And I want to, I'm sure that
everybody's heard what happened out in Minneapolis. A very evil man went through and
shot that Catholic church full of little children. Two of them were killed. And many others were hurt. And friends, we live in a very, very demonic age. This is not a mental
illness thing. We say that people are mentally
ill, but I think that just covers up a darker, sinister truth God
has turned many over to a reprobate mind. That's all you can say
about the individual, did it? It's a reprobate mind. And the sad thing is he's not alone.
There are many of these same in our generation. It's just
a sad time. It's just a very sad time. And
the gospel is is despised in this generation. Religion is not despised, but
the gospel is. The gospel is despised and hated.
I know I'm surprised. The gospel is such a wonderful
thing to me. It's a glorious, beautiful message
of grace and salvation that's absolutely free. And it's the
most hated and despised doctrine there is. Our Lord said it would
be. They hated me, they will also hate you. You can see how
blind this rage is. They can't even tell what a true
church is. They'll attack anything called
a church because they don't know what the true gospel is, so they'll
just attack anything that has the name church on it, or a Christian. I know God has a purpose. And
He's going to accomplish His purpose. And this was part of
His purpose. You won't hear that. You won't
hear that. This was totally the work of
the devil and God had nothing to do with it. Well, that's not
the God of this book. That's not the God we believe
in. Our God is sovereign and He has done all things. Scripture
says, Is there evil in the city and hath not the Lord done it? He said, I am the Lord, I create
light and evil, darkness. I do both. He's not chargeable
with it, but it is sure according to His sovereign will. And I
just would ask that God would use this for His glory, and I
know He will. I know He'll use it for the good of His people
and the calling of His people. He does move all things for that
purpose. And so pray for these that are
suffering, because they are suffering, regardless of who they are. These
parents and these children, their lives were forever changed. Ask God's mercy on them. Pray for those in our congregation
who are sick. Miranda, pray for Rick. and others. Others I haven't
seen in a little while. Pray for them. God bring them
back to us again safely. Let's go to him in prayer. Our
Father, we come before you again recognizing we are in dark times. Times where the gospel is rare. time of famine, and yet men do
not know they're starving, they do not know their dead condition. Father, in these dark times,
I know that the gospel shines brighter, that the gospel is
clearer in such times of darkness. Great distinction is made in
this time, and Father, I do pray that you would take this gospel,
your gospel, And Father, that you would call
out your people, that you would shine the light of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ in the hearts of those that are
outside of Christ, those who do not know him, those who are
in false religion, that you would bring them out, even as you promised. And Father, tonight we need you.
We confess our need of you. I need you to help me and give
me the liberty and unction of your spirit to declare your word.
And these that have come, they need it, that you would apply
it. That you would make it real to
their hearts. And we should all rejoice and
glorify God. I pray that you'd do this in
Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. I take your Bibles again. Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter
2. 1st Samuel chapter 2 Text to be found in verse 9 The scripture says he Will keep the feet of his saints
and the wicked shall be silent in darkness and For by strength
shall no man prevail. Shall no man prevail. We have here before us the prayer
of Hannah. You remember she was the one
that God granted. She had a barren womb and God
granted her life. God gave her life in her womb. She had asked the Lord and he
gave it to her and Samuel was the product of that miracle. And now in this chapter, she's
rejoicing. She is praising God. At the very
beginning of this chapter, she said, I rejoice in Thy salvation. Now listen, every believer can
identify with this because we too, spiritually, were barren. We were without life. And by
the grace and power of God, He gave us life. And what do we
do? We rejoice in Thy salvation. We rejoice in thy salvation.
We offer up prayers and thanksgiving and praise to God. We give glory
to God. Hannah said, He hath broken the
bow. Isn't that what He did with our bow? He broke it. We were
against God and He broke it. He cast out our enemies. By Jesus
Christ, He's forever satisfied the justice of God The Holy Spirit
has given us strength when we had no strength. He gave us faith
when we had no faith. It was God alone that lifted
this beggar from the dunghill and set him among princes. And
so tonight, this message is directed then to those who have been given
life, to those who are saved by the grace of God, to you.
