My text will be found in verse
9. And the title of my message this
morning is, The Keeping of Our Feet, or God Keeping Our Feet. Look at verse 9. This is a promise. A promise
of God given to us in this prayer of Hannah. The Lord will keep the feet of
his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by
strength shall no man prevail." We have before us a very great
and precious promise this morning for all the saints of God. The Word of God here is spoken
to us by one who had suffered greatly, even Hannah. You remember
Hannah, she was barren in herself. She could not bear children. She had a lifeless womb. And you remember what the Lord
did for her. The Lord gave her a son. Not just any son was it. Samuel,
one of the greatest prophets that God had ever put on the
face of the earth next to our Lord Jesus Christ. Samuel was
her son. God gave her life within her
womb that she could not do for herself. Now can't every believer
in Christ relate to Hannah? Spiritually can we not relate
to her? We ourselves were barren in ourselves. No life inside
of us, no love for God, no heart of faith toward Christ could
be ever done by us. Now that woman could have done
anything and everything that the science could have allowed
her to do and her womb would still be dead. That's the way
it is with religion. You can do whatever you do. Do
whatever you think you can. Do all that you can. Go and serve
in missionary fields and go and do this and do that. You can't
give yourself life. Only God can give you life. Only
God can give you faith in Jesus Christ. We had no strength, and then God, to save our souls,
He sent Christ. He sent Christ. Look at verse 6. This is a song
of Hannah. The Lord killeth and the Lord
maketh alive. Is that not what he done? He
killed us in Adam, made us alive in Jesus Christ. He bringeth
down the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. We who are poor, are now made
rich in righteousness by Jesus Christ. Verse 8, He raised up
the poor out of the dust and lifted the beggar out of the
dunghill to set them among princes, to make them inherit the throne
of glory. Isn't that what He has done for
us? Lifted us up from the dunghill of our sins and set us to be
kings and priests unto our God. And she says, "...as for the
pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He has set the world
upon them." Now consider this, just as God has set the pillars
of this world and it cannot be moved, even so Christ is the
pillar of our salvation. He is the foundation upon which
all our soul rests. You see, you identify with Hannah.
Her prayer is a prayer toward Christ. Our prayer is a prayer
toward Christ and His salvation. But now look at this promise
that God gives to all those who are saved, who are lifted up
from the dunghill, resurrected from the dead, kept by Jesus
Christ. He said this, He will keep the
feet of His saints. Now, I want you to be reminded
about something. When God gives a promise, it's sure. It's sure. Do you realize that not anything
in heaven or earth or hell or heaven could hinder this promise? He will keep the feet of His
saints. This promise is sure, it is immutable,
it is absolute, and it is unconditional. This promise is not based on
any condition in the object, but it is a promise of God by
sovereign mercy upon all His who? Saints. He shall keep the
feet of His saints. His saints. Listen, this promise
is not for everyone in the world. He shall not keep the feet of
everyone, but he shall keep the feet of his saints. He will keep
them. We'll keep the feet of his saints.
And I like this. It's not limited in its scope
concerning the saints, though. It's limited in that it only
is for the saints. But in this group, the saints,
it is promised to all the saints, all of them. no matter their
condition, no matter where they are, no matter what they've done,
all of the saints of God are included in this promise. He
shall keep the feet of all His saints, all of them. So, listen, if you are a saint of God, if
you are a saint, it doesn't matter who you are or where you are.
God said this, I will keep your feet. I will keep your feet. So then it behooves us to ask
this, are we as saints? Who are the saints of God? That's
my first question this morning. Who are the saints of God? And
my second question is this, what does it mean God shall keep their
feet? And how does he do it? What does
that mean and how does he do it? So let's look at these three
things. First of all, who are the saints? Now I want you to
understand that a saint is made up solely by the work
of God alone. That each person in the Blessed
Trinity has a part in this making of a saint. Of a saint. The whole family. Now this word
saint, let me just make this clear. It means sanctified one.
