Are You a True Disciple of Jesus Christ?

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons, or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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So this afternoon, we're back in the Gospel of Mark. Looking now at chapter 1, and beginning in verse 14.

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And as we do, I want to introduce our topic today. You know I like to introduce our topics different ways on different days.

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But I want to introduce our topic today by recounting a story from the world's second best -selling book.

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Does anyone know what that is? The world's second best -selling book? It's The Pilgrim's Progress.

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An excellent book written by the Puritan John Bunyan. And as we've learned before,

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I'll just recount it a bit for those of us who aren't familiar. The Pilgrim's Progress is a wonderful story that serves as an allegory for the

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Christian life. A story where a man named Christian escapes from his hometown, a place called the

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City of Destruction, and makes a long and difficult pilgrimage to his new heavenly home, a place known as the

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Celestial City. And as part of his journey, Christian must pass through a series of places and events that represent the different stages in the

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Christian life. So for instance, Christian at the beginning of the story, while still in the City of Destruction, experiences the guilt and the weight of his own sinfulness.

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And this is, in this case, depicted as a heavy burden on his back, like a lead -weighted backpack.

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And as he makes his journey to the Celestial City, Christian passes through a narrow, wicked gate, in this case representing

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Jesus Christ. And then beyond the gate, he discovers the cross and the empty tomb of the

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Lord Jesus. And there we read that Christian is relieved of his heavy burden. And as quickly as this burden rolls away from him and down a hill, he's presented with a small scroll that serves as the assurance, or an assurance, of his salvation.

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And so, if you're familiar with the Pilgrim's Progress, you know Christian goes along the straight and narrow path through the wicked gate and to the

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Celestial City. And as he does, he encounters companions like Faithful and Hopeful, but he also has run -ins with less encouraging characters.

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And I love the names of these characters in Bunyan's book. Talkative, and Little Faith, and Vain Confidence, and Atheist.

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And at one point, we're told that Christian encounters a man named Ignorance, who comes from the country of Conceit.

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Who of us would want to be ignorant from the country of Conceit? But in the course of this meet -up, we learn that Ignorance did not enter onto the path through the narrow, wicked gate, but we're told he took his own crooked way from the country of Conceit onto the straight and narrow path.

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Likewise, we're told Ignorance did not possess, like Christian, a small scroll that was an assurance of his salvation.

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But instead, Ignorance had great trust in his own religious performances. And so, when

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Christian encounters Ignorance, he asks him, what is his hope that he will be able to gain access into the

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Celestial City? And listen to what Ignorance says. He says, That sounds familiar, doesn't it?

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I have repaid every man to whom I was in debt. I frequently pray, fast, pay tithes, and give alms.

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And I have forsaken the land of my birth so that I might arrive as a pilgrim. And so, throughout the course of this book, as we read the

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Pilgrim's Progress, we find that Ignorance preferred to travel alone. He didn't like the fellowship of other believers in his presence.

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He felt assured at other times because he felt positive feelings about God. He felt nice ideas, nice thoughts after God.

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He was acquainted with the commandments of God at another point. And then, at another point in his conversation with Christian, he said that deep down inside, he felt he had a good heart.

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And so, as the story eventually goes on, we read about Christian and Hopeful. They make it to the end of their journey and come to the final obstacle that rests or that stands between them and the

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Celestial City, a river that must be crossed, representing the last enemy, death itself.

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And so, it's with much fear and with difficulty that Christian and Hopeful pass through this river.

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And I love the account. If anyone's read it, if you haven't read it, I think we might have a copy in our mini church library.

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But the account of Christian and Hopeful passing through the river and Christian's fears and his doubts, and at some points, not being able to feel the bottom of the river.

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But eventually, they pass through the river. And when they get to the Celestial City at the gate,

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Christian is asked for his scroll. And so, he presents his certificate of assurance of salvation.

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And he's welcomed in, both he and Hopeful, into the Celestial City. And if you've read this book, it might seem at that point that that would be a very natural time for the book to end.

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Christian and Hopeful get into the Celestial City. It's a happy ending. In another way, it's a happy beginning.

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But as you're reading this book, if we were to flip to some of the final pages, at least in the story of Christian's life, we'd find that there are a few words after Christian and Hopeful enter into the

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Celestial City. And what we read is from the perspective of John Bunyan. He writes this, and bear with me, it's a bit of a longer quote, but it's a good quote.

