In a world of suffering and sorrow,
to preserve the faith of his people amid so many and sore
tests, trials, buffeting, disappointments, betrayals by friends and professed
brethren in Christ is infinitely more wonderful than if a man
should succeed in carrying an unsheltered candle, a light across
an open moor when a hurricane was blowing. That's what A.W. Pink said. I like that quote.
Those who are regenerated and called and converted are sanctified
by the Spirit of God, by the grace of God. They are everlastingly
preserved by God and they persevere in the faith. There's three men
in Acts 21 that brings this to our mind, stand out as illustrations
of this truth. One is Philip the Evangelist.
The other is Agabus the Prophet. and the other is Nason of Cyprus. In verse 8 we find Philip. And the next day we that were
of Paul's company departed and came unto Caesarea. And we entered
into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of
the seven, and abode with him. And the same man had four daughters,
virgins, which did prophesy. It says here he was one of the
seven. We first met Philip back in Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter
6, whenever the need came upon the church for brethren who could
administer the necessities that the widows had, the needs the
widows had, Peter said, it's not reason that we should leave
the Word of God and serve tables. Acts 6, 3. Wherefore, brethren,
look ye out among you seven men of honest report. full of the
Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business.
We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry
of the word and the saying please the multitude. They chose Stephen,
Philip, and the other men, but Philip was in that number. Then
later we saw the Lord sent Philip to Samaria and on his way he
preached the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch and the Lord opened his
heart and saved him. And in Acts 8.40 it says at the
end of that verse, passing through, he preached in all the cities
till he came to Caesarea. And here's where we find him
now in Caesarea. It's been about 30 years have
passed and he's still believing on Christ. He's still declaring
He went anywhere the Lord sent him, declaring the gospel, and
he's still in the faith, trusting the Lord. He had four daughters
who the Lord had given the gift of prophecy. He nurtured his
children, raised them in the admonition of the Lord. He took
in Paul and the brethren into his own home here. By grace,
he persevered in the faith. Then we come to Agabus the prophet.
Verse 10 says, And as we tarried there many days, there came down
from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus. We met with him
back in Acts 11.27. Acts 11.27, it said, In these
days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch, and there stood
up one of them named Agabus, signified by the Spirit that
there should be a great dearth in all the world. And it came
to pass. And it's been around 15 or more
years and here he is continuing in the faith. Declaring what
the Lord sent him to declare. And then in verse 15 we meet
with Nathanson of Cyprus. After those days, we took up
our carriages, our bags, and went up to Jerusalem. There went
with us also of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with
them one Nason of Cyprus, an old man with whom we should lodge."
The word old, it may or may not refer to physical age. We know
that Scripture says the hoary head is a crown of glory if it
be found in the way of righteousness. But it certainly means he was
old spiritually, probably both. He'd been a believer for a long,
long time. Some think that he was probably
around whenever the Lord walked this earth. And here he is, still
believing, still trusting the Lord, providing lodging for the
Apostle Paul in Jerusalem. Now, these three, Philip, Agabus,
and Nason, had, by God's grace, persevered in the faith. his
elect, those chosen of God and converted through the gospel,
believe. And they keep on believing. We
begin in faith, and we continue in faith, and we die in faith.
And only those who continue in faith are going to enter into
glory with the Father. Christ was faithful as a son
over his own house. The Hebrew writer said, whose
house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end? You know, these men did these
things. They persevered in a time when confessing Christ could mean
death. In a time when just traveling
with somebody from one place to another and being associated
with them could mean death. It was a time when if you lodged
somebody in your house, it could mean death. And here we live
in a day when, in a nation where we have religious freedom, where
we have interstate highways, and it's a struggle for us to
make it to the house of the Lord. We live in a day when we don't
have to worry at all about being killed for the gospel. And we
find it difficult to speak the truth of Christ. Men won't stand
up and preach the truth of Christ. We live in a day when companies
spend billions of dollars so as to not get themselves in a
fix so that they'll offend their workers and be sued by their
workers. And yet we can't seem to say, I'm going to worship
the Lord. I won't be here that day. I have
to reschedule me. But the hurricane that Pink spoke
of is not in the times. It's in the flesh. That's the
problem. That's the problem. So what's
the food of our souls? What strengthens us in these
sinful, weak, utterly helpless bodies so that we persevere in
the faith? What is it? What does it? What's the assurance we have
that our God will preserve us and keep us so that we persevere? Well, if we started looking up
those things, we'd be in the whole Bible because every page
of this Word's declaring it. That's the gospel we preach.
