It's good to be with you all
this evening. If you take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 2. 1 Samuel chapter 2. Telling the men in the study,
people say, I'm looking forward to hearing the message. So am
I. I got it written down, but I
don't know how it's going to come out until it just comes
out. So I'm looking forward to it too. And then when I get up
here, I go, oh no. So I do ask your prayers that
God would give me the liberty and strength to preach His Word
for the comfort of His saints. I don't know about you, but I
am a very needy, needy saint. I'm a needy believer. I often
need comfort. It doesn't take much the slightest
wind of providence to blow on me, and I'm shaken. So I need
comfort. I need to know that it's going
to be well. And I believe this text is going
to give us that promise this evening. Look at verse 9. I entitled
this, The Keeping of Our Feet. The Keeping of Our Feet. Scripture says, He will keep
the feet of his saints. And the wicked shall be silent
in darkness. For by strength. No man shall
no man prevail. That's good for somebody doesn't
have any strength. If it ain't about strength, that's good news
for me because I don't have any. And I know this, I cannot keep
myself. I am sure of that. And this is
a promise here of God. Now, this precious promise here
is given to God's people. This word here was spoken by
Hannah. Remember, she had a woman that
had a barren womb. She could give no life. And the
Lord blessed her and gave her a child. And you know that child
was Samuel, the prophet of God. And here, She has been given
this blessing and she is praising the Lord. That's where this comes
from. She was given power by the Lord
to have a son. I know every believer has a kinship
with this because we were also in ourselves barren, no life
in us. And yet by the grace and power
of God, he gave us life inside of us. We have life by the grace
and power of God. And so as she here gives praise
to God for the many blessings that he has given to her, these
promises, these blessings that she is rejoicing over are blessings
that we rejoice over. We ourselves have been quickened.
Like Hannah, we offer thanksgiving and praise to God. We give praise. to God because he by Jesus Christ
had broken the bow of the mighty. By Jesus Christ, he has forever
satisfied the justice of God upon our behalf. By the Holy
Spirit, we are given strength to live and to believe. You realize it takes strength
to believe. And that strength doesn't come
from us. It comes from the Holy Spirit that's given to us. It
is God alone that has lifted us, the beggar from the dunghill,
and set us to live among princes. What a blessing God has given
us. He makes us heirs of the throne
of glory, and as the pillars of the earth, hold up the world,
even so the pillar of our salvation is Jesus Christ. What sustains
our salvation, all of it, is Jesus Christ. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, all other ground sinking sand. Our hope is built
on Christ alone. And this promise then in verse
9 is another one of His promises. Here it is, He will keep the
feet of his saints. As we look at this promise of
God keeping, I want you to be reminded that all of God, all
of God's promises to us are yay and amen in Christ. They're immutable. God said He shall keep the feet
of His saints. And what I want you to get from
this is there is absolutely nothing able to remove you from this
promise. Nothing. This promise really
doesn't have anything to do with you other than it's your feet
He's keeping. This is all God promising by
grace to you and me. And all of his promises are without
fail. They're absolute, they're unconditional
promises. But I want you to see, first
of all, that this promise is limited in its scope. This isn't for everyone. He shall keep the feet of who? His saints. His saints. I'm going to get to that. Who
is that? Who is that? But I want you to
know whoever that is, it's all of them. It's narrow in its scope
only to the saints, but get this, it includes all of the saints.
Regardless of their their situation, their circumstance, their present
struggles or their that you may be in a time of a season of joy
or peace and you may be a time of difficulty that has nothing
to do with it. Whatever season you're in, wherever
you are, whatever happens, God promises to this group of people,
I will keep your feet. The saints. He keeps all of His
saints. And by the grace of God and by
the power of His Spirit, I want to show you, first of all, who
these saints are. What it means to be a saint.
The world's got it all wrong. When you talk about saints to
the world, they're thinking about some guy walking around that
doesn't sin and he's a moral fellow. No, it's much more than
that. Saint is much more than that.
I want to talk about who these saints are and why they're saints,
how they're saints. Then I want to talk about secondly,
I want to show us how the Lord will keep their feet. What does
that mean? He will keep their feet. First of all, who are the saints?
Well, the word is sanctified ones. Holy ones. And these saints are saints that
are made by God. If you're a believer in Jesus
Christ, I'm going to put it out there for you as simply as I
can. If you are a believer in Christ, you are a saint. You are. You are a sanctified
one. You're one that's been set apart.
