Alright brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 17. Psalm 17, let's read verse 5. Hold up my goings in thy paths,
that my footsteps slip not. For every believer, there is
omnipotence in weakness. When we have no power except
for the Lord Jesus Christ, then, and only then, do we have all
power. You know, the Lord taught the
Apostle Paul, he said, my strength is made perfect. It's perfectly
manifested, it's made known most perfectly in weakness. Each of us that God saves are
totally weak. You couldn't get more weak than
a sinner. We're the weakest thing there
is, a sinner. And everything that God uses
to save a sinner is weak. And that's on purpose. God purposely
uses weak and foolish things. And that way, when He saves somebody,
you know God did it. Because the thing didn't do it.
The weak thing He used couldn't have done it. God did it. And
He says, My strength is made perfect in weakness. So Paul learned this. He said,
when I am weak, then am I strong. Whenever we see that we are weak,
we're always weak, but we don't always see it. Sometimes we think
we're strong. Sometimes we think we can stand
by our own strength. It's when we behold that we're
utterly weak, That's when we depend upon Christ. That's when
we will look to Christ and depend upon Christ. Have you ever been
made so utterly weak that you just could not do anything else
but beg God to save you? When He makes us that weak, that's
when we behold that Christ is all-powerful and He's all our
power. He is life, He is power, He is
salvation for His people. That's when we see that all power,
all our power is from Him, is Him. And we only see that when
we're utterly weak. That's what I mean when I say
for a believer there is omnipotence in weakness. Psalm 17 5 is the
prayer of a believer who's been made to know that. He's been
made to know that all power is in Christ. There's no power in
himself. This is the prayer of a believer
who has total confidence in God's power and ability because he
knows his own utter weakness and his own utter inability.
Now that's where we've got to be brought. We've got to be brought
to that place. Why is it somebody doesn't call
on the Lord to save them? They think they can save themselves.
They don't need Him. You know, if you get yourself
in a bad situation, you know, your boat stalls out, your motor
goes out or something, and you're out there in the middle of nowhere
and you see boats going by, you still just will not call for
help and stop somebody as long as you think you can get that
motor running. You won't do it. You got to be brought to the
last resort to call on somebody. That's our pride. We don't want
to call on somebody. God has to bring us down to where
we see we cannot save ourselves and we desperately need to be
saved. Now look at this. He says in
verse 5, Hold up my goings. Who are we asking to do this?
The only one that can do it. We ask the triune God in Christ,
hold up my goings. And where are we asking him to
hold up our goings? Hold up my goings in thy paths. I don't want to be found in the
paths of the destroyer. I want to be in his paths, in
God's paths. Hold up my goings in thy paths. And why do we ask this? He says
there at the end that my footsteps slip not. I need him to hold
me or my footsteps will slip. Now, we ask our triune God in
Christ, hold up my goings. Hold up my goings. Now, how do
we come to be in Christ in the first place? How do we come to
be in Christ in the first place? Look at 1 Corinthians 1. I want
you to look at this. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30. I've told you this repeatedly. This is the scripture that someone
was preaching from when the Lord gave me a heart to believe. This
scripture right here. 1 Corinthians 1, let's start
in verse 29. That no flesh should glory in
His presence, but of Him, of God, Are you in Christ Jesus? This is true of every believer.
He's speaking to believers here. Of God are you in Christ Jesus? Who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption? Here's why. That, according as it is written,
he that glories, he that boasts, he that wants to applaud somebody,
let him glory in the Lord. No flesh is going to glory in
His presence. Those He saves are going to glory
in Him, because of God are we in Christ. And of God is Christ
made unto us all. Listen, look at 1 Corinthians
8, verse 6. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6. To us there is but one God, the
Father. There is but one God, the Father,
of whom are all things, and we in Him. and one Lord Jesus Christ
by whom are all things and we by Him." A believer has nothing,
nothing whatsoever to boast in or glory in whatsoever. God the
Father chose us simply because He would. By grace are you saved. God the Son came to where we
are and He redeemed us, putting away all our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. And God the Holy Spirit quickened
us and regenerated us and called us to faith in Christ. We have
nothing whatsoever to boast of. We were made willing in the day
of His power. We had no willingness in ourselves.
