Colossians chapter 1. And this
evening, the Lord willing, I want us to look at the end of verse
9, 10, and 11 this evening. The title of the message is simply,
Walking Worthy of Christ. Walking Worthy of Christ. What is this that Paul is praying
for here when he says in verse 10 that you might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing. But in order to preface this,
we need to find out, look again at verse 9 and see Paul's prayer. He says, for this cause, since
we also, the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you
and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge
of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The knowledge of His will. We've
been discussing this. I've been preaching this for
a while. The will of God. The nature of God's will is that
it's eternal. God's will is immutable. God's
will is full of infinite wisdom and prudence. And His will saturates
and controls all events of time and eternity. God's will covers
everything. Everything that happens in eternity
and time is according to the will of God. God is not a being
wringing his hands wondering what is happening. We are. We wring our hands and don't
have any clue what's going on. If you have any knowledge, you're
going to find out that you really don't have any knowledge at all
eventually. If you just look long enough, you'll find out
you don't know what's going on. We just don't. But God does. And Paul cries out about this.
He said, all the depths The depth of the riches of both the wisdom
and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways. Past finding out. God's will is a deep, deep subject
because it covers all things. And surely none of Adam's race
should have ever known the will of God except God the Holy Spirit
revealed this will. God only in eternity willed all
things, all things that should happen in time, but how then
should man know it? We weren't there when God willed
it. How then should we know it? except God reveal it to you. Go to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul
speaking on this subject of the wisdom and mystery He calls it
a hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world began. But how
did Paul know it? How was he able to reveal this
to us in the pages of Scripture? Verse 10, it says, "...but God
hath revealed them unto us." How? by His Spirit. The redemption, the will of redemption. How is it that God is willed
the redemption of man? How is this that we found this
out? How that we know this will of God? Only by the Spirit of
God revealing it to us. Do you know anything of the will
of God? This tonight, do you have any
idea what the will of God is as far as redemption? Now, I
don't have any ideas what the will of God is in Providence.
I can't tell you what He's going to do ten minutes from now. I can't tell you what He's going
to do a second from now. I just don't know. That's not
for us. That's not the revealed will
of God. The revealed will of God is His
redemptive will. How is it that He saves sinners?
Do you have any clue? Do you have any knowledge of
this? Do you have any knowledge of
the will of God's electing grace? Of God's will that Jesus Christ
should accomplish the salvation of His people by His one offering
for sin and perfect obedience? Do you have any understanding
of this? Do you know of Christ's victory
over the grave and His ascension to the throne? Do you have any
knowledge of this? Do you know of His will to return
again and receive His ransomed race? And that they all will
be joined with one heart and voice in a never-ending song
of praise. Do you have any clue about this? Do you know anything about this? But what's more important than
mere knowledge of these things? is do you have any experience
in this? See, I can teach you all these things. I can show
you all these things. And you can get a head knowledge
of all of these things. But what good is that if it doesn't
come, as Paul prays in our text, with all wisdom and spiritual
understanding? If God doesn't plant this in
your heart and all you have in your head, it does you no good. I was thinking about this the
other day, and I was thirsty. I went back there and grabbed
a bottle of water, and I just started looking at the bottle.
And I said, well, what do I know about this? Well, I know it's
two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen, right? H2O. Well, I know
this water says purified water on the label right there. I got
some knowledge about this water. I know it's liquid. I know that
it's supposed to hydrate you. That if you drink it, it's supposed
to do you good. But what good is all that knowledge
if I don't drink it? Well, that wouldn't do you a
bit of good. I tell you, you can read this book and you can
learn about this book. You can go to seminary. You can
learn all the theology you want to. You can know a lot about
the will of God just by picking this book up and reading a few
good books. What good does that do you if
it does not get into your heart? Doesn't do you any good. Doesn't
do your soul a bit of good if you don't have any experience
of the will of God. See, I have some experience of
the will of God. I was a sinner. I was lost. I had no hope. But God in mercy came to me.