You're one that's been consecrated to God. And you are one that
is made holy. And the thing about a saint,
one thing we know, is that we didn't make ourselves a saint. We didn't make ourselves one.
God made us one. You that believe, you know this.
God made you a saint. And each person in the Blessed
Trinity had a part in that. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, His work in our sanctification
is the sovereign election of grace, that before the foundation
of the world, God set us apart. God set us apart, God consecrated
us, purposed that we should be saved, made holy by his son. He decreed this, this was not
A wish. The God of this world wishes
to do a lot. He wishes He can make you a saint
if you would let Him, but that's not God. I don't know who that
is. That's not God. God made His elect saints. He sanctified them. Jude said
this in Jude verse 1. He said, Jude, a servant of Jesus
Christ, brother of James, to them that are sanctified. Not to them that's going to be
sanctified, not to them that are sanctifying themselves. No,
somebody's already sanctified you. He said you are sanctified
by God the Father. It's not ambiguous, is it? It's
not up for debate. If you are sanctified, you are
sanctified by God the Father. He sanctified you, then preserved
in Christ. And then what? Called. That's
the last part of this. You were sanctified long before
you were called. You're sanctified by God the
Father. You believe in Christ alone. The root of our faith
and union with Christ is this matter of election, which is
nothing more than God the Father sanctifying us. The election
of the Father then precedes the preservation that's in Christ.
It was God chose us and put us, what? In Christ, preserved us
in Christ. And then what did He do? Last
of all, He called us. I didn't know anything about it. I had
no clue. Born in this world, dead in my
sins, content with what I wanted, following after the course of
this world, despising God, despising His Word, and yet all the while
I didn't know I was sanctified. I was preserved in Christ. The
only reason I lived to the time I believed. Preserved. And then
he called me. Paul says it very clearly, but
of God are you in Christ Jesus. You in Christ Jesus. God set
you apart and put you in his Son. Made you holy. Is there anything in Christ that's
not holy? Was there a time in any existence that Christ was
not holy? Never. You were put in Christ
made holy by your union with Him. When? When the Father sanctified
you. I like this. He told Jeremiah
this in Jeremiah 1, 5. He said, Before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee. I sanctified thee. Every time I hear men rejecting
the sovereign election of God, and making election conditional. I despise any so-called gospel
that says anything like that. I despise it. I was thinking
about Brother Don this afternoon. Now, when I was younger, I thought
Brother Don was pretty harsh on those Armenians. And I'm telling
you what, it can't be harsh enough. God's not. He calls them whores.
Well, you can't be too harsh because it's evil. It's evil. I know this, every saint of God
knows this, if God had not chosen me, I never would have chose
him. Had he not made me holy, I never would have been holy. Had he not put me in union with
Christ, and made Christ to be all my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption, I wouldn't have had any. The work of the
Son sanctified us. Not only the work of the Father,
but the work of the Son. We were sanctified in Jesus Christ before
the world began. We were set apart by the Father,
put into union with Him, and decreed that we should be holy.
So then what happened? In the appointed time, the Son
came and actually made our holiness. He made it himself. He became
a man, a representative man. And it was through him we were
sanctified, made holy, saints. I was made a saint by the perfect
obedience of Jesus Christ alone. I didn't have any cooperative
effort in that righteousness, none whatsoever. He made my righteousness. By His obedience to the law of
God as a man, when He honored God, so did I. That's a glorious
thought, isn't it? I never felt like I've ever honored
God at all in my life, ever. Matter of fact, the more I know
Him, the less I feel like I've honored Him at all. But I know
this, in Christ I have. My representative, he honored
God, and then he sanctified me by his blood. Look at Hebrews,
and see if this is not true. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter
10. Look at verse 9. He said, Lo,
is Christ speaking, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, which
is what? To make you holy. That was God's
will. God sanctified you to be holy. Then Christ said, Lo, I come
to do your will. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. Listen to this. By the which
will? The will of God. You're what? Sanctified. What means? Through
the offering of the body of Jesus. How many times were you sanctified?
Once for all. Once for all. Every priest, standing daily,
ministering, oftentimes the same sacrifices never take away sin.
But this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
he sat down on the right hand of God, henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool, for by his one offering
he hath perfected forever, who? Them that are sanctified. You
see, you're getting the point that you didn't make you a saint?
