From your Bibles to the little
epistle of Jude. The epistle of Jude will be going
back and forth between Jude and Deuteronomy 8. Our message today
is concluding a series on the Gospel of Your Salvation. The
title of our message is Preserved in Christ. I want to talk to
us about God's purpose in keeping His people and preserving his
people and delivering his people and bringing his people to his
desired goal for their life. I think when you understand the
gospel, you understand the grace of God, you understand the God
of the gospel and the God of grace, you understand that God
doesn't hurry up and do anything, but neither is God reacting to
anything that we do. When you understand the God of
all grace, you understand that God has purposes and plans, which
he purposed and planned before he did anything. And that in
the scope and realm of your salvation and minds, the whole of it was
determined and purposed in the mind of God before the world
began. We also understand that because
God cannot lie and God cannot change and God cannot fail, Everyone
whom God has purposed to bring into his grace shall infallibly
be brought to the place of experiencing the totality of their salvation
where they will be in the presence of God. They will look just like
Jesus Christ. They will have experienced the
fullness of everything that God has for them in terms of salvation. Therefore, for the child of God,
it is a matter of a journey of unfolding grace and purpose with
regards to the life that you and I live right now. Our life
is merely the unfolding, the unfolding and discovering of
and participation in that which God purposed for us in Jesus
Christ. And as challenging as life is,
it's still a wonderful ride, isn't it? As difficult as life
is, our walk with Jesus is wonderful. I mean wonderful. a thing for
which the soul should constantly delight in the grace of God that
called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. As we said
last week, once he cuts the lights on, the lights are on. I may
not like what I see on the road, but at least I can see what's
on the road now. There was a day when I couldn't
see it. I didn't know who my foes were. I didn't know what
my adversaries were. I didn't know what my troubles
were. I didn't know their source. I didn't know their aim. I didn't
know their objective. But when God cuts the lights
on, we see what God wants us to see, and it causes us to trust
Him that He'll get us from day to day to day to day. Now, the concept of preservation
is a twofold concept that I want very much for you to be able
to grasp. The little book of Jude, right
before the book of Revelation, encompasses two real critical
issues. The promise of God. The promise
of God that he will keep his people. Do you believe that?
The promise of God, now unto him who is able to keep you from
falling. and present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. That's the last
verse of the book. And so he's talking about keeping
us, keeping us, keeping us, but the book is also a warning, a
very serious warning of which every one of us who are rejoicing
and being kept must take heed to. It's a warning of falling
away. It's a warning of departure from
the gospel. It's a warning of discovering
one day that we don't have what we thought we had. And so there's
a tension always in the Bible between being confident in God's
work and being diligent in the work that God has called us to
do. You guys got that? There's a tension between being
confident in God's work and being diligent in the work that God
called us to do. You do remember the fourth verse,
right? that we are to be diligent, be diligent, that we are to contend
for the faith once given unto the saints, contend for the faith
for which Jude says, I gave all diligence to let you know that
this is a battle. This world we are going through
is a battle. Isn't that so? There's some challenges. Just
tell the truth now. We have our challenges, don't
we? But God promises to get us through. He promises to get us
through. And we have discovered a while
back that every child of God is a peculiar treasure to God. And he's a peculiar treasure
under the protection of God's grace in this process, this journey,
this excursion that we're going through. And you and I are in
a process of maturity. It's like God having purchased
a very valuable, valuable commodity, but he doesn't cash in on it
until it reaches its maturity. So there's a process with which
you and I are engaged in and we must constantly learn what
that is all about. What's going on with the kind
of life that we live? A very common life. Most of us
know the ups and downs of life. There may be one or two in us,
two of us in here that, I mean, well, you may have been doing
so well from the time you were born to this moment that you
don't know anything about struggle. I don't believe you, but it may
be so. There may be a few of you who
pretend that you have always had the world by the tail on
a downhill slide. There may be a few of you with
a silver spoon in your mouth and you really don't know trouble.
For some of you, it may be a handful of you in here with us today
who have a kind of gospel, a kind of message of triumphalism where
you go around talking about the only reason you're going through
trouble is because you're disobedient with God. There may be a handful
of you who think that when everything is going well, that's when God
is blessing you There may be there are folks who talk like
that. Ain't that right? There are folks who talk like well
I know God has shown me favor because he has blessed me exceedingly
I must tell you that that does not correspond with the God of
the Bible nor the grace that God bestows on his people God
frequently, and according to his covenant plan, must use difficulty
in your life to get you to see things God's way. He must use
difficulty in your life to get you to see things His way. But
I'll tell you what, you and I also know, we also know, that God
knows how to keep us. Isn't that right? God knows how
to keep his people and as difficult as our troubles may be We have
come to understand that the end of a thing is better than the
beginning thereof and we can echo with Joseph in Genesis 45
where he explained to his brethren the Lord sent me before you He
sent me before you to preserve much people alive this day y'all
remember that Joseph was able to laud the providence of God. He was able to boast in God's
purpose. He remembered God's promise to
him several decades earlier and one day he looks up and he is
second in command over Egypt and he's explaining to his brethren
how God sent me before you to preserve many people this day. But y'all know what Joseph went
through to get to where he was. You know that, don't you? That
boy went through some stuff God says, you're going to be the
head. You're going to be the sun. They'll be the stars and
the lesser lights. You're going to rule. I'm not
going to tell you how you will get there. But the trouble he
went through was such that shaped him and prepared him and qualified
him for his position. You know, the trouble he went
through is what we call perseverance. Joseph persevered. And God preserved
him. Joseph persevered being thrown
into a pit hated by his brethren his own flesh and blood know
anything about that Joseph persevered being sold to the Egyptians By
the Ishmaelites sold as a slave. He persevered with a life that
externally empirically By observation was totally opposite than the
promise that was given him. He's a slave but God told him
he rules the world and He had to persevere through that contradiction,
didn't he? And then he was put in jail as
a common criminal. It went from bad to worse. And
in prison, Joseph still had to believe that God's promises were
yes and amen. You know what we call that? Perseverance.
