All right, brethren, let's turn
to Colossians chapter one. I'm gonna read from 20 down to
verse 29, but we're really just gonna look at one verse, maybe
two, but Colossians one, verse 20. We saw that our Lord Jesus,
having made peace through the blood of his cross, By Him, by
Christ, God reconciled all things unto Himself. By Him, I say,
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you
that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel which you have heard, which was preached to
every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill
up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh
for his body's sake, which is the church, whereof I made a
minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which has been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man
and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also labor, striving
according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. Now,
the Lord said in verse 22, He said, Our Savior shall present
you to the Father, holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight,
if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be
not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have
heard, which was preached to every creature which is under
heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. Now each one that
are given faith by God, and we have to be given faith by God.
Ephesians 2 says, by grace are you saved through faith. That
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It's not of works,
lest any man should boast. We're His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. And faith is one of those good
works God ordained we shall walk in. And so he works it, he gives
faith to his people. Those who are truly regenerated
and affectionately called, that's who this speaks to. Those shall
persevere in faith to the end. They shall persevere in the faith
until the end and they shall be everlastingly saved. They
shall be presented to the Father by Christ without spot without
blemish, holy, unreprovable, unblameable in His sight. That's
how He shall present us. So I want to look here now at
what this verse 23 declares to us. I just want to look at this
one verse. He said, verse 23, if you continue
in the faith. Now this is a way of saying if
you continue believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. if you continue
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ all the way to the end. Now, if salvation were by our
works, if salvation were by something you and me do, this would have
been a great place for the Spirit of God to have given Paul that
word. Wouldn't it? Wouldn't verse 23?
Because he said, Christ shall present you holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in his sight, if, now if this if was based
on some works you and me do, that'd been the spot to say it
right there. But that's not what he said.
He said, if you continue in the faith, if you continue in the
faith. Habakkuk 2.4 says this, It says,
Behold, his soul who is lifted up is not upright in him. The man whose soul is lifted
up is not upright in him. You know, when the Lord came,
the Pharisees got very angry at our Lord Jesus. Because they
thought they had kept the law of God. And so, when He told
them they were guilty, they became angry. They became angry. Their
soul was uplifted within them. They were full of pride. And
their heart was uplifted and it was not upright in them. But
here's what it says of the Lord's people. But the just, those Christ
justified, the just shall live by His faith. The just shall
live by His faith. And that's repeated over and
over in the New Testament. Romans 117. Paul said, he had
said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. That righteousness has to be
revealed. Has to be revealed. From whether man's Jew or Gentile,
God reveals the righteousness of God to him. And it says from
faith to faith, from the faith of Christ to the faith He gives
into the heart, from one degree of faith to another by Him growing
us. And it repeats that back at 2-4. It says, as it's written, the
just shall live by faith. Those justified by Christ shall
live by faith in Christ. Galatians 3-11, He said, but
that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it's
evident. He had said there, The law's
not of faith. The law's not of faith. You cannot
try to come to God by the works of the law and by faith. It's
either all of grace and none of works, or it's all of works
and none of grace, but there's no mixture. He said, but that
no man is justified by the law in a sight of God, it's evident,
for the just shall live by faith. Now this is so, this is how God
saves His people beginning to end. And now one other place,
Hebrews 10 verse 38 says, Now the just shall live by faith,
but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
them. The whole purpose of the Hebrew
letter was to tell men, do not go back to the law. Christ has
come, he's the fulfillment of the law, don't go back to the
law. And if any man draw back, whether he goes back to trying
to do works of the law, or he just leaves religion and goes
back into the world, the Spirit of God said through Paul, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him, but he said, but we are
not of them who draw back unto perdition. We don't draw back
to destruction, to damnation. but we're of them that believe
to the saving of the soul. Now, this thing of perseverance
in the faith, really and truly, it's preservation by the Lord
Jesus. He preserves us. We're persevering,
trusting Christ because the Lord is preserving us. The one who
gave us faith is gonna keep us in the faith, and we're gonna
persevere by him. This is what, This is what Habakkuk
2 and 4 says, the just shall live by his faith. Now listen,
the Lord Jesus does give a man faith. And we believe, we really
believe the Lord. And we live by the faith He's
given us, by our own faith. We live and walk according to
faith. But the just shall live by his
faith. It's really by his faith, by
the faithfulness of Christ. I think that's what Paul meant
when he said the gospels were revealed from faith to faith.
