Please join me by turning to Luke's Gospel, chapter 9. Our text for this morning will be verses 57 to 62, but we will read the beginning at verse 1 all the way to the end. So hear the Word of the Lord through the pen of Dr. Luke. Then he called his twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor script, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide and thence depart. and whosoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. And they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him, and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some that John was risen from the dead, and of some that Elias had appeared, and of others that one of the old prophets was risen again. And Herod said, John have I beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him. And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done, and he took them and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. And the people, when they knew it, followed him, and he received them and spake unto them of the kingdom of God and healed them that had need of healing. And when the day began to wear away, then came the Twelve and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals. For we are here in a desert place. But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes, except we should go and buy meat for all this people. For there were about five thousand men, and he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. And he did so and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them and break, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. And they did eat, and were all filled, and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets. And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him, and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? They answering said, John the Baptist, but some say Elias, and others that one of the old prophets is risen again. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. And he straightly charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the third day. And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged if he gained the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his father's and of the holy angels. But I tell of you a truth, there be some standing here which shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God. And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering. And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep, and when they were awake, they saw his glory in the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass as he departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias, not knowing what he said. While he thus spake, there came a cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. And when the voice was passed, Jesus was found alone, and they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of the things which they had seen. And it came to pass that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met him. And behold, the man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son, for he is mine only child. And lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and it terreth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departed from him. And I besought thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not. And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down and tear him, and Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the child and delivered him again to his father. And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God, that while they wondered, every one, at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples, let these sayings sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not, and they feared to ask him of that saying. Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child and set him by him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me, and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me. For he that is least among you all, the same shall be great. And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him. because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us. And it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers before his face, and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. And they did not receive him because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned and rebuked them and said, ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. May the Lord add his blessing to the hearing and understanding of his word. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for this Word that You've given to us. We pray that You would help us by Your Holy Spirit to understand this passage that's set before us this morning. What's involved in following after the Lord Jesus Christ. May we boldly By Your grace, embrace the life to which You have called us, that is, the life of discipleship. Grounded in the gracious work of redemption accomplished by Your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray this in His name and for His sake. Amen. Beloved, many years ago, in fact, over 100 years ago, there was a young man who was a scion of a well-to-do, well-heeled family in the Chicago area by the name of William Borden. William Borden was heir, inheritor of the family fortune. You perhaps have heard the name Borden. Perhaps it's not as well-known today as it was at one time. I'm pretty sure I grew up in the days in upstate New York where Borden products were all over the place. And of course that's many years after the passing of this young man. The significance of William Borden is not that he was from a wealthy family or that he was from Chicago. The significance of William Borden is that he understood this passage that is set before us. He understood it not only in terms the intellect, but in terms of working it out in his Christian life. This young man went to Yale University. He had a reputation for being a godly young man. Then he went from Yale to Princeton Seminary. So