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He says, Now while I was gazing upon all of these things, I turned my head to look back, and I saw ignorance come up the bank of the river.

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He was able to quickly reach the other side of the river without half the difficulty that Christian and Hopeful had experienced, for it happened that he found a place with a ferryman named

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Vane Hope, who with his boat was able to transport him across. And so as was the case with the others,

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I watched as he ascended the hill and approached the gate of the Celestial City, except that he traveled alone.

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Neither did any man meet him. It offered the least encouragement. When he had reached the gate, he looked up at the writing that was inscribed above, and then he began to knock, supposing that he would quickly be permitted to gain entrance.

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But the men who peered at him over the top of the first gate said, From where have you come?

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And what is it that you desire? So ignorance replied, I have eaten and have drunk in the presence of the king, and he is taught in our streets.

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Then they asked him for his scroll. So he fumbled about in his chest pocket and was unable to find it, because he had not passed through the narrow gate.

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And then they inquired, Have you none? Where am I? Sorry, guys.

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So he fumbled in his chest pocket and was not able to find it. Then they further inquired, Have you none? But the man ignorance answered,

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Not so much as a word. So they told the king, but he would not come down to see him.

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Instead, he commanded the same two shining ones, who had previously conducted Christian and hopeful to the city, to seize ignorance.

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To seize ignorance. Listen carefully to this. Bind him hand and foot to carry him away.

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And then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven, as well as from the city of destruction.

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What sobering words. Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven, not just the city of destruction.

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What a sobering story. And the picture that Bunyan is painting here, is that there are people, a great many people today, who believe themselves to be true disciples of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. They believe themselves to be worthy of heaven. They do good works.

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They walk adjacent to the narrow way, in fellowship with true believers.

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And by their own vain hope, they have great confidence in the face of death. They pass the river with great ease.

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But what Bunyan is getting at here, is that at some future point, they will discover that they were in fact ignorant of the true gospel of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. One day this great number of people will discover that they were filled with ignorance when it came to understanding what it truly means to be a

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Christian. And on the day of the Lord, there will be a great many people who get to the gates of Christ's celestial city.

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And they too will discover for themselves that there is a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven.

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Now the reason why I open with this account, and with this theme, is not because I want to speak harshly to this group.

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As a matter of fact, some of the people I was hoping would hear this are not here today. But nonetheless, the reason that I speak this is because in the sight of God, it is my aim, it is my earnest prayer that this would not describe any person in this church.

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That this would not describe the experience of any person that frequents this church. I want every single one of us, here now, all of you, and then beyond,

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I want every single one of us, by God's grace, to be true disciples of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Now at this point, it begs the question, and to my young men in the group, this is an important question to ask and answer yourself.

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Are you, are you a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? Adults in this room, men and women, are you a true disciple of the

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Lord Jesus Christ? Are you truly a regenerate

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Christian? Or do you have concerns that you might, like ignorance, be an imposter?

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We need to think about this for a moment. Heaven and hell hang in the balance based on the answer of this question.

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And as we think about this, the natural next question is this, how can we know, again young men, older men, young women, older women, how can we know if we are in fact a true disciple of the

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Lord Jesus Christ? How can we be sure that we belong to him, that we are in fact a

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Christian? By God's grace, what we find in our text, and I appreciate you reading it brother, what we find in our text today is going to help us in our quest to know what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

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And as we begin in Mark chapter 1 verse 14, we're going to see this, that from the very beginning of Christ's earthly ministry, we're going to see that as he proclaimed the central message of his gospel, as he called his first disciples to follow after him, as he exercised great authority, both in word and in power, what we see is that our

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Lord gives us a benchmark. A benchmark by which we can determine what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus.

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What it means to be a true Christian. What it means to be a believer and a follower of Christ.

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So that's what we're going to do today as we open up our text. There's many ways that we can apply this or bring it to bear on our hearts and today we're going to do it related to the question of discipleship.

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Are you a disciple of Christ? So that was a robust introduction.

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We're going to get into the text beginning in verse 14. Mark chapter 1 verse 14 reads,

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Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying,

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The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

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So as we first examine Christ's earthly ministry relative to the question of discipleship. The first lesson that we have to learn is this and you can follow along in your bulletin insert if you have one.

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A true disciple. Point number one. A true disciple must come to Christ on his terms.