John said, a man can receive nothing except it be given him
from above. That's true of everything outside
of salvation. Everything we had before God
saved us came from Him. And when He saves us, everything
comes from Him. Now brethren, since then, since
we believe, how have we been kept since then? How have we
been kept believing God? By that same grace and that same
power of that same God. 1 Samuel 2, 9 says, He will keep
the feet of his saints. And the wicked shall be silent
in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. Look at
Psalm 37. Psalm 37. Psalm 37 and verse 23. The steps of a good man. The steps
of a good man. How does he become a good man?
Verse 22 says, such as be blessed of him. That's how. Just as we
said before, chosen of God, redeemed by Christ, called by the Holy
Spirit. Now look at this. The steps of
a good man are ordered by the Lord. And he delighteth in his
way. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down. For the Lord upholdeth him with
his hand. The Lord upholds him. Look at
what David says here. I have been young and now am
old. Yet have I not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He's very merciful, or
he's ever merciful, and lendeth, and his seed is blessed. Depart
from evil and do good and dwell forevermore." Why wouldn't you
leave vain thoughts and vain ideas and come to this God? Why wouldn't a man believe on
this God and live forevermore? Now look at the next thing. For
the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever, but
the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. What makes a man
a wicked man? He won't bow to God. He won't
believe God. This good, merciful, just, holy,
right, All-powerful, saving God, a wicked man simply will not
bow and trust Him. He won't believe Him. That's
his wickedness. He just won't believe this God.
He's a rebel and he won't believe God. I just wish God would wake
up somebody here. I wish He would just because
if he doesn't, you're on a fast track to hell. I mean, you're
just headed straight as hard and fast as you can get there.
And if God doesn't just grab you, you ever used to go to the
fair and they had those ducks that went by, you know, in the
water and the little kids would go up and they'd just pick up
one of them ducks out of the water? That's what sinners are. We're just going with the flow,
right with all the other ducks, and unless God reaches and grabs
us and pulls us out, we won't be saved. But when He does, He
saves His people and keeps His people. Peter said, we're kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. ready to be revealed
in the last time. Don't that sound good? We're
kept by Him, by the power of God. He gave us the faith that
we have, and it's unto salvation that He's already prepared, that's
ready made, that's going to be revealed in the last day. This
is a God who saves. So, now knowing that's how we
came to believe Christ, He put us in Christ, He made Christ
everything to us, knowing this is how we've been kept up to
this hour right now is by His power. So then, do we look to
ourselves now? Do we turn to ourselves in any
way, any shape, or do we look to Him? We cry out to Him and
say, Hold up my goings. When do we do this? There's nothing in here that
signifies a specific time. We do it all the time. This is
our prayer continually. Hold up my goings. And God shall. He shall hold
up each and every one of His blood-bought children. We just
saw there that David said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken.
And this is why, because he said, I'll make an everlasting covenant
with them. Everlasting. God that cannot
lie. He says this, I will not turn
away from them to do them good. That's the word of God that cannot
lie. He said, I will put my fear in
their hearts that they shall not depart from me. Now, the
blessings, you know, we don't like to think about ourselves
as being weak. But the blessing of God showing
you how weak you are, showing us our utter weakness, the blessing
in that is when He does that, He shows us how powerful He is. That all power is His. God the
Son had all power as the second person in the Trinity. He's God.
But brethren, our Savior Christ, the Lord of lords and King of
kings, is a man who is God. He's the God-man. And He has
all power in heaven and earth. And He has all power as the head
over us, His church, which is His body. Members of Him. We're members of Him. And so
he's keeping us. It says, the scripture says,
salvation will appoint bulwarks, walls and bulwarks. And that's
what we are weak. Salvation, our savior, has appointed
walls around us and bulwarks, big towers to guard us. And he's
the one that is the tower. And he's the one that is the
wall. He's the one that is the salvation. And he's not going
to let anything happen to us. The Scripture says He upholds
all things by the Word of His power. You think of how big this
earth is. You think of all the things going
on in it. And it says there's not even
a little tiny sparrow that falls without his consent. From that
little sparrow to this whole globe that's just hanging in
the universe and the whole universe. He's upholding it all by this
word of his promise. His covenant promise. He promised
the Father of all what you've given to me, I will lose nothing. But I'll raise it up again at
the last day. And he will not allow. That word is holding everything
in place. Because He will not lose one.
