All right, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 14. 1 Samuel chapter
14. And we'll begin our reading in
verse... We'll begin our reading in verse
1, but my text will be found in verses 2 and 3. Now it came
to pass upon a day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said unto his
young man that bare his armor, Come, let us go over to the Philistines'
garrison that is on the other side. But he told not his father. And Saul tarried in the uttermost
part of Giba under a pomegranate tree, which is in Migron. and the people that were with
him were about 600 men. And Ahiah, the son of Hitub Ichabod's
brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest
in Shiloh, wearing the ephod. And the people knew not that
Jonathan was gone. And the title of the message
I have tonight is, Outward Religion Without Inward Conversion. Outward religion without inward
conversion. And this man Saul, the king of
Israel here, is a type of such a man who had outward religion
with no inward conversion. You remember that Saul was commanded
of Samuel, the prophet of God, to wait at the appointed time
for the sacrifice. Samuel, in chapter 10 and verse
8, you can go back there and look at that again. In Samuel
10 and verse 8, this is Samuel's command to Saul. He said, And
thou shalt go to Giba, and behold, I will come down there to thee,
and offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace
offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till
I come to thee, and show thee what you should do. These appointed sacrifices, these
sacrifices in Scripture, we know this, always picture the coming
and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. God promised from the beginning. that Christ should come and save
His people from their sins. How? How should He come and how
should He save them? From the beginning, God had promised
that He would make a sacrifice. A sacrifice. It was by a sacrifice
that covered the nakedness of our parents, Adam and Eve. It was by faith that Abel offered
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. What sacrifice did Cain
offer? Cain offered the fruit of the
ground. He offered the labor of his hands. And what did God say about Cain's
sacrifice? He rejected, he had no respect
for the sacrifice of Cain. And I tell you, even so do men
labor. Labor in their works of religion,
and they offer their works of the flesh, which is nothing more
than a product of a cursed heart. A cursed heart. But by faith,
Abel offered a blood sacrifice. A blood sacrifice. By faith,
he believed the promise of God that Christ would come, not of
the cursed seed, but of the seed of the woman. And by his death,
he would satisfy the justice of God, which none of his works
could do. Abel offered a more excellent
sacrifice. It was a sacrifice of faith. It was one that looked forward
to the coming sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now remember,
it was by a sacrifice that God delivered Israel from Egypt. It was by the Passover Lamb. Even so, God had purposed an
appointed time when Christ, our Passover, should come in and
die for the sins of His people. Sinners see this. If you see
nothing else, you should see this. Without the shedding of
blood is no remission of sin. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sin. From the beginning, God testified
that only by blood is justice satisfied. By the death of a
Savior, By the death of a sinner, that's the only thing that satisfies
justice. The death of the guilty. But who of Adam's fallen race
could bear such wrath? Who among us could bear the wrath
of God? None of us could. None of us
could bear the wrath of God. This is why hell is eternal. Even because there is no satisfaction
in our death. Our death brings no satisfaction
to the justice of God. That's why it's eternal. None
of us could pay for one transgression. We could not pay God for one
transgression. But God, by the first sacrifice,
set forth the only hope for sinners. The only hope for sinners is
what? The shedding of blood. That's the only hope. It's the
only hope. that we might be saved by the
blood of a substitute. Therein is the gospel. If you
want to know the gospel in a nutshell, it's this word, substitution.
That's the gospel. This is the only hope that God
has set forth. God has appointed one and only
one to be both the sacrifice and the high priest. Now back
in our text, back in our text in the previous chapter, Saul
learned something. He learned this, that not just
anyone could make an offering. He went and Samuel, when Samuel
didn't come at the right time, Saul said, give me the offering. I'll make the offering. And Saul
made the offering. And you know what happened? Samuel
said, God hath rejected you to be king. You see, only those who are sanctified
by God may make the sacrifice. Only those ordained of God can
make the sacrifice. And these were called priests.