It's from his faith, from the faith of Christ to the faith
he gives us. And so it's really preservation.
Peter said we're kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. See, Christ
accomplished salvation. It's ready. And he accomplished
it for a particular people. We're not, you know, we're in
a very small minority. Scripture calls us a remnant,
and it's always been a remnant in every generation. Most of
the world preaches that Christ came and laid down his life for
everybody, but they don't say he really accomplished anything.
Now, they wouldn't verbally say that, but they say it by saying
this, but now he's done all he can do. Now, you have to believe
to make his blood effectual for you. No, no, no. That's not anywhere in the scripture.
Christ laid down His life for a particular people and accomplished
salvation. And that salvation is ready to
be revealed. It's ready. It's accomplished.
It's finished. And so, when we're lost and dead
in our sins, and if He did that for you, He's going to reveal
Himself to you. He's going to come and send this
gospel to you or bring you under the sound of the gospel and he's
gonna make that word official in you, and you're gonna believe
him for the first time, and he's gonna keep you because he finished
that salvation for his people. It's ready to be revealed, and
he's gonna have them enter into it in glory. You get what I'm
saying? When somebody comes in to hear
the gospel in a church where the gospel's preached, we know
our God's sovereign. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. If something comes to pass in
this world, the Lord did it. And if somebody comes under this
gospel, this true gospel of the true God of glory, we don't take
that lightly because the Lord did it. It's not like just walking
in any old church building. I don't mean to be mean to anybody,
but not everybody's preaching the gospel, brethren. It's just
not, just not. But those he's given faith, he's
gonna keep you By His power, it was by His power you have
faith. By His power you were redeemed.
It's gonna be by His power you're kept. So who's gonna get the
glory? Who are we gonna praise and give all the glory to? We're
not gonna say, well, look how strong my faith is. No, we're
trusting Him and glorifying Him, glorifying Him. This is what
God-given faith believes. Our Lord has saved us and He
shall save us. That's what true faith believes.
He is salvation. Look at verse 23 again. If you
continue in the faith, grounded and settled. Now that's another
way, or that's just to be grounded, that's to be rooted in Christ. Rooted. You know, you take a
slip, a little clipping off of a plant, and you plant it. It
doesn't have roots at first. You kind of put it in a wet paper
towel, let it get some roots going, and then you put it in
the ground. You gotta be very careful with it, And as it grows,
those roots go down into that ground and it's firmed and it's
rooted. And once it's rooted, now it
can withstand some wind and some, you know, it's gonna keep standing. Now it may fall down, it may
lay down flat to the ground sometimes when the wind's bad. You and
me may lay down flat to the ground too. But if you're rooted in
Christ and that plant is rooted, in a little while, what's going,
the sun's gonna shine on it. And what's the sun gonna do?
The rays of that sun gonna make it go back, point toward the
sun. You can watch some plants. When
the sun comes up in the east all day and then goes down the
west, those plants will turn toward that sun. A sunflower
really does. It'll turn and follow the sun
all the way to the west. Well, that's God's people. You're
rooted in Christ. And to be settled, that's to
be set. It's to be persuaded. You know,
you build a building, it's built on a foundation. And after a
little while, that building settles on that foundation. We're set,
we're settled on the Lord Jesus Christ. We're fully persuaded
he is all our salvation. Look where we make Colossians
2. Colossians 2. He said, verse six, as you have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him.
How'd you receive him? It was given to you. Faith was
given to you. It was given to you by God's
grace, by God's power. Christ himself gave it to you.
So you continue looking to him to give you everything. Look,
as you therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, settled
and established in the faith, as you've been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. And that's the life of the believer
right there. What he just said encompasses
the day he gives you faith all the way to you draw your last
breath. This is it right here, brethren. We're rooted and built
up in Christ. We're established in the faith.