This promise in our text is to every believer in Christ. This
is God's promise. An immutable, unchangeable promise
that will never fail. Here it is. He will keep the
feet of His saints. He will keep the feet of His
saints. I am so glad we worship a God
whose promises never fail. The God of this world, His promises
continually fail. He's wanting to do something
and He can't. Well, that's not my God. My God says He will keep
the feet of His saints. You know what He will do? He
will keep the feet of His saints. This is His promise. It's immutable. I want you to see this. This
is limited. This promise is limited to a
specific group. He will keep the feet of who? His saints. He will keep The
feet of His saints. Now this group is whoever the
saints are, that's to whom this promise is given. No one outside
of that group has this promise. But I want you to see more than
the exclusivity of this promise, I want you to see it the inclusivity.
I want you to see this, that all the saints have this promise. All the saints who are newborn
babes in Christ and all the saints who are mature in Christ, the
saints who are weak in faith, the saints who are strong, regardless
of our circumstance, regardless of where we are in this experience
of our Christian life, it doesn't matter. If you are His saint,
He will keep your feet. He will keep your feet of the
whole family. And so then what does this mean?
It means this, that none is going to be lost. This is what this
means. It means that none of those who
are His, His saints, will be lost. And so I want to divide
my thoughts into two points. First of all, who are the saints?
If that's the criteria, if that's the measurement by which this
promise is given, then who are the saints? How does one become a saint? And the second question is, what
does it mean that the Lord will keep our feet? What does that
mean? And I'll break that down into
two different sections itself, but first of all, who are the
saints? Well, what does the word saint mean? It means sanctified
one. Sanctified one. It is one that
has been set apart It is one that has been consecrated
for the use of God. It is one who has been made holy. That's what a saint is. Someone
who is set apart by God, consecrated for the work of God, and made
holy. And so I want you to see that
this work of being a saint is not our work. This is not our work. No one
can make himself a saint. Now you can set yourself apart
from me. You can dress different, you can dress funny, or you can
dress nice, or you can set yourself, y'all women that wear hats on
the derby day, y'all make, set yourself apart, you make a nice
hat. But that's not what it means.
This is set apart specifically for the use of God. You can't
do that. You can't do that. You can't
consecrate yourself to God. You sure can't make yourself
holy. This is a work of God in the
Trinity of His persons. Everyone who is a saint is made
a saint by God the Father, made a saint by God the Son, and made
a saint by the Holy Spirit first of all the work of God the father
all the saints are sanctified by God the father in sovereign
election This is where we have been first set apart When did
God set his saints apart? He set them apart from the rest
of humanity in election an election We were set apart by the will
of God, consecrated by the will of the Father, made holy by the
decree of God. Listen to how Jude puts it. Jude,
in verse 1 says, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, brother of James,
to them that are sanctified by God the Father. Now, who sanctifies
you? Scripture says now this I like
that word you are sanctified. It's not like it's not you're
going to be sanctified someday You are sanctified By God the
father then you are preserved in Christ, and then you are called
you see the order You're sanctified by God the father Then you were
preserved in Christ. He he set you apart by doing
what putting you in Christ and Then you were what preserved?
in Christ. And then what? You were called. You believe on Jesus Christ. This is the root of your faith.
This is where it comes from. You believe because God set you
apart. God sanctified you by putting
you into union with His Son in sovereign election. And this
election of the Father precedes our preservation in Christ and
our calling. Paul tells us the truth in 1 Corinthians 1.30,
but of God are you in Christ. You see how that set you apart?
Well, who set you apart? Who made you special? Not me. God the Father did. He sanctified
us. He put us in Christ and made
Christ to be all our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. I like what he tells Jeremiah.
He said, Jeremiah 1.5, Before I formed thee in the belly, I
knew thee. Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified
thee. So who made us saints? Well,
God the Father did. God the Father did. And every
time I hear someone rejecting sovereign election, I despise
such doctrine. I used to be what people would
call tolerant. And that was just absolutely
wrong of me to be tolerant. God's never tolerant of false
religion. Do you hear the language that
God uses when He talks about false religion? He calls them
whores. That's what he calls false religion.
