Brethren, let's go back now to
2 Chronicles 24. Now here's the question that God
asked these men who had forsaken the
Lord. It says in verse 20, the Spirit
of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest. which
stood above the people and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why
transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? Now I want us all to think about
that question. Why transgress ye the commandments
of the Lord, that you cannot prosper? Now under the old covenant
of works, God saved His people the same way He saves His people
under the new covenant of grace. We're saved by grace through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how all God's people have
been saved. And so under that old covenant, just like under
the new covenant of grace, the commandments of the Lord is first
of all to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the
true believers were doing when they brought a Lamb of God, and
it was slain, and the high priest offered that blood on their behalf.
They were coming to God through faith in Christ. We don't have
to bring a physical Lamb because Christ is the Lamb. We don't
have to have a physical high priest because Christ is our
high priest. But the command is the same. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the second command is love
your brethren. And the way they did that and
the way we are to do that is by worshipping in the Lord's
house. That is with the Lord's people.
His people are His house. With His people under the sound
of the gospel. And we are to have nothing to
do with idols. and idolaters who worship in
the groves, in the pretty places, in the shady places. That's what
the groves were, the high places. We're to worship God with His
people. This is how the church will be
maintained. This is how we'll express first and foremost our
love for one another, assembling together to hear the gospel. So that's the commandment we're
talking about here now. Now, the person that turns from
Christ, from believing on Christ, cannot prosper. They cannot prosper. Only those who persevere in faith
until the end prosper, and that's by the hand of God. And that's what we see illustrated
here in these two men, Jehoiada, the priest, and Joash, the king. Now first of all, let's look
at Jehoiada the priest. He honored God and God prospered
him. Look here in verse 2. Joash did
that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada
the priest. All the days of Jehoiada the
priest. Jehoiada means Jehovah knows or one who knows Jehovah. And this is the... when we talk
about Zechariah on down the page who was the son of Jehoiada,
this is the Zechariah that Christ talked about whose righteous
blood had been spilled because they stoned Zechariah. And he
called Jehoiada by a name, a different name. And that name means blessed
of Jehovah. Blessed of Jehovah. The reason
Jehoiada had a true, holy, strong, faithful character is because
he had been blessed of God. He had been prospered by the
Lord. The Spirit of God had created
in him a new heart, given him a new spirit, given him faith,
made him to behold that all his prosperity was in the Lord Jesus
Christ, in His righteousness and His holiness. in the free
justification redemption accomplished by Christ. That's where he was
prospered and he knew it. By God's grace he knew it. And
so everything he did in his life was from the motive of wanting
to honor Christ. Everything was on this one foundation,
Christ in whom he knew himself to be complete. The first thing
Jehoiada did was establish the priests and the king. They had
a vain kingdom, a vain king. It was a dynasty that had been
going on. You know, we've seen some of these kings, as we've
looked at these questions, who were so evil. Well, that was
going on still, and they had torn down the house of the Lord,
and they were worshiping idols. And Jehoiada comes along, one
man, the priest of God. given by God, raised up by God,
given faith by God. This one man came forth. The
first thing he did was to call all the priests out of Judah
and to set up a faithful king. It says back in 2 Chronicles
23, look back there with me in verse 2. They went about in Judah
and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah. The
Levites were the priests. And they gathered the chief of
the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. And all the
congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of
God. And he said unto them, Behold, the king's son shall reign as
the Lord hath said of the sons of David. He restored a king
who was a son of David. And it says in verse 8, ìHe told
them all what they were to do, how they were to serve the Lord.î
And it says, ìAnd so the Levites and all Judah did according to
all things that Jehoiada the priest had commanded.î So the
first thing Jehoiada does is to set up and establish a king
and priest in Israel. Thatís the first thing he did.
