lord Jesus calls upon people to follow

me, the Lord Jesus is leading us out of this fallen world and we're to follow him

on the course that he has taken and he's directed for us.

And it will lead ultimately to our eternal home.

That's what it is to follow Jesus.

He is our Savior.

He is our Lord.

And we follow him in faith and we follow him in obedience.

And that's what every Christian does.

Now, let's turn over to Isaiah 52 to look at this second passage where we have a little bit

more information, a little bit more detail in this spiritual pilgrimage, this

journey of Christianness.

And so in conjunction with this prophecy of Isaiah 35, we can cite this other, and we could have cited

others throughout this book of consolation, Isaiah 40 through Isaiah

66.

But I want us to look at this same journey in Isaiah 52, 1 -12.

And we don't have time to look at it and read it, but recognize this is just before the fourth

servant song of the suffering servant, which probably most of us are familiar with.

Where Isaiah talks about, you know, prophecy of Jesus suffering and dying upon the cross.

This immediately precedes that announcement of the Savior who would die for his people.

And it sets forth in Isaiah 52, 1 -12 the command of the Lord to newly release captives from

Babylon.

And I put Babylon in quotation marks there to make their journey back to the promised land.

And I put that in quotation marks because it's talking about heaven, you know, our ultimate destination, the new

heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven and to Jerusalem.

And so again, although it foretells in a limited way of a

return of the remnant of Jews from the 70 year Babylonian captivity, it ultimately, and I think more

clearly and accurately and fully foretells of the redeemed of the Lord who are departing from

this fallen world system and making an arduous journey, wilderness

journey to the, ultimately it's the Garden of Eden.

It's paradise restored is what they're traveling to, which the promised land was but an

emblem.

And just to see that promised land as that piece of geography over there in the

Middle East, I think is very nearsighted and missing the whole,

misses the glory of Jerusalem.

And so as we read these 12 verses of Isaiah 52, recognize that Jerusalem is set forth

at the beginning as not just a city, but Jerusalem is set forth as it's described in the New Testament as

Zion, the people of God itself, as Paul described the church Christians in

Galatians 4, the Jerusalem, which is above, which is, which is, which is we.

And so as we read this chapter, recognize Jerusalem is not just a city, but it's an emblem of the collective true people of

God, Zion, who are redeemed by God.

And God Himself leads His people on their journey.

And it's clear, this foretells of the Lord Jesus who not only delivers His people from this fallen world,

but He leads them again onto their final destination to a restored paradise to dwell with God and His

people.

They are to follow their Redeemer onto their final destiny.

And so here with that little bit of preparation, we read Isaiah 52, 1 through 12.

Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion.

He's not talking about a physical city.

Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for the uncircumcised

and the unclean shall no longer come to you.

Shake yourself from the dust, arise, sit down, O Jerusalem.

Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

See, they're in bondage, got a shackle around their neck.

Take that off, you're set free.

For thus says the Lord, you have sold yourselves for nothing and you shall be redeemed without money.

And again later in, at the end of chapter 52, all of chapter 53 talks about

the suffering servant who through his own suffering brings about their release, their deliverance.

For thus says the Lord God, my people went down at first into Egypt to dwell there.

And then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

And now therefore what have I here, says the Lord, that my people are taken away for nothing.

Those who rule over them make them wail, says the Lord.

And my name is blasphemed continually every day.

And therefore my people shall know my name.

And therefore shall they know in that day that I am He who speaks.

Behold it is I.

God reveals himself to his people.

Look at verse 7.

This ought to look familiar to many of you.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims

peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to

Zion, your God reigns.

Paul quotes that, doesn't he, in Romans 10, applying it to gospel preachers in this Christian age.

That's why I'm convinced Paul preached from this passage New

Testament Christianity.

Because he applied this as a prophecy of New Testament preachers who proclaim the gospel.

Now again it's talking about this spirit of Zion, your watchmen who are on the walls watching,

shall lift up their voices.

With their voices they shall sing together, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back

Zion.

He's bringing back the people.

Break forth into joy, sing together you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his

people.

Speaks of salvation.

He has redeemed Jerusalem, brought them back.

The Lord has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations.

Now notice what here you have is an opening up that the purpose of salvation that God is

bringing through this suffering servant is not just for Jewish people, but for the world, even for

Gentiles, even for nations.