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On his terms. So here in these opening verses what we find is that Christ went public with his ministry just as John was arrested in this case for criticizing

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Herod's unlawful marriage to his brother's wife Herodias. And Jesus begins his ministry interestingly enough not in the prominence of Judea where all of the flocks could easily walk to see him but in Galilee.

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And this is in the northern part of Israel over a hundred kilometers north of Jerusalem.

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And so at least by most people's walking speed about two and a half days journey from Jerusalem.

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And Galilee was a region that was filled with Jewish settlers just west of the

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Sea of Galilee. And because Mark is an economist with language this is what we find that he gets right to the point of Christ's ministry in this region in verses 13 and 14.

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We're told that Jesus proclaimed the gospel of God right from his onset.

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He was anointed prepared for ministry he went out and he proclaimed the gospel of God.

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And it was interesting I think it was maybe a month ago when we had our open house and fellowship we talked about this.

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What was the gospel that Jesus was preaching? Was it a different gospel? There are some people that would say that this was a different gospel that Christ was proclaiming because it was early in his ministry because it was before the cross before the resurrection.

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Some would say this was a different gospel. But if we look at it there's simply no reason to believe this.

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Paul at the beginning even of his magnum opus to the Romans his great gospel masterpiece the letter that he wrote to the

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Roman church he calls there that same gospel that he articulated that he unpacked in that letter the gospel of God.

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It's the good news that has come down from God to man. And we see this gospel that Christ proclaimed throughout his ministry at various points throughout the gospels we see

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Christ teaching about his own life. We see Christ teaching about his own death his own burial his own resurrection.

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Often in the gospel of Mark it's confused it's misunderstood but Christ is preaching it.

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Even earlier in his ministry in John chapter 3 in verse 16 we see Christ proclaiming this same gospel.

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And if any of us were to share the gospel with a neighbor or a friend we would almost stumble to not use this particular passage to preach the gospel.

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John 3 .16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

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This was Christ's euangelion his message of victory that he would win the victory over sin and death through his life, death and resurrection from the dead.

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But as Christ proclaimed his gospel we see in verse 14 that Christ was not a universalist.

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If anyone remembers a number of years back there was a man named Rob Bell who wrote a book called

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Love Wins. And the thesis of this book was this that because Christ died on the cross love wins and God will save everyone.

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He will save Hitler he will save Gandhi he will save everybody in between and then the

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Christians as well. But what we find in this passage is that this is not what

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Christ is teaching. Christ is not a universalist. Meaning that the gospel does not apply to all people universally without any conditions.

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To the contrary we see that if we work our way through our Bibles or what we find through our Bibles is that Christ's gospel came with conditions of acceptance.

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It was not enough brothers and sisters friends to admire Christ's gospel from afar.

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If anyone was to come to him to lay hold of his good news to lay hold of eternal life they must come to him on his terms.

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And to put it very simply he put it very simply those terms are twofold.

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People must come in verse 14 by repentance and by belief or by faith in the gospel.

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Those are the only two terms of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the only two terms of being right with God through repentance and faith.

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Now I know that we addressed this last week and we addressed it in some detail. I want you to know I'm not going to follow that same path and talk about repentance and faith using the same words but we're going to look at it from a slightly different angle.

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I remember hearing someone say one time that if they were preaching through I think it was the fourth gospel consecutively and someone said why would we teach through all four gospels?

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And this particular teacher and preacher said because there are four gospels and if God gave a hundred gospels we'd teach all 100 gospels.

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Well the reason we're teaching repentance and faith again today is because we see it again in our text and so we're going to be faithful to the text.

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So God, Christ commands all people everywhere to repent. Now Noah, what do you think repentance means?

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That's okay. Mark, when he recorded repent, he used the

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Greek word metanoia which means the change of mind or purpose.

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Metanoia, change of mind or purpose. So it's a complete alteration of your thinking.

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It's a complete alteration of your purpose in life. It's an alteration of your direction in life.

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And this is the first imperative required of any person who would be a true disciple of Jesus.

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It involves a change from living for the world to living for God.

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It's an exchange of priorities. It's an exchange of my priorities for God's priorities.

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My way of thinking for God's way of thinking. My living for sin in exchange for my living for righteousness.

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And I love, I love in church history you find, brother, we were actually just talking about old hymns a couple of days ago.

