Remember, this Saturday night,
you get an extra hour of sleep. Fall back. And Paul Daniel got
through the surgery well today, as I understand it. I'm very
thankful for that. Luke chapter one. Verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the
house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, now that art highly favored,
the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. I want to be one of these highly
favored people, don't you? I want the Lord to be highly
favored toward me. Now, what is someone who's highly
favored like? You know, if God is highly favored
toward you, it's going to do something for you, isn't it?
It's going to affect you in a great way. Well, what is somebody like
that is highly favored of God? I want to be one of those people,
don't you? Now, Mary, indeed, she was highly favored. Can you
imagine what that must have been like when the angels announced
to her that she was going to Be with child of the Holy Ghost. And she was going to bear the
Christ, the son of the living God. Can you imagine that nine
month period she must have went through all the things that must
have gone through her mind during that time? And then at the time
of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the angels appeared to
some shepherds out in the field and they told them exactly what
was going to happen and they come back. and find the babe
in a manger. And they tell what they had heard,
and we read in Luke chapter 2, verse 18, and all they that heard
it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things and pondered in her heart. Now, everybody else was amazed,
but Mary did more than that. She kept these things, these
things she heard, she kept them in her heart and she pondered
them. Twelve years later, when the
Lord was in the temple, they had lost him. And we read in
verse 48, and when they saw him, they were amazed. Luke chapter
2, verse 48, And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou
dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have
sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is
it that you sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about
my father's business? And they understood not the saying
which he spake unto them. And he went down with them and
came to Nazareth and was subject unto them. But his mother kept
all these sayings in her heart. Now, all these words she heard
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, all these sayings, all these
proclamations concerning him, she kept them in her heart. She kept them close. She guarded
over them. She kept them in her heart. Now,
what is precious to you, you keep, won't you? You'll guard
carefully and closely. If it's precious to you, you
don't want to lose it. You'll guard a $5 bill. I don't
want to lose a $5 bill. But how differently will you
guard your children? All the difference in the world.
If somebody comes up to you and stick them up, hand me the five
dollar bill. Here it is. Quick. Somebody says, give me
your children, stick them up, give me your children. You'll
fight to the death, won't you? You'll fight to the death because of
the value you place on your children. You keep, you watch over, you
guard closely that which is of great value. to you. She kept what she heard
because it was precious to her. She did not want to lose these
words and notice the place she kept these sayings in her heart. Not simply in her intellect.
That will become cold and dry. Not her emotions, they may be
hot now, but they'll cool soon enough. Not in the resolve of
her will, she'd end up losing that too, but in her heart she
kept, she guarded these things. That heart which God had given
her. That new heart that understood
to some extent who he was. He's God. He's the eternal Son
of God. She loved. who he was. And she kept these sayings regarding
him in her heart. Now, why did she keep carefully
and keep close the things that he said or the things she heard
concerning him? We'll turn with the Hebrews chapter
two for a moment. Verse one. Therefore, and this is a reference
to what he said in Hebrews, chapter one, where there's not a more
glorious description of the Lord Jesus and what he did anywhere
than in Hebrews, chapter one, I love this passage of Scripture.
And then in response to this, he says in chapter two, therefore,
we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." That is literally,
let them leak out. We ought to give them more earnest
heed to what we've heard, lest at any time we let what we have
heard leak out. Now, I believe in the eternal
security of God's elect. Everybody that God elected, everybody
that Christ died for, everybody that God has given a new nature
to, they can't fall away. It's possible for them to fall
away. I believe in the eternal security
of God's elect. The Lord said, My sheep shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.
My Father which gave them is greater than all, and no man
is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. Do you believe
in eternal security? Absolutely. You see, salvation is by grace.
Salvation is of the Lord, and one of God's people cannot possibly
fall away. And I believe God has given me
a new heart, a heart that I wasn't born with, a new nature, a nature
that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, a nature that believes the gospel
of the grace of God. God's given me a new heart, a
heart that adores him. And this new heart that he's
given me is impeccable. It cannot sin. It's holy. Now, I still have
my old nature, you know that as well as I do. You still have
your old nature. I'm still in and of myself, nothing
but sin, but this new heart as the Lord Jesus Christ is impeccable.
He doesn't even have the potential to sin. The new heart. Cannot sin. Therefore, I don't need to worry
about these things leaking out. Now, I believe the first two
statements. I believe in the eternal security
of God's elect, and I believe that God has given me a new heart.
But as soon as we make a statement like that, I'm not worried about
anything leaking out. The leaking has already begun. Beloved, We are preserved through
perseverance. We are preserved through perseverance. Now, that statement may seem
reasonable if believers are eternally secure and you have a new heart.
