Oh, this is a high pulpit, isn't
it? Need jacks. on these things, Maurice, to
lower them, and I'll raise them. Well, I'll have to say, it's
such a joy to be here. Such a pleasure to see your faces. Been looking forward to this,
and I hope that the Lord will be pleased to give me something
to say to you, to encourage you. I'm going to look at a couple
of verses over in 1 Corinthians, if you'd like to turn there.
1 Corinthians chapter 1. I just want to read verses 8
and 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses
8 and 9. Who shall also confirm you unto
the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ? God is faithful by whom you were
called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. God is faithful who shall also
confirm you. He shall confirm you unto the
end. We find little statements like
this all through the Scripture. And they teach a wonderful truth
concerning every saint, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they declare unto us They
confirm unto us, they prove unto us what is written in the volume
of the book, that every child of God will never quit believing. There won't be one single child
of God. He may be the weakest in the
faith, most despised in this world. He may count himself to
be the most unworthy of all God's people, but there'll never be
a single child of God that will ever cease to believe. Not one soul that has come to
rest himself in the Lord Jesus Christ will fail to make heaven
his own. That's what's taught in this
verse. He shall confirm you unto the
end. We read over those verses. We
should stop and think about that and ponder that precious truth
and what it teaches. If someone should ask us this
evening why we believe in the absolute and eternal security
and safety and happiness of every child of God, we offer them these
three reasons. One, because God has decreed
their everlasting salvation. He's purposed their salvation.
And it's history. Before they ever had a being,
before they ever had a life, their salvation was history in
the purpose and in the will of God. Those He foreknew, He glorified. That's finished, isn't it? In
the mind of God, all His elect are secured without any possibility
of ever perishing, and His decree has fixed that. Now there's a
lot of us, and I hope I'm not one of us anymore, but there
is a lot, there is many of God's little children that because
of their doubts And their fears have undone a lot of their joys
and their rest in Christ in this lifetime. And a lot of us is going to fear
and doubt our way into heaven. But it's not our fears and our
doubts that will ever undo the purpose of God. That's fixed. That's settled. Why do we believe
in the absolute and eternal happiness of God's children? God has decreed
that. I have purposed it. I'll do it.
My counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. And secondly, not only that God
has purposed it, He has decreed it, but the redeeming death of
the dear and blessed Son of God. secures the everlasting happiness
of every last sheep. I laid down my life for the sheep,
and in the light of that I give unto them eternal life, and therefore
they shall never perish. He bore the sins of many, and
therefore they shall be justified." Who is he that condemns? Christ
died. No law from heaven. The judgment
of God that's to come, hell itself, shall never rise up and accuse
and condemn the dear child of God. Christ paid everything he
owed. And that's security. And thirdly,
the saint is secured for all eternity the cause, the work
of the Holy Spirit in his heart. Where the Holy Spirit comes and
sets up his work in that elect soul, he'll never cease to do
his work. He's begun that work in the soul. He's humbled the soul. He's brought
him to repentance. He's brought him to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He gives him all things that's
necessary for his endurance. And he'll never cease to work
where he's began. How long is the believer sealed?
Not until, but unto the day of redemption. That's comforting
to me, isn't it, you? The triune God secures the eternal
salvation of elect souls. And I tell you, a threefold cord
is not soon broken, is it? And secondly, not only is the
triune God secured his salvation, but secondly, this is another
reason that every child of God is secured. God's glory is involved in it. You know the Lord doesn't
first and foremost save a man because the man is lost. The first cause of the Lord saving
a man is not because he needs to be saved. There's a lot of
people need to be saved. There's a lot of people dying
lost, but they'll never be saved. The first cause of God saving
a man is for his glory. Old Barnard used to say he's
going to save everybody he can for his glory. That's the first cause of any
man being saved. Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy Son. that thy son may also glorify
thee." That's what salvation is all about. The glory of the
triune God is involved in this. The very fact that God chose,
the very fact the Son redeemed, the very fact the Holy Spirit
comes and gives life to the sinner in faith and all things that's
needful is for the praise of the glory of His grace. If one saint should perish Just
one. If hell, if this world, if the
lust of the flesh could snatch just one and cause him to perish, God
is the loser. His purpose would fail. Just
one. Not a bunch. Just one. Just the weakest. If just one
should perish, for whom Jesus Christ died, he has died in vain. Perish such a thought, brothers
and sisters. If the Holy Spirit ceases to
work in a man's soul when he has once begun, if that dear
soul does indeed come unsealed, he will perish. If the Holy Spirit
ceases to work in him, He will perish. He will be lost. But God Himself, the triune God,
will be more of the loser than that lost soul will be. There's something bigger than
you and I are involved in salvation. Something more important than
me being saved is involved in salvation. That's the glory of
the blessed God. He shall confirm you until the
end. He must! His glory is involved
in it. The Lord spoke to Moses and he
said, let me alone. I'm going to smite this people.