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You dig up some of these old hymns and I found this one hymn that was sung by children several centuries ago.

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And there was a hymn particularly about repentance. And it's a beautiful and a simple definition of what it means to repent of your sins.

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It goes like this. Repentance is to leave. Imagine little kids singing this.

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Repentance is to leave the sins we loved before and show that we in earnest grieve by doing so no more.

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This is repentance. And God commands us to repent. And anyone who would come to Christ must turn to him in repentance.

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And if you have not repented of your sins, if there's a person in this room, please listen to me.

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If you have not repented of your sins, if you have not exchanged all of your life for all of Christ, then you and I can say together with confidence, you are not a disciple of Jesus Christ.

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You are not saved. You are not right with him. You will not gain entrance into his celestial city, into the heavenly home of the saints.

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We must repent. And for the believers in this room, when

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Christ uses this word metanoia, I'm not sure why I'm struggling with that so much, metanoia, he issues this as a present imperative.

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And this means that it is to be a continuous state of being. Like we said last week, repentance is not a one -time act, but it's a continuous state of repentance.

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And this does not mean a perfect repentance, but a present and a persevering repentance. The repentant disciple's relationship with sin is forever changed.

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And if it is not, it's not true repentance. I remember reading a story about a man named

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Roland Hill, who was a Christian minister back in the annals of church history.

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And he was a fairly famous and well -known minister. And one day he was walking out,

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I think it was an evening, walking about the town, and a man approached him. Imagine being this, perhaps, this well -known or this well -used of God, that people would just approach you and say,

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I came to faith under your ministry. And just to be approached randomly like that. Well, one man approached him and said,

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I am one of your converts, Mr. Hill. And Mr. Hill looked at the man, who was obviously drunk, and he said,

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I suppose you are, but you are not one of the Lords, or you wouldn't be drunk.

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He saw in this man that there was not lasting repentance. True repentance is a lasting repentance.

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The next thing that Christ calls His disciples to as a term by which to come to Him is to believe in the

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Gospel, as He says. Repent and believe in the Gospel. Or another word for it is faith.

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And to place your faith in Christ is to trust that He has dealt with your sins on the cross on that dark afternoon at Calvary.

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It is to cease from striving and to rest in Christ's perfect life, His atoning death, and His victorious resurrection.

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It is to recognize. This is what faith is. Sister, we talk about faith not being a work.

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Faith is not a work, but it is to recognize once and for all that Christ must do your saving and no one else, or else you'll be damned.

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It's not a work to be done, but it's a gift to be received. We read that in Ephesians 2.

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Now let me ask you, does that describe you that I have repented of my sin and that I have placed my faith in Christ, that I have believed in the

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Gospel in His words? It must. It must.

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If you're to have entrance into heaven, if you're to have entrance into the presence of God, if you're to be reconciled with God, if you're to have your sins put away, if you're to have your death put to death, it must describe you.

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And for those of you who are here and you might say to yourself, but that does not describe me.

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I have not repented. I have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. I came across a story actually.

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Steve reminded me of it this week of a time when Charles Spurgeon at the

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Metropolitan Tabernacle, he had preached a sermon and then a woman came up to him after his sermon and after having some small talk, she let in that she was in a very bad place in terms of her spiritual condition.

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And so when Spurgeon asked her if she was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, just like I'm asking you now, are you a believer in the

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Lord Jesus Christ? This woman said, with great emotion, with tears, well,

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I will try to be. But Spurgeon heard this and he grabbed her by the hand and he said, my dear soul, you are not going to tell me that you will try to believe my

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Lord Jesus. I cannot have such talk from you. It means blank unbelief.

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What has he done that you should talk of Jesus Christ in that way? Would you tell me that you would try to believe me?

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I know you would not treat me so rudely. You think me to be a true man and surely you cannot do less with my

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Lord Jesus. And with tears in her eyes, again, she cried and said, oh sir, do pray for me.

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How many of you are here and say I have not repented, I have not believed, but would you pray that I would?

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And she says to Spurgeon here, would you pray for me? And Spurgeon replied, I do not feel that I can do anything of the kind.

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What can I ask the Lord to do for one who will not trust him? I see nothing to pray about.

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If you will believe in him, you shall be saved. And if you will not believe, I cannot ask him to invent a new way to gratify your unbelief.