God the Father purposed you to be a saint. The son of God accomplished
your sainthood by his obedience and his blood, and he did it
only one time. He only had to do it once. Not a cooperative
effort. I'm not helping him sanctify
me. We're sanctified forever. In
chapter 13, verse 12 of that book, he says, Wherefore, Jesus
also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffer without the gate. His whole purpose of dying was
to sanctify his people, to make us saints. And thirdly, it is the work of
the Holy Spirit. It is the work of. Now, I was not born holy. Neither were you. That's not
how we came in this world. We were not born holy. I had no knowledge of God sanctifying
me, the Father. I had no knowledge of Christ
sanctifying me with His blood. Nothing. Didn't know it. Didn't
have any clue. Matter of fact, when I heard
it, I didn't even like it. I was unholy. I was unrighteous. I was a sinner by birth, a sinner
by choice, a hater of God. I was the furthest thing by nature
from ever being a saint. But God. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us. God, in the appointed time as
he chose me to be a saint, Christ accomplished my holiness, and
then the Spirit of God actually applied it. There was a time
that God experimentally sanctified me, and that was an act of divine
power. It was an act of divine grace.
I know the day God sanctified me, there was a bunch of people
sitting there hearing the same message I did. And they still
would not believe. Why did I believe? It's the power of the Spirit
of God. It gives us life and faith, and he puts inside of
us a holy nature. He creates in us a new nature. Paul says it like this, that
we are created after God in true holiness, not pretend. You know,
God doesn't ever pretend. God doesn't. God don't pretend
you're holy. He's not just winking at you,
you know. No, God don't pretend. If you're
sanctified, you are holy. I don't feel holy. That's because
there's something else still here. God didn't do anything
with the old nature that's still here. But the Spirit of God gives
us a new nature. Peter says we're made partakers
of the divine nature. And so how'd this happen? Will
somebody preach a gospel to me? Somebody came along and preached
this message. I had heard this message thousands
of times before. Had no effect. One time had an
effect. He sent a preacher of the gospel,
and in the power of the Spirit, he opened our eyes, our understanding. And in grace, he gave us a holy
nature, a new nature by which, what? We believed. We believed. Friends, this is what is called
sanctification of the Spirit. This is the manifestation that
I am a saint, is faith in Jesus Christ. He says in 2 Thessalonians
2, 13, We are bound always to give thanks to you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord. Why? Because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation, listen, through sanctification
of the Spirit. And what's next? Belief of the
truth. whereby you heard by our gospel
means. So the simple question is, does
this promise belong to you? Well, do you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ? I know, listen, you have trouble
and I have trouble. Our faith is weak at best. It's weak. So when I tell you
things like God purposed you to be holy, Christ made your
holiness and the Holy Spirit gave you a holy nature. That
takes faith, doesn't it? And I look in the mirror, I have
trouble saying that. I don't have too much trouble
saying it about you. But as for me, how do I know? Because I believe
Him. That's the evidence that we are
saints. If you believe on Christ, you
are saints of God. You are sanctified. It's what
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, 11. He says, but you are washed. You are sanctified. You are sanctified. So then this
promise is to all who believe it's an immutable promise to
you. Listen to this. Here's your promise.
God says he shall keep your feet. Who? Of all his saints. All his
saints. The Lord will keep the feet without
exception. All of his elect. All of his
redeemed. All that are called. They all
will be kept. by the power of God unto salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last time. I don't know what heaven's
like. You got this imagination. That's all you can really think
about. I mean, we use earthly terms, streets of gold, crystal
seas, thrones, and that's just pictures. It really don't show
the real thing yet. But you know what? My hope of
being there is this. He said he will keep the feet
of his saints. I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, that this means that we are free from trials. We are
not free from trials or troubles. Everyone who is called to life
and faith in Christ is immediately brought into conflict. Immediately
we are brought into conflict. Everyone chosen, redeemed, and
called will be tried, afflicted with troubles and persecution
for this, the proving of your faith. Now, faith is the evidence that
I'm a saint, that I have all the promises of God. If that's
what is the only evidence of my election, of my redemption,
and of my calling, is faith. Isn't it imperative to know that
my faith is real? I have seen many make the same
profession of faith that I did, and they're not here. They left. And so what God does with these
trials is He proves what His promise is. He proves His promise. The saints of God are a suffering
people. Christ said we will have tribulation.