I'm going to disinherit this people. And Moses said, Lord,
if you do, the Egyptians are going to hear about it. And everybody else is going to
hear about it. Because everybody hears what you're doing in this
nation. And if you smite this people
and they perish, they're going to say, the Lord was not able,
therefore He killed them. It's for His glory. Israel had
gone up to Ai. They'd been defeated in the battle
and turned back. Joshua got on his face and he
said this, he said, Oh Lord, if these nations surround us
and cut us off, and we cease to be a nation. And we perish
as a nation. What will you do to your great
name? That's the glory that he was
concerned about. God's glory. What will you do
if just one that you've called and given life to and put in
your dear and blessed Son, what if just one of those perish at
last? What will that do to your great
name? I cannot believe that Satan,
the father of lies, will ever stand with his wretched black
fingers around the neck of one of the blood-bought sons of God
and say, I got me one. I got me one. It will never happen,
brothers and sisters. Therefore, he gives us verses
like this to make us sure it will never happen. God shall
confirm you until the end. The Scriptures teach it everywhere.
It's for His glory. And thirdly, and I think this
is just as important to you and I, if this is not so, if it's
not taught in the Scripture, if it's not for God's glory,
then I, for the life of me, don't see how I'm going to make
it. Do you feel that way? If God doesn't establish me,
if God doesn't strengthen me, if He don't hold me up and work
in me everything that needs to be done, I for the life of me
can't see how I'm going to make it. I have a lot of free will Baptist
folks. I was a free will Baptist until the Lord saved me. A fellow asked a friend of mine
one time, he said, How long was you an Armenian? He said, until
the Lord saved me. I used to be a free-will Baptist.
I have a lot of free-will Baptist preachers that I know. I've heard
several of them preach. It's been a while, but I've heard
them preach. And they seem to glory in their preaching that saints
can fall away. They just preach it all the time. But you talk to one of the preachers,
and he's not going to fall away. It's just everybody else. He's
faithful, you see. He has these deep convictions.
He's not like everybody else. He's going to endure to the end.
That's what he says. Oh, everybody else, he's like
Peter. Everybody else may, but not me. Is that the way you feel
about yourself? You think, oh, there may be a
lot of others, but not me, because I'm different. That's not the
way you feel, is it? Don't you love to hear God's little children
pray? You can tell a lot about a man when you pray. Brother
Chris just prayed, Lord, don't leave me to myself. You learn
a lot. We got to listen in to a prayer
that dear Jeremiah prayed one time. He got on his face before
the Lord, and he said, Lord, I know. It's not in man that
walketh to direct his steps. I don't have the wisdom. I don't
have the will. I don't have the strength. I
can't walk. I don't know the way. It's not
in man that walketh to direct himself, his steps. Oh Lord,
correct me. Strengthen me. Guide me. Lead
me. Confirm me. until the end. Ain't that your feelings? Boy, when we read this verse
here in verse 9, He shall confirm you until the end. It's more
than just a doctrine we get in our heads. We feel the absolute
need that it must be that way, or we just can't make it. We
just can't make it. That's my first point this evening.
Here's a doctrine. Here's a truth for God's glory
that's taught in the Scriptures. And we feel the utter need of
it being so. He shall confirm you until the
end. And here's something else. Secondly,
the end that He's confirming us to. Did you notice that as
I read it? Who shall also confirm you until
the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the end we're being confirmed
to. That we may be blameless in the
day of Jesus Christ. Look this word up. And it has
two senses. One meaning, but two senses to
it. The first one to this word here means to be unimpeachable. It means to not be able to be
turned out or put out of an office or a position. Not to be turned
out. What does that mean? A child
of God will never be impeached from the position that he's been
called to. What's he been called to? Well,
he said, now we're the sons of God. And from that position we'll
never be impeached. We are eternally sons of God
and unimpeachable. Now are we the members of Christ. We are members of His body. God
has set every member in the body as it has pleased Him and will
never be severed. We are unimpeachable. We are
the bride of Christ. I have espoused you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. He will never divorce us. We
are unimpeachable. We are the temple of the living
God. I will dwell in them and be their
God. And He'll never vacate His dwelling.
