Steadfast Continuing

Q: What does the Bible say about steadfastness in the faith?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of being steadfast and faithful, as seen in Acts 2:41-47 where the early church continued steadfastly in doctrine and fellowship. The Bible highlights the need for believers to remain steadfast in their faith, as evidenced by the actions of the early church in Acts 2:41-47. Those who received the Word were baptized and added to the church, demonstrating commitment through shared doctrine, fellowship, and breaking of bread. This steadfastness is not just about attending church; it involves an unwavering loyalty to the teachings of Christ and the call to grow in faith. In 1 Corinthians 15:58, Paul encourages believers to be steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, affirming that such labor is not in vain. This illustrates that our unwavering faith should compel us to actively engage in God's work and community.

Q: Why is prayer important for Christians?

Prayer is vital for Christians as it strengthens their relationship with God and fosters community among believers. Prayer holds an essential place in the life of every Christian, functioning as a conduit for communication with God and reinforcing the believer's dependence on Him. The early church exemplified this commitment to prayer as they were devoted to prayers alongside the apostles' doctrine and fellowship (Acts 2:42). As John R. Mitchell explains, prayer meetings were often foundational to the establishment and continuation of true churches, emphasizing that through prayer, believers seek God's presence and direction. In Philippians 4:6-7, believers are encouraged not to be anxious but to present their requests to God through prayer, demonstrating that it not only provides solace but also guides decisions and strengthens faith.

Q: How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Salvation by grace alone is affirmed in the teachings of scripture, particularly evident in Ephesians 2:8-9. Salvation by grace alone is a foundational tenet of historic Reformed theology, clearly articulated in Ephesians 2:8-9, which states that it is by grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. The early church embraced this doctrine, believing wholeheartedly in God's unmerited favor toward sinners. Throughout scripture, from the Old Testament to the New, the theme of grace is woven into the narrative of redemption. It is not our deeds but the sovereign will of God that ensures salvation, thus underscoring the necessity of grace in every aspect of our spiritual lives. This understanding leads believers to humbly rely on God's mercy rather than their own merit.

Q: Why is the apostles' doctrine significant?

The apostles' doctrine is significant as it reflects the foundational teachings of Jesus and the early church, guiding Christian belief and practice. The apostles' doctrine is crucial for Christians as it encapsulates the core beliefs and teachings established by Christ and handed down through His apostles. In Acts 2:42, the early believers were described as continuing steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, signifying that these teachings were not merely suggestions but essential to their identity as the church. This doctrine includes the understanding of the Trinity, the atonement, and the implications of grace and salvation. For historic Reformed Christians, adhering to the apostles' doctrine remains vital for maintaining theological integrity and fostering unity in the church. It underlines the importance of learning, teaching, and living according to the truth found in scriptures.

Q: How does resisting the devil play a role in a Christian's life?

Resisting the devil is essential for Christians to maintain their faith and protect themselves from spiritual harm. Resisting the devil is a vital practice for Christians, as articulated in 1 Peter 5:8-9, where believers are urged to be vigilant and resist him steadfast in the faith. The devil, described as a roaring lion, actively seeks to devour believers, making steadfastness crucial for spiritual protection. This resistance involves not only recognizing the schemes of the devil but also actively employing the Word of God as a weapon against temptation, similar to Christ's response during His own temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). By embedding scripture in their hearts and lives, Christians can empower themselves to stand firm against the enemy's lies and distractions, thereby protecting their faith and witness.