So that God was able to use Joseph in prison. Can you imagine how
much grace is on your life when you get thrown in jail for a
lie that wasn't even true about you? And in prison you learn
how to do the will of God in the midst of all of those knuckleheads?
So that as it says, and God was with Joseph in everything that
he did. Do you know what we call that
ladies and gentlemen? Perseverance. Perseverance. pressing through,
enduring, maintaining, sustaining your focus, maintaining the promises
of God in your mind. That's what perseverance is.
You have to go through that in this life. I have to go through
that in this life. But it doesn't look good. Persevering is a very uncomely
thing. Some of us are at a place right
now, you and I, where we can clearly see God's preserving
hand in our life, can't we? Right now, we can say, God kept
me. We can say that God has watched
over me. And there's even those seasons,
and some of us may be going through it now, where we may be enjoying
times of reprieve and rest and enjoyment of His faithfulness
in our life. There are moments like that,
where He just lets you enjoy life. You don't deserve it, He
just does it. He gives you that break from
the trouble. Anybody know what I'm talking about? And you get
these seasons. where life is just good every
day the sun is shining on you when it's not shining on anybody
else you're the one smiling and you're the one confident and
you're the one happy and your fellowship with God is great
you know when you have these prolonged seasons where you enjoy
God nothing else really matters Where you know and sense and
enjoy the presence of god in your life. It doesn't matter
what's going on The most important thing is your cornea your fellowship
with god Do you know what i'm talking about? And when god brings
peace into your life like that that kind of shalom that over
encompassing overarching peace Nobody can create trouble for
you You're kind of in a bubble. You're sealed as it were enjoying
communion with god. We have those seasons, don't
we? But we must admit that we went through a whole lot of trouble
to get there. The kind of trouble that was
ugly. It was embarrassing. It was humbling. It just completely destroyed
any sense in us of well-being or a sense of civility. In fact,
the trouble that we went through to get to where we are now, we
wouldn't want nobody to go through it. And we definitely wouldn't
want you to see the trouble we went through because I look bad
when I go through trouble. When I go through trouble, I
have no strength. I have no wisdom. I have no power. I don't look good. And that's true for you, too.
But those are the periods wherein God is strengthening you away
from yourself to him. He's teaching you how to walk
with God. Now, if you are resonating with
what I'm talking about, that's exactly what he told the children
of Israel in Deuteronomy 8, didn't he? That's what he's saying to
them. And when we come out of those troubles into a place of
rest where you may be today, you can say right along with
Job in chapter 17, verse 19, the righteous shall hold on his
way. You know, God makes you stubborn
in him. when you go through troubles.
He makes you stubborn in Him where you trust Him through the
difficulties that you go through. And you come to a place of being
able to say, God has kept me. God has kept me. He's kept me
by His grace. He's kept me by His power. The
concept that I'm talking to you about right now, ladies and gentlemen,
is called preservation. Preservation I want to talk to
you about the two sides of preservation today to make sure that we understand
what God is doing when He works in our life. The little book
of Jude, verse 1, is really what we're going to be working with
in order for me to set forth just five points on the concept
of preservation. It's the promise of God to bring
all His people to the place where He purposed them from before
the world began. Would you listen to what Jude
says in verse 1? the servant of Jesus Christ and
the brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the
Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Mercy unto
you and peace and love be what? Multiplied. Jude is talking to
God's people. He's talking to God's elect.
We finished a couple of sermons over the last two or three weeks
explaining the why of our salvation, haven't we? When we ask the question,
why did God save me? We must answer according to God's
word, because he chose me in Christ. God saved me because
he chose me. In the little term in the opening
of this passage, sanctified. You see the word sanctified?
Sanctified by God the Father. It means the same as election.
Four, when you elect something or choose something, you take
it out of the collective whole and you set it aside for yourself.
Got that? When you choose something or
select something, you take it out of the collective whole and
you set it aside for yourself. When you go shopping, the groceries
you purchase are sanctified. When you purchase a car, the
car that you purchase is sanctified. The husband you marry is sanctified. I don't care what you think.
The husband you marry is sanctified. The wife you chose is sanctified. The children you have are sanctified. Do you guys hear what I'm saying?
Sanctification is the same as election. For you have deliberately
chosen out of all of the persons are things that for yourself. Essentially when we call each
other saints of God, we are effectively saying you are God's elect God
the father chose us God the father sanctified us and God the father
placed us in his darling son point number one therefore in
your outline This is very important for you to get preserved by God
the father you guys see that Preserved now pastor. What does
preserve me the word means both in the Old Testament and the
new to keep to keep Like when you purchase your groceries,
you keep them for yourself. It also means to guard. To guard. To be preserved is to be guarded. To have a sentinel around that
thing to protect it, to protect what you have selected for yourself. It also means to contain. That
is to keep that thing from being lost. When you contain a thing,
that means you keep it from being lost. Like we use containers
to put things in. so that they don't run out everywhere.
God's elect are kept, God's elect are protected, God's elect are
guarded. God's been guarding me all my
life. He's been watching over me all my life. He's been containing
me all my life. That's a good way to mean to
say that He stops you in your track to keep you from going
further than He wants. You know how we get mad with
God for not letting us do what we want? You know what we call
that? Containment. I know you don't
like it, but God's containing you. You know how you want to
do certain things? And you can't understand why
God's not letting you do what you want to do now. Because he's
containing you. Because he loves you. Because
you don't know what's good for you. And you're scratching your
head saying, why it's taking so long? Because he's keeping
you. He's guarding you. He's hedging
you in. He's protecting you. Remember
Brother Joe? He went through it, didn't he?
