You ever heard somebody say, I've
lost my faith, trying to get my faith back? I've heard that a lot. I just
met a young man the other day who said, well, I've turned away
from my faith, and I've lost it. I know I need to get back
to it. I need to get back to my faith.
I need to do this. I need to do this. I need to
do this. Listened to him. I tried to get
in a word or two about, well, you know, faith is a gift of
God. You've got exactly the faith that God wants you to have when
He wants you to have it. And whatever faith you've got
is perfect because it's a gift from Him. Even if it's as small as a mustard
seed. You ever seen some mustard seed?
They're pretty small. I went and looked at one. You
almost have to have a magnifying glass to do that. We've come to our fourth in a
series of messages where we're looking at characteristics describing
the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ the Lord. In our first Message, we looked
at regenerating grace, the new birth, by the life-giving power
of Christ alone, and only those who were chosen in Christ before
the world was. We also looked at justifying
grace, being justified through faith by the blood of our Savior,
washing each of his elect as white as snow. God looks upon
us and sees the blood of His spotless Lamb of God and remembers
our sin no more. In our last message we covered
sanctifying grace as those for whom God the Father gave to God
the Son. That they would be set apart
from the world and brought into a holy union with Himself to
be seen as brothers and sisters in Christ. co-heirs to the riches
of God. All blessings in heavenly places
are in our Lord Jesus Christ, and they all come from Him, and
they all point us to Him. Today we look to the grace our
Savior bestows on us by preserving us, keeping us from falling away. Can you really lose your faith? If it's God's given faith, He's
not going to let you lose it. Why would Christ let you lose
anything? When our faith comes from the
true and living God, it's a perfect gift. And He gives us just as much
as we need to get through whatever it is we're going through. As
we saw in our Bible study talking about those who have lost loved
ones, especially their own children. What got them through that? Grace. Grace to look into God's word
and see the promises of God that don't go away and can't be changed. Promises that God gives his people. They will be my people and I
will be their God. Not maybe, Not my, not depending
on what you do, but they will be my people and I will be their
God. That's the Word of God speaking
to His people. This morning our title is Preserving
Grace. Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah
49 if you would please. While you're turning there, allow
me to read from Philippians 1-6. Now Paul is addressing the church
at Philippi with salutations of love. He's thanking our God
for their remembrance of His needs. He had witnessed them
growing in the grace of our Lord and Savior, and as such, He wanted
to assure them of this very point of grace which we are looking
at today. He says to the Philippians, be confident of this very thing.
Be confident in this very thing. He, which hath begun a good work
in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's
not going to start something in you and go, you know, okay,
never mind, you've done something, that's more than I can handle.
No. Our Lord comes to a dead human
being. Bones, as we saw in the book
of Ezekiel. A valley of bones. And He gives
life. Everlasting life. Spiritual life. Perfect. And it's seen as perfect
by God the Father because God the Father sees the blood of
the Lord Jesus that was shed on the cross for that person. For his elect, for his people,
for his loved ones. Being confident of this very
thing that He, which hath begun a good work in you, will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. He who begins a good work in
anyone is Christ Jesus Himself. He is the one who gives life,
as we saw in regenerating grace. If God be for us, then who can
be against us, as we read in Romans 8.31. Is that not what
our Lord says to us, each and every one of us? If God is for me and on my side,
can anything be against me? That goes for all of His elect.
And as we walk through this life and we see, as we read earlier
in Bible study of Mike's poem, or not poem, it was an article. As we go more and more along
in this life and we see all the troubles that we've gone through
already, we see our Lord bringing us through those troubles, He's
not going to leave us. We become more and more confident
of that very thing. As we look more into His Word
and see how much He does love us, giving Himself for us, we
become more and more confident that He's the one who's keeping
us. It is my Savior. that keeps John Reeves from going
off into the deep end of the pool. And I try hard. I'm as stiff-necked
as anybody is. Many, many times do I have to
learn things the hard way. And it hurts. But yet my Lord will never, never
let me go. I may stumble and crush my nose,
hurt an elbow, whatever, but He's always there to keep me
from falling into that pit, that pit that I once was walking straight
at. He's always there to turn His
people. Turn us, O Lord, and we shall
be turned. Is that not correct? First Peter 1.5. Speaking of God's elect, that's
how he starts that chapter. Elect. Those who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. That's our Lord speaking to each
and every one of us. I come before you knowing that I have nothing. I have nothing
but God's Word. That's all I can give you is
what God's Word is. He's the one who keeps by the
power of God through faith unto salvation. I know I have nothing. And I
pray to the Lord to give me something to say. Take the words. Give
me the words to speak that will comfort your people. And here's
the words. Those of you who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. If God before you, then who or
what can be against you? Are you in Isaiah? Look at verse
7 if you would please. Isaiah 49 verse 7. Thus saith
the Lord, The Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to Him whom
man despises, to Him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant
of rulers kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship,
because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and
He shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord in acceptable
time have I heard thee, And in the day of salvation have I helped
thee. And I will preserve thee and
give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth,
to cause the desolate heritages. That thou may say to the prisoners,
go forth. To them that are in darkness,
show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways.
