The Good News That Jesus Preached

Mark 1:14-20
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, October 13, 2019
Copyright © 2019, Gregory Broderick

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.  “The time has come,” He said.   “The kingdom of God is near.  Repent and believe the good news!”

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and His brother Andrew casting a new into the lake, for they were fishermen.

“Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed Him.

When He had gone a little father, He saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.  Without delay He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him.

Mark 1:14–20

 

Our passage this morning tells us of Jesus preaching the good news of the gospel in Galilee, and the calling of His first disciples.  Having been prepared by the Holy Spirit in the desert and having been announced to the world by John the Baptist as the Son of God, this Savior, this Christ, begins His public ministry.  “The time has come,” He says in verse 15.  “The kingdom of God is near,” He says.  Indeed the time has come, and the kingdom is near.  It is still the time, and the kingdom is still near.

We are going to look first at the gospel that Jesus preached, including the commands to believe the good news of God and repent; second, Jesus’ call, “Follow Me”; and third, the response to the call, “Follow Me.”

The Gospel That Jesus Preached

The first thing we hear about Jesus in this passage is that He was proclaiming the good news of God (v. 14).  This is not just good news in the regular sense, like getting the good news that you won a prize or getting the good news that you got a contract at work.  No, this is not normal good news.  This is the best news possible.  This is the one thing needful.  You cannot receive better news than this.

Believe the Good News

What is this good news? The parallel passage in Matthew 4 tells us, “The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” The reality is that we all live in the land of the shadow of death, for everyone is a sinner.  We are all sinful from birth.  The Bible, which is the word of God, tells us so.  Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” We know we are sinful from birth because God says it is true.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned and plunged the whole world into sin.  We are born sinners by nature, and, perhaps no surprise, we sin every day.  Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.” John says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).  If we say that we do not sin, we are not telling the truth.  Paul says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

We are all sinners, and we could stop there.  We just read three passages from the Bible that tell us this truth.  We should believe that and move on.  But we also know from our own experience that this is true.  In other words, our experience affirms the word of God.  We know that everyone is a sinner.  Look at it this way: Everyone we know has sinned against us in some way or the other.  And we know that we ourselves are sinners, and we sin all the time.  If we stop and examine our lives, we will see that we have done wrong, and we know that we have done wrong.  Sometimes we have done terrible wrongs.  And we look back and we cannot believe that we did that terrible thing.  Yes, we all know that we have failed to do what God requires.  That is what sin is: failing to do what God requires.  We have failed to love our wives as Christ loved the church.  We have failed to love our neighbors as ourselves.  We have failed to do everything for the glory of God.  Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we are supposed to do it for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).

We also know that we have done what God prohibits.  That is the other side of sin, when we have not done what He told us to do and when we do what He tells us not to do.  We have stolen.  We have lied.  We have looked lustfully at another.  We have made idols of work or family or children or selves.  We have been greedy, and so on.

Due to our sin, we are under the sentence of eternal death.  That is our big problem.  God is perfectly holy.  His eyes cannot even look upon evil.  He has decreed a just eternal punishment for every sinner.  He says, “The wages of sin is death,” eternal death (Rom.  6:23).  And each one of us deserves it.  We have all sinned, and the wages of sin is death.  That is why we live in the land of the shadow of death.  That is why we are living in darkness.

But, as I said, I have good news.  Yes, we live in the land of the shadow of death, but a light has dawned, and Jesus Christ is that light.  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” As He proclaimed in the parallel passage in Luke 4, referring to the Old Testament, He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor.” That is us.  We are the poor.  What is that good news? “He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.” That is us, the prisoners.  “Recovery of sight for the blind.” That is us; we are blinded by sin.  “To release the oppressed.” That is us; we are oppressed by sin and hell and death and judgment.  He has “come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” He said.  That is good news, good news, good news.  That is great light.