And I had all this knowledge when I was a young lad, when
I was a kid. I knew all of these things concerning the will of
God. But I had no experience in it until the Holy Spirit came
and gave me life. And when He gave me life, these
things meant something to me. These weren't just words on a
page anymore. This was actually talking about
a man that I knew. I knew him. I have some experience about
this will of God because the will of God actually came, became
personal to me when the Spirit taught me, when He showed me
these things. And that's real. That's true.
And so knowledge without spiritual understanding wouldn't do you
any good. So Paul praying, he says, I pray that God fill you
with knowledge. That's great. It's good that
you have this knowledge. But I also pray that God would
take this knowledge and actually apply it to your dead soul and
give you life. Paul over in 1 Corinthians 8,
he says this, he said, Believers, you know this, there's nothing
in an idol. Don't you know that? There's
nothing in an idol. Believers have a lot of knowledge
too. Even we who've experienced the grace of God, we've been
given a lot of knowledge. But I tell you, we don't always
make the most of it, do we? We don't always make the most
of the knowledge we have. Paul said, you know, every believer
knows that an idol is nothing. And yet some believers were elevating
themselves because they didn't eat meat-offered idols. They
said, well, I'm holier than you. I don't eat meat-offered idols,
and you do. So obviously, I'm an elevated Christian. Well,
if they'd really known that that idol was nothing, it wouldn't
matter if they ate the meat or anything. It wouldn't matter
at all. There's nothing in the idol. It doesn't have a will.
It doesn't have a desire. It doesn't have anything. It's
dead God. It doesn't do anything. So if
you really knew that, it wouldn't matter if you ate the meat or
not, would it? What matters is love. Now, if you know that an
idol is nothing, you should not worry about somebody whether
they eat or they don't, whether they drink it or they don't.
What you should do if you have any knowledge at all is you should
love. You should love. Why? Sometimes knowledge is good
if it's applied to the heart, but if it's just in the head,
what does it do? It puffs men up. That's all it does. So if
you've got this doctrine of election down and you've got this will
of God and redemption down, if that's all you've got, all you're
going to do is be proud. That's it. Brethren, what good is our knowledge
of God's will and His knowledge if this knowledge is not acted
upon in the hearts of believers in our lives? Why is the knowledge
of election, redemption, and regeneration by God's free grace
given to us? What is the purpose of this?
Why would God give us such knowledge in spiritual things? Was His
purpose to elevate you? Was that His purpose? Did God
give you such wisdom and understanding of His Word that you should be
elevated in pride? Is that why He gave it? No. No. Is it meant to exalt us or abase
us? Is it meant to make us proud
or to humble us? Listen, if you have any knowledge
of the grace of God at all, you know that this Word always abases
us. The Word of God always abases
man. and exalts Christ. That's what
the Word of God does always. And if you find anyone exalting
man, then you have to abase Christ. You cannot do both. You cannot
exalt man and Christ. Only one is going to be the head.
I only have one head. If I had two, I'd be a weird
person. There's not two heads. There's one head. That's Christ. And everybody else is below Him. Abase. That's what the Word of
God teaches us. That's what the Gospel of Grace
teaches. Humiliation. Humiliation. That's what God teaches us. Believer,
there was nothing, listen, there was nothing in us that should
move God to save us. That abases us. That totally
levels us, gives us no room to boast. I'll show you this in
a couple of places and I want you to pay attention to these
words, not of works. Let's go to Romans chapter 9.