You know what Christ our high priest does? Christ our king
and our high priest. You know what heís done? Look
at Revelation 1.5. Revelation 1.5. Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,
the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the
earth, unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in
His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God
and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. So, when Jehoiada did this,
when he set up this king and these priests, he honored Christ
our King. He did it with faith in Christ
our King, in Christ our High Priest, and he honored Him. And
because that was his heart, to honor Christ, God honored him
so that he could... He prospered him so he could
honor Christ more. And then the second thing Jehoiada
did was he declared that God graciously remembers His covenant. Look at 2 Chronicles 23, verse
16. And Jehoiada made a covenant
between him and between all the people and between the king that
they should be the Lord's people. When Christ establishes faith
in the heart, when He's washed His people through the Holy Spirit,
regeneration, washed in His blood, and He's made us kings and priests
unto God, one of the first things He does is make with us an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. That means when Christ
reveals Himself, when we're truly brought to the knowledge of Christ,
we're made to know there's nothing left for us to do. God entrusted
the whole work to Christ and He's done it all. Listen to this
from Luke 1. If you want to turn there, Luke
1.68. This is what Zacharias was brought
to declare whenever he heard Christ was coming. Luke 1.68. This is the covenant. Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed
His people. He hath raised up a horn of salvation
for us in the house of His servant David. That's Christ. And as
He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been
since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy
promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the
oath which He swore to our father Abraham that He would grant unto
us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might
serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him
all the days of our life. That's what Christ makes us to
know, that whole covenant. He has redeemed His people. He
has delivered us from our enemies. We shall worship the Lord our
God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. And
He has made that covenant sure to all the promises of God are
in Christ, yes, and in Christ, amen. To the glory of God. So
Jehoiada, by honoring Christ our covenant, that's what he
was doing here. He was reminding them of Christ our covenant in
whom all the covenants fulfilled. And by doing that, he honored
Christ. And so God prospered him so that he could honor Christ
more. Look here now, then Jehoiada,
the next thing he did was he destroyed Baal and his images. 2 Chronicles 23 verse 17. Then all the people went to the
house of Baal and break it down and break his altars and his
images in pieces and slew Matan the priest of Baal before the
altars. When Christ accomplished purging His elect, when He purged
us of our sins on Calvary's cross, He crushed Satan's head. He judged
the devil right there. As God promised in Genesis 3.15,
He bruised the serpent's head on Calvary's cross. And so when
the Spirit of God comes, Christ binds the strong man and casts
him out of His people and he enters in. And He takes possession
of His child and the Spirit of God convinces us that judgment
is settled because the Prince of this world is judged. And
when He does this work in our heart, He breaks down all our
idols that we once worshipped. He breaks down all our idol worship
and brings us to the true worship of Christ. And when He does that,
He makes you to love Him and He makes you to hate His enemies.
Psalm 119, 128 says, I esteem all thy precepts concerning all
things to be right, and I hate every false way. Can you say
that? That's when God has broken down
our idolatry, when He's entered in. Just like they went and broke
down this idolatry and all this Baal worship. It's when Christ
has entered and made you hate every false way. He's the truth. Christ is the truth. And when
the truth abides in you, you're going to love the truth. And
you'll be able to distinguish between the truth and a lie.
And when you hear the lie, you're going to say, that's false. I
hate that. I hate that message. That exalts
man. That points men away from Christ.
That points men to the earth. That points men to themselves.
I don't have anything to do with that. I hate every false way.
And so, when Jehoiada went forth and these Levites and these priests,
and they broke down all that Baal worship and slew this false
priest, that was an honorable thing toward Christ. And so,
God honored him, prospered him, so that he could bring more honor
to Christ. And so Jehoiada worshipped the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And so God continued to prosper
him so that even the nation during this time, the government of
the whole nation of Israel came into order. It hadn't been in
order in years. And he started with the house
of the Lord. He started with the gospel of
Christ and broke down all false worship. And that whole nation,
the government, ceased being corrupt and the government ran
in a righteous manner. You see, the problem in all the
nations in this world, including ours, the problem is not just
the fact that the government is corrupt. That's the direct
result of well-worshippers claiming that they worship Christ. When
you look in the Scripture, whenever God brought order to a nation,
to Israel, He always started in the house of the Lord. That's
where He always started. It doesn't start in the White
House, it starts in the pulpit. That's where it starts. And so
only Christ can do that. And it's when He's established
the hearts of His people. Psalm 144, verse 15 says, Happy
is that people, that is in such a case, yea, happy is that people
whose God is the Lord. You want to see a happy people?
When God has made Christ your Lord, that will be a happy people.
So God even honored Jehoiada in His death. Only in the city
of David, only in the sepulcher of the kings, they only buried
kings there, but they buried Jehoad of the priests there.