and their pastor shall be in all high places. They shall not
hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them,
for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs
of water and shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains
away, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall
come from far and low, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful,
O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains. For the
Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his
afflicted." Amen. God has mercy. on his afflicted. Now, if you would, turn over
to the Psalms, the 30th Psalm, if you would. The troubles of this world still
afflict most of us, some more than others, maybe even so more than most. I believe, but we deal with them most differently,
don't we? We turn them over to our strength. I don't know about you folks,
but during these last elections, I saw what little bit of news
I did watch and saw the way things were going. And I just said,
Lord, it's in your hands. And whether those elections turned
out the way I wanted to or not, it was still God's way. It was
his providential way that was accomplished, and I am glad for
his providential way. Imagine what it was like for
Israel in the time when Jerusalem was conquered. God's people watching
another country, Babylon, come in and just wipe everything out.
Not just wipe everything out, but break everything. Tear down
the walls, tear down the temple, crush the rocks to powder. Imagine
what that must have been like. You think God's people praised
their Savior? I know they did. Because God's people know that
He rules over everything. And that all things are for our
good. He guides us, but he not only guides us, he keeps us.
He keeps his people looking to him, praising him for all. I'm
sure they were stressed out on the whole thing. I'm sure there
was a lot of stress. I know I would be totally stressed
out if that was happening to us here in these United States.
That's why the political situation can stress a lot of so many people
out right now. They don't stop to realize that our Lord is in
control of it. He rules it, as He sees fit,
and it's for the good of His people, even when we don't see
it. God has mercy on His afflicted. We turn our troubles over to
our strength. We turn it over to our strongman,
our captain. Are you in the 30th Psalm? I
will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast lifted me up. I have extolled Thee, O Lord,
for Thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice
over me. O Lord my God, I cried unto Thee,
and Thou hast healed me. Oh Lord, Thou hast brought my
soul from the grave, Thou hast kept me alive that I should not
go down to the pit." Remember, our subject is preserving grace.
David is crying out, Lord, You have kept me, You have preserved
me from the things that I could have been walking in, the paths
that I could have been going. Thou hast brought my soul from
the grave, Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down
to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints
of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Praise ye the Lord for keeping
us. In my prayer earlier, did I not
say, and I felt it from the heart, Lord, thank you for not leaving
me to myself, because I know where I would go. Go right back to the place where
a pig goes. Where does a pig go? Right into
the mud and wallows in it. That's their nature. And that
was our nature before the Lord changed it. Before the Lord gave
us a new heart. Giving us the desire to seek
after Him. And then keeping us in that desire.
Preserving us when we're weak. Oh, my faith gets weak. Oh, yeah.
Absolutely. David's faith got very weak.
You know what? Just hold your place there for
just a moment. Where was I? It was right there. Turn over to the 22nd Psalm.
