Thank you, Joy. Good evening,
everyone. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 39 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymnal. Number 39, Sovereign Grace, I
Will Proclaim It. Let's all stand. Wretched, lost, condemned, and
dying, guilty I deserve God's wrath. Long I fought against
my Master, hell-bent I was courting death. ? But the blood of Christ
had bought me ? He refused to let me die ? This poor sinner
loved by Jesus ? Must be conquered by and by ? At the time which
was predestined ? In the covenant of God's grace ? God in mercy
sent his spirit ? Blessed time of love and grace ? To reveal
his son's great manhood ? As the sinner's substitute I saw Jesus bleeding, dying,
suffering as my substitute. Precious blood for sin's atonement,
justice could not ask for more. I heard Christ cry, it is finished. And I could resist no more. Thanks to God for intervening. Grace that broke my stubborn
will. Grace that would not let me perish. Grace that rescued me from hell
Sovereign grace I will proclaim it Irresistible and free ? Grace
that chose me and redeemed me ? But by grace alone saved me
? Sinner now you've heard my story ? Now I bid you trust my
God ? Christ my all-sufficient Savior ? Saves poor sinners by
His blood ? Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
140. Psalm 140. I wanna try to bring a message
from the last verses in 1 Peter tonight. And you remember that's
where Peter warns the believers of the devil
who is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And Peter
had some personal experience with that. The Lord had told
him the night before our Lord was crucified, that Satan had
asked to sift him. And sifting him is what he did.
And so this Psalm, Psalm 140, David is praying to be delivered
from the evil man. And it is every believer's prayer. And as Christ on the cross offered
this prayer also to his father to be delivered from death. Let's read Psalm 140 together.
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. Preserve me from the
violent man. which imagine mischiefs in their
heart continually, are they gathered together for war? They have sharpened
their tongues like a serpent. Adder's poison is onto their
lips. Selah. Keep me, O Lord, from
the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent
man who have purpose to overthrow my going. The proud have hit
a snare for me and cords, and they have spread a net by the
wayside. They have set gins for me." This
is all those subtle, secret ways that Satan seeks to tempt God's
people. Selah. I said unto the Lord,
thou art my God. Hear the voice of my supplications,
O Lord. O God, the Lord, the strength of my salvation. Thou has covered my head in the
day of battle. Grant not, O Lord, the desires
of the wicked, further not their wicked devices, lest they exalt
themselves. Selah. As for the head of those
that can pass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover
them. Let burning coals fall upon them.
Let them be cast into the fire, into the deep pits. That they rise not up again. Let not an evil speaker be established
in the earth. Evil shall hunt the violent man
to overthrow him. I know that the Lord will maintain
the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor. Surely the righteous shall give
thanks unto thy name and the upright shall dwell in thy presence. Just remind you that we'll have
lunch together this Sunday after service. And we stopped by and
visited with Ann Neal tonight on the way to church. And she
wanted us to tell you that she loves you and misses you all. So she's doing really, I'm just
amazed how sharp she is. She asks about everybody. She
watches every service. keeps up with everything that's
going on. So let's pray together. Our heavenly father, thank you that we have the Lord Jesus Christ to fight
our battles. Thank you for the victory that
he got on Calvary's cross over sin and over death and over Satan. Thank you, Lord, for the promise
that you would never leave us nor forsake us. Thank you for
the daily bread and grace that you provide for your children
as they struggle in this world with so much evil in their own
hearts and evil in this world. And Lord, we pray that you would
help us tonight that you would reveal more of your glory and
more of your love and more of your grace and enable us, Lord,
to resist the evil one in the faith. Lord, open up your word and speak
it powerfully and effectually to our hearts. Pray that you
would give comfort, Lord, where needed in the hearts of your
children. Trials and disappointments that you send into our lives,
Lord, we know that they are for purpose and that you accomplish
that purpose and that you attend all of your providence with humility. a necessary grace. And so, Lord,
we ask that you would turn our hearts and enable us to rest
in that grace. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 235 from the hardback
teminal, 235. Let's all stand together again. Bless me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, ? Do
not pass me by ? Savior, Savior ? Hear my humble cry ? While
on others thou art calling ? Do not pass me by Let me at the
throne of mercy find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Trusting only in thy merit would
I seek thy face. Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside thee? ? Whom in heaven but Thee ? Savior,
Savior, hear my humble cry ? While on others Thou art calling, do
not pass me by Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to 1 Peter
chapter five. 1 Peter chapter five. We'll begin reading in verse
six. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God. that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. whom resist steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
you have suffered a while, make you perfect. establish, strengthen,
and settle you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. I've titled this message, In
the Faith, because I believe that's the key to understanding
what our Lord is telling us here about our adversary, the devil,
and resisting him. Peter certainly by experience
knew the power of the devil. The night before our Lord was
crucified, our Lord even told Peter, the devil's asked to sift
you. And Peter, in his pride, thought,
that's not going to happen to me. Well, of course it did. But the comfort that our Lord
gave Peter was, I prayed for you. That is what made the difference
between Peter's fall that night and Judas's fall that night.