He's not tolerant whatsoever with false religion. I despise any gospel, any message
that doesn't acknowledge the truth of concerning God's sovereign
election of grace. Why? Because I know this, if
God had not chosen me, I would have never chosen Him. Had He
not set His love on me, I never would have loved Him. Had He
not sanctified me, I could have never sanctified myself. And I tell you the truth, that
all who are not sanctified are the Father in election, who were
not put into union with Christ, these are not the saints of God. So secondly, it's the work of
the Son, our sanctification. We were sanctified in Jesus Christ
before the world began, set apart by the Father, put into union
with Christ, degreed by the immutable counsel of God to be holy. Is there anything in Christ that's
not holy? Was there ever a time that Christ
was unholy? Never. So when God put me in
Christ, that made me what? Holy. God decreed it, God purposed
it. Put me into union with his son.
Therefore, when the time came, our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world as a man, as a representative man. He didn't represent everyone. He represent all that the Father
gave him. How many times did he say that
in the scripture? All that the Father giveth me shall come to
me. Of all that the Father had given me, I should lose nothing. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Not for every one, for all those
that the Father gave Him. And when He came into this world,
He formed and fashioned our holiness, our righteousness by His own
obedience. Our Lord Jesus Christ made us
righteous. The same way I was made a sinner
is the same way I was made righteous. I was made a sinner by a representative
man. Well, guess what? I'm made righteous
in the same way, by a representative man. And not only did He make my righteousness,
but He atoned for my sin by His death. When Christ came, He bore
my sins. Now, I wasn't here, yet all of
my sins that I had not yet committed. God charged to my Savior, to
Christ. He bore them in His own body
on the tree, and as the Lamb of God, He suffered for our sins.
And by doing this, He made us sanctified. Go to Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 9. These are the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, Lo, I come. He said, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. What was the will of God? The
will of God was that you should be holy. That you should be sanctified. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. Talking about the covenants.
He fulfilled the first to establish the second. Covenant of grace,
and he said this by the which will we are what? What are you? sanctified Sanctified by the will of the
father, but how through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ now
how many times were you sanctified? once for all You were made holy
once for all Everyone that Christ represented he sanctified them
In that last verse 14, he said, For by His one offering He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Sanctified. Are you getting the picture that
this is how we're made saints? This promise is only to saints.
Only those chosen of the Father. Only those sanctified by the
Son. But that's not all. It is also
the work of the Holy Spirit to make us saints. Holy Spirit. Now, I know this.
When I was born, I was not born holy. You and I were not born
holy. We could not take this mantle
of saying we were saints. Because we were born unholy.
We were born unrighteous. Listen I had no love for God
When I came into this world I had no love for God matter of fact.
I despised his word I didn't want to be here. I didn't want
to hear his word I Would I would not have that man to rule over
me. I wanted my own way I Was I'm as far from what you
would call a holy person that you could possibly be But the Father who chose me and
the Son redeemed me, He also purposed that the Spirit would
actually apply what He willed, what Christ purchased, which
was what? My sanctification. And that's
the work of the Spirit. When He comes to us, we are sanctified. the Spirit of God by the power
of God we have a new creation a new nature 2nd Thessalonians
chapter 2 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 in
verse 13 we're bound always to give thanks to you brethren and
To God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you, sanctified you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Now how does one know they are
sanctified? How do you know you were chosen
of God? How do you know you were redeemed of Christ? How do you
know that the Spirit sanctified you? Here it is. Belief of the
truth. Faith in Christ is the only evidence
of my election. Now, you follow me around, you
can look at me and say, you know, well, he's pretty moral. That is no evidence whatsoever
that I'm sanctified. My morality has no evidence I'm
sanctified. What's the evidence? It's faith
in Christ. And so the question is this,
do you believe on the Son of God alone? Is Christ all your salvation? And I rejoiced in the side he
said the salvation I rejoice in the salvation salvations of
you I Believe on Christ. Do you believe on Christ and
listen you are a saint I? Know this is this is hard
look in the mirror and try to say that Look in the mirror and
look say look. There's a saint I Can't do it with the straight
face But it's nonetheless true. This is why we believe what God
says. I'm not looking for a sign that
I'm a saint. I'm looking to the Word of God.
