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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/kent-hendrickson/stand-fast/
Turn with me, please, to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. I have a word on my mind that perhaps will tie together much of what we have heard today. It's a word that is translated by two words in our authorized version, but it is just one Greek word.
It's the thought of stand fast, stand fast. And we've had many exhortations in the various ministries today to hold on to the truth. And it's vital. And that's the thought of stand fast. Occurs eight times in the New Testament.
I want to, if time permits, look at six of the references to stand fast. First of all, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 13, Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity.
Stand fast in the faith. Well, there is a definite article there, and I take that as the same thing that Jude speaks of when he says to earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
We have in our hands the contents of the faith as far as divine truth. There are no new revelations. Don't imbibe anything that's not found, taught in the Word of God. We've had good, wholesome teaching regarding the Lord's Supper.
And we've pointed out that there are some interpretations that don't stand the test of Scripture. But in all things, we are to stand fast in the faith, which has been once for all delivered to us as the saints of God.
What a privilege to have the Word of God, the very communication of God. It's not the Word of men. It is the Word of God, and we should handle that Word faithfully. He that hath my Word, let him speak it faithfully.
Dreamers may dream their dreams, but he that hath God's Word, let him speak it faithfully. And we have had faithful words today that would stir us up, that would exhort us, that would encourage us, but stand fast in the faith.
Learn the Word of God. Learn it from godly men who understand its truth. Be careful where you get your truth, because there's a lot out there that will not stand the test of the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
And so as Paul closes this first epistle to the Corinthians, stand fast in the faith. Let's turn over to Galatians chapter 5. Chapter 4 has spoken about two systems, a system of bondage and a system of liberty in Christ.
And so he comes to chapter 5, verse 1, stand fast, therefore, I'm going to bring out this word in the future references as well, whenever you see a therefore or a wherefore, ask yourself, what it is there for?
There's always context, it's important to know the context, and it's very helpful in interpretation to know what we're talking about. But since we have been delivered from the bondage of law, we have been called into liberty, and so we are to stand fast, therefore, because we have been delivered, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Stand fast in liberty, it's a word that's easy to abuse. You will hear much said from time to time about, well, I have liberty to do that. We have liberty only as far as the Word of God allows. We do not have the right to choose the extent of our liberty.
We are not under the bondage of law in any way, shape, or form. It is neither a way of salvation nor a rule of life as such, but the Word of God is our guide, and we need to understand its principles, its precepts, its instructions.
The Lord Jesus said, if ye love me, keep my commandments. There are commandments today, they're not graven in stone, they are written on the fleshy tables of the heart. What our Lord desires, would we not desire to do what he would have us do?
And so, there were those abusing the law, particularly in Galatians, but then we get to Philippians and other passages, and there are those abusing liberty. And they're using it just as an occasion to the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.
And brethren, that sells. That will fill your megachurch. If you just say, oh, we have liberty here, you come as you are, you do what you want. God accepts all sorts of people. Some are not quite as good as others, but God loves us all, and it's all the same.
No. We are under obedience to Christ, and yet we need to maintain the principle of liberty. Think of the Apostle Paul. If meat make my brother to offend, I'll eat no wheat meat while the world stands.
Chapter 14 of Romans, he had said that, I know that nothing is unclean of itself, but if it's unclean to someone else, if our application of what we call liberty is going to cause someone else to stumble, then we do not have the liberty to do that.
We are very selfish at times. I want to do this, and I have liberty to do this, but we might very well know that it's going to stumble someone else. There are many different convictions among the saints of God, and I use that term conviction perhaps a little loosely, but some things are just preferences.
We need to be careful of that. But there have been godly saints who have walked a lifetime in the obedience to the conscience they had in regard to certain truths, and now all of a sudden, oh, we have liberty to just throw that out.
There's nothing in the Bible that really commands that. But if you know that godly saints feel very strongly about this, would it not be better for us to forego our liberty for the benefit of others? Paul had the liberty to take money from the Corinthians, from the Thessalonians, and he defends that liberty.
The Lord has ordained himself that they that preach the gospel shall live the gospel. Nevertheless, I won't use that liberty. So we want to stand for the principle of liberty. Don't try to bring people under bondage by setting man-made rules and regulations.
Defend the principle of liberty, but liberty has its limits, limited by the teaching of the word of God. Let's go to Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1, verse 27. Only let your conversation, your manner of life, be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Standing fast in unity in the gospel. I would say from many years of experience now that that has been such a tremendous blessing in this area of Wisconsin and in the Midwest, a love for the gospel.
Some of us had the privilege of knowing Paul the Eliotan. Some of those gospelers in the early days of our Christian experience, maybe even those who brought the gospel to us, they lived the gospel, they breathed the gospel, they preached the gospel.
Sometimes anything beyond the gospel was beyond them, but there was a liberty and a desire for the gospel to be preached, and it has been a preservative to us. When saints are striving together for the faith of the gospel, united in that desire to see souls saved, it is good to hear the heartfelt prayers for Robert Mick's stepdaughters, for the many that are still in their sins, and we all have loved ones who need salvation, and it is a joy to a parent's heart to hear someone on a prayer meeting night or whatever pray for their children by name, to realize we're not alone in this.
Many are going through the same trials, but they're standing fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, unity in the gospel. When there are gospel meetings, how well do we support them?
How well do we pray for them? Of an appreciated prayers that are made for gospel meetings, Vancouver, that's a long ways away, we'll never get to that. It doesn't matter. There are souls there that need to be saved, and God is going to have heaven filled with people that are out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and so God desires that the gospel be preached to every creature.
It's something worth standing fast in our desire for blessing in the gospel. And brethren, God is able. Yes, maybe we've waited years. Maybe we'll go home to glory without seeing an answer, but God still is saving souls.
