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Our Father in Heaven, thank you for this time. Thank you for your great care for us. Lord, when it comes to anything about our lives, we realize that it is all of you.
It is by your choice that we are yours. It is because of your everlasting and amazing love that you would look down upon us in pity and save us.
That Jesus Christ, your Son, would be sent for us to redeem us. That we be purchased by his precious blood to be the choice possession of God for all eternity.
We thank you for that. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the way that you take this book and have it come alive to us.
The teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit to lead us in all truth. To show us the wonderful words of life.
And now even in this time, this short time Sunday School class, we pray your blessings upon us.
To teach us, to equip us, to help us live a life that would be pleasing to you.
And bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. I wonder if you've ever thought about how much of an impact that you have upon another believer.
You as, I'm speaking to Christians now, those who have been ransomed by God, saved by the grace of God.
I wonder if you've really thought about, well, do I really have an influence upon others?
I mean, does it really matter the way that I live? Does that have an impact upon somebody else in the faith or in the church?
Or is it that, you know, they're saved by God. Salvation is of the
Lord. They've been redeemed by God. They've been changed by God. And God is the one that keeps them anyways, right?
It's not going to matter what I do, right? Well, in a measure, you know, we have this, these two railroad, these two rails of the railroad track.
When it comes right through scripture, we have the sovereignty of God. Yes, and the responsibility of man. When it comes to anything, we consider that in the life of a believer, in the life of a church.
And yes, God saves. And we are kept, as Peter wrote, by the power of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
God keeps His own. God guards them. God saves and He saves and gives them what kind of life?
How long is it? Everlasting, right? It's everlasting life. And yet, somehow in God's, in God's perfect plan and purposes, people get involved.
I mean, a person got involved when it comes, when it came to you being saved. I mean, if you think about it, look back on your life and you say, you might say, well,
I was just reading the scripture and nobody was around and God saved me. Yeah, but how did that scripture get there?
God used somebody to print that scripture. God used somebody maybe to give you that Bible or to give you that track.
There's this human element. There's this human participation. There's this human influence.
It's the preaching of the gospel, evangelism. God sends us out to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
And people hear through that message that was sent. I remember when I, my first time when the
Bible opened to me was when I was about 19 years old and I read a gospel track that somebody had mailed out from a church in New Hampshire at the time of the movie, of a spiritual movie back in the 70s called
The Exorcist. And that church wanted to counter the message of that movie and say that Jesus Christ is greater than Satan.
So they sent out this little booklet and it ended up accidentally, right, at our house to my mother's name and address.
And it didn't affect my mother. My mother didn't read that. I read it at 19 and it affected me.
It was the first time I ever remember the scriptures coming alive to me. It's like this is
God's word and God is saying something about Jesus Christ. And it was after that period that God had saved me.
And thankfully, some other means and some other way, I mean, I know my mother heard other things, but I know that in March of last year when
I went to visit her, I gave her another book that had gone through the family of Gene and Rhonda and Darlene and Barbara.
That book that Bob McCarthy had written about talking to my Catholic friends,
I left that book with her. It had done a work in their family and it did a work in my mom's heart.
God used that. So there's a human element when it comes to salvation. God uses us.
We're instruments used of God to preach the gospel. But, you know, it doesn't just stop right there to give people the gospel and they're saved.
We have an impact upon other people after they're saved.
I mean, that's pretty evident too. Give me some examples of that. How or who could be a person that could impact you after you've been saved?
Any ideas? Don't all raise your hand. What's Brian? I see that hand. Men and women can speak wisdom to other people.
And we need to grow. And there is that Proverbs idea of iron sharpening iron.
And so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Yes, that's exactly right. Deb? Pastors and leaders, do they have an impact upon those in the church through their preaching and teaching ministry?
They do. They're supposed to be an example and people look at their example. And that's kind of like where we're going to be going this morning, through their example, their faith you're supposed to follow.
And they're to be mature. They're to be godly. They're to be, you know, going forward. And they're also helping and counseling and teaching and all.
