God works things out. When we used to have our men's
meetings, when Pastor Gene was here and
there were several men of the church, we would gather together,
the deacons, the elders, and we would gather together for
about 15 minutes before Bible study to pray for the services
to come. And it was very frequent. For the Lord to lay something,
somebody would get up and read scriptures. And I always loved
it when Daryl did. I just loved to hear him read.
He struggled with it. He struggled with reading, but
hearing him read, you could just tell the words were coming from
his heart. And it would never fail that the Lord would lay
something. The men who were chosen, who
volunteered the next week, and the man who would volunteer,
he'd go home and he'd think about what he was going to read. And
then there was another man who would bring the devotional. And
then, of course, Steve would bring the Bible study. And then
Gene would bring the message. And it just amazed me at how
often God would move all those men who didn't have any word
together at all during the week to come and talk about the same
thing from the scripture reading, to the devotional, to the Bible
study, and it would all lead right into the same subject that
Jean was preaching. It just amazed me how that happened.
Well, this kind of happened this morning. Kathy had no idea what
I was going to preach on, and she puts together our bulletins.
I go through and look at it, as a pastor should, but pretty
much most of the case she puts them together. She chose our articles in our bulletin this
morning. Would you open your bulletins and read along with
me for our devotional this morning, the article from Pastor Henry
Mahan on the top right-hand side. Listen carefully, folks. We're
going to deal with a subject today which is very difficult
to deal with. Pastor Mahan writes this, it
is not good for people to spend their lives seeking God and not
finding peace in Him. It is not good that we should
be ever learning and never able to rest in the knowledge of Christ. It is not good to be always doubting
and when asked about our doubts to make the untrue excuse, oh,
I'm not doubting God, I'm only doubting myself. No. It is God who promised life in
Christ, and it is God whom we are doubting. He said, I am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him
that is a thirst of the fountain of water of life freely. Revelation 21.6. And then he says, and let him
that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely. That's in Revelation 22 verse
17. Of this promise, writes Pastor
Manningham, of this promise, Bonar wrote this, Thirsty one,
it is with the water and not the vessel that our souls need
to be concerned. It is not the quality of your
vessel, but the quality of the water of life, Christ Jesus,
that satisfies, sanctifies, and purifies. And he whose pride
will not allow him to drink from the weak, soiled, and broken
vessel, such as the best faith, must die of thirst. And he who
puts away the promise of reconciliation because of an imperfect faith
must die the death. He who says, I believe the right
doctrine, but I don't believe it in the right way, therefore
I cannot have peace, is looking totally in the wrong direction
and will never find peace. Would you turn in your Bibles
to the book of Jude? Jude is a very small letter. It was placed in scriptures right
before the book of Revelation. I said this is a difficult subject
that I would like to attempt to bring before you this morning. I've titled this morning's message,
Steadfastness of Faith. The line between grace and our
responsibility is not a line that man can define. I cannot tell you where God's
grace comes to and meets my responsibility as a Christian, as a child of
God. I don't have the ability to even
see my own heart. The heart is desperately wicked.
Who can know it? So I can't stand here and say
to you, this is what you must do when God sheds His grace upon
you. I just can't do that. God's Word
does. And how He applies it to your
hearts is up to Him. He's the one who does that. But
I must stand before you this morning and declare that there
is a responsibility that comes with the grace that God gives
us. There is a responsibility of men and women to walk according
to God's way, according to God's will, at least the best that
they can, knowing this, knowing this, that when we fail, when
we stumble, when we trip, we have an advocate in heaven
who is paid the price for that stumble. Both God's grace and man's responsibility
must be brought before the people of God in every message. But know this, our desire, do you have that
desire in yourselves to go forth and sin no more? I do. I can't wait until the
day comes when the Lord takes me out of this body of death.