Here in the book of Acts chapter
2, I want to read beginning with verse 41 and read down through
the end of the chapter here. Verse 41 of Acts chapter 2, Then
they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same
day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And
they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship,
and in breaking of bread, and prayers. And fear came upon every
soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, and
all that believed were together, and had all things common. and
sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as
every man had need. And they, continuing daily with
one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to
house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the
Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. I want
to speak to you this morning for a little while upon steadfast
continuing, steadfast continuing in the things of God. And they
continued steadfastly. These that had been, these that
had gladly received the word in verse 41. They had heard the
apostles preach, they heard the message of the gospel, and they
had gladly received his word. Now when a soul is wrought upon
by the Spirit of God, when the Spirit of God is pleased to bring
conviction upon a lost soul, when the Spirit of God is pleased
to make a soul have an appetite for the things of God and for
the message of the Gospel, they desire the Word and they receive
the Word. They receive that engrafted Word
which is able to save their souls. They receive that pure Word of
the Gospel. And so these that gladly received
His Word, they were baptized. They were baptized like the Ethiopian
eunuch were baptized in the 8th chapter of the book of Acts.
They believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and they
were a candidate for baptism, because they were a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the scripture says the same
day they were added unto them, which means they were added unto
the church and to that fellowship there at Jerusalem, about 3,000
souls. And they continued steadfastly. They were faithful men and women. A faithful person, as Solomon
once said, who can find? But here we find that these souls
that were added to the church, that they were steadfast, they
were faithful men and women. Now, beloved, we may not be much,
but we can be faithful. It is required, the Bible says,
of stewards that they be found faithful. It is found, as we
study the Word of God, that those that have been entrusted with
the message of the Word of God, the mysteries of the Gospel,
They are called stewards in the Bible, and it is required of
them, if a man handles the things of God, if a man has in his possession,
in heart, mind, and soul, the treasures of God's Holy Word,
it is required of that man that he be found faithful. Now, Paul,
in writing to Timothy, said something that I thought was very interesting,
and I'd like to call your attention to it at this time. I believe it's in the, let's
see, what it's about is, I think it's in the, is that the second
chapter of 2 Timothy? Well, I don't know for sure where
it is. I guess, oh, yes it is. Second
chapter of 2 Timothy and verse 2. And the things that thou hast
heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also. So it is required
of a steward that he be found faithful. And Paul said to Timothy,
the things that you've heard The things that you've heard
of me, the things that you've heard among many witnesses, men
who knew the truth and knew what they were hearing when they heard
it, the same you take and you commit to faithful men who will
be able to go out and teach others also. Faithful men are very much
needed, very much required. What good is it to have a hundred-piece
band if you don't know whether they're going to show up or not?
What good is it to have a big church, a large church, if the
people are not faithful? I'd rather have a small gathering
of the people of God, just a very small group of believers that
were faithful, that were steadfast. Now we see here that these continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. They continued in that
doctrine which the apostles believed, the apostles' creed. They continued
steadfastly in what they were taught, they were faithful, and
they received the apostles' doctrine. Now we will not get into the
doctrine this morning of the apostles or the creed of the
apostles, but it's evident that they truly believed that salvation
was by the grace of God. They believed the great doctrines
of election and predestination, they believed the great doctrine
of the atonement, they believed in final perseverance, and these
men and women that joined this church, they continued, they
studied to know the doctrines of the apostles and examined
the scriptures to see whether those things were so that they
were hearing as the noble Bereans did, I'm sure, and they continued
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship. Now, that means that
they had fellowship with each other, they were faithful, they
were steadfast, they met together regardless. You could just depend
on them being there. They were there. They were there
in the fellowship. Now, things are a little bit
different with us here in this part of the country than it is
in many, many other places across America. In this part of the
country, it is extremely difficult to get people together over one
time in a week. Extremely difficult. Even in
the best of weather, even when things are, it appears that there's
really nothing to hinder, it is extremely difficult to get
people to get together and to fellowship around the things
of God. And it seems as though sometimes
to me, now you pardon me if I offend some of you or if I say something
that's out of place, but it just seems to me like sometimes that