They're the ones that offered the sacrifice to God on the behalf
of men. They were mediators. In other
words, they stood between the people and God. You remember
that high priest, he was the only one allowed in to that Holy
of Holies. And he was not allowed without
what? A sacrifice, without blood. Without
blood. So those two things are necessary. And Saul, he learned that. He learned it. When God appeared on Sinai, you
remember in that fire and smoke? What did the people say when
they heard the voice of God? They said, Moses, you go up for
us. They knew they could not stand
in the presence of a holy God in themselves. They needed someone
to mediate, someone to stand between them and God. And so
that's a mediator. And I'll tell you, we can not
only cannot provide for ourselves a sacrifice, we cannot offer
a sacrifice. Therefore, behold the grace and
mercy of God to send His appointed priest, His appointed mediator. I love this Scripture. For there
is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Oh, I love how Scripture destroys
all false religion. The Roman Catholic Church is
built on mediators, plural. And one verse of Scripture annihilates
their whole religion, and yet they'll still cling to it. But
that's so. There's only one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. All other mediators are liars. They're not true. They're false. He was appointed of God to come
as a high priest and offer the only acceptable sacrifice. And
what sacrifice was that? Himself. He was the only sacrifice. The Apostle says this in Hebrews
chapter 9, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot. Offered Himself
without spot to God. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. Believers, is your conscience
bruised often? Is it bruised easily? Surely our heart cries, my love
is too cold, my faith is too small, and my hope is too dim. and full of fear. Is that not
often our cry out to God? It is. It is. But when we cry
such, we should consider the saints of the Old Covenant, the
saints in the Old Testament. Notice, when they offered that
sacrifice, the Scripture says that it sanctified them in the
flesh. In other words, they looked forward
to the coming and dying of the Savior. And when they saw that
sacrifice, by faith, their conscience was clear. Now then, look, how
much more should we, who live after the sacrifice of Christ,
should our conscience be cleansed from dead works to serve the
living God, seeing that He is who was promised to come, has
come, and offered a sacrifice acceptable to God. In Him, by
Him, and through Him, listen, you are complete. You think that about yourself?
Oh, no, no, no. We always know there's there's
always seems to be you look in the mirror. Obviously, there's
room for improvement when I look in the mirror. Obviously, there's
always. But in Christ, I am fully complete
and perfect in the eyes of my God. Why? Because He is the High
Priest and the sacrifice by which I am accepted, accepted, accepted
of God in Him, by Him, and through Him. We are complete and righteous
before the eyes of our God. By His one offering, He hath
perfected forever. Perfected forever. Who? Them that are sanctified. The
word sanctified, don't let it scare you, just means holy. That's
what it means. Holy. Them that are holy. How is it that we are made holy?
Through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ and by the application
of it by the Holy Spirit, we are made holy. Believer, we are
made holy by the will of God in election. We are made holy
by the blood of Christ, our priest and offering. And we are made
holy by the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. I love that passage in Deuteronomy
that says, My doctrine shall distill like the dew and the
small rain on the tender herb. Doesn't that sound gentle? Dew. You don't even... When you wake
up, it's just there. You don't see it falling. You
don't see the dew falling. It just is there. You wake up
in the morning, it's on the ground. Isn't that how grace is? You
dry, dead, cold, indifferent, and then all of a sudden that
doctrine just is there. It comes as the dew on the tender
herb. Small rain. Not vengeance, not
violent rain, not a hurricane. It comes in the small rain. Sin surely makes the heart of
saints tender. Our sin, our dead work, surely
break our hearts and cause us to cry for pardon and cleansing,
for grace? And how does God send it? Not
by violence, not with an intent to destroy us. He sends it as
a small rain on the tender herb. Sometimes it doesn't feel that
way, does it? It doesn't feel tender. Sometimes it feels harsh. Isn't that what Newton found
out when he asked for faith and grace? God unleashed the demons
to assault his soul, and he said, Will thou pursue thy worm to
death? And he said, no, this is just how I answer prayer for
grace and faith. It's through trials and troubles.
And that word, when it comes to us who are bruised and broken,
it comes as the dew. That Jesus Christ is both our
priest and our sacrifice. We by nature are corrupt. We're
wandering in the desert of sin and ignorance. But God found
us, didn't He? He instructed us to believe on Christ. He gave
us a new nature by which we heard the gospel and believed the gospel. O my soul, behold, all thy sins
have been slain. Is that not a tender rain falling
on the tender herb? It is. The handwriting of ordinances
that were against us, God hath nailed to His cross. And what
does that song say? I bear them no more. Praise the Lord. O my soul, All
our iniquities, transgressions, and sins have been forever removed
from us, and Christ bore the blame of them upon the tree. Surely I cannot and will not
then put my hand to the work. Salvation is not, cannot, and
will never be a mixture of grace and my works. It is either or,
the apostle says. It is either by grace or by works. But it can't be of both. And
what does the scripture plainly declare? It is all by grace.