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When the woman heard this, she said, I will try to believe. But looking her square in the eyes,

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Spurgeon told her, he said, I will have none of your trying. For the message of the

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Lord did not mention trying. It says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

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Of this account, Spurgeon later wrote, he said, I pressed upon her the great truth that he that believes on Christ has everlasting life.

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And it's terrible reverse. He that believes not is condemned already. Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten

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Son of God. I urged her to full faith in the one crucified, the once crucified but now ascended

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Lord. And the Holy Spirit there and then enabled her to trust.

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She most tenderly said, oh sir, I've been looking to my feelings. And this has been my mistake.

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Now I trust my soul with Jesus and I am saved. If you're in this room and you've not repented and you've not placed your faith in Christ, do not say that I am trying to believe.

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Do not say, oh pray, that I would repent and believe. Christ's command is this, repent and believe the gospel.

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Do not trust in your feelings but run to him. If you want to be saved from your sins, kids, young men, if you want to be saved to go to heaven when you die, repent and believe.

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Enter through the narrow wicked gate by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast your burden on him and find eternal life for your soul even now at this very moment, this very second.

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Mark records this next in verse 16. Passing along the sea, he saw

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Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.

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And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in their boats mending the nets.

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And immediately he called them and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

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Here we see this, the second point that I want to make. A true disciple, not only do you come to Christ on his terms, yes, but a true disciple joyfully follows

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Christ and his agenda. So as Jesus proclaimed this message, he passed along the

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Sea of Galilee, where he met some of the first disciples that he would call to himself. And this setting takes place at this gorgeous sea, this

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Sea of Galilee. It's a picturesque lake. If you want to picture it, that was 20 kilometers long.

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It was 11 kilometers across. And from the mountains above, if you were to stand on the peaks of the mountains and look down at the

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Sea of Galilee, you'd see that it was almost in the shape of a harp. And that's why the

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Jews called it Kinnereth. It's a Jewish word, the Hebrew word that means harp. And so in this beautiful setting where Josephus describes it as a place of pure water, of an abundance of fish, where there's vegetables,

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Nicole would love this, where fruit and vegetables can be grown 10 months out of the year. In this place,

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Jesus calls his first disciples. And here, fishing was big business.

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If you were a fisherman, you were involved in the business of businesses if you were in the

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Galilee region. The Sea of Galilee had over 16 ports. And there were so many fishing boats that years later, in AD 68, when the

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Jews fought the Romans, they commandeered 230 fishing boats and turned them into makeshift war vessels.

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There was a plentitude of boats, a number of ports, even most of the towns,

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Noah, you might appreciate this, most of the towns were named with fishy names. So you'd have the

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House of Fish, Salted Fish, all these places that are named after fish.

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Fishing was the business in Galilee. And because fishing was international business, and these fish were exported around the

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Roman world, the fishermen were often very shrewd businessmen. And so with some with great wealth and some with great possessions.

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And this probably included the father of James and John. If you look, he had hired servants. We'll learn later in the

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Gospels that also John had some connections with the high priest. There were some connections.

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And so James and John are probably from a wealthy fishing family. And yet, when

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Christ called Peter, Simon, Peter, and Andrew, were told that they immediately left their nets and followed him.

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Similarly, when Christ calls James and John the sons of Zebedee, they immediately left their father and their boats and followed him.

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Now, if you're part of big business, Noah Bear, if you're working a job where you're getting paid good amounts of money, you're in your hometown, it's a picturesque place where people like to visit and travel and vacation, what in the world would cause you to leave that beautiful place?

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The same reason that they left. Perfect non -answer.

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Why would they leave? We have every reason to believe that they came to faith and repentance in Christ already.

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And I'm not just making that up. It's very likely that these men had the opportunity to hear

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Christ's teaching, to hear claims about him being the son of God, to hear

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John the Baptist's claims about his divine identity. In fact, in John chapter 1 in verse 41, after Peter was in the presence of John the

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Baptist, we read this in John 141, Peter found his brother Simon and said to him, this is very much,

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I can't think of a reason why this would not happen after the calling. We have found the

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Messiah. Peter said to Simon, sorry, said to his brother

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Simon, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus.

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Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means

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Peter. Already they had professed faith in Christ, Peter and Andrew. They turned to God. They placed their faith in Christ.

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And so when Christ came calling, when he called them to follow him, they left everything.