And he did not look good either. Some of the stuff Job said about
God, you wouldn't catch me saying. Job said some bad stuff about
God. God don't care about me. I wish I had been dead. I wish
it never would have been a day where they said a man child was
born. God's like a giant. I'm a little flea. And here this
giant rushing up and down the mountains to just kill a little
flea. That was his perspective on his God. We talk like that
sometimes when adversity is so overwhelming in our life and
we fail to realize God's promises. Can I get one honest person in
the house? Sometimes we just wonder, is God against me or
what? Now, his word didn't change.
Those black letters on that white page is still the same. But in
our minds, we act like that because the process of perseverance is
designed to purge you and me of undetected self-confidences
and reliance upon ourselves or circumstances other than God.
So very often the process is going to expose your weakness,
it's going to expose your sin, it's going to make you look bad.
And it's designed to make you look bad to yourself. See, the process is not done
until you see yourself the way God wants you to see yourself.
And see, you're going to be all right when once you say, you
know what, Lord, this is ugly. I don't need anyone else to tell
me it's ugly. It's ugly. And at that point, you begin
to submit to, you start to acquiesce to the will and purpose of God.
What is he doing? He's preserving you. He's keeping
you. But he's also maintaining you.
He's also maintaining you. And I want this concept to enter
into your head very clearly, child of God, as we deal with
the warning that Jude addresses here. God, who chooses you and
calls you by his grace and brings you into his presence spiritually
through a knowledge of the gospel, is also hiding you. He's hiding
you. Matthew chapter 13, verse 44.
Go to your Bible and read it with me. The God who called you
by his grace, chose you in Christ, drew you by his spirit, quickened
you by his spirit, gave you a knowledge of your salvation, has also preserved
you by hiding you. In Matthew chapter 13, the Lord
Jesus Christ gives us a parable of the kingdom of God out of
about seven parables in Matthew 13, one of which it says, and
again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a what? Now we already
have described what that treasure is. that treasures the people
of God, Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy chapter 8, 1 Peter
chapter 2, you and I are a peculiar treasure unto God. Are you with
me? It's like a treasure hid, hid, hid in a field. What that means is, even in your
unconverted state, you didn't shine. Because the kind of treasure
you are in Christ is not designed for you to shine down here. Because
of the kind of treasure you are in Jesus Christ is not designed
for you to shine down here. Like the next parable, don't
go there, but the next parable is about a precious pearl. Now
you would never discover the beauty and the translucent nature
of that pearl until you break open its shell. It too is hid. So the church of the living God
is like a precious pearl, only it's hid. It's hid. You guys accept that concept
right now? You are a treasure, but nobody sees it. You have
to accept that reality because God is up to something bigger
than you and me. Listen to the parable. And the
kingdom of God is like unto a treasure hid in a field. The witch, when
a man hath what? When a man hath found it, he
does what? See, when something's precious to you, you secure it. You protect it. You preserve
it. You hide it. Isn't that right?
When something's very valuable to you, you guard it. You protect
it. That's what we mean by preservation.
Are y'all following me right now? It's preserved like fine
jewels. Extremely, extremely rich jewels
are those very rare jewels that are in the world. They're protected.
They're hid. They're not out in the public
for people to see. Mark this. Which when a man hath
found, he hides, and for joy thereof, goes and sells all that
he has, and buys that what? He buys the field, because he
wants to keep the treasure which is hid in the field, hid. The
field is the world. The treasure is the church of
the living God. The man who buys it is God the
Father. The price that he pays is God
the Son. How valuable is that treasure?
Oh, I know somebody told you the person that found that is
the believer, but you're too broke to buy anything, let alone
salvation. This is why we preach and teach
God is the one that saves us. We don't save ourselves. God
is the one that finds us. We don't find God. God is the
one who provides for us the price by which we are brought to Jesus
Christ. Nothing in my hands I bring simply to your cross I cling.
I don't have a nickel, I don't have a dime to purchase my salvation. I'm too broke if I wanted it
to buy. I'd have to borrow the money from God to get it. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? God's the one who hunted you
down. God's the one that found you in your sin. God's the one
that found you in your iniquity. God saw through the dirt of the
field to the treasure that was in you. And that treasure is
Christ in you, the hope of glory. It was for that reason he sold
all that he had that he might purchase that field But you and
I are still here Am I making some sense brother? I need you
to get this you're still here. You're still here This is what
the whole call to perseverance is all about because he naturally
innately you and I want to shine We want to shine Even in Christianity,
we want to shine. We want to steal God's glory
and shine. Look at me. Look at all God's
doing through me. Look at what God has done by
me. No, it's not about you. And perseverance is to help the
people of God, God's elect, understand it's not time yet. Colossians
chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 verses 1
through 4 will explain this before I go to our next point God has
preserved his people This is called the work of his electing
love in our life by hiding us having purchased us by the blood
of Jesus Christ and by his righteousness and He has hit us and we are
told in Colossians chapter 3 verse 1 if then you be risen with Christ
do what? Seek those things which are above
where Christ sits at the right hand of God That means you and
I need to be heavily minded my affections need to be on things
of on On things above now notice what the next verse is set your
affections on things above Not on things on the earth now for
some of you. That's the verse you need to
take home today verse 3 See, if you don't get anything else
out the message, that's for some of you. Because some of you are
in trouble by violating that principle. Verse 3, for you are,
not were, are dead. And your life is what? Did you
get that? So how you gonna shine while
you are both dead and hid? You got a double whammy going
on here. First you're dead, then you're hid. Watch this. With
Christ. With Christ. What am I with Christ? Dead. What am I with Christ? Hid. Christ in God. You see the situation? What we
have there is the metaphor of a very wealthy deposit that's
placed in a safe. and that safe is protecting you
from any kind of contaminant, any kind of molestation, any
kind of theft, only you're not seen, you're here. God has the
joy of knowing who you are in Christ. Christ has the joy of
knowing who you are in Him. The Spirit of God has the joy
of knowing who you are in Christ. You should have the joy of knowing
who you are in Christ. But you don't get the joy of
telling people or showing people who you are in Christ. You are
hid and you are dead. That means there's a time for
everything. If you get a grip on that, here's
what you will learn. Right now, it's about Jesus. Right now, it's about Jesus.
