Let's turn to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. Now the title of my message this morning is cast in the form of a question that I hope you will consider with all the seriousness and sobriety you can muster. I pray God will give you serious, thoughtful minds to consider this question.

I keep hoping maybe God will enable me in time to speak with such authority and clarity and power that folks will pay attention to what I'm saying. Brother Mahan turned 50 years old. He said, I think maybe folks might start listening now, but they don't. I'm getting close and folks still don't pay any attention. I hope you'll pay attention. Here's the question.

How long will your faith last? That's worthy of consideration. How long will your faith In Matthew 10 and verse 22, this is what the Son of God says. Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. He that endureth to the end shall be saved.

I've read a lot of commentaries and sermons and heard a lot of sermons, heard a lot of comments on that text of scripture. The Armenians like to shake it before you and say, here this teaches that men can be saved and then lost again. The Calvinists are scared to death to deal with it and they try to twist it and mangle it and make it mean something it doesn't mean.

But the text stands. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. Nobody else. Nobody else. Now this text was addressed originally to preachers. Our Lord Jesus is here talking to the apostles, those first heralds of salvation to the sons of Adam. What a high honor. What a great privilege. The Lord is sending them out to preach the gospel. He's sending them out in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as heralds of free grace.

Perhaps they had visions of grandeur. I can pick to them. Young preachers might always have visions of grandeur. You just somehow, I guess every young preacher can picture himself in his visions of greatness standing before a congregation of 20,000 like Spurgeon did in his day in preaching. And these fellas, they're sent out, they're going out now with a commission from Jesus Christ to conquer the world with the gospel. I'm just imagining.

They probably imagined that with this good news of grace that nobody has ever heard so clearly declared before, they would be warmly embraced, their message would be believed, and they would be praised and highly honored by men for having come to them and brought them the message of grace. But they were in for a rude, rude awakening. Listen to what our Lord says in this context. He's sending them out to preach. And he doesn't paint a real pretty picture. He doesn't say, now you fellas follow me and serve me and boy, there's no life like this.

He says in verse 16, behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, you're going to need it, and harmless as doves. because your tendency is going to be to get on your hind legs and fight like dogs. But beware of men, for they shall deliver you to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. Go to church and they'll beat you. And you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.

But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak. For it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. Lindsay was dealing with that this morning when Paul stood before the Sanhedrin. He'll give you the words to speak. You don't have to worry about that. For it is not you that speak, but the spirit of your father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death. and the father the child and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. And you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

Now against this backdrop, he says. But he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Lest any man should enter upon the work of the gospel ministry without counting the cost The Lord Jesus says to all whom he sends forth, he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Every youthful novice who is chomping at the bit to preach and be a gospel preacher, every man who is just jumping at the bit to get out there and be one of these men who heralds forth the gospel, needs to hear and consider the meaning of our Lord's words. He would be very careful not to run till he's been sent. Far too many put their hand to the plow only to look back and prove unfit for the master's service in his kingdom. Our Lord's admonition must be heard by every aspiring preacher.

Be thou faithful unto death. Not faithful for a while, not faithful here and there, not faithful for a few years, but be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life. Only those who hear and obey our Lord's command can, as they look in the grave, with immediate prospect of meeting God in judgment. Look back over their lives and say, I've fought a good fight. I've kept the course. I finished my course. I've kept the faith. You must be faithful unto death, our Lord says. He that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Now, every gospel preacher needs this admonition. Because every gospel preacher is in Satan's sights constantly, surrounded by danger and temptation. From the moment of his call, the preacher of the gospel faces trials and temptations of a kind that are different from other men. And I want to deal with this just a little bit. I want to move on. But gospel preachers face their own set of trials that other folks can't enter into.

Youthful adulation soon fades away. The youthful popularity, folks, see you in your youth and they brag on you and they pat you on the back and all that stuff, you know, make you feel good, make your head swell up about ten times the size it ought to be. But that soon fades away. That doesn't last very long.

The croak of slander and the poison of ass assails the man who was once praised by those very same lips. Smiles quickly give way to ingratitude. Those who once sat and listened and hung on every word the preacher said listen to the same preacher now and find his ministry to be stale and dull. Once men were full of flattery who now have nothing but venom. Once men who were full of adulation and praise now have nothing but malice and gossip. Should the preacher live to be an old man, he still has other troubles, other temptations, other trials.