But we have time here for about four things, and we might not
get through those four things, but we'll just briefly look at
four things. And this is scratching the surface here, but four things
I want to consider is the immutability of God, the provision of God,
number three, the satisfaction and intercession of Christ Jesus,
and number four, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The immutability
of God, that's a fancy word that means God does not change. David, you remember the dollar
bill? And I changed my mind and took
the dollar from you. That's immutable. That's not
being immutable. That's being changeable. But
our God is from eternity. He's purposed, and He shall perform
what He purposed. His love's eternal, His love's
everlasting, His love's unchanging, and His love's unchangeable.
Jeremiah 31.3. Look there with me. Jeremiah
31.3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. The psalmist said, for the Lord
will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. We've been seeing the awful,
awful rebellion of the sons of Jacob all throughout the book
of Isaiah. What utter rebellion there was. And yet God had an inheritance
among them. God had a people among them.
God had some among them that he everlastingly loved. And those
people and their rebellion that we see in Isaiah, the sons of
Jacob, that's me and you, every one of us. He chose his people
knowing fully that according to His purpose, each one would
be defiled by Adam's transgression in the garden. And He chose to
leave us in these bodies of defilement until He brings us to glory. And because both were according
to the eternal purpose of God, none of His promises are based
on any good or any evil in us. Not any good caused Him to choose
us, and no evil in us is going to cause Him to turn away from
us. Son. God's elect can do nothing to
change God's purpose to save them. The God of salvation will
not alter the thing that has gone out of His mouth. He's spoken
it and He'll do it. There's no variableness, neither
shadow of turning with Him. And to assert that God, who purposed
to save One He purposed to save. One Christ redeemed. One He regenerated
by the Spirit to assert that they could go to hell and be
lost everlastingly. This is what we're talking about.
We're not talking about dying in His physical body. We're talking
about perishing from God. To assert that is to dishonor
the whole character of our God. Not only His immutability, but
His wisdom. He designed everything and the
means by which He would bring these people to Himself. His
power, His absolute power over all things to work all things
to bring this to pass, to bring His people to glory. His goodness
and His grace and His mercy. Scripture says His compassions
fail not. His faithfulness. I've told you
this before, I think, Brother Stoniker, when he first went
to Fairmont, was preaching. And he was speaking of this unchangeable
character of our God. How that he will not turn away
from his people to do them good. And Brother Scott spoke up right
in the middle of the message and went, what if he changes
his mind? And Brother Marvin said, I'm
the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's it, brethren. We can be
sure he preserves his people and that we shall persevere because
of it. Because our God doesn't change.
He's going to see to it that we're going to be kept by him. Here's the second thing. The
power and faithfulness of God to provide what He has promised. The power and the faithfulness
of God to provide what He has promised. To make good on His
Word. The provision of God. Look now
at Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32 verse 40. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they
shall not depart from me. We live in an ever-changing world,
and the only, the only consistency in me, in you, and anybody in
this world is change. That's the only thing consistent,
is change. Look over the ages, no kingdom
has lasted. You think it'd be amazing if
America ceased to exist? Not at all. Not one kingdom is
still standing. Some of these kingdoms we read
about, they're gone. The cities are gone. The kings are gone. No kingdom, no king, no city,
but one has lasted. the King of glory, the Kingdom
of God, the heavenly Jerusalem is lasted and has not changed,
has lasted forever. The promise of God is everlasting
because it is not based on creatures of change. It's not based on
sinners whatsoever. It's determined by the sovereign
free grace of God. It's ordered and made sure by
the triune God. It's ratified and signed in the
blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's made not to us by
ourselves, to us ourselves. It's made to Christ the head
of the church and he's got to have his people. God's going
to see to it he has his people. It's written on the believer's
heart by God who cannot lie. For the gifts and calling of
God are without repentance. Did you ever have like a company
picnic or a family reunion or anything like that, where you
play all these games and stuff, you know. You ever get in a potato
sack and race in a potato sack? Most of the time, here lately,
I feel like I'm running a race with both feet tied together.
That's what I feel like. We're few in number. It's nothing to you to miss a
service. But when you got four or five
and one group misses, it's the majority. You prepare a meal and somebody
don't show up to eat. You wouldn't think much of their
love, would you? They can say it all they want to, but you
wouldn't think much of it, would you? How's this life? How do we persevere in this life
when it's so full of discouragements? We show up here, people drive
from hours to get here, and last Thursday night or Thursday night
before we went, Sunday, so much noise in this place, you couldn't
hear anything. We need a quieter place to meet. So how do we overcome these hardships? How are we encouraged in the
face of these things? The promise is, the righteous
also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall
be stronger and stronger. That's not a condition, that's
a promise. That's a promise. Christ is the way. He's the Lord
our righteousness in whom we're righteous. And at times you might
stumble, at times you might grow weary, but if you're His, you're
never going to go back. You're never going to turn away.