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They dropped their nets. Right then and there, it says again, this word that we're going to see in Mark over and over again, immediately, they immediately left their nets and followed him.

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And this is what we see. Here we see what joyful obedience is.

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Joyful obedience is not a precursor to conversion. I would never say to you, and someone was confused last week, when they said, but are you teaching a works salvation?

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I said, absolutely not. But what I'm saying here is that joyful obedience is not the precursor to conversion.

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It's not the precursor to salvation, but it is the fruit of true conversion. And so for those who have repented and believed, the command from God is this, follow

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Christ. Go after him. Come to him on his terms.

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Yes. And then abandon your own ambitions and subscribe to Christ's divine agenda.

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Now, as I look around the room, I think the only person in this room that has heard this story on this side of the room is

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Amy. So my apologies, sister, in our back row there. But I'm going to recount a story that I told just over a year ago because I think it's the perfect example of what this joyful obedience, this joyful response to Christ's call looks like.

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I once heard the story of an English nobleman who came to California in the 19th century.

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Picture this during the gold rush. At the end of his stay, he returned to his hometown, but not before passing through New Orleans.

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And while he was there, he went to the famous slave auction.

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And there was a beautiful young African American woman being auctioned off there to the highest bidder.

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And this godly man overheard two other men who were planning to purchase this woman.

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And he heard all of the vile and the perverted things that they planned to do when they took possession of her.

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And so, moved with concern for this woman, this godly man said to the auctioneer, as the auction was ongoing, he said,

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I will pay two times the highest price for that slave.

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And so, going once, going twice, sold to the highest bidder. This man had just purchased his first slave.

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And so the man took this woman to a nearby office and had documents drafted, not to finalize the purchase for her as a slave, but to set her free.

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And as he presented the slave, the slave woman, this beautiful young lady, with the manumission papers to set her free, she spit in his face.

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So he said to her, don't you understand? Don't you understand? I'm trying to set you free.

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But again, she spit in his face again. He said, I'm trying to release you.

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And then dumbfounded, the man asked, or the woman asked the man, she said, sir, do you mean to double the price that anyone has ever paid for a slave just to set me free?

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And the man answered, yes. And again, the woman wept, this time falling down as she wept.

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And then after she had gained her composure, this young woman stood up. She said to the man, she said, sir,

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I have just one more request. Can I be your slave forever?

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He had just purchased her freedom. She could be free, as good as fully liberated.

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And instead she says, I just want to be your slave forever. And that's what it means to follow

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Christ, that we come to him on his terms, that he saves us. He ransoms us from our slavery to sin and to Satan and to death.

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And just as we find our freedom, we look back at the Christ who saved us and we say to ourselves, there could never be a better master than the

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Lord Jesus. And then what happens from this? We see that as Christ calls these men, he says to Andrew and Simon Peter, he says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

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We read that in 1 Peter 2, that he called us even while we were in darkness to proclaim the excellencies of Christ.

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We read in the Great Commission that we're to make disciples of all nations. At the end of Mark chapter 16, we're going to read that he says, preach the gospel to all of creation.

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And one of the things that we need to realize is that if we have been called into Christ's service to follow

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Christ's agenda, that means engaging in evangelism, of telling people about the

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Lord Jesus Christ, about telling people what he has done, what he has done for us, what he has done for humanity.

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John MacArthur says in this passage, he says, evangelism was the primary purpose for which

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Jesus called the apostles and it remains central to his mission today.

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Charles Spurgeon, to quote him again, he says, every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.

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C .T. Studd, the great missionary to China and then to Africa and other places, he said, let us not glide through this world.

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Picture this. Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our

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Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil, that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service in hell when he gets the news of our departure from the battlefield.

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Can I ask you, when you die, is the devil and all of his demons, are they going to celebrate your death?

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Finally, he's gone. Christ was always on his lips. The gospel was always going forth.

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People were always hearing about the wonderful working of God in the person of Jesus. But he's gone now.

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Or when you die, it's just going to be a blip on the radar. Completely unacknowledged.

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When Christ calls us to follow Him, He calls us to proclaim Him. To be fishers of men.

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But it's more than just evangelism that Christ has in mind here. Not just to follow and to be fishers of men, but to follow

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Him in His service. Again, another commentator, Ironside, writes this.

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He says, We're not to conclude from this that all who follow the Lord Jesus will become a great soul winner.