Saved by grace. Our salvation is only by the
one offering of Jesus Christ once for all. Once for all. O sinner, receive it. Once for
all, O brother, believe it. Cling to the cross, thy burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Once for all. This knowledge,
this knowledge to the believer, it moves us to faith and love. This knowledge does something
to a believer. This understanding that my hand
has no part in the work of salvation does something. I'll tell you,
it doesn't make me angry. It makes me happy. It makes me
joyful. It moves me to love and faith
in Christ. That's what the message of this
gospel does always. to a believer. It moves us to
service, doesn't it? It moves us to service. I want
to serve my God, not for salvation, but because of salvation. Isn't
that what Paul said? He said, I beseech you by the
mercies, because of the mercies of God you present your bodies
a living sacrifice. Not the opposite way around.
God's not going to show you mercy because you present your bodies,
but because of His mercy, you should present your bodies. It's
just reasonable service. That's just reasonable to who?
Us, who believe. That's reasonable. But I want you to go back to
your text, and then I want you to see what this knowledge did
for Saul. Now, he understood this. He just
experienced this. He offered a sacrifice of his
own hands, and he was rejected. Now then, see what happens to
Saul. Notice. And Saul tarried in the
uttermost part of Gibeah, under a pomegranate tree, which is
a migron, and the people that were with him were about 600
men, and Ahaiah. the son of Ahitab, Ichabod's
brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest
in Shiloh, wearing the ephod. So what did Saul do? He learned
he couldn't provide a sacrifice. He couldn't offer a sacrifice.
So what did he do? He got a priest for himself.
He got a priest for himself. When Saul offered that sacrifice
to God by his own hands, he was rejected to be king. And notice,
Saul did, because of his rejection, first of all, he tarried. He
tarried. See, then, the reproach of Samuel
did not cause faith in God. nor humbleness of heart. But it did move him to outward
piety and religion. Saul tarried, but he had a priest. Now, where should Saul have been?
If Saul believed God, he should have humbled himself before Samuel,
God's man. We don't read that. He left Samuel. And you know what he found? He
found a yes man. That's what he found. He found
somebody who he could command. He found this so-called priest. He should have went to Saul for
a sacrifice, but he didn't. Nor was he willing to fight against
God's enemies. I like this. Matthew Henry wrote
this, and I copied it because I wanted to read it to you. He
said, Saul resolves never to fall into that error again, the
error of offering a sacrifice by his own hands. Therefore,
he sends for a priest and hopes to compromise the matter with
God Almighty by a particular reformation. as many do whose
hearts are not humbled, are unhumbled and unchanged. Samuel, the Lord's
prophet, had forsaken him, but he thinks he can make up the
loss by commanding Ahai, the Lord's priest, to attend him.
He will not make him stay for him, nor reprove him as Samuel
would have done, but will do just what he bids." And if you
go over to look at verse 18 of this chapter, And you'll see
that this man Ahai was not anything but a yes man. In verse 18 it
says, Saul said unto Ahai, Bring hither the ark of God. For the
ark of God was at the time with the children of Israel, and it
came to pass while Saul talked to the priest. that a noise was
in the host of the Philistines, went up and increased, and Saul
said unto the priest, Withdraw thine hand." In other words,
hey, stop offering that. That's enough. There's a noise
over here. We need to pay attention to me. And so he commanded that
priest to stop. You see, he was just nothing
more than, yes, man. Many, Matthew Henry says this,
many loved such ministers as they would have them to be and
prophesied smooth things to them. And they are caressing them because
they are priests. They hope they will atone for
their enmity with those ministers that deal faithfully and plainly
with them. He says, it is common for those
that have lost the substance of religion to be most fond of
the shadow of religion. Isn't that so? Men who have an
outward profession of religion, And yet they go away. What do they say when they're
around God's people, around people who truly believe? They profess
some fondness for it. How many of your family members
think this is their church? They don't ever come, but man,
this is their church. This is their church family. No, it's not. No, but they've
got a fondness for it. They have a nostalgia for religion. A friend's nostalgia or knowledge
is not salvation. I remember a couple of the kids
in the back, they were just, they were asking the catechisms
to each other. And they knew every answer. They
remember those answers from when they were little bitty. They
remember them. But what does that knowledge
do for them? If it's not in power If it doesn't come in power of
the grace of God in the heart, it does nothing. It's useless.