Just a couple of pages to the left. And let's look at that. Do you ever feel like this? Do
you ever get this feeling in you? My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?" Yes, this is a prophetic statement speaking
of Christ on the cross. But this is also David feeling
it right there in himself. David is experiencing this very
feeling right here. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
for thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not
silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of
Israel. What does it say over in the
23rd Psalm? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Yeah, our faith can get really
small. We can feel like the Lord has left us to ourselves at times. But oh, for the joy that He gives
us when we can sing in verse 5, back in 30, For His anger
endureth but a moment, and His favor is life. Weeping may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And in my prosperity,
I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by Thy favor Thou hast
made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide Thy face, and
I was troubled, and I cried unto Thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord
I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise Thee? Shall
it declare Thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Lord, be Thou my helper. Thou
hast turned from me my mourning into dancing. Thou hast put off
my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. This is preserving
grace. This is our Lord being gracious
to His people. Giving us the joy of looking
to Him when we are in these troubles. When we go through the fire that
swoops through our town. We can sing gladness because
we know our Lord is in control of it. and His purpose will be
done. Thou hast turned for me my mourning
into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth
and girded me with gladness. To the end that my glory may
sing praise to Thee and not be silent. O Lord God, I will give
thanks unto Thee forever. Now turn over to the book of
Ephesians, if you would, please. You see, it's our very nature
to look to our own strength. This is the battle between our
flesh and our spirit. We look to our own strength many,
many times. And oh, how it is when we get
older and we see that strength leaving our body, we can see
that we never really had any of our own. It's our very nature. You know
how quickly we do look to our own, especially when we succeed
at something. Look what I did today. I did something I've never done
before. See how great that was? You know, I got to tell you,
I felt like that one time when I did some construction work. A friend of mine said, John,
stop being a sissy. It's not that hard. Go and do
it. And he was right. But I walked
away. See this? Look what I did here. That
turned out pretty good, didn't it? That's our nature. That's what our flesh does. It
gets in the way of our spirit saying, look what God gave me
the gift to do. Look what God gave Judy. He gave her an awesome gift,
the gift to play the piano in a beautiful way. He gave our
brother Mike Loveless the gift, the gift to be able to write
in poems, the gospel. You heard him preach if you were
here while I was gone. It's our very nature to look
to our own strength. Look what I had done. But those
who have had the state of man revealed to their hearts quickly
understand that all power comes from God. Oh, we want to say, I, I, I.
I did this. I did that. But God will not
let this stand if you belong to him. It's called chasing. Most often, our Lord must bring
His child to their very knees. He must bring them to their very
knees first so that they may see their lack of strength, so
that they will see their need of Him. It's like one must see the sinner
that they are before they can see the Savior of sin. You must
see that you need a physician before God will come and heal
you. But He who is without sin and
was made sin, that we who are sin may be made righteous in
Him. He is also the Creator of all
that is. And with that kind of power could
anything Could anything separate you, separate His people from
Himself? No. If it could, then He wouldn't
be called God, would He? God means all power of everything. We don't even understand what
the scope of that title is. We see a little bit of what creation
is, and we get a little glimpse of what He shows us in His Word.
But the day is coming when His people will stand before Christ
Jesus and see the true meaning of what God is. Everything. All power is His, because He
is power. Salvation is of the Lord and
if it is not of Him, and if it is of Him, then can it be lost? No. Can it be taken? No. Or in other words, can it fail?
No, absolutely not. Anyone who preaches that their
God could fail or lose something, they're just wasting their time.
A God who loves everybody and has left it up to you to decide,
that's a God who hasn't won anything. He's left it for you to decide,
which puts you as God. No. The God of Scriptures, Jesus
Christ the Lord, the Lord of all things, sovereign God of
everything, all are His. The God of all glory is perfect
in all ways, and that includes His plan for salvation for each
and every one of His people. Look at the first nine verses
of Ephesians chapter 1, will you? Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, by the will of God, to the saints, which are at Ephesus,
and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now remember, faith is
a gift of God. If you're faithful to Christ
Jesus, it's because God has given you the faith to be. Grace be to you, and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. What peace could
we have if we didn't believe that God is keeping us and preserving
us and to Himself and to the day of Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. If our blessings are
in Christ, can it be lost in any way? The very fact that it
is God Almighty in the flesh preserves those blessings for
us. Not just preserves it, but purposes everything that we see
for those blessings. Everything that happens for those
blessings. And those blessings in heavenly
places in Christ are ours according as He hath chosen us in Him,
in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. In love. In love! Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of whose will? His will! If it's His will, can anything
change it? That was one of the things that
caught my ear very first when I heard the Gospel preached,
when I was sitting right over here where Kathy is with Lee
and Shirley. This man standing up here in this pulpit is talking
about somebody who deserves to be called God. This is the first
man I'd ever heard talk about God as the ruler of everything. They use the word sovereign. That's all power. He rules everything. We mentioned
it in Bible study. He knows the hairs on your head.