Yes, that is. What else? How else can somebody impact you? Anybody else?
Maybe one more. Yes. Discipling. Sure. You're sitting down with someone in a discipleship situation.
And hopefully if you are being discipled by somebody, you look for somebody who is, you know, older in the faith.
Maybe not older in years, but older in the faith at least. And they have something to share. You know what
I love about discipleship is it can be, you can hand somebody like years of experience in minutes.
You can just sit with somebody and you can say, like, you know, what does it mean, you're discipling a young man who wants to learn how to be a godly man.
And you can take things that you've learned in decades and you can just condense it down into a few sentences and give some examples.
And they don't have to go through all that you went through to learn that lesson. It can really help them.
You can have an influence upon other people. Yes, in the back. Right.
Priscilla and Aquila helped teach in Paul's life. It was a help to bring them along to clarify things.
You know, sometimes we can be struggling with scripture and we just don't see it. And someone comes along and they can help us to see that because God has taught it to them.
So we, all of these are a positive influence. There's also the other extreme too.
And we're going to kind of get into that this morning. There can be the influence where it's negative, where we can discourage someone in the faith.
We can cause people to falter. Does the Bible say anything about that? We could actually put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in somebody's way.
We can do that. And we need a guard against that. So, one of the ways that we can guard against that.
And one of the ways that we can be sure that we are an encouragement, that we are a help to other believers.
Is what we're going to see this phrase this morning in this text here about standing fast.
About standing firm. Standing fast in the faith, standing firm in our faith.
And I was thinking about that. You remember when we had the Sunday school lesson about how to glorify
God? Remember I asked those that were here, how does the scripture say that we can glorify
God? And we all had different ideas, but we wanted to go right to the scriptures. And we saw many of those.
Well, I want to kind of talk about this this morning about standing firm or standing fast.
Because it's like, sounds like a military term almost, right? Stand fast, stand firm.
But what does that mean? Yes sir, I'll do it, but what am I supposed to do to stand firm or to stand faster?
Or maybe it just sounds like a command, but what is behind that?
What does it mean? If you would, look with me in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. And notice,
I'm reading from the King James from verse 1. Wherefore, Paul wrote this church.
And this church, Thessalonica, was a principal seaport.
It was a place where Paul had only spent a short period of time, I mean maybe just weeks, that he spent there.
And he preached the gospel. And God saved,
God did a wonderful work here. And Paul writes back here, and one of the things that he's wanting to do is finding out how they are.
He wants to know what kind of condition that they're in. Notice he says, verse 1 in chapter 3.
Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear or endure, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone.
And we sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith.
That no man should be moved by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we were appointed thereunto.
Paul wanted to find out if things were well, because this is a church that he had left. And there could be afflictions, there could be trials, there could be those that come among them to try to disrupt.
And of course there could be the wicked one, Satan himself. I'm going to see that as we go on, who would come in and cause havoc in the church.
Verse 4. For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation even as it came to pass.
And you know, they could be persecuted. They predicted that for them. But even with the persecution, he wanted to make sure that they were okay, that they stood fast and they were standing firm.
They weren't throwing in the towel. They weren't raising the white flag. They weren't causing themselves to be shipwrecked in the faith.
They weren't jumping out of the ring. They weren't getting out of the running lane, so to speak, and calling it quits.
So, to find this out, he says in verse 5. For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith.
Here he goes. I want to find out how you're doing, lest by some means the tempter having tempted you and our labor be in vain.
He wanted to make sure that things were well. He was concerned that they hadn't gone astray, that they hadn't left the faith.
I mean, think about it. One of the saddest things that happens to anybody, leadership or a member in the church, is when you see somebody who's come to church week in and week out, maybe even faithfully serving in the church week in and week out, professing, living like they're a member of the body of Christ and of the local
New Testament church, and then all of a sudden, the next thing you hear is they're gone. I mean, that's sad, and it breaks the heart of anybody.