All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.

That's being realized in this church age.

We are a part of the realization of this prophecy.

Depart, depart, go out from there.

This is a command to depart from Babylon, against spiritual Babylon, this fallen world.

Depart, we're to follow our Lord.

Touch no unclean thing.

Does that look familiar to you?

Paul quotes this, doesn't he?

In 2 Corinthians chapter 6 to the church at Corinth.

Go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.

For you shall not go out with haste, nor by flight, for the Lord will go before you.

See, he's leading.

See, here the Lord, their deliverer is going before them, and they are following him.

And the Lord and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Just like the Shekinah glory, leading Israel in the wilderness, the glory of God went before and went

after protecting them and guiding them.

And so here we read of God's promise to restore and repopulate Zion.

But whereas Zion is most frequently a reference to the ancient city of Jerusalem, here it assumes a spiritual

reality.

This city is one whose builder and maker is God himself.

Only those redeemed from sin will dwell there.

It is said to Zion, for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you.

That's not a reference to Gentiles, the uncircumcised, but that's a reference to those who are uncircumcised.

Uncircumcised of heart, to those who have not been cleansed by God, those who do not have

salvation.

And he's saying that there is no one that's going to dwell within this city who is not redeemed

by the Lord Jesus himself.

The uncircumcised is not a reference to Gentiles.

It's not saying that only Jewish people will dwell in this restored city.

Here the uncircumcised are those who are uncircumcised of heart, whether Jew or Gentile.

They will not dwell there.

Only those circumcised of heart, in other words, regenerate, born again, who are truly clean will

dwell in this city.

It's a spiritual city.

It's not talking about a physical city back in the 6th century BC.

And then the announcement of their deliverance of salvation is through divinely appointed messengers.

Again verse 7 reads, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news.

And it's the good news he's bringing that makes his feet beautiful.

Who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says,

Design your God reigns.

And that's at the heart of the, that is the heart of the gospel.

It's the gospel of the kingdom.

We're declaring our God, Jesus Christ reigns.

And we are following him onto this destination.

And this is what we're doing through life.

We're following Jesus after having initially come to him.

And again, the apostle applies this prophecy to gospel preachers in this New Testament age.

And so these redeemed are not referring to a Jewish remnant, but this people

comprise even the nations of the world.

Verse 10 declares, In the eyes of all the nations, all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of

God.

And so this is a prophecy of the glory of the gospel and the worldwide

expansion and blessing of the gospel through King Jesus in this gospel age.

And again, Paul quoted from this passage in his epistles.

And so we have in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul wrote, Do not be unequally yoked

together with unbelievers.

What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?

What communion has light with darkness?

What accord or accordance or agreement has Christ with Belial or the devil?

And what part has a believer with an unbeliever?

There's no basis of fellowship there.

What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

None.

For you are the temple of the living God.

As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them.

I will be their God.

They should be my people.

And therefore, and here we have the quotation that we just earlier read in Isaiah,

Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you.

I will be a father to you.

You should be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

God is calling this people to come out of Babylon, as it were, and again, which is this fallen world system.

We're being saved from our flesh.

Yes, our sinful flesh from the devil.

Yes, but also from the world.

And the Lord Jesus is leading us out of the world.

And he's leading us to a new world, a new heavens and a new earth in which

righteousness dwells.

And so just as the Lord called a remnant of Jews to come out of Babylon to separate themselves in order to return to their homeland,

where they'll experience joy and renewed relationship with God and Zion.

So God has called Christians to separate themselves from this world, from this spiritual Babylon,

which is destined for judgment.

That's what you have in Revelation.

You know, Babylon, Babylon, you know, the time has arrived.

In one hour, she's destroyed.

It's God's judgment upon the fallen world system.

And Christians have escaped, come out of her, flee out of her.

And again, what we're saying is that when we initially come to Christ for salvation, we come to him in

faith and faith alone justifies us.

But then he bids us to follow him and he's leading us just like the angel

took Lot out of Sodom.

The Lord is leading us out of Babylon because this this world system, this Babylon is destined for

judgment.

And so we escape.

So we'll not be a partaker of its sins as the scriptures speak about.