You see, we are sinners, justly condemned to eternal hell with no way out.  We committed that infinite sin against infinite God, so we deserve that infinite punishment, and we could never repay it.  We could never pay off that debt, and we are thus in a sorry state.  But at that time—with us in that infinite debt and subject to that infinite punishment—at that time, in His great love, God moved.  He sent His perfect Son, eternal God, Jesus Christ, to become man and to live a perfect life without sin and in total obedience to God the Father.  Then He died on the cross, bearing the full wrath of God for all who put their faith in Jesus Christ.  As fully God, He could fully bear the infinite punishment that we could not.  As fully man, He could stand in our place and take that punishment that we deserved.

He took all of our sin on Himself and put all of His righteousness on us.  As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” That is the good news.  We can become the righteousness of God.  Our sins can be forgiven.  We can have peace with God and we can have fellowship with God.

It is all available for free.  We do not have to pay any money.  We do not have to earn it by a bunch of good works.  We do not have to be born into a certain race or a certain country or a certain family.  No, it is all available by free grace.  Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (Eph. 2:8–9).  It is God’s free gift, available to all people, purchased by the blood of Christ, the light of the world.  And, as I said, it is available to all—to all who believe, to all who put their faith in Him, to all who trust in Him alone for salvation, to all who confess with their mouths, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead.

This is the good news that Jesus proclaimed.  While we were utterly sinful, while we were oppressed and blind, while we were prisoners and enemies of God, Jesus the Christ died for our sins and was raised from death for our justification.  And having been justified by faith, we can now have peace with God (Rom. 5:1).  We no longer have to fear judgment.  We no longer have to fear sin and death and eternal punishment.  No, we who are justified by faith, we who are justified by God’s mercy and grace, are destined for glory.  We are destined for heaven.  We are destined for the very presence of God.  We will worship Him face to face forever.  We deserved death, but He gave us life.  We deserved hell, but He gave us heaven.  We deserved eternal shame, but He gave us eternal glory.  Hallelujah.  Good news!

This same good news that Jesus preached about two thousand years ago, we proclaim today.  It is the same “good news for all people.”  Yes, you are a sinner, and the wages of sin is death.  But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ.  And you can still receive it for free by faith, even today.  The good news of God is still the good news of God.

Not everyone will receive this free gift of grace.  Some will reject it.  They will irrationally hang on to their eternal punishment instead of grabbing hold of the free gift received by faith.  I counsel you today, do not be a fool.  Cry out to God for mercy.  Put your faith in Christ and take advantage of this good news that He proclaimed, and which we proclaim to you right now.  Be freed from Satan’s prison.  Be released from the oppressive slavery to sin.  Look up from the darkness to the light of Christ and be saved and rejoice in the good news today.

Repent

As I said, this good news had two parts.  One is believe the good news of God; the other is repent.  I am going to talk about repent now.  Believing the good news of God, putting your faith in Christ, is only the first step on this glorious journey.  Just because this salvation is free and available by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone does not mean that it is easy.  It does not mean that we have no obligation to our new Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Indeed, Jesus tells us here and elsewhere that we must repent.  It is not just “believe in the gospel,” “believe in the good news of God.” No, it is, “Repent and believe in the gospel.” That is what the Scripture says.

Repentance and faith are inseparable.  They are closely joined together, and any attempt to split them apart results in a false gospel that cannot save you.  You cannot truly repent unless you also believe; unless God regenerates you and makes you alive and gives you a new heart and a new nature and enables you to repent.  Any call to repent only, without the accompanying call to faith in Christ, is a call to merit-based salvation, meaning to earning your salvation yourself.  Any attempt to earn your salvation will necessarily fail, and you and your self-generated repentance will invariably revert to sin.  It will be short-lived.  You may experience a brief moral reform, but you will return to your old ways because you have not fundamentally changed.

The “repent-only,” the “earn-your-salvation” heresy, is a longstanding heresy.  But the much more common heresy in our time is to preach “believe” without preaching “repent.” Without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sin.  Yet many in the so-called church world these days preach a repentance-free false gospel—what they used to call “easy believism.”  Simply speak some magic words, and you will be saved.  No change, no holiness, no repentance.