we meet together on Sunday morning and then we just run and hide
from each other all week. We just simply are not around
each other. We just simply are scattered
to the point where that we just, we don't very seldom ever see
each other during the week. We're just kind of scattered
and And it's not that we intentionally are hiding from each other. It
just seems that way at times to me that we just simply are
not in fellowship and we read where that in verse 44, and all
that believed were together and had all things common. And then
it goes on to say, they continued in verse 46, daily with one accord
in the temple. They come to church more than
what we do. They came to church daily. They
were meeting in the temple, breaking bread, having communion from
house to house. And they ate their meat, they
ate their meals with gladness and singleness of heart. Singleness
of heart toward the Lord. They had set the Lord uppermost
in their thoughts, in their minds, and they had given over their
hearts to the Lord and to His will. And so they had singleness
of heart, gladness of heart, fellowship. They were continuing
steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship. Now,
we cannot say enough about the need to find out what the Bible
teaches. The Bible says we're to contend
earnestly for the faith, for those things that were revealed
in old time, continue steadfast in the faith. I talked last week
about ignorance. and how we need to fight it like
we would rattlesnakes, and how we need to get away from the
ignorance that is common when it comes to the Bible, how we
need to study that we might know. Well, in this fellowship business,
the Bible says that we are not to forsake the assembling of
ourselves together, but as the custom of some is, but so much
the more as we see the day approach. These are things involved in
steadfastness as believers. And regardless of what the climate
dictates, or regardless of what the atmosphere is in the area
in which we live, let us come back to the Bible. Let's remember
the Bible. Let's set our standards by the
word of God. Let's not lie. Somebody said,
well, you can never successfully have a Sunday night meeting in
the state of Montana. Well, let's not let that dictate
what we do. Let us be believers of the Word
of God and be faithful and be steadfast and continue in steadfastness. And then it said these people
were steadfast, continued, not only in the apostles' doctrine
and fellowship, but in breaking of bread. in breaking of bread. They had the Lord's Supper. They
met together. They believed that the Lord was
coming. And the Lord Jesus said, as often as you do this, as often
as you have the Lord's Supper, you do this until I come, because
I'm coming back. And I want you to do this in
remembrance of me until I come back. They were faithful in doing
that. We're not as faithful here in doing that as we ought to
be. We ought to be more steadfast and faithful in that area. And then it says, and in prayers.
More faithful in prayers. Or be steadfast in prayers. Now,
I believe that most every church that is truly the Lord's church
in America was born probably in a prayer meeting. It was probably,
the true churches of our Lord Jesus Christ probably were first
brought together, the original nucleus of those churches, and
the churches that they have continued in the things of God, it has
been because of prayer, and been because of prayer meetings. People
met together. I know sometimes in some real
prayer meetings, Not necessarily in a building, not necessarily
with a lot of people, not necessarily with anybody else but myself.
Where that I know there was some real movement made toward the
things of God and toward the establishing of my heart in a
direction which has resulted in me being right here this morning.
Prayer, praying, seeking the Lord. But you know, prayer is
something that we feel that a lot of days we can do without. Prayer
is something that we just exercise ourselves in maybe around the
table, or it's something that we maybe give a little thought
to now and then, especially when we get in trouble, or when the
dark clouds roll over, we give a lot of thought maybe at that
time to prayer, or when we get afflicted and when we feel that
we're just, you know, not long for this world, then we really
get serious about prayer. And it kind of reminds me of
a story I heard about a certain town that that sprang up one
time around a spring. Now there was a spring that had
real good water in it. And there was a man that lived
a long way from that spring, but he would come to that spring
once a week and he would fill up his water jugs and he would
take it back home. And he really loved that water.
And there was another family or two that would do the same
thing. There was nobody who lived around the spring, but this fellow
would come and fill his water jugs up and take them home and
enjoy the water all week. And he finally decided, he said
to himself, he said, well why should I go all the way over
there to that spring every week and haul water clear back over
here? Why don't I just move over by the spring? And so he moved
over by the spring. And after a while there was another
family who moved over and heard about the spring. And on and
on and on, there was families that heard about this spring,
and so they moved there. And after a while there was a
village, and after a while there was a city that sprang up around
the spring. And as it grew larger and larger,
there was a newspaper man who heard about this town and about
the spring. And so he came to the town and
he walked down the street and so he met a man on the street
and he said to this man, he said, I want to know where that spring
is. I want to know where the spring is that brought this whole
town together. And the fellow said, well, I
don't know anything about no spring. I don't know anything
