Episode Transcript
Hello, I'm Doctor Kylie Fisher. Welcome to heavenly harmonies. In mark, chapter eight, verse 34, Jesus says, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Luke, chapter nine, verse 23, presses this point even closer. Luke 9:23. Jesus says, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Jesus calls us. He calls you. He calls me to follow him.
His call is still sounding today. In fact, today at this time in earth's history, his final call is going out to a dying world. How can we, in the words of the apostle Peter, make our calling and election sure? Our hymn for today tells us, stay with me to discover how the song I will follow thee, my saviour can keep you near to the heart of Goddesse.
I will follow thee, my saviour, wheresoe'er my lot may be, where thou goest, I will follow. Yes, my lord, I'll follow thee. I will follow thee, my saviour.
Thou didst shed thy blood for me, and though all men should forsake thee, by thy grace I'll follow thee. Though the road be rough and thorny, trackless as a foaming sea. Thou hast trod this way before me, and I'll gladly follow thee.
I will follow thee, my saviour. Thou didst shed thy blood for me, and though all men should forsake thee, by thy grace, I'll follow thee. Though I meet with tribulation, sorely tempted though I be, I remember thou wast tempted, and rejoice to follow thee.
I will follow thee, my saviour. Thou didst shed thy blood for me, and though all men should forsake thee, by thy grace I'll follow thee. Though thou leadst me through affliction, poor, forsaken though I be, thou wast destitute, afflicted, and I only follow thee.
I will follow thee, my saviour. Thou didst shed thy blood for me, and though all men should forsake thee, by thy grace I'll follow thee. Though to Jordan's rolling billows, cold and deep, thou leadest me.
Thou hast trod the waves before me, and I still will follow thee. I will follow thee, my saviour. Thou didst shed thy blood for me, and though all men should forsake thee, by thy grace I'll follow thee.
Such a beautiful hymn. And this hymn has a general application to all those who follow Christ. All who follow Christ will have sacrifices to make and crosses to bear, and sometimes their journey must be made with no human support.
However, this song, I believe, has special application to the end times. It has unique meaning to us living today on the very verge of the most exciting event in all history. And so, in this season of heavenly harmonies, we have traced through centuries of persecution, and we have then looked at the rediscovery of key truths from the Bible.
The doctrine of the second advent is a very keynote of scripture, and it's the hope of all Christ's true followers. It has been the hope of his followers all through the ages. But today, this wonderful, this glorious, yet solemn event is present truth.
It is an event that is soon to take place and can even take place in our lifetime. You know, we've passed that longest time prophecy. That time prophecy that we've found in previous episodes ended in October 22, 1844.
And so, really, the next great event to happen is the closing up of Christ's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary and his return to earth. And so we've been looking at that a little bit. We'll be looking at that again, again today and also in the next two episodes, which will bring us to the conclusion of this season, the conclusion of this topic that we've been studying of the great controversy between good and evil.
And so we're tracing through, and we're soon to reach the part where good has finally triumphed over evil, Christ has finally triumphed over Satan. However, the biggest test and the biggest moments to some extent, in earth's history, in the very climax of this whole controversy, is just before us, and it lies between us and the second coming. So we're going to be looking more at that today and more at how we need to prepare for that right now.
So, yes, let's get into it, and so let's start talking about our song. And, yeah, I'm sure that as you think about this song, you can think about, you know, when you first learned about Christ and how you made that decision, you made that commitment, and no doubt there were things that you had to give up, even if your whole family serves Christ. And you grew up in a christian family, and you grew up studying the Bible, praying, and all of these sorts of things.
We all have those struggles, those battles with self. We all struggle with selfishness, pride, and all of these sorts of things. When we come to Christ, he asks us to give those things up because they don't have make us truly happy, and in the end, they ultimately lead to death.
So, you know, we all have struggles, we all have battles, but we make that determined decision that we are going to follow Christ. But as we go along in our life's journey, that, you know, that first decision is not the end. It's just the beginning of the christian road.
And so we have to be continually making these decisions that we're going to, as we've learned about in previous episodes, that we're going to say, I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day. And, yeah, the truth has, as we learned in another song, truth has an onward march. There is that onward march of truth.
And so they must upward still and onward. Who would keep abreast of truth. And so in all of our lives, you know, we've continually got things to overcome, not because God's trying to be hard on us, but because he wants the very best for us.
He is polishing, he's refining our characters. There's many verses in the Bible that talk about our character, which is that's the only thing we can take to heaven. You know, many people spend their life trying to get fame and fortune.
We can't take those things to heaven, and they'd be worthless if we did, as we'll be looking at in a couple of weeks, in more detail. You know, the street of the city in heaven is made of gold. And that's, you know, it is a literal city, as we'll see in a few episodes time.