Maybe they're yet to be born physically in this world. Or
maybe they're already born physically and they're just yet to be called.
I don't know. But He's going to hold everything
in place until He's called them. And that same One who's holding
this globe and who's holding the most smallest thing, He's
holding you and me. He's holding us. We're preserved
by Him. So we cry out to Him, Hold up my goings. Alright, here's
the second thing. Where do we ask Him to hold up
our goings? Hold up my goings in thy paths. In thy paths. We don't want to
walk in the path of the destroyer. That's how we were born. That's
where we were walking in the beginning. Every man comes forth
walking in the path of the devil. And we walked in the path of
the transgressor. That's all we were. We're transgressors
against God. And we don't even want to walk
in our own paths. I don't want to walk in my wisdom.
I just do not want to be found trying to walk in a path that
I think is right. I want to walk in God's path.
Don't you? God's paths are right. Whatever God says is right. That's
the goings. I want my goings to be in His
path. Now notice paths is plural here.
It's plural. Paths. There are many paths that
our God has ordered from eternity that each of His children shall
walk in. Alright, here's the first. The
first is the way. The way. Christ Himself. Look
at John 14 and verse 6. I don't know. I wish I knew how
to express... I wish I knew how to express
our ingratitude and our giving God the finger for not being
on the edge of our seat about these things. It's just... Look at this. This is Christ
the way. First is the way, Christ Jesus.
Jesus said unto him, I am the way. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Don't you want to know Him? Don't
you want to know more of Him? He's the way. He's the truth.
He's the life. No man will come to the Father
but by Him. Look at Acts 4 in verse 12. Acts 4 and verse 12. Neither is there salvation in
any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. All who God saves must be made
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus the righteous. All who
God saves must be made holy. By Christ being formed in our
heart, we must be made holy to come into God's presence. By
Christ the sanctification being formed in our heart, all who
God saves must be redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.
This is the only way, the only way that God can be just. and at the same time be the one
who justifies each of his children. This is the only way that boasting
is totally excluded in a sinner. This is the only way that God
gets all the glory and salvation. And therefore, there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. The only way into God's presence
is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way. What
are we saying when we declare that we believe Christ? When
we say we believe Christ, what is it we're saying? Well, we're
saying that we believe that Christ Jesus fulfilled the law of God
on our behalf. That He is the end of the law
for righteousness. That He justified us from all
our sins, making us the righteousness of God in Him. That's what we're
saying we believe. We're saying we believe that
because we've been born of the incorruptible seed of the Word
of God, which by the Gospel was preached unto us, that now we
have that holiness who is Christ, that holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. We're saying that we believe
God, that we are accepted of God in Christ. That we're accepted
of God. We're saying we believe there's
nothing to be added. We're saying we believe that
we are complete in Him. So that God receives us. And as scripture says, and He's
able to save them. He's able to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth
to make intercession for them. Those who believe what I just
said to you are them that He saves to the uttermost. They're
them that He makes intercession for. Those who put all their
trust in Christ. Sinner, you know, When you preach
sometimes, you can tell that it just seems like there's some
that delight in what they're hearing, yet haven't confessed
Christ, haven't confessed Him yet in believer's baptism. And
it kind of reminds you of, you picture like an orphan, all dirty
and and in rags and got a dirty face and dirty hands and they're
standing in front of a big pretty house and inside it's all lit
with soft light and it's got this big feast on the table and
there's this little dirty orphan standing at the window looking
in and just hungering and just thirsting to go in and sit down
and feast but he's just scared to go in because he's dirty.
He's not clean. Nobody's going to receive Him
into that house to sit down and eat. He's not going to be welcome.
I wish God could make you hear this. Look at Isaiah 55. Look
at verse 1. Isaiah 55 verse 1. I pray Christ
to speak into your heart and make you hear this. Look at this.
Isaiah 55 verse 1. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
Come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me. and
eat ye that which is good. Let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Come and eat, he's saying. He's
saying, come to the table and feast. Incline your ear. Come unto me. Here in your soul
shall live. And I'll make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies that I made with David.