about it at all. He didn't know how the town got
there. And he didn't know where the
spring was. He didn't know anything about
it. But beloved, that's the same way we are about prayer. We wouldn't
be here this morning if it wasn't for prayer. If it wasn't for
some of the times that God's Spirit had come down and anointed
some hearts, somebody's heart, in prayer Somebody was able to
cry to God. Somebody was able to pray until
they were able to abandon the ways of the flesh and the mind
of the flesh and were able to go against the flesh and all
that's involved in this earthly living in this world and to say,
I'm going to do this for the glory of God. I'm going to preach
for the glory of God and I'm going to go and preach there
in this area and stay there and stay there This church here,
beloved, it was born out of prayer. But yet some of you may say,
well, I don't know how this church got here. I don't know anything
about how it got here. Somebody asked you when I did it, how
did your church get started? Well, I hope you'll tell them
it got started when somebody was on their knees before God.
When somebody was praying, somebody was saying, well, how has it
been maintained? It's been maintained because
there's been some people that bowed their knees and prayed
and sought the Lord and cried to God. That's how this church
has been preserved. And so, beloved, these people
continued steadfastly in prayers. They prayed. They sought the
Lord. Now there are some other things
that I want to mention. I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 and I want you to look at this verse of scripture
with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 58. The last verse
of the 15th chapter which is a long chapter. But it says here,
therefore, and why he's saying this is he had just said, he'd
been talking about the resurrection and our Lord coming out of the
grave and what's involved in the resurrection. And he said
in verse 57, with thanks be to God which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, My beloved brethren,
we have the victory through Christ. We know we're going to be resurrected.
We know what the Lord's going to do with this old body. We
know what our future is because of what the Lord's going to do
and what He's already done in Christ for us. He said, therefore,
my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast. Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know
that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. One of the things
that Satan often tempts us to do is give it up. Give it up. What's the use of continuing
in this business of preaching? What's the use of going ahead? Why should we just keep on going
ahead? Well, beloved, we see here where
that Paul is admonishing the Lord's people at Corinth. He
said, brethren, you be steadfast. You be faithful. You stand your
ground and you be faithful. There was a little boy one time
who had a horse. And it was an old nag of a horse, it didn't
mount a whole lot, but some fella come along and saw him, he was
currying the old horse, the old swayback, and he said, well,
is that horse any good? And the boy said, well, he's
a pretty good horse. And the fella said, well, can
he run fast? Can he really get out there and
move and run fast? And the little boy said, no.
He said, he can't run too fast, but he can stand fast. And I'll
tell you this, this is what we need. We need to be faithful. We need to stand fast, even if
we get old and sway back. We need to stand fast and be
unmovable. Unmovable. Unmovable. Somebody
said let's quit. Somebody said we won't quit.
We must not quit. We cannot quit. There is no such
place, there is no place on this side of the river of death given
to us where we can quit. How are you going to quit? There
is no place to go to quit. You have to keep going ahead. So be steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know
that your labor is not in vain, is not in vain in the Lord. I
remember one time when these words came forcibly to my heart
that enabled me to go on in a very bad time, a time of affliction. And the Lord gave me these words
on a Saturday afternoon when I'd give up. And the Lord said,
you be steadfast, you be unmovable, you go right on, you abound in
the work of the Lord. Keep on going and preach all
you can for you know, you know. that your labor's not in vain.
It's not in vain. You just keep right on going.
Your labor's not in vain in the Lord. Be faithful. Be steadfast.
So we found then that we're to be faithful in prayer. We found
that we're to be faithful in the apostles' doctrine. And we
found that we're to be faithful in the work of the Lord. Don't
give it up. Persist. Be faithful. Now I want
you to turn with me to the book of 1 Peter. The book of 1 Peter
chapter 5. I want to talk to you a little
bit about something that the Lord has impressed upon my heart
before we wrap this up here this morning. I just want to impress
this upon your mind. 1 Peter chapter 5, and let me
read to you verse 8 and verse 9. Verse 8 and verse 9. He said, be sober, Peter said.
Be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. Now, I want to talk
to you a little bit. You know, we've made the statement
a few times here that the devil is God's devil. Now, I believe
that. It's a firm conviction of mine.
But I do also know that as children of God, excuse me, in this world
that we are in desperate trouble if we do not take seriously what
the Word of God has to say about our enemy, the devil. Satan is
the enemy of Jesus Christ, the sworn enemy of Jesus Christ. Satan is our enemy. He's the enemy of the saints
of God. And we need to take seriously
what the Bible has to say. I want you to keep these words
in mind that we are to resist Him steadfastly in the faith. I want you to turn back with