I mean, it's very difficult to lose a family member in the physical realm, biological realm, is it not?
And in the church, the same thing happens because our hearts were knit together. We had great fellowship and sweet fellowship as we labored in the gospel, and there somebody just jettisons the faith.
They just walk away, and we scratch our heads, and we wonder, what does it mean? What is that all about?
That's why it's important for us, I believe, to make sure that we understand salvation, that it does come from God, and God does keep us, yet there is that human element, there is that responsibility that we have as believers to persevere in the faith, to carry on, to not quit.
I remember one time, it was back in 1978 -ish, near 1979.
Our pastor at the time in Texas, he preached a message, and I don't remember any of the title of the verses that he used, but his main thrust was, don't quit.
No matter what comes your way, don't quit. God is worthy to be served, no matter how difficult your
Christian life is, no matter what kind of burdens come your way, no matter how heavy it seems, or how impossible the future is, or how discouraging that you might be, don't quit, don't quit, don't quit.
And within two weeks' time, the baby that Deb was carrying at that time, in 1979, five and a half months being carried,
God took that baby home, and it was God that prepared us for that, in that message, and having just that trust in His sovereignty, in His good hand, that no matter what does come, we need to stand firm.
We need to stand fast. And it's important for us to do that, and Paul wanted to know, no matter what came to this church, are you standing fast, are you still in the faith?
And he says in verse 6, when Timothy came from you unto us, he brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you.
It was an encouraging report, that he hadn't been there, and he didn't know what had taken place.
He'd been praying for them, of course, and he wanted them to stand firm.
And he got this good report, and these good tidings encouraged his heart. In verse 7 he says, therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you and all our affliction and distress by your faith.
Paul says, your testimony, Thessalonica, this church, your faithfulness, your standing firm in the faith in the midst of all your afflictions, has caused us great comfort.
It's brought us great comfort, and it's influenced us here, where Paul was.
He's encouraged, their faith has encouraged his faith. You see the connection here, and that's where I'm going this morning as far as the practicality of this
Sunday School lesson. Our testimony, our faith, our standing, our ability, our testimony of standing firm and standing fast in the faith affects the person sitting to your left, right, in front of you, or behind you.
Our testimony can either discourage someone, or it can encourage them.
And notice how Paul puts it in verse 8. He says, for now we live if you stand fast in the faith, or if you are standing fast in the
Lord, I mean, it says there in verse 8. For now we live if you stand fast in the
Lord. This whole idea of standing fast. And I found this interesting description by a
Dr. Arnaud writing about how this analogy, an illustration of what the life of a believer ought to be like as far as standing fast.
And listen to this description. He says, an established, experienced, hopeful
Christian is, in the world, like an iceberg in a swelling sea. The waves rise and they fall, ships strain and shiver, and nod on the agitated waters.
But the iceberg may be seen from afar, receiving the breaking waves on its snow -white sides, casting them off and unmoved.
And where all else is rocking to and fro, the iceberg stands stable like the everlasting hills.
The cause of the iceberg's steadiness is its depth. Its bulk is bedded in the calm water beneath the tumult that rages on the surface.
Although, like the ships, it is floating in the water, it receives and throws off the angry waves like a large rock upon the shore.
Behold, the condition and attitude of Christians. They float on the same sea of life with other men and bear the same blows.
But they are not driven here and there. They are not the playthings of the wind and the water.
The waves strike them, break over them, and hiss past them in foam, but they remain unmoved.
They are not caught by surprise while they had a slight hold on the surface. The vital part of their being lies beyond the reach of those superficial commotions.
Their lives are hid with Christ in God and can bear the strains of the storm without giving in.
Dr. Arnault also goes on and reminds us here that a Christian is a person whose life is hid with Christ in God.
And God, of course, is our strength. God is our shield.
The strength of our life, of course, comes from the Lord being believers. And whatever comes our way, no matter how difficult it may be, no matter how troubling, no matter how painful,
I believe the Scriptures bear out the truth that no matter what comes the way to a true child of God, they're going to be like that iceberg.
