The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. 
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him
with his hand. Psa 37:23-24

Treasury of David-Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Psa_37:23
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” All his course of life is graciously ordained, and in lovingkindness all is fixed, settled, and maintained. No reckless fate, no fickle chance rules us; our every step is the subject of divine decree. “He delights in his way,” as parents are pleased with the tottering footsteps of their babes. All that concerns a saint is interesting to his heavenly Father. God loves to view the holy strivings of a soul pressing forward to the skies. In the trials and the joys of the faithful, Jesus has fellowship with them, and delights to be their sympathizing companion.

Psa_37:24
“Though he fall.” Disasters and reverses may lay him low; he may, like Job, be stripped of everything; like Joseph, be put in prison; like Jonah, be cast into the deep. “He shall not be utterly cast down.” He shall not be altogether prostrate. He shall be brought on his knees, but not on his face; or, if laid prone for a moment he shall be up again ere long. No saint shall fall finally or fatally. Sorrow may bring us to the earth, and death may bring us to the grave, but lower we cannot sink, and out of the lowest of all we shall arise to the highest of all. “For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.” Condescendingly, with his own hand, God upholds his saints; he does not leave them to mere delegated agency, he affords personal assistance. Even in our falls the Lord gives a measure of sustaining. Where grace does not keep from going down, it shall save from keeping down. Job had double wealth at last, Joseph reigned over Egypt, Jonah was safely landed. It is not that the saints are strong, or wise, or meritorious, that therefore they rise after every fall, but because God is their helper, and therefore none can prevail against them. 

God's Hand Upholds Us

Though he fall - That is, though he is sometimes disappointed; though he is not always successful; though he may be unfortunate - yet this will not be final ruin. The word here does not refer to his falling into “sin,” but into misfortune, disappointment, reverses, calamities. The image is that of a man who is walking along on a journey, but who stumbles, or fails to the earth - a representation of one who is not always successful, but who finds disappointment spring up in his path.
He shall not be utterly cast down - The word used here - טול ṭûl - means to “throw down at full length, to prostrate;” then, “to cast out, to throw away.” Compare Isa_22:17; Jer_16:13; Jer_22:26; Jon_1:5, Jon_1:15. Here it means that he would not be “utterly” and “finally” prostrated; he would not fall so that he could not rise again. The calamity would be temporary, and there would be ultimate prosperity.
For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand - It is by no power of his own that he is recovered, but it is because, even when he falls, he is held up by an invisible hand. God will not suffer him to sink to utter ruin.  (Albert Barnes)

​Joh 10:27  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 
Joh 10:28  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 
Joh 10:29  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. 
Joh 10:30  I and my Father are one.

​None but the Son of God could offer unto the Father a sacrifice to please Him, and to reconcile us unto Him in a perfect manner. The burnt-offerings and sin-offerings were ordained merely as shadows and temporary types of that one offering, the self-devotedness of the Son of God to accomplish all the will of God, the counsel of salvation. It is the Divine and eternal offering of Himself unto the Father in which the incarnation and death of the Lord Jesus are rooted; it is the voluntary character of His advent and passion, and it is the Divine dignity of the Mediator, which render His work unique, to which nothing can be compared, and a repetition of which is impossible.
​
Rise from the river to its source, from the rays of light and love to the eternal origin and fount. See in the life, the obedience, the agony of Jesus, the expression of that free surrender of Himself, and espousal of our cause, which was accomplished in eternity, in His own all-glorious and perfect divinity. Beware lest you see in Him only the faith and obedience, the sufferings and death of the Son of Man; see His eternal divinity shining through and sustaining all His humanity.

This truth is revealed to us, not merely to establish our hearts in peace, and to fill us with adoring gratitude and joy, but here, marvelous to say, is held out to us a model which we are to imitate, a principle of life which we are to adopt. So wondrously are high mysteries and deep doctrines intertwined with daily duties, and the transformation of our character, that the Apostle Paul, when exhorting the Philippians to avoid strife and vain-glory, and have brotherly love and helpfulness, ascends from our lowly earthly path into this highest region of the eternal covenant. As we owe all to Him, let us be not merely debtors, but followers of Him who came, not to do His own will, and to be ministered unto, who came to love and to serve, to give and to bless, to suffer and to die.
(A. Saphir, Lectures on Hebrews, vol. ii., p. 167)

​Perfect Sanctification

​THE ETERNAL WILL—“By the which wilt we are sanctified.”
1. This will must, first of all, be viewed as the will ordained of old by the Father—the eternal decree of the infinite Jehovah, that a people whom He chose should be sanctified and set apart unto Himself.
2. This wilt by which we are sanctified was performed of the ever blessed Son.
3. This work is applied to us by the Holy Spirit.