me to Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. And I want
to read here some verses concerning the temptation of our Lord Jesus
by the devil. Then was Jesus, this is Matthew
chapter 4 beginning with verse 1, then was Jesus led up of the
spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And
when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward
and hungered. And when the tempter came to
him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It
is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil
taketh them up into the holy city, and sitteth him on a pinnacle
of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God,
cast thyself down. For it is written, He shall give
his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
a stone. And Jesus said unto him, It is
written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord by God. And again
the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and
showeth him all the kingdoms of the world in the glory of
them. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee,
if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him,
Get thee hence, Satan. For it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord by God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then
the devil leaveth him and behold angels came and ministered unto
him. Now if you do not feel that Satan
is real if you feel like some do that satan is on a chain right
now and that satan is bound and that satan is not going about
as a roaring lion seeking whomever he may devour you my friend are
uh... you're actually uh... duped and
you're in serious trouble satan is going about satan these temptations
uh... that our lord experienced were
real temptations And you know, we can talk lightly of Satan
and say, well, he can't do anything unless God allows it and permits
it. And we can just go ahead and
we can talk all we want, theologically speaking, but in the daily experience
of a child of God, we will have to resist the devil in order
that he would leave us alone. There are too many of the people
of God that are actually ran over, that are actually tromped
onto the feet of the devil every day of their lives. They are
not resisting the devil. And we're told here that we must
resist him steadfast in the faith. Now that's what Jesus did when
he kept quoting scripture to him. He kept quoting the word
of God to him until the devil left him and left him alone. Now it has been the experience
of people of God in every age that they've had to resist the
devil. They've had to stand up and resist the devil in the faith
of the gospel. They had to believe the word
of God and stand on what the Bible had to say about the devil. Now, I remember old Martin Luther
one time. He believed that the devil was
right there in the room with him. He believed, and I'm not
talking about the colored man, I'm talking about Martin Luther,
old Martin Luther, who was the man who challenged the Roman
Catholic hierarchy back years and years and years ago in the
Reformation, the beginning of the Reformation. And old Martin
Luther, he thought the devil was in the room, so much so that
he grabbed his inkwell and threw it at the devil. And of course,
the ink ran down the wall and was there for years to come.
Because he believed that the devil was right over there. Now
beloved, the devil is real. Anytime that you're tempted,
anytime that you're tempted to worry, it's the devil that is
the author of that. Anytime you're tempted to worry,
it's the devil that is trying to get you to do that. Nowhere
in the Bible does the Bible teach that a child of God ought to
worry about anything. God says, you trust me, you believe
me. And when the devil, somebody
comes in, the mailman comes and sticks a mailbox full of bills,
and you look at them, and you look at them, and the more you
look at them, the more you're tempted to worry, the more you're
tempted to want to give up. Listen to me, that's the devil.
You tell the devil to get on out of the way. Tell him to go
on back to hell as old Barnard did and Barnard said even get
you a chew of tobacco and spit tobacco juice in his eye and
send him on back to hell because he's the author of worry. Nowhere
in the Word of God are we authorized to worry. The Bible says, be
anxious for nothing. Don't worry about anything, but
remember everything by prayer and supplication. Remember your
situation to God. Ask God. He will undertake for
you. You're not to worry. It's the
devil that's the author of that worry. Not only that, but we
know that many, many times we're tempted to murmur and complain
and we're tempted to find fault with God about what's going on
in our lives. And we're tempted to just simply
just get real mad at the providence of God. And I remember an old
saint down south I heard about, his name was Billy Bray. And
Billy Bray had walked with the Lord for a number of years. And
he was out. He raised a garden for his family
back during the Depression years. And he raised a garden and he
went to dig his potatoes. And it was one of those years
when everything went to tops and there wasn't no potatoes.
There was just very few of any potatoes in the ground. And so
Billy Bray was digging them, what few potatoes there was.
And the devil came to him and said, now Billy Bray, don't you
think that being you're a Christian that the Lord could certainly
do better than this there isn't much here for potatoes is there
Billy Bray and he just kept on him you know saying well you
don't look like God give you a better crop than this if all
you say you believe about God and his ableness and what he
can do I mean if there's any truth to that Billy Bray how
come it is you ain't got any potatoes here to amount to anything. And old Billy Bray finally said
to him, now devil, he said, I know you're a liar from the beginning.
You're a liar from the beginning. And you're trying to get me to