You don't need to worry about anything leaking out. Now, that
kind of attitude is the beginning of fatalism and antinomianism. lawlessness. That is where it
begins. There is much keeping we do. Now in a relationship you value,
you work at it, don't you? There's much keeping involved.
Now if the relationship is not that important to you, you're
probably not going to worry about it too much. But if it's a relationship
that you value, there is much keeping involved. Now we keep Because we're kept. Isn't that so? We keep because we're kept. And we are kept through keeping. Keeping becomes of keeping because
of the great value we place upon that which we are keeping. This
actually describes the believer. Would you turn with me to First
John, Chapter five? 1 John 5. Verse 18. We know that whosoever is born
of God, sinneth not. And there's that statement regarding
the new nature, it does not sin. Whatever is born of God does
not sin. Born of the Spirit. A holy nature,
that's what the new birth is, that's what regeneration is,
that's what being born again is. We know that whosoever is
born of God sinneth not, but he that's begotten of God, what? Keepeth himself. He keepeth himself,
he watches himself closely. And the wicked one toucheth him
not. Now, this is the character of
a believer. He's somebody who keeps himself. Now, if I'm somebody whom God
has highly favored, and I tell you, I want to be just like Mary.
I want to be somebody he has highly favored. I know I can't,
I'm not going to experience what she experienced in that sense,
but I can experience the same grace she did. And I want to
be somebody who is highly Well, what someone who's highly favored
of God do? What are they like? They keep
these sayings, these words in their heart and they ponder them
in their heart. Turn to John chapter 14. Verse
22. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot,
not the one who betrayed him, Lord, John 14, 22, how is it
that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love me, he will keep my words. He'll watch over them. He'll
guard them. They're precious to Him. He will
keep my words, and my Father will love Him. And we will come
unto Him and make our abode with Him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings. And the word which you hear is
not mine, but the Father's which hath sent me." Now, His words
are precious to me. I think they're in John 6. where
some people heard him preach and they said, these are hard
sayings. Who can hear? Who can hear? Who can be expected
to listen to stuff like this? And the Lord replied, the words
that I speak to you, which you call hard sayings, they're spirits
and they're life. And these people left him at
that time. They left after he said this. And then he looked
at the twelve and he said, you fellas want to leave too? The doors open. Will you also
go away? You see, the Lord's not going
to have any unwilling disciples. He's not going to. Will you also
go away? And Peter acted as the spokesman
of every believer. He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe
and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. Now, you think of His words.
Here's the first thing I thought of. It is finished. How precious are those words
to you? It is finished. My salvation was accomplished
by my Lord without any reference to my personal subjective experience. Do you know that's precious to
me? The Lord said, I am the way,
the truth and the life, no man comes to the father, but by me,
how precious that is that I come to the father by him. That means
when he comes to the father, I come because I'm in him, united
to him. How precious are his words? I can't have them altered in
any way. I can't have him added to or taken from because all
of my hope is in his precious word. I am depending on what
he said. We dare not add to or subtract
to what he said because our entire salvation is dependent on what
he said. Now, I grew up 13th Street Baptist
Church. There's a man there by the name
of Charlie Payne. He died in 18, not 18, 1989. I remember when he died, I always
esteemed him so highly. Very special man, very special
to Brother Mahan. And when he was dying, he had
a lot of heart problems. And I think he went down to New
Orleans to have a surgery. And Brother Mahan said to him, are you ready to die? Because
he knew that there was a very good chance he was going to die
on the operating table at that time. He said, are you ready
to die? And he replied to Brother Mahan,
if what you told me is so, I'm ready to die. We're depending upon his word. We keep his covenant. We guard
over his covenant. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
17. Verse seven. God says to Abraham, and I will
establish my covenant between me and thee, and I see it after
thee and their generations for an everlasting covenant. To be
a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, and I will give unto
thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger,
all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I'll
be their God. And God said to Abraham, thou
shalt keep my covenant. Thou and thy seed after thee,
in their generations. Now God says to Abraham, you're
going to keep my covenant. Look in Genesis chapter 18, verse
17. And the Lord said, Shall I hide
from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall
surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed in him, for I know him. that he'll
command his children in his household after him, and they shall keep
the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may
bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him. Now, you
know, I used to look at that verse. I think, man, Abraham, he was
a really good parent. He really made his children obey
him, but they didn't. They didn't. He's talking about
his spiritual children. He's talking about the children
of faith. He's talking about believers. They will keep the
covenant. Now, the covenant. Here's the
example that came to my mind from the scriptures. The covenant.