So, you know, all of the things that we can amass here on earth, sure, you know, we need to work. We need to be able to provide for ourselves and for our families, but ultimately, these things are going to pass away. And it's really about stewardship, being faithful stewards here on earth.
And it's really this life. The key purpose of this life is character development. And so it's hard.
It's not an easy road. But, you know, God is not so much interested in our comfort here on this earth as he is interested in our character and our needing to develop a christlike character. And, you know, sadly, that comes to us because, you know, Adam and Eve made that choice to sin.
We, sadly, are all born with that attraction to sin, this attraction to something that's deadly. And so only through the grace of Christ can we resist that and can we overcome that. So let's see.
So, as I've been sort of expanding, this song has, you know, general application to our life. So I hope that as you think about this song, you can think about, you know, the applications to your life and to your christian experience so far. But let's focus for a few moments we just have only time to just briefly touch on these things.
Let's focus on what this means for us living today right at the end of time, because, you know, no doubt, people all through the ages, had this song been written back then. The song itself, when was it written? I'm not sure. So, anyway, in the 18 hundreds, it was written.
But the song is based on scripture, as we've been finding out in our previous episodes. These songs, these beautiful hymns. Or technically, actually, this is a spiritual song because it's about someone's experience.
But we do use the term hymn, which technically refers to a song that's addressed directly to God, but we do use the term him loosely to refer to psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. So, really, this is a spiritual song because it's about our experience. But, you know, no doubt, people all through the ages could relate to the words of this song.
And even though the song itself was not written, the ideas are contained in the scripture. And so, no doubt they felt these same things that's been so beautifully and relatively recently expressed in this hymn. But it does have special application to us today.
All right, Kylie, so what is this application that you keep going on about and we haven't got there yet? Okay, so let's start having a look at it. So, the first verse of this hymn says, I will follow thee, my saviour. Wheresoe'er my lot may be where thou goest I will follow.
Yes, my lord, I'll follow thee. Let's have a look at revelation, chapter 14 and verse four. Revelation, chapter 14 and verse four.
Now, this verse speaks about a very special group of people, which is called the 144,000. Now, this is a huge topic in itself. We do not have time to look at this in a great deal of detail.
We're just touching on it. But what we want to notice is the relevance of this to this song today. So let's notice the 144,000.
Some people think maybe that's all that's going to be saved. The Bible also speaks in revelation, chapter seven and verse nine, John the Revelator says, after this, I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations, kindreds, people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the lamb. So John sees a great multitude which no one could number.
So the 144,000 is a part of that great multitude, but they're not the only ones that will be saved. You know? So if you're sort of thinking, oh, no, it's limited to 144,000. You know, how will I ever be saved? No.
All who will accept Christ's invitation can be saved. And so those who will be saved could not be numbered. When John looked at this great multitude of people, so.
But this is a special group of people that is living on the earth right at the end of time. And they are a special group of people that are, we understand, alive when Christ returns. So this 144,000 have certain special characteristics.
And let's notice in revelation, chapter 14 and verse four, revelation, chapter 14 and verse four, some of these characteristics, or maybe one in particular, which says in middle of the verse, these are they which follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth. These people living on the earth during the most fearful time of earth's history, when God will let go the winds of strife and Satan will have complete control of the wicked, these will follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth. They will remain faithful to Christ during that time.
Yeah, it's a tremendous privilege and calling for those who are amongst this group. And so the words of this first verse is so applicable. I will follow thee, my saviour, wheresoe'er my lot may be.
So. Revelation 14 four. These are they which follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth.
They are willing to risk their lives for the sake of the gospel and for the sake particularly of God's law and keeping God's law in a time when this becomes a crime. And, yes, so we will have more to say about that next week. But how is it that they do this? Because that's what our song for today really tells us.
And so let's look at this and see what the secret is. This song is such a wonderful song. If you don't know this song by memory, I would really, really encourage you to memorise it if you can.
Even if. If you can't sing it, try to memorise the words, because this is such a wonderful song and it can really give you help and determination and courage in those times when, as we were saying, when you're tempted, or when you have to stand for Christ alone, what was it? Though thou leadst me through affliction, poor, forsaken though I be, you know those times when you have to stand alone, this song can help you to remember and to keep looking to Christ and to find there the true secret. So, for sure, looking to Christ is the secret of this.
But I feel that the words of this song also point to the experience of one of Christ's disciples that actually at one point failed. Made quite a huge failure. But from his experience and from the words that he spoke, we can actually learn how we can stand during the time when we will be forsaken if we choose to follow Christ.
So who am I speaking about? I am speaking about the apostle Peter. So let's look at some words that were spoken by Peter on the night of Jesus betrayal and the night before Jesus was crucified. And the words of the chorus of this song are taken from what Peter said.