They're unimpeachable. God has translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son, and from that kingdom we shall never
be turned out. Unimpeachable. That's one of
the meanings of this word. But it means something else also. It means blameless. It means
blameless. Totally vindicated. Secure against
all acquisitions or indictment. To be guiltless. To be irreproachable. Blameless. God shall confirm
you to the end blameless. This word, this same sense, this
same meaning is found in other places in the Scripture. Let
me read you a couple of places where this word, blameless, is
found. The same meaning. In Jude 24, listen to this. Unto
him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present
you faultless, that's the same word, blameless, before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
25, Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the
word, that he may present it to himself, a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish." There is that word, blameless,
irreproachable, without any accusation or indictment to be brought against
us. We can't even relate to this. I look at your faces. You can't
even relate to what I'm saying, can you? We can't get a hold
of this, can we? We start talking about being
blameless, and we look at ourselves, and all we see in us is this
sin mixed with everything we do. Every day we're brought to
the knowledge of it. We can't deny it. We can't get
on our knees before the Lord without confessing our unworthiness
and our sin. And now we talk about being blameless
in the presence of His glory. We know nothing about that, do
we? We're just trying to believe this. We know it so. The Scripture
tells us. We just can't get a hold of it. Augustine said, we're not looking
to know some new thing. We're laboring to believe what
we already know. And we know, according to this
Word, that we're going to be confirmed unto the end and presented
blameless before God Himself. And I'm just laboring to try
to believe that. Blameless. That's the meaning of this Word.
Unimpeachable. and blameless. My third point is this, and I
think we have to look at this. How in the world can this be
accomplished? How in the world can we be presented unblameable, holy before Him? Well, it's here in verse 9. Look at this. God is faithful. by whom ye were called unto the
fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." We're called
unto the fellowship of his Son. This is one of the deepest words
that I've ever tried to study out. It seems like the more I
study it, the broader it gets. But two things I want to say
about it. When you and I think of this
word, fellowship, we often think about it as communion. The communion
we have one with another. You and I are gathered here at
the Grace Baptist Church in Danville, Kentucky. And probably when we
leave here, we'll say, oh, the communion was so sweet. The fellowship
was so sweet. That's one of the meanings of
this word. And it's not only fellowship one with another,
but God has called us to commune with His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. We know Him. We hear His voice. We have His presence. And we
love it. We love Him. And He says, I won't
leave you comfortless. I'll come to you and comfort
you. You have My Word and you keep
it. My Father will love you and will come unto you and will make
our abode with you. Our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son. Sweet, sweet communion. We've
been called to that. But it means something else.
And this is what I think the real meaning of it here is in
this verse. It means to participate in. A participation. To take part
in or share with that which belongs or pertains to another. I like
that, don't you? God has called you to take part
in and to share with those things that belong to His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. What belongs to Him? Let me just
mention a few things. Redemption belongs to Him. That's
why he's called the Redeemer. He accomplished redemption. Redemption from the bondage of
sin and the curse of the law. God has called us to share in
that with Him. You don't earn redemption. You
don't buy it. You don't work it up or work
it out. It's done been accomplished. It's Christ, our Redeemer. It's
His. And you're called to share with
Him in it. Pardon is His. It belongs to
Him. He secured it by His own blood
poured out, bearing shame and scoffing rude. In my place condemned
He stood. Steal my pardon. And now we are
called to share with Him in this forgiveness of sins. The righteousness
that is His, that He brought in with Him into this world,
that clothes the shame of our nakedness, it is His, and we
share in it. with Him. What's His? Brother
Lindsay, He gives to us. That peace He made by the blood
of His cross, my peace I give unto you, I share it with you. It's His. And God says, I call
you to share what belongs to Him. That grace that fills the
eternal bosom of the Son of God, we've received it at His hand.
We're sharing it with Him. Life eternal, that's His. God
has given to you this eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. It is His Son. Christ is our
life. Everything that Christ is as
our mediator and representative, everything that He has accomplished,
everything that He possesses is ours if we are called to it. We share it with the dear and
blessed Son of God. Listen to this. Does Jesus Christ,
the only begotten, have a God? Does He have a Father? Then He's
our God, and He's our Father. I send to my God and to your
God, to my Father and your Father. In Him, God is just as much my
Father as He is His Father. He shares His Father with you.
He shares His God with you. Does God the Father love His
Son? Then He loves us as He loves
His Son. And He's called us to share in
this love of the Father. Does the Son of God have a kingdom?