The waves are going to hit them, and they're going to feel it. And we feel the pain. We feel the discouragement.
We feel the hurt. But just because that pressing thing, that weighty thing, that discouraging thing to our eyes, that negative thing, hits our lives, it will not cause the believer, the true believer, the true child of God to say, you know what?
This has come my way. God brought it my way. I don't like God anymore. I don't like this faith.
I'm out of here. That will happen to the person who professes faith but does not possess
Christ. Their life is not hid with Christ in God.
Because the Scripture says in Colossians 2 that we're to be rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith.
And that's the life of the believer. We're rooted and built up in Christ. And He is the true vine.
We are the branches. And we abide and we remain in Him. Yes, by the work of God.
As it says in Philippians 2, God is working in you. Yes, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
But we are also in that same text to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. There is that human responsibility that we have to persevere in the faith and to stand firm.
And if we stand firm in the faith, that has an impact upon our brother and sister in Christ in a positive way.
Our desire as your elders and as your brothers in Christ is that every believer at BBC will become more deeply grounded and remain steadfast in the faith.
This is what the apostles' desire was here also in 1 Thessalonians 3.
Paul speaks of these church members as standing fast in the
Lord. Standing fast in the Lord in verse 8. He says that they are ones who stand fast or stand firm in the
Lord. And then he says, we live if you do something. Or in other words, their lives, the members of this church, their lives affected the apostles' life.
And affected his outlook on them as far as the church.
And it also had an encouraging effect upon him. Because he said that in verse 7, it comforted them.
He said, brethren, we were comforted over you in all of our affliction. You're going through things and you stayed steadfast.
We're going through things and because, not only because of what God's doing in our lives, but because of how
God has so worked in your life and you're faithful, that has encouraged us to keep on keeping on.
And to not throw in the towel, but to keep going forward. God, the
Holy Spirit, has put every member in this body, this church body, according to his infinite wisdom and according to our particular need.
And we need each other to encourage each other. We are all essential to one another. Our spiritual gifts complement each other and make up the whole.
And we are to edify or build each other up in the faith and help each other and bear each other's burdens and serve one another and encourage one another and love one another, provide for one another, and influence each other for spiritual good.
To prepare us for serving for the Lord. And it is all working together for the glory of God.
And again, Paul says about this church that their lives affected his life.
And I believe that we can apply that in our church and BBC today. That our lives, and we need to see this, and we need to understand this, that our lives affect our brother and sister in Christ close by.
Whether you realize it or not, people are watching you as a believer. I mean, Paul said, wrote one church and he said, you are epistles.
People are reading your life, watching you. Especially if you have a profession and you've had a profession for many years.
I just had a young man come up to me about three weeks ago and he just said, could I please just have some time with you so that I could learn?
And probably the same thing has happened to you. Somebody has approached you and said, would you please teach me? I mean, why would they even come up to you in the first place?
You know, just because you wear a suit and a tie or a nice hat or whatever, you look good that day. There must be something there that is attracting that or causing that, and it could be your testimony.
They're looking at you and they want to come and they want to learn something. And people are looking at you and reading your life, and there is something that you can do which can be of great help to other believers, and that is standing fast.
Steadfastness. Being known for being steadfast in your Christian walk.
And notice Paul said in verse 8, now we live if you stand fast.
Our lives are affected if you stand fast. Our lives, there's relief or there's comfort if you stand fast.
We're encouraged if you stand fast. The word if. If you stand fast.
Does that have a, is that like a clause, a type of clause, like a conditional clause?
I think it is. And what that means is, and we're going to see this elsewhere, maybe we should take a look.
I mean, is this type of, is this something that Paul just pulled, you know, out of his head when he was writing this book and there are no other examples of this in the scriptures?
If you want to, please hold your place there and turn to the Gospel of John. I want you to see that even
Jesus spoke this way. The Gospel of John. John chapter 8.
This should be a familiar verse for many. John 8, 31.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him. So you have some people. They're Jewish people who have believed upon Christ.