THE EFFECTUAL SACRIFICE by which the will of God with regard to the sanctity of His people has been carried out. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.”
1. This implies, first, His incarnation, which of course includes His eternal Deity. Jesus Christ, very God of very God, did certainly stoop to become such as we are, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh.
2. All this is implied in the text, because it speaks of the offering of the body of Christ. But why does it specially speak of the body? I think to show us the reality of that offering; His soul suffered, but to make it palpable to you, to record it as a sure historical fact, He mentions that there was an offering of the body of Christ.
3. I take it, however, that the word means the whole of Christ—that there was an offering made of all Christ, the body of Him, or that of which He was constituted.
​
THE EVERLASTING RESULT.
1. The everlasting result of this effectual carrying out of the will of God is that now God regards His people’s sin as expiated, and their persons as sanctified. Offered, and its efficacy abides for ever.
2. They are reconciled.
3. They are purified.
(C. H. Spurgeon)

​When He Cometh Into the World

Since the Levitical sacrifices could not cleanse from sin, Christ, the Redeemer from sin, said when he entered upon his mission, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not. Quoted from Psa_40:6-8.
Psa 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 

​Psa 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
Psa 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

​Since the sacrifices and offerings of the Jewish altar did not meet God's will.
A body hast thou prepared me for an offering. This is Christ's offering.
In burnt offerings. Burnt offerings were wholly consumed. See Lev_1:17.

​Lev 1:17 And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder: and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. ​
​
Sacrifices for sin. See Lev. 4:1 to 5:13. They were so called because of their special reference to sin. In neither had God pleasure; that is, they did not fully meet his will.

Then said I, Lo, I come. The Psalmist represents Christ, who comes simply to do the will of God, completely surrendered to his will.

In the volume of the book. In the roll of the law it is written of me; that is, there I am predicted.
Then said he. He said, first, "The Levitical sacrifices do not please God;" then he said, second; Lo, I come to do thy will. This is pleasing to God. Hence he taketh away the first, the old covenant with its sacrifices, and establishes the second, the new covenant inaugurated by complete submission to the will of God.
​
​By which will we are sanctified. By this complete submission our sins are removed from us and we are made holy. The meaning of "sanctified" here is remission of sin.

Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. In Christ's surrender his body was offered on the cross, once for all for sin, and by that offering our sins are remitted. (B.W. Johnson)

​Comments from Adam Clarke: "He taketh away the first - The offerings, sacrifices, burnt-offerings, and sacrifices for sin, which were prescribed by the law.

That he may establish the second - The offering of the body of Jesus once for all. It will make little odds in the meaning if we say, he taketh away the first covenant, that he may establish the second covenant; he takes away the first dispensation, that he may establish the second; he takes away the law, that he may establish the Gospel. In all these cases the sense is nearly the same: I prefer the first."

​CHRIST’S ONE SACRIFICE IS ALTOGETHER SUFFICIENT

​That is, by the sacrifice of Christ, which was willingly offered up by himself, and was according to the will of God; it was his will of purpose that Christ should be crucified and slain; and it was his will of command, that he should lay down his life for his people; and it was grateful and well pleasing to him, that his soul should be made an offering for sin; and that for this reason, because hereby the people of God are sanctified, their sins are perfectly expiated, the full pardon of them is procured, their persons are completely justified from sin, and their consciences purged from it: even through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all; this is said, not to the exclusion of his soul; it designs his whole human nature, and that as in union with his divine person; and is particularly mentioned, in allusion to the legal sacrifices, the bodies of slain beasts, which were types of him, and with a reference to his Father's preparation of a body for him, for this purpose, Heb_10:5. Moreover, his obedience to his Father's will was chiefly seen in his body; this was offered upon the cross; and his blood, which atones for sin, and cleanses from it, was shed out of it: and this oblation was "once for all"; which gives it the preference to Levitical sacrifices; destroys the Socinian notion of Christ's continual offering himself in heaven; and confutes the error of the Popish mass, or of the offering of Christ's body in it. (John Gill)

​A Living Sacrifice

​Trace the argument. Those old Jewish sacrifices had no value in themselves. The prophets—especially Isaiah and Hosea—made that quite plain. Their value lay solely in their being a means by which the will of a man was offered to God. When this is taught so as to be fully apprehended, formal sacrifice may cease. It has done its work. The final lesson is the Divine acceptance of the offering of Himself which came to Jesus. Christ’s whole life was His sacrifice. The sacrifice that God wants is the man, not something a man gives. The offering of a man himself is the offering of a life—that alone is the man. This makes Christ’s death the final act, the seal, the perfecting of His sacrifice; because that death completes, rounds off, the life. No life is complete until death seals it. Christ’s death is the great act of surrendered will under the most severe testing-conditions. Dead—human life ended—there is a whole man offered unto God.