He often feels useless and ignored just because nobody pays any attention. any attention to the message. I know you sitting there, when I say that, you say, Don, I'm listening, I'm paying attention. I know there are exceptions, but the vast majority of people to whom I preach, here and elsewhere, appear not to hear what's being said. Do not understand the urgency of what's being said. I used to listen to Brother Mahan make a statement that I used to wonder, how could he say that?

He said, I've quit preaching a hundred times. I just, I've just given it up. I've quit. And in my youth, I never thought about quitting. I just never thought about it. Oh, but I think about it a lot anymore. I just, because the Utter futility. Folks just don't listen. Folks just don't pay attention. Folks do not understand the urgency and the desperation of the hour and the need to hear from God.

The flesh cause the older man to rest a while and relax. After all you've been doing this for a good long while now, let somebody else take up the battle. You've been going at this for a good long while now, it's time to rest and relax. You don't need to be so persistent and so demanding and so urgent. And the world calls for the old man to be mellow and peaceful and seek security. It's time to Time to mellow out now. You're getting to that age where you oughtn't to be so fiery. You oughtn't to be so controversial. You ought to figure out some way to get along in society and secure for yourself some measure of prosperity and happiness and security for you and your family in the days ahead.

And so Satan calls him to compromise. And often they do. Often they do. I admire men who, as they age, become more and more gracious, but at the same time more and more dogged, determined, and dogmatic in their convictions. That's the way it ought to be. But Satan and flesh and the world and everything around us says, now don't be so dogmatic. Don't continue this way.

One of the saddest pictures in the whole book of Acts, one of the saddest pictures, is in Acts 21 when Paul finally came to Jerusalem. He came there with gifts and alms from Gentiles who had been converted by hearing the message of free grace. He came there to again meet with his brethren, the Jewish believers, under the leadership of James, under the teaching of Peter, and where they had had that Jerusalem Council in which the gospel of God's grace was clearly enunciated and the believers' freedom from the law was clearly set forth. And here comes Paul. And James met him at the door of the temple.

And he said, now, Paul, these fellows have heard all about you and they're still suspicious. They have heard that you you have just totally pushed aside the law and the the purpose of the law and the usefulness of the law. And you just utterly become an antinomian in your declaration of grace. Now, there are some fellows who have taken a vow And if you would go in there and you'd take that vow with them and purify yourself with these fellas in the temple according to the law, that sure would help you to get along.

And here's Paul the ancient, Paul the old man, and he gave in. He gave in. And I can almost justify it. It was after this that Paul wrote Galatians. It was after this that Paul made his boldest, firmest statements concerning the believer's absolute freedom from the law. But I can almost justify him giving in. Because he said, what's the use? What's the, after all this, you still haven't heard me? After all this, why go on with this battle anymore? Okay, I'll just, I'll get along. And even that didn't help me when I ended up going to jail anyhow.

But as a saddest picture I see in the whole book of Acts, nothing creates greater havoc and mischief than for a man who once stood as a bulwark in Zion. to fall and crumble and perish at last. When those who appear to be temples or pillars in the temple of our God fall, the whole house of God trembles. And I'm not talking now about a incident in a man's life like I just referred to Paul.

I'm talking about just departing from the gospel. Over the years I've seen a lot of preachers. Preachers who were known for preaching the gospel of God's grace. Preachers I'd sit and listen until my heart be moved by it. Just depart from the gospel. They're gone. They're gone. Fellows who have preached in this pulpit and preached in this pulpit in such a way that your own heart cried out to God in worship and praise and adoration. But those preachers is gone. It's gone.

And the weak believer begins to question himself. The weak young believer begins to doubt himself. One of the old writers said, don't pee in your faith on any man's sleeve, he won't be able to carry it. And that's good advice. Don't pin your faith on any man's sleeve. He won't be able to carry it.

Our first text, then, is addressed to preachers. And I've thus far been talking to myself and anyone who hears this message who has aspirations for the ministry. But our Lord's word to preachers is this, he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Now turn to Matthew 24. This same text is repeated in almost the exact same words in Matthew 24 verse 13.