I appoint unto you a kingdom. It's just as much ours as it
is His. He shares it with us. Does the
Son have a throne? Then he says to them that overcome
will I grant to sit with me. I have a throne and I'm sharing
it with you. Whatever that throne is, He'll
share it with us. Has the Son taken possession
of the Father's house? Then He's done so for us. He'll
share it with us. That's what that word fellowship
means. God hath called us to take part in and share with those
things that belong. to His dear Son. And listen to
this. We are called to fellowship with
Him, and He came down to fellowship with us. We share in what belongs
to Him, but only at the expense of Him sharing what belongs to
us. Are we partakers of flesh and
blood? He took part of the same. Are you and I full of infirmities
and need and weakness? He was tempted in all points,
as we are. He hungered. He thirsted. He
grew weary. Are you and I laden with sins
and iniquities and transgressions? He bore our sins. in his own
body. On him was laid the iniquity
of us all, and he was numbered with the transgressions. He shared
in everything that belonged to us. Did we live our life in the
fear of death, real death, eternal death, that second death? And
he tasted that death for us. He meets us in our damnable rebellion. He takes our rebellion and gives
to us His obedience. He meets us in our utter weakness. He nails our weakness to His
cross and He gives to us His strength. He meets us in our filth. He
takes our filth and shares with us His holiness. He meets us in our bondage. He
is bound in our stead and gives us His redemption. Everything
He shares with us before you and I can share with Him. He
meets us in our enmity. He takes it and nails it to His
cross and gives to us His peace. He meets us in our darkness.
He takes it to Himself and gives us His light. He meets us in
our nakedness, He's stripped and exposed, and He gives to
us His garments of salvation. He meets us in our death, and
He dies the death and gives us His resurrection. In everything,
He shared what was ours, that now we can share everything that's
His. God hath called us to fellowship
with His Son. God hath called you by our gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
every child of God is in possession of that now. And he can live
in the sure and certain hope of soon experiencing that glory
for all eternity, world without end. Because God hath promised
to confirm him unto the end. And lastly, is this. One day I was sitting in my office,
got a big sheet of paper, and drew a line right through the
center of it. And on top of the line I named every attribute
of God that I could think of. His goodness, His grace, His
long-suffering, His kindness. Put them all on top of the line.
And down underneath the line, to support everything that was
on top of the line, I wrote this one thing. Faithful. Faithful. I like to think of the chief
attribute of God as being faithful. If He's not faithful, nothing
else worth talking about is. He's faithful. Faithful is He
that calleth you who also will do it. Commit the keeping of
your souls unto Him, as unto a faithful Creator. Hold fast
the profession of your faith without wavering, for He is faithful
that hath promise. It is that the Lord's mercies
were not consumed because His compassions fell not. They are
new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. There is a sin that you and I
are guilty of. Sort of our subconscious, we
don't recognize it. We're guilty of it. I'll tell
you what it is. Coming to think that God is like
us. Children of Israel had trouble
with this. That's why the Lord often asked them, who are you
going to liken me to? Who are you going to equal with me? Lift
up your eyes on heaven. Who created these things? Bringeth
out their host by number. Am I like you? He said. The children
of Israel will always say it. The Lord hath forsaken me. My judgment is passed over from
my God. He's left me. He's left me. And the Lord asked
him one day. He said, Could a mother forsake
her suckling child? She may. She may. And that's our problem, ain't
it? That's our problem. We look at ourselves, and we
look at everything around us, and we see all this unfaithfulness. Oh Lord, not just she may, she's
done it. We've seen it happen. We've seen
the little babies thrown in the trash cans, haven't we? We saw
the dad's unfaithfulness to the mom and the mom's unfaithfulness
to the children. It's all around us. Everything
we see, everything we see inside us and around us is preaching
unfaithfulness, failure, weakness. And sometimes we begin to look
around us and we say, God is like us. Do you know what to
God a free will is? He's a God like us. And what are we? What are we? Well, the levee broke. And the
waters are flooding the city. What do you expect? This life
is full of levees. And they're breaking all around
us. And the God of free will has this God that's so disappointed. And he's reactionary. And he's
frustrated. And he's disappointed. And he's
ready to just throw up his hands at the awful situation and just
give up. Why is he a God like that? Because he's a God like us. Everything
is preaching that to us, isn't it? And we look around us and
we say, is that God? No, that's not God. God is faithful. He's not like us. He's not like
anything we know. He's eternally different than
you and I are. That's why we hope. That's why
we have assurance. God is nothing like us, brothers
and sisters. He's eternally different than
we are. It's a miracle of grace. God is so different than us.
Everything we know by nature and everything we see around
us, it's a miracle of grace when a man or a woman can open this
Bible and see the God that's revealed on the pages of this
book and say, that's my God. I can't relate to Him when I
look around me. I can't relate to Him when I
look inside me. I've found nothing like this God. This eternal,
triumphant God. There's nobody else like Him.
And He's my God. Forever and forever. Is He your God? Has He called
you? What thank ye of Jesus Christ?
Has He called you to fellowship with His Son? Has He turned your
world upside down? Has He frustrated you? Has He
broken you? Has He brought you to believe
on and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ? Has He done it? Then He is your God. And the
same God that brought you to His Son and willed you to put
your trust in Him will surely confirm you unto the end that
you will be blameless. And you can live in the assurance
of it. Because he that called you is faithful. God bless you.