They gave him that honor and buried him. His body was laid
to rest among the kings of Israel because he did so much good toward
Israel and toward God's house in the kingdom of... in that
day. You know what's going to happen?
for the believer who perseveres in faith, trusts in Christ, walking
in a way that honors Christ, and he continues until the end
of his life. You know what's going to happen
to him? Christ is going to honor him for the honor he gave. God's going to honor him for
the honor he gave to Christ. He's going to raise him and give
him rest with all Christ's kings for all eternity. James said,
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for how long? Perseveres to the end. Doesn't
ever draw back from Christ. He continues in Christ all the
way to the end. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation for when he's tried, when it's all over, he shall
receive the crown of life. You see the honor? It's called
a crown. What is the crown? It's the crown
of life. It's life. which the Lord hath
promised to them that love Him, to them that trust Him and rest
in Him, turn from their works, turn from their way, turn from
their message and trust Him and preach His message and promote
His honor and His glory. He gives them an honor to rest
with His kings when they die. Now those that have been prospered
by Christ in righteousness, this is what we see in Jehoiada. Whenever
Christ has prospered a man in righteousness and holiness and
free justification, He makes that man, gives that man a heart
to want to honor Christ in everything He does. And by God's grace,
that's what He does. He has a new character. He's
a new man within Him. And He honors Christ. And as
He honors Christ, God honors Him. He prospers him so he can
honor Christ more. We're not talking about the prosperity
that this world talks about when they talk about, you do this
for God, you're going to have a new Cadillac. We're not talking
about that. That's false. He prospered Zacharias
too, Jehoiada's son. You know how he prospered him?
He made him, he gave him the great honor of being a martyr
for Christ. He was stoned to death. So we're
not talking about a temporal prosperity. They didn't hurt
Zechariah. They didn't hurt his body. They ushered him into the presence
of God's glory. That's all they did. But that
was a great honor that Christ gave to him. We're talking about
him honoring and prospering his people in righteousness and holiness
and free justification, making you a witness, a faithful witness
of Christ, making you able to declare Christ, making you able
to support his gospel and promote his word and promote his honor. That's what we're talking about.
That's true prosperity, to be able to do that. And the Lord
said this, them that honor me, I will honor. That's God's promise. Them that honor Me, I will honor.
We can't even begin to honor Him except He gives us grace
to honor Him. But when He's prospered you and
given you grace to honor Him, and you honor Him, God says,
I'll honor you. Them that honor Me, I'll honor.
And them that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. So, let's
listen to this question again that God asked. Why? Transgress ye the commandments
of the Lord so that you cannot prosper. Seeing what we see in
Jehoiada, a man who honored God, believed on Christ, trusted Christ
and walked honoring to Him all his days, seeing how God prospered
this man. One man made the whole nation
of Israel a new and better place. So then why would we ever want
to turn from Christ? Why would we ever want to look
to our way, and our will, and our works, and our doctrines?
Why would we ever do that? Because we can't prosper then.
Alright, let's look at the next person. By the hand of God, no
man who forsakes the Lord shall prosper. By God's own hand, no
man that forsakes Christ shall prosper. God will see to it,
He won't. And we see that in King Joash. Now as long as Jehoiada
lived, this man had such a good influence on Joash. As long as
Jehoiada lived, Joash did that which was right. Look at verse
2 again, 2 Chronicles 24.2. Joash did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
Everything this man did, as long as Jehoiada was alive, the Lord
said he did right. He did what was right. He did
what he should have done. Joash had the Lord's house repaired. He had the Lord's house renewed.
And he went to the house of the Lord and he offered offerings
and he worshipped in the house of the Lord. It says there at
the end of verse 14, they offered offerings in the house of the
Lord continually all the days of Jehovah. He renewed the whole
house and had it renewed, you know, all the furnishings brought
back into it through these offerings and all that He set up and they
brought back in and restored True worship in the house of
the Lord in Israel. It hadn't been done in years.
Judah used to stay out there in Judah and worship in the groves. Now they all were coming to Israel
to worship at Jerusalem with the other tribes of Israel. It
was unity this man was bringing together. Joash was doing this. And he was right there with them,
leading them in the worship of God. And then we see this though. Unless a man has been born of
God, been born of the Spirit of God, been born from above
and given a new heart and kept by the power of God, that man
cannot persevere in faith. He can do what Joash did. He
can renew the house of God and rebuild the house of God and
take on a form of worship. But that's as far as it goes.