Look here, turn back to Isaiah 35. I'll show you another picture
here. We're talking about Christ being the path. He's the way.
Look here at Isaiah 35. When Israel was captive in Babylon,
God promised through Isaiah that He was going to send a Redeemer
and He was going to deliver them out of Babylon and He was going
to provide a way to take them all the way back to Jerusalem,
back home to Jerusalem, to Israel. Well, that picture was the picture
of Christ. He is the way. He's the Redeemer. And He's the way that brings
us from Babylon, from sin, from death, from condemnation, into
God's presence. Look at here, Isaiah 35, verse
8. He says, A highway shall be there
and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. That's who
Christ is. And look here, what He declares
here is true of Christ. Verse 8, The unclean shall not
pass over it. But it shall be for those, the
wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. The unclean
shall not enter. You see, I'm painting this picture
of this little orphan all dirty and afraid to enter. But the
thing about it is, is Christ has washed all His children in
His blood. And the Holy Spirit washes us
in regeneration. So that if you can come, if you
have a desire to come, if you have a willingness to come to
the table and partake of Christ, He's washed you. And you're welcome. You're welcome. Look at this. No lion shall be there. No or
any ravenous beast shall go up there. It shall not be found
there, but the redeemed shall walk there. There won't be any
beast in Christ, only sheep, the sheep of God. And there won't
be any lion or any ravenous beast to harm us. We'll be protected
in Christ. And we're not going to be running
and fearful and afraid. We're going to walk in Christ.
Walk ye in Him. Provided for. Fully provided
for. Fully protected. Why? Because
the redeemed shall walk there. We've been redeemed. So our prayer
is, Lord, hold up my goings in Christ's way. I want to be found
in Christ, Father. That's what we're praying. That's
the prayer of faith. I want to be found in Christ.
I don't want to be found having a righteousness of my own. That's
to walk in the way of the of the destroyer I want to be found
resting in that faith father in that in that righteousness
father that you provided that you gave me in your son by his
faithfulness by what he did that's where I want to be found keep
me in those paths in that path and then there's the path of
the gospel there's the path of the gospel itself God teaches
us the gospel he teaches us divine election that he elected the
people He teaches us that we're inseparably united to Christ.
He teaches us that the death that Christ accomplished... Don't
you love that phrase? When Peter was in the Mount of
Transfiguration, he said he saw Christ and Moses and Elijah and
they were talking about the death that Christ should accomplish.
that death whereby He had conquered death and He accomplished the
redemption of a particular people by that death. He teaches us
the free justification by the righteousness of Christ. He teaches
us that Christ fully supplies all our needs. That He'll preserve
His people and keep His people. He teaches us that He's going
to call out His sheep. He's going to bring us to Him.
He's going to bring the gospel to them and regenerate them and
call them and keep them. And that He's going to finally
bring us all into glory and not once going to be lost. And you
know there's a difference between book learning and there's a difference
between knowing in the heart. Back where I grew up, there was
these plants, you know, these factories, and you'd have fellows
that had worked there since the day they got out of high school,
you know. And now they were managers and
what have you, and they'd been working there for 10, 15 years,
you know. And here would come these boys
right out of college that maybe they had a master's in engineering
or something like that, and they'd come in trying to tell everybody
what to do and calling the shots. And they had a lot of book learning,
but they didn't have a clue about running a plant. That's book learning, but they
didn't have any experience. Well, Christ teaches us. He teaches
us the doctrine in our heart of perseverance of the saints.
And we think, well, we persevere. We're going to persevere until
the end. We're going to we're going to keep on believing God.
And we're not going to we're not going to give up because
that's what God's people do. We know that doctrine. And then
he brings us into a trial and we can't even hold our head up.