Christ, he's our salvation. We're persuaded. And he taught
us this and we abound with thanksgiving to him. We owe him all the glory
for this. Look, in verse eight, and beware,
lest any spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. The rudiments of the world is
what Paul calls the law. The teaching of the law and the
teaching of the commandments of men, because what, rudiments
of the world is, The elements of the world, they're pointing
you back to you, to your dusty flesh, they're pointing you back
to the letter of the law, they're pointing you to the works of
your hands. Look down at Colossians 2, look down at verse 16. He said, let no man
judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or
of the new moon or of the Sabbath They were a shadow of things
to come. All those things in the scripture
pictured Christ. But a body is Christ. He's the
very image of it. He fulfilled it. It was all speaking
of him. That no man trick you, beguile
you of your reward in a voluntary humility. This is what is spoken
of as a, it's a false humility. and a worshiping of angels, intruding
into those things which he had not seen, vainly puffed up by
his fleshly mind, and not holding the head. He's not beholding
Christ, from which all the body by joints and bands have nourishment
ministered, knit together, and increased with the increase of
God. We get everything from Christ, our head. Wherefore, if you be
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, the law and the
elements of the law. Why as though living in the world?
Why as though your life is still in this world? You're dead with
Christ, your life's in Christ. So why do you act like your life's
in this world? How does a man do that? By being
subject to ordinances. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. All those things are gonna perish
with the using. Those are after the commandments
and doctrines of men. They were given by God, weren't
they? Yeah, but God gave them to show you, me and you, we're
guilty sinners. He gave the law to shut us up. He gave the ceremony
to show us Christ who is the lamb and the high priest and
everything the law pictures. And Christ came and fulfilled
it. The whole Hebrew letters tell us he is the end of it.
He fulfilled it. He's establishing the new covenant
of grace. Now we're walking by faith in
Christ, trusting him. Paul said those other things,
they have a show. They put on a show, verse 23.
We're not doing anything to be seen of men. Christ said, don't
do anything to be seen of men. When you pray, Christ said, don't
pray to be seen of men. He said, enter into your closet.
Don't do something to draw attention to you. He said, when you give
alms, don't do it to draw attention to you. The glory goes to Christ,
not us. He said, so those things put
on a show, but it's will worship. Worshipping of a man's will,
it's false humility, it's neglecting of the body, all these things.
But it's not any honor, it's not an honor to God, and it doesn't
satisfy the flesh either. It doesn't mortify the flesh,
none of that does. That emboldens the flesh. But
look back up now, back where we were, back up here, verse
8, he said, But beware lest you be spoiled through philosophy
and vain deceit and after the law and all that. Verse 9, for
in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you
are complete in Him. What does that word complete
mean? Nothing lacking. Nothing is lacking. That's what
faith believes. We trust it's all Christ. Now
the Spirit says, go back to verse 20, Colossians 1.23, The Spirit
says, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. The hope
of the gospel is Christ. Be not moved away from Christ.
He is the gospel. He is the gospel. Listen, this
is what he said. Everybody knows this scripture,
but you really pray the Lord give us the Spirit to enter into
what this says. Listen to this. The Lord Jesus
said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the gospel. We're gonna look at that in a
second now. I'm the truth. I am the life. No man cometh
to the Father but by me. Christ is salvation. He is the
gospel. Righteousness is not by our works.
Righteousness is not by our work. You know how often we break the
law and don't even realize we break the law? You know, somebody'll
get, somebody'll, Somebody else surmise, they suppose, they reason,
they just imagine that somebody's guilty. Maybe one person told
them somebody's guilty. And so they start speaking about
it. They're guilty. This person's
guilty. It's called evil surmising. Have no proof of it. Scripture
said, the law said, God said that every word, every charge
needs to be established by two or three witnesses. And I'm just
giving you a small example of how we break the law. But by
charging somebody with sin, publishing that to other men, when you don't
have any proof of it, it hadn't been established before two or
three winters, you break the whole law of God, every bit of
it. So you see, while we're trying
to defend the law, and we're trying to claim that we're doing
something for the glory of God, just so easily. We can be breaking
the whole law of God. And the fact is, brethren, to
break one law is to break them all. And you and me, every day,
break the law. Now, I'm not saying break the
law. We don't consciously set out and say, I'm going to break
the law today. We don't want to break the law. The whole good
news of our gospel is Christ has come and it took God coming
in human flesh to save us because we had broken the law. We had
fellen Adam and then we came forth and sinned our own self.