Joash renewed the temple of God, but his own heart had never been
renewed. Joash led the people in the worship of God, but he
never once himself worshipped the Lord. Isn't that sad? Not one time. Three things exposed
him as a reprobate. We see right here in the Scripture,
three things exposed him. One, as easily as he was influenced
by Jehoiada for good. when it was to His prophet. Just that easily He was influenced
by wicked men for evil when it was to His prophet. You see,
a man that can easily be persuaded one way can easily be persuaded
another way. And this is what happened, verse
17. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah and
they made obeisance to the king. They came and they bowed down
and they flattered him. Jehoiada never really flattered
the king. Joash was Jehoiada's nephew. And he was of the house of David
and Jehoiada knew this was the will of the Lord and he was to
be the king and he put him on the throne, Jehoiada did. But
Jehoiada would be honest with Joash and tell him when he was
doing wrong or right and tell him, you know, the way, what's
honoring the God. But here comes some men that
are princes in Judah. These just weren't some ordinary
fellows. These fellows were somebody. And they came to Joash, bowed
down and blowing smoke. And they flattered him. And look
what happened. Then the king hearkened unto
them. He listened to them. And they,
Joash included, left the house of the Lord God of their fathers
and served groves and idols and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem
for this their trespass." You know what the first step to apostasy
is? The first step to totally rejecting
Christ altogether, the first step, comes by giving ear to
unregenerate men who turn you from the singleness of Christ. That's the first step. They bring
in something to join with that single message of Christ. And
by doing that, they turn you to that thing, that doctrine,
whatever it is, that work, whatever it is, the flesh, the law, worldly
things, money, Whatever it is, they turn a man from the singleness
of Christ. And when they do that, your ministry
is ruined. Ministry is ruined. Keep up a
form. They kept up a form. A man can
keep preaching Christ. But when he is turned to something
else, and that becomes the focus, he is gone. He is gone. Here is the second thing. This
manifests Joash as reprobate. He hearkened to wicked men now,
but he would no longer hearken to the Lord's prophets who God
sent to rebuke him. These princes of Judah, he listened
to everything they had to say. But here God sends His true messenger. They wouldn't listen to him anymore.
Look at verse 19. Yet God sent prophets to them
to bring them again unto the Lord, and they testified against
them, but they would not give ear. The pride and the haughtiness
of the natural heart resents rebuke from the very messengers
that he once rejoiced in. That's the haughtiness and pride
of the heart. And to do so is to inflict upon ourselves some
serious injury and it's usually fatal. And then comes a rapid spiritual
decline. Look at the next thing that exposed
him. He killed God's messengers. Verse 20. And the Spirit of God
came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood
above the people and said unto them, Thus saith God, while I
transgressed you the commandments of the Lord, that you cannot
prosper. Because you forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken
you. And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones
at the commandment of the king." Joash is the one who ordered
this. They stoned him with stones and they did it in the court
of the house of the Lord. And thus Joash the king remembered
not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but
slew his son. And when he died, when Zechariah
died, he said, the Lord look upon it and require it. They
slew God's prophet in the house of the Lord. Joash ordered this
to be done. Slew God's prophet in the house
of the Lord. Men who reject the gospel. and who will not hear Christ's
messenger, have no more reverence for the
house of the Lord. No more respect for the house
of the Lord. And by that, you know the house of the Lord is
the Lord's and His people. And they have no more reverence
for Him. This killing of this man in the court of the house
of the Lord was showing a total disregard for the Lord and for
His people. And now men may not physically
kill somebody in our day, but by their hard speeches and their
words, they manifest that they've killed God's messengers in the
heart. That's what's happened. And that's
what they did here. They don't remember the kindness. but murder faithful fathers who
did them good, who preached the gospel to them. That's hardness. That's showing us what our natural
heart is. That's my heart and your heart,
brethren. Don't you pray God keep you from that? If God let
us go, take His hand off of us, that's in every one of us right
there, in our old nature. And God has to keep you from
that. That's why we're kept by the power of God. That's what
it means is to be kept from that, from ourselves, from what we
are by nature. But you see the hardness and the coldness and
the sinfulness of the natural heart? The Holy Spirit says this. How is it? You see sometimes,
you see folks, and I've seen this since about 1985, I've seen folks
who will be in the house of the Lord
and they'll have family that are believers and they'll continue
for a long time. And one day they just turn and
they're gone. Family keeps coming, they don't
come anymore. And they don't go anywhere else.
They don't move to a place where they can hear the gospel preached.