That's what it means. One who is sanctified. Now the
word sanctified obviously has two meanings. Set apart is one
meaning of sanctified. If something is set apart for
the worship of God, it was called sanctified. Another meaning is
holiness. Holiness. Holy ones. That's who he's talking to. you
holy ones, this promise is to you. And so then all that are sanctified
ones are sanctified first of all by the Father. God the Father
has sanctified all his saints. He has done this in sovereign
election. Sovereign election. God has set
apart all His saints. They're set apart and consecrated
by the decree of God. Listen to what Jude says. Jude
1, verse 1, it says, "...to them that are sanctified by God the
Father." Preserved in Jesus Christ. and called. You believe on Jesus
Christ. I want you to see this is the
root of your holiness. This is the root cause of your
holiness. Your holiness has nothing to
do with your action, has nothing to do with your person. It has
nothing to do with you whatsoever. It has rooted in this, that God
chose you and sanctified you from everyone else. He set you
apart for his own glory and grace. That's it. It was grace that
sanctified us, the grace of the Father. It is the root of our
faith and union with Christ, is the election of grace. The
election of the Father even precedes our preservation in Christ. Jude says you are sanctified
by the Father and then you were preserved in Christ. It was the
election of the Father that put you in Christ. in Christ. Isn't that what Paul says in
1 Corinthians 1.30? But of God are you in Christ
Jesus. Why? He sanctified you. He set
you apart from everyone else of Adam's race and put you in
union with Jesus Christ. Don't you... I'm thinking of
that word preserved. I can't help but think of fruit.
You know, you get those preserves. Ooh, they're just so good. You
preserve them. You put them up. You seal them
off. And they're preserved. That's what you were. You were
sealed all. In Christ, God the Father sealed you in Christ. And put you in union with Him,
preserved you in Christ Jesus. Before the world began. This
is what God said to Jeremiah. He said, Before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee. You got that? Before He formed
us in the belly, He knew us. And before thou camest out of
the womb, I sanctified thee." Don't you see you were sanctified?
If you're a saint of God, you've been sanctified. Every time I
hear of men rejecting the sovereign election of God, I despise it. I despise anyone who rejects
this message. It is awful. You know why? Because I know
this, had God not chosen me, I never would have chosen Him.
Had God not preserved me, sanctified me in Christ, I would have never
come to Christ. Never. And I tell you the truth,
all who are not sanctified by the Father in election will never
be saints of God. If you were never set apart by
God the Father, you will never be a saint. Second of all, the
saints of God are the work of the Son. We were sanctified in
Christ Jesus before the world began, set apart by the Father
in union with Him, so the Son became surety of the covenant
of grace for us. It was the purpose of God that
all His saints be made holy. made perfect, made sinless. God's purpose, God's decree,
God's electing love planned our salvation and put all the responsibility
of it on Jesus Christ. So then by this we were sanctified
in Jesus Christ. God just didn't put us apart
by ourselves. Thank God. God put us apart in Christ and
made Him to be all our salvation. Of God are you in Christ, who
is of God made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and what? Sanctification
and redemption. He is our holiness. He is our
righteousness. He is our redemption. He is our
wisdom. In other words, to the saints,
Christ is all. Christ is all. Paul said this
in Hebrews 13 verse 12, Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify
the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. You
were sanctified by blood. You were sanctified by blood. Purchased by blood. Redeemed
by blood. I have a friend, she's in a nursing
home now. And she calls me every once in
a while. They had these little religious services and stuff
and she gets to, you know, they get to pick hymns and things.
And she wanted to sing, there is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And the preacher said, well,
we don't sing about blood here. Pay attention. Without the shedding
of blood is no remission of sins. If there is no blood, there is
no salvation. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save His people by blood, by death, by suffering the sins
for the sins of His people in their stead, by enduring the
wrath of God on the cross of Calvary for the sins of His saints
so that He would make them holy. Saint, where is your sin? I tell you this, he bore it in
his own body on the tree and carried it so far away that God
will never speak of it again. God will never hear of it again.
