I'm growing a little weary, but
I'll make this brief. I hope this will be a blessing
to you. This is my New Year's prayer for you and for me. I said, brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forget
those things behind me and reach forth unto those things which
are before. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God. in Christ Jesus. Now, 1989 is gone. It's gone, and 1990 looms ahead
of us. We don't know what the next day
will bring us, let alone the new year. Some of us, maybe several of
us, we may not even live through the next year. We don't know.
So with that in mind, these New
Year's resolutions and so forth and wishes that people like to
make, they're useless. They're useless. And because
of our inability to fulfill any oath, we make an oath and we're
unable to fulfill it. And because we're so fickle and
changing, we might as well not make any resolutions. So let's
get something from the Scriptures here to go into the next year
with. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
5. 1 Peter chapter 5. As I say it, I'll be very brief
here. This is my New Year's prayer.
These are my wishes and my hopes for you and me. And following
up what I've just said, these are spiritual wishes. Our little
two-bit resolutions aren't worth a thing, but these are spiritual
wishes and prayers and resolutions here. Look at 1 Peter, chapter
5, verse 10. We'll look at one verse. He says,
"...the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus." After you suffer defile, the
God of all grace make you perfect, establish you, strengthen you,
and settle you. These are my four desires for
me and for you, that God, our gracious God, will perfect us,
establish us, strengthen us, and settle us. But remember this,
do you remember what he said there before that? that it will
all come after you've suffered a while. Don't forget that. We don't want to dwell on suffering,
but don't forget it. That's what he said. It's like Christ said, you must,
through much tribulation, pain, sorrow, trials, afflictions,
temptations, and so forth, sufferings, you must, through much tribulation,
enter the kingdom of heaven. It's like gold being tried in
the fire to burn away the dross. He's promised it. Don't ever
say that I didn't tell you so from the scriptures, if it comes
upon you. And many of you may have some
things on you right now. And if I forget, if something
comes upon me, be sure and remind me." That's what he said. You must suffer for a while in
this life. Well, look at the first thing.
May God perfect you. May God of all grace perfect
you. I like this verse in Philippians. He said, I'm confident, I'm confident
that what God has begun, he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it. He'll perfect it until the day
of Jesus Christ. He'll finish it. He'll perfect
it. Why? Because God never does anything halfway. This is why we can't believe
in evolution. When God created this world, He created it like
it's supposed to be, complete. He's complete. So everything
he makes is complete, especially salvation in Christ, complete
in him. But when God created this world,
he looked down and it was just like it's supposed to be, couldn't
be improved upon. He said, it's good. Doesn't need
to evolve. It's good. Right like it is,
isn't it? So everything God does, he finishes,
he perfects it, and that's what he says about us. Let me read
you this, what Paul said in Colossians 1. He said that Christ has made
peace through the blood of his cross, and by him he's reconciled
all things unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth, things in heaven, and you, who are sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind, By wicked works, now he's reconciled,
made you complete in him, in the body of his flesh, through
death, to present you holy, unblameable, and unreprovable." That is perfect. Christ, by virtue of his sacrifice,
presents us perfect to the Father. Jesus Christ, by his perfect
life, by shedding his blood on the cross in our place, has made
us perfect, holy, acceptable with the Father, unblameable,
unreprovable to God. Christ is my perfection, spiritually
speaking. Stay with me. Stay with me. Christ is my perfection, and
Peter prays that God will perfect us. He has in Christ. He has. Practically speaking,
though, we are being conformed to the image of Christ every
day. We are being conformed to His
image. Hopefully, we are maturing in faith. I sure hope so. I hope I'm growing up a little
bit. I hope I've made a little progress
in however ten, twelve, thirteen, however many years, I don't know.
I hope I've made a little progress in this thing. I hope I've grown
up in faith a little bit. And that's what I pray for you
and for me, that God will make us more like Christ. That's what
these men prayed, that he'll cause us to grow in grace and
the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. Look at the second
thing. He prays that God not only will
perfect you, and He has, and that He will cause you to grow
in Christ, mature as a mature believer. But also, look at it,
that Christ, that God will establish you, that He will establish you. That word means confirm you,
confirm you. That is, steadfastly set you
in the right direction. There's only one direction, there's
only one way. Who's that? That's Christ. Steadfastly. That he would set you in the
direction, point you to Christ. That he would establish you,
set your feet upon a rock. Christ Jesus, like he did to
Moses when he passed by. No longer full of doubt about
your salvation. Don't you want to be established?