Right now, it's about the one who loved me and gave himself
for me. Right now, it's about me laboring to laud and glorify
and honor him. Right now, it's about him shining. Right now, it's about his message,
his gospel, his glory, his purpose. It's not about me. If you get
a hold of that, that'll help you persevere, because the tests
are coming. The tests are coming that will
cause you to think you've got a little space in this agenda
by which it's about you But it's not right now. It's about who? It's about Christ ladies and
gentlemen go back to our text. Let's work it through. So you
got it. You got it now Here's gonna be the challenge persevering
in the faith by which you understand that right now God has you both
dead and hid in the Son of God we are preserved by God the Father
and We are chosen by God, the Father. He has elected us and
he has sanctified us. And effectively, we call that
the first cause. Our God is the source of our
preservation. You got that? See, what this
allows us to think through is how God has purpose and how God
is minded and how God has thought about what he's going to do for
our everlasting good and our salvation. Our Father has thought
up The whole scheme, the source is in him. But what he did was
to preserve us in Christ. Point number two, preserved in
Christ. You will notice, therefore, we
are changing propositions. We are preserved by God the Father,
but we are preserved in Christ. You guys got that? The Father
has placed us in Christ and he has preserved us in Christ. Now,
I want to share a few things with that particular proposition
because it's important to know. Now when the text says he has
preserved us in Christ, he is not merely speaking about preserving
us positionally. For that was done when he chose
us in Christ before the world began. I was in Christ before
I had a being. I was in Christ before the world
began. I was in Christ in the mind of God before he created
anything. Am I making some sense? And it
was God who placed me in Christ. That's 1 Corinthians chapter
1 verse 30. But of God, are you in Christ? But of God, are you
in Christ? How did we get in Christ? God
the Father placed us in Christ. Did everybody get that? You know
what that means? You don't place yourself in Christ. There was nothing that you did
that put you in Christ. You didn't earn your way in Christ. You didn't merit your way in
Christ. You didn't negotiate your way in Christ. To be in
Christ is not an issue of things that took place in time. They
are things that took place in eternity between God the Father
and God the Son. How is it that the believer is
in Christ? God placed him there. Isn't that
what the text says? 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 plainly tells
us but of God are you in Christ who of God is made unto us? Sanctification wisdom righteousness
sanctification and redemption. I just needed them to see it
but of him. Are you in Christ? Jesus who is of God made unto
us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption so point number
two tells us what God did to preserve us and He placed us
in Christ. Now when we use that little phrase
in, I want you to understand it in the comprehensive sense. Sometimes the term in can simply
mean location and not have anything to do with application. But in
this context, it does. When it says that God the Father
preserved us in Christ, what it means is that he not only
put us in him positionally, but he made us partakers of Christ.
He made us possessors of everything that's in Christ. You and I are,
by virtue of being in Christ, partakers, possessors, and permanent
inheritors of everything that's in Jesus Christ. So stay with
me for a moment. It only matters when you come
to understand all that Christ is, what it means to be in Christ. This is why you and I must study
the word of God and understand the gospel. For the gospel explains
to us the beauty and the fullness and the scope of who Jesus is
and who we are in him. When the Bible says that we are
in Christ Jesus, it means that everything that Christ is, we
are. You guys got that? I know you've
heard those terms before. But what is Christ? According
to the book of Colossians, Christ the fullness of the Godhead bodily
according to Colossians chapter 2 verse 9 Jesus Christ is the
fullness of of the Godhead bodily. You know what that means? All
of God's resources, all of God's attributes, all of God's blessings,
all of God the Father's purpose lie in Christ. He has given unto
Jesus Christ everything by which God the Father can be glorified.
Jesus Christ becomes the head over all things to the church
because God the Father has bestowed upon him what we call the plurima
or pluroma or the fullness, all of the fullness. That means Jesus
Christ becomes, for God the Father and for us, every rich resource
necessary both for life and godliness now and for all eternity. So
when you and I read in the scriptures that He is our wisdom, He is
our redemption, He's our sanctification, He's our righteousness, in Him,
according to Colossians chapter 2 verse 2 or 3, are hid all of
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God has placed in Jesus Christ
all of the resources so that the Father is the source, Christ
is the what? Resource. What that means is
when he placed me in Christ, he secured my eternity because
Christ has everything necessary for me from step one to the last
step of my journey. From point A to point Z, Christ
is my resource. What do you mean? Christ sustained
my physical life. By Him were all things made.
Christ keeps me. He upholds the world by His power.
Christ contained my physical unsaved life. Even when I was
acting a fool, guess what? He guarded me. See, we all live
and move and have our being in Him. And Jesus Christ is the
means by which the world was made. We live, we move, we have
our being. God sustained us. Christ was
the one who chose my family. He chose the nation I would live
in, the time that I would be born. He even governed and orchestrated
all of the behavior and conduct and misconduct I engaged in before
he called me by his grace. But he watched over a brother.
You know what I'm talking about? He guarded a brother. He kept
me. These resources are in Christ.
Also, what is in Jesus Christ? The grace and the power of having
redeemed me from hell by his sacrifice on calvary street when
you contemplate jesus christ We are contemplating the one
who created the universe sustains the universe and is able to redeem
you from all iniquity These are riches Riches, it was jesus christ
that actually saved us. It was jesus christ who actually
redeemed us It was jesus christ who actually made it possible
by which you and I are born again for as we are about to see It
was through Christ that the essential element, our essential means
by which our salvation took place. And that's point number three.