It's nothing more than an outward show of religion that has no
inward effect. Oh, how Saul is not a type of
believer here, but rather a picture of men who hear the gospel outwardly,
but have no inward conversion. And like Saul, some men hear
the gospel, hear of man's depravity and inability to offer anything
to God. They hear that by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. And they hear
it because we preach it. We preach, the only hope for
sinners is in Christ. We preach, repent from your self-righteousness,
repent from your vain works of religion, and believe on Christ
alone. And we conclude, we conclude
that a man is justified by faith. Not His faith, but rather Christ's
faith. He's justified by the faith of
the Son of God. And the only one who knows His
justification is one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is the only evidence of
our justification. Faith is never the cause of it,
but faith is the evidence of it. If we are justified by Christ,
we will believe. were justified without the deeds
of the law, which most surely was Samuel's message to Saul.
All your sacrifices and works of your hands are rejected. What
did Saul tell him? Look in verse 24 of chapter 13.
This is what Saul's message was. Your sacrifice rejected. I'm sorry, let me go back to
verse 14. But now thy kingdom shall not
continue. The Lord hath sought him a man
after his own heart. And the Lord hath commanded him
to be the captain over his people. Who is that man? It is the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is the man that God sought
and found. The man after his own heart. That was Saul's message to Samuel.
I mean Samuel's message to Saul. But I tell you this, the scripture
is clear, no man can come unto him except the Father draw him.
No man will hear and believe our gospel except the Holy Spirit
quicken him to life and faith. You see, Saul heard the gospel,
but Saul did not believe the gospel. Why? Because his experience was not
accompanied with the power of God. There was no humility in
Saul. There was no humbleness in Saul.
There was no repentance in Saul. There was only an outward show. An outward show of religion.
See then that salvation is not by knowledge of doctrine. Saul got that message. Saul learned
his lesson. He needed a priest. What did
he do? He went out and found one. Went out and found one. But his knowledge, this kind
of knowledge, did not produce any change in his heart. He was
still without faith in Christ. He remained in the same place. Brother Don wrote this, I thought
it was good for you to hear. We must never be content with
knowing Bible facts, Bible history, and Bible trivia, or even Bible
doctrine. Salvation is knowing God as He
has revealed Himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Bible knowledge without Christ
is useless. You can know everything there
is to know about this book. You can know everything there
is to know about doctrine. But if that doctrine does not
move you to faith and love for Christ, then that knowledge is
only going to add to your condemnation. A man may learn the five points
of Calvinism. He may even declare it from a
pulpit. He may have a deep understanding
and even debate it among the Armenians. But unless he is born
again of the Spirit of God, that knowledge is vain. Jesus said,
you must, you must be born from above. You must be born again. And such a birth Such a birth
will be seen and evidenced by the effects of the Spirit. Isn't
that what Jesus said? The wind bloweth where it listeth. You can hear the sound of it,
but you can't tell where it's coming and where it's going.
So is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. When you see
the wind, do you see the wind when it comes? No. What do you
see? You see the effects of the wind. When the wind is blowing
and it hits your face, what are you doing? Do you see the wind?
No, you see the effects of it. And I tell you, wherever the
Spirit of God blows, wherever there is life given to a dead
sinner, there is going to be an effect. There is going to
be an effect. What is it? Faith is the effect. Love is the effect. Hope is the
effect. All of the graces of the Spirit
are the effect of the Spirit that gives life. What effect
did it have on Saul? None at all. He went and sat
under a pomegranate tree. He didn't have any effect. But
I tell you, when God comes in power, it has an effect. Has
an effect. When you hear of the offering
of Jesus Christ, I tell you, a person can even accept it as
truth, but if the Spirit doesn't come in power, you don't have
any life. I don't care how much you know. You know, I would take any of
your children and my children, and if we want to do a debate,
I would put them against any of the theologians that are out
there. They have a lot of knowledge. They have a lot of knowledge.
But that knowledge will not do them any good if God doesn't
come in power and save them. Let's go through some of these.