So this is recorded in few different gospels. Let's look at it in Matthew, chapter 26, and verses 31 and 33. So the beginning of verse 31, Jesus actually is speaking here.
And Jesus said to his disciples, all ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. So Jesus warns his disciples that they are all going to forsake him during that night.
And, wow, how did the disciples feel about this? They thought, what? Surely we're not going to do that now? Peter tended to be the spokesperson for the disciples. And Peter was always, you know, a bit of foot in mouth, or quite a lot of foot in mouth. He said some amazing things, but he tended to speak before he really thought.
So, verse 33. Peter answered and said unto him, that is Jesus, though all men should be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. And then notice what Jesus said in verse 34.
Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee that this night before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.
So they all thought, no, you know, we're not going to run away, you know, no matter what happens, we'll stay with Jesus right to the bitter end. So that was Peter's self confident assertion early in the evening. But let's have a look at what happened only a few hours later.
So let's have a look in Luke, chapter 22. I think this records this most poignantly. So.
Luke, chapter 22 and verse 61 we're going to look at. Now, what happened was that Jesus was arrested. He was betrayed by Judas.
He was hurried away. There was a, you know, farce of a trial, really, the high priest's palace. And so, and then all these people, after this mock trial, when Christ was, you know, finally condemned by the Sanhedrin, the jewish leaders, everybody was mocking Christ.
But Peter had followed Christ from afar off, and he was standing outside in the courtyard where there was a fire, and he was watching he wanted to see what had happened to Jesus, but he didn't want to look like he was actually associated with Jesus. And first one person, then another, and then a third said to him, oh, weren't you with Jesus of Nazareth? But three times Peter denied. And then the cock crew, the rooster crowed.
So that's what it says in Luke, chapter 22 and verse 60, Peter said, man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And verse 61 says, and the Lord turned, that is Jesus.
He turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him before the cockcrow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Verse 62 actually contains the secret of how do we follow Christ? No matter what.
Verse 62 says, Peter went out and wept bitterly. So when he went out of that palace and, you know, thought about what Christ was going through for him, Peter went out and he wept tears of true repentance. From that day, Peter was a changed man.
And you only have to look at the beginning chapters of acts to see that this self confident Peter no longer had confidence in himself, but his confidence was in Christ. And it's really amazing when you think about what actually ultimately and finally happened to Peter. In the last chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus actually made a prophecy about the way that Peter would die, because Jesus said to him, well, let's have a quick look at it, the last chapter of John.
And let's have a look at what Jesus said to Peter. Look. John, chapter 21, verse 18.
Jesus said to Peter, verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself and walkest wither thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not. So here, a bit of old language.
But he says that he will stretch forth his hands. That's talking about the fact that Peter would actually be crucified as Christ was. And notice verse 19 says that Jesus spoke this, signifying by what death he that is Peter, should glorify God.
And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, follow me. So Christ revealed that to Peter, and then he still called him. He said to him, follow me.
And so Christ calls to us, you know, he calls to us through. He calls us to follow him through suffering. And.
But if we choose to do that, then our lives can be transformed just as Peter's life was. You know, we even can have the courage and the confidence not in ourselves, but in Christ, to stand during that darkest period of earth's history. So let's now listen to this song we're going to listen to.
I will follow thee, my saviour. And I hope that as you're listening to this, you can think through these words and think through how these apply to those living right at the end of time. I will follow thee, my saviour, with christian addition.
I will follow thee, my saviour wheresoever my loss may be, where the Lord I'll follow thee. And the men should forsake me. By thy grace I'll follow thee.
The rob me rose and for me tracklessness thou hast drawn away before me and I'll gladly follow thee. I will follow thee, my saviour thou hast shed thy blood for me and the whole man should forsake thee by thy grace of all hash holy o I meet with tribulation sorely tempted though I be, I remember I was tempted and rejoice to follow thee. I will follow thee, my saviour of his shame hashem I blood for me and the holy shall forsake me.
By thy grace I'll follow thee though to joy rolling bills hold and deep I'll meet us me thou hast waste before me and I still will follow thee. I will follow thee, my saviour and all men should forsake me hash by thy grace I'll follow thee. And the one that should forsake me by thy grace of holy dear Lord, we know that we have no strength in ourselves to stand, but by your grace we can follow you.
We can follow you no matter where you lead us. So, dear Lord, I pray for myself. I pray for each person listening to or watching this presentation.
Dear Lord, may we choose to follow you all the way, and may we do it through your grace. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me today on heavenly harmonies. Do join me again next time to discuss another beautiful and relevant healing. But until then, may you stay close to the heart of God through song.