We are preserved through the means of the Spirit of God. We are preserved by God the Father,
we are preserved in Christ Jesus the Son, so that the Father is
the source, the Son is the resource, and then we are preserved through
His what? Now, for those of you who still
struggle through the concept of the Trinity or the ontological
nature of God, here's what you must understand. The Spirit of
God, the Spirit of God is the immediate presence of God in
your life by which you know anything about God. Not by power, nor
by might, but by my Spirit. It was the Spirit of God that
garnished the heavens. It's the Spirit of God that raises
men from the dead. It's the Spirit of God that actually
gives life to all things. It's the Spirit of God that renews
the mind. It's the Spirit of God that gives
you a revelation of the glory of God in Christ. You know how
you heard the gospel many times in your unsafe state? but it
didn't mean a thing, it didn't come home as a saving knowledge
of God, that was because the third person, the Spirit of God,
had not as yet quickened you so that you see the beauty and
the glory as it is in Jesus Christ. This person we call the Spirit
of God is the immediate presence. Christ is the mediator, the Father
is the first cause, the Holy Ghost is the immediate presence.
You guys got that? He is the power by which you
and I come to know and experience and enjoy God. Jesus gave us the spirit, didn't
he? When he died on calvary street, he obtained the crown rights
to the universe He went back and sat at the right hand of
god the father and from him He dispatched the spirit of god
into this world you and I who are new testament christians
living in the 21st century are Experiencing the immediate impact
and dynamic of the spirit of god because jesus sent him He
is that source by which you and I are practically being preserved
if the gospel means anything to you today, as I am speaking
to you. If your soul is stirred to say, Amen, Amen, Amen, because
you have a knowledge of Jesus Christ on an experiential level.
And this is not simply window shopping, as we've said before.
See, when you are really saved, the gospel is more than window
shopping. When you're really saved, the gospel is actually
putting the clothes on. Ladies, you know the difference
between looking in that window at those shoes and going in and
trying them on and then having the money to pay for them. Don't
you know the difference? And that's the difference between
a person being on the outside of Christ hearing the gospel
and us who get to put on Jesus Christ every day of our life.
And especially in the preaching of the gospel. In the preaching
of the gospel. We get to marvel and wonder how
it is that God would allow you and me to enjoy him at such a
substantive level as to be clothed in Christ, putting on Christ,
enjoying Christ. We feed on Him, don't we? We
wear Him, don't we? We walk with Him, don't we? We
talk with Him, don't we? All that is a consequence of
the Spirit of the living God. We are kept by the power of God
through faith. That's what Peter told us. Kept.
Kept. Hallelujah. The reason I look
like I look today It's because I'm kept. 1 Peter 1 5. Listen to what Peter
says. I want you to see it for yourself
before we move on to our last couple of points. I'm kept. When
you go out today and somebody asks you, how are you doing?
Tell them, I'm kept. So how you been doing, sister?
I'm kept. God has kept me. Kept me. What do you mean? Well, if you
see me on my unkept days, that's what I mean. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse three, according to his abundant
mercy, hath begotten us again, made us alive again unto a living
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. See how
God the Father always works through God the Son? See it? He always
works through God the Son by his proprietary work on Calvary. The Father never does anything
to the blessing of our soul apart from Christ. The Father works
through the Son. The Son works by the Spirit.
All three of them are the blessed, glorious triune God by which
we come to know salvation. They work together in harmony
and in purpose to achieve the goal of glorifying themselves
for our eternal good. Watch it now. Watch it now. It
goes on to say, to an inheritance, and I'm getting ready to talk
about that, incorruptible, Undefiled and that fate is not away. It's
in your hand right now. Is that what it says? Brother Sam got it Five hundred six hundred people
you the only one got it the gospel Promises riches untold blessings
beyond compare and inheritance of unimaginable perception The
gospel promises a life and dimension and experience that is of such
a divine nature, but only it is not achieved on this side
of glory. The gospel promises things that
it does not bring to pass now. The gospel places within the
believer a living hope. The gospel places in you a hope. hope, a hope for things to come,
not things now. The true gospel gives redeemed
sinners a hope for glory, a promise of an eternal inheritance, riches
untold in God the Father, in God the Son, to be obtained at
a later date. The true gospel places deposits
in your life by faith in christ a hope for the future Are you
hearing me ladies and gentlemen and wise men and women? Who are
made wise in christ? by that proposition I accept
The fact that god has chosen to reserve my inheritance undefiled
Uncorruptible which fades not away. I accept the fact that
it's in heaven out of my reach And it's in the future out of
my capacity to get it down Do you accept that you better because
the real challenge of our present day is being sold a gospel That
tells you it's all about now it's all about here and it's
all about you and when the true gospel lays in your heart a hope
for things to come and people of God who walk by faith live
in that hope we don't steal God's glory we don't tell people that
we have something that we don't have we don't tell people that
we are presently enjoying something we don't have that would be to
lie to them and if we were as it were going about talking about
all of the blessings, all of the riches, all of the stuff
that you hear some folk talking about, we would be taking our
eyes off of God and placing them on things. Are you hearing what
I'm saying right now? The true gospel saves you, hides
you and promises you a day to come. where in everything that
you have gone through will be so overwhelmingly met with the
blessings of God that Paul said in Romans chapter 8. I reckon
that the sufferings that we go through right now aren't even
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us at the coming of Jesus Christ. Are you guys hearing
me right now? What I'm saying to you is the
true gospel sets our hope on eternity future while grounding
us in the tangible, real, substantive reality of Jesus Christ right
now by His Spirit. We are deposited. We are given
by deposit, given by grant, given by right of bestowment, by the
virtue of what Christ has accomplished. A message of good news that says
that God has preserved us, preserved us, for a specific day. That's
the work of the Spirit of God. He is said to keep us. Look at verse 5. You who are
kept by the power of God. See? Through faith. Now watch
this. Ready to be revealed when? When you get that contract. Ready to be revealed in the last
time. So now if I'm going to submit to gospel terms, to biblical
terms, There's a last time that's going to produce the revelation.