The Lord Jesus is here not talking to preachers. He's not talking to his apostles, but he's talking to all of his disciples. He's talking to all professed believers. He's talking to many women who live in these dark, dark days of apostate religious deception.

And he says in verse 13, he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved. Now get the context again, verse three. As he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him, privately saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? They asked three things. When is the temple going to be destroyed? What is the sign of your coming? And what is the sign of the end of the world?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. Say that you be not troubled for all these things must come to pass.

But the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. And these all these are the beginning of sorrow. Then shall they deliver you, my disciples, my people, up to be afflicted and shall kill you. And you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that it shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. You, my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, are not called to the same work or the same trials I am. You're not all public preachers, but every believer Every child of God is required to endure temptations and trials. Trials and temptations that have destroyed many others before you. The cares of business. Boy, they just, they're creeping in, don't they?

I was thinking this morning, Merle, when I was studying for the message, about those early 80s when you spent so long without work. And no unemployment, got to scratch out, make things go. How easy it would have been to find an excuse to spend your Sundays over there working somewhere rather than here listening. How easy.

Because you got to pay the bill. You've got to make ends meet. You've got to scratch out a living. After all, we've got to live in this world. Well, I'm going to tell you something. I haven't said it in a long time. You used to hear it right regularly. That's the one thing you don't have to do in this world. I've got to die here, but I don't have to be dead. I'm going to leave this world, but the cares of business, Destroy many. The deceitfulness of riches, the cares of the world. Oh, how quickly they choke out the word. Little by little. So subtly. So deceitfully.

Buddy, you don't even get a hint of it until the life is gone. Out here in the garden, we got this wild sweet potato vine. Must be native to Kentucky. I never saw one anywhere else. That little old thing, just a little old bitty thing, I mean tiny little old thing, it can wrap itself around a stalk of corn that's almost mature, and in just a couple of weeks, it'll kill it.

Just choke the life out. Just chokes out the life. That's the care of this world. In just a little while, the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches will wrap around your heart. You'll be gone, unless God preserves you. The company of the ungodly and the temptations they bring. Oh, I fear for men and women and you young people. I fear for you. You who profess faith in Christ and you who are concerned for your souls. When I see you gradually Form your associations and form your companions, not among God's people, but among God's enemies.

Because I know what's going to happen. How many times have we seen it, lads? Know what's going to happen? Oh, I'm going to go over there, but they're not going to thank me. I've got my feet planted firm. They're not going to turn me away from the Lord. Oh, yeah, they will. Our Lord said so plainly. He said, so play me.

You aren't going to get them interested in anything by compromising with them, but compromise you will. The best thing you can do, mamas and daddies, young and old, you young people, the best thing on this earth you can do is seek for your companion. people who fear God. Best thing on this earth you can do.

You spend your days and your nights in the arms of folks who hate God, you're going to wind up just exactly as they are and you'll soon forget God. The Lord Jesus says then to you and me, he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be said. Now in the light of those two texts of Scripture, these two words that fell from the lips of the Son of God to you and me, I want you to consider this question. How long will your faith last? I wish I could take every one of you and set you down and just go through the Scriptures personally so you'd understand I'm talking to Bob and Shelby and Rex and Don. How long will your faith last? How long?

Now this much I know, and I intend to clearly demonstrate it from the Word of God. Every true believer, every truly saved sinner, every true child of God, though he may and will suffer many falls, and though he acknowledges sin to be his constant though hated companion, Every true child of God will persevere in grace and faith and the worship of God to the end of his days on the earth. You got that? For sure. Not one true child of God will ever perish.

Now, in this message, I want to show you four things concerning this thing of persevering, this thing of enduring to the end. The first one is most important, but I'm going to just go right through this quickly. First, understand this, perseverance is the identifying mark and characteristic of God's saints. How do you know a Christian? How do you know who Christians are?

Somebody says, well, you listen to their words. No. No, because folks who aren't Christians can sure talk like them. They sure can. Folks who don't know God can sure enough talk like they do know God. Folks who, who generally, generally folks who don't know God are like those Ephraimites. They can't say shibboleth, you know, but a lot of them can. A lot of them can. So you can't judge them by what they say. You can't know who a Christian is by his works, by his deeds, by his life.