And he makes a statement. If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed.
If you continue in my word. So is it possible for a person not to say that they believe upon Christ and not continue?
Of course. It's possible for a person who says they're a believer, says they're a
Christian, they profess, but if a person walks away from the word of God, if they don't continue in the word, if they don't keep
God's commandments, if they don't love Christ, if they just jettison their faith, then it just shows that they never truly were a believer.
That God hadn't saved them. I'll clarify a little bit more as we go on. But this is the type of conditional statement.
If you continue, or if you stay, and that word continue means to stay in a given place.
That's why I wanted to use this verse, because we're looking at standing firm, standing fast, holding on in your faith.
As it says in Hebrews, to hold fast the profession of your faith. I believe it's Hebrews 10, 26.
Holding it fast. Having a testimony where we're persevering. We're not going to throw in the towel.
We're not going to be like when the going gets rough.
I'm trying to make it up, and I can't even come up with it. When the going gets rough, something about this, some people get going.
There's some people that just take off when it gets tough or rough. But when the going does get tough or rough for the child of God, by the grace of God, they persevere.
They hold on. God is working in them. They're not going to just say, you know what?
This trouble outweighs all that God has done for me in Christ Jesus. I mean, Jesus died for me.
He rose again for me. He purchased me with his blood. He saved my soul. He's given me eternal life.
Oh, I got a hangnail today. I think I'll just give up eternal life. I mean, I know I'm going with some hyperbole the other way, but I lost my husband or my wife, or my financial situation just totally crashed.
My job is gone. And because of that, I'm walking away from Christ. It doesn't happen in the child of God.
They persevere. The warning is here for those who think they're saved, who say that I love
Christ, and yet they don't exhibit the fruit in their life. And the fruit here that Jesus is saying, you're going to continue in my word.
You're going to remain in it. It is the same word, that word continue in my word.
You will show that you are my disciples indeed. Turn in John chapter 15. It is the same word, abide.
That central key word in John chapter 15. Notice how
Jesus uses, how he teaches this in here, and I'll show you another if. Another conditional statement.
We're going to look at two or three of these. John 15 .1, Jesus said, I am the true vine, and my
Father is the husbandman, or the vinedresser, or the gardener. Every branch in me that bears not fruit, he takes away.
And every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Verse three, now you are clean through the word which
I have spoken unto you. Abide, here's that word, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it what?
Abide in the vine. No more can you except you abide in me. I am the vine.
Verse five, you are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.
You see the contrast here. There are people who abide in the vine. They stay steadfast. They stay firm.
They remain in the vine. They remain closely connected and identified with Jesus Christ.
And yet, there are others where it says in verse six, if a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
So, if this happens, then this is true. If you remain in Jesus, in John 8 and 31, if you continue in the word of God, if you stay steadfast, if you hold the word of God, if you love me, you keep my commandments, if the word of God is central in your life and in the church, then you prove that you are my disciples indeed.
If you remain in the vine, abiding in Christ, resting, trusting, nourishment, sustenance,
He is your all in all, rooted and built up in Him. If you abide in Christ, if you abide in the vine in Christ, it shows that you are the ones who are bearing fruit under the glory of God and it shows that you are a child of God.
But there's that condition there. If you don't, you say that you're in the vine, you say that you're closely connected to Christ, and yet you don't remain, you don't bear fruit, then it just shows that you're truly not a believer.
God hasn't done a work in your heart. Here's even a better one I like too. There's two more.
1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1.
Paul wrote, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and I like this because it fits the
Sunday school class, in wherein you stand. Paul said, He came to them and he preached the gospel.
They received the gospel and he says they stand in the gospel. They stand in it.
They're firm in it. There's the spiritual receptivity. God opened their heart and the gospel came in power and they were saved.
And they stand in this gospel. They remain in this gospel. They stand firm in it.
They know that they were saved by the gospel, not by human effort or religion or tradition.
But they know that God powerfully visited them from on high and they're standing in this gospel.