The knowledge of total depravity. Total depravity is not a mere
doctrine to be accepted, but one to be experienced. It must be experienced in our
own heart. Yes, all men are depraved, but
are you depraved? Are you the sinner? Remember,
that's what the publican said. He said, God be merciful to me,
the sinner. The Pharisee was pointing out
everybody else was a sinner. The publican pointed at himself.
Because he experienced depravity. Unconditional election is no
mere doctrine to be learned. Most men detest election. But
some men, some natural men, embrace it as an intellectual attainment.
These self-righteous men believe Armenians are just less educated
Christians than themselves. But the sovereign election of
God to a true believer is threefold. It's a matter of necessity. It's
a matter of great comfort. It's a matter of humility. Election
is an humbling doctrine. Had God not chosen a people,
this is the necessity, had God not chosen a people, Isaiah said
we would have been all as Sodom and Gomorrah. And because God
has chosen a people, to save. This is the comforting part.
All that God chose to save, He will save. That's a comforting
part of election. Assuring part. It's assuring
because our God is God. Our God is in the heavens and
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. And so if God had pleased
to elect a people and save them, He most surely will save them.
Number three, particular redemption is not something just to be learned,
but it is to be experienced. That Jesus Christ came to save
the elect is no mere academic speculation, but to us who believe
it, it is the only source of pardon, forgiveness, and atonement
for sin. It's off to us. The redemption
of Christ, the particular redemption of Christ, is all our hope and
standing before God. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
died not to make salvation possible. There's no comfort or assurance
in that, is there? If He came just to make salvation
possible, He actually accomplished salvation for nobody. That's
not a comforting doctrine. There's no comfort in that. But our Lord Jesus Christ did
not leave salvation of the elect to chance or to man, but the
Savior Himself was victorious to redeem us, to pay the debt
for all our sins. And this is the result of it,
that of all that the Father had given me, I should lose nothing,
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day." Consider that His particular
redemption, that He died for not Not for only the elect, not
one more and not one less. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He said, I know my sheep and
have known of mine. He said in His prayer, I pray
not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me. This
elect that He redeemed is a number as vast as the stars of heaven,
yet it is a certain number known only to God. And Christ surely
bore the sins of all the elect in His own body on the tree.
Scripture says He hath purged our sins. When he hath purged our sins,
God hath highly exalted him to sit at his right hand. But I'll
tell you this, what's more joyful to me is this, that he particularly
redeemed me. That's the joy, that's the fountain
of my hope and faith, is that He redeemed me from all my sins. I know He redeemed the elect.
Did He redeem me? Isn't that of vast importance?
Some people just walk around saying, well, I know He redeemed
the elect. What comfort does that get if you don't know if
you're the elect? Well, how does one know this?
by the irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit. How do we know
our particular redemption? Only by the Holy Spirit coming
and revealing it to us. That's how, by the irresistible
grace of the Holy Spirit. I tell you, this irresistible
grace is no mere knowledge, but it is the experience of every
believer, that we by nature could not and would not cease from
our works, We most surely. I can see myself in Saul. Can
you? Can you not see your own nature in this man? If you can't,
you're so detached from grace, I don't know what to say to you.
Because I see myself in this man. I see my nature in this
man. We were like Saul. And I'll tell you, Many people
change their habits and we change our location. We may even changed
our thoughts about Christ. But I'll tell you this, if there's
no change in the heart, there's no life. There's no change in the heart,
there's no life. But when the Holy Spirit comes,
listen, there is a change. There is a change. The grace of God that once we
gave lip service to, now we give heart service to. Salvation is not by our outward
actions or by our outward devotions or rituals. It's not even by
the power or will of man. But it is by the will of God,
by the Spirit of God. Go to John 3. I want you to read
this with me because this is important to see this in the
irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit. I want to show you that
there is a change. And the Lord Jesus Christ makes
this clear. John chapter 3 and verse 7. Marvel not, I said unto you,
you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth. You hear the sound thereof, but
thou canst tell whether it cometh or whether it goeth. So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit of God. In verse 14, our Lord He here
preaches the gospel to Nicodemus. He tells them of the necessity
of man. He tells them that it must come
by the Spirit of God. And then he preaches to him.