I look forward to that day. Some of us look forward more
than others. Some of us are closer than others. None of us know
for sure when any one of us could walk out that door this afternoon
and come into the presence of God Almighty right then. I told everybody at the services
for Daryl yesterday, nobody's going to escape death. I don't know where Daryl stood
in the family of nine as far as where he was in one, two,
three, or four, but there wasn't anybody. Five children, I think,
were here yesterday. The rest were all as Daryl's
age and older. There was a lot of people here
yesterday that were very close to that day we will walk through
that door marked death. Know this, that our desire, our
desire to fulfill our responsibility as the children of God is ever
before us, but the only reason we have that desire is because
God is doing a work in our hearts to have it. If it wasn't by His
grace, then we would be out in the world just like we were before
we ever heard His word preached. Or even worse, or in my case
it would be even worse, I might be underneath one of those false
religions out there, thinking I'm going to heaven and on my
way to destruction. I want I desire to walk without sin, but by God's
grace I am what I am. When this I see in its proper
form of who I am, God gets all the glory. knowing that I am weak in the
flesh and unable to fulfill that walk before God as I desire,
gives Him the glory because it's by His grace that not only gives
me the desire to walk before Him worthily, but it's by His
grace that I'm not punished for not walking worthily. Do you
understand what that means? His love for us is so great that even though He requires
of us something and we cannot fulfill it, He required it for
us. Or He fulfilled it for us. Our Lord gets the glory for everything,
folks, and that includes the wickedness of this world. That
doesn't mean that He's the author of it. But He will be glorified
in everything that comes to pass. All the glory belongs to Jesus. And He will get that glory. I'll give you an example, and
you've heard this example many times before. Some of you may
have not. Jonah. God's Word clearly declares that
he ran from the Lord, doesn't it? God wasn't the author of that,
but He knew Jonah would do it. Do you think he wasn't glorified
in the fact that Jonah ran from the Lord? He was glorified so
much that Jonah came out the other side singing the song,
Salvation is of the Lord, didn't he? That very same essence of what
I just said is how you and I can look upon the troubles of this
world, the troubles that God brings into our lives, the very
trials that we have to learn and live with as we walk through
this valley of the shadow of death. We can say that all things
are for the good to those who love God. And I've said all that
to say this. We began a series of messages
a few Sundays back in the book of Colossians, and I'd like to
continue there. And I want to bring out first,
before we go to Colossians, we're still in the book of Jude. Don't
leave there yet. We considered three points, first of which
was Paul was encouraging the saints to continue, or in other
words, to hang on to or to cling to the hope of the gospel of
Christ. You see, because many of the
churches of that time had began turning from the grace of our
Lord in saving His chosen people through the sacrificial blood
of His cross into what's called lasciviousness, wickedness, evil
doings. It's OK to trust Christ, they
said, but you must also do this. It's okay to call God sovereign
over everything, but you must also take on the responsibility
that you must walk a certain way. And if you don't walk that
way, you need to question it. They were saying all kinds of
things like that to bring doubt, to put the burden upon God's
children. Folks, we are free from the burden
of sin. God has freed us from that sin
that we once walked in. Don't walk in it anymore. And
don't walk in the fear of it anymore. Look with me in your Bibles,
if you would, at this warning that the Apostle Jude gives us
in verses 3 and 4 of his letter. Beloved, it says in verse 3,
I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. It was needful for me to write
unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for
the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept
in, unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness
and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ." Do not. Do not fall into the temptation
of looking at your neighbor and saying, is that one of them that
it's talking about? Is this guy over here sitting
in the front seat, is that who that's talking about? Don't fall
into that. God uses his word to speak to
our hearts. I need to look at my heart. You
need to look at your heart. This is not a warning to look
at our neighbor, but it is a warning to consider ourselves. Am I trusting
in the Lord alone? God's Word, I believe it was
Paul who said this, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith.
Now if you would turn to our text in Colossians chapter 2. This very church that Paul addresses
here in verses 1 will go on to be addressed personally by God
Himself. And we will look at that in just
a moment, but first let's read verses 1 and 2 of Colossians
chapter 2. For I would, Paul writes, that
ye know what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea. And for as many as have not seen
my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being
knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance
of understanding. to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. Now mark our text
here, if you would, in Colossians chapter 2, and I'd like to ask
you to turn over to the third chapter of Revelations for just
a moment. We'll come back to Colossians
in a moment, but I want you to see what it is I'm trying to
bring out in this morning's message. The steadfastness of our faith
We began our faith with this, Christ is all in all. Don't let that ever leave you.