We're going to see the grace of God and then we're going to
see how it abases us, this knowledge of the grace of God and how it
should abase us. Chapter 9, verse 11. I know you
know these texts well, but, oh, these are such good texts. Romans
9, verse 11. And Scripture says, for the children,
talking about Jacob and Esau, not yet being born, neither having
done good or evil, That the purpose, there it is, that's the will
of God. That the will of God, the purpose of God, according
to election might stand. Listen, not of works. but of him that calleth. And then it says in verse 13,
as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. God's election and love for Jacob
was not according to any works or worth in Jacob. God chose Jacob not based on
anything. Not one Adam. of goodness or
merit came from Jacob. He was not yet born. And yet God loved him, chose
him, not according to any merit, neither were we loved or chosen
because of any goodness or value in us. Does that not fly against
everything man is teaching? Does that not fly against everything
man is teaching? Well, you're just a good person,
and you shouldn't let nobody tell you any different. God tells
you different. Matter of fact, God says there's
none of us good. Wipes all that away. Does away with all that
teaching. God doesn't want you to have
a good self-esteem. He wants you to be abased. Only then will you look to Him
for salvation. And then He will exalt you in
due time. But you are never meant to exalt
yourself. You're meant to be abased. God
chose us not according to any value in Him, but according to
His own free grace. Isn't that what the Scripture
just told you? Isn't that what it just said? He chose them not
according to works. but according to him that calleth
his own purpose." Now go to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9. Speaking of the power of God, it says, Who God hath
saved us and called us. Notice the order. What did He
do first? He saved us, and then what did
He do? He called us. Oh, it's beautiful. Beautiful. If you know anything
about the will of God, you know that's what it was. You know
that God saved us long before He called us and showed us. He
saved us. He purposed to save us. And He
saved us by Jesus Christ. And then what did He do? He called
us and showed us. Now why did God save you and
call you? Have you thought of that? Why is it that God saved you? Why are you called? Why has He passed by millions
of people who are still striving to please God by their works
and will die in their sin and ignorance, and yet God has revealed
to you His will? Why would He do such a thing? Why have you been given to see
Jesus Christ as your righteousness and hear the gospel and believe
it? Why is it that you, upon your death, shall be ushered
into glory, into the presence of God, where you shall sing
forever the praise of Jesus Christ? Why is it that you should have
such privileges? You remember what God said to
Abraham? Behold, Abraham, I am thy exceeding great reward. Why
should you get a great reward like that? Why should God give
Himself such a great reward for you? Why? What does Paul say? He saved
us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. What work can
you claim to have before the world began? You could claim
no work. Yet this was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began according to His own purpose.
That's why He did it. That's why you have it. You have
it. You believe it. You have it because He gave it
to you. And He gave it to you not based on anything you have
done to earn it. One more place, go to Titus.
Titus chapter 3, verse 3. Paul tells us a lot about ourselves
in verse 3. He says, for we ourselves, we're
sometimes foolish, disobedient. Deceived. Serving different lusts
and pleasures. Living in malice and envy. Hateful and hating one another. If you have any knowledge of
the will of God, you understand that. Because that, that hits
home. That just hits right, right square
in the eye. That just, that hits me. Because
that describes me. That's me. I know that. But after the kindness and love
of God, our Savior toward man appeared. Something happened
to us. We were disobedient. We were foolish. We were deceived. But something happened. The kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. The knowledge of
our sin appeared exceeding sinful. That's what happened. When God
saves a man, that's the first thing that happens. We begin
to see the exceeding sinfulness of our sin. We begin to see our
need of righteousness before God. We see that works and religion
cannot satisfy our need of righteousness until we saw Jesus Christ, who
is the manifestation of the kindness of God, the love of God. If you
know anything of God's love and kindness, you'll only know it
through Jesus Christ. You won't know it any other way.