And so what we're arguing based on these Old Testament passages, and we can cite more of them

to follow the Lord Jesus as he leads us in this life of pilgrimage

as Christians, even through a wilderness journey.

And that's what this world is for the true Christian.

It's a wilderness, isn't it?

We're grieved every day by what we have to encounter and have to deal with.

And not just dealing with the world out there, but the thing that grieves us most is what's in here.

Isn't that right?

It's the sin in here that grieves us most.

And we are to follow our Lord Jesus in this life of pilgrimage onto our heavenly Zion, the city of God,

as the writer of the Bible says.

This imagery, this spiritual deliverance from this fallen world and our journey to our heavenly Zion, I think is

what's being set forth when we hear our Lord's words to us.

Follow me.

I hope that expands us a little bit in our comprehension of this.

This is an all -encompassing biblical theme that we find throughout the

scriptures.

The Lord leading his people to paradise, where there

is a city that Abraham looked for, in which he would dwell with God and all of his spiritual

descendants, even a father of many nations.

Well, let's next turn over to the Gospels and begin to look at

a number of places where the Lord Jesus specifically said to individuals, follow me.

And again, what we're advocating is that this is what a Christian does.

This is what you and I do as Christians, and this is what every new Christian should embark on doing after

coming to Jesus initially.

You follow him.

And so when our Lord called onto himself, we're at the top of page 6 now if you're following in your notes, when our

Lord called upon people of himself, he frequently impressed upon them their responsibility to follow him.

Well, let's consider some of these.

Matthew 4 .18, he said it to his disciples.

Matthew 4 .18 and 19, Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, Andrew his brother,

casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

And then he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Follow me.

These are often repeated words.

We see it in Matthew 8, and 18 -22.

In Matthew 8, we read that following Jesus must take precedence over all

matters of life.

Following Jesus is our full -time interest, an

occupation if you will.

It's more important than what we might deem the most important of duties in life.

When Jesus saw a great multitude about him, he gave a command to depart to the other side.

A certain scribe came and said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.

Jesus said to him, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

And another of his disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

But Jesus said to him, follow me, let the dead bury their own dead.

Following Jesus is the most important matter possible in a person's life.

It has to take precedence over the most important matters.

Matthew 9 -9.

We have an incident here in Matthew 9 that shows the Lord Jesus calls great sinners, even

those excluded from the people of God.

This is what we have in Levi, a Jewish man, who was apparently of the

priestly tribe of Levi, he was called Levi.

He abandoned that, forsook that, and became a Roman tax collector.

And so he was regarded as a traitor.

He was not allowed to come into the temple to worship.

He was ostracized by everyone.

And yet we read in Matthew 9 -9, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting

at the tax office.

And he said to him, follow me.

And we see Matthew left it all and immediately followed him.

And this is what every Christian is doing if he's truly coming to Christ

for salvation.

He comes to Jesus, and then he follows him, whatever that means.

And again, it must take full precedence over all of life.

And thankfully, you know, there's no prior preparation of cleaning up your life to embark on

this following Jesus.

You know, he extended it to Matthew.

And you can imagine what the other disciples were thinking.

Remember, they also had Simon the Zealot with them.

I mean, there were two people that would be most opposed to one another in Israel at that time, is Simon the

zealous Jew, and Matthew, you know, the tax collector, the publican.

And now they're both following the Lord as disciples.

That must have been interesting to see them develop a relationship with one

another.

But he immediately followed him.

And sinners may do so, coming to Jesus, that we talked about in the last two weeks, and then you begin to

follow him.

In Matthew 19, we see that following Jesus results in everlasting life.

In the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, eternal life is set forth as a future

destination, or an inheritance, that we will arrive at after a

life of faith.

In John's Gospel, eternal life is emphasized as a present reality.

It's a quality of life.

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it's more of a temporal idea, everlasting.

But life is to be entered after a life of faith.

You enter a narrow gate, you follow a narrow path, a narrow way that Jesus says leads to

life.

And here, we read in Matthew 19, this idea that following Jesus results in

everlasting life.

No one can have everlasting life unless they follow Jesus.

You can claim all day long, well, I've come to Jesus in faith.

I hope you have.

But if you come to Jesus, that means you ought to be following Jesus, too.

If you're not following Jesus, you haven't come to Jesus.