I like what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. He said, you are
washed. Now you believe that? You that
believe in Christ, do you believe your sins are washed? Well listen
to this, you are sanctified. Now you believe that? You're holy. This is the work of the Spirit
to create in us a holy nature. Paul says in Ephesians 4, he
said we are created after God, in the very image of God, after
God, listen to this, in true holiness. I like that he put
that word true before holiness. Not just pretend holiness. God
doesn't pretend. We do. We act. We want to act holy. I know that's
our desire, isn't it? To live holy, to be righteous. That's our desire as believers.
We don't want our sin. We despise it. Yet I know this. I'm only sanctified
because He sanctified me. I can only say that I'm a saint
because He did. Because He made us one. Now,
just because you are a saint, does that exempt you from trouble?
You sanctified ones. You are loved of God. Do you
know that? Do you know how much you're loved of God? I don't
think we can find the bottom to how much you're loved of God.
You'll never know until glory how much you are really loved
of God. You'll never know what it cost to save you until we
reach glory. You'll never know the price that
Christ paid to make you sanctified. You'll never know the power it
took of the Holy Spirit to give you life. You'll never know that.
Can't ever find the bottom. These are the unsearchable riches
of Christ. But I know this. Just because
I'm a saint doesn't mean I'm exempt from trouble. God said
this, I will bring them through the fire. Now is that a question
or were you making a statement? That's Zechariah 13, 9. I will
bring a third part through the fire. I will. This is not ambiguous. Every believer is going to be
brought through the fire of trials and tribulations. Why? To refine
them. As silver is refined, to try
them as gold is tried. And listen to what he said. They
shall. God doesn't speak like us. I say, I might. Maybe. If everything works out
okay. If the Lord will. That's how
we have to speak. God doesn't speak that way. He
said, I'll bring you through the fire. I'm going to do it
for this reason. To try you as gold is tried. And this is what's gonna happen.
You're gonna call on my name. Isn't that exactly what happens?
When you're tried, isn't that what saints do? We call on his
name. Listen to what he said. I will hear them. Do you realize every time you
cry you're hurt? I don't feel that way. I don't
think that way. At times I feel like He's ignoring
me. He said, no, you cry on me, I'll listen. I'll hear you. And
I'll say to you this, you're my people. To you saints, this
is what God says, regardless of your trials, you're my sanctified
ones. I hear you and you're my people. And listen to this, I'm your
God. I'm your God. How often do we feel different than what God says
we are? I know what God says I am, but I don't always feel
that way. I don't feel like a saint, do
you? When Asaph cried, he said, I
know God's good to Israel. Listen, I know God's good to
you. I do not have a doubt that God's
good to you. But as for me, listen to what he said, my feet,
my feet were almost gone. My steps had nigh well slipped. Often we are, this is the soul
of God's elect, we're troubled. I know what you say I am, I know
what you say you've made me, but the circumstances seem against
that. And so what's your confidence?
If you are His saint, then what is your confidence that you'll
always be a saint? Listen to this, I will keep the
feet of my saints. I will keep the feet of my saints.
What does he mean by feet? What does he mean by that? There
are two things that feet do. They help us to stand and walk. And we look at this spiritually,
we can see this, that God says regarding our standing, Our position. He said, I will keep your feet.
In other words, whatever position the saint holds, God says you're
going to keep it. And the second thing is walking.
Every believer, as we walk through this life, God promises that He will keep
our steps. We have a real enemy. Really three. The world, the
flesh, and the devil are constantly our foes. And they are constantly
trying to move our feet. They're trying to move us, move
our standing, and move us from the way. But yet God swears this
regardless of their efforts. They'll never be successful.
They'll never be successful. In Revelation chapter 12, you
remember the woman, which is a picture of the church, the
Lord gave her those wings, and she went into the wilderness,
into a solitary place, and Satan couldn't go there, he couldn't
get there. So he opens his mouth, and the floods came, and God
opens the earth and swallows all his accusations. In other
words, what that means is this, He'll never get her. He'll never
get to her. That's what He's saying about
you, your position. Listen, your position is safe. You're safe. You'll never be
moved. Why? God says, I'll keep it.