They don't go anywhere where they can hear the gospel preached. And I've seen men, I've seen
more than two or three pastors who found something better to
preach than just Christ. They moved on to what they considered
greener pastures. And some of them built big buildings
because of it. And became friends with some
influential people in the ministry. But they quit preaching Christ.
They quit preaching Christ. What is it? What causes that
to happen? The Holy Spirit of God said,
they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they
went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all
of us. Now, let's answer this question. God asks, can a man prosper who
rejects Christ and who turns against the sovereign God of
glory? Can he prosper? Verse 18 says, there is no way. The end of verse 18 says, wrath
came upon Judah and Jerusalem, for this their trespass. Verse
20 says, because you forsaken the Lord, He hath also forsaken
you. The unregenerate man who rejects
Christ for an idle doctrine shall suffer. Now, if he's not harming
God's people and somehow God's bringing glory to his name through
his lives, God might just leave him alone. We see that in Scripture
sometimes. But if his people are in danger
of being influenced by a false preacher, just like God had some
elect there in Israel, God's going to put an end to that man,
just like we saw with Pharaoh. Joash suffered humiliating defeat. God sent there in verse 23, God
sent the Syrians at the end of that year, That quick, this Syrian
army came up and destroyed all the princes of Judah from among
the people and took spoil of them. All those princes that
came out of Judah and influenced Joash, God sent the Syrian army
and killed them. God is the first cause of this.
He killed them. And then look at verse 24. For the army of
the Syrians came with a small company of men, And the Lord
delivered a very great host into their hand because they had forsaken
the Lord God of their fathers. So they executed God's judgment
against Joash. This whole army was just a tool
in the hand of God to execute judgment upon Joash. This small
little army came and the Lord made them defeat a great host
in Israel. suffered a humiliating defeat.
And then his own friends turned on him. His own friends turned
on Joash and slew him. There in verse 25. And to add
dishonor to that, to make it even more dishonorable, verse
26 tells us that the folks who slew him, one was an Ammonite
and one was a Moabite. You remember Saul, King Saul?
Remember him when he was wounded and he prayed for that man to
kill him so that he wouldn't be killed by a heathen? Remember
that? That was so dishonorable. He
didn't want to be killed. And the man wouldn't do it, so
he killed himself. Because that was how dishonorable it was to
be slain by an Ammonite or a Moabite. And that's what God made sure
happened to Joash. Total dishonor in the midst of
this humiliating defeat. God brought this disease upon
him. He got a horrible disease in
addition. And then he was given a dishonorable
burial. He wasn't buried in the sepulchers
of the kings. He was a king and he wasn't buried
there. And then after this, you know
what happens to a man after all this? Judgment. Christ promised
to those who reject his messengers. Go to Matthew 23. You see, all
this is a picture of a man being left in his sin. Left in our
sin, we have been humiliated and defeated before we've ever
begun. Left in our sin. We have a disease that's incurable
if we're left in our sin. We're going to have a dishonorable
death. And after that, we're going to meet God. And here's
what's going to happen. Matthew 23, 35. This is the Lord
speaking. And listen to this. He said,
ìUpon youÖî He's talking to those that rejected. Let's read verse
34. ìWherefore, behold, I send unto
you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you shall
kill and crucify, and some of them shall you scourge in your
synagogues and persecute them from city to city. that upon
you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from
the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias the son
of Barachias." That is of Jehoiada the priest. whom ye slew between
the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these
things shall come upon this generation. This generation. Was he just
talking about the generation that stood right there in front
of him? No, he's talking about the generation of the wicked.
He's talking about the whole race of the serpent. The serpent seed. That's who
he's talking about. All the righteous blood of all
God's righteous messengers shall come upon those who passed from
this earth rejecting Christ. Every one of them. So, now, again,
we see two men here. Two men. One was faithful, he
persevered in faith, and God honored him. God honored him. And we see a man who started
out well. Everything he did was right in
the eyes of the Lord. But it all came about because
he was influenced by another man. It wasn't of the Lord. It wasn't
by the Spirit of the Lord. It was by another man. And he
proved it. were by turning his back on the Lord and going into
idolatry. He didn't stop religion. He didn't
stop preaching. Probably, again, I'll tell you,
Baal means Lord. He didn't quit saying, Lord,
Lord. He didn't quit claiming to be preaching the glories of
God in heaven and the mercies of the Messiah and all these
things. He didn't quit preaching that. But before God now, he's
worshipping idols. And he did not prosper. He could
not prosper. So, thus saith God. Now this
is the question to me and you right here. Thus saith God. Why
transgress ye the commandments of the Lord that ye cannot prosper? Why would we want to take the
place of Joash? Christ keep those who keep His
commandments. Now preacher, you say we need
to go to keep the Ten Commandments? That's not what I'm saying at
all. The Ten Commandments were given to reveal sin to His people. Go to Romans 3 and let me show
you that real quick. Romans 3 verse 19. Now we know what things whoever
the law saith, saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh
be justified in its sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin." You see that? That's why the law was given.