He is the manifestation of God's love and kindness. And this appeared to us in our
hearts, and we were moved in wisdom and spiritual understanding
to do what? To believe on Christ. We were
moved. That's an understatement. We
were more than moved. It was a necessity. You see,
Christ is not a decision I had to make. It was a necessity I
had to have. I have to have Him. And I tell you now, I hunger
for Him more now than I ever did before. I need Him now, this
minute, more than I ever needed Him before. I have to have Him. I have to
be found in Him. I can't be found outside of Him. I have to have Him. And behold,
The humility of such knowledge, not according to our works. That's what he says in verse
5. He appeared to us, He revealed this to us, not according to
our works which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us by the washing of regeneration. and renewing of the Holy. How
precious is the washing of regeneration when that new nature comes in
and God gives me a righteousness that I didn't deserve, that I
didn't earn, that He did it for me and He gave it to me. He washed
me of all my sins. They're gone. They're no more
to be found before the eyes of God. He gives us a new nature,
an indwelling of His Holy Spirit in this mortal and weak house
of clay. And this Paul says was not in
small measure but which he shed on us how much? Abundantly. Abundantly because we deserved
it. Is that what it says? Abundantly
how? Through Jesus Christ. So how did I get this? Why is
it that I have righteousness? Why is it that I'm cleansed and
I understand the will of God? Through Jesus Christ. By His
own personal merit. By His own personal righteousness
and obedience and blood. That's the only way. And by Him, listen, we were justified. Innocent. That's a beautiful word, isn't
it? Innocent. Without sin before God through
Him. Holy in the sight of God. and
that we should expect the hope of eternal life. Verse 7, that
being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. What then should this knowledge
do to us? What should this grace do if
it's actually applied to the heart of man? If it is of the Holy Spirit in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding, we should esteem ourselves according
to our true value. Nothing. What are you worth? Nothing. Truly nothing. This is what true grace does.
It abases the man and exalts our God who is what? Everything. I am nothing and He is everything. You see what true grace does?
That's what it moves the heart to do. David with this knowledge,
he said one thing, have I desired one thing. What do you desire? What do you want? If it's more than one thing,
it's too much. It's more than one thing, it's too much. David
said, one thing have I desired and that will I seek after. You see what grace did to David?
It moved his heart to seek after the one thing he desires. And
what is that one thing? Mary found that one thing, didn't
she? The sister of Lazarus, she found that one thing. You remember
they were having a big dinner at Mary and Martha's house. Lazarus
was there. And Martha was super busy. And I mean that's a pretty, I
keep thinking about this. She was preparing a meal for
the Son of God. Now, that seemed like an important
task, didn't it? Seemed like an important task.
She wanted to make this meal as best as she possibly could. And she was busy, so busy, but
Mary was not busy at all. Mary was sitting at His feet,
listening to His preaching. And Martha was upset, said, Lord,
don't you know that I'm busy? Can't she get up and help me?
And he said, Martha, you want too many things. You're too busy. Have you been too busy? Are you
busy about anything, about nothing, running around, chasing shadows? That's all this world is, is
the shadows. I mean, you're just not gonna get anything, and once
you get it, you'll find out it's not worth what you paid for it. You run around busy. But Jesus
said, Martha, you're troubled about too many things. Mary hath chosen the better part.
One thing, he said, is needful. So if you're wanting more than
one thing, what is the one thing? Sit down, shut up, and listen. Listen for his voice. Oh friend,
if you come to hear me, what a waste of time. I don't listen to any of these. I just can't stand my own voice. It's not me you should be listening
for. It's his voice. And when you
hear his voice, you won't mistake it. You'll know it. Sit and hear His voice. Hear His Word preached. Hear
of His grace and His mercy. Mary had chosen that one thing
and it won't be taken from her. And listen, believer, choose
that one thing and it won't be taken from you to sit at the
feet of Christ and listen to His Word. And what then will this wisdom
yield? Titus 3 and verse 8, this is
a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm
constantly. What are you talking about? The
will of God, the grace of God. Affirm that constantly. It's
not of works, but of grace, of grace, of grace. Affirm it, affirm
it. Continually preach it. Why? that
they which have believed in God might be careful to do what?
Maintain good works. You see what the motivation is?
See what the result then is of all this knowledge in wisdom
and spiritual understanding is to what? To live it. That's what
happens. You affirm these things that
they might be careful to do what? It's the same thing Paul is talking
about in our text, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Being fruitful in what? Every
good work. You see what it... This is... God is all-wise. This is what
He's doing. He's not just trying to fill
your head. When He takes it from your head and He puts it in your
heart, it comes out in the life. It comes out. I remember a story
of Brother Ralph Barner preaching a message. The lady came to him and said,
Lord, Brother Ralph, the Lord saved me, and I don't know what
to do. And he said, don't worry, it'll
get out on you. Don't worry, you don't need to do anything.
