He comes out the other side and he comes into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom
of God and saying, verse 15, the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe the Gospel.
Verse 16, now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother,
casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.
And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
And straightway, straightway means immediately, no delay, straightway, they forsook their
nets and followed.
They didn't put in their two weeks notice.
It was just, we're done.
They just dropped it and walked off.
No turning back.
And it says in verse 17, or verse 18, and straightway they forsook their nets and followed
him.
And when he had gone a little farther thence, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John
his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.
And straightway he called them and they left their father, Zebedee, in the ship with the
hired servants and went after him.
So they gave up the family business.
They gave up their trade.
They gave up their occupation.
They gave up their employment.
They walked off the job because this is a one-time opportunity.
This is Jesus Christ, the son of God.
When he says to you, Come after me and I'll make you fisher of men, you just go.
Other people hesitated.
If we read the book of Matthew, there are others who said, Oh, you know, well, Lord,
suffer me first to go and bury my father.
You know, oh, they have all these excuses.
And he says, he, that putting his hand to the plow looketh back is not fit for the kingdom
of God.
He says, Look, follow me and let the dead bury their dead.
We're going.
It's now.
And they had to be ready to just drop everything and follow him.
It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to be one of the 12 disciples.
We would have all loved to be one of the 12 disciples, right?
And so this is a special opportunity.
They had to drop everything and take it.
And of course we have the opportunity today to serve Christ.
Now we don't have the same urgency of Jesus physically here walking around and he's only
got three and a half years and he doesn't have time to wait for everybody with all their
delays.
You know, we obviously have our whole life to live, right?
We've got, you know, maybe 70 years on this earth or 80 years or, you know, we could all
die tomorrow.
You don't know.
Question is, we have our life and in that life we also have the opportunity to follow
Christ.
We also have the opportunity to be a fisher of men.
And what I want to point out here is the dichotomy of what it means to get saved versus what
it means to follow Christ as his disciple.
These are not the same thing.
Getting saved is easy.
It's very easy to get saved.
That's why we see multitudes of people getting saved.
I mean, the Bible talks about multitudes of people being baptized by John the Baptist,
but then it turns around and says that Jesus and the disciples made and baptized more disciples
than John.
So we have John baptizing this incredible number of people in Mark chapter 1, but then
in the future the disciples of Christ end up baptizing way more people than John did.
And then they're coming to John saying, you know, everybody's following Jesus, more people
are getting baptized.
They're trying to get John to be envious, but of course John said, I must decrease,
he must increase.
I'm not the Christ, you know, I'm just sent before him.
I'm just the friend of the bridegroom.
He's the groom, he's the man of the hour.
And so we see that Jesus Christ and his disciples baptized multitudes of people, and look, they're
baptizing people because the people got saved because the people believed tons of people
believe thousands and thousands and thousands of people believe on Jesus throughout those
three and a half years.
Bible's clear on that, but yet isn't it interesting that when the early church meets in Acts chapter
1, there are only 120 people there.
So how do you go from having thousands of people saved, thousands of people baptized,
and then you get to Acts chapter 1 and the number of names together was about 120.
What happened?
It's because there's a huge difference in believing in Jesus and getting saved and actually
following Christ and being a disciple.
Look, anybody who believes on Jesus is saved, but there are a lot of people who believe
on Jesus, but they're not really interested in doing much for Christ.
And think about it, even Baptist churches that are right on salvation, that are right
on doctrine, and they preach the Bible faithfully, but think about the ones that have zero soul
winning.
They don't knock any doors and preach the gospel of the lost.
They have just almost no outreach, zero soul winning.
I mean, is that church following Christ?
Because here's the thing, they're not being a fisher of men.
Jesus said, if you follow me, I'll make you a fisher of men, and we see many churches
filled with people that are saved, they're going to heaven, they enjoy worshiping God
and reading the word of God, but you don't see them out there actually following Christ
in the matter of being a fisher of men.