I'll keep it. You didn't make you a saint,
and you ain't gonna keep you a saint. God says, I'm gonna
do that. I do that. Our standing Listen,
every believer's standing is in Jesus Christ. Every believer's
standing is in Jesus Christ. And nothing the enemy can do
to us is without divine direction. Everything that happens to you.
Remember Job? Who started that argument anyway?
Who started that? God did. He said, Hey, didn't
you notice Job? You've been out there running around. Didn't
you see Job? He said, yeah, I saw him, but you know what, you got
a hedge about him, and he got a lot of stuff, and you know,
that's why he worships you, because he got all this stuff. He said,
okay, take his stuff, but don't you touch him. And he comes back
the second time, skin for skin, you just take his health, and
then he'll curse you. He said, okay, take his health,
you can't take his life. You see, who's in charge of this?
God is. And what was the end of Job? Job said a lot of horrible things.
He said he was righteous. He said he didn't know what in
the world. He said, I don't know how God can be so bad to such
a good person like me. What was the end of Job though?
Did God not keep him? Did his position still remain
the same? It was. Who did that? God kept
his feet. God kept his standing. So we see that none of the devices
of Satan will ever be able to move us from our position. Our Lord Jesus Christ in John
10 said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me. And I give unto them eternal
life. I give unto them eternal life. and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Is that not comforting to you? In your trials, in your afflictions,
is that not comforting to you to know this, that you will never
lose your place in Christ? Ever. That's what God is telling
you. I'll keep your feet. I'll keep
your standing in Christ. That's great. I was in Christ
before I knew I was in Christ. God put me there. I was in Christ
when Christ came into this world. Didn't even know about that.
When I came into this world unholy without knowledge of Him, I was
in Him. One day He made me see it. I'll
tell you what, I don't always feel it. But what in the world
does my feelings have to do with my standing? Nothing. The Apostle Paul said, I'm persuaded
neither life nor death. That pretty much sums up everything,
right? Life and death. Nor angels. That just sums up
anything higher than life and death. Or principalities. Or
powers. Or things present. Or things
to come. Or height or depth. And just
in case I missed anything, any other creature shall be able. I like that. You better be sure
about that word. What does that mean? They're
going to try. They're just not going to be able to separate
me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. This is His
promise to you. What about my sin? Oh, man. I think of old Joshua, that high
priest in Zechariah. Come before the Lord in those
filthy garments. unworthy to be in the presence
of God, Satan ready to accuse him at his right hand. And before
he can make one accusation, the angel of the Lord said, Is this
not my chosen? Is this not my sanctified one?
Is this not my one as a brand plucked from the burning? What could Satan say? God said,
I chose him. I redeemed him. I justified him. What are you going to say to
that? What can he say? Nothing. And what did he say? He said, take that filthy garment
off of him. Put on a priestly robe. Put a crown on his head. And I like these words, and the
angel of the Lord stood by. You know what that means? He
stood by to make sure it happened. It was by His decree and by His
will that it happened, and He's going to make sure it happens.
So what is He going to make sure about His saints? That every
one of us keep our position, regardless of how we come in
our filthy garments, often stained and marred by our sin. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, He stands by to make it happen. Therefore, we
sing, My hope, is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, not the sweetest feeling. Don't trust that. Don't trust
that. That's not, that's not, Oh, I
feel like a saint today. What does that have anything
to do with it? I'm glad you do. I mean, those are really things
that we want. Every believer wants to feel His presence. We want to know within ourselves
these things are true. But man, just wait a minute and
that's going to be gone. Then what have you got to lean
on? Don't trust the sweetest frame. Wholly lean on Jesus'
name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is what? Sinking
sand, ain't nothing. So who's going to keep your position?
God said, I will. I will. Secondly, what does it
also mean? It means this, that He's going
to keep us in our walk. Our walk. As we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, we are born again of the Holy Spirit. We have an incorruptible
nature. We are saints. Again, God is not winking. He's not pretending that you're
holy. God cannot pretend. I can't emphasize that enough.
God does not pretend you're holy. You are either holy or you're
not. You're sanctified or you're not. There's no middle ground. There's
no partial sanctification. There's no partial holiness.