Notice what he says in verse 2 though. He said, This gospel is, this is kind of like a summary of the gospel, by which or by this gospel you are saved.
So he says, You are saved. Notice this phrase. Wow. If you keep in memory what
I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. Doesn't that make it very clear?
And it just comes right. I mean, you look at this and you go, Oh, Brother Dave, I'm not quite sure why that would be in the scripture there.
I mean, we're saved by the gospel if we keep in memory that gospel and keep in memory what was preached.
But the whole idea about these passages, and I'm going to kind of bring it up in the next passage and the last one that we're going to look at as far as when it comes to these if statements, these conditional statements, they're warnings.
They're just warnings. And we need, and we need to, we need, we do need to be on guard. We do need to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith.
We do need to, to look at our lives and see is there fruit growing on our tree? Is God doing something on, and is there fruit on the branches of the tree of our lives?
Paul says here that, that the gospel came, they received it, they stand in it. Well, if you forget it, if, if you let it go, if you don't live it, if you just jettison that, if you just don't hold to that, and you come up with your own type of philosophy or own type of what it means as far as your view of sanctification,
I can live the way that I want to live. It really doesn't matter if I live holy. It doesn't really matter if I go to church.
I mean, I've been saved by the grace of God. The blood of Jesus Christ covers me. I can just do whatever
I want to do. No. Because the gospel has claims upon us. There's claims that we are to be a people who live holy.
Hebrews 12, 14 says, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the
Lord. I mean, there, there needs to be this fruit. Jesus was teaching that. We have these conditional clauses here, and they can kind of cause a bit of a stir.
Notice this next one. I think it'll be even more clear, and I'll give them a complete explanation. I hope, hope here in Colossians chapter,
Colossians chapter one. Please turn there with me. Colossians one. In Colossians one, look in verse 21.
He's explaining their former life before they were saved. Here there were enemies of God, estranged from God.
Their mind was carnal. Notice verse 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled.
You were strangers from God. You didn't know God. You were enemies fighting against God.
Wicked works by your mind. Mind is just polluted, darkened. But now
God's reconciled you in the body of his flesh, speaking through death, speaking of the death of Jesus Christ.
We've been reconciled as once enemies. Now friends in the body of his flesh through death to present you in.
God's desire is to present us holy and unblameable and unapprovable in his sight.
And notice verse 23. If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, wherefore
I, Paul, am made a minister. That is a pretty strong statement.
This conditional clause here, this if clause. Paul is saying that. That you are a group of people that were lost.
Through the death of Christ, God has reconciled you, you are saved, and one day God is going to present you unapprovable in his sight to the glory of God if you stand fast in your faith.
Now what does that mean? I know what it doesn't mean. What do you think it doesn't mean?
That somebody would take this type of scripture and use it for? What would they try to teach here? That you could lose your salvation, right?
It's not teaching that. Because we know beyond a shadow of a doubt from all of the scripture that we look at that once you are saved by the powerful work of God, you are saved for eternity.
You receive everlasting life. How long is everlasting? It's everlasting. You have a work of God within your soul, the life of God within your flesh.
You are a Christian. You don't make yourself one. You don't work your way into being...
It's like we've had a lot of babies born in the church, right? The babies that are in the nursery, what do they have to do in order to make themselves a baby?
Or better yet, what do they have to do to keep themselves a baby? I mean, got any ideas? What do they have to do to keep themselves...
I mean, it's a rhetorical question. They don't do anything. They are a baby. They were born and they became a baby.
A human baby. And that's what they are. They don't do something in their lives...
Just because they drink a bottle doesn't keep them a baby. They are a baby. Just because they eat the food doesn't make them a baby.
They are one. And when it comes to someone who is born of God by the powerful work of God, when we are born again, when we are regenerated, there's nothing that we do to make ourselves children of God.
God does that. We're born from above. And there's nothing that we do... Just because you read your
Bible, does that make you a Christian or keep you a Christian? It doesn't. You are one. But because you are one, you will exhibit that fruit in your life.