And every day as believers, this flesh is nothing but sin. What
we got from Adam was a body of sin and death. It's gonna be
a body of sin and death till we go in the grave. And so, only
thing it can produce is sin. Paul said in Romans 7, when I
would do good, evil is present with me. Don't you know that?
Can't you see that? Sometimes, sometimes I just,
you just, you just beg the Lord, Lord, please just receive me
in Christ because I hate my flesh. I hate it. And I don't even know
the totality of it. I don't know. I just see the
tip of the iceberg. We don't know the whole of our
sin. But this is the whole purpose of the gospel is he's the righteousness. He is our righteousness, not
us. I want to show you something. You all know this, Jeremiah 23,
6, but I want to show you. This is such a blessing. Christ
is our righteousness. He came and He brought in an
everlasting righteousness by His obedience, but He is our
righteousness Himself. Christ Himself. Jeremiah 23,
verse 6. Look, in His days, It's when
Christ came, when God came down in human flesh, in His days,
Judah and Israel, that's all God's elect. That's not just
those over there born in Israel. That's all God's elect, Judah
and Israel, Jew and Gentile. It says, all of them shall dwell
safely in His day, and this is the name whereby He shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. You see that? That's who he is,
Jehovah Sidcanu, the Lord our righteousness. Now look with
me at Jeremiah 33, and look at verse 16. In those days, almost the exact
same words. In those days shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this is the name
wherewith she shall be called. That's His bride, that's His
church, that's you and me who He saved. It was His name, and
this is His name. She shall be called the Lord
our righteousness. We're one. What Christ did, we
did. When He walked this earth, we
were in Christ, and what He did, we did. When He obeyed God, we
obeyed God. All His people did. When He went
to the cross and bore sin and died, we died under the justice
of the law. When He came out, we came out.
When He sat down, we sat down. This is what, look at Colossians
3. Paul said, verse 1, if you then be risen with Christ, remember
he said, why do you act like your life's in this world? Why
are you subject to touch not, taste not, hand not, because
men are forcing you to do those things. He said, if you then
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things of the earth, for you are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. Your old sinful man died
under the justice of God when Christ died, and you arose, and
you're alive in Christ. Look, when Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then you shall appear with him in glory.
It's that message, he said, mortify thereby your members. It's that
message, that word therefore, thereby, it's that message that
makes, it puts down You know, you sin in your flesh, you see
your sin, and what do you start doing? You start looking to something
I need to do to fix that. I need to do something. I've
got to make up for that, or I've got to put that away. I've got
to do that. And you can't do it, and you're sinning more by
trying to do it. But when you hear this gospel,
and he turns you to him, and faith Your faith and his faith
are united and you see he's the head and I'm completing him.
I'm the body I'm completing him. My life is right there in him.
I'm saved by him entirely That's how your flesh is mortified. You treat your flesh like a dead
thing when you really hear the gospel You realize you can't
look at Christ and look at you at the same time You're looking
only to him So He's our hope. He said, be not moved away from
the hope of the gospel. He's our hope. Look now at verse
27. To whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, it means
two things. One, it's the Son of God, coming
down and taking flesh and dwelling among us and working all the
works to make us righteous and holy. That's what His name should
be called, Emmanuel, which is God with us. That's the hope
of glory. Christ came and He did all the
works and that's our hope. And then it also means Christ
in you personally. When He's regenerated you, He
creates a new spirit. He is that spirit. He's in that
new man. He's the life of the new man,
and the holiness of the new man, and the righteousness of the
new man. He's everything to us. And Christ said, now you are
clean through the word which I've spoken to you. That's how
we're made holy. That's what to be clean is, to
be holy, sanctified. You're clean, how? Christ said,
through the gospel I preach to you. He said, abide in me, and
I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can you except
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing. How are we gonna continue in
the faith? Christ abiding in us, keeping us abiding in him,
is gonna keep this fruit of faith lively and looking to him only.