he would have sat under the ministry of some of our heroes. Jay Gresson Machen, B.B. Warfield, some of the others, William Park Armstrong, Robert Dick Wilson, Oswald T. Alice, you get the names. These are all the, many of the men who, Vosk, your heart is Vosk, these are men that would have, many of them, not all of them, who would have gone with Dr. Machen down to Philadelphia to establish Westminster. William Borden, during his time at Yale, I believe, had the opportunity to travel abroad. And in those travels, he came to the conviction that God was calling him to missionary service. Just the very attending of Princeton Seminary got him the reputation of throwing his life away, wasting his future. Not only did he sense a call to the mission field, he sensed a call to a certain group of Muslims in China. And he had it in his mind and was actually acting on that after graduation from Princeton Seminary to travel to China by way of Egypt. In Egypt, he wanted to learn Arabic because it was his intent to minister as a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ to this people group in China who were Muslims. Unfortunately, he contracted Spinal meningitis, I believe, while studying in Egypt and died at the age of 25. Never made it to the mission field in terms of his ultimate goal. Did William Borden throw his life away? Was it a waste of talent? Was it a waste of potential? He didn't think so. In a, I believe a telegram, not unlike Machen telegramming John Murray, he made the comment, no reserve, no retreat, no regrets. No reserve, no retreat, no regrets. That mindset embodied in the life of that man, William Borden, he understood this passage that's before us that I want us to look at. It looks like It's a further elaboration on what Jesus elsewhere talks about counting the cost of discipleship, and that's certainly a part of it. But there's more going on. We've already heard in this chapter, and we've heard it this morning as I've read the chapter, about what Jesus says about gaining the world but losing your soul. What good, what advantage does a man have if he gains the world but loses his soul? And here we see the exact opposite of that worldly mindset, that worldly mindset which we ought not to be shocked about when we see it in the world, but that often seeps into the church, and we often pick up the vibes of the world, and we ought to be careful that what appears to be what is true for the Lord Jesus Christ, and of course that's what we're looking at here, is what is true for the Lord is going to be true for his disciples. We see here, no place to call home, no one to bury my dead, and then no family to call my own. And I want to look at these in order. You'll see what our Lord says. You realize he's heading towards Jerusalem. He's just come from a rejection from a village in Samaria. Again, not completely surprising given the relationship of the Samaritans to the Jews in the day. In fact, what's surprising is that he ever got a hearing, right? It's supernatural that he got a hearing. He had His face set toward Jerusalem. And you see that in verse 51, and it came to pass when the time was come that He should be received up. That's actually, I believe, a reference to the ascension. Because you see, Jesus can't get to the ascension except by way of the cross and the tomb and the resurrection. But remember what Jesus had just been doing in his conversation on the Mount of Transfiguration, talking to Moses and Elijah about his coming decease, or in the Greek, exodus, his departure. Now, scholars will say, well, this has to do with his crucifixion. No, this has to do with his resurrection. No, this has to do with his ascension. Well, how about all of them? Because Jesus can't get to the Father by God's own will. He can't get there except by way of the cross. So this is the background to this interesting little exchange that the Lord has after He's just told James and John, you don't understand the Spirit that you are embodying, which is not the Spirit of the Son of Man at this point. When they said, can we call down the fire on this village just as Elijah did back in the day? And that was an appropriate thing for Elijah to do, so Jesus' comments are not a commentary on the appropriateness of what Elijah did. His comments to James and John are about the appropriateness of what they're doing, or wanting to do. We live in a different day. Now, as opposed to in Joshua's day where there was the physical warfare, now the warfare is spiritual. It sometimes manifests itself in physical ways, of course, but the warfare is spiritual and the weapons are not fleshly. but the weapons are spiritual. And if I'm sounding like Ephesians, there's a reason for that because that's Paul's assessment of the situation. And so James and John are reminded that no, in this era of redemptive history, the way that God is dealing with sinful human beings is by way of the demonstration and manifestation of mercy. and grace that will have its side of judgment as we know, but the focus, the stress, the emphasis or emphasis is on the extension of God's grace and mercy. And we see in verse 57, and it came to pass that as they went in the way, presumably on the road to Jerusalem, because that's where Jesus has set his face, as they're in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. We don't know who the man was, and it's not that important that we do. presumably not one of the 12 disciples, or the man would have been named. Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. And so, of course, Jesus has had this wonderful habit of referring to himself in the third person. When he's talking about the Son of Man, of course, he's talking about himself. He is the Son of Man. Now, and I've mentioned this before, Son of Man doesn't merely mean human, which it can mean in the Bible. It does mean that, for instance, in the book of Ezekiel. Son of Man is a way of saying one who is characterized as human. And that, of course, would be true of our Lord as to his human nature. But I believe, and I think it's true, that Jesus referencing Himself as the Son of Man actually has reference to Daniel chapter 7. One coming like a Son of Man on the clouds. And of course that's how our Lord describes His return when He comes back. And that's how Paul describes it, and that's how others in the New Testament describe our Lord's return his parousia. Parousia is the Greek word for presence. It doesn't actually mean return, it means presence. When the Lord returns present in the flesh, again, and it's referenced in this chapter, he talks about his returning and glorifying himself and coming with the angels and in the Father's glory. So Jesus understood that. Until the Lord would ascend to the Father's right hand, what He says here is absolutely true. Right? What he says, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests. That is, God in his wisdom enables animals by instinct to provide shelter for themselves, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. This is not Jesus saying that he had absolutely no place, because we know that, for instance, Mary and Martha and Lazarus provided shelter for Jesus and His disciples on more than one occasion. That is true. But the Lord of all glory, beloved, the Lord of all glory who came down from heaven had no place to call His home. Yes, He was born in Bethlehem. But it's interesting that in some of the conversations that our Lord has with the crowds throughout His earthly ministry, they seem to not be aware of that because they refer to Him as the Nazarene, not the Bethlehemite, right? So in one sense, Bethlehem was his home, his ancestral home, but it wasn't his real home. He was born in a stable or in a cave, a dugout, right? Not the greatest place. And then he was raised in Nazareth, which, yes, we have sentimental attachment to the city, but it wasn't any great shakes, was it? And of course, we know the synagogue in Nazareth greeted Jesus with open arms. Not. We remember that at the beginning of his earthly ministry. So he had no place to call home. And you realize that This is foreshadowed in David's experience. David is a type of Christ, right? And what do we know of David? Now, David initially had a home in the house of Jesse, along with his brothers. But once David becomes the darling of King Saul, and with friends like that, who needs enemies, right? David, for a short while, becomes Saul's favorite, but then very quickly Saul sees him as a competitor Saul being very much like Herod, I think, Herod the Great, you know, the one that killed his own sons because he was jealous for his own power and authority. Wonderful man that he was. Not. David, we know, was on the lam for years, right? And he gathered around himself a band of men, But they still, they drifted from place to place, from place to place. They ended up for a while amongst the cities of Philistia, amongst the very enemies, the sworn enemies of Israel. And so we can see in that experience of the soon-to-be King David, not yet King David, but soon-to-be King David, we can see that foreshadowing of our Lord's own experience. Our Lord has no place to call home. He's always dependent upon others. Always dependent upon others. Even the grave where he was buried, the tomb that he was buried in was borrowed. The tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. Now, as it turns out, it was a good thing that it was borrowed because he didn't need it for very long. just a few days, and then he was out of there. But still, the point is well taken that our Lord was not wealthy in the material sense. He was the Lord of all glory. And as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, He set aside His wealth, wealth beyond anything that we could ever imagine, or calculate, he set that aside and he became poor so that we might become rich in him. Wonderful passage there, and that's by the way what grounds giving, how Paul grounds the encouragement to give to his collection for the saints in Jerusalem, that wonderful true account of what the Lord did. And that's true. You see, that's in the background. You need to keep that in the background. When Jesus says, I don't have any place to lay my head, he did that knowing that this would happen. He left heaven to come to earth to take to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. He did that knowing that he would have no place to rest his head. And you see, The implication, of course, is that may well be just as true for you and for me as his disciples. We can't go so far as to say it will absolutely be true, in the sense that you don't have a physical place to lay your head. But isn't it true that as Christians, we are, and there are times when this motif or this theme is overused, but we are pilgrims in a foreign land. no matter where we are in the world. Brothers and sisters in other parts of the world understand this. We might have gotten a little too acclimated to our country, perhaps, even under the best circumstances, right? Even if you had a Christian king or a Christian president, a Christian legislature, and the laws reflected the teaching of God's word, one can hope and dream, right? That even when those things happen, that's not the new heavens and the new earth. That's not the ultimate goal. That's on the way. So there's nothing wrong with that. I think it's odd that we would argue that it's wrong to pray for a magistrate who is a believer and who wants to govern in ways consistent with God's Word. But even should those things happen in God's gracious providence, that's not the end goal that's on the way. The end goal is living with the triune God in the new heavens and the new earth. where everything will be perfect. Because you see, this side of glory, we cannot achieve perfection. Because there will always be unbelievers in the midst. Even if there's a majority really Christian population, there will be unbelievers. So you see, it is always the case that like our Lord, even if we have a home, we don't have a home. And