murmur against my God. I'm not going to do it. I'm not
going to do it. I believe God will provide for
me. And more than that, when I was serving you, I didn't have
any potatoes at all. I've got a few here now. And
before that, I never had any. And so, beloved, you've got to
deal with the devil. You've got to speak up and deal
with the devil. I remember reading years ago
where old Billy Sunday, and Billy Sunday was an evangelist that
lived a number of years ago, not too many, but back, I think,
in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And old Billy Sunday said that
as long as he had a fist, he was going to shake it at the
devil every time he saw him. And he said if he could, he'd hit
the devil with his fist. And he said also that as long
as he had teeth in his mouth, He would bite the devil if the
devil got close enough to him. And he said, whenever I get old
and my teeth fall out, I'll gum him to death if he gets close
enough to me. And he said, I'll stomp him under
my feet if he gets nearer. He knew that you had to resist
the devil. He knew it had to be done. And
I agree with him 100%. Peter said, whom resist? He's
going about. He's your adversary. He's the
devil, and he's a roaring lion. He's walking about, and he's
seeking whomever he made of iron. He's out to get you, and you
must resist him steadfast in the faith. You must resist him,
knowing that this devil is out here in the world, and he's also
attacking your brethren all over the world. He's attacking the
people of God. He's out visiting the homes of
the Lord's people, and he's talking to them every day. And you got
to be careful. You got to be careful. The closer
you get to serving God and doing what God wants you to do in the
way God wants you to do it, the more the devil is going to show
up. He's going to show up and he's
going to be making suggestions to you and you must resist him.
You must resist him. Get you a scripture and deal
with it. Deal with it. And deal with the
devil. Quote the scripture to him like
our Lord did. I'd like to go through all of
those verses there in Matthew 4. We don't have the time to
do it this morning. But you read those verses. You
read them again. And you see how the Lord dealt
with them. And then the devil left him. He left him when he
dealt with him with the Word of God. And you know there are
many things that we can learn here from this. I think a lot
of times, you know, that the devil, he suggests things to
us which we're very, very quick to agree with. I think the devil
a lot of times tells a fella he's too tired to go to church.
And a fella says, oh, that's right. That's right, I am. I
am wore out. I am flat wore out. I've never
been so tired in my life. I am wore out. I am too tired
to do it. I can't go. I'm like a cow rung
out, and I don't have any strength to go. Well, beloved, now, but
you know what the Word of God says. The Word of God says, forsake
not the assembly of yourselves together as the custom of some
is. The Word of God says you go. The Word of God says to go
to the house of God. Go and listen to the Word of
God. Go and hear the Word of God. But there's so many things
that we like to hear that the devil knows just how to talk
to us. And you know the devil will say
to you, he said, well now you know, you don't really know the
will of God about that matter. And it's something that's wrong,
it's something that's not right. And the devil says, well, don't
you think you ought to wait? Go ahead and do it until you get
a little bit more light on the matter. Go ahead and do it. Go
ahead and pray about it, but go ahead and do it anyway. My
friend, do you know that the devil has a way of talking you
in, to going directly against the Word of God, to refusing
to obey the Word of God, to do what the Bible tells you already
to do, you don't need to take a vote on it, you don't need
to pray anymore about it, you don't need to read anymore, you
don't need to consult anybody anymore, the Bible is spoken!
and the devil will tell you every time, just go ahead just go ahead,
you don't need any more consultation with God, you don't need to pray
anymore, just go ahead and do what you want to do Well, you
need to learn that as a believer, the devil will lead you right
down the lane into the pit. He'll lead you into trouble.
And you'll find that you've got more trouble in your hands than
you know what to do with if you don't start resisting him steadfast
in the faith. Take the Word of God and put
it right into his teeth. put it right back at him say
this is what the bible says this is what god says and I believe
and you're a liar from the beginning you're a liar from the beginning
the devil will tell you the lord's not interested in you the devil
will tell you the lord ain't gonna do nothing for you the
devil will tell you that there ain't no way this is gonna work
out like god said it was it's gonna be exactly like god said
it was and god is interested in his people you've got to believe
what the bible says now if you've got a habit that you can't break
There's something in your life that you just want to get out,
and you know it ought to be out, but you can't get it out. I've
heard of people that had the smoking habit, and they just
couldn't break the habit of smoking. They just didn't feel that they
could. well you know what you ought to do instead of buying
a pack of cigarettes and everyone will say well just go ahead and
buy them one of these days you'll quit one of these days you'll quit
you'll just quit one of these days and it'll be alright just
go ahead on but you'll quit one of these days well instead of
buying the next pack of cigarettes take the scripture write down
that scripture there in the bible that says that your body is the
temple of the holy spirit and that you're not to defile the