And he's our hope. Our hope is not in us, our hope
is in Christ. Look, Paul said in Hebrews 6,
19, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. It's in the
new man, you have this hope, but where's an anchor? It's not
in the boat, it's outside of the boat. Well, our hope is sure
and steadfast as an anchor And it is entered into that within
the veil and the holiest of holies above, where the forerunner is
for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest after the order
of Melchizedek." He's our hope. He's our hope. Peter said, the
father of our Lord Jesus, according to his mercy, he's begotten us
again to a lively hope, a living hope. That hope is Christ. It's
Christ. By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to that inheritance incorruptible and
undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. And you're kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation that's ready to be revealed.
Is Christ your hope of salvation? Is He your salvation? Is He your
righteousness? Is He the gospel to you? Is He
your hope? Are you persuaded He's all? Are
you grounded in Him and settled in Him? Are you persuaded you're
complete in Christ? Who persuaded you? Where'd you
get that persuasion? If it's really in you, Christ
did it. And He's going to keep it there.
Now, let me say a second thing I haven't gotten. The Word of
God in verse 23 does not suggest that any will fall away who were
rooted and settled in Christ. That's not what it suggests at
all. God the Father chose his people by grace. Ephesians 1-3,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us. He's talking to the saints there
now. You look there and see, he said,
I'm talking to the saints, the church, people that have been
given faith to believe. It didn't start, you didn't begin
by when the day you believed. It started a long time before
that. Look here. He said, the Father, verse 3,
our Lord Jesus, our Father of our Lord Jesus blessed us with
all spiritual blessings. in heavenly places in Christ
according as he chose us in him before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love. And look at verse six, to the
praise of the glory of his grace wherein he made us accepted and
beloved. In other words, God didn't look at you and see something
you would do. Everything you do, if it's godly,
if it's pleasing to God, everything you do is because God worked
it in you. He didn't look at you and see you do something,
and so therefore He chose you. Grace means God freely favored
you. Grace means He chose you freely. He loved you freely without a
cause in you. Can God not do with His own what
He will? He made us. Can He not choose whom He will
and pass by whom He will? That's what makes Him God. and
you and me can't say anything about it. So I'm showing you,
it doesn't suggest we're going to fall away because God chose
us by grace, not based on something in us. And then Christ Jesus
redeemed His people by grace. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ that though He was rich, As the Son of God, for
your sakes, He became poor. He became the very least of all
the least. He did. He made Himself lower
than anybody. When He went to that cross and
was rejected of God and justice, and was rejected of His people,
and rejected of ungodly men, rejected by the devil. He was
rejected by everybody! But He did it to satisfy justice
for God and to justify His people. He was made poor that through
His poverty you might be made rich. That's what He accomplished. He didn't try it, He accomplished
it. And then the Holy Spirit for that reason came and created
spiritual life in you and gave you faith to trust Christ and
that was by grace. God chose us by grace, Christ
redeemed us by grace and the Spirit regenerated us by grace.
Look at Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, I should add you
hold your place there. Ephesians 2, look here. Ephesians 2, 2. Verse 1 says, You hath he quickened
who were dead in trespass and sin. Who did that? Right before
it he said, God raised Christ, head over the church, that's
his body, and the church is a fullness of him that filleth all in all.
Christ filled you with faith. You hath he quickened, who were
dead in trespasses and sins, where in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others. But God, but God, who's rich
in mercy, For his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace
you're saved. God did that by grace. He didn't
do that because of something in you. You were dead. You were
walking like the rest of the world in wrath against God. He came and did it because he
loved his people. He had grace, showed grace to
his people. And now listen. False preachers
try to take a text like Colossians 1 verse 23 and they try to frighten
men and women with that word. If you continue to say, now you
see, you could fall away now. And then they start giving you
work to do. They frighten you and scare you. They whip you
and then they dangle a carrot before you and give you something
you've got to do to get that carrot. That's not the Gospel. That is not the Gospel. Listen
to me. Romans 11, 29 says the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance. Yeah, if your faith
started with you, you can fall away and you will. But if God
gave it and it's all of grace, God never takes back his gifts
and his calling. He never changes his mind on
giving the gifts he's given to us. He's going to keep his people.