The world will hate you. The enemy will attack you. The
flesh is at war with you. And all these troubles are not
accidental. You got that? Your troubles are
not accidental. Though you are sanctified, though
you are a saint of God, chosen of the Father, redeemed of Christ,
called by the Spirit, yet your troubles are sanctified by God
for your benefit. All of them. I like this in Zechariah
13, 9. He says, I will bring a third
through the fire. I will. Any chance you missed that? I
will. No, you'll get there. They're
gonna bring you through the fire. And I will refine them as silver
is refined. I will try them as gold is tried. And listen, they shall. I like
the way God speaks, don't you? This is authoritative, isn't
it? I will, and they shall. And my experience bears that
out. When he saved me, he started putting me through the fire.
To what? Refine me. That's what he's going
to do. And you know, when he does that,
he said, they shall call on my name. You know what I do when
I get in trouble? What do you do? Call on his name. Why? He said, that's what you'll
do. You'll call on my name. And I said, I will hear you. Oh, I love that. Sometimes I cry out and I just
hear the echo in the room. But my faith says this, he said,
I will hear you. And listen, I will hear them. I will say it is my people. And they shall say the Lord is
my God. I want you to see that this promise
is yours. Why? Because we are always troubled. Do you need this promise? that
God's going to keep you. Do you need that promise? I feel like Asaph so much. Asaph
said this, he said, I know God's good to Israel, but as for me,
listen, I know God's good to you. I do. I have no doubt God
is kind and good to you and gracious and merciful. But as for me, Listen what he said. My feet
had almost gone. My steps had nigh well slipped. Often we're brought to this point.
We're saints of God, but we need comfort. We are troubled on every
side. So now then, how will he keep
his feet? What does that mean? Now, he keeps the feet of his
saints, those sanctified by the Father, sanctified by the Son,
called by the Spirit. Though we have troubles and difficulties,
this is a promise we need. I'm going to keep your feet.
Now, what does that mean? The Holy Spirit here uses the word feet
in a spiritual sense. Now, feet have two purposes.
You stand on them and you walk with them. You're standing and walking. God says, I'm going to keep both.
I'm going to keep both. Now, we know that our enemy is
set against every one of God's saints. Yet God has promised
to keep us. God is, regardless of what our
enemy, enemy without and enemy within, regardless of them, God
says, I'm still going to keep your feet. which means he's going
to keep our standing, our standing. The standing of the saints of
God will be kept. The standing of every saint is
where? In Jesus Christ. Our standing
before God is only in Jesus Christ. And God has promised to keep
us. I like that picture in Revelation chapter 12, where the woman was,
the enemy was attacking the church. And the Lord said he gave her
wings that she should fly off and into a safe place. And he
opened his mouth and the floods went after her and the earth
opened up and swallowed up the floods. In other words, what
God's telling you, look, no matter how much your enemy is after
you, I'm going to keep you. You're safe. Why? Because your standing is sure.
Your standing is Christ. Remember how the Lord dealt with
Satan concerning Job? Remember that? He said, Job served God for nothing. You know, you gave him all that
stuff. And God said, okay, take his stuff. Don't touch him. And so he took all his stuff.
And he said, ah, see, skin for skin, you just touch his body,
and then he'll curse you. He said, okay, you can touch
his skin, but don't you take his life. Satan is God's devil. He can do with him as he pleases,
and he only allows him to touch us in whatever is his will. And so many times God allows
our enemy to come in. But the comfort is this, just
like Job. Was Job in any real danger? No,
not because of Job. Job was sometimes a babbling
idiot. He tried to justify himself.
And even in that, he was still kept, preserved, sanctified by
God. That's the way it is with every
one of us. We see that none of Satan's devices, none of the
flesh, none of the world is able to move us from this standing.
Nothing can move our feet from our standing before God. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is very plain in this. My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life. And they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Does that sound like a firm standing?
Will any of his sheep perish? Will any of them lose their standing
before God? Now, God sanctified us, God made
us holy. Are we going to lose that standing?
No, Christ said they will never perish and neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hands. Paul challenges this. He said
this in Romans 8. He said, I'm persuaded that neither
life nor death, there's a lot happens in life, isn't there?
From the time you're born to the time you die. Paul said,
I'm convinced that in none of that span, even death itself,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able It's a very important word there, able. Now, if they
ain't going to try, they just won't be able to separate me
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why? Because of this promise.