We can't even pick the book up and read it, much less cry out
to him. And He makes us to see the doctrine
of perseverance of the saints is He's preserving you. Then
we know something by experience about the doctrine. And we'll
be carried about by every wind of doctrine until He makes us
to see through the storm. And He's the anchor within the
veil that holds us and is keeping us anchored. And then we'll be
settled in Him. Then we'll know for a fact that
He is our anchor. Then the doctrine becomes one
unified doctrine that is in this person of Christ Jesus. It stops
being the doctrine of election and it becomes the fact that
we were elected, chosen of God in Christ Jesus. Predestination
quits being a doctrine of predestination and becomes we predestinated
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. We were predestinated
to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Then sanctification
becomes that Christ is our sanctifier. You know what I'm saying? It
becomes Christ. All doctrine becomes the living
word and our living redeemer. And it becomes one doctrine. One gospel in Christ who is the
gospel. He said, I'm the truth. I'm the
truth. And here's why he brings us into
that experience. Look at Ephesians 3.17. I can't
wait to get to this when we go through Ephesians. As we go through
Ephesians. Look here, Ephesians 3.17. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. that you being rooted and grounded
in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ
which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the
fullness of God. That's why he brings us and teaches
us this by experience in the heart. But those who don't have
it, those who don't have this teaching in the heart. He says,
they received the seed in the stony places, and they received
the word, and they hear it, and with joy they received it, yet
he hath not rooted himself. And it says, but endureth for
a little while, but when tribulation or persecution arises because
of the word, by and by he is offended. That's the difference
between having it in the letter and having it in the heart in
truth. Those who have it in their heart are rooted and grounded.
And so we ask Him, hold up our goings in the gospel. That person
who is the truth. Hold my goings up in Him. And
then we rejoice in that tribulation. Then we find out that it's good
for me that I've been afflicted. That I might learn your statutes.
You know, it's impossible to go through all the tribulation
that we'll face. But the scripture says we must
through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God. But one thing
that we see happening, and it's happening sooner than I thought
it would happen, is believers are going to face persecution
for the gospel in this country. Very soon. Very soon. Listen, brothers shall deliver
up the brother to death. Christ said death. And the father,
the child, and children shall rise up against their parents
and cause them to be put to death. That's hatred, isn't it? That's
hatred of the gospel. And you shall be hated of all
men for my name's sake. But he that endureth the end
shall be saved. And so we ask the Lord. Tribulation's
a path of God. You think we can hold up our
goings in that path? We have to have Him to hold us
up in tribulation. So we ask Him to hold us up.
He says they're going to put you out of the synagogue. The
time comes when whosoever kills you will think he does God's
service. And these things they'll do unto you because they have
not known the Father nor me. Turn to Romans 1. I said Sunday
I want you to read this, but did you all read this? I want
to read it to you now. I want you to see this. Romans
1. It's sad how many in our day
speak of this Word. They speak of God our Father
and of Christ and of this Word like it's fiction, like it's
a tale. Like it's a fable. Like God's
not real. That's how they're speaking.
Now listen to this. You know, the Lord said, they
receive not the love of the truth that might be saved. And he said,
so God shall, he said, for this cause, God shall send them strong
delusion that they shall believe a lie. And that's what's the
crazy thing is, is not only do they believe that these things
are not true and that it's fictional, but the things that men do believe
is delusional. It's delusional. And God said
he would send men strong delusion that they should believe a lie,
that they all might be damned. who believed not the truth but
had pleasure in unrighteousness. Look at here. Here's the problem.
Here's the cause of sodomy along with all other wickedness and
the cause of the acceptance of it. Here's the cause of it right
here. Romans 1.22 professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into
an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things." People worshipped the earth.
They worshipped the creature. Wherefore, for this cause, God
also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own
hearts. He just gave them their own hearts. He just took his
hand off and said, here, To have the lust of your heart, that's
what God did. To dishonor their own bodies between themselves,
who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator, who's blessed forever.
Amen. For this cause, God gave them up. unto vile affections,
for even their women did change the natural use into that which
is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving
the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward
another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving
in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet,
which was fit. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient. This is the
cause of it all. It starts with men not wanting
to retain the knowledge of God. You can't bring yourself to God
to believe on Christ with a new heart. God has to give you a
new heart. But you can walk in what light God gives you. And
I mean by that, if He's given you a gospel church, go hear
the gospel. If He's given you a country in
which you're free to read the scriptures, study these scriptures.
Seek Him while He may be found. But men said, I don't want to
hear that. I don't want to walk in that. God makes it so you
can't. That's right. God will make it
so you can't. so that you might be damned.