God's not a man that he should lie. Neither the son of man that
he should repent, hath he said, shall he not do it? Or hath he
spoken, shall he not make it good? He said, I will ransom
them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death.
O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction.
Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. In other words, I'm
gonna save them from death and I'm not changing my mind about
what I've done for them. For I'm the Lord. Malachi 3 saying,
I'm the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
you sinners, you tricksters, you supplanters, that's where
all we are in ourself, you are not consumed because I don't
change. Now this text is not saying you're gonna fall away.
Christ said, my sheep are my voice and I know them and they
follow me. And he said, I give them eternal life. And they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man will pluck them out of my Father.
I and my Father are one, and they're one in keeping His people.
Grace demands His people be saved. Listen, righteousness of Christ
demands His people be saved. He justified His people. And
the faithfulness of God demands His people be saved because He
promised us He would. It's been said time and time
again. I've said it. God loses a whole lot more if
one of his people perish than me and you lose. His whole character
is behind the salvation of his people. His faithfulness and
his grace and his righteousness, everything about him. That's
why you can be sure he's not gonna lose one. Now listen, what
about men that fall away? If any fall away, all they prove
is they never believed the Lord. by His grace. It was never the
grace of God that called them. Christ didn't redeem them. It
was not the gift of God by which they believed. And listen, but
if that happens, that does not in any way change the promise
and the faithfulness of God whatsoever. I'm gonna say, well, see, somebody
fell away. Well, he couldn't keep them.
He wasn't faithful to keep them. No, not at all. Listen, Romans
3.3, what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faithfulness of God without effect? Does their unbelief, if a man
falls away, does that show that God can't keep His people and
God can't effectually preserve His people? God forbid. Let God
be true in every man a liar. God, if He purposed to save you,
He shall save you. And nobody's going to pluck you
out of His hand. So lastly, why then does Paul say this to us?
Why does he say, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
be not moved away from Christ, the hope of the gospel, which
you've heard, which was preached to all his people in all the
world, wherever I'm a minister. Why does he say that? We saw
in the Valley of Dry Bones last week, he said, you go preach
to them, tell them to live. And he said, and you declare
my works, what I'm gonna do for them. And he said, and as you
preach that word, I'll come and do those works in them, and they're
going to live, and then they're going to give me all the glory.
That's why we preach this. As we preach this, Christ blesses
this word to the hearts of His people, just like that valley
of dry bone, and He crowns us in Him, and He settles us in
Him, and He makes us look only to Him, and He makes us know
that our perseverance is only by his preserving hand. And we
bow down to him and we beg him, Lord, please don't leave us to
ourselves. Please don't take your hand off
of us. Keep us, preserve us, keep us, Lord. And that gives
him all the glory. That pleases God, our Father,
to see his son honored by his people coming and bowing and
saying, Lord, if you don't keep me, I can't save myself. You
are my salvation. You are my salvation. Read verse
29. Paul gives Christ glory for Paul
even being able to preach Christ. He said it's all of Christ. It's
all of Christ. So, be grounded. Be settled. Ezekiel went forward and said,
live. I've been telling you this whole time what Christ is doing
for his people. And now I tell you, be settled
in Christ. Be grounded in Christ. Look to
Christ only. Persevere in Christ. Don't be
moved away from Christ, our hope, the hope of the gospel. And as
I preach that, I pray the Lord has blessed your heart and grounded
you and settled you and made you hope more in Christ. That's
why we preach it. All right. Father, we thank you
for this word. We thank you for your dear son. Thank you for salvation, free,
sure, perfect in Christ, complete in
Christ. Thank You that You've called
us, that You've promised to keep us. Lord, make us truly settled
in Christ. Make us to be grounded in Him,
to know He is truly all our salvation and all our hope. Forgive us
our sins, Lord. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.