It'll get out on you. It will. It'll come out in the wash. I'm
telling you, it'll work itself out. It will. And not that I'm walking. Now
then, this is the truth. Not that our walking or our being
faithful, fruitful, makes us righteous. No way. But we should walk in order our
conversation and lifestyle in a manner that is worthy of the
gospel we believe, the Christ we serve, because God has made us righteous. We don't do this for righteousness. We do this because God has made
us righteous. Paul says, I beseech you because
of the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice. So why should we present our
bodies a living sacrifice? Does that help us in any way
to merit our salvation? By no means, no. But it is a
product. It is a result of what God gives. Just like breathing is a result
of life. So is this matter of walking
worthy of the gospel. It is the desire of every true
believer to walk in the footsteps of our blessed Lord and Savior. It is our desire to walk in the
same manner, preach the same message as our Lord Jesus Christ. Be ye imitators of God as what,
dear children? I always like the illustration
of the father walking in the sand and his son trying to put
his footsteps into his father's boot print. He's just imitating. He's not the father, but he's
just imitating. You see, he wants to please his
father. He wants to please him. Paul says the same thing if you
go over to Philippians chapter 1. Paul says the same thing as
he's saying here in Colossians. Go over there for a second. Philippians
chapter 1 and verse 27. The apostle says, only let your
conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether
I come to you or I'm absent from you, I may hear of your affairs,
listen, here's what is to become the gospel of Christ, that you
stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for
the faith of the gospel. Now that is becoming the gospel. That is walking worthy of Christ. I'll ask you again, is pride
becoming of the gospel of grace? No. And if pride is not becoming,
what about strife? What about that? Is that becoming
the gospel? To strive among one another?
To strive among believers? Is that according? No. Let us,
therefore, be wise concerning our conversation so as to give
no offense to any, so as to put to silence all false accusers,
false accusations, and put those who are without to shame. Not
by our words, but rather by our conduct. Believer, do you not
know that the world is watching? And what are they watching for?
Do they want to be like you? No, they don't want to be like
you. They want to find something wrong with you so that they may
accuse your God and blaspheme His name. That's why they're
watching you. So why should you walk worthy?
So as they should not blaspheme our God. Is that not a great
reason? That's a good reason for us to
mind our Ps and Qs, to watch what we're doing. That we not
strive among each other. And how dangerous is strife among
the church? You have no idea how thankful
I am that God has not brought that as of yet in this congregation. I know there's been strivings
here before I came. And it was that pleasant. Was
that altogether glorifying of Christ? No. Absolutely not. And strife is nothing but the
stem of pride. That's all it is. And strife
is the device of Satan by which he breeds self-righteousness
and division among God's people. And I'm sure the root of this
is pride. Some knowledge that some brother
has over another that is not in spiritual wisdom or spiritual
understanding. Again, head knowledge can be
dangerous if it is not applied by the Spirit of God. But when
it is, what does it produce? Humility. And humility is exactly
how my Lord walked on this earth. In humility. Didn't Paul say
this? Let this mind be in you. Which
was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but what did
he do? Made of himself no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant. Now that's a good mind for us
to have, even though we are chosen of God, redeemed of Christ, called
of the Holy Spirit, vessels of God, that the Spirit of God dwells
in us. Should this elevate us or abase
us? It should abase us. It should
cause us to have the mind of Christ, to walk humbly before
our God. Oh, that He should give us such
a mind. even the mind of Christ, that
we should not strive among our brethren, which is the root of pride. Robert
Hawker says that we, as the church, the body of Christ, have a common
interest in happiness. You know what that common interest
is in happiness? It's the glory of God. We desire
God to be glorified. I do not want God to be dishonored
by my conduct. And neither does any believer.