Now that's serious. And it's happening in our day.
And what men are doing now is they may not condemn you, they
may not kill you, but the stockholders are international. They have
no allegiance to the United States of America. They'll cut you off
so you can't buy and sell. Mark my word. That's what Jesse
Jackson is calling for right now against Phil Robson. Cut
off the buying and selling of his products so he cannot sell
his products anymore. That's scary, brethren. That's
scary. If you don't have the number
of the beast. If you don't have six and say that it was by my
will that I saved myself. If you don't have six and say
it's by my doing that I justified myself. If you don't have six
and say it's by my spirit that I came to God. That's the number
of the beast. Six, six, six. It's the number
of man. My will, my work, my wisdom, my justifying, my doing,
my doing. And if that's not your word,
and that's not your gospel, and that's not your hope, Men, I
say, cut him off. Cut him off. Cut him off. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
in the traditions which have been taught, whether by word
or our epistle. And how do we do that? We pray
to God, God, hold up my goings in your path. I can't hold up
against persecution, and you can't either, or any other trial,
but we ask him to keep us. Paul said, Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. I don't care what little
spoiled folks say about me or my gospel. Be not ashamed about
the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, but be thou
partaker of the affliction of the gospel according to the power
of God. And it's that power that we need
to uphold, the power of God. Now, let me get to the last thing
and I'll just say a word or two on this. Why do we ask God to
uphold us? Verse 5, he says, that my footsteps
slip not. That my footsteps slip not. Now,
every believer is to keep ourselves by heeding the Word of God. Verse
4, David said, concerning the works of men, by the word of
thy lips hath kept me from the path of destroyer. But immediately
he said this, hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps
slip not. This book, Scriptures are true.
They show us good and evil. And they teach us. The highway
of the upright is to depart from evil. He that keepeth his way,
preserveth his soul. Look, keep these words. He said,
keep my commandments and do them, Christ said. Walk in my judgment.
Walk in my precepts. Walk in the light I've given
to you. That's what Christ is teaching
us. And that's what we're to do. But brethren, we've got to
be kept by Him. We're dependent entirely on Him
to keep us or we will slip. Will we fall away utterly? No.
A believer cannot be fall away. God loved him from everlasting.
Christ's blood has put away his sin and justified him. The Spirit
of God's called him. He can't be lost forever. But
we will slip. We can slip. It's the way of
man's not in himself. It's not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. Wherefore, let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall. But God keeps his people
that are footstep. He keepeth the paths of judgment
and preserveth the way of his saints. Christ is wisdom and
he said in Proverbs 8 20 I lead in the way of righteousness in
the midst of the paths of judgment that I may cause those that love
me to inherit substance and I'll fill their treasures. So let's
end where we began. Paul said this. He said, the
Lord said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. And he said,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And Paul said, most
gladly therefore our glory in my infirmities that the power
of God might rest on me. He said, therefore I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. Now Psalm 17, 5 is our prayer. To who? To God. We ask Him, Heavenly
Father, uphold my goings. Uphold them where? In Thy paths. in the gospel, in the midst of
tribulation, in your precepts, hold up my path. Why? That my
footsteps slip not. The man who can pray that from
a true heart is a man that's been made to see what he is outside
of Christ. What he is if left to himself. He's been made to see Christ
has got all power in heaven and earth. He is his righteousness,
his holiness, and he shall save us from our sins. and He can
keep us, He's able to keep us, and He shall keep us. And so
we pray continually, Lord, keep me, keep me, keep me in your
paths. Don't let me go. Do not let me
go. You know, a man that thinks he
saved himself, that he did a part, God did a part, he don't see
Christ's power. The weaker you are, the more
you see Christ's power. Look at Jude 1. I'll end with
this. Jude 1. I'm sorry, Jude 24. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling, I'll give you a little time.
Hold on. Jude 24, verse 24. Now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God our Savior be glory majesty, dominion and power both
now and forever. Amen. Don't you want to be found
in Him? The God who is able to keep you
from falling and present you faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. A man would have to be insane
not to trust Him, wouldn't he? Insane to look anywhere else.
Amen.