Some of these fraudulent preachers teach salvation without repentance as their explicit doctrine.  In other words, they unashamedly declare this.  Those people are easy to spot.  They are telling you what you want to hear so that they can become rich and famous and popular, all the while sending their hearers to hell.  Others will not be so direct.  They will preach against an imagined legalism, as though that is the problem of our time.  They will suggest that any call to repentance and holy living is an attempt to earn your salvation.  These are wolves in sheep’s clothing.  At least the person who says, “You don’t need to repent,” is a wolf in wolf’s clothing.  But these people are wolves in sheep’s clothing.  They spiritualize their lawless, godless, unholy antinomianism by setting up and attacking straw man arguments.

Such preachers are just as dangerous as those who explicitly teach that you don’t need to repent.  They are just as dangerous, but they are less bold.  Like Paul, we say to such people, “By no means! No way! Mê genoito!” (Rom. 6:1).  Paul said, “Repent, and prove your repentance by your deeds” (Acts 26:20).  Peter said, “Repent .  .  .  every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38).  Jesus Christ said, “Repent,” in Matthew 4:17, Luke 24:46–48, and Revelation 3:3.  Jesus said this, and said this, and said this again.  And God the Father, the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says, “In repentance and rest is your salvation” (Isa. 30:15).  In fact, this same God the Father commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30).

What is my point? You must repent or perish.  You must do one or the other.  Choose repentance.  Choose Christ.  Choose life.

What does it mean to repent? Repentance is a turning, a metanoia, a change of mind (Mark 1:15).  It is a turning from sin to God.  A complete change in orientation.  A new way of thinking altogether.  It is a repudiation of the old.  In short, it is conversion.  It is a fundamental change of thinking that leads to a fundamental change of behavior.  I no longer love my sin and nurture it, but I hate my sin and daily crucify it by the power of the Holy Spirit.  That is repentance.  I no longer conceal my sin so that I can keep doing it, but I confess it and forsake it (Prov. 28:13).  That is real repentance.  And real repentance means a permanent change.  It is not a short-term thing.  As Martin Luther said in the first of his ninety-five theses, the entire life of believers is to be one of repentance.  That is all areas of life all the time forever.

Through repentance, we become the opposite of what we were in every material respect.  This good news is not that we can go on sinning; it is that we do not have to go on sinning.  We are no longer slaves to sin.  We died to sin with Christ.  We cannot live in it any longer.

So I say today, repent.  Turn.  Be free of your slavery to sin by faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Repent, rejoice, and rejoice with the whole heavenly host.  It says that in the Bible.  The whole heavenly host rejoices at the repentance of one sinner (Luke 15:10).

Follow Me

This Jesus, having called us to repent, having called us to believe the good news of God, then calls us: “Follow Me.”  Jesus calls to every sinner, “Come, follow Me.” We see this in verses 17 and 20 in our text this morning.  This is a special call to His disciples who would go with Him and who would later act as eyewitnesses to what they saw and what they heard.  But this call, “Follow Me,” is not merely a call for those twelve.  It is a call that Christ gives to every Christian:  “Come, follow Me.”  We are all the objects of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19–20).  It says, “Go into all the world, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them”—that is us—“into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them”—that is us—“to obey everything I have commanded.” This is the charge that He gave to His disciples.  “Go into all the world and baptize them and teach them, ‘Follow Me.  Follow Christ.’”

Peter says, “We must follow in His steps” (1 Pet. 2:21).  Paul says, “Follow me, as I follow Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).  John says that all Christians must walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:6).  And, of course, the Lord Jesus said, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” So this call is for everyone.  It is not just for the Twelve.  It is not just for pastors.  It is not just for “super-Christians.”  It is for all who repent and believe the good news of God.