It will be evident in your life. The baby will have all its characteristics and attributes. When we're sitting here in the service this morning, we'll probably hear some crying, some noises.
Or you'll hear it in the back. You'll hear the baby exhibit the fact that they have human life.
And as Christians, we will exhibit the characteristics that we have the life of God within our soul by the things that God is working in us.
But, on the other hand, it's our responsibility to persevere. And sometimes we can't reconcile that in our minds.
We can't think, how does that actually work? But we are to put one foot in front of the other and walk in the faith.
We ought to read our Scripture. We ought to memorize Scripture. We ought to meditate upon it. We are to attend church services to encourage one another and exhort each other to good behavior and to worship the
Lord. We ought to read and study our Bibles and to know what it is as far as how we're to obey
God and combat sin and preach the Gospel and all the things that we are to do as believers.
But, these types of verses here, like this in verse 23, Paul says, you are going to be presented unprovable and unreprovable and blameless in sight, in God's sight, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the
Gospel. Paul is not saying that they can lose their salvation here. What he is doing here is that this is a conditional statement and the
New Testament calls every believer to hold fast in our faith, like I said in Hebrews 10 .26,
hold fast the profession of your faith. And it comes to us as a warning not to fall away because we know that there are people, even in the parable that the
Lord Jesus taught, do you remember with the soil and the seed? He said there's some seed that is sown by the wayside, there's some that's sown upon the rock, there's some that's sown in the thorns and there's some that's sown in the good ground.
What happened to the ones in the wayside? The bird comes by.
Illustration, Satan comes, snatches the word away that a person has. And that's why it's so important, just this is an aside, this is a freebie, when
Pastor Mike or Pastor Steve is preaching this morning, you pray that God would just overshadow this place so that Satan would not come to distract somebody, to pluck the seed away.
I don't know if you've ever, it seems like sometimes when the message gets really pointed and it's about the gospel, and I'm not saying,
I won't even mention anything because I don't want anybody to get offended, but there's some type of disturbance many times.
Pray that the word of God would go out with power and people could hear it. What happened to the seed that went on the rock?
It grew up for a little while, right? Did it have an attribute or would you look at that person's life and think that they're a believer?
Well, on the outside, yes. But then, after a short period of time, dead.
It's gone. There's no more life. Same with the thorns and thistles. The cares of this world, take it away.
Nothing there. It's the good soil where it grew up. Is it possible for somebody to have a profession of faith and come in and join the church, have a ministry, and then a year later or two years later or whatever, walk away from it all?
It's sad, as sad as can be, but it's happened at BBC. And the warning comes to us, don't think we're something when we're nothing.
The warning comes to us as believers that we need to take heed. You look at somebody else who's fallen, take heed that we don't get into that pattern of sinful behavior or listen to that false teaching or associate ourselves with the wrong people or to allow our spiritual disciplines to decline with stopping the praying and the communion with the
Lord and the reading of the word of God because it's one step, another step, another step.
We need to be very careful. We need to guard where we are and be on our toes, so to speak, spiritually so that these types of warnings come to us.
They're a warning for us, and I have a note in my margin here, this warning, these types of pleas are among the means that God uses to secure our perseverance in the faith.
This statement shows the point that those who do fall away from Christ give conclusive evidence that they never truly were believers to begin with.
We need to persevere, and when we do persevere, it is an encouragement to others.
Is it important for us to stand fast? Yes. Can you think of the Apostle Paul's life and can you think of any people who may have been a discouragement to him in his ministry?
If you think at the end of one of his epistles, maybe, one of maybe the pastoral epistles at the end.
Demas. Demas was one. Is that who you were thinking of? John Mark was another one, and turn there if you would.
2 Timothy 4. I think we'll probably have to finish here. 2 Timothy 4.
Wow, 45 minutes goes fast. 2 Timothy 4. Look what
Paul wrote in verse 10. He's instructing
Timothy what to do near the end of this chapter. Verse 9. Do your diligence to come shortly to me.