Now I realize many unbelievers live and act in horrible ungodliness, but many unbelievers are very moral, upright people. Many unbelievers live and do things just exactly like you and I do. They're honest and they're moral and they're loyal to their families, loyal to their wives, loyal to their husbands. They don't live in profligate immorality. So you can't judge them by their deeds. How do you know who a Christian is? Well, you have to consider his experiences. Oh, those folks we read about in 1 Corinthians 10.

They went out of Egypt. They crossed over the Red Sea. They ate manna that fell from heaven, angel food. They were baptized unto Moses in the Red Sea. They drank of that water which followed them in the wilderness, and that rock was Jesus Christ out of whom the water flowed. But they didn't know Christ, though they drank the water he gave.

Experiences won't do it. Oh, but I know what I experienced. I was there. I know how God came down. I know how the Lord spoke to me. I know what a radical change took place in my life. You read Matthew 7, you'll find out there's a whole lot of folks who had experiences you've never thought about having who didn't know God. Well, how on earth then can you identify who Christians are?

Ultimately, only one way. Ultimately, only one way. By perseverance. By perseverance. You watch men and women over the years, Boy, they have a lot of ups and downs. Sometimes I think, well, this is going to get them, or that's going to get her. But they bounce right back, bounce right back. Because God's saints persevere. They persevere. You take the magnetized needle of a compass.

It'll bounce here and there, but it's always pointing north. It'll bounce here and there, but it's direction. is northward. And the believer bounces here and there, and he falls into this, he falls into that, but the direction of his life is heavenward. And he's going to wind up, just like he professes, walking heavenward.

Every believer will. Now I want to be crystal, crystal clear. I am saying that anyone who professes to be a but for any reason ceases to walk in the way of grace and faith and the worship of God, has never experienced God's saving grace. Those who fall away were never saved to begin with. Those who are saved cannot and will not fall away. Someone asked George Whitefield one time concerning someone else said, do you suppose he's a Christian? Whitefield said, well, I don't know. I've never met with him. I don't know him well enough to answer that question.

Somebody called Brother Barnard, sat down and talked to him late at night. Barnard was tired. Fellow started talking about his experience and all they believe and all they've been through. And he said, Brother Barnard, do you reckon I'm saying And Barnard said to him, I don't know, ask me in 30 years.

That's a pretty good answer. How do you know who Christians are? By perseverance. Perseverance. Let's see if the scripture does state that. Turn back to Job chapter 17. Job 17. Do all believers persevere? Do all true believers continue in the faith? Well, Job 17 verse 9 says this. The righteous also shall hold on his way. And he that has clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Looks to me like he says he's going to persevere. Look in Proverbs chapter 4. Proverbs chapter 4 verse 18. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. That's a description of the just. They persevere.

Look in Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. Here the apostle Paul, and we're gonna look at several passages like this, makes promises, but promises that have one great big word of condition on them. In Colossians 1 verse 21, the apostle says, you that were sometime alienated at enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

Now look at the next word, if. If what? If you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard. Look in Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. Verse 6. Christ has sent over his own house, whose house we are. What a word. Whose house we are. If. There's that word again. If what?

If we hold fast. the confidence and rejoicing of hope, firm unto the end. Verse 14, for we are made partakers of Christ, partakers of Jesus Christ. We're made partakers of Jesus Christ. Can you get hold of that? Yeah. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end, Look in chapter 10 of Hebrews. This is not just stated here and there. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 38. The just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Look in first Peter, second Peter rather chapter 2. Second Peter chapter 2. Verse 20. If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

For it had been better for them not to have known, and you can write out somewhere in the margin in theory, that's what it means, not to have known in theory the way of righteousness. that after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again. And the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Those are two good pictures of professing believers who don't know God. The dog vomits and the man who professes faith in Christ gets rid of his manner of life in sin and corruption, not willingly, but as it were, he vomits it out because he has to. But the dog will return to his vomit and lick it up. And the man who doesn't know God will leave his profession and go back to his sin and lick it up.

The sow that was washed We're living in strange days. Folks have pigs for pets now. Set them in their house, put bowls around them. You can wash it up, set it in the house, and you can make it a family pet if you want to, but turn it loose, you're going right back to the mire, because that's the nature. And men can be washed and reformed and cleaned up with religion, but turn them loose. In time, they're going right back to their nature, to their natural habitat.