That's our chief happiness. We are of the same language,
a pure language of grace. We wear the same garment, the
righteousness of Christ. We eat the same food, the bread
of life. We drink the same drink, the
water of life. Do the men of this world look
at you as men to be wondered at? Do they think it strange that
you do not run with them in the same excess of riot speaking
evil of you? Do the carnal men take note of
you that you've been with Christ? May God the Holy Spirit teach
us then to walk worthy of God, walk worthy of Christ unto all
pleasing, not of men, not to be seen of men. That's false
religion's idea of walking worthy. They desire to puff themselves
up, to make themselves appear religious. I don't want to just
appear religious. I don't want to be a hypocrite.
I don't want to be a pretender. And this then we ask of the Holy
Spirit to take the things of God and apply them to our hearts
so that we may walk worthy in all pleasing. I thought of this,
a child desires to please his father not to make him a son,
but because he is a son, he desires to please his father. Isn't that
the way it is with us? We are made sons of God. By God. I didn't make myself a son. He
made me a son. And because I am a son, I desire
to please my father. Even so do we who love our God. But remember, believer, when
we walk worthy of Christ, we walk contrary to the world. When you walk worthy of Christ,
listen, you're gonna make enemies. If we walk contrary to the world,
when the church walks together in unity of faith without compromise
to the world of false freewill works religion, listen, the world
will hate you because you are an evident token that they are
lost. And when you preach the gospel
to people, we declare the gospel of Jesus Christ in boldness.
We say, Christ is God manifest in the flesh. We are of one mind
and heart to believe the infallible Word of God, which declares the
absolute sovereignty of God. Without shame, I declare God
sovereign to everyone. Anyone wants to know what I think
of God, I'll tell you what I think of God, exactly what God tells
me of Himself. God says, I'm God and you're
not. I'm sovereign and you're not. We declare that. We declare that God in sovereign
mercy elected some of Adam's race, gave them to His Son, and
His Son successfully redeemed them on Calvary's tree. He died,
rose again the third day, ascended into glory, and now the Spirit
of God is freely gone out into all the world. And what is the
Spirit doing? He is calling His elect. He is
calling them through the preaching of this gospel that He has given
to His church. And we preach and declare that
the Spirit of God will save everyone that Christ has called, that
He calls. And they will believe on Jesus
Christ. Jesus said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all he hath given me I should lose nothing. And this is our one voice. This is what we are to proclaim
wherever we go. And listen, if you do that, that's
walking worthy of Christ. Because that's what the church
is sent to do. When you do that, you're going
to make enemies. Why? Because you are declaring
that the false Christ of free will works religion is not Christ
at all. I plainly declare that to be
true. Their Christ is trying to save
people. My Christ actually saves people.
He does what he pleases. Their God is wringing his hands.
My God does not do that. My God will save His people from
their sins, He has, and He'll call them in time and He'll save
them. And when you do that, believe me, you'll have enemies. This
world will set themselves against you. If we preach this gospel of a
successful Savior, And what does Paul tell us in Philippians?
He said, if we strive together in one spirit and one mind, striving
for the faith of the gospel, that's just what I declared to
you, and nothing terrified of your adversaries. Listen, don't
be afraid of them. Don't be afraid of them. Which is an evident token of
their perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. Don't
be afraid of them, of your adversaries. Let us by His grace walk worthy
of Christ. Let our conversation be as we
come at the gospel. I pray that you would walk worthy,
even as those Hebrew children walk worthy in their day. You
remember those three Hebrew children as they would not bow to those
idols of Nebuchadnezzar. What did he do, Nebuchadnezzar?