God will never see it. He said, I, even I, have blotted
out all thy transgressions. You see, we are sanctified by
the blood of the Son. Thirdly, we are sanctified by
the work of the Spirit. How much did you know of election
and redemption when you came into this world? I tell you this, I've been studying
for years. I just barely began to scratch the surface of it,
but I knew nothing of it. I knew nothing of it. I knew
nothing of my election or my redemption when I was born. We
were born into this world unholy. There was no love of God in our
hearts. There was love of sin, not love of God. There was love
of self, there was not love for Christ. There was no faith in
Christ, only faith in men and self, works and religion. There was no faith in Christ
in us. But God who chose us in election and redeemed us by the
precious blood of Christ, listen, there was no chance we were going
to miss it. I love the way the scriptures
speak in such sure languages, don't you? These aren't just
hypotheticals, are they? These are not conditional promises
based on the actions of its objects. No, these are sure promises in
a covenant of God made by God, with God, for you. These are sure promises. All
those He chose and all those He redeemed, the Spirit of God
will sanctify them by the work of the Holy Spirit. He will sanctify
them by giving them life. That's what a saint is. It's
a man who is made alive by the Spirit of God, quickened by the
Spirit of God. Someone came to us. and preach
the gospel to us while we were dead. When we had no interest,
someone preached to us. And the Spirit of God at that
moment took that word and made us to see who we are. Opened
our eyes, exposed us, and we could not run. We could not hide
anymore. We could not run back to life
as we once knew it. Sin began to be ashes in our
mouth and the things of the world became meaningless to us because
our souls pined away in our sin, knowing the justice of God hovered
above our heads. And in grace, God gave us such
faith to flee to Christ as our refuge. As a man running from
death to life, we ran to Christ. We cleaved to Him. And I'll tell
you this, faith is the only evidence of your election and your redemption. Are you a believer in Jesus?
Do you believe on Christ alone? Alone, period! Without anything
else. That is the evidence of a saint
of God. You are a saint of God. You believe in Christ, you are
sanctified. Saint Rick. Isn't that something? Saint Annie. People believe on Lord Jesus
Christ are saints of God. Now you saints of God, you pay
close attention. This promise is specifically
of God for you. He will keep your feet. Now maybe,
now perhaps, With all of His power, with all
of His strength, with all of His love, with all of His mercy,
with all of His grace and wisdom, He will keep your feet. He will keep your feet. When you who believe in Christ
came to Christ, was everything then made Joyful was everything
then just roses and sunshine Since you've come to Christ is
everything turn your way The winds have all turned your way
and your your ship has come in. Everything's happy. Everything's
well Nobody hates you. Everybody loves you. I know that's
what the world thinks when a man comes to Christ. That's what
should happen Exactly the opposite has happened Your world turns upside down. You suffer troubles and difficulties,
afflictions. We are immediately brought into
conflict. Every chosen, redeemed, and called
one is tried, afflicted, and tormented in this world. Troubles
abound. Troubles abound. The saints of
God are suffering people. Jesus said, in this world you
shall have tribulation. The world will hate you. Satan
will attack you. The flesh will war with your
soul. And all the troubles are not by accident. All your difficulties
are not by accident. Every joy and trial falleth from
above, traced on our dial by the sun of love." Listen to what
he said in Zechariah 13. This is what God says of you
saints. He says, I will bring a third
part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined,
will try them as gold is tried. How is silver refined and gold
tried? Fire. Fire. You put the gold
and the silver in the fire and it melts them so that the impurities
may be raked off and that the gold or the silver might be purer. God says, that's what I'll do
to you. I'm going to put you in the fire. The fire of affliction
now does the gold. The gold suffers in that it's
melted. It's broken down and brought
low, but it's not destroyed, is it? No, and neither are any
of His saints. It's not His purpose. Listen
to His purpose. He said, They shall call on My
name, and I will hear them. Isn't that what happens when
troubles come? You shall call on My name, and I will hear you.