He said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." What
then is the result of the Spirit? It is belief of the truth. That's
what's the change. The change is from unbelief to
belief. The change is to look to Him
who was lifted up. That's the change. This is the
product of being born again. It is faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. and the true grace of God. It
brings us to show us our hopeless and helpless condition, but praise
God it didn't leave us there, did it? It didn't leave us there. But it drawed us to Christ through
the preaching of this gospel. And I tell you, every experienced
believer has this. We can understand Mephibosheth's
story, can't we? You remember, David said, who
is left in the house of Saul that I might show kindness for
Jonathan's sake? Is that not what God said? Who
is left in the house of Adam that I might show kindness for
Christ's sake? And they said, there's one, Mephibosheth. You remember what his name means?
Shameful thing. Is that not a picture of us?
Shameful thing. Lame on our feet. If David called
Mephibosheth, could he come? No, he was lame on his feet,
so what did David do? He fetched him. I'll never forget
a message by Jack Shanks. He preached that message fetching
grace. He fetched us. He brought us
in with our lame feet and laid us before Christ. And what did
we expect? We expected justice to fall on
our head. But what did we find instead?
We found mercy. Come and sit at my table and
eat with the king's sons. We, like Mephibosheth, found
mercy for Christ's sake. And even now, tonight, this is
what we're feasting on. We're feasting at the table of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we, who love sin, now long
to be free from it. Is that not a change? That's
a change, isn't it? We love this gospel of grace. And we no longer serve God out
of duty, but rather love. And all of this is by the power
of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we no longer sit idle
under the pomegranate tree, but in humility come to God by Christ. And this is the work of the Holy
Spirit. even faith in Christ. And this is the change. Go back to your text. Notice
where Saul did. He sat under the pomegranate
tree, but did Jonathan I'll tell you, Jonathan learned
something from this. Jonathan saw something from this,
because the first time we read of Jonathan attacking the Philistines,
he did it without consent of God. He did it on his own. But
I'll tell you this, after this, he learned to seek God. And that's
exactly what happens here. Jonathan, he said in verse 6,
And Jonathan said to his young man that bare the armor, Come,
let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may
be that the Lord will work for us. For there is no restraint
to the Lord to save by many or by few. You see, this time he
relied only on God. He learned. He changed. Saul
did not change. Jonathan did. Jonathan learned. And I'll tell you this, when
there's a change in our heart, there sure begins a warfare,
isn't there? There's a warfare. No longer
with God, but with self. Self. The flesh lusting against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. True believers are
saved by grace, but we do not finish this by law or by works. Therefore the just shall live
by faith. Present faith. Faith now. How should you live? You should live by faith. Because
that's how the just live. The just live by faith. Present
faith. Paul said this in Colossians
1 and verse 23, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you
have heard. I'll tell you, many times I don't
know how God is working things. I can't see. I can't see one
step ahead of me. Every time I guess, I'm wrong.
That's just the way it is. A lot of times I find myself
like the disciples who didn't understand what the Lord was
saying. But I confess this, to whom shall
I go? You have the words of eternal
life. In other words, God's people are not going anywhere, no matter
if we understand what He's doing or not. We cling and are grounded
and settled in Christ. This is the effect of the Holy
Spirit to a true believer. Let us therefore, believer, not
be idle, but let us follow after Christ as Jonathan's armor-bearer
followed after him. I pray that you'd be honest I
pray that I'd be honest with myself. Are we like Saul? Are you just reformed outwardly
but not inwardly? Then may God Himself humble you. Because that's what it's going
to take. It's going to take God Himself
to come in power of the Spirit. And when He does, I know this will cling to Him, will cling to Him and not let
go. Believer, remember, remember
that we are who are saved by the Holy Spirit are also kept
by the power of the Spirit. This matter of perseverance and
preservation, is that not something we experience daily? Isn't that the experience of
every believer? Why are you still here? Why have you not left? I've seen
many come and I've seen many go. Why is it that I'm still
here? Why do I still believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ? Even because I am kept by the
Spirit of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. Therefore, believer, let us not
therefore be idle, but let us by faith follow our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. May God teach us in His Word
the difference between true salvation and a pretense. I tell you, I
don't want to be one of those deceived in the end, do you? Remember, there'll be many. Jesus
said, Not everyone that sayeth to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but they that do the will of My Father. What is that? Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this belief we know is a
work only God can do. Why do I know that? Because God
did it for me. May God do it for you. May God
be pleased to bless this to your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.