The Lord had prayed for Peter, as he prays for all of his children.
And Father, I pray for them that thou has given me. I pray not
for the world. I pray for them that thou has given me out of
the world. And we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one, whoever lives to make intercession for us.
What a hope, what a comfort. And our Lord said, I prayed that
your faith fail not. And so that's what we're, Peter's
faith was strengthened by that experience. And I'm sure that
when he said in verse nine, these same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. These temptations,
these trials, these troubles that the Lord allows Satan to
inflict upon His children are for our good and they produce
an accomplishment and that accomplishment is the strengthening of our faith,
increasing our dependence upon the Lord. And we know from scripture and
from experience that there is an evil spirit behind all sin. He's introduced first to us in
the garden and we see his work throughout scripture and we know
from our own experience that he's real, don't we? The Lord in his word calls him
the prince of darkness and how oftentimes the light of the gospel
has been dimmed and darkened by his, by his deeds. He's called an angel of light.
He's a, he's a counterfeiter. He tries to present himself as
the minister of righteousness and and as an angel of light,
which is what Lucifer translated means, the light bearer. But
he doesn't bring light, he brings darkness. He's called Satan. And that word
means adversary. He's our adversary. And he's
called the devil in our text, which means accuser. And he is
the accuser of the brethren. He accuses us by trying to put
us back under the law, doesn't he? Every time we sin, he would
have us to try to mend our own ways and atone for our sin by
putting us under the law. And he does that by his accusations. And yet the Lord tells us here
to resist him steadfast in the faith. Take a hard and fast stand
against the devil while at the same time looking in faith to
Christ. That's the important part. We're no match for the devil. We can't stand against him. But he's no match for Christ.
He's God's devil. And I'm so thankful that the
Lord said, resist the devil steadfastly in the faith. James put it like
this when he said, submit yourself therefore to God. James chapter
four, verse seven, and resist the devil and he will flee from
thee. So this standing against evil and resisting the devil
has to be done in the faith. It has to be done in Christ.
It has to be done in the power of God. We have no power ourselves. Every time we've tried to do
anything in our own strength, we've found ourselves in the
same place Peter was. That was Peter's problem that
night, wasn't it? They may leave you, but not me. I'm gonna be
here for you. We've all experienced his fiery
darts, piercing our hearts with doubts and temptations. We've
been sifted. Like Job, we've been tried to
the very edge of our being by this, evil spirit. I remind you of our look at 1st
Samuel chapter 17, Sunday, because that's who Goliath represents. And Goliath didn't have a chance
against David. He didn't have a chance. Hey, we're like Saul and David's brothers. We're afraid
and we rightly should be. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
goes into the valley of the shadow of death to fight our battles,
he slays that giant. And that's exactly what he did.
He destroyed the works of the devil. The Lord said when the Holy Spirit
comes, he's gonna convict the world of sin because they believe
not on me. And when the Spirit of God convicts
us, he shows us that the root cause of all of our sin is our
unbelief. Of righteousness because I go
to my father. And when the Spirit of God speaks
truth to our hearts, he causes us to see that all of our righteousness
is in the Lord Jesus Christ in heavenly places. and we have
no righteousness outside of him. And thirdly, and of judgment,
because the prince of this world has been judged. And that happened on Calvary's
cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, as we read in Psalm 140, where
David is praying, let their words be their own judgment. And so
the Lord took the very words of the devil and used it as a
sword to decapitate him on the cross. Of judgment because the prince
of this world has been judged. He's been judged. And Satan can only do what God
allows him to do. in the world and in our lives. He can only do what God allows
him to do. He's God's devil and he's on
God's leash. The Lord told him when he wanted
to kill Job, no, he can't kill him. He can't kill him. He would have if he could have,
but he wasn't allowed to. In Psalm 76 verse 10 it says,
surely, surely, certainly the wrath of man shall praise thee.