Don't ever let yourself slip from the steadfastness of that
faith. The faith in the promises of
Christ. The faith in what God has promised
for His children. We cannot doubt, as Henry Mahan
brought out in that article, we cannot doubt those promises. That's sin. You want to walk? Walk in the ways the Lord wants
us to walk. He says, believe on Me and thou
shalt be saved. Here in Revelations chapter 3,
the Apostle has been instructed by God Almighty to write letters
to churches. Some he praised and some he pointed
out some mistakes. some weaknesses that they were
going through. This very church that we're reading,
that Paul is admonishing to stay in the faith, this church of
Laodicea is here spoken of completely different. Look with me if you
would at verses 14-17 of chapter 3. And unto the angel of the
church, that's the preacher, It's unto the guys who are leading
the church, the angel, the one messenger who stands before God's
people. Unto John Reeves. Hear these
words. Unto the angel of the church
of Laodicea, write these things, saith the Amen, the faithful
and the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know
thy works. that thou art neither cold nor
hot. I would that thou were cold or
hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor
hot, I will spew." Now if you have a Bible that has a little
mark next to that word right down at the bottom, you'll see
that word means vomit. That's not a fun thing to do
for anybody. Our Lord says, I would vomit thee out of my mouth, because
thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Allow with me, if you will, to share some words written by
Don Fortner on these verses in Revelations chapter 3. He writes, the Lord Jesus Christ
ought to be loved ardently. That means fully. With all of
our being. With an all-consuming love. Behold. Behold how He has loved us. He ought to be served with an
all-consuming zeal. Consider, behold how zealous
He was when He served you and I. Yet there are many who profess
to know Him, professing to trust Him, professing to love Him,
who are lukewarm, apathetic, indifferent towards Him. And
it must be acknowledged that even those who truly know, trust,
and do love Him, because of the weakness of our flesh, because
of our own sinfulness and corruption of hearts, by nature, struggle
incessantly with the horrid tendency toward lukewarmness. Our Lord's letter to the church
at Laodicea was written specifically to deal with our horrible tendency
toward lukewarmness and the indifference towards him. Laodicea was a famous
city, great with wealth, In Asia Minor, it was the commercial
financial center of the region. Laodicea was the home of millionaires.
It had three marble theaters, a great stadium, a huge gymnasium
equipped with baths. There was a famous school of
medicine at Laodicea, which, among other things, claimed to
have produced a remedy for weak eyes. The city was also well
known for its hot springs because it emitted a lukewarm water continually
without stopping. The people of Laodicea were rich
compared to the world around them. They were the envy of the
world, and they knew it. They were very proud of themselves. Don says they actually were really
unbearable snobs. arrogant we are it attitude was
also found in the church. Perhaps they thought that their
wealth was a sign of God's favor, but in general the church at
Laodicea had gradually gradually become lukewarm, apostate, useless. They were assemblies of religionists
without life before God. It was in danger of being entirely
rejected of Christ. Don goes on to say, apparently
this church was at one time a healthy and strong spiritually vibrant
congregation, a pillar of truth, a lighthouse in the midst of
great darkness. Paul, at least once, wrote a
letter to these Laodiceans. He talked about it with warmth
and never mentioned anything amiss concerning it. That's what
we just read in Colossians 2, verses 1 and 2. It's mentioned
again in Colossians 4, 13 and 16, which you can read at another
time. And since the Apostle Paul held this church in such high
esteem, it is safe for you and I to assume that at least during
his ministry, it was strong and vibrant. But something went wrong. In the process of time, this
great church, once on fire for God, degenerated into a sickening
state of lukewarmness. Before I go on, don't you think
that we're just talking about Laodicea, folks? This could easily
do you and I just as well. But for the grace of God, there
go I. Something went wrong in the process
of time. This great church, once on fire for God, degenerated
into a sickening state of lukewarmness. It became careless, lax, and
indifferent. Perhaps the earlier generation
died out. Think about that. There are many brothers and sisters
who used to sit in these very pews who are here no longer. Perhaps the generation faithful
died out. Perhaps it was the wealth that
seduced the assembly. Perhaps it was the freedom of
persecution that they had produced in the people, and it gave them
a sense of carnal ease. Whatever the cause, this church
was now a state that was nauseating to the Son of God. It was neither
cold nor hot, but lukewarm," end of quote. Folks, we must
always consider ourselves. We know our weakness, don't we? We know our weakness in the flesh,
and this knowledge of what we are should turn us to our only