There's still opportunity. Never give up on God. Turn over to chapter 4. I'm going to read two verses at the end of Philippians chapter 3, and then I'm going to read verse 1 of chapter 4. I'm going to read the two verses before it because chapter 4 begins with therefore.
So if I start just right there, I'm kind of missing, what's it there for? Okay. So Philippians chapter 3, verse 20, for our conversation, now this is different than our manner of life. This is our citizenship.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, oh, what a prospect, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. We're going to read this same expression, stand fast in the Lord, in another reference.
But here we can see from reading the context that it is stand fast in the Lord in view of his coming, and us being changed to be like him. Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
I trust that every one of us live daily in the anticipation of his coming, and the changes that are going to take place in that day can't be enumerated, they can't be explained. It doesn't appear yet.
We can't, for these mortal minds, comprehend what it will be like to see him and to be like him. And even our very bodies, instruments that we have used as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, now we've been delivered from the dominion of sin.
We've been made servants to God, and we can use these bodies as instruments of righteousness for God. But on that day, yet saved to sin no more, he'll change this body of humiliation. It is a body that is so prone to disease, to pain, to suffering, for all the things that God is someday going to be wiping away.
No more death, neither sighing nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. That's the prospect for us, brethren. Therefore, stand fast in the Lord. He's coming.
He is going to fulfill every promise that he has made. We're here for just a little while, and then it's forever with the Lord. What a prospect, I say. Stand fast in the Lord. In ourselves, we don't stand too fast.
Our brethren, myself included, would confess publicly that we're up and down. Good days were top of the world, bad days were down in the dumps. One day we've got energy to do a lot, and then when we analyze it, it's really my attitude that's changed.
It's not the circumstances, it's just the attitude. One day I'm full of expectation, and the next day I'm filled with doubt and fear. We can stand fast in the Lord. Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday and today and forever, he will not, he cannot change, and he cannot deny himself.
He has pledged to bring us safe to glory. We have not only one who died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried, but one who was raised again from the dead, and who has been exalted to the right hand of God, and he ever lives to make intercession for us.
And he's able to succor them that are tempted in all the trials of life. He is able. Stand fast in the Lord. Whenever we start looking too much at ourselves, we're looking in the wrong place. Lift our eyes, lift our thoughts.
Stand fast in the Lord. Let's turn over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, again I'm going to read a little bit of context to help us understand this verse. We are in 1 Thessalonians in the assembly Bible study and enjoying it very much.
You can see that Paul poured his heart into the work at Thessalonica. The people became dear to him, and he was dear to them. He had cherished them as a nurse, a nursing mother cherished her children.
He had instructed them as a father instructs his children, and then due to circumstances he was forced to leave them suddenly. And he feels that he has left them inadequately prepared for the trials that they are facing.
He hears of their trials and his heart is burdened. Are they standing fast? Are they holding up under the trial? Or because of my lack of ability or time to instruct them, is the devil getting the advantage to discourage them from the faith?
All this believing in Jesus stuff is bad business. You don't want this. Look, you were happy before in your sins, now you've believed in Christ and everything's gone wrong. So he sends, but let's read here from chapter 3, verse 5.
For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. But now when Timotheus came from you unto us and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you, therefore, brethren, we are comforted over you in all our afflictions and distress by your faith.
For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. It's quite an expression, but it's almost as if he couldn't bear to live if they didn't stand fast in the Lord. John could say, I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in the truth.
Do we really appreciate and encourage those who go on standing fast in the faith, standing fast in the Lord, confident? This conference has just, I think, inspired us all, or should have at least have confidence in the Lord.
And that's what Paul is so joyous to hear. They were standing fast in the Lord. Their faith was not failing. Despite of the opposition and the persecution, they are appreciating Christ. They are appreciating the message they have heard and they have believed that has given them eternal life.
And so he got great joy. Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. Cleave to the Lord. All else may fail, but the Lord will never fail. One last reading in 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Again, we have a therefore in the verse that I want to get to, but let's start reading at verse 12, rather, verse 13.
2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Stand fast and hold the traditions. But what is the basis for standing fast and holding the traditions?
Because God has chosen us and he has called us and he has saved us. Does that not call for a response from our hearts? Again, the words of the Lord Jesus, if ye love me, keep my commandments. The traditions that are recorded in the word of God are not the traditions of men.
Yes, there are traditions of men. Pharisees were great at traditions of men. The Lord Jesus was ruthless in showing them. That has no basis in Scripture. That is bogus entirely. But there are traditions.
In the context in this epistle, a tradition that he mentions is the fact of laboring with our own hands to provide for our needs. There were some who were idle, busybodies, and his command is, if a man won't work, neither should he eat.
No time for slothfulness. No time for mooching off fellow believers or anyone else. Honest labor is God's ordinary ordained means for provision. There are exceptions and we are to remember the poor. We should be forward to do so.
But in view of what God has done for us, stand fast and hold the traditions. If you are aware that the word in 1 Corinthians 11 where it says keep the ordinances is actually keep the traditions. So the sister's head covering is the divine tradition.
And my, it's offensive to a lot of people. It draws the sneers of so many that profess Christ. Oh, if any man seems contentious, we have no such custom. In other words, oh, Paul was just wasting your time talking about that.
No, no, no. I was just saying, if you're going to stand out as different, you don't have a leg to stand on. Because there is no tradition of women being in assembly gatherings with their heads uncovered.
The long hair will be included. The breaking of bread. It's not just something we do in our circle of fellowship. It is a divine commandment, a divine tradition. And so we should stand fast in everything that we have been taught from God's blessed book.
Stand fast in the faith. Stand fast in the Lord. We can't go wrong.