Don't you want it to be established in your heart? I'm a child of
God. Don't you? I do. I do. That's what I want to know. I
want, like he said in the psalm, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Lord, tell me that I'm a child
of God. That's not too much to ask. That's what he's praying
right there, that God will establish Christ in your heart, establish
you, that you might know your interest in Christ and feel secure
in Him. And I'm full of doubt and fear all the time. And that's
my prayer, that God will truly enable us to sing from the heart
that song, My Hope is Fixed. on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and His righteousness. I'm fixed. On Christ the solid
rock I stand. Yeah, I do. I don't always feel
like it. But if He sets you on Christ, you're there to stay.
And practically speaking, the prayer is, my prayer is, Peter's
prayer is, that we'll be established not only in faith but in character,
that our lives will be Established as men and women who profess
what we say we profess, to be followers of Jesus Christ? Isn't
that what you want? Don't you want to be established
in character as being like your Lord? Don't you want people to
look at you and tell that you've been with Christ? That's what
they said of the disciples, wasn't it? I want to be established
in character as one professing godliness and Christianity. One
and the same. Established in our goings and
our doings. as disciples, followers of Christ.
Thirdly, look at it. He said his prayer is that God
would perfect you, and he has in Christ, establish you, and
he has in Christ, set us on Christ the rock, strengthen you, strengthen
you. Let me turn, well you can turn
with me, Psalm 18. I'll hurry. Psalm 18 with me. Spiritually speaking, God is
my strength. He is my everlasting portion.
I stand strong in Christ. Satan, sin, self, they're defeated
by my Lord. I'm strong, oh yes. I'm strong,
all right. In Christ, not in myself, but
in Christ, every foe has been defeated. Psalm 18, verse 1,
look at it. David knew something about this.
He said, I love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock. and my fortress, he's my deliverer,
he's my God, he's my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my high attire. He's my everything. He's my strength. Look at verse
32. He says, it's God that girdeth
me with strength and makes my ways perfect. Look at verse 39.
But you girded me with strength unto the battle. You remember
our study in Ephesians chapter 6 on the whole armor of God?
God has girded us with the truth of the gospel, put on us the
breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, shot
us with the preparation of the gospel, and put the sword of
the Spirit right in our hands. We've got everything we need.
The armor of God is strength. And may I realize that in Christ
I can do all things. through Christ which strengthens
me. This has great implication. What things, what things can
I do in Christ which strengthens me? I can know God. I can know
God. I can win Christ. I can speak
to God as a kind father. I can serve God. We need to know
this more and believe this better if we believe it at all. I'm
not sure we realize, I'm not sure I realize what God might
do through me, if I believe Him. You know, this gospel's power,
we say it's the power of God unto salvation. When we go outside
and we go to tell somebody the gospel, whether it be speaking
to them by word of mouth or giving them a tape or whatever, why
don't we believe that God might use that? Why don't we believe
that God might use what I might say to somebody? We need to believe
that number. Yeah, we do. Through Christ.
I can do all things through Christ with strength. I can serve my
God. I can. I wish I believed that more.
Practically speaking, to be strengthened, bear with me. I pray that the
Lord will make us strong believers. Strong believers. Not to stay
babies. Paul said, be ye little children
in attitude, but not in understanding. That is, receive the word as
a little child, but not in understanding and not in resolve and so forth. Hey, the Lord make us strong
believers, like there's some people that actually died for
this, Rick. I mean, there's some folks actually
died defending this. I want to believe it like that,
don't you? I don't want to get all cowed and nervous in front
of some man just for telling him the gospel. My soul. People used to die for
this. I want to stand strong for the
gospel, don't you? That's what I want for you. Strong
in faith, strong of mind, strong of hand in whatever I attempt. Strong. May God, He says, God
perfect you, and He has in Christ. Establish you, and He has in
Christ. He set our feet upon the rock,
Christ Jesus. Strengthen us, and He has. I
can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. I know
God and Christ. I can serve God. And settle you. Settle you. But we need some
settling. Bad. Bad. Spiritually speaking, God has
settled this matter of salvation. He has. God has settled this
issue of our eternal destiny for us. There's nothing for us
to decide. Ain't no decision. I beg to differ
with these fellas. Ain't no decision to be made,
as far as my soul is concerned. God made it. Christ came down
and carried it out. And the Holy Spirit applied it.