You might be slow at times, you might be like somebody in a potato
sack with both hands, both feet tied and you're barely moving
at all. But he said, I will not turn
away from them to do them good. No temptation has befallen you
but which is common to man. God will not tempt his people
above that which they're able. He'll provide a way. It's our
responsibility to continue in the faith, brethren. It's our
responsibility to continue in the faith, to hold fast this
Word until the end, to remain strong in the faith, to hold
on to Christ firm until the end. But responsibility is not ability. We depend solely, entirely, completely
on the preserving grace of God in order for us to persevere
in His faith. We have to. We have to. It's no longer us that's going
to persevere apart from Him keeping us, than it is that we may righteous
apart from Him who is our righteousness. We're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. Kept in the love of God. Kept
in the covenant of grace. Kept in the hand of Christ in
God. Kept in the state of grace through
faith. Kept from Satan and all deception
of all false teachers. Kept from the dominion, power,
and tyranny of sin. Kept seeing by faith that which
is invisible but real and ours and reserved for us. Salvation
in Christ Jesus. Kept by God. If He hadn't have
said it, I wouldn't say it. But if He said it, I dare not
hold it back. All spiritual blessings are yours
through the trust of Christ. All spiritual blessings are yours. All things are yours. Death is
yours. His power is unlimited. His promise
is everlasting. His faithfulness, He shall bring
it to pass. The third thing we put confidence
in is the atonement and intercession of Christ Jesus our Lord. In
Isaiah 53, 11, we hear this promise. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Paul said, who is he that can never It's Christ that died,
yea rather that's risen again, whoever liveth to make intercession
for us. I covet your prayers. I covet
your intercession on my behalf. Oh, how I covet He is. How I
want He is. He made satisfaction to God for
each sinner for whom He died. justified us, brethren. Justification,
justice has been executed upon each one for whom he died. Salvation,
his salvation, his justification, all the blessings of God, they're
eternal. And the very purpose for which
Christ came into this earth was to declare God just and to justify. Now if anyone for whom Christ
died perishes, brethren, If they do not persevere in the faith,
if they do not continue in the faith, if they are not preserved
and kept in the final glory, then God has frustrated His own
purpose. And that can't be. That can't
be. Turn to John 17. I want you to
see this. John 17. He's justified us in eternity.
He justified us at Calvary. He justified us when He came
in the divine visitation, in the hour of grace. He continually
justifies us, purges our conscience. Justifieth. He continues to do
it. He says, I'll pardon them whom
I reserve. Look here in John 17, 11. He
said, now I'm no more in the world, but these are in the world,
and I come to thee, Holy Father. Keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. I
pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world. Look at
verse 15. I pray not that thou shouldst
take them out of the world, but thou shouldst keep them from
the evil. Look at verse 20. Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word. He prays the Father to keep us
as He keeps us, that both the Father and the Son will be glorified
in this work of grace, in preserving us. That's what He prayed there
in the beginning. He said, Father, glorify Thy
Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee. And the Father said, I've
glorified and I'll glorify again. Not preserved from physical death.
Not preserved from physical death. That's going to happen to the
righteous and to the wicked. But from everlasting perishing. Preserved, kept in Christ. From the evil of separation from
God to union with Christ. From the evil of the world into
Christ who is our sanctification. from being overcome by unbelief
to being kept in the victory of faith, persevering in faith. These are the words of security. Listen. No man shall pluck them
from my hand. Neither shall any man pluck them
from my Father's hand. If you're trusting in your hand,
I'm trusting in my hand, we're trusting in nothing. But if we're
in His hand, in His hand, because of what He accomplished,
brethren, we cannot be lost. We cannot be separated from God.