I think John Calvin would tell us to sit loose. Not to disparage the gifts that God gives us, but to hold them loosely so that if in God's providence He decides to bring a purging, if you will, of the church, a trimming of the bushes for the spiritual benefit of His people, that we won't be so attached to the things that we own we can't let them go. So you see, there is a connection between what's true of our Lord and what's true of His followers. And that, of course, is the point. It's not just a history lesson, it's also a reminder of what the kind of life is that we're called to. And of course, that's not the only comment that goes on here. You'll see in verses 59 and 60. And he said to another, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. Now Jesus comes across, perhaps, as a little callous. What? Let the dead go bury the dead? If you're dead, you can't do anything. Of course, Jesus means spiritually dead. Let the spiritually dead bury the physical dead is what He means there. And of course, the whole thing going on here is what we would call your intentions are fine, but will you be able to fulfill your intentions? Lord, I'll follow You wherever You want me to go. And the Lord tests us, really, You mean that? Because Peter said that. I'll follow you to your death, and then what happens? Peter cuts the ear off of the high priest's servant when Jesus is arrested. He then later denies knowing the Lord three times. He also, after the resurrection, which he knows about, but doesn't quite believe it, he goes off back to fishing. And the Lord, of course, meets him on the lakeshore, cooking breakfast for Peter and the other disciples who were with him. What he's telling us here is that there ought not to be distractions. It's important for us to care for the bodies of those who have departed. That is a way for us to honor God. Right? In the way we care for those who have passed away. Because the body is still the body created by God, even when the soul has departed. We are to treat it with respect. But Jesus is telling us, telling this man, this person, follow me. Don't be distracted by the everyday cares of life. This, you know, harkens back, of course, to that little encounter between Martha and Mary and Jesus when Jesus was visiting, one of those times where he stayed with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Martha is typical, was busy about preparing meals and hosting all the guests, and Mary sat at Jesus' feet. And she soaked it up, what was being taught. And Martha, being practical as she was, was very irritated with her sister and says to Jesus, Jesus, tell my sister to get off her backside and come and help me with the preparations for the meal. Set the table. Put out the fork, the salad fork, the big fork. Make sure the tablecloth is clean and smooth. Make sure the glasses don't have any spots on them. Now, I know what you're thinking. In the ancient world, they didn't drink out of those kind of glasses. Just go along with me. You get the point, right? She's caught up with the practical setting of the table and the preparing of the meal and the serving of the meal. She wants to make sure that the guests enjoy hospitality. And the hospitality is a very important, character trait in the church. It's not something to be lightly dismissed, but Jesus says to Martha, Mary has chosen the better portion, or the good portion. Mary has chosen the good portion. She's not going to be distracted by all the busyness of setting the table and cooking the meal. As important as those things are. Let the dead bury the dead. Let the spiritually dead be concerned with burying the physical dead. We are not to be sidetracked in the Christian life. We are to be like Jesus in the sense that he knew that the time was coming, that the hour had come in which he would be received up. and therefore he didn't waste time. That tells you that whatever happens between now and the ascension are things that absolutely must happen, and not merely in the sense that everything that does happen must happen because it happened, but in the sense that it's intentional on God's part. This encounter itself is intentional. Jesus is telling us, don't be distracted. Proclaim the Gospel. Preach the Kingdom. Go and preach the Kingdom. We are to be Christians in a fallen world. We are not to be distracted by the world and its passing concerns. Then finally, another, so there are three, three persons who talk to the Lord. Lord, I will follow Thee, but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house. To which Jesus says, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. I don't know if this was in the mind of our Lord, but it's in my mind as I read our Lord's response here. It reminds me of Lot's wife. Remember when God finally had had enough with Sodom and Gomorrah, and He's going to rain down fire and brimstone and judgment upon them? And Abraham had that little dickering session with God. You know, if there's 50 righteous men, will you preserve the city? And down to 10. And the Lord said, yes, OK, go. If there are so many righteous men in the city, then I will not destroy it. Well, obviously there weren't, because it got destroyed, the two cities of the plain. Ended up, I believe, under the Dead Sea. I believe that's where they're actually physically located, geographically located, the cities of the plain. They're destroyed. Lot and his wife and family were preserved. They were told to get out by angels, remember that. Of course, that's what leads the writer of the Hebrews to talk about entertaining angels unaware, because that's what Lot was doing. Lot and his family get out of town, And they were told not to look back, but Lot's wife looked back and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Right? Pillar of salt. Because she did what she was told not to do. So we see here, no man looking back who has put his hand to the plow is fit for the kingdom of God. All this man wanted to do, or this woman, we're not told, all he wanted