That sacrifice—the spiritual sacrifice of the surrendered will—was offered through the body.—Things can have no influence on us that do not come within our range, do not lie in our plane. Moral forces are compelled to use material agencies because we are in material limitations. The surrender of the will of an angel is nothing to us. The surrender of the will of a human being like ourselves is everything to us. Christ became man that He might be able to offer a human sacrifice, because that is precisely what we ought to offer. An angel could not offer our sacrifice: the Son of God, as only Son of God, could not. Christ became representative man that He might offer His sacrifice of Himself in our name, as standing for and pledging us.
​
That offering satisfies once for all.—Picture-teaching needs repetition, “line upon line, precept upon precept.” The teaching of principles is done once for all. Christ’s sacrifice need not be repeated, because it effected its end--
1. With God. Did this representative offering of the surrendered will meet God’s requirement from us His creatures? The answer is the Resurrection.
2. With men. Was that devotion of Christ to our interests, which led Him to suffer so much in order to secure an acceptable sacrifice for us, such a devotion as could be really persuasive on us? The answer is our experience.

The sacrifice of Christ must not be repeated, even in symbol. To repeat the sacrifice is to remove Christ from His present work of applying the gains of His sacrifice. What then have we to keep in mind? Is it only the medium, the bodily agency of the great sacrifice? Every incident of the Passion is intensely interesting to us. But there is a mystery within it. There is a real spiritual sacrifice. It is a man’s surrendered will. We cannot offer a material sacrifice with Christ. We can offer a spiritual sacrifice with Him. That we will offer it He pledges in our name. But our sacrifice, like His, must be made through our bodies. Our lives, lived unto God, are our sacrifice. (Preacher's Homiletical)

So as Christ has purchased us by His own blood, now we look to Him as our pattern of service, and follow in His steps.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

A profound scriptural teaching video, by a Jewish scholar on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I strongly encourage you to listen closely to the end:

​Session 6 - A Mystery in the Talmud, and How the Jewish Leaders Confirmed that Jesus is the Messiah.
https://youtu.be/iidMteQtTgA?si=zpxf2bxtnJ1BlTR_
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most sacred of Jewish festivals. In ancient times, this was the one day of the year when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies—the innermost sanctuary of the Temple, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. But before stepping into that sacred space, the High Priest had to perform a series of sacrifices to cleanse himself of sin, as commanded by God. Once purified, he carried out specific rites to atone for the sins of Israel, interceding on their behalf before the Lord.
This profound ritual continued yearly until AD 70, when the Second Temple was destroyed by the Roman General Titus. Yet, Jewish historical records note something extraordinary: for 40 years before the Temple's destruction, beginning on AD 30, God no longer accepted the Yom Kippur sacrifices.
Why? What happened in AD 30 that caused this shift? Why People are not making the connection? Could it be connected to Isaiah’s prophetic words to Israel? 
"And He said, 'Go, and tell this people: Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'” (Isaiah 6:9)
What was God revealing through this?
It is my prayer that many brothers and sisters—both within Israel and beyond—will have their eyes opened and hearts softened to hear and understand, to see and perceive. I pray they recognize that Jesus is the promised Messiah, as confirmed by the words of the prophet Daniel, and beautifully proclaimed in Isaiah 9:6:
"For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called:
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
Even the Talmud, revered in Jewish tradition, points to Him. Jesus came to fulfill the prophecies, to bring love and meaning to those who thirst for truth. He is the perfect expression of justice and mercy—paying the ultimate price for our sins and reconciling us to God.
May all who seek love, purpose, and salvation come to know Him as Lord, the One who gave His life to bring us peace.

Psa 22:1  To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
+++++++
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matt 27:46

Long ago, David sang and foresaw the agony of Christ on the cross and it is written as a stamp of truth, that this Jesus, is the Messiah, the suffering Savior, The Redeemer, now risen and soon coming King. I encourage the reader to go their bibles and spend some time reading this entire Psalm, and then Matthew chapter 27, you will be shown how perfectly the Holy Ghost describes the suffering and the cost that Christ paid on the cross for mans sins, including yours and mine. There is no one like Jesus.

​Psa 22:16  For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. 
Psa 22:17  I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. 
Psa 22:18  They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. 
Psa 22:19  But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. 