There's going to be a last day that's going to be the unveiling,
the unfolding, the manifestation, the perusia of God, the unfolding
and manifestation of the sons of God. There's going to be a
date for that, right? You guys got that? There's a day where
in every one of God's elect are going to be seen for who they
are, heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. There's a date
for that. but it's not right now. One of the other reasons
for which God has to preserve you and I, that we persevere
in the faith, and that's really what it is, contend for the faith,
persevere for the faith, is because of the temptations we go through.
Point number four. I want you to see this. This
is going to bring us into a little bit more of a practical component
here with regards to that. We are preserved by God, we are
preserved in Christ, we are preserved through His Spirit, but we are
preserved because of what? Preserved because of temptation
I spoke a lot about that earlier but go with me in your Bible
to Deuteronomy 8 again And I want you to see what God says about
this journey this preservation of temptation Isn't this unusual? But doesn't it make sense God
explains to the children of Israel what this sojourn through the
wilderness is about He says and you shall remember all the way
which the Lord God led thee These 40 years in the wilderness see
that You know what he told them to do? Remember it. You know
what it means to remember it? It means to regard it, to reflect
upon it, and to understand it. The idea is to ponder the path
of your ways. One of the things that's going
to make you enjoy your walk with God better than you do today
is for you to start paying more attention to how God has worked
in your life in the past. I've said it before, if you're
new here today, this may offend you, but God's people are slow. Slow. We are very slow to get
how God works. Sometimes we are distracted by
our own agenda, our own plans. We have notions, don't we? Don't
we have notions? And those notions don't even
come close to corresponding with what God is doing. So now follow
the logic. If I got notions that don't harmonize
with God's purpose, but God is God and I'm not, you know what
I'm asking for? Trouble. Because God's not going
to do my notions. That's not what God is. Listen,
God don't do notions. I'm sorry. God does God. And when God does God, he's calling
you to get along with the program that God does God And this is
why you and I are to observe Proverbs chapter 3 5. You don't
have to go there Listen to what the Lord says you shall remember
all the ways which the Lord led you these 40 years in the wilderness
to exalt you What's the word That's Frank isn't enough Frank
I led you through the wilderness to humble you I took you through
the journey that you're going through to bring you low. That's
the God of the Bible. That's the God of the Bible.
Are you hearing me? The trouble that you go through, I purposed
to bring you down. You know what that infers? It
infers I got issues of which God has to shave off. See, when
he saved me, he didn't save a naturally humble person. So the journey
that I have with God is filled with multiple purposes. One primary
one is to humble us. That's a good explanation for
why you don't get what you want when you want it. And when you
get what you need, it's not what you want, it's what you need.
That's a good explanation for why things don't work out the
way you want them to work out. But when they do work out, you
come to realize you're better for it. It's not so much as the
situation was curtailed to merely meet your needs, but the situation
was appointed to change your character. To humble you. Some of you guys know what I'm
talking about, right? God is in the business of humbling his
people. Now mark what he says, to humble
you and to do what? Prove you. I know you don't like this, But
God also has designed our life as Christians to be such that
he's going to try you every day. God tries the hearts of the righteous,
doesn't he? He tries the ways of all men,
and he's trying you and he's trying me. You know what he's
doing? He's discovering, not for himself,
but for us, what we really are every day. And I said it earlier,
hoping that you would grasp it so that we can move forward.
If you accept the fact that by nature you're a sinner, you're
halfway home. I'm talking about even after
salvation, because you know, we got these silly folks who think somehow
once you get saved, sin is nowhere in your universe. Don't you hear
them? They're arrogant, but I'm saved
now. I'm not a sinner. You're not. You just sinned against
God when you said that. And the whole purpose of sanctification
is to expose our sin to drive us to Christ so that we can confess
our sin and receive the grace to overcome our sin and to walk
in a little bit more of compliance with God. That's what we're learning,
are we not? Are we learning that as sons
of God, He humbles us so that we can walk with the Lord? And
the closer we walk with the Lord, the more we enjoy Him. But it's
because He has persuaded us. Has He not persuaded you that
there's no good thing in your flesh? God taught you that the
only thing that dwells in your nature is sin and rebellion apart
from his grace. Has he taught you that if he
lets you run the world, you will tear it up yesterday? Has he
taught you that your wisdom is foolishness? Has he taught you
that you have no strength to do what's right? You can deceive
yourself into thinking, you know, I'm gonna do what's right What
God does take his hand off of you and you come to discover
you might just think about doing what's right But doing what's
right. Don't just come by you thinking about it. I Tell people
this all the time. Listen, you're not a Christian
because you say you are a Christian and You're not doing what's right
because you say you're doing what's right. I Jesus warned
about the Pharisees. He told his disciples listen
to the Pharisees, but don't do what they do because they say
and do not Now you want to deliver yourself from Pharisee ism tell
the truth Without Christ you can do nothing Am I making some
sense this is not an excuse to sin It's just telling the truth
that God didn't mean for you to accomplish anything without
him. I He humbled you to prove you
and to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep
the commandments or no. Verse three, listen to what he
goes on to say. And he humbled you. Oh, this is going to hurt. And suffered you to hunger. My
goodness. Do you see that? The gospel that's
being preached today does not have within its range or within
the structure you suffering hunger. They tell you God has plenty
for you. You don't have to hunger a day
in your life. All you have to do is call on
God. He'll feed you. We know that's true, don't we?