So therefore, that goes to show you there are a lot of saved people who aren't doing
the work.
And even in a church like ours, there are going to be people who don't do any work.
They don't go out and reach anybody with the gospel.
They don't preach the gospel.
They don't do soul winning.
But they're still saved.
They're still going to heaven.
They still believe in Christ.
Because here's the deal.
Getting saved is free.
Being a disciple, being a follower of Christ, being someone who follows Christ wherever
he goes, and being a serious Christian costs you everything.
So on the one hand, we have salvation getting to heaven, which is absolutely free.
And then on the other hand, we have doing great things for God, which costs you literally
everything.
Now it's not to say that God's going to take everything from you, because God really blesses
us and allows us to have a lot of nice things, and he allows us to do a lot of cool things
and be surrounded by a lot of great people.
But here's the thing.
You have to be willing to pay everything.
Not to be saved.
But see, there are people out there saying, you've got to be willing to do everything
to be saved.
It's like, whoa, buddy.
What are there?
Five people on earth saved?
50 people on earth saved?
Actually, it's zero, because nobody is that dedicated and has just turned from all their
sins and been perfect.
No way.
But here's the thing.
Because of doing great things for God, you do have to be willing to put it all out there
and lay all on the altar.
But my friend, that's a minority.
That's a small subgroup within the saved.
Thankfully, God didn't make it that hard to get to heaven, because if so, it'd be a real
lonely place up in heaven.
Because think about how many people in this world are really super dedicated, sold out,
soul winning Christians.
That's a pretty small percentage of those who are saved.
I'll tell you this much.
Every time I go out soul winning, and I'm out knocking doors every week, I always run
into someone who's already saved every single time.
Virtually every single time I run into somebody who's saved, sometimes in an hour of soul
winning, I'll run into three or four people that are already saved.
So there are a lot of saved people out there.
Now if we were in some other part of the world, it might not be that way, because there are
some dark places spiritually.
But here in the United States of America, when you go soul winning in the United States
of America, you're constantly running into people that are saved.
But how many of those people are out evangelizing?
You know, .0001%.
You know, it's a very small percentage of them that are actually out evangelizing.
And it's just like in the Bible.
Thousands and thousands of people getting saved.
Thousands and thousands of people getting baptized.
But when the persecution's coming, and things are looking rough, it's 120 people, right?
That's what they're left with.
120 people.
That's why it always cracks me up when people criticize young churches and small churches.
You know, they'll look at a church and say, you know, well why is this, you know, if you
guys got hundreds of people saved, how come that church only had, you know, 75 people
in it?
Because that's the average size independent Baptist church is 75 people.
Well if they got hundreds of people saved, how come they only have 75 in attendance?
Well I don't know.
Why did John the Baptist and Jesus and 11 apostles work their tails off for years and
years and you only have 120?
I guess they're expecting modern day independent Baptist pastors to be like John the Baptist
and Jesus and the 11 disciples all rolled into one.
And even that's not good enough, because they would criticize that and say, well 120 is
not enough.
Look, our church runs 300 people plus on Sunday morning and it's like, well, but yeah,
but you got more people saved now, where are they all?
I don't know.
They don't come because they're lazy or they're just busy or they're at the lake or whatever.
They're just doing something else.
Or they go to some liberal watered down church that tells them what they want to hear.
You know, look, if somebody doesn't want to live for God at all, if someone's not interested
in learning new things, they're not interested in doing work for God, they're not interested
in making any changes in their life or becoming a better Christian, why would they go to a
church like this?
Faithful Word Baptist Church is going to challenge you on Sunday morning, challenge you on Sunday
night, challenge you on Wednesday night, challenging you, teaching you, motivating you, and trying
to get you to do more or learn more or be more or make some kind of a change.
Here's the thing, a lot of people aren't interested in that.
They say, you know what, I want to stay just the way I am.
I don't want somebody telling me I should be out witnessing to the loss.