"These are the very words uttered by the Savior when on the cross Mat_27:46; and he evidently used them as best adapted of all the words that could have been chosen to express the extremity of his sorrow. The fact that he employed them may be referred to as “some” evidence that the psalm was designed to refer to him; though it must be admitted that this circumstance is no conclusive proof of such a design, since he might have used words having originally another reference, as best fitted to express his own sufferings. The language is abrupt, and is uttered without any previous intimation of what would produce or cause it. It comes from the midst of suffering - from one enduring intense agony - as if a new form of sorrow suddenly came upon him which he was unable to endure. That new form of suffering was the feeling that now he was forsaken by the last friend of the wretched - God himself. We may suppose that he had patiently borne all the other forms of trial, but the moment the thought strikes him that he is forsaken of God, he cries out in the bitterness of his soul, under the pressure of anguish which is no longer to be borne. All other forms of suffering he could bear. All others he had borne. But this crushes him; overpowers him; is beyond all that the soul can sustain - for the soul may bear all else but this. It is to be observed, however, that the sufferer himself still has confidence in God. He addresses him as his God, though he seems to have forsaken him: “My God; My God.” (Albert Barnes)

We here behold the Savior in the depth of his sorrows. No other place so well shows the griefs of Christ as Calvary, and no other moment at Calvary is so full of agony as that in which his cry rends the air-"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" At this moment physical weakness was united with acute mental torture from the shame and ignominy through which he had to pass; and to make his grief culminate with emphasis, he suffered spiritual agony surpassing all expression, resulting from the departure of his Father's presence. This was the black midnight of his horror; then it was that he descended the abyss of suffering. No man can enter into the full meaning of these words. Some of us think at times that we could cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" There are seasons when the brightness of our Father's smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness; but let us remember that God never does really forsake us. It is only a seeming forsaking with us, but in Christ's case it was a real forsaking. We grieve at a little withdrawal of our Father's love; but the real turning away of God's face from his Son, who shall calculate how deep the agony which it caused him?
In our case, our cry is often dictated by unbelief: in his case, it was the utterance of a dreadful fact, for God had really turned away from him for a season. O thou poor, distressed soul, who once lived in the sunshine of God's face, but art now in darkness, remember that he has not really forsaken thee. God in the clouds is as much our God as when he shines forth in all the luster of his grace; but since even the thought that he has forsaken us gives us agony, what must the woe of the Savior have been when he exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"  (Charles Spurgeon)

​And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness, 
Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. Luk 4:1-2

​“Led by the Spirit.”—It was necessary that Christ who had assumed our nature should be put to the proof—should be subjected to the trial of having to choose between using His gifts and faculties for gratification of self or using them in the service of God. This probation is required in the case of all free and intelligent beings; some angels passed through it successfully, man fell before it. It is noticeable that Jesus did not seek temptation, but was led towards it by a higher will than His own. The fact that temptation came immediately after the baptism in the Jordan, with all its wonderful and supernatural circumstances, is very significant. The time of spiritual exaltation is the time of spiritual danger. “Thus shalt thou be sure to be assaulted, when thou hast received the greatest enlargements from Heaven, either at the sacrament, or in prayer, or in any other way. Then look for an onset. This arch-pirate lets the empty ships pass, but lays wait for them when they return richest laden” (Leighton). Satan knows how to take advantage of the peculiarities of our situation.
“Wilderness.”—The contrast between the temptation of Adam and that of Jesus, the second Adam, both in the scenes in which they were laid and the results which followed from them, has often been drawn. 1. Adam was tempted in a garden, Jesus in the wilderness.
2. Adam fell, Jesus was victorious.
3. Adam’s disobedience brought death, the obedience of Jesus brought life. “Adam fell in paradise, and made it a wilderness; Christ conquered in the wilderness. (Olshausen).

Have you as a believer in Christ ever been accused of being demon possessed, or out of the will of God if your going through multiple trials, adversity, and attacks from many directions? Jesus was also, this short devotion will be an encouragement to you, if your being accused in this way. Read on.