I was trying to make that illustration last week. I can't even remember
what was the name of the man we were looking at, the last
king we looked at. He didn't put that lattice work
up on his roof and he fell off that roof. He broke one law of
God and he fell. Well, if he could get back on
that roof and put that lattice up and obey God's law, would
it have cured him of his disease? Would it have saved him from
dying? No. He already fell. He's already
dead. And that's our case. We already failed. So God gave
us a law here to show you your sin. What's He talking about
then when Christ talks about keeping His commandments? This
is His commandment. 1 John 3.23. This is His commandment. That we should believe on the
name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave
His commandment. You see, the way that we fulfill
that whole law of God, so that we are righteous before God and
we have no sin before God, is by faith in Christ. Trusting
Christ has already established the law for us. Isn't that one
commandment, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, so much better
than trying to keep all the host of commandments that God has
given? believe on Christ and love one another. And Christ
said this, if you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love even
as I've kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. But what
happens to those who turn from this holy commandment? Turn to
2 Peter 2.20. 2 Peter 2.20. If after they've escaped the
pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome,
the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For
it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
faith in Christ. Not to have known the way of
righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the
holy commandment delivered unto them. That's what I just read
to you. Believe on Christ and love one
another. That's the holy commandment. When a man turns from that and
is entangled again, it's worse than it was at the beginning.
The Lord gave an illustration. He said, you know, a natural
man who gets religion, takes on even a true form of religion,
you know, sits under the true gospel and seems like he's a
true believer. The Lord said that the spirit,
an evil spirit, leaves the man and goes walking through the
earth trying to find where he can take up his abode. You know,
the devil, Scripture says the devil walks about to and fro
seeking whom he may devour. Well, when that spirit has left
him, He cleans his house up and he sweeps it and he gets it all
nice and tidy. He gets religion. He does this
and that and the other thing in religion. And the Lord said,
but then the Spirit says, I'll return to my first house.
And he goes back to the man. And he finds it swept and garnished
and clean. And he enters in with more spirits
than he left with. And the latter end of that man
is worse than it was in the beginning. And usually, it's in religion.
There is nothing more blind than a man that thinks he sees. You
know what Christ said? If the light that is in you is
darkness, how great is that darkness. But those the Spirit of God regenerates
and gives faith, they persevere in faith. We don't stop. We don't
go back. We do it one way. One way. 1
Peter 1.5 says we are kept by the power of God. through faith
unto salvation that is already ready to be revealed in the last
time. Christ prepared that. He made
that salvation ready for His people. And all His people are
going to inherit it. And so God is going to see to
it. He is going to keep us by His power through faith. Through all the storms and all
the trials and all the heals and all the accusations of the
devil and everything else, God is going to keep His child looking
to Christ, trusting Christ, honoring Christ, and He is going to bring
us to Christ. And He won't lose one. The blood
of Christ, that wrath that Joash incurred, Christ already bore
that wrath of God for His people. That forsaking Joas encountered,
Christ already bore of that forsaking of God to satisfy justice for
His people. And because He satisfied justice,
His blood is so precious to God the Father that He will not allow
one of His people to fall away. So it won't happen. But knowing
that, knowing that, never let a believer presume that he shall
never fall. Because to do so is to be full
of pride. And what does the Scripture say?
Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a
fall. What should we do then? 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. Wherefore the rather? Brethren, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you
shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. And that's not just in the last
day that that entrance will be given to you. As you diligently
seek to make your calling and election sure, you diligently
go to Christ. You diligently seek Christ. You
diligently cast all your care upon Christ and look only to
Christ. And as you do that, He'll open
up. He'll open up Heaven's entrance
to you. And right now where you sit,
God will give you a blessing in your heart. Because we have
access now through Christ our High Priest. And then in the
end, we'll enter into glory. That's how you won't be lost.
Christ alone.