The scriptures compare faith repeatedly to running a race. Paul speaks of running a race. He said everybody gets on the starting line and here they go, running for prize. How are you going to know who wins the race? Not by watching the starting gate. Keep your eye on the finish line. The man who crosses that line First one crosses, he wins the prize. And Paul uses the analogy, so let us run, every one of us, that we may cross that line, win the prize.

But if you don't cross the line, if you get tired and sit down, if you stumble and fall, if some trap catches you, if some snare's laid before you, and you don't cross that line, it's because you don't know God. That's the analogy of Scripture. More than that, the judgment of common sense teaches us that every believer perseveres in faith. If every person who professes faith in Christ and begins to follow Christ is saved at last, then things are going to be pretty good at the end.

Because I don't know anybody who doesn't. Do you? In this country at least, in this religious age in which we live, everybody in the world has had at least one spasm of religion. Everybody. I don't know anybody who would deny being a Christian and having never professed being a Christian. I don't know anybody. I just haven't met those folks. The religion of our age has got everybody in the church and on the way to heaven.

It don't matter whether they're homosexuals or whether they're lesbians or whether they're murderers. It don't matter. They're fine, good people. They just went astray and God's going to take care of them in their time. I tell you what, if everybody in this world who profess faith in Christ knows the living God, this world would be a different place to live in. You can bank on it. They wouldn't be the mess they're in.

The fact is, not everyone who professes faith in Christ, not everyone who's had a little bit of excitement in religion, not everyone who's had some kind of experience to which they can pin their hopes and say, there, because I went through that and I endured that and I felt that, I'm surely going to make it. If anybody makes it, surely I will. That's not an indication of faith.

The very worst people in the world are those who once walked with God's saints and professed faith in Christ, but then, for whatever reason, turned and walked no more with the Savior. Judas Iscariot, first time we hear about him, he's one of the apostles, a preacher, a miracle worker. Probably the most trusted of the Apostles. He carried the bag. You don't let somebody handle the money if you don't trust them. But Judas was himself a betrayer. Simon Magus, that sorcerer who professed faith in Christ but thought he could buy the gift of God, had in him the gall of bitterness. He didn't know God. Alexander the coppersmith at Ephesus did much at the hazard of his own life to protect the Apostle Paul. But before it was over, Paul wrote and said, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm, the Lord reward him accordingly.

Demas. You read about Demas in the New Testament, he's Paul's companion. Paul's companion, he went with him preaching. Not only was he a companion who traveled with Paul, but Paul sent Demas other places preaching. Somebody called him up. I'm using modern language, but they call up, Paul, you got anybody to come preach for Sunday? Yes, sir. Demas is a good preacher. He'll be my pastor. He sends Demas over to be honored to preach over Pitefort.

But in his last words, Paul said, Demas had forsaken me. I didn't love this present world. Our Lord Jesus said, if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It's useless. It is written, let not him that girdeth on his armor boast himself as he that putteth it off. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

The observation of experience Confirms what the Word of God teaches, doesn't it? There are many, not yonder, who have been baptized by these hands. Many who have sat together with us in the house of God. Many who have worked together with us in the cause of God. Of whom we are compelled to ask, ye did run well, who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? I've known men who sacrificed much in the cause of Christ, who in a little while sacrificed everything on the altar of their lust, And I don't mean sensual lust. Lust is not just sexual. Lust is for material things. Lust is for power. Lust is for ease. Lust is for whatever satisfies your flesh. Sacrifice everything to satisfy their flesh.

In the light of these things, I urge you to hear what the scripture says. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Be sure you understand the doctrine of Holy Scripture. No true child of God shall ever perish and be lost at last. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Perseverance is that which identifies God's saints in this world. They shall endure to the end. They continue all the days of their lives in the way of faith, of grace, and of worship. Secondly, very quickly, perseverance is the target at which all our enemies shoot constantly.

That's it. The world, the flesh, and the devil make no effort whatsoever at trying to get Rex Bartley to stand up and say, no, I want to deny Christ. I'm not a Christian. I won't follow him anymore. He's not the son of God. I have no faith. That's not the target. That's not even important. That's not even important.

But the world says, come back to me. Come on. Come on back to me. I'll give you everything you want. Come on. You feel lonely and isolated? Come on with me. I'll give you companionship. lived all your life doing without, come to me, I'll give you plenty. You're sad, downcast, come back to me and I'll give you pleasure.