There was a man by the name of Mephibosheth. His name means
shameful thing. He was of the house of Saul.
He was the son of Saul, the enemies of David. And in 2 Samuel chapter
9, David said, Are there any of the household of Saul that
I could show kindness to for Jonathan's sake? He was referring
to a covenant that was made before Mephibosheth had ever been born. In this covenant, David and Jonathan
agreed. Jonathan said, You're going to
be king when you're in power. Remember my seed to have mercy
on them. And there's one reason that Mephibosheth
was called. Because of the covenant. Now,
I'll tell you what, I'm going to keep that covenant. I mean,
I don't want it to be altered in any way. All my salvation
is in that covenant. All of it. David said that. He
said, although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made
with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things. And sure,
and this is all my salvation and all my desire. And I'm going
to keep that covenant. I don't want it to be any other
way. Turn to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John
chapter 3. Verse 23. And this is his commandment. That we should believe on the
name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave
his commandments, and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth
in him. And he and him and hereby we
know that he abided in us by the Spirit which he had given
us. He that keepeth his commandments. Now notice, it doesn't say he
that knows what they are. It doesn't say he that admires
them or can quote them or has a high view of them. It says
that person who keeps his commandments. Now, regarding the Ten Commandments. In the Lord Jesus Christ, I've
kept them. Ten Commandments looks me over
and says, I find no fault in him because when Christ obeyed
the law. I obeyed the law, but that's
really not what he's talking about, although it certainly
is part, but he's talking about. Believing the gospel. And loving
God's people. Look what he says in this verse
23, and this is his commandment. That we should believe on the
name of his son, Jesus Christ. Now, I believe on the name of
his son, Jesus Christ. I believe that the name of Christ
is going to bring me into the very presence of the Father and
make me accepted. I believe I'm accepted right
now in his name. I believe in his name. I believe
that's the only name that's needed for me right now to be perfectly
accepted by God. I really believe that. I'm keeping
that commandment right now because I'm believing, I'm relying on
His name. What are you relying on? I'm
relying on His name that God will save me for His name's sake. All my reliance is right there.
I'm keeping that commandment. And He says we're to love one
another. as he gave his commandment. Now, anybody who believes on
the name of the son of God, I love that individual. I really do.
And I'm not just talking. I really do. I love everybody
who loves him. These are commandments that God's
people keep. In Proverbs, chapter four, verse
twenty three, we read, keep your heart. Keep your heart with all
diligence For out of it are the issues of life. Now, why do I
keep my heart when it is a new heart? Well, let me read the
scripture to you. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12 says,
Take ye brethren. He's talking to believers, isn't
he? Take ye brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart
of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one
another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be heartened
through the deceitfulness of sin. And indeed, sin is deceitful. It will fool us so easily, and
that scares me. And therefore, I hear this admonition
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart
of unbelief in departing from the living God. Keep thy heart
diligently, for out of it are the issues of life. Paul said
in 2 Timothy 4.8, I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I kept
the faith. Now this is what someone who
highly favored of God does, they keep the faith. The faith of God's elect, the
acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness, the acknowledging
of who God is, who I am, have my need of Christ. There's an
acknowledging and embracing, a loving of the truth. And that's
what happens when people keep the faith. Paul said, I've kept
the faith. And that's why I said to Timothy,
Keep that which is committed to thy trust. Believer, you have
been given a sacred trust by God Himself. Guard it carefully. Keep the faith. And then Paul
said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5.22, Keep thyself pure. You can only keep yourself pure
if you are pure. Blessed are the pure in heart. That same word is translated
chaste. Keep yourself chaste. Faithful
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's translated clear. Keep yourself
clear. and transparent. Not putting
on. It's translated holy. Keep yourself
holy. This is what denies self. That's
whatever believers called upon to do. If any man will come after
me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross daily and follow
me. And then we read in first Corinthians
five eight where we are to Keep the feast. Keep the feast, it's
referring to the Passover, but he says, let us keep the feast.
And he's not talking about reinstituting the Passover, but it's talking
about faith in Christ. That's what it is to keep the
feast, faith in Christ with the unleavened bread. Let us keep
the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Let us keep the feast. Insincerity. I hate insincerity, don't you?