That's the bottom line.

Matthew 19, verse 16, Now behold, one came and said to him, Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I

may have eternal life?

So he said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good but one, that is God.

Jesus wasn't denying his deity.

This man could not have known that he was eternal God, who assumed a human nature.

But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.

Jesus wasn't being a legalist here.

Everyone who enters into life keeps God's commandments.

That's what a Christian does.

This is love that you keep his commandments.

The Holy Spirit enables us to do so, not perfectly, but they govern our lives.

Jesus is Lord and he governs us by his law, his commandments.

And so the man, of course, when he was thinking in these terms, himself was probably

thinking in terms of legalism, which ones?

And Jesus recited some of the commandments, ten commandments.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not be a false witness on your father and mother.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

He has that last one that is all -encompassing.

It looks like he's hitting on the second tablet of the law.

A lot of people claim they're right with God, the first four commandments.

But when push comes to shove, it's usually our relationships with one another that reveal our sin.

And so the Lord Jesus pointed this out to him.

The young man said to him, All these things I've kept from my youth, have you?

What do I still lack?

Jesus said to him, If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give it to the poor.

You will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.

There's the emphasis on following Jesus.

And when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Following Jesus results in everlasting life.

If he failed to follow Jesus, it would not result in everlasting life.

John chapter 10, Jesus says those that follow him, he gives to them eternal life.

Only those who follow him are saved.

And we also read in John 10 what it is to follow him.

It's to hear his voice and to do what he tells us to do.

Jesus is Lord.

And so in John 10, 22, it was at the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem.

It was winter.

Jesus walked in the temple on Solomon's porch.

And the Jews surrounded him, said to him, How long do you keep us in doubt?

If you're the Christ, tell us plainly.

Jesus answered them, I told you, you don't believe.

The works I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.

But you don't believe because you are not of my sheep.

You don't become one of the Lord's sheep when you become a Christian.

You become a Christian because you're one of the sheep.

The sheep are the elect of God.

And he declares, verse 27, My sheep hear my voice and I know them.

And it says, he declares here, they follow me.

That's what sheep do.

That's what disciples do.

And then verse 28, he declares, and I give them eternal life.

They will never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.

There's the security we saw in Isaiah 35.

All the redeemed will reach that destination.

Nothing will prevent them.

There will be no ravenous beast that will slay them.

Even the fool that walks in that way is going to make it to the end.

They shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand.

My Father who has given them to me is greater than all.

And no man is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.

I and my Father are one.

We are one in this purpose, one in this intention.

It's going to be done.

And so following Jesus is the way of salvation.

It's not the basis of salvation.

It was Jesus following His Father and keeping His commandments through His

life, and then dying on the cross on our behalf.

That is the ground of our salvation, not our following Jesus.

But following Jesus characterizes every true believer.

This is what sheep do.

They hear His voice and they do follow Him.

If you are one of the Lord's sheep, you follow Jesus.

Or you will one day follow Him.

You may not even be aware you're one of the sheep yet.

But if you are, one day you're going to hear His voice and He's going to be calling you.

And you're going to follow

Him.

He's going to be calling you.

And this is what Jesus repeatedly emphasized to people.

Follow me.

They come to Him.

Some even believe.

He says, follow me.

And some refused at that point.

There were some disciples at the end of John chapter 6.

When He offended them to His teaching, as John says, they turned and they no longer walked with

Him.

And Jesus said in another place, you are My disciples indeed, if you hear

me and do My word.

And If you keep my word, a true Christian follows Jesus.".

And so the command is given to us.

And next week, Lord willing, we're going to talk about the matter of baptism.

That's how you initially begin to follow Jesus.

That step of baptism is really a death to that former world.

You're separating yourself from that former world.

And you're identifying yourself with the people of God, a new life in Christ.

And you're beginning that journey.

From now on, I'm living for Christ.

And that's what Christians do.

And they follow Jesus.

Now I want us to look at one more passage that speaks clearly of what it is to follow Jesus.

And that's in Mark 8.

And here it's spelled out quite clearly.

And we see that the whole matter of following Jesus is wrapped up in salvation.

And so Mark 8, and it's actually found in all three Synoptic Gospels.

Mark 8, Matthew 16, and Luke 9.

But we chose the Mark passage, Marking passage.