But we know sometimes God suffers us to hunger because we need
to lose weight. Stay with me for a moment. I
was going to go theological, but I thought I'd just go practical
for a moment because I know you're getting tired. Now, for most
of us. Tell it true. Tell it true. If
God puts you into a state of anxiety, you know how we have
troubles in our mind? And sometimes those troubles
come on the outside of us. They are external troubles. Nevertheless,
they have something to do with us. Or God will just lay an issue
on you, right? And you don't sleep well. You
don't eat well. Isn't that right? You end up
losing 5, 6, 7 pounds. And you say, oh, look at the
Lord. Look at the Lord. That's 7 or 8 pounds that you
tried to lose. Through white knuckling and climbing
those hills, riding those machines, couldn't lose it. The Lord put
a trial in your life, you dropped 20 pounds. You act like you intentionally
lost that weight. No, you didn't. No, you went
through a trial, which you thanked the Lord for. And then when you
came out of that trial, you gained that 20 pounds right back. He humbled you and suffered you
to hunger. He suffered you to hunger. Suffered you to hunger
Suffered you to hunger because every soul that hungers is healthy
Every soul that hungers is healthy The soul that doesn't hunger
is not healthy a Hungry soul allows you and I to discover
and determine where our priorities are Did you get that Blessed
is he that hungers and thirsts for righteousness We all hunger
for something We all hunger for something and when God causes
you to hunger you get to find out whether or not you are playing
games with God See the account that's before
us in Deuteronomy chapter 8 is also in Matthew chapter 4 Where
our Lord right before he went through his ministry had to be
tested. I This is where I'm gonna work
it here and warn you about something now may come back and finish
the next portion next week He suffers you to hunger so that
he can know what's in your heart He suffers you to hunger so that
you can see your priorities go with me in your Bible to Matthew
chapter 4 Matthew chapter 4 This is the account where our Lord
Jesus Christ Was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit.
This would be the last point we focus on and we'll come back.
I This is where our Lord Jesus Christ is driven into the spirit,
driven by the spirit into the wilderness. And notice what it
says in verses 1 and 2. Then was Jesus led by the spirit
into the wilderness to be what? God tries us, the devil tempts
us. Mark that down. God tries you,
the devil tempts you. There's a difference in the concept. When God tries you, all he's
doing is revealing what's in you. When the devil tempts you,
he's seeking to cause you to sin against God. When God tries
you, he's simply helping you to see reality because we deceive
ourselves. You know how when you wake up
from a deception, you realize, man, I was deceived. But you
had deceived yourself. You know how we manipulate ourselves
in the situation, and then when it doesn't work out right, we
come to realize, I didn't manipulate it myself again. See, you know,
I just need a few real people in the house because most of
you guys are not you act like you don't deceive yourself. You
deceive yourself a lot. And what God has to do is expose
the fact that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. And you
come to realize you do yourself again. That's right. That's right. So the devil, knowing
we have the propensity to do that, will tempt us to sin against
God. God only tries us to show us
where we are so we can call on God. God never leads you to sin. That's why the devil is the entity
in this test here. The spirit drives him into the
wilderness, but it's the devil there as an entity to tempt him
to sin. And there are three temptations
with which we are all tempted, and you need to understand this.
When the tempter came to him, he said, if you be the Son of
God, command these stones to be made into bread. Do you see
that? If you be the Son of God, command these stones to be made
into bread. And this is the first temptation that lies in the category
of our passions and our lust. Do you see that in your outline?
Temptation number one. What is it? Passions and lust. The enemy knows that we hunger. I got you now. I'm going to let
you go in a few minutes. But I want you to be able to
work with this. The enemy knows that you hunger. We all hunger
because we're not perfect. And we're not dwelling in eternity
in the fullness of our glorified state so that we are in a perpetual
state of satisfaction. We hunger, don't we? The enemy
knows that you hunger. He knows that innately you and
I have lusts, passions. You know what his goal is? To
direct your passions to carnal, selfish, secular, worldly things
That's his goal That's his goal And when you and I are yielding
our members to carnal earthly secular carnal things We have
missed the purpose for which God gives us passion He gives
us passion for him Passion for his truth passion for his glory
Passion for His honor. Passion for His purpose. Passion for the souls of men. Passion for salvation. That's why He gives us passion.
He does not give us passion to consume it on the lust of our
flesh. He gives us passion so that we can be zealous for God.
Passion that we might do the will of God. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? He gives us passion so that we
might be consumed with His zeal. That's what passion is given
for. Not to fulfill the lust of your flesh. That's the temptation
that the devil says. He says, turn these stones into
bread. You know what that meant? You have power. When you are
a son of God, you have power. We do. We have authority. We
are just like Christ in terms of being sons and daughters of
God. That's why this temptation I'm talking about is so critical.
Just as the Son of God was tested the children of Israel Deuteronomy
8 are tested God tests all his sons And he gives us the authority
of the sons of God to walk in the power and authority that
we have in Christ But what will we do with that authority? Will
we use that authority ladies and gentlemen to fulfill the
lust of our flesh or to advance God's kingdom? to help poor needy
sinners To exercise the gifts by which men and women can be
brought out of the pit of darkness into the same auspicious blessing
that you and I are in. That's what our passions are
supposed to be about. Am I making some sense, bro? Don't turn your
stone into bread and consume it upon your lust. Turn those
stones into redeemed sinners that they might be the means
by which God is glorified just like God did for you. You and
I was stony-hearted sinners. dead in trespasses and sins,
lost, separated, and God turned those stones into living stones. Turned them into living stones.
That's what Jesus told them. If these don't praise me, the rocks
will cry out and praise me. And that's what he did for some
of us. And as we work for him and the cause of the gospel,
we want to see stones worshiping the true and the living God.