to do was to... I said to him, so it is a man. All he wanted to do was to go back and bid his family farewell. Remember what Jesus said about family. This is again not to disparage blood ties, but simply said, those who do my will are my fathers, my brothers, mothers, my family. Remember that interesting encounter when people told Jesus when there was a crowd in the house and his family couldn't get to him, your mother and your brothers are looking for you, your family, they're looking for you. And Jesus made it clear where his priorities were placed. How many of us are tempted having started in the Christian life to go astray, to go off the straight and narrow path. You see, Jesus, He set His face toward Jerusalem. He knows that His hour has come, to use the language of the Gospel of John. Luke says, time was come, the time when He should be received up. The time has come for Him to face His moment, the moment when He will bear the sins of His people on His shoulders, and the Father's face will turn from Him, and He will feel the full weight of God's judgment, against Him because He has taken the sins, not of His own, but of ours, upon Himself. No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. We find that in Paul's letters, right? You'll have, was it Demas? I think of Demas, one of those who is praised in one letter, and then Paul later on says, well, he left. The riches of this world were too much of an attraction to him. That's something to take into consideration, that we not be drawn away from the Lord Jesus Christ by the toys and trinkets and allurements of this world. And they can be powerful allurements. They can be powerful attractions. Whatever takes us from the will of God stated in His Word falls into this category. And Jesus is telling us that if we put our hand to the plow, that is, we believe or we profess to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then we look back, that is, we are drawn back to the world, then our initial or our original profession of faith is called into question. No man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. That's hard saying. Who of us is not tempted? Who of us is not attracted by the world and all of its allurements, its bangles, its beads, its baubles, its toys? You know the expression, he who dies with the most toys wins. No. I've seen that on bumper stickers. I have not seen it on the bumper sticker of a hearse though. Yeah, I know that in Egypt that they buried the pharaohs with all of their goodies because they thought they needed them in the next life. But most of us don't have the resources to have that kind of a burial. Not to mention it doesn't appeal. to me and I've seen, you know, plenty of documentaries on the going inside the tombs in Egypt and into the pyramids and then into some of the other burial places and seeing all of the clutter, all of the wonderful, beautiful stuff that we can now see in museums and I have seen. They couldn't take it with them because we have it. We still have it. No man putting his hand in the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. But you see, if we abide in Christ, then there is no, it is not as if Christ is undermining our assurance if it is true assurance. What he undermines is false assurance. But if you are trusting in Christ, always, every day, every moment of the day, It doesn't mean you can't sleep and zone out for a number of hours because you're in the care of the Lord. But my point is, if you're trusting in the Lord and repenting when you are, when you do draw back and return, then by God's grace you are. in the Kingdom of God. You're not fit because of your own excellence. You are fit because you are clothed in the excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the fitness is not ours, the fitness is the Lord's. You see, because He went to Jerusalem, He set His face like stone, He went to the cross, and He went through all those horrible things prior to the cross, the mock trials, mock in more than one sense, right? And that it was not a true trial, not legal even by the definition of Israel and Rome. And a mock trial because they mocked the Lord of all glory and showed contempt toward him. So you see, that's the kind of life that William Borden was facing. He knew that. He wasn't going to go to a field of endeavor that was flashy or flamboyant. Yes, he died at an age when the events in the church still rated for the newspapers, and I don't mean just scandals. He died at a time where that news was broadcast around the world through radio and newspapers. Today it wouldn't rate anything like that. But he had not thrown his life away. It looks to the world like we are throwing our life away when we follow after Christ. But I pray that what William Borden said those many years ago is true for you and for me, and especially when we read a passage like this, that we do not turn back because of the challenges of the Christian life, We can say with William Borden, no reserve, no retreat, no regrets. And he was able to say that because of the truth that Machen telegraphed to Murray on his deathbed. So grateful, so thankful for the act of obedience of Christ. No hope without it. Those two truths go together. The one builds upon the other. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for the reminder that You've given to us in Your Scriptures about the soberness of the Christian life, the realities that we face that follow in the footsteps of our Lord, who had no home, who was not popular, and even for a time His family questioned His sanity, and the truthfulness of His claims to being the Son of God. We pray that by Your Holy Spirit, building upon the work of Christ Your Son, that we would follow in His footsteps, and that we would be welcomed home one day. And hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant. Because we are clothed in the righteous robes, of the only one who is good, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray this in His name and for His sake. Amen.