The details. The very details about you. This
is who God is. This is who the God of Scripture
is. And He has chosen the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Preserving grace is His grace. And if it's His grace, it's going
to work, it's going to happen. Wherein He hath abounded to us
in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery
of His will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed
in himself." Now if you would, I'd like you to turn over to
1 Thessalonians chapter 5. There's not one spot, not one
word that we just read that man can claim credit for. It is all
of Him. It is all of Him, or you are
doomed to face the consequences of your sin. Either Christ is all your strength,
or you are trusting in something that you have done and you will
face that very thing in eternity of hell. You see, God will not share His
glory with another. Preserving grace may let us falter,
but He will never let us go. Promises like, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. These are promises that God's
people take to the heart, because God has put them on our hearts.
In preserving grace, He has put that very phrase on my heart
to say every time, to remind John Reeves, to remind me that
I will never leave you nor forsake you. Even when I get to feeling
like David did a moment ago. They will be My people, our Lord
says, and I will be their God. These are promises. These are
promises that our Lord has given to His people. It doesn't say
they might be My people. Some may be My people. He says
they will be My people. And I will be their God. The promises of God is what preserves
us and gets us through the troubles of this world. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. In Numbers 23, 19 it says, God
is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he
should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do? Or hath
he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Or in Isaiah 46, 11,
it says, yea, I've spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it, and I will
also do it. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people. That's persevering grace right
there. Preserving grace. Grace to remind us that our Lord
has done it all. When He hung on the cross and
He said, it is finished, it was finished. Salvation is of the
Lord. If God before you, could anything
separate you from the love which is in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ? If so, then He could not be called
God. If Christ has begun a good work in you, will He perfect
it? Yes, He will. And if you have
been called to the knowledge and the faith of who Christ is,
that He is God Almighty in the flesh, Creator of all that is,
Ruler, Sovereign Ruler over everything, If you have been called to the
knowledge and faith of what Christ did, He went to the cross to
save all His chosen people, all His elect. And the perfect blood
that was shed on that cross covers every sin of every one of His
elect. Not just the sins that we committed,
not just the sins that we might commit today, but every sin that
we will commit until the day we stand in His presence. If you've been called to the
knowledge and the faith of what Christ is doing right now, He's
sitting on His throne as sovereign ruler over everything. If you've been called to that
knowledge, To know that in your heart. You
see, it's more than just a head knowledge. A lot of people know,
you know the devils know that Christ is God Almighty. But they also know that Christ
didn't die for them. I know that Christ has died for
me. It's of the heart. If you know
these things of the heart, Can God let you go? Because He
only does that to those that He loves. Nothing, our Lord says, can separate
us from the love of Christ. Are you with me in 1 Thessalonians? Look at verse 1 of chapter 5. But of the times and of the seasons,
brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves
know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief
in the night. For when they shall say peace
and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon
a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren,
are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a
thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of
the day. We are not of the night, nor
of the darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but
let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But
let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith." The breastplate of faith. Do
you believe God's Word? I had to be reminded of that
by our own Pastor Gene Harmon. This very week. You know, I call
him every day. I know I've told you that. But he reminded me that I was
telling you this very thing. Because I was weak in the flesh
one day and I was looking to my good friend and pastor for
some encouraging words on how to continue and what the Lord
has given me to do. And Gene stopped me and he says,
you know John, you just told the people of the congregation
in the last message, you need to look to Christ, you need to
trust in the Lord. Something we have to be reminded
of all the time. Preserving grace is not something
we're just going to read about today. We need to go out the
doors and remember that our Lord is keeping us. Even when we run into a deer,
our Lord is keeping us. even when the thoughts of sin
may go through our minds. Put on the breastplate of faith
and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath
not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord
Jesus Christ. To obtain salvation by our Lord
Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with Him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together and edify one another, even as also you do. And we beseech
you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over
you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very
highly in love for their work's sake, and to be at peace among
yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren,
warn them that are unruly and comfort the feeble-minded, support
the weak, be patient towards all men. See that none render
evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good,
both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore, pray
without ceasing in everything, give thanks, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit, despise
not the prophesying. Prove all things, hold fast that
which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very
God of peace, sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be what? Preserved. Kept. blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 24. Let's come to a close with
this very verse. And the very God of peace, nope,
nope, that's 23, faithful is He that calleth you who also
will do it. The very God who calls us out
of darkness and gives life to His people everlasting life is the one who will do it. And
if Christ Jesus says he will do it, he will do it. Preserving grace. Would you stand
with me please and