No such thing as... Can you be partly holy? Is that
possible? That means you've got some sin,
right? If you have some sin, then you're not what? You're
not holy. God doesn't pretend. And so He has given us a holy
nature. John said that new nature cannot
sin. That which is born of God, John
said, sinneth not. But we also confess that we are
not without sin. God doesn't pretend about that
either. Why? Because we still have the
old man of sin we were born with. And so when the Word of God says,
walk in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, And what? You shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. What is he talking about, walk
in the Spirit? He's talking about walking by
faith. That's what it is to walk in
the Spirit. It is to walk by faith in Jesus
Christ. And I'll tell you, the new man
would want to do nothing else. I know this, you that believe,
do you not want to believe more? Do you realize your faith is
still weak? But you never want to not believe. You that believe. You ever want to not believe?
You ever run around and say, man, I wish I didn't have any
faith at all? I said, no believer ever. We
want more faith. I like this hymn, it says, On
Christ by faith I fain would live. I want to do that. With
all my soul, I want to live by faith in Christ. From him my
life, my all received. To him devote my fleeting hours.
Serve him alone with all my powers. That's what I want. But what's
the problem? Why don't you? Because we also understand that
we have an old nature. that is only corrupt and full
of sin. And because of this, the enemy
has many devices to move us from faith in Christ. The enemy has many devices that
he will use to move us from faith in Christ. And why does he Have
you ever been moved from Him? I tell you, we are easily moved,
aren't we? Why? Because the old nature wants
it. And so, I can't blame Satan.
Whom am I going to blame? It's His devices, but it's really
my sin. It's my sin. And so what does all his devices
want to do? They want us to move us from
Christ, from looking to Christ. Now, in the church of Corinth,
they had a ton of problems. They had a ton of problems. They
had an exalting men problem. That's the first problem you
encounter in the book of Corinthians, is that they were exalting preachers. And you go further along and
they had an incest problem. There was a man in the church
that was committing incest and everybody was just saying what
a good Christian he was. They had a lot of strife, a lot
of contention, a lot of disputes in that church. But you know
what Paul's greatest fear was? He said this in 2 Corinthians
11, he said, but I fear, now this is what I fear, because
you've got all these problems, listen, this is what I fear,
that Satan will come in and subtly, move you from the simplicity
that's in Christ. Well, we got a men exalting problem. We need to preach on not exalting
men. We got a man over here committing incest. You know what we need
to preach on? We need to preach on how we shouldn't commit incest.
We got a lot of debate and disputing going on. We need to preach on
not fighting. What does that do? If you're
preaching on all those other things, what do you move from?
You move from the simplicity that's in Christ, aren't you?
Paul said, that's my greatest fear for you. It's that you move
from the simplicity in Christ. Faith in Christ. Now Satan will
use the power of sin within us. And I'll tell you, that's easy
for him to do, isn't it? To move us from faith in Christ. He will
use pride. That's a device he uses. How often do we depend on ourselves,
trust in ourselves? Peter had that problem, didn't
he? He said, Lord, if anybody's gonna, I'll die with you. Satan can trip us up in despair. I like that. We can be exalted
to pride and be moved from Christ, or we can be brought down to
despair and be moved from Christ. We're always bouncing between
those two, aren't we? As we go in, we're elevated and
full of pride, and then what? God brings us down like Peter. And then we're brought to so
much despair as to never believe that He's ever going to come
and save us again. Always bouncing between these two things. So I ask you this, you're troubled
on every side. You stagger often like a drunken
man. Bouncing from pride and sin and
self. Man, what is your hope that you're
ever going to be kept looking to Christ? Because God said, I will keep
the feet of my saints. I will keep you in the faith. I know that we can be deceived.
I know that we can be duped. I know that we can fall into
many foolish and hurtful lusts. I know that. But I know this
also, that none of God's saints will be able to remain there.
Why? God said, I will keep you in
the faith. That's what He means by keeping
our feet. The just shall live by faith. That's how we walk,
is by faith. Well, guess what? God promises
to keep us in the faith, regardless of the circumstance. He will
never leave us in this. He will never leave us in our
pride. What does He do? He brings us
low. He never leaves us in our despair. He lifts us up. What
is He doing? He's fulfilling His promise.