temple of god that you're not to defile it and put that scripture
on a piece of paper and stick it into your pocket and every
time you want a cigarette pull that thing out and read that
scripture. This body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost and I cannot defile it by smoking them cigarettes.
And the same thing would be true about alcohol and about other
things that a person might be tempted to abuse themselves with
to destroy their bodies. And this is so important that
you realize this and that you've got to resist the devil. Have
you ever resisted him? Well, the scripture says, Whom
resists, steadfast in the faith. Fight against him. Get downright
mad at the devil running over you all the time and making you
so unhappy, making you miserable. Get mad about it. and do what
Jesus did. Quote the scripture to him and
stand fast in the faith what you believe and stand up against
him and fight against him. Now, I don't know whether you
believe that you're wrestling with what you're wrestling with,
whether it's flesh and blood or whatever it is, but the devil
gets into people and a lot of times you say, well my problem
is with so and so. but the problem that you have
could very well be with the devil and his demons. And you've got
to resist him. You've got to stand against him.
Now you say, well preacher, how does that coincide with the fact
that the devil is God's devil? Well, the Bible, I think, is
crystal clear that the devil is God's devil. But I think that
the lesson here is this, that you must listen to what the Word
of God says, and believe it, and deal with it. Now, when your
own Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, was attacked by Satan, If that
don't tell you something, that Satan is out here loose in the
world, and that he is attacking the Lord's people, then I don't
know what in the world we can possibly get out of that. And
when you read admonitions like this one here in Peter, it's
to teach us. We've got to listen to what the
Bible says. The devil is not going to just
leave you alone because your name happens to be Mike, like
Michael the Archangel, or your name happens to be John, like
John the Beloved, or something else that is scriptural. Some
people got the idea, you know, that they're so holy and righteous
that the devil never bothered them. Well, you know, when I
read where he bothered my master, when I read where he tempted
the Lord Jesus, Then I know that there isn't anything to that
story. There isn't anybody around here the devil have any problems
with. And you better thank God that the devil is in the hands
of God Almighty. That the devil is in his hands,
but he's out here as a roaring lion. He's on your street. He's
been up your sidewalk, and he's been in your house, and he's
been in your bedroom. The devil is at your table, and
he's talking to you. And you better get you some scripture,
and you better begin to deal with him. You better begin to
run him off. Resist him. Resist him. Be steadfast. Resist him steadfast in the faith. So now then, we talked about
continuing steadfastly. Steadfast continuance. And we
talked about in the Apostles doctrine, we're to be steadfast.
We're to be steadfast in fellowship. And we're to be steadfast in
prayer. In breaking of bread and in prayers.
and steadfast in the work of God, never giving up, always
abounding in the word of the Lord, and then steadfast in our
resistance of the devil. These are things that are just
on my heart this morning. And like I say, I never got to
spend the time putting it together like I wanted to and like I normally
would. But you people, like I said earlier,
I don't have to prove anything to you. All I do is just try
to talk to you out of my heart this morning, and the Word of
God is plain. And I think that as we go along,
you'll find that these things that I've talked to you about
this morning, they'll become of great importance in your life, in dealing
with everyday situations in your life. And you know, sometimes
I think that because we hear preach and point, when we preach
men to Christ, we point people to God, and most everything that
we do, and I thought about this a great deal in my thoughts in
regards to this talking about the devil and about how we need
to resist him and how we need to fill our hearts with the word
of God to be able to deal with everything that's going on the
demon activity around us and what's going on in our hearts
and the voices we hear in our heads and so on and I thought
about how that most everything we do is God work is God work
and that we pray and we ought to pray We read the Bible, we
ought to read the Bible, but that maybe we don't talk to the
devil as much as we ought to. Maybe that's the reason why that,
you know, sometimes, and I heard people say this, I heard one
fellow here a while back say that he had raised his children
under the sound of the gospel, and he had done his best to raise
his children, and tried to get them to go to prayer meetings,
took them to church, took them to church, but then when they
got of age, they just left it, and went on their way, and would
not continue in the things of God, had no desire for the things
of God, and I thought to myself, why is that so? Why is that so? And you know, Mike, this morning
when he was praying, and he talked about how that the deceitfulness
of sin, the flesh, is enough to ruin our children to turn
them away. And it is so, but you've got to remember that there's
somebody talking to your children. There's somebody that's carrying
on a conversation with your children. Somebody are telling your children
what they ought to do. And they're listening to what
the devil is saying. And that's the reason why as
parents you gotta say, now wait a minute. Your child comes to
you and they say, well, I just feel this way, I feel that way.