Sincerity, unmixed, you look to Christ only. Unmixed. Truth, according to the truth
of the gospel, they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth. And then in James 1.27, We read
where we are to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Talked
about that Sunday morning. Keep ourselves unspotted from
the world. Now, by the world, he means the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Pleasure. Popularity and power,
that's what this world is after. Pleasure, popularity. and power. Now, how is it that somebody
can keep himself unspotted from this world? By finding my pleasure in being
found in Christ. By having God's approval, not
so much concerned about having men's approval, but if God's
for me. There's real popularity. If God
be for us, who can be against And here's true power. You know,
men don't have. He's a powerful man. No, he's
not. No, he's not. No man has any power. But a believer has power with
God. The Lord said to Jacob as a prince,
and this is true of every believer as a prince, thou has power with
God and has prevailed. Now, there's a conscience effort
involved in They're sitting there. Lord, keep me looking only to
Christ. Cause me to consciously abide
in Him so that all I want you to see is Him at all times only. Keep me unspotted from the world. And then in Revelation 2, 26,
the Lord said, He that overcometh and keepeth my works. Keepeth
my works. What are his works? Well, he
said in John chapter 17, verse four, I've glorified thee on
the earth. I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do. Salvation is his work. And I'm
holding on to that, I'm guarding that because if it has anything
to do with me, I got no hope. I'm going to hold on to his work
only. is everything in my salvation.
I'm holding on to that. I'm guarding it close. I'm not
willing to let it go. By the grace of God, I'm not
willing to let that go. My only hope is that salvation
is wholly His work and not mine. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. I'm holding on to that. You know, the writer to the Hebrew
says, let us labor to enter into his rest. That's what it is to
keep his works. We labor to enter into his rest. And then in 1 John, chapter five,
verse 21. John said, little children. Keep
yourselves from idols. Keep yourself. Watch out. Watch
out for yourself. Keep yourself. Guard yourself.
Know your susceptibility to it. What was the sin that Israel
kept falling into over and over and over again? Idolatry. What's an idol? Well, we know
that any kind of material representation of God is an idol. A cross is
an idol. Any kind of religious Physical anything is an idol.
We're forbidden idolatry in that sense. Any kind of physical representation
of something religious is idolatry. But you can be real sound and
get rid of all the physical idols in your house. But a false idea
of God is idolatry. A false imagination of God is
idolatry. And an idol is anything that takes the place
of God. Where it becomes more important
to you than obeying God. Paul said covetousness is idolatry. Keep yourselves from idols. And then in Jude 21, I love this
admonition. Keep yourself in the love of
God. That love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Keep yourself in His love. Understand that nothing shall
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Oh, may the love of Christ, His unchanging love,
constrain me. The love of Christ constraineth
us. Oh, may the Lord enable us to
always be sensitive regarding his love to me. That's why sin
is so hateful to me because of his love to me. John said we've known and we
believe or relied upon the love that God had to us. I'm relying
on the freeness of His love in Christ Jesus. I'm relying on
His love not being an unconditional love, but He sees me as perfectly
lovely in the Lord Jesus Christ. However beautiful Christ is to
God, that's how beautiful I am to God. I'm relying on that. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. We love Him because He first
loved us. Now, the last one I want to mention
is in Ephesians 4, but let's go ahead and turn there. Ephesians
chapter 4. You see, a believer does a lot
of keeping, doesn't he? I mean, I've looked at the scriptures
that deal with how we keep ourselves. Now, we only keep ourselves because
we're cats. I realize that. But if we're
cats, we're going to be doing some keeping of ourselves. Now,
look here in Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 1. I, therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another. He said to the Colossians, forbearing
and forgiving one another, in love, endeavoring, giving every
effort to keep, to guard over, to watch the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. Now, here's what we're called
upon to keep. We're called upon to keep, to guard over, to watch
the unity of the Spirit. Now, how do we go about doing
that? Well, verse 2 gives clear directions. Here's how the unity
of the Spirit is kept in lowliness. Humility is so beautiful. You
know, when you have folks who are humble, they're not going
to be fighting with each other, are they? They're going to take the back seat.
They're going to give deference one to another where that true
humility is with all lowliness and meekness. Believing that
whatever God does is right, with long-suffering patience, believing
God's on the throne, forbearing one another, putting up with
one another, for Christ's sake, in love, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, Mary kept
all these things in her heart. If you keep His Word in your
heart, you're going to keep all these things In your heart. Now we're kept. Aren't you thankful
for that? If he didn't keep me, I thought
of the way I know I would. Right now. Right now, Scripture
says we're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And the way he keeps us is by
us keeping his words, his covenant, His commandments. We keep our
hearts with all diligence. We keep the faith. We keep ourselves
pure. We keep the feast with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth. We keep ourselves unspotted from
this world. We keep his works. We keep ourselves
from idols. We keep ourselves in the love
of God and we keep the unity of the spirit. May God enable
every one of us to be just like Mary, to keep these things and
ponder them in our hearts. Let's pray together.