hope. And that is exactly what Paul
is addressing here in Colossians, the hope of the Gospel, as we
read in verse 23 of chapter 1. As the beggar was down on his
knees crying out for mercy, we should always be in our hearts,
crying out for the mercies of our Lord that they may be refreshed
every morning. Let us not ever be overconfident
of our position in this life. I'm saved. Okay, now I can just
go about my way, doing my thing. No. No. I need my Lord every moment of
every day. Not just the times when I bury
myself in His Word for a couple of hours to bring a message of
some kind, but every moment. I stumble so fast every moment
I walk, I can't even tell you how many times a day I do. Knowing our weakness, We need
to take these things into consideration. Not to doubt our Lord's promises
to us, for in our weakness He is made
strong. Let us not ever be overconfident
in our position, chosen yes, but not arrogant. For arrogance
leads us to ourselves and we need Christ. We need His grace
in all that we do. Look at Colossians 2 verse 3
if you would with me. In whom? In this one. In this one God of the Father
and of Christ, in these ones, in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words." Folks, I am weaker than anyone I know. Every single one of you in my
eyes, have a greater faith than myself. Every single one of you
exercise your faith greater than I could ever hope to. And I need to be reminded of
that often. as often as I can, the very fact. That's why Paul himself, while
declaring himself to be the chief of sinners, he said, he could
take pleasure. Pleasure in his infirmities. He takes glory in the trials
that the Lord sent his way. Because they reminded him of
his weakness. He had a thorn in his side, and
he took pleasure and gloried in that because the Lord said,
in your weakness, In your weakness I am made strong." He says, my
grace will be sufficient to get you through that. Trust in it. Don't look at your own flesh.
It will fail you every time. Trust in the promises of God,
for He has made them to us, those that He has loved. The fact that
you hear that, and you hear it with your heart, and you don't
have any confidence in your flesh, you put it all in Him, that's
because of His love for you. Despite John, He's going to save
me. Despite you for what you do,
He is going to save you if you belong to Him. If His blood was
shed for you, you will be with Him. But that does not give us the
license to say, oh well, I'm saved. I'm good. See you next
Sunday. You get the point? I hope I was
kind of blunt with that. You may think I'm standing here
talking to you, but I'm talking to myself. That's what preaching
is. To a true preacher of God, I
know some are hearing and some are not. Yesterday there was
a whole bunch of people who didn't hear at all. There was a whole
bunch of people who got up and walked out as soon as they could.
because they had no care. It's not for me to decide. It's
not for God's preachers to decide who hears. That's God's work. I'm preaching to myself. I'm
telling you and admitting to you and confessing to you a weakness
that I have in myself, in hopes, in deep prayer that the Lord
Through hearing what He has done for me that He may be doing that
very same thing for you. Giving you the strength to turn
away from your flesh and to turn to Jesus. Paul, glorified in his trials, He gloried in the trials that
the Lord sent his way. Did you know that Paul was in
prison when writing this letter? He's writing to these people,
stand firm in the faith. Not the faith in your flesh,
but the faith in the one who is faithful. Stand firm. despite the troubles that come
your way. I'm sitting here in prison, chained, unable to get
out, unable to go anywhere free as I could be. But yet that's
okay, because God's given me the ability to write to the church
and encourage them. He sees the grace of God in every
trial that's brought His way, and He remembers the promises
that God has given Him. I have loved you with an everlasting
love." Does that resonate in your hearts? He was in prison preaching, writing
this very gospel, yet his zeal was for the steadfastness of
their faith. Look at verse 5. Colossians 2
verse 5, For though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you
in the Spirit, joying in beholding your order and the steadfastness
of your faith. Oh! Their faith in Christ. As ye therefore received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Do you see the line? Do you see that line God just
painted there for us? I can't express that line to
you, but He sure did, didn't He? The grace of our steadfastness
being in the faith of Jesus Christ, walk accordingly. rooted, verse 7, and built up
in Him, established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. Folks, we don't just come to
Christ and that's it. We fight the good fight. We battle
with the flesh continually. Our roots must be in His works
and in His works alone. It must be in His love. It must
be in His grace. We walk in Him. We acknowledge
He is Lord of all that will produce fruit in us. When you walk accordingly knowing
that Christ rules everything, Do we not walk saying, I don't
care what goes on in Washington. It's not what I would have liked
to have seen. I voted differently, but it's what
my God voted for that matters most of all. That's the one who I trust in.