It is My people, and they say, The Lord is my God. So don't you see your need of
this promise this morning? Don't you see your need of the
promise of God? I do. I feel like Asaph. Asaph, that old psalmist, wrote
this. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such are of a clean heart.
I know God is good to His saints, but ask for me. My... Listen. feet were almost
gone, my steps had not well slipped. Often we say to our soul, I know
God's good to His saints, but not me. I can't be one of them
because of my sin, because of my wickedness. So then, you who
are saints of God, what does God mean by keeping your feet?
Now that's a, I guess, not readily understandable, what He means
by your feet. But I want you to see what this
Holy Spirit intends here is spiritual. It is spiritual. Our feet have
to do with two things. Standing and walking. Without feet you can't do either.
You gotta have feet. Your feet cause you to stand
and they cause you to walk. Let us see this spiritually.
That God says this, I will keep your standing and I will keep your walking.
I will keep your standing and I will keep your walking. Now
why do we need this promise? Because we have enemies that
would long to trip us up. Our enemy, Satan, would long
to trip our feet and knock us out of the way. He would long
to remove us from our standing in Christ and he would long to
trip us up in the way that we walk. Always seeking that. You remember that vision in Revelation
of the woman and how the dragon, Satan, he was cast to the earth And he pursued the woman. Now
the woman is you and me. The woman is the church. And
God gave her two wings like an eagle that she might fly in the
wilderness and into her place. And she was nourished for a time,
time, and half a time from the face of the serpent. And the
face, now get this, the serpent couldn't get to her. When this
place, in this standing, in this place, he could not reach her.
So he sent forth floods out of his mouth to try to get to her. But you know what happened? The
earth opened up and swallowed up the floods and he could not
reach her. And so he made war with her seed. This is a picture of our warfare. You saints of God, we are in
war. And so then I want you to know
this, no matter what Satan does to you, he cannot remove you
from your standing in Christ. The standing of the saint is
in Jesus Christ. And from this we cannot be removed.
Remember, you were sanctified by God in Christ before the world
began. You were sanctified by Jesus
Christ in the crucifixion of His death. And you were sanctified
by the Spirit of God in giving you a new nature, a new life. And listen to me, no matter what
happens in this life, you shall not lose your standing before
God in Christ. You cannot lose it. You cannot
lose it. You didn't put yourself in Christ
and you would never take yourself out. You cannot lose it. God
says, I will keep your feet from falling. You shall stand in Christ. I will keep your standing. You
remember Job. Here's an illustration of this. Job. Satan, God actually
approached Satan about this. He said, have you noticed my
servant Job? And Satan said, yeah, I noticed him. But you
just, you got a hedge about all his stuff. I can't touch any
of his stuff. If I could touch his stuff, I
could take it, then he'll hate you." And God says, okay, I'll
remove the hedge of his stuff. Took that hedge in, and sure
enough, he wiped out all that he had, killed his sons. And
you know what? He still didn't leave God. He
said, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be
the name of the Lord. And Satan, he comes back later,
God says, did you notice? He took all of his stuff, but
he still wouldn't curse me. He said, yeah, skin for skin.
You touch his body, you touch his life, and then he'll curse
you! And God said this, okay, I'll
remove the hedge from his body. Touch his body. But you cannot
take his life. You see, the hedge, it just got
smaller. Until it got to a place that
it could not get any smaller. God says, I'll give you everything
else but this. You cannot have this. He could not remove him from
his standing. No matter what he did. No matter
how Job, even Job sinned against God in some of the things he
said. And yet it was still sure, God says this, I will keep his
feet from falling. I will keep his feet. What does
that mean? He will keep his standing. he
will keep his standing. Jesus said this, I give unto
my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand for the father which gave
them me is greater than all and no man could pluck them out of
my father's hand who then shall separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, nor peril, nor sword? No. For I am persuaded that neither
life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Now consider this, what
about the accusations of our enemy, that flood that he sends
in on the woman? Well, you remember old Joshua,
the high priest? In Zechariah, he was standing
before the Lord in those filthy garments, full of sin, guilty
as everything. And Satan stood there ready to
accuse him. And before he could say a word,
the Lord Jesus said, shh, hush, hush. He said, is this not a
brand pluck from the burning? Put the righteous robe on him.