All the evil that's caused by this devil will be turned by
God to praise God. And we see that most clearly
at the cross. It was the devil that was inspiring
those that would not have Christ and that cried, crucify him,
crucify him. And yet it was to God's glory
that that which they did by their wicked hands is what Peter said
on the day of Pentecost. He said, you did this with your
own wicked hands, but God purposed it. for his glory and for the
salvation of his people. And so David said, surely the
wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder of wrath shall
thou restrain. And so whatever God can't use
in the wrath of man inspired by Satan himself, he's gonna
restrain. He's gonna not allow it to happen.
He's gonna hold it back. What great hope we have. Look back with me to our text.
Humbling ourselves before the mighty hand of God. Only those
who have no strength in themselves would be humbled unto the mighty
hand of God. While we were yet without strength,
Christ died for us. David spoke in Psalm 140 that
we just read that the Lord came for the poor and the needy. And
what a work of grace it is when the Spirit of God causes us to
see our need for his mighty hand. Lord, I can't, I can't resist
this. I can't stand up to this. Satan
is like Goliath to me. I can't. And then he says in verse seven,
casting, casting all of you care upon him, knowing that he cares
for you. Oh, if we knew how much he loved
us, if we could just believe what he has said about his love
for us and his care for us and his tender mercies and his compassion. Oh, we will be running to the
throne of grace more quickly and more often than we do, wouldn't
we? Casting all your care, for he
careth for you. Oh, he cares for us in ways that
we have no understanding how deep and how true his love
is for his children. Be sober. sober-minded, think
clearly. How do we do that? Well, Paul says in Philippians, rejoice
in the Lord always and again I say rejoice, let your moderation
be known unto all men. Why? Because the Lord's at hand.
And finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true and whatsoever
things are lovely and whatsoever things are of good report, if
there be any virtue in them, Think on these things. Think
on these things. So when the Lord enables us to
be sober minded, we're thinking on the things of God. We're thinking
on those things that are true and holy and right and virtuous
in Christ and how be sober, be vigilant. Why? Because you have an adversary.
And it's the devil and he's a roaring lion. And I like the way the
Lord describes him. All he can do is roar. You know,
we talk about a dog has a bigger bark than a bite, you know, and
here's the devil. All he can do is he can't devour. God will restrain his evil. He didn't let him kill Job. He's
not gonna let him kill us. He's gonna shut their mouths
even like he did in Daniel's story of the lion's den. But
he still roars. And as he roars, we are afraid
and what do we do? We flee to Christ. Resist steadfastly in the faith. Now, I looked up this phrase
and it's used about 10 or 11 times in the New Testament, in
the faith. And I'd like to just take a few
minutes to consider this phrase in reverse order. We're gonna
look at the word faith, we'll look at the word the, and we'll
look at the word in, in the faith. Luke uses it twice in the Acts,
of the Apostles and then Paul uses it I think about seven times
and then Peter only uses it once in the faith. And it's such a
glorious truth when we think about it. What is faith? We know that without faith it's
impossible to please God. For they that come to him must
believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. We must have faith. And we know
that we can't cause this faith. We know that faith is the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The Lord has
to give us faith. Faith cannot be a decision. If faith is a decision that I
can exercise or not by my free will, then salvation is not of
grace, salvation is by work, salvation is by something I do.
If faith is my contribution to my salvation. So we are dependent
upon the Lord for this faith. I was talking to a lady yesterday
and we were talking about faith and showed her a verse of scripture
in the Bible. And she said, I showed her Galatians
2.20 is the verse I showed her. We are crucified with Christ,
nevertheless we live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in us. The life that we now live, we live by the faith of the Son
of God. She was trying to sell me a Bible.