He shall keep the feet of his saints. It's an immutable thing. It's not going to change. I like the example of that high
priest in Zechariah, Joshua, the high priest. Scripture says
he's standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan on his
right hand ready to accuse him. It's like Satan's mouth is open,
ready to speak accusations. Why? Because he's standing there
in his filthy garments. He's standing before God instead
of being in his high priestly robes, instead of being like
he should be, holy, he's in filthy garments. And Satan's ready to
accuse him, but before he could get a word out, he said, is this
not one that I've chosen? Isn't this one I sanctified?
Is not this a brand plucked from the burning? And the angel of
the Lord says, Take those garments off of him. Put a robe on him. Put a crown
on his head. And I like these words, and the
angel of the Lord stood by. It's as though he's standing
there making sure it happens. Joshua deserve any of that? No. We understand what Joshua feels
like standing before the Lord in our filthy garments. What
my hope is this, that none of those accusations will ever reach
the Father because I am sanctified. God justified me. Christ died
for me. So we sing this hymn, my hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Why shall my feet not be
moved? On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
So our standing will never be moved. Never be moved. Secondly,
our walking. Our feet, not only as our standing,
we will never be moved, but it also means our steps. He will
keep our steps in the way of the Lord and it shall not fail. Look at Psalm 37. Look at Psalm
37. Look at verse 23. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and He delighteth in His way. Look at this. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down. Why? For the Lord upholdeth him
with his hand. Every saint that is born of God
the Holy Spirit, we have an incorruptible nature,
a holy nature that cannot sin, but we know this, that we are
not still without sin. We're still burdened by the old
man so that this warfare raging in our hearts, the word of God
says to us, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. Now, this walking in the spirit
is nothing less than walking by faith. What is it to walk
in the spirit? It is to walk by faith. The just
shall live by faith. This is how we walk. This is
how we daily conduct ourselves in this world. To walk by faith. Which faith the inner man always
has. And which faith the old man never
has. I like this first line in this
hymn. It says, On Christ by faith,
I fain would live. It means I really, really want
to. With all my heart, I want to live on Christ. From Him,
my life, my all received. To Him, devote my fleeting hours. Serve Him alone with all my power. Is that not what you want? That's
what we want as we walk through this life. I want to serve Him
with my whole heart, with my whole soul. Yet we walk in a wilderness.
We must constantly depend upon his promise to keep us in this
way. We must trust him to direct our
steps and keep us always looking to him by faith. But let us be
aware that our enemy is constantly trying to move us from this way.
As we walk daily, there's always a resistance, isn't there? The
flesh is always the weak link. in everything. If I didn't have
the flesh, His temptations wouldn't mean anything. But we do, and
His temptations are very, very powerful to the flesh. And so
as we walk, we are always prone to stumble and fall. Now, as we walk, we're not to
walk by law. That's not our means of walking,
but by faith in Christ. And, you know, Church of Corinth
had a lot of problems, didn't they? Exalting men, preachers,
one preacher above another. They had, you know, that incestuous
relationship in the church. They had a whole bunch of problems.
You know what Paul's greatest fear was? He says this in 2 Corinthians
11 and verse 3, he said, But I fear lest by any means that
the serpent that beguiled Eve through subtlety, so your mind
should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
That was his greatest fears, that they'd be moved from the
singleness of Christ. You got a lot of problems, you
know, people want to focus on the problem. They want to focus
on this and focus on that. He said, that's the subtlety
of the enemy to move you from your path. The path of the believer
is simply trusting Christ. The singleness, the sole purpose
of our existence is to worship Christ, to serve Christ, to honor
Christ. So Satan will use many, as many
means as he can to move us from that. He'll use the power of
inward sin to move you from that. Every saint of God understands
in some measure the great power of our depraved nature. I mean,
all it takes is one spark to ignite these evil thoughts and
passions inside of us. It doesn't take much, does it?
Let somebody cut you off. I mean, it don't take much. In
an instant. And so when we were tempted to
sin. I feel the power of sin in my old man. I know it. And if I ever escape any of it. I feel like it's through the
skin of my teeth. I ever escaped any of it. But I know this. that God will
always keep the feet of his saints by making us feel the corruptness of our old nature.