Am I making some sense to you? Here's the next test. Here's
the next test he goes on because our master says it is written
men shall not live by bread alone But by what every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God you're in trouble again Aren't we we're
in trouble again. Can I get an honest person in
the house? Are we in trouble? Saints we don't live by the word
of We are so mixed with carnal passions and spending a lot of
our energy on things that don't matter. Why, why, why will you
buy that which does not satisfy the soul? And yet daily, that's
what we consume ourselves with. I'm telling the truth. I'm telling
the truth. You waste your time on things
that don't matter. You're talking about the word
of the Lord. That's my meat. That's my dream. I just live
on the scriptures. I haven't seen a saint in the
last 20 years that lives on the scriptures. Very seldom do I
meet people who even know how to quote the scriptures today.
We are in a situation today where there is a major famine in the
land, not of bread nor water, but of hearing the words of the
Lord. Am I making some sense? Talking about I live on the word.
The word is my meat. The word is my drink quit lying
on God The present-day church is trapped by this first temptation
Am I making some sense? The second one listen to what
it says Then the devil takes him up into a holy city into
the holy city and to the pinnacle of the temple and said them to
him if you be the son of God and Cast yourself down, for it
is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee,
and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest at any time
you shall dash your foot against the stone. You know what he just
did? He questioned Christ's dignity and calling as the Son of God.
Again, what he's about to do is take something that's already
yours and cause you to use it in an abusive way. I am a child
of the living God. I am a son of God in Christ. I possess all the crown rights
and inheritance of the sons of God. I've been born again. The
new nature is in me. I am a partaker of the divine
nature. You too, if you're born again. Am I making some sense?
I don't need to prove my sonship by tempting God. I don't need
to prove my position with God by tempting God. In fact, if
I tempt God, what I am saying is I don't believe you, God.
Why do I need to jump down off the temple to see if I can fly? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And our master says, it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God. You got it? And there are lots
of professing Christians today tempting God. questioning their
calling as sons and daughters of God. And all it indicates
is, is that they're not rooted and grounded in Christ. Because
when you know who you are and you know who you are, are you
following me? When you know who you are and you know who you
are, you don't have to tempt God. All you got to do is wait
on God. When God wants you to fly, you will fly. When God wants
you to walk through doors, you will walk through doors. When
God wants you to exercise the authority that he has given to
you, you will exercise the authority that he's given you. When God
wants you to walk humbly with the Lord your God, that's what
he wants you to do. But when we talk about the sons of God
in this present dispensation, we are talking about taking on
the characteristic of the lowly Jesus When we talk about being
sons and daughters of God right now in this present dispensation
We are talking about walking in the humility where with Christ
himself though He was equal with God thought it not robbery, but
he made himself of no reputation took on him the form of a servant
humbled himself and This is how you affirm your sonship. Humble
yourself. Humble yourself. Don't exalt
yourself. Don't get puffed up. Don't get
lifted up. You hear me? If you do that and
you jump down off that temple, you're going to fall. You're
going to fall. 32,000 feet per second. Boom! And gravity is going to be on
God's side. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Last one, I'm done.
Listen to what he goes on to say. And then the devil takes
them and shows them all the kingdoms of the world. Do you see that?
All the kingdoms of the world. All the kingdoms of the world.
He couldn't get past Christ understanding the purpose for his passion.
He couldn't get past Christ understanding who he was in Christ. He knew
who he was. He knew his calling. He knew
his dignity. He knew his purpose. Now he's
going to get our Master to worship Him on the grounds of Him giving
the Master the whole world. Do you understand that? This
is about worship. He showed Him the kingdoms of the world. And
we got people who are enamored with the things of this world
who call themselves Christians. Are you hearing me? Overwhelmed
by material things. Overwhelmed by success. Overwhelmed by fame, overwhelmed
by being known by somebody. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
And the devil is saying, you can have it if you bow down and
worship me. That's where we are. I warn you,
there are people, and this is what Jude is warning about in
the Christian church, who appear to have been given everything.
But the rung up that ladder to the secular success in this world
that you are looking out and seeing them engage in and their
names are in light, the rung up that ladder is a rung of compromise
and departure from biblical truth and apostasy from the faith.
You don't know how they got up there, but God does. He knows they got up there by
abandoning the biblical truth, by abandoning the gospel, by
denying the glory of God in Christ, by denying the truth of scripture.
You want success? Abandon the gospel. You want
prestige and fame? Abandon the gospel. You want
to be successful in the eyes of the world? Deny the glory
of God in Christ. You want the world to lodge you?
You want to have all of the material things at your beckoning hand?
Just simply, quietly and privately say, Jesus is not the way, the
truth and the life. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Because that's the only way you get there. It's the only way
you get there. The big dogs in religion today
that you are looking at and longing to be like have all abandoned
the exclusivity of the gospel, the clear teaching of the word
of God. They have all capitulated to the great high priestess of
this secular world system who has put them on blast before
the whole world so that when Christ comes for his own, he
can show his own what he graced them to overcome and kept them
from compromising in where these individuals plainly said, hey,
Jesus ain't the only way. There's many ways to God. Are
you hearing me? And yet they'll stand up every
Sunday and talk about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. But they are speaking
lies and hypocrisy, having sold Christ out for wealth and fame
and prosperity. And God's got him on camera.
He's got him plainly, boldly falling down and capitulating
to a woman. Now come on now tell me now tell
me now is Jesus the only way he can't be the only way y'all
know who I'm talking about I'm talking about Matthew chapter
4. I'm talking about the devil Using the same test to tempt
people high and low who would tempt you to and cause you to
fall to if you miss the fact that the gospel and the grace
of God is designed to hide you from and exalt Christ and to
preserve you unto the day of redemption. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? Amen.