And it wasn't a King James. And I just went to that verse
and I said, here's the problem with this Bible. because your
Bible says, my faith in Christ. As if, well, she said, yeah,
but you've got to have faith. And so we tried to talk and she
said, well, I know it's all of grace. I know it's all of grace.
But she was part of a huge freewill Armenian church that promotes
decision-making and freewill and all those sort of things
and so they attach grace to it but they don't mean grace. Faith
is a gift of God for by grace are you saved through faith and
that not of yourselves. Faith is the result of our salvation
not the cause of it. Faith is is what a live person does when
they breathe. It's the evidence of life, it's
not the cause of life. Faith is to believe, it is to
rest in, it is to rely upon, it's casting all our care. It's an admission and a confession
of our complete inability and our total dependence upon another.
That's what faith is by definition. Faith means that I can't and
he can. It's trusting with confidence
in something or someone outside of ourselves. It's being shut
up to Christ with no place else to go and no desire to look for
any place else. I'm content with Christ. I've
got all my eggs in one basket. I've cast all my care upon Him. And I'm persuaded that He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. That
He's able to keep that. I'm persuaded of His ability.
That's faith. Faith has nothing in itself to
be proud of. What is the opposite of faith?
The opposite of faith is works, is it not? Turn with me to Romans
chapter three. Romans chapter three. Verse 26. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. So here he's talking
about faith, believing in Christ, resting in Christ, relying upon
Christ for all of my righteousness before God. Where is boasting
then? It is excluded by what law of
works? Nay, but by the law of faith.
By the law of faith, all boasting is excluded. So there's nothing
in faith to boast in. Faith is the opposite of boasting.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. Faith by its very definition
is an admission of one's inability. Lord, I can't believe I can't
will, I can't work, I can't do, I've got to cast all my care
upon you. Lord, if you don't save me, I
won't be saved. And I've got no place else to go and I'm not
interested in going anywhere else because you have convinced
me that you are able to save me. And Lord, I know that you
can if you will. We don't say with the free will
or I know that you want to and I'm going to enable you to by
exercising my faith. I'm going to make it possible
for you to save me. What blasphemy. faith is not in the faith we're
resisting the evils of the devil in the faith and we can't understand
this until we see what faith really is and how often times we think
well you know if I have a strong enough faith uh... I can I can make something
happen in the future. You know, so people say, you know,
well, if you have enough faith, you can be healed. And if you
don't get healed, it's because you didn't have enough faith.
Or whatever, you know, whatever other material blessing men look
for, name it and claim it, if I just have enough faith. Now,
we know the error and the heresy of that. But let me add something
to that, brethren, that we need to be reminded of. Faith is not believing that God's
gonna reward me with heaven. That's a future event. In other words, it's, It's not believing that you are
saved or that you're going to go to heaven. It's believing
that Jesus Christ is the Savior, that he is the sovereign, successful
Savior of sinners. and that you've cast all your
care upon him. If you've got no place else to
go, you're not interested in going anywhere else. Lord, to
whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. And we know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. There's faith. We've said this before. We've
talked about Peter tonight and Peter after, that night told
the rest of the disciples, he said, I'm going back to the fishing
boats. There's no chance that I'm gonna have anything to offer
God after what I've done. And if you had asked Peter before
the Lord appeared to him on the shore, if you had asked Peter
when he was mending his nets there and going fishing, Peter,
are you saved? Peter, are you going to heaven?
Peter would have said, absolutely not. I have no assurance of that
whatsoever. I've ruined that. Peter, do you believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the son of the living God? Do you believe that
he was successful in what he came to do? Do you believe that
he actually put away the sins of God's people and satisfied
God's justice and established a righteousness for God's people?