He's going to keep your feet. None of us will remain in those
places and none of us will fall out of the way. Why? Because
this is what He told Peter. He said, you who are kept. Now why is it that you're still
here? Have you not fallen so many times? Have you not said so often, Lord,
I believe help thou my unbelief? Have you not been duped by the
enemy? I'm so easily fooled. Why am I still here? Because
I'm kept. And that's the evidence of true
faith. Is there anything worse for a believer than to suppose
that his faith is gone? It's the worst condition, isn't
it? This is my only hope, is that
God has kept me. The only reason I'm still here
is God kept me. Because he's fulfilling his promise he gave
to Hannah. He will keep the feet. of his
saints. Now how does he do this? I'm
going to give you a few things. We'll close. First of all, he
does this by fear. What I mean is not horror, but
reverence. Our God keeps us in the faith
by his holy reverence. This is what he promised in that
covenant, isn't it? He said, I will put my fear in
their hearts. And what? That they should not
depart from me. This is how he fulfills that
promise, regardless of the devices of the enemy, regardless of the
foolishness of the flesh, God says, I'm going to keep you by
this, by my fear. The greatest fear of a believer
is that we're not in Christ. This fear that God puts in our
hearts is a reverential fear. A right view of our strength. What is that? I don't have any.
He always gives me that view. And He keeps our hearts and minds
set on Jesus Christ. Second of all, He does this by
His Word. He keeps our feet by His Word. Thy Word is a lamp
unto what? My feet. And a light unto my
path. It's the Word of God that keeps
us. May God ever keep us and never let us move from Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. It is the Lamb. It is the Light. It is the means by which God
keeps His saints looking to Him. It's a means by which He comforts
us, cuts us, rebukes us, heals us. It's a means. And let us then not be moved
from the preaching of Jesus Christ. And God uses His Spirit to make
that happen. I preach this word to you all
the time, but how do I know it's going to be effectual? I don't. I don't have any clue. It's the
Spirit that makes it effectual. Why do you still want to hear
this? Didn't I preach Christ last week?
Didn't I preach Christ 17 years I've been here? Have I not preached
Christ in that time? You that have been here that
long. Have I not? It's all I've got. And I know this because of the
Spirit. That's all you need. That's all you want. I like this. He said, my doctrine shall drop
as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew. As the small
rain upon the tender herb, as the showers upon the grass, The
showers upon the grass is God. When God comes in the shower,
He puts down the flesh, which is what? Grass. And what does
He do to the spirit? He distills it like a dew. You know, you just wake up and
there's the dew. Where'd it come from? How often
does the Word of God come like that? It just distills on your
heart. What is God doing? He's keeping
you. He's keeping you. And He keeps us by providence,
doesn't He? Everything that God is doing, He's doing to keep
you. Not to cause you to fail. You can't. You realize you cannot
fail of the grace of God. Why? Because you're kept. You're
kept. Who are kept? Those that were
sanctified by God the Father, sanctified by God the Son, and
sanctified by God the Spirit. He keeps us in our standing and
He keeps us in our walking. Until when? Until faith is no
more. Can you imagine a day when there's
never going to be need of faith again? When we appear before
God, then is the fulfillment of this promise done. I've kept
you. What do we have hope of right
now? That He's keeping me. He's keeping me. How long is he going to keep
me? Forever. Forever. I hope God will comfort you with
this. Because I know you're troubled as I am. I need it. I need to
know that he's the one keeping me. And I'm not keeping myself. Can you keep yourself? Is that
possible? It's not possible, is it? I don't have any strength to
keep myself. But I'm not dependent on my strength. I am dependent
upon His promise, His strength. I hope God will comfort this
and bring this to your heart. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Lynn, dismiss in prayer, please. You're beautiful. You're so beautiful. So, I love you. Back up. The Lord is getting
sad. I've just been listening to you. You're so beautiful. Thank you. I hear that's a very
important call as well. Is it? Oh, that's the other way.
Yeah. Yeah, they're faithful. They're
begging for one. Yeah, she is flying to Dallas. And then, tomorrow, she's flying
to Hawaii. Yeah, my nephew got her a ticket.
My nephew got her a ticket to go. No, she flew out to Dallas, but
my nephew lives in Dallas.