When he, Jesus, had called the people to himself, with his disciples also, he said to them, Whoever desires to come after me,

that's the same idea of following me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save

it.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?

For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words and this adulterous and sinful generation of him, the Son of Man,

also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Before us is the record of a very important occasion in the ministry of our Lord in which he informs his disciples

of the nature and the cost of discipleship.

He is about to embark upon his final journey from Galilee to Jerusalem where he would suffer and die.

And the words of our Lord in verse 34 and following are words to his disciples that they

must follow the same path that he is traversing.

He is leading them and they are following him.

They must follow the same path in the same manner as he if they desire to share in his glory, if they

desire to enter into eternal life.

This is what it is to follow Jesus.

Take note of what he is saying as it states,.

A certain prospect of eternal life itself is set forth as the outcome of faith in Christ.

A faith characterized by denying self.

Adam and Eve did not deny self.

We are going to serve our self.

And that's what sin is basically.

I'm going to do my will rather than God's will.

I insist on it.

Oh, I'll do God's will if it conforms to my will.

But ultimately my will is what's going to direct my life.

That is not the understanding, the attitude, and the belief of the Christian.

Rather the true Christian who has faith denies himself.

He's tempted, he's always tempted to serve himself principally.

But he denies himself when that arises if he's thinking rightly, acting rightly.

But a refusal or failure to live in this manner will result in one being lost or

ashamed of the Second Coming of Christ.

And so here our Lord describes the way all His disciples are to live before Him.

Eternal life is assured to His disciples, those who deny themselves and follow Him.

But eternal life is promised only to them who follow Him in the manner that He prescribes.

They are the ones who take up their cross daily and follow Him.

And so what a grand incentive for people to believe on Him and to respond in a commitment to Him.

And following Him is not a duty.

You know, we recognize that.

It's a passion.

The Lord put it in our heart.

That's what we want to do.

We want to please our Savior and follow Him.

We know what it's like to govern our own life and what kind of misery that brought upon us.

And we want to follow Him because He leads us in paths of righteousness, doesn't He?

In the way of peace.

In a sense of well -being and security.

Forgiveness of sins.

The assurance of everlasting life.

This is not a drudgery on the part of the true Christian.

Because the work of grace has been done on our souls.

We were transformed.

And so that was the former way of living.

And we declared we were dead to that in our confession and baptism.

Now we're alive to Christ.

Identifying with His own death and resurrection.

And so this is not a drudgery, even though we set it forth as a specific and direct command.

But clearly what the Lord Jesus is saying here is there is no salvation apart from following Him.

And so we need to follow Him.

We deny ourselves.

That means you put your own interests as secondary to doing the will of God.

I must do the will of God.

It's not always pleasant.

Sometimes it can be quite fearful, perhaps.

We know the consequences of doing so.

It's going to cost us for doing so.

But we must do so.

And so to deny ourselves means you put your own interests as secondary.

Yes, you have interests.

And there's nothing wrong with that as long as you put them secondary to other matters.

We're to love God, and we are to love our neighbor as ourself.

Not be driven by our own interests.

Be driven by the will of God and by our concern for our brethren.

If we're thinking rightly, living rightly, that's what governs our lives day by day.

You do not seek to exalt yourself in your own opinion.

Rather, you seek to serve people.

You don't seek the honor that comes from men.

You want to please God.

That's what it means to deny yourself.

The Lord Jesus denied Himself.

If anyone deserved honor, He did.

But He didn't seek it, did He?

He denied Himself.

He did not even think equality with God was something to be grasped after.

But He assumed a human nature.

He became a man.

Philippians 2.

And not just a man.

We highly value freedom and liberty to be free men and women.

Of course, I'm speaking men generically.

Yet the Lord Jesus, He didn't come as a free man.

He came as a servant.

And you and I, of course, desire a right to life.

But our Lord Jesus denied Himself of that right, too, didn't He?

He denied Himself in every way.

And you hear people talk about the need, the right to die with dignity.

You hear a lot of that in our culture today.

And yet the Lord Jesus denied that.

He died a cross, a shameful death.

In every way, He denied Himself.

Even though He had every basis whatsoever to be honored and glorified, He denied Himself.

And Paul said, let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus.

And then set forth the Lord Jesus as an example.