I want somebody telling me that it's already been foreordained.
And they go, whoever's saved is saved, whoever's unsaved is unsaved, it's all foreordained.
I don't want somebody bugging me to go out and warn people and pull people out of the
fire.
I don't want somebody telling me to clean up my life.
I like my sin level where it's at.
Folks, I'm telling you, if you don't want to learn anything, if you don't want to grow,
if you don't want to be anything different or more, why would you go to a church like
this?
You wouldn't.
You'd go to a church that preaches good God, good devil, and cold hell, and you could just
kind of relax and sing a few songs, get a little feel good, pat on the back, sermonette,
fifteen minute sermonette, and that's where a lot of God's people are.
Folks, I got news for you, these non-denominational churches, many of them are filled with saved
Christians.
How do you know?
They lock their doors.
And they have a clear testimony of salvation, they clearly believe the gospel, but they're
going to a fun center because they're more interested in fun than in something serious.
This is big boy church.
They'd rather be like in an eternal Sunday school.
They want to be in a Sunday school class for 40 year olds, 40 year old junior church, 50
year old junior church.
They're 75 years old and in junior church.
This isn't junior church.
We even have our toddlers in big boy church around here.
But over there they have the big boys in toddler church.
That's what these fun center churches are.
And so the point is that there's a big difference between just being saved and actually wanting
to be a serious Christian.
And this church is a place where serious Christians gravitate toward a church like this.
You don't have to be a serious Christian to come here.
You can be here and do nothing.
You can come here, be nothing, do nothing, change nothing, and it's good to see you brother.
But here's the thing about that though, you might not like it here because you might not
like to keep being reminded of the nothing that you're doing.
People who are nothings don't like to be told, do something, do something, do something.
It's like, no.
But you're welcome.
But the point is that to get saved takes zero commitment as far as making changes in your
life or money or time or energy or whatever.
But here's the thing, but being a disciple of Christ, you got to be willing to put it
all out there if you want to be greatly used by God.
You got to be ready to enter the wilderness.
You got to be ready to go through the trials and tribulations.
You got to be ready to pay the price and you got to be ready to forsake something.
I mean the disciples, they're not just going to be able to, well is it all right if I just
keep my fishing job part time Jesus?
I mean just in case this whole disciple gig doesn't work out, I better put my two weeks
notice because if I ever need to go back to that job, I got to put in my two weeks notice.
Jesus is saying, no, you better get all the way in, burn the bridge, burn the ships, in
it to win it, there's no turning back.
That's the kind of commitment that we see here in Mark chapter one.
Now look, I don't know about you, I want to just not be one of the 5,000, I mean it'd
be cool to be one of the 5,000.
Remember when Jesus fed the 5,000?
Wouldn't you have loved to be there, be one of the 5,000, eat the loaves, eat the fishes,
hear the amazing preaching of the Sermon on the Mount or whatever the preaching, that
kind of preaching.
Hey, that's great, but you know what, I would rather instead of just being one of the 5,000,
I'd rather be one of the 120, but you know what, rather than just being one of the 120,
I'd like to be one of the 12, and not only just one of the 12, I'd like to be one of
the three, Peter, James, and John, the inner circle, but you know what, even better than
that, I'd like to be the disciple whom Jesus loved who leaned on his breast at the Last
Supper.
But hey, we should be trying and striving to be as close to Jesus Christ as we can,
to be as great of a servant of God as we can, as great of a servant as Christ.
Don't mix that with salvation though, because salvation is a free gift paid for by the blood
of Jesus.
You believe on Christ and you're saved.
That's what we see.
Okay, just repent and believe the Gospel, that's it.
Get saved.
But if you want to be a follower of Christ, a disciple of Christ, you know, people take
the verse where he says, if any man will come after me, let him deny self and take up the
cross daily and follow me and say that that's salvation.
No, because salvation isn't daily.
Salvation is one time, born again, not born again and again and again and again and again
and again and again, it's just born again.