Do you believe that He's the Son of God, the Christ? What
would Peter say? Absolutely. Absolutely, I believe
that. You see, brethren, faith is not
believing that you are saved or that you're even gonna, you
know, it's not, it's believing on Christ. It's believing on Him. And even
when we doubt and lose sight of our assurance
and wonder if I'm going to get to heaven, if you have faith,
you don't doubt who Christ is or what he did. You may wonder from time to time
if he did it for you, but you know who he is. That's faith. So we resist him in the faith. Faith is believing God. You see, there's a whole lot
of people in this world, you know this, a whole lot of people
in this world that believe of all their hearts that they're
going to heaven. I mean, they believe on their
deathbed, drawing their last breath, going to heaven. and they don't believe God and
they don't believe on Christ, they don't believe in Christ,
they don't believe that he is the Christ. They have a spurious faith, they
have a false hope. Let us not think that faith is
always having a complete assurance of our salvation. Faith is believing
on Christ and assurance. You see, as soon as you start
looking to your assurance, you lose sight of Christ. Assurance
of salvation is the result of faith. Faith is looking to the
Lord Jesus. So when the Lord tells us Be
sober, be vigilant, cast all your care, humble yourself before
the mighty hand of God. Resist the devil steadfastly
for he's like a roaring lion, but always resist him in the
faith, in the faith. Don't try to do it in your own
strength. The arm of flesh will never work. Faith believes what it cannot
see. Faith just believes God, it believes everything God has
said and it says amen to everything God says, doesn't it? That's
what your faith does, doesn't it? God said it, amen. No question about it. The Lord
Jesus took his blood and put it on a mercy seat in heaven,
I didn't see that. But God said it, and I believe
it. The Lord Jesus Christ bore all
the sins of all of God's people in his body upon the tree, and
he put them away by the sacrifice of himself. I wasn't there 2,000
years ago, and even if I was, I can't see my sins on him. He established a righteousness
before God and justified all the people for whom he died once
and for all? Yes, I believe that. Why? Because God said so. Matter of
fact, I believe things that are contrary to my experience. What's
contrary to your experience? That you have no sin. As He is,
so are we in this world. That we have a perfect righteousness
before God, that we have a sinless perfection before God. Can you
see that in your life? Not only can you not see it,
it's contrary to what you do see, but you believe it. Why? Because God said it. That's why
you believe it. Not because you can see it or
understand it or feel it, but because God said it. So we resist
the devil and we stand fast in the faith. Just believing God. Just trusting Christ. Not believing in our feelings
or waiting for an experience or anything else. Just believing God. Resist the devil in the faith. That's important, isn't it? The
world talks about faiths, plural. And when we tell them that there's
but one faith, what do they accuse us of? Well, you think you're
the only people saved. Absolutely, we don't believe
that. And we never said that. But we believe there's only one
Christ, and there's only one gospel, and there's only one
God, and there's only one truth, and that anything contrary to
that is a lie. That's what we believe. We believe there's only one Savior in any form of Jesus that does
not get all the glory for salvation. Any form of God that needs me
to do something in order for him to be able to save me is
not the faith. It is not the faith. It is another
Jesus, it's another gospel, it's inspired by another spirit. That's
the angel of light and the minister of righteousness has come up
with that. with that gospel. So we resist him in the faith,
the faith of the Jesus revealed in scripture, the Christ, the
Son of God. And man, you ask men what the
gospel is and they say, well, it's the death, burial and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. And they quote 1 Corinthians
15. And they missed the part. how
that Christ died and was buried and rose again, according to
the scriptures. So if you've got a Jesus that's
not according to the scriptures, if you've got a Jesus that died
in some other way, other than a successful sovereign savior,
the surety of his people, then that's not the Jesus according
to the scriptures. And it's not the faith, it is
another faith. Oh brethren, what hope we have.
The Lord has shown us the faith. And we're to resist these things
and steadfast and do that in the faith. You know, the word here in the
original language in our text, translated I-N in the English,
is E-N in the Greek. And it means the same thing.
It means a fixed position. And we use it in the English
language when we say a person is enslaved. They are in a fixed
position of slavery. If we say encouraged, it means
there's a fixed position of courage in the heart. And so it is in
the faith to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness, which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. to be found in Him. Romans 8, 39, height nor depth
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is what? In Christ Jesus. It's in Him. And I must be in Him. The Lord
Jesus in John 15 said, I am the vine and you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him bringeth forth much fruit for without me you can do no
thing, nothing. There it is, to be in the faith,
in the faith is to abide in Christ. is to be connected to that vine.