And this is how we're to be.

You deny yourself the notion that you're the Lord of your own life.

You know, as a Christian, if you're thinking rightly, when somebody asks your opinion, you don't think, what's my opinion?

You think, what does the Lord say about this in His Word?

I mean, that's what you resort to.

Because the Lord's Word governs you.

Again, if you're thinking rightly.

And then He says, you have to take up your cross daily.

Crucifixion was a common form of execution in the first century.

But it was reserved only to the worst of the worst in society.

Everyone who died on the cross, a cross, was thought to be forsaken by God.

If God was for him, God wouldn't allow a man to be so humiliated and shamed and dying in that way.

But the idea the Lord Jesus is conveying is that as disciples, as Christians following Him, we must be

willing to endure shame and suffering in our life as disciples of Christ.

And so we confess Him.

That's not always easy.

Sometimes it brings consequences, doesn't it?

Sometimes we really need to seek courage and grace from the Lord to do so.

But we confess Him.

Some people say, no, I'm not going to suffer.

God doesn't want me to suffer.

He wants me to be happy.

God doesn't want me to be a doormat.

There are limits to the degree I'm going to suffer.

You can't be a Christian thinking rightly and think that way.

And then again, Jesus said, if you're going to come after me, you've got to follow me.

You've got to deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and you follow me.

That's what we're doing.

And so following Jesus carries the idea of several things, and we'll close with this.

It implies that Jesus is leading us to a destination.

Follow me.

Where to, Lord?

Well, I'll show you.

And ultimately, it's going to end in everlasting life.

Following Him also carries the idea that He's gone on before the same path that we're going to be following, right?

And He set forth in that way in Hebrews.

There's this long gathering of people traveling through this wilderness,

and Hebrews 11 describes the great cloud of witnesses.

They've already arrived at the destination.

And the way they lived in faith, demonstrated faith, are witnesses to us of what it is to live in faith.

But the Lord Jesus has gone on ahead too, and He's there.

And so the trailblazer is the idea of our faith.

He's blazed the trail, and now we're part of this.

The long procession of people traveling to our

heavenly Zion.

We're to follow Him.

And He's leading us in that course.

He's enabling us.

He provides for us in that course.

And He's leading us to this appointed destination.

Following Him implies obedience.

Not just obedience, but immediate obedience, and complete obedience.

Following Him carries no qualification, if we're thinking rightly

and doing rightly.

And so may the Lord help us.

Now let me explain this, and it's important I say this, and then we'll close.

Some people come to Jesus, and they're truly Christians.

And the Lord graciously forgives them, and they're righteous in the sight of God.

Christ's righteousness is imputed to them.

But they haven't yet fully grasped, perhaps, what this Christian life is like, and what's expected.

But the longer we're Christians, the more we understand.

And sometimes it's a struggle.

We come to a crisis.

But if we're the Lord's people, we surrender, don't we?

And we go on.

And there's some people that are raised in church.

They've been under the hearing of the gospel all their lives.

And they came to believe on Jesus as an early age.

But when they hear something like we've been talking today, it's something kind of new to them.

That doesn't necessarily declare you not to be a Christian.

It's just when you hear these things from the Lord, you respond, Yes, Lord, I will

follow you as you enable me.

And as we grow as Christians and go through the Christian life, He expects and demands

more and more of us.

And so there's things that we go through, maybe today, that we had no comprehension whatsoever we were going to go through 20 years

ago.

And had we known 20 years ago, we might have really had doubts.

But the Lord carries us through, and He directs us, doesn't He?

And our destination is secure to us.

Christ secured it through His life and death and resurrection.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Thank you, Father, for your word.

Thank you, Father, for this glorious theme that we find throughout Scripture of you leading your

people, our God, back from a world of sin that's destined for

destruction, even into your presence, into your everlasting glory.

And we pray, our Father, that you would help each of us, every one of us, our God, to truly follow

Jesus as it's set forth in the Holy Scriptures.

And we know, Lord, no one is suitable for this.

No one is capable of doing this apart from your great grace that you work in our

lives, within our hearts and our minds.

And so may this grace be abundant toward us in Jesus Christ.

Give us the desire and give us the ability to follow you, our Lord Jesus, even

on to our glorious destination.

For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.