First of all, he tried to play the good guy, didn't he? He said,
well, maybe you just didn't hear the trumpet. Maybe you just didn't
understand. And I'm going to give you a second
chance to come around. And they plainly said this, we
will not serve your gods. And then the scripture says his
visage changed. He went from nice guy to mad
guy, angry. He said, we will not. And his
visage changed. Listen, you tell them, I will
not worship your God, and their visage will change. Because you're
an evident token that they're lost. And they don't like to
hear that. May God give us such courage
to understand that as he was with those children in their
fire, he'll be with us in ours. He'll be with us. Don't be afraid
of them. Believer in Christ, fear not
what man can do to you. Fear not providence and circumstance. Fear not even death, for our
Father controls all of these things. Does He not? Isn't that
what the will of God teaches us? If we have any knowledge
of the will of God in spiritual understanding, we know this,
God controls everything. Why then should we fear when
we walk worthy of Christ? And they hate us. Why should
we fear it? Remember the Psalm that says,
the Lord is thy keeper, the shade on thy right hand. The sun shall
not smite you by day. Isn't that strange? You walk out in the noonday sun,
do you know it doesn't hit your face without God's permission? It won't touch you, except God
allow it. Nor the moon by night. But I know this, you'll say this
to me, how can I walk worthy of Christ? I'm a weak vessel. Surely I will fail. Let me save you the suspense.
Yes, you will. You will. You are weakness. You are sinful and prone to every
sin. Though we desire to walk pleasing
before our God, though we determine with all sincerity of our hearts,
listen, if you try to do this in your own strength, you will
fail. You will fail every time. Didn't Peter? Peter came to our
Lord and he said, Lord, I will never leave you or deny you even
though I die. I'm going to give Peter the benefit
of the doubt. I believe he was sincere. I don't
think you could have found a more sincere man that at that moment,
if there was a sword, he would have fell on it. I don't doubt
that. But our Lord told him, he said,
no, you'll deny me three times before this night's over. What saved Peter? He said, I have prayed for thee
that thy faith fail not. Why is it you continue to strive
to walk worthy even though you have failed miserably? Because
your faith doesn't fail. He has prayed. That's why He's
prayed for you. He's interceded for you. That's
why your faith continues. Even though you fail, and you
fail, and you fail, you still continually desire nothing more
than to walk worthy of your Lord and Savior. Because He prayed
for him. How truly is this daily confirmed
to us as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ that
I believe on Christ still because I am kept by the power of God.
Isn't that right? Don't you still believe because
you're kept by the power of God? I read this. I'll read it to
you here. Newton wrote this. He said, No
strength of our own or goodness we claim Yet since we have known
the Savior's great name, in this our strong tower for safety we
hide. The Lord is our power. The Lord will provide. How is it that I can walk worthy
unto all fruitfulness? Because the Lord is the strength
of my life. The Lord is the strength of my
faith. The Lord is the strength of all
my graces. He's the fountainhead of all
the graces of God that flow out of us. And believer, you should
take courage. You should take courage in all
your sorrows and manifold temptations that you are kept by the power
of God. Matter of fact, who said that
you are kept by the power of God? Peter said that, didn't
he? In 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse
9, I believe it is, he said, who are kept. He knew that by
experience, didn't he? He said, I was kept. That's why
I didn't fail. I was kept. Why is it you haven't
gone away? You are kept by the power of
God. Unto salvation ready to be revealed
at the last times. And so even though your faith
is tried and surely is weak and low so that you can't even see
it. Am I the only one whose faith is so low? But this I have And this I know
of the will of God, a smoking flax he shall not quench and
a bruised reed he shall not break. Even though my faith is only
a smoking flax, it stinks up the place. He fans it till it
glows and burns bright again. Isn't
that great? I have a great, great hope that
even when my faith is low, He takes the bruised wreath, He
sets it upright, and He binds it. You see, I know this because
I've experienced this. And therefore, we who are believers,
Paul says in our text, he says, that you should walk worthy unto
all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, increasing
in the knowledge of God, strengthened with what? All might. Whose might? God's might. According to His
glorious power, that same power that raised you from the dead
and quickens you to life is the same power that keeps you and
sustains you unto all patience and longsuffering
with joyfulness. Therefore, believer, learn the
will of God, not with just vain knowledge, but seek that God
would apply it to your heart. And when God applies it to your
heart, walk worthy of it unto all pleasing. In whose strength? In God's strength. God's strength. May God bless
us. The stand will be dismissed in
prayer.