And you know the idea today is, let every child just, you know,
determine what they want to do. And you need to be an authority
on the Word of God to where you would know and say, wait a minute,
wait a minute. that devil has been talking to
you this idea did not come from god this is not that this is
contrary to the bible you're not going to do this you're not
going to do that and this is the law here is that we're going
to deal with this we're going to deal with the devil here we
know that we can't handle him only our elder brother can but
we're going to resist him We're gonna resist him. Peter said
you gotta resist him steadfast in the faith. You must resist
him. Fight against the devil. In your
home, fight against the devil. Fight against the devil. Anytime
he raises his ugly head, fight him. Fight him. Fight him. Take the word of God. Don't let
him run over you and your family. Don't let him do it. Resist him
steadfast in the faith. And I remember hearing one preacher
years ago was talking about how that he thought for a little
bit of time he was going down the road thinking thoughts and
it was such terrible thoughts and he said well how in the world
could I be thinking thoughts like that I just prayed and I
just read the bible and how could I be thinking them kind of thoughts
and then he immediately thought well it's the devil putting them
thoughts in my mind and I've known it a lot of times sitting
right before I get up to preach there'll be something come in
my mind and I thought how in the world after I've studied
all week thought about the word of God and the things of God
how could this come through my mind? how could it possibly come
across my mind? and then I come to the realization
that there's somebody talking to me there's somebody telling
me these things and it's the devil that's telling you these
things and uh... you know the devil can make you
believe that you don't have any business opening your mouth about
the things of God well I'm yielded but I'm not perfect and like
I said earlier I'm not much but I want to be faithful if I can
I'm not much but I want to be faithful and I want to tell you
this that anytime a man gets up here in front of you that's
what's up there in front of you is a man he's not a he's not
a he's not God he's a man and he's a man who's got to fight
the devil just like you do. He's got to fight the devil.
And there's times, maybe in our lives, when we may have to talk
to the devil, we may be talking to the devil more than we are
God. We may be talking with the devil more than we are the Lord. You know, it's like I told you
about Martin Luther. Sometimes the devil gets awful
close, boy, and you've got to just talk to him. You've got
to tell him where you stand. it's where I stand. It's where
my home stands. It's where the people who live
here stand. Now you get out that door. You go. It's what we believe
here. It's what we stand for. And so
you see sometimes it's necessary not only to look Godward, but
you gotta be aware of what's going on and the voices that
are talking to you right here in this world and resist them.
Resist them steadfast in the faith. Father, in the name of
our Lord Jesus, we thank you for the privilege of being here
today and the privilege of talking to the Lord's people, to your
living family, about things that are important to every one of
us. We just ask that you might own the message and give each
one of us grace and strength, Lord, that we would go from this
place with a greater determination to be steadfast, to be faithful,
and that we might take to heart the fact that it's required of
stewards that they be found faithful. And that we would be serious,
serious, when we're reading the Bible, and realize that when
we're reading the Bible, just as serious, we're loading our
gun. We're loading our gun, just as
serious as loading our shotgun, if we thought that somebody was
coming up a terraced, or somebody was coming up our driveway. That
we'll know when we're reading the Bible, we better get our
minds clear. We better start listening to what the Bible says
and listening to what the Word of God teaches. And we better
start hiding the Word of God in our hearts so that we'll be
able to resist the devil. We'll load our gun and the trigger
will be filed down the mechanism so that it'll go off just with
a touch of the finger. We can fire the Word of God at
the devil. Give us the ability, Lord, to
stand in these difficult, these difficult and trying times and
they're not going to get any better from the standpoint of
the flesh. Give us grace and strength and help us as we live
out our lives toward God and dealing with our adversary, the
devil. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, stay close by our side. We know
that we're in enemy territory. We know that the devil is near
at hand. Do Thou help us. Do Thou help
us. Leave us not alone. Thou hast
been our help in times past. Leave us not alone. Do Thou be
with us and comfort and keep and guide and protect and strengthen
us. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen.

Steadfast Continuing

What does the Bible say about steadfastness in the faith?

Why is prayer important for Christians?

How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Why is the apostles' doctrine significant?

How does resisting the devil play a role in a Christian's life?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Steadfast Continuing

What does the Bible say about steadfastness in the faith?

Why is prayer important for Christians?

How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Why is the apostles' doctrine significant?

How does resisting the devil play a role in a Christian's life?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

More from John R. Mitchell

Same Scripture

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book