You get saved one time, you have eternal life, it's a free gift, you eat that bread of life
and you never hunger again.
You drink the water of life, you never thirst again.
Denying self, taking up the cross daily and following Christ has to do with this level
of commitment of an Andrew, of a Peter, of a James, of a John that dropped the net, kissed
their job goodbye and they're ready to follow Christ with everything they've got.
Look, I'm not telling you to quit your job because again, this is a special situation.
Jesus is on this earth for three and a half years.
When he says jump, you say how high on the way up or he might just walk away, you know,
because there's other fish in the sea and he needed guys that were dedicated to work
hard and follow him because he had a lot of work to do in just three and a half years.
He needed the help.
He sent them to all the towns and villages to gather people and get people ready so that
they could preach to all the house of Israel in one shot in three and a half years of ministry.
I'm not saying quit your job.
I'm not saying, you know, uh, you know, uh, sell everything and walk the earth as a mendicant
or something.
That's not what I'm saying.
But what I'm saying is you're willing to make sacrifices for serving God.
And if there's a sacrifice that has to be made, you're ready to make it.
If it means giving up something, if it means giving up your job, you would give up your
life.
If it means giving up and sometimes it could, maybe you have an immoral job that you do
need to give up.
You know, I remember the first person that ever got baptized at faith forward Baptist
church was a black, was a blackjack dealer at the Indian reservation casino.
You know, I mean, is that a job that Christ wants you to give up?
Yeah.
And she told me she, she dealt blackjack at the Indian casino and here's what she said.
She said, you know what?
I know that I shouldn't be doing this because she said, I've worked here long enough to
see people's lives destroyed.
And she said, I watch people when they first come in and they're so cool and they're having
so much fun and then I see them months later, it always ends the same.
They go down a downward spiral and it always ends with them accusing me of cheating and
being dragged out of here by security with nothing.
Having mortgaged their house in debt up to their eyeballs, maxed out the credit cards,
being dragged out of this casino, kicking and screaming.
And I remember when they first came in happy and well healed and everything was great.
And she said, I know that I should give up that job, but she said it's just so much money.
It's just hundreds and hundreds of dollars a night tax free because she's on the Indian
reservation.
Hundreds of dollars a night tax free.
It's just too hard to say no to that.
Now let me tell you something.
When we get to heaven, she's going to be there.
She was saved.
She believed on Christ.
When we get to heaven, she will be there.
But guess what?
She's not following Christ right now.
She's not in church.
She has an immoral job, right?
The point is, there's a big difference between getting saved.
Hey, it's pretty easy to accept a free gift.
But you know, the rest of the Christian life isn't free.
Salvation's free.
The gift is free.
Being a disciple of Christ is going to cost you something.
She wasn't willing to give that up and there were other things in her life.
And you know what?
We all have things in our life too that we need to give up and things that hold us back
from serving Christ.
And if we want to be used maximum for Jesus Christ, we've got to be willing to cut some
things loose in our life that are not helping us serve God.
And so yes, salvation is free, but the Christian life can cost you everything.
If you really want to get all the way in and do something great for God, you've got to
be like Andrew and Peter and be willing to forsake the net, to drop the net and serve
Christ.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord, and for all the great things
just packed into this beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the book of Mark, Lord.
And Lord, thank you that he is the son of God.
And Lord, thank you for the fact that we've been blessed in the English language with
the King James Bible.
We don't have to be a member of the Bible of the month club that's constantly changing,
Lord.
Thank you for giving us the Bible in our native language where it's the same every year and
we can understand it and believe it and not have to worry about it being tampered with
or changed.
It stood the test of time, Lord.
What a blessing.
And Lord, help us to take that sword of the Spirit and preach the gospel and win as many
people to Christ as we can, Lord.
And help us to be ready to make sacrifices so that we can be a better servant of yours,
a better soul winner, a better preacher, Lord.
Help us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and it's
In his name we pray.
Amen.