Notice whom He calls:  a bunch of nobodies.  He does not begin His ministry in Rome, the capital of the world at that time.  Nor does He begin it in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jews.  He does not begin by preaching the good news to Caesar, the most powerful person on earth.  He does not even go to the Roman governor or the Jewish heads of state as the leading people in the local area.  He does not go to the high priest or other so-called religious leaders.  No, this Son of God, this Christ, fully God and fully man, a very high person—this Jesus goes to Galilee, the backwater of backwaters.  It was a racially mixed, geographically separated, northern province of Israel.  The people were the culturally despised.  We could call them rednecks.  (GTB)  They spoke a low-class form of Aramaic, and they were viewed as lacking in proper religious observance.  One writer said that a Galilean in Jerusalem was viewed like a Texan in New York City or an Irishman in London.  They were viewed as inferior.  They were viewed as lower.  They were viewed as nothings.  Acts 4:13 says that some of the leaders took note that the disciples were ordinary, unschooled men.

On top of that, even in Galilee, Jesus goes to fishermen.  Now, these are lowly people.  They work all night.  They do hard manual labor.  They smell bad; they smell of sweat and fish.  He bypasses the synagogues and the rabbis, the Pharisees, and Sadducees, and goes to the fishermen of Galilee, who are the absolute zeroes.  Praise God, He goes to the absolute zeroes!  Notice that this Christ goes to these zeroes and He chooses them.  He could have chosen anyone He wanted.  But He chooses these zeroes, and He saves them based on His love and His mercy and not based on any of our qualities.  Praise the Lord.

The next thing we notice about this call is that it is a call.  It is a command.  It is an imperative.  They must go.  “Come, follow Me!” He commands.  It is not an invitation: “Would you like to come and follow Me?” It is not even a suggestion: “You know, you really should come and follow Me.” It is a command.  They did not have the option of declining.  Eternal God says “Repent,” and you must repent.  He says “Believe the good news of God,” and you must believe the good news of God.  He says “Follow Me,” and you must follow Him.  Eternal God is speaking and there is no legitimate other option.

If this all sounds a little dictatorial, a little undemocratic, that is because it is.  God is not, of course, a dictator in the Hitler or Stalin mold.  He is eternally and perfectly good.  But He is absolutely sovereign.  He is all-powerful.  He does have the absolute right to tell us what to do and He does tell us what to do.  Rather than grumble about this perceived intrusion into our personal sovereignty or our freedom to choose, we should praise God that He calls us, that He draws us by His irresistible grace.  If any part of our salvation depended upon us, we would surely say “No.” As I already said, we were dead in our transgressions and sins.  We were enemies of God.  But praise God, He did not leave it up to us.  Praise God, He instead regenerates us. He makes alive His elect, His chosen people.  Praise God, He gives us a new heart, a new mind, and a new set of affections.  Praise God, He commands us and enables us to respond to His command in the affirmative.  Otherwise, we would say “No” and we would be left in our sorry state; in our sorry former condition, as enemies of God—dead, disobedient, and damned.  So praise God that it is a mandatory call.

The last point about this call is the response to the gospel call.  The first response is to come.  Jesus said, “Come,” and the disciples came.  The only proper response to His call, “Follow Me,” is to follow Him.

Second, we notice that they came right away.  Their response was immediate.  Speaking of Simon and Andrew in verse 18, it says, “At once they followed [Jesus].” Speaking of James and John in verse 20, it says that they followed Him without delay.  They left their father in the boat and they went.  No questions, no interviews, not bargaining, no months-long back and forth in response to the call.  They just go.  They leave their nets and they leave their father Zebedee, and they go.

Now, this does not mean that you should mindlessly go, or that you are not born again if you wrestled with the call to Christ.  But it means that it is an urgent call.  It is an important call.  It is a divine call that admits of no delay.  It is more important than your job or your property or even your own family ties.  You must go.  And it is too important, it is too weighty, it is too eternal a question to get caught in analysis paralysis or indecision.  You are being called from eternal death to eternal life.  Go!  Go now!  Go today!  It is urgent!  “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor.  6:2).  Tomorrow may not come.  Do not let Christ and His free offer of eternal life pass you by.  Grab hold of it today.