Verse 10. For Demas has forsaken me. Demas abandoned me. Now, he didn't stand firm.
He didn't stand fast in the faith. He didn't guard himself. He was not careful.
He's one that abandoned Paul. Look what happened to him. Having loved this present world.
Elder Pretty T. Lack preached about that a few weeks ago, about 1 John 2, that we need to be a people who do not love this world neither the things that are in the world.
1 Timothy 6 says that if you let the love of money kind of come in, the love of that money, it can cause you to be shipwrecked in the faith if you have wrong passions towards things.
And Paul said he loved this present world and has departed to Thessalonica. Crescens in Galatia.
Crescens to Galatia. He's another one. And Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. He said only
Luke is here. He remained faithful. He remained steadfast. But this one's interesting.
So there are people... And as Paul's writing this, do you think it's having an impact on him?
When he's penning those words, do you think he just did it nonchalantly? Or do you think he penned that with a broken heart or maybe even with tears?
I think with tears. Demas has abandoned us. He's abandoned the faith.
And we do the same when someone does it in the church. We hate to see that. That's why we need to pray for each other, encourage each other, that we don't throw in the towel, that we don't raise the white flag.
No matter how difficult it gets, God is to be honored. Christ is worthy to be served no matter whatever comes our way.
And he says Demas is forsaken. Crescens and Titus. There's something going on here. Only Luke is with me in verse 11.
And then he says, take Mark and bring him with you for he's profitable to me for the ministry. I love that testimony there.
Because if you ever go back and look in Acts chapter 13, the first missionary journey of Paul, I think it's in the city of Perga.
The going got rough and John Mark got going.
He took off. He said I'm out of this missionary journey.
I didn't sign up for this. And he was gone. And it discouraged Paul so much that when they were going to go on their next journey that he would not take
John Mark with him. Barnabas did and he went with him. Paul took Silas. And what's so neat is is that it was proven that John Mark was not one who had jettisoned his faith totally.
He faltered at that point. But Barnabas worked with him and with his influence in his life, he was brought back to a place where he was.
Should be he was recovered. And Paul says bring him with you because he's profitable.
So yes, we do have an influence. And I think I'm just, I got to close here.
When Paul looked at this church, he knew that there could be trouble. He knew that he was desiring that Satan hadn't come in and his work wasn't in vain or useless and unprofitable.
He sent Timothy and he got a good report. And that report just settled him, just comforted him and just encouraged him.
And I want you to go away this morning thinking people are watching me as a believer in this church.
Not only is the world watching me, but believers are watching me. And my life, my testimony, my steadfastness, my abiding in the
Word of God, my abiding in the Lord, my remaining in the vine is crucial in a human perspective.
Our part of our responsibility under the grace and the sovereignty of God, how God is working, it's very, very important for us to maintain a strong testimony and keep on keeping on no matter how difficult it gets because we impact one another.
And we can encourage each other. And that's body life. That's the family of God. That's New Testament church living.
That is why it's so crucial for us to understand that we're not islands unto ourselves. There are no lone ranger
Christians here. There's no such thing as that. You can't do that. We influence each other. We're part of a body.
My wife and I, our feet, our ankles have been talking to us for weeks. And we know that we have feet and ankles.
And as insignificant of a part of your body that it is, where we broke them or messed them up, they're talking to us.
And you can do it even with a hangnail, a little teeny part of your... We're all so closely connected and it's very important and we influence each other.
We need each other. And I want to encourage you to stand firm, to stand fast in the faith and I don't know, sometimes the message like this gets preached and something could be coming your way that is very difficult and the
Lord just wants to prepare you out of His goodness and His kindness. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time.
We praise you for your work in our lives that you cause us to persevere.
You give us the grace and strength to do that. And yet, in your word, you have given us the responsibility to wrestle, to fight, to labor, to walk, to run, to study, to pray, to live unto our
God. And we ask that we might do it to the glory and praise of Jesus, even this week and even this day.