That's the one who I trust that everything is for my good, including
whatever happens back there in Washington. Is it yours? Is that your trust in what our
Lord has done in His works? We turn to Him when sin abounds
in our flesh. We trust in His Lordship when
all the world around us is falling deeper and deeper in the chaos
that it is. And as we consider what we deserve,
we come to Him with great thanksgiving for being merciful to this poor
sinner. And then next we see in verse
8, beware. Remember what we read in Jude. Beware. Beware lest any man spoil you
through vain, through philosophy and vain deceit." Notice what
he follows with after that. Take a close look at what comes
next. After the tradition of men. After the rudiments of the
world and not after Christ. That person over here, they can't
be saved. They're not coming to the table.
They're not saved yet. This person over here can't be
saved. They haven't gotten in the baptism waters yet. They
can't be saved. This person over here can't be
saved. They haven't come to the front and made a prayer of some
kind. That's the rudiments of men. That's the vain things that men
get up and priest that if you'll just make a decision, no. rudiments of the world, and not
after Christ. I quoted a verse at our services
yesterday for Daryl, and it is this, and oh how this fits. You ever heard the phrase, go
out and win souls for Christ? You ever heard that? Oh, we had
so many souls come to Christ today in our services. Oh, it's
so good. In Psalms 127 it says this, Except
the Lord build the house. That's God's word folks, not
mine. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain. that build it. Except the Lord
keep the city. Except the Lord keep us. Except the Lord keep you and
I daily remembering who it is that we should turn to. The watchman waketh but in vain. Folks, the Lord Jesus will be
the preeminent and that's all there is to it. He will be the
preeminence of His chosen blood-bought children. There are no buts.
There are no maybes. We can declare, thus saith the
Lord, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. But it doesn't
stop there, does it? What does it say next? And them
that come to me I shall in no wise cast out. come to Christ
over and over and over and over again. How can we say with all
confidence, how can we say that with all confidence? What I just
read in Colossians 2, look at verse 9. Colossians 2 verse 9. And I'll be just a moment more,
not much longer. For in Him, in Christ Jesus,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." We have
nothing to worry about, folks. The blood shed on that cross
a little over 2,000 years ago was God's blood! And it's perfect! You see what I'm saying? You see where our steadfastness
is? It's not in you and I. It's not in what we do. It's
in what He's done. It's in His blood. The blood
of God shed upon the cross for us. All power in heaven and earth
and everything under the earth, as it says, is His. Look over at the 16th verse of
chapter 1 again. We've covered this once already,
but it's worth looking back at for that very reason. For by
Him, for by Jesus Christ, for by the Son of God were all things created that
are in heaven and that are in the earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers,
all three things were created by Him and for Him. Over in 2 Corinthians 13, verse
4, we read this, you don't need to turn there. For though He
was sacrificed through weakness, yet He lived by the power of
God. For we also are weak in Him. But we shall live with Him by the power of God. You see how He gets all the glory? I love bringing that out. I love
to say it's all Him. Oh, that tickles me. It tickles me
greatly. Folks, we continually examine
where our faith lies, and we are trusting in the works of
our Lord alone, or are we once again turning towards the flesh? It's something we must examine
all the time, not doubting what our Lord has done for us, but
wondering, have we stepped off just a little bit? Are we falling
away? Lord, this is what brings us
to our knees, like that beggar, and cry out, Lord have mercy.
You think that beggar got up afterwards, okay, everything's
cool. Go out and get in my car and drive off down the road,
my Cadillac, and go on down the way. No. That's a picture of
you and I all the time. We battle a battle of the flesh,
and it will not cease till we reach the other shore. But oh,
how thankful we can be that because of what Christ has done, because
of His wonderful love for us, we can come to our Father in
our time of needs, in our time of weaknesses, and we can cry
out, Abba, Father! Help me, Lord! Have mercy on
me. I have no weakness. I have no
strength in my bones. I can't come to You. Come to
me, please. Help me when my faith is weak.
Help me when I stumble in my walk. And thank You, Lord, Thank you that my weaknesses,
my stumbles, do not turn you away from me. For my completeness
is in your Son. My steadfastness is in Him. No man can define the line between
God's grace and man's responsibility, but they are both true. It is
our responsibility to walk accordingly, yet it is by His grace that we
even do that. Will you stand with me?