Third, it is a costly call.  Just because it is free does not mean that it is easy.  Just because it is worth it does not mean that you do not have to pay some price—not some price to achieve it, but some price in consequence of receiving it.  Just look at Peter.  Peter left his nets and his boat.  That probably took a long time for him to earn.  Perhaps he inherited it from his father, who took a long time to earn it.  But the net and the boat represents a lot of labor over time.  He walked away, no problem, and he never went back to being a full-time fisherman.  Instead, he walked with Christ all over Israel for three years.  He preached all over the world.  He was arrested, imprisoned, and crucified for Christ.  There was, indeed, a price to pay, a costly price.

Or look at James and John.  They left their father Zebedee in the boat.  Now, Zebedee must have been very disturbed by this, at least at first.  He probably had a family succession plan: “My sons will take over my business.” But he did not even get two weeks’ notice.  Even though family ties are strong, the call of Christ is stronger.  Your family may be upset with you.  They may disown you.  Your friends may abandon you.  If you turn to Christ and follow Him, some people may think that you have gone crazy.  But as the Lord Jesus says, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matt.  10:37).  We pray, of course, that it never comes to this.  We pray that we never need to make the choice, and that we will win those family and friends for Christ.  But if it comes down to it, we must choose Christ.  We must leave them in the boat and follow Christ.  Indeed, we sing at our baptisms, “Though none go with me, still I will follow,” whatever the cost.

Fourth, this is a permanent call.  Christ calls us, “Follow Me,” for all of our lives; indeed for all eternity.  It is not a temporary or seasonal or off-and-on call.  It is a once-for-all call.  Notice that they left the boat and the nets and the fish and all of it:  “See you later.  We are not coming back.” They left all that behind, and they were all in.  Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in God’s kingdom” (Luke 9:62).  We are reminded of Elisha the prophet.  When he was called, he stepped off the plow, he chopped up the expensive wooden equipment, he butchered the expensive oxen, and he burned it all up as a sacrifice.  In other words, he was saying, “I am going and I am not coming back.”

This is a one-way ticket.  There is no contingency plan; no safety net.  We trust God completely, and we go where He tells us to go.  We follow Him without looking back and without keeping our options open.  That might sound scary, but there is no safer thing that you can do.  Entrust yourself fully to Almighty God.  He is trustworthy.  He is able.  He does what He says He will do, and He says He will never leave you nor forsake you.

What God promises, He delivers.  What He commands us to do in His word, He empowers us to do by His Holy Spirit, Calvin said.  He never fails.  “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it” (Phil. 1:6).  He will take you all the way—all the way to eternal heaven, all the way to eternal life, all the way to eternal glory.  So I say, trust in Him.  Follow Him.  It is the safest and most fulfilling thing you could do.

Fifth, we see that this is a comprehensive call.  When Jesus calls you to repent and believe the good news, and to “Follow Me,” He is calling your whole self.  God calls us to follow Him with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all our strength.  You see, God will never take half a person.  Such a lukewarm person is neither hot nor cold, and God will spit him out (Rev. 3:16).  Such a double-minded person who thinks he is partly for God and partly for the devil or the world is unstable in everything (James 1:8).  In actuality, such a man is deceived.  He remains a child of the devil.  A double-minded person remains an enemy of God.  As a house divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:25), so a man who thinks he is partly for God and partly against God cannot stand.  He will eventually collapse into confusion and return to his master, the devil.

Although Christ extends His free offer of salvation to all, as we already said, not everyone will come.  But those who do come must come and will come wholeheartedly, in spirit and in truth, in all areas of life, for all of life.  That is one hundred percent of your life—a 100% commitment for 100% of your life.  It is an all-or-nothing proposition.  You either, “Come, follow Me and keep following Me,” or you do not.  It covers the big things and the small things.  As I said, it is comprehensive and full-orbed.  Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must now do it all for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).  It covers everything in life.  Your actions, your thinking, your emotions, your own purposes must be God’s purposes, by God through God and for the glory of God.  That is what it means to “Follow Me.”