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Some are called to serve in more humble capacities. Some have no ability to preach or even to do effective personal ministry work.

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But each one is called to serve. To serve in whatever place the Lord puts him.

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Some are called just to suffer for His sake. All. If you're a

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Christian in the world and Christ has called you to follow Him, mark my words, all of you, every single one of you is called to serve

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Him in some capacity. Yes, to make Him known. Yes, to proclaim

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His gospel. But then to take all of your energy and to pour it into the calling that God has given you specifically.

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He says, All can participate in the ministry of prayer and thereby be a real help to those who preach the word.

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And so we're called to follow Christ in this life. It's interesting. Some people might say,

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We're not called to follow, we're called to believe. But then I think too about Christ's words to Peter.

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Even after his death, he commands Peter to follow me. In 1

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John 2 .6 it says, Whoever says he abides in Him, in Jesus Christ, ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

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And then we read the words of the Apostle Paul. And I know that some of these words are some of the favorite words of some of the brothers and sisters even in this room.

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Philippians 1 .21 when Paul says, For me to live is Christ. For me to live is

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Christ and to die is gain. Meaning that if God puts a beat in my heart and breath in my lungs,

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I'm going to live in service to Christ. And we see Paul's example, don't we? Or in Galatians 2 .20

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where Paul says this, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer

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I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live in the flesh,

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I live by faith in the Son of God. The Son of God what? The Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

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So Christ calls us, yes, to follow him, to be fishers of men, to proclaim the gospel, but to follow him in service.

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And I'm going to suggest even to follow him in suffering. We glossed over it, but at the beginning of verse 14 it says,

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Now after John was arrested, that Greek word again that Mark uses for arrested, is later used to describe when

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Jesus himself was handed over to be crucified.

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And then again Mark uses that same word for arrested to describe what will happen to Christians when we place our faith in Christ, when we follow him.

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Not only was John arrested and handed over, but Jesus was arrested and handed over and the believer will be arrested and handed over.

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Maybe not literally in exactly the same context, but maybe literally and maybe in the exact same context.

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But Christians are called to proclaim, they're called to serve, they're called to suffer. And we're called to do it joyfully in service to our master.

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And then last, we'll look at these last few verses. And then verse 21, They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the

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Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority.

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Exousia, we're going to talk about that. And not as the scribe. And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out,

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What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?

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I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him saying, Be silent, come out of him.

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And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him.

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And they were all amazed. So they questioned among themselves saying, What is this?

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A new teaching with authority. Exousia. He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

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And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

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The last point that I want to make here is this. A true disciple recognizes and submits to Christ's authoritative word.

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Essentially, what's happening here is there are two stories. You might wonder why we've sandwiched this together or even why some of the

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Bible translators have sandwiched this together. But there are two stories, but they're teaching the exact same thing.

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And they're teaching this, that Christ has authority. And the substance of Christ's authority or one of the means that Christ demonstrates his authority is through his powerful word.

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And so they come into the synagogue here in verse 21. The synagogue was a place where the

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Jews would meet to read the word, and then sometimes people would come and expound the word to the people.

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And so here Christ is in the synagogue honoring the religious system of the Jews and teaching.

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And it's interesting, in the Gospel of Mark, we read this word, we find this word teaching 35 times.

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And 34 of those 35 times are in reference to Christ teaching.

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But Christ did not come teaching unlike the scribes who would come and follow the traditions of men.

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They would preach the teachings of rabbis. And to preach human tradition, Christ came with authority.

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That's a Greek word, exousia. Exousia, which means a supernatural authority, a supernatural power.

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And again, we find this word nine times in the Gospel of Mark, all in reference to Jesus.

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And so Christ taught, but he didn't just teach, he taught with authority. And what we see is, again, like last week,

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Mark tells us how Christ displayed his authority as God the

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Son. Now I want to ask you, do you receive

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Christ's teaching? Do you receive, do you treat God's word as if it is the authority in your life?

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I don't doubt that most of us, if not every single one of us in this room, read our

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Bibles consistently, probably every single day. But do you have a habit of heartless reading of Scripture, where you read it, you check the box, and then you move on?

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Or do you read the word of God and recognize, which is one of the true characteristics of Scripture, that this has authority over my life?

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That when Christ speaks, it's not a good moral teacher only. It's not just some good moral teacher.