I wasn't even around. And the Holy Spirit gave me faith, eventually,
to just look up and say, yeah, that's what you did, didn't you?
You settled it. That's what faith is, just saying,
yes, you did. Acknowledging what God has done
is what faith is. Faith without works is dead,
though. But God settled this issue, and we need not waver.
We need not waver. You see? By faith, we are firmly
grounded and settled in Christ Jesus. Here we are. Our feet
are on the rock, cross Jesus, never to be moved. Our foundation
stands sure, the scripture said, the Lord knows him that are here.
The spirit bears witness with our spirit. It's eternally settled
and decidedly fixed in heaven, our salvation in Christ, by virtue
of his blood and his righteousness. Practically speaking, I don't
mean to say but, these things go hand in hand, practically
We need this. Listen up. May God settle all
questions in our mind. May we be firmly persuaded and
convinced of the truth of the gospel, and not carried about
with so many things. May we be firmly established
and truly persuaded in our minds, in our hearts, that God's on
the front. That I'm a sinner in the dust. That Jesus Christ
is the only hope of salvation, and my only hope, my only plea,
is that when Jesus Christ died, He died for me. And that when
He lived, He lived for me. Firmly persuaded that this is
the only gospel. Only in Christ. That Christ came
and lived a perfect life, and only those represented by Him
are saved. Only those that He died for are
those saved. And that's me. That's me. Firmly persuaded of
that. Some people are soon shaken and
carried about with every wind of doctrine that comes along,
every two-bit preacher that comes along, comes down the road, says
some good things. Don't be shaken. Don't be taken
up. Have your ear like a tuning fork. Listen for the message. Listen
for Middle C. Listen for Christ. Listen for
Him. Some people, though, are ever
learning, never come into a firmly established and settled knowledge
and conviction of the truth. Now, let bigotry be far removed
from us. Let it be far removed from us,
but may we know what we believe and stand strong for it. Scripture says, let God be true
and every man a liar. May we stand convinced and settled
that what God, what's true today, what we believe is true today,
is going to be true tomorrow. What Luther And Calvin and these
men that God proved through these men was so, is so today. And I need to stand behind that.
Practically speaking, listen to this, to be settled. May we be settled in our aims
and our designs. We're not ready to quit. Not ready to pick up and leave
at the drop of a hat. Settled. Settled. Not ready to leave at a whim,
but firmly settled as members of this body. That's what I long
more than anything. I long 20 years down the road
to see every face still right where you're at. Every face. Unmovable. Unshakable. firmly
grounded and settled in the truth. It happens. I know a place 300
miles away that there's some people that have been firmly
established. They're there to stay. Firmly
rooted members of God's church. They ain't going nowhere. By
God's grace, yes. By God's grace, though, that
he's given them a firm resolve to stay put for his glory. Members of his body. Looking
for ways to serve, not looking for ways out. It's good advice,
isn't it? May we be settled in character,
not easily disturbed. Some of us that are a little
bit moody, we're a whole lot moody. We need to be established
in character, not easily disturbed, not easily upset, not easily
distressed, not easily offended, but established in character.
And may we be able to truly say from the heart, He must increase,
but I must decrease. That's my prayer for you. That's
my prayer for me in this coming year. Look at verse 11, I'll
close. Because to Him be glory, to Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Ain't nothing. Ain't never have
been, ain't now, never will be. Nothing. To Him be glory. So let me shut my big mouth and
sit down and stay through it and worship God. Be still and
know He's God. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. May God bless that. To our hearts and our lives. I'm going to ask you four men. I'm going to do the same thing
for the other side. I'm going to do the same thing
for the