You get all one's nourishment from that vine, all one's life
from that vine, to be in Him. We'll close with, I wanted us
to look at several places. I mentioned at the beginning
that there are several places in the New Testament where this
in the faith is used and And we won't have time to look at
them, but I do want us to consider one. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians 13. Because this
is so misunderstood, so misinterpreted. Heard men quote this verse. I have a new Bible and the pages
are all sticking together and I'm trying to find my way around
it. So y'all bear with me a little
bit. 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse three. Now, Paul is closing
the letter by rebuking the Judaizers who have come into Corinth and
they've accused the Apostle Paul of not being an apostle. And
some of the believers in the church at Corinth have been tempted
to listen to them. The church at Corinth You know,
there were apostolic gifts in the first century, in the days
of the apostles, authenticating the gospel with miracles, tongues,
healings. There were things that God was
doing that was extraordinary. And the church at Corinth was
giving those gifts. And remember, Paul had to rebuke
them about abusing their spiritual gifts and being proud of their
gifts. And they really thought they
were somebody. And now the Judaizers have come
in and they said, well, you know, the apostle Paul really wasn't
an apostle because he didn't preach the law. And Paul is rebuking
them. And he says here in verse three
of chapter 13, since you seek proof of Christ speaking in me."
Now he tells them this is a third letter that I've written you
so there's another letter between 1st and 2nd Corinthians that
Paul is writing back and forth to this church that the Lord
saw fit not to put in Scripture but here's his correction of
them and they've already told him you know we want proof that
you're really an apostle And he said, since you seek proof
of Christ speaking in me, which to you word is not weak, but
is mighty in you. Now he's, he's being, he's being
sarcastic here. He's saying to them, you know,
I know, you know, you don't have any doubt about your, about your
authority because, because there's evidences of the power of God
on you as a result of these gifts that God's given you. And you're
calling my authority into question. For though he was crucified through
weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are
weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God
toward you." So Paul's saying, you know, you're being proud. by looking at your spiritual
gifts and holding me in question as a result of the power of God
that's on you. He's rebuking them for their
proud, arrogant spirit. Now verse five, examine yourselves. whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves, know ye
not your own selves? How that Jesus Christ is in you
except you be reprobate? Now people take that verse that
we just read and they say, you know, you need to examine yourself
and prove that you're in the faith by looking for evidence
in your life of the way you live and what you're doing and how
you're, you know, how you're performing and how many gifts
you have and how much knowledge you have. And that's exactly
what he's speaking to them against. That's exactly the opposite of
what this verse is saying. What this verse is saying, examine
yourselves. Don't you know yourself? Don't
you know how weak you are? Don't you know how dependent
you are upon Christ? Don't you know that as He was
crucified in weakness, so we are weak? Don't you see that
it's Christ in you that's the hope of your glory? That it's
not your gifts and your strength and the evidences of your faith?
That faith is all about Christ and His strength and His power. And His strength will not be
on you unless you have no strength. His strength is made perfect
in our weakness. When I'm weak, I'm strong. Examine yourself to see whether
you be in the faith, in the faith. What is it to be in the faith? Lord, all I can do is humble
myself before thee. All I can do is cast all my care
upon thee. Lord, all I can do is depend
upon thee. for all of my righteousness and
for all of my strength and if there's ever going to be a time
when I'm going to be able to resist the devil, you're going
to have to do it. You're going to have to enable
me to look to Christ. I'm going to have to be in the
faith in order for that to happen. And to be in the faith means
that I'm nobody and he's everything. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
bless your word to our hearts. We ask it for Christ's sake.
Amen. 36 and the hardback 10 on number
36. A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing. Our helper, he amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe, Doth
seek to work us woe His craft and power are great And armed
with cruel hate On earth is not His equal Did we in our own strength
confide our striving would be losing? Were not the right man on our
side the man of God's own choosing? Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He, Lord save
off His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the
battle. ? And though this world with
devils filled ? ? Should threaten to unto us ? ? We will not fear
for God hath willed ? ? His truth to triumph through us ? ? The
prince of darkness grim ? But for Him, His rage we can
endure, For lo, His doom is sure. ? That word above all earthly powers
? ? No thanks to them abided ? ? The Spirit and the gifts
are ours ? ? Through him who with us sided ? ? Let goods and
kindred go ? ? This mortal life also ? The body they may kill
? God's truth abided still ? His kingdom is forever