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It's not just some prophet. This is God in the flesh speaking to me.

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When you pick up your Bible, do you say, this is the authoritative word of God, and whatever it says,

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I will do. Or do you see it, again, as a chore to be engaged in every day to maintain your spiritual disciplines?

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Do you have a heartless attitude of reading Scripture? I know for me personally,

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I think about this, I find this convicting, that I can pick up my

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Bible, and I can read it, and then I can carry on completely unstirred.

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But that's not what it's meant to be. That's not what the Christian experience is to be. That's not what it is to read the word of God.

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We should come away from the word of God, not just with an empty or shallow emotionalism, but with the expectation that, what is this?

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A new teaching with authority. A famous Puritan, Thomas Goodwin, I'm sure some of you have heard of him.

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During his days in college, he once took a journey to hear a pastor named John Rogers preach one of his weekday lectures.

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And during this sermon, Rogers discussed the subject of the Scriptures. And on this occasion, he admonished his hearers on their neglect of the

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Bible. And so speaking for a moment as if he were

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God, imagining as if these were God's words, he said, I have trusted you so long with my

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Bible. You have slighted it. It lies in your houses covered with dust and cobwebs.

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You care not to look into it. Do you use my Bible so? Well, you should have my

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Bible no longer. He then took up the Bible from the cushion and seemed as if he was going to carry it away from them.

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Picture this. Imagine if God were to say to you tomorrow, you have not read my

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Bible. You have not treated my Bible with authority. I'm going to take it back. Would that change your life?

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So carrying it away, he immediately turned and impersonated the people answering to God. And he fell down on his knees, wept and he pleaded most earnestly as if he were the people responding to God.

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Oh Lord, whatever thou doest to us, take not thy Bible from us.

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Kill our children. Burn our houses. Destroy our goods.

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Only spare us the Bible. Then he addressed the people as if from God again.

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And he said, Say you so. Well, if I try you a little longer, here is my

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Bible for you. I will yet see how you will use it, whether you will love it more, whether you will observe it more, whether you will practice it more and live more according to it.

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By these actions, the people who heard him were deluged with tears.

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Imagine being moved like that from a sermon. They were deluged with tears at the thought that God would take away their

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Bibles. How would they respond? And Goodwin himself, when he left, were told, wept on the neck of his horse for over 15 minutes before he had the power to mount his horse with so great a conviction by this admonishment to never neglect his

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Bible again. If God were to take the Bible from you today, would it have any difference on the way that you live?

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Or would it be as if you've lost the greatest worldly possession, the greatest physical possession in your life?

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What is your relationship to the Bible? I want to exhort you, brothers and sisters, if you have a

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Bible, praise God for it. I've told you before, I love to read my

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Bible using a system. But can I tell you something? Take your Bible and treasure it.

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Have a system to keep you in it, but dig deeper. Seek to know the

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Lord better. Seek to study his word more. Jesus said in John 8, 31, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

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I love Paul's words here to the Colossians. He says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

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Are you rich in the word of Christ? Like John Bunyan.

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If someone were to cut you, do you bleed Bibline? Or if someone were to cut you, would you bleed

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YouTube? Or would you bleed something else that is a distraction? Christ has spoken.

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When the people heard him, they said, wow! Someone that teaches with authority. Brothers and sisters, like our brother

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Steve said, if you want to read, if you want to read the word of God, or if you want to see the word of God, read your

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Bibles. If you want to hear the word of God, read your Bible aloud. Brothers and sisters, take this word of God and treasure it.

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Treasure it in your heart. Meditate upon it. Memorize it. Study it.

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And most amazingly, what we see in here is that when Christ gave his word, in this case, his authoritative word, he did not give it to crush the people.

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He did not give his word to enslave the people, but he gave his word to heal and to restore and to redeem and to ransom and to rescue even from slavery and bondage to the devil and his demons.

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See the word of God as a gift, as a treasure, as something that God has given you for your good.

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I'll conclude with these words of the same question that I asked with.

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Are you a true disciple of Jesus Christ? There can only be one answer.

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You cannot say both yes and no at the same time. Your yes must be yes and your no must be no.

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Are you a true disciple of Jesus Christ? And if so, it means that you've come to him on his terms alone.

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Your saving faith must bear the necessary fruit of obedience to Christ and his agenda.

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And your saving faith must be founded upon, rooted in his authoritative word.