Come on. The flesh says enough of this pilgrim business. Enough of this business of living as strangers and pilgrims in an alien and hostile land. Why can't I serve God and men when other folks do? Come on. Don't be so rigid. Don't be so committed. Don't be so demanding of yourself. And the devil says, come back to me. Oh, I don't want you to come back to the bars and the brothels and the black pits of iniquity. Oh, no. Oh, that wouldn't be good. But come with me and be a respectable lover of pleasure.

After all, you can worship God anytime. You can worship God whenever you want to. But you must seize the opportunities before you. You must seize the pleasures and treasures of this world. Surely you would not want to deprive your family of all that I offer you. Come follow me and you'll have plenty of time to worship and serve God.

Sometimes it is your perseverance in suffering that's attacked. I know some of God's saints who suffer constantly. It's almost humorous to listen to some folks talk about their sufferings because it's kind of like getting a hangnail, you know. Just hold on. Tomorrow will be all right. But then some folks suffer. I know some folks who suffer. I know some folks who have a cup of bitterness rung out to them that seems unbearable to me just listening and watching what goes on with them.

Job and wife. saw what God did to him, and she watched his integrity. She watched him worship God and find me. His wife said to him, why don't you just cuss God and die, enough of this. Enough of this. His three friends looked at Joe in self-righteous, haughty judgment. And Job looked at his own life and cursed the day of his birth and was tempted often to just give up his perseverance and suffer. But he didn't. God held him. Sometimes it's your perseverance instead fastness that is attacked by the world, the flesh and the devil. He was zealous service for Christ.

You don't want to stand out there on that street corner and pass out tracks. Why, that's embarrassing. Folks laugh at you, poke fun at you for doing that. You don't want to speak up and bear witness to the gospel of God's grace. Nobody believes those things. Everybody thinks you're a bunch of nuts. Faithful attendance at the house of God?

You don't need that. You know, you can worship God. Go to church. It's good to do that whenever you have opportunity and nothing much interferes, but you don't need to commit yourself to that. Your earnest desire to know Christ so that your heart cries as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

And the world, the flesh, and the devil says, that's a little bit fanatic, don't you think? That's a little too religious, don't you think? Nobody really thinks like that. Everybody who watches you knows you're not really that interested in those things. And after all, you know yourself, you're not. Sometimes it is perseverance and doctrinal distinctiveness that's attacked.

For these days, better to have AIDS and everybody know it than to believe anything and anybody know it. These days, liberal men in the name of love and unity and God quickly give away what doesn't belong to them, the truth of God. In this enlightened age, the most respected church dogma is that insistence that there is no dogma. If you're willing to say that black is white and sin is righteousness and that it doesn't matter what we believe, we're all right, everybody's going to heaven, though we flatly contradict one another. If you treat the Bible like melted wax and you say, well, this book can be molded to fit any man's mind and any man's opinion. then the religious world will embrace you and respect you as being a broad-minded, free-thinking, gentle man.

I'm going to tell you something. As far as the religious world's concerned, I've always been on the outside looking in, and God helping me, I'm going to stay there. That's right. I have no intention ever of being embraced by the wise acres of this religious world. And whenever it ever comes to pass, should it ever come to pass, that I find myself being complimented and accepted by men who hate the gospel of God's grace, you best watch out because I'm going to start preaching then.

I'm telling you there will be no compromise. God help us. The gospel of God's grace is too precious. The glory of God is too precious. Your souls are too precious. Those things that we hold to be vital to godliness, vital to truth, we will not bend over.

This book and this book alone is the word of God, our only rule of faith and practice. God in heaven is totally, absolutely sovereign. He does what he will everywhere and at all times. All men by nature are totally depraved. That means man is a monster inside. That means man is dead in sin. That means man has no ability to do righteousness and not even a desire to.

God has chosen a people Before the world began who must and will be saved and nothing going to stop him from saving them. Jesus Christ redeemed them with his precious blood. God the Holy Spirit calls them with irresistible grace and preserves them in life. And those who walk with God by faith in Jesus Christ are totally free from law. Totally free from the curse and the condemnation and the rule and the covenant of God's law. In Christ we're free.