Put the miter on his head. Now listen. If you don't get anything out
of this, get this. Your standing in Christ is secure. And nothing will move you. Isn't that opposed to everything
religion says? Well, you gotta do this to...
Nope. No. I'm in Christ. Christ is all. He's all my standing before God. But the second thing, really
experimental here, walking. He shall keep your feet in walking. Every saint of God, born again
of the Spirit, You have an incorruptible nature that cannot sin, but you
also have a nature that can only sin. The Word of God says, therefore
walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
What is it to walk in the Spirit? We've gone over this in Galatians
so many times. To walk in the Spirit is simply faith in Christ. That's what walking in the Spirit
is. Faith in Jesus Christ. Looking only, always to Jesus
Christ alone. Period. Remember, He's all my
standing. So then where should all your
faith be? It should be in Him. That's where you walk. That's
walking by the Spirit. I love this song because we know this old man
is always against us believing in Christ. On Christ, by faith,
I fain would live. I want to live by faith in Christ.
I fain would live! From Him my life my all receive,
to Him devote my fleeting hours, serve Him alone with all my powers. Christ is my everlasting all,
to Him I look, to Him I call. He will my priceless treasure
be in time and through eternity. Soon will the Lord my life appear,
soon will end my trials here, leave sin and sorrow, death and
pain. to live as Christ, to die as
gain. So when the saints of God are
walking through this wilderness, we are often tempted and we are often encounter snares so as to try
to remove us from faith in Christ. Many snares, many troubles, Be
very aware of your ancient foe that Satan longs to remove you
from faith in Christ. By every means and power at his
disposal, he desires to remove you from faith in Christ. That
is to trip up your feet. Paul tells us, therefore, walk
circumspectly. Carefully. Carefully. That doesn't
mean we need to get the Ten Commandments and start reading them. We don't
need to get church creeds. What do we need? Faith in Christ. This is how we walk. We walk
by faith in Christ. It's very simple. It's one thing.
Remember, I tell you, God deals in one so that He keeps it simple
for us. One faith. We only walk by faith
in Jesus Christ. How does Satan try to trip us
up? Well, first of all, what about that old man inside of
you? There's a good weapon that Satan uses to trip you up. The
man of sin that resides in you. Every saint of God understands
in some measure the power of his own depraved nature. Don't
you? Do you not understand the power
of this man, this old man over you? One spark of passion lights
a forest fire of lust, doesn't it? Now listen, if you just say
that, if you say, well, it's just... Oh, you are sparking
something right there. There's the spark that leads
to the fire. If you say, well, it's just...
Run. Run. It's not just. the old man of sin in us that
Satan uses. Have you noticed that the more
you grow in grace, the more aware you are of this old man? I thought
it would be different, didn't you? I thought it would be better.
I thought that once I'd come to Christ that I would be better. that this would be easier to
serve God, to read His Word, to go to Him in prayer. I thought
surely within myself that I would grow in grace and faith and that
it would be such a great thing that I would no longer have these
lusts or passions, that that would be all behind me. But that's
not true, is it? The more I grow in grace, the
more keenly aware I am of my depravity. I feel more of my sin because
I have the grace of God. By the grace of God, we become
more sensitive to our need of Christ and His cleansing blood.