This is necessary for us to feel. It's necessary for us to feel
more of our sin, because why? The more we feel the old man
of sin, the more we need Christ. Isn't that right? I thought about those guys who
think they're getting progressive holier. I mean, this is in the
reform doctrine. They say that a person that progressively
sanctified becomes more holy and sins less and less. In other words, they need Christ
less and less. What I found is I need Christ
more and more. I'm not any more of a sinner
than I was when I was born. I just feel, I'm aware of it. I had all those sins before I
ever felt them. But now I'm aware of them. And
when God makes us aware of them, what is He doing? He's keeping
our feet. He's keeping our feet so that
we need Christ more. And more another way, Satan tempts
his pride, arrogance. When things are going well, we
seem to rely on self. That's a. What does that do that
moves us from the simplicity that's in Christ that moves us
from faith to Christ to trusting ourself? He moves us then to presume.
upon that God is being good to us because of some goodness in
ourselves. What is a remedy of pride? It
is to bring us to shame, to strip us. Is that not what God does
for you? Because I'll tell you what, He
does that for me. When I feel pride, the Lord lets
me go so long and because He keeps my feet, He'll manifest
it to me and He'll bring me down. Why? so that my feet would stay
on the path, so I would continually look to Christ. Satan tries to trip us up with
the despair. It's kind of like going from
one thing to another. We go from pride to despair. We're going
backwards and forwards like a drunken man on a ship, staggering back
and forth, going from pride to despair. We say, how long are you going
to keep me here? We were once proud. The Lord brings us low.
And we say, how long are you going to forgive me? Are you
going to forget me forever? David said. Have you ever been in despair? What's your hope and despair?
My hope is this. The Lord will keep the feet of
his saints. In other words, he's going to keep my faith. He's
going to keep me looking to Christ. Hasn't that been your experience?
You that are still looking to Christ tonight, isn't that been
your experience? That he is always, he is taking
you from pride and pointing you to Christ. He takes you from
despair and he points you to Christ. What is he doing? He's keeping your feet. Keeping
you in the way. That's because God has given
us his spirit. Another way the enemy will seek
to move us is by false religion. You see, Bunyan said there are
many bypaths to the way, the narrow way. Narrow way is faith
in Christ, and there are many avenues that branch off of that.
Temptations. Listen to me. This false religious
age is a temptation. With all their sights and sounds
and smells of religion. I mean, it's attractive to the
flesh. It is. Would you not want to
see 100,000 people sitting here? Yeah, I'd like to see 100,000
people here in the gospel. Tell you that false religion
is tempting to our flesh. If it wasn't, they wouldn't give
us any warnings about it. I'm so thankful that God would
keep His people from that. So, this is our hope, that no
matter our circumstances, no matter the difficulties, no matter
the temptations, no matter how much you fall daily, constantly
falling and stumbling, sinning, going from pride to despair,
listen, this is your hope. He shall keep the feet of His
saints. is exactly what Peter said. He
said, who are kept. You that are chosen, you that
are redeemed. You that are called, you that
are sanctified. Your confidence is not in yourself. You cannot keep yourself. My confidence is this. that we
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last time. And he keeps us by his
his word. He keeps us in the way, keeps
us looking to Christ through his word. He's put fear in our
hearts, reverence for him, love for his gospel, love for his
saints. He's put those things in our hearts and all of the
providence of time is moving so that you should be kept. Like I said, it makes us feel
like we're being pulled away. That's not God's purpose. God's
purpose is to keep you. Why? Because he said he would. Like I said, I know that you
feel and feelings. What a deceptive things feelings
are. I don't feel like God's going to keep me. Surely this
time it's too much. No. God said. He shall keep the feet of his
saints. Those that are sanctified are
kept. Kept doing what? Looking to Christ. This is how we walk. And no matter
how we are tempted to move away from that, no matter how many
times we fall, God said, I'll keep you. Is it possible for
then a believer to lose his faith? And I'll tell you this, our faith
is weak. At times our faith seems non-existent. Is it? Not if you're kept. Not if you're
kept. And God says, I swear, I'll keep
you. That's something you can lay
your head down at night and say, that's it. I'm kept. I'm kept. Who, who shall stand in thy presence,
stand and match omnipotence? Unfold the grasp of thy right
hand and pluck the center of the ants. Who? Who? None. He said, I will keep my
saints. Therefore, we can be confident
He will keep His saints. How many of them? All of them.
All of them. I pray God will comfort you with
that.