Again, perseverance of the saints is a doctrine that is essential to the glory of Christ. I want to spend just a minute here, but I want you to get this. If it should ever come to pass that one of God's elect, one chosen, redeemed, called, justified sinner, if it should ever come to pass that one, I mean, just one believer should perish in hell at last.

Then Christ's surety-ship engagements, before the world began, when he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God, are useless and worthless. Christ's obedience unto God, by which he established righteousness, is utterly useless and worthless. Christ's shed blood, by which he made atonement for sin, is utterly useless and worthless. Christ's intercession in heaven is utterly useless and worthless. And so far as our souls are concerned, if even one soul should perish for whom Christ Jesus lived and died and makes intercession in heaven, then Christ is a useless and worthless Savior. The old black man on one occasion was asked by someone belittling him, belittling his faith, because he wasn't a learned man, wasn't an educated man.

They said to him, said, Sam, just suppose when you die, you find that you are lost and in hell. What then? Sam said, oh, there ain't no chance of that happening. Well, what do you mean there's no chance of that happening? He said, oh, if I should be lost at last, then the Lord, he'd lose more than I'd lose. All I'd lose is my soul. He'd lose his glory. And I'm telling you the glory of God guarantees that not one of Christ's sheep shall ever perish. One last thing. This matter of perseverance is of utmost concern to every true believer.

Over here in 2 Peter chapter 2, Peter talks about us being made partakers of the divine nature. He calls for us in verse 5 to give all diligence, adding to faith, virtue, virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, and so on. In verse 10 he says, wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure.

For if you do these things, You shall never fail. Mr. Spurgeon made this statement. I thought it was worth writing down and remembering. He said, if I must be lost, God grant that it may be, that it may not be as an apostate. If I must, after all, perish, Were it not better for me never to have known the way of righteousness than after having known the way in theory and something of the enjoyment of it to turn again to the beggarly elements of this world.

Now, if you care for your soul. If you care for the glory of God and the truth of God. I give you these three words of admonition. Take care that you never cease from your personal pursuit of Jesus Christ the Lord. Always look upon yourself like Paul did him.

I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. And reaching forth into those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Forget the past. Forget yesterday. Forget this morning, the good and the bad. Forget it. It doesn't amount to anything. And press on, seeking to know Jesus Christ. Oh, I want to know him today. Do you? I want to know him. God, I want to know you. I want to know your son. I want to know him. in the power of his resurrection, in the fellowship of his sacrifice.

Secondly, if you care for your soul, the glory of God and the truth of God, see to it that you never cease from the commitment of your family to the service of Jesus Christ. With Joshua, Make this resolve continually. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Billy and Jaylita back there, just start in your households. Just start in your family. Just join together. Make it your determination, my friend, in your household to serve God.

No matter what. No matter what comes down the pipe. No matter what happens. No matter what it costs. No matter what may, what may be called, what we may be called to suffer. No matter what we may be called to sacrifice. No matter what we may be called to endure. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Not gonna change. Not gonna change. And thirdly, If you care for your soul, if you care for the glory of God, the truth of God, see to it that you never cease from your personal public commitment to the worship of God. I want you to turn back to Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter 10. A few weeks ago when we had this in our daily reading, Shelby called my attention to this 10th chapter of Nehemiah. And that's when I started preparing this message.

In verse 28, the rest of the people and the priest and the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nephthynims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of all the lands, unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, everyone having knowledge and having understanding.

Verse 29, they claimed to their brethren, what a word, their nobles, and entered into a curse and into an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God. and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God and his judgments and his statutes. And when it says they entered into a curse, this is what it means. They said if we cease to worship our God, if we cease to follow our God, if we cease to walk with our God, let us be damned. That's what they said. Now look at the last line in the chapter, verse 39. This is what Shelby called my attention to. They said, we will not forsake the house of God. Not gonna happen. Not gonna happen. Now perseverance demands watchfulness and carefulness on our part. He that endureth to the end, the sane shall be saved.

So wisdom says, keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. Keep your heart full of Christ and keep your heart detached from this world. Keep your heart full of Christ and keep your heart free from this world, keep your heart full of Christ and keep your heart away from the world. But perseverance is the work of God. How long will your faith last? Well, if your faith is God's work, if your faith is God's gift, your last prayer. For I am confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Amen.