The person who answers the call “Follow Me” must follow Him all the way.  We no longer even belong to ourselves; we belong to Him (1 Cor. 6:19–20).  He becomes our Lord, and we become His obedient slaves.  “I am not my own,” we sing, “I belong to Jesus.” We will live for Him who died for us if we answer the call, “Follow Me.”

The call “Follow Me” also means that we tell others about Jesus.  That is what it says.  It says, “Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (v. 17).  Jesus may call us out of homes and families.  He may call us to leave our boats and our nets immediately.  But He does not call us to be alone.  As He says in verse 17, “I will make you fishers of men.” When Christ regenerates us and makes us alive, He immediately commands and empowers us to share this good news with others, to call others to life in Christ.

We are reminded of the apostle Andrew.  John 1:40 tells us that Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother.  After Andrew met this Christ and heard from this Christ, the first thing he did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah.” Philip did the same thing for Nathanael, and so did Paul right after his miraculous conversion.  It says, “At once, he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20).  It was not after five years that he began to preach.  He was saved, and at once he began to preach that Jesus is the Son of God.  There are many other examples in the Bible.  We can think of the blind man (John 9:27).  We can think of the demoniac (Mark 5:20).  They went and told all about what Jesus had done for them.

Jesus calls us to follow Him and be fishers of men.  I heard someone say, “God is the fisherman, but He uses us as the fishing poles.” He calls us to be His witnesses.  To tell how much Jesus has done for us.  To say, “I was blind, but now I see.  I was dead, but now I am alive.  I was God’s enemy, but now He has adopted Me as His son, whom He loves.  I was hurtling down the broad way to hell, but now I finally walk along the highway of holiness in joy, bound for heaven.” Praise the Lord, He saved us! Let us now tell others about Him.

We must all be fishers of men, gladly telling others this good news of great joy, preaching as Jesus did, as Peter and Paul did, and as every true believer does: “Repent and believe the good news of God.  And then, follow me as I follow Christ.”

The final characteristic of our response to this call is great joy.  As 1 Peter 1:8 says, it is “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Christians can and should be and must be the most joyful people around.  All of our problems are solved.  Our eternal destiny is secure.  We will see God face to face, and we will worship Him forever in ecstasy in heaven.  No tears, no pain, no sin, no trouble.  Just perfect holiness, perfect ability, and perfect willingness to know and do the will of God, and glory, glory, glory.

We may have trouble in this world.  But even in that trouble, we can rejoice, for God has overcome the world.  We “rejoice in the Lord always.   I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4).  We have God.  God loves us.  God saved us.  God adopted us.  God made us alive.  God joined us to His holy family, His church.  God made sure that everything that happens to us happens for our ultimate good (Rom. 8:28).

We should be joyful.  We should be joyful because life is good with God.  Life is happy with God.  When we are saved, when we answer that call to believe the good news of God and to repent and “Follow Me,” we are filled with joy.  We are filled with the joy of the Lord.  Yes, it may ebb and flow somewhat with our situation.  But the deep reservoir of joy in knowing that I am saved, that I am destined for heaven, that I am headed for eternal glory—that deep reservoir of joy is always with us.  No person, no circumstance, no nothing can take it away.  I rejoice in the Lord in everything, for He is in everything.  Not a hair of my head can fall to the ground without His say-so, and He only says so if it is for my eternal good.  He said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).  That is us.  We have eternal security in Christ.  No one can snatch us from the very hand of God.  We should rejoice and we should rejoice greatly.

Conclusion

What should we do with all of this? I say what Jesus said: The kingdom of God is near.  Repent and believe the good news.  Follow Him.  Leave all to follow Him.  Cry out to Him, “Have mercy on Me, a sinner.”  Do not dither, do not delay, do not hesitate.  Answer the call today.  Follow Him today.  Leave your nets and your boat today.  Commit to Christ today.  Give Him your whole self and your whole life today.  Tell others about Jesus today.  And rejoice in the Lord today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day.

We live a blessed life in Christ. Let us never forget.  Let us be His faithful followers.  Let us be His faithful fishers of men until He calls us to Himself in fulfillment of His promises to us.  Amen.