​"Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost, and yet He was tempted. Temptation often comes upon a man with its strongest power when he is nearest to God. As someone has said, "The devil aims high." He got one apostle to say he did not even know Christ.
Very few men have such conflicts with the devil as Martin Luther had. Why? Because Martin Luther was going to shake the very kingdom of hell. Oh, what conflicts John Bunyan had!
If a man has much of the Spirit of God, he will have great conflicts with the tempter. God permits temptation because it does for us what the storms do for the oaks-- it roots us; and what the fire does for the paintings on the porcelain-- it makes them permanent.
You never know that you have a grip on Christ, or that He has a grip on you, as well as when the devil is using all his force to attract you from Him; then you feel the pull of Christ’s right hand. -- Anonymous
Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces. God hath many sharp-cutting instruments, and rough files for the polishing of His jewels; and those He especially loves, and means to make the most resplendent, He hath oftenest His tools upon. -- Archbishop Leighton
I bear my willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord’s workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened, I see most." -- (C. H. Spurgeon)

And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great
number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. 
And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 
And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 
And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. 
And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. 
And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. 
 And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way. Mar 10:46-52

The account of blind Bartimaeus receiving his sight by Jesus is one of the most beautiful stories of the love, mercy, and power of Christ to heal and restore anyone. It shows me and reminds me again, that Jesus' attitude towards people is in complete opposition to what the world esteems and considers worthy of His attention. It also shows just how simple a prayer can be, that He hears, and answers.

In this story we see those around him telling him to shut up, stop calling out to the Master. Who was he, a blind beggar, of no value to society, with nothing to offer anyone. He sat there destitute, begging for any small portion to survive. He was seen as just an annoyance, and an embarrassment. 

If you've ever been snubbed by people who feel they are better than you-you understand the position of blind Bartimaeus. 

But, take note of Jesus. He stops, and commands him to be called to him. He takes heed to this man who all other's had kicked aside, and takes time out of his journey, to hear what this man has to say. Bartimaeus response was simple and clear- "Lord, that I may receive my sight".

Faith doesn't need a long exposition. It comes from deep within the soul, and connects with the Holy Spirit in those terms. 
​
​Jesus answered him, "Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole." As soon as Bartimaeus received his sight, he followed Jesus. This is the motivation that comes from great faith, and love.

As I've read this story over the years, I've wondered if the magnitude of what Jesus did, and all the lessons it held, got through to the suspicious, hard hearted, embarrassed self-righteous who wanted nothing to do with him. 

On a certain day in March of 1978, I spoke a similar short simple prayer, and received salvation in Christ, my sins were forgiven and washed away. That day, I was delivered from alcoholism, and many other demonic oppressions. Over the years, I still deal with demonic attacks from many directions-every Christian will. I have to maintain my walk with the Lord, with a lot of prayer, and diligence. The devil never stops and will look for an open door all the time. But, like Bartimaeus, I've learned that Jesus is no respecter of persons. No one is more important than another to him, and he will answer anyone who truly wants to be changed, and healed by Him. He will never force Himself on anyone, but, He's there, ready and willing to answer, if you honestly want to be healed, and want to change. His love, is not partial or for anyone who the world sees as important. To Him, we are all on equal ground.
Through the years of walking with Jesus, my love for Him only grows. I have a long path behind me, of prayers He's answered, guidance He's given, and light for my feet, through this wilderness of life. Every attack from the devil, only fuels my prayers, to oppose him, and defeat him. There is victory in Jesus.
Lorna Couillard

That the followers of Christ are not necessarily his friends or true disciples. “He went out of Jericho with His disciples, and a great number of people.”
1. In the multitudes who accompanied Jesus out of Jericho, some, doubtless, followed Him out of mere curiosity.
2. Some followed because it was just then fashionable to do so.
3. Some followed with a view to future worldly advantage.
4. Such following is generally useless, deceptive, and mischievous, being of no real or permanent advantage to anyone.
(1) It confers no substantial benefit on any Christian country.
(2) It is of no real advantage to those followers themselves.
The text suggests to us that among a multitude of Christ’s followers you may generally expect to find some friends. “With His disciples.” Out of those who follow from curiosity Christ is drawing many real followers.
1. This should encourage us to persevere in our own following.
2. This should encourage us in relation to other followers. (J. Morgan.)

Following Jesus.—So with us, when our eyes are opened we follow Jesus in the way. Before that we walk in our own way, in the way of the world; we follow the multitude to do evil, we follow our own sinful lusts and passions; we choose our own way instead of God’s way; we prefer the path which is most pleasant, most easy, most profitable; but when our eyes are opened all is changed, we learn to say, “I loved to choose and see my path; but now—lead Thou me on.” Thus we come to follow Jesus in the way; and that way is the way of holiness, the narrow way which leads to life. It is not always a smooth way; it climbs up the Hill Difficulty, and anon winds down into the Valley of Humiliation; it passes through a garden of Gethsemane, a place of agonized prayer; it leads to a cross, a lifelong cross sometimes; it carries us to a grave, but, thank God, a grave from which the stone is rolled away, and which is bright with the light of a glorious resurrection. And withal it is a way of pleasantness, and a path of peace, of peace such as the world cannot give, and it ends in heaven. (Preacher's Homiletical)