Don't you see how this keeps our feet from standing? God allows
these things in us so that we might see our need of Him. You see, Satan uses those things
to trip us up, but God uses them so that we might call to Him. that we might keep our feet from
falling. So then when we are entangled
in the old nature, in our steps, this only makes us cry and keeps
our feet more fixed on Christ. Second thing that
Satan uses is pride and presumption. Sometimes when believers are
given a smooth path and no trouble, no afflictions, what are we tempted
to do? We're tempted to look at ourselves. When everything's going well,
we look to ourselves. Well, look at me, I've been faithful,
you know, I've been reading, I've been studying. I, me, I,
me. And then what does God do? He brings trouble. Difficulty. He crosses our fair designs and
schemes. He crosses us! He brings trouble
in our way. Why? To keep your feet. That's
what he's doing. He's keeping your feet. You see,
trouble is the remedy even for pride, isn't it? It humbles us
and brings us low. Peter denied, you know, he had
pride. He said, I'll never leave thee. I'll die with thee. And what
did God use to keep his feet? He let Satan sift him. But, here's the difference, I
have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. You see, God
uses even these things that He would trip us up. He uses them
to keep our feet. The third thing Satan would use
is unbelief and despair. One end is high pride, the other
end is utter despair. When you see your sin, what do
you do? You begin to despair. You're
up here and you're proud, God brings you down, and what do
you do? You go all the way down and you say things like, well,
I don't know how in the world God could save me. We say like
David, how long, oh Lord, will you hide your face forever? Will
you not come to me forever? Are we cast off forever? What's
a remedy for despair? Comfort. God says, I'll keep
your feet with comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
sayeth the Lord. What is our comfort? Your warfare
is accomplished. The Lord received double for
all your sins. I think of us much like a drunken
man, staggering from pride to despair, pride to despair, pride
to despair, and all the while he's bringing us low and he's
lifting us up. He's bringing us low, he's lifting
us up. What is he doing? He's keeping your feet. Isn't
he fulfilling his promise? He keeps your feet. Well, how then does he keep our
feet? Well, first of all, God keeps them by the fear of the
Lord. What is the most fearful thing in your mind? It is to be moved from Christ.
Is there anything more dreadful for the believer than to be moved
from Christ? Nothing. This is the fear of the Lord
he puts in the heart of every one of his people. This is part of the covenant
of grace. I will make an everlasting covenant with them and not turn
away from them to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts.
And listen, they shall not depart from me. I will keep their feet. They will always believe on Christ
and they will never depart from their faith. Though they may
fall, though they may stumble, though they may be carried into
any sin, I know this, God will always recover His people. God
will always recover. How do I know that? He will keep
the feet of his saints. It is an immutable, everlasting,
eternal, absolute promise of God. Keeps us by his word, doesn't
he? How are you going to know about this promise except you
read it in his word? I couldn't say that to you if
God didn't show me in His Word. He keeps the feet of His saints. He will. His Word points us always
to Christ. His Word is ever refreshing to
us. Providence. Doesn't He keep us
by providence? always moving every instance
for your good, to always bring you to Himself. God is always
keeping the feet of His saints by His providence. It is my hope that God would
comfort you with this. You His saints chosen, redeemed,
and called. You who are in such conflict
with yourself, the devil, and the world, God promises, without
a doubt, I will keep your feet in your standing with Christ,
and I will keep your feet in faith, always walking in the
way. What is the way? It's Christ.
Christ is the way. Jude concludes his message with
this, now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling. To present you faultless, holy,
in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, power, both
now and forever. Why? He shall keep the feet of
His saints. What then will hinder you? What
then will stop him from doing his will? Nothing. Nothing. Let us not then fear what men
shall do unto us. Let us not fear what Satan will
do unto us. Let us keep our eyes fixed only
on Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul, I told you this
earlier in the church of Corinth, I'll close with this. Apostle
Paul and Corinth, they had a lot of problems. But Paul had one
fear. He said, my fear is that the
Satan would beguile you and move you from the simplicity that
is in Christ Jesus. Simplicity means singleness.
Christ is all. Christ is all. And so as you
walk in this world, remember this, Christ is all. And if Christ
is all, friend, all is well. All is well. I pray God will
comfort you with this, you his saints.