He will bless as He's promised to bless. Lord, keep me from
looking with these eyes. Keep me from looking with these
eyes. Keep me from being discouraged. Keep me from looking to my feelings. Keep me from looking to anything
but Christ for assurance. You know, really and truly, if
we're not looking to Christ, it doesn't matter if we're persevering
or not. We're not headed in the right direction. We look to the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured
the cross, despising the shame. And when we look to Him, we see
the joy that's set before us. That's how we run the race. We
might be in a potato sack, but that's all right. Keep on running
it. And then here's the fourth thing,
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. Look over at 2 Corinthians
1. 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians
1 verse 21. Now He which establisheth us
with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed
us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." He sealed us. He's given the
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Be looking over Galatians
chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. God predestinated
His elect unto the adoption of children. That's what I read
to you in our scripture reading before we began in Ephesians
chapter 1. He predestinated us unto the adoption. And having
predestinated us unto the adoption, He predestinated us unto an inheritance. Now, look here. Verse 6, nobody
has power to thwart this predestinated appointment. His children must
be brought into the realization that God is everything, Christ
is our all, the Lord is salvation. Look at verse 6. Because ye are
sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. Now look over to Ephesians chapter
1 with me. Ephesians chapter 1. Do you think God will reserve
an incorruptible inheritance in heaven for you, son or daughter,
and then watch as you perish in hell? Do you think that would
happen? Predestination and glorification
are inseparable. Whom He did predestinate, them
He also glorified. Look here at Ephesians chapter
1. Let me get over there. Hold on. Ephesians chapter 1.
First look at verse 5. It says, He predestinated those
that He chose in Christ before the world began. He predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. No other reason needed according
to the good pleasure of His will. Look over verse 11. in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his will." Oh, but I just don't feel. I'm so weak in my
faith. I'm so weak in having a feeling
of assurance. And when I look to myself, well,
don't look there. Don't look there. Look at verse
13. in whom ye also, after that you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in
whom also, in Christ also, after that you believe you were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance,
the first tasting of this inheritance, the first fruit of this inheritance,
until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of
His glory. The Holy Spirit indwelling in
us is the one who makes us to hear His Word and rejoice in
His Word, to make Christ precious unto us, to make us look out
of ourselves to Christ Jesus alone. You know what it is to
be sealed? You know what it is to be sealed?
Have you ever canned tomatoes or any kind of vegetables? Have
you ever canned them? And you put them in that water bath,
that hot bath, and you set them out. We used to do it, and we'd
set them all out there on the table, and you just wait. And
you listen, and you hear a pop. And when it pops, that lid is
sealed on that jar. And you can go to that pantry,
and you can get that jar out. A year later, two years later,
three years later. Can you wait that long? Maybe
not that long. But a long time. And open it
up and it's good. You know why? It's preserved. It's preserved. It's kept. It's been sealed. He said the
Holy Spirit of promise. That promise made way in eternity. That promise that's been upheld
all throughout the ages, that promise that's full and complete
and accomplished in Christ Jesus the Lord, that promise, this
Holy Spirit of promise, He seals His brethren. He seals us. And it's the earnest of the inheritance,
predestinated unto the adoption of children, predestinated unto
an inheritance by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit comforts
us with these words, He leads us, He guides us into all truth,
and He abides with us forever. We might not think so, sometimes,
when we want out of the affliction in our time, and He's waiting
in His time, we may think He's left us. He hasn't left us. He
never leaves us. The Lord said, when He comes,
He'll abide with you forever. He won't leave you. He never
casts off His people. He's faithful who is promised,
brethren. The Lord said there's going to
arise some false prophets, some false Christs, and if it were
possible, they'd deceive the very elect. But it's not possible
because of the Holy Spirit indwelling and guiding us into all truth.
This is why we hear the shepherd's voice. This is why the sheep
follow Him and a stranger they won't follow. It's not a maybe
that they won't do it, it's sure and certain they won't do it.
Why? Because if they do, God's glory
is at stake. That's more important than our
doctrine and what we believe concerning that. He's going to keep us in spite
of us. He's going to keep us and grow us This is comfort, brethren. It
comforts me. It's only thing, the only thing
that comforts me. The only thing that comforts
me. And God gets all the glory. Did
you think perseverance is something that we glory in? Perseverance
is due to the preservation of God. It's God who gets the glory. I've said it to you before, we
get glory for one thing. Sin. That's all. He gets the
glory for salvation. All of it. And because God the
Father is connected to this thing, His purpose and His faithfulness,
His character. Because God the Son and the perfect
work of redemption, eternal redemption, He's accomplished. And the Holy
Spirit who must bring us unto the Father, keep us. because
His glory is involved in this thing, we can be sure we will
be kept and preserved and persevere in the faith and grow stronger
and stronger in this understanding and this knowledge and this wisdom
so that more and more and more this world becomes less and less
and less important to us. And one day we're going to reach
that edge of that river And He's going to bring us to
the other side, into heaven's glory with Him. And we're going
to have one song there. You did it all. You did it all. We're not going to be singing,
I did it my way. We're going to be singing, you did it your
way. You did it your way. And I'm glad. I'm thankful. Wouldn't
have it any other way. All right.