Spiritual Stability - Nathan Rages

Well, let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

how good it is

to be gathered with the saints

on the Lord's day.

To be able to look around the room

and even though I don't know
a lot of people here,

to know that I belong

among the saints;

that I'm part of Your people.

Lord, we're glad to be gathered

among the precious saints of God.

We're glad to worship
the Lord Jesus Christ today.

We're glad to lift up His name.

We're glad to exult

in the gospel of our salvation.

We thank You for the blood

and righteousness of the Lord Jesus

in which we place our only hope

for time and eternity.

Lord, we thank You for Your
Word that You've given us.

And we thank You for the Holy Spirit.

And we pray for the
help of the Spirit today

that the Spirit may apply the Word;

that He might give us understanding;

that He might open our eyes

to spiritual reality in some way.

Lord, for each one, that
You'd have something for us

from this particular hour.

Oh Father,

our eyes are upon You,

and our confidence is in You today.

Glorify Thyself, we ask.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Well, I remember back,
I guess a few months ago

when things started brewing

between Evan and Charity.

I did have the thought:

"Well, maybe this will be the year

we'll finally make it down
and visit San Antonio."

And sure enough, in the
providence of God, here we are.

So glad to be able to be here today.

To be among you precious
brothers and sisters

to worship the Lord Jesus.

I suspect most of us here would
say that we're Christians.

And so, I'd ask you that are Christians

to participate in a little exercise

with me this morning,
right at the beginning.

Over here, I know you all
have a screen used for songs.

Imagine that projected on that screen

was a chart of your Christian life.

On the left side, beginning
when you were converted

all the way over to the
right side being today.

And there's a squiggly line on there

representing your sanctification.

Your growth in grace.

Your relationship with the
Lord Jesus over time.

I'm asking you to
imagine that for yourself.

Everybody's got a different chart, right?

Our lives have been unique -

our walk with the Lord.

What does your chart
look like this morning?

What does your chart look like?

Now some of you are going to have a line

that just kind of steadily
goes up over time.

That's really great!

Praise the Lord if that's the case.

Some of you might have a chart
where the line starts upward

for a little ways,

and then just falls off
the table and disappears.

That's really bad.

You're probably not even
a Christian in that case.

But then I suspect a
bunch of us have a chart

where the line is really jagged.

It's up and down, and up
and down, up and down.

Peaks and valleys, hit and miss,

herky-jerky.

Wild, volatile swings.

At times, you're a blazing
fireball of zeal for Jesus,

and other times

you're down in the dumps of depression

and disobedience and unbelief.

Or just think about, more recently
in your Christian life.

Just think the last year or two.

How consistent has your walk with
the Lord been recently?

I want to speak to you this morning
on the subject of spiritual stability.

Or the long title would be:

"The Underappreciated
Virtue of Spiritual Stability."

Stability in the Christian life.

I mean we usually appreciate steadiness,

consistency, stability,

in other areas of life, don't we?

We like to have a spouse

that's really stable and loyal

from day to day.

We like to have co-workers at our
jobs that are that way.

That are consistent,
steady, reliable, stable.

We even appreciate this
in ball-players, don't we?

That they're stable and consistent.

You know, just a few years ago we lauding

Cal Ripken Jr. and then Brett Favre

for their steaks of
consecutive games played.

Just the fact they played so
many games in a row.

That was a big deal.

We appreciate it in those fields.

This message is about
how we should strive

for those same qualities

in our Christian walk.

Let me describe a certain type of brother,

I imagine you have many in the church

here in San Antonio.

He's a brother that seems
like a pretty ordinary man.

An ordinary sort of job.

Ordinary sort of family.

He's a guy who does not
do open-air preaching.

He is not a foreign missionary.

He's not a theology expert.

He maybe doesn't say a whole lot

in your church meetings even.

But listen.

Listen, this brother,

he reads his well-marked
Bible through every year.

Every morning, you can
find him alone with God

pouring out his heart in prayer.

He shows up at just about every
single church meeting

he can possibly be at.

He wants to be there!

He wants to be an
encouragement to the brethren

without causing trouble.

He's generous, he's helpful

in every way he can be.

His family is a joy to be around!

He walks with God with a clear conscience

from day to day.

I tell you there is glory

in that ordinary brother's life.

There is great grace from God in his life.

What is it? He's stable.

He's consistent.

He's pressing on!
He's enduring.

He's running the race

with endurance to the end.

That's what we're talking about today.

Praise God for that grace!

Some of you here

are maybe like that brother.

Maybe some of you
are actually discouraged;

actually thinking,

"Well, this year looks an
awful lot like last year.

There's not a lot of big
things changing here!"

Well, maybe this message
can encourage you.

It's a good thing to be stable

in your walk with Jesus.

Or maybe the other hand,

some of you here are unstable unbelievers.

Maybe everything spiritual for you

is all hit and miss, herky-jerky.

Up and down, hot and cold, inconsistent.

And you realize,
"Yeah, that's a need in my life!"

Well, we're going to talk about
some ways to get better at that -

to become a more stable Christian,

in you're walk with the Lord.

So, there's just so much Scripture on this

and you start looking for it,
it's like, there's all these different

Bible verses really pointing
at this basic thought.

But, I'm just going to look today with
you at a few Scriptures

and along the way I want to point out

seven characteristics
of stable Christians.

So let's start by turning to Psalm 1.

The first psalm. Psalm 1:1.

"How blessed is the man

who does not walk in
the counsel of the wicked,

nor stand in the path of sinners,

nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the Lord.

and in His law, he
meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree,

firmly planted by streams of water

which yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

And in whatever he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so.

But they are like chaff,
which the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will
not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the
assembly of the righteous,

for the Lord knows
the way of the righteous,

but the path of the wicked will perish."

So the righteous man here is
described in verse 3 as what?

He's described as a tree -

a tree planted by streams of water.

A tree with roots that go down

into that perpetually moist soil

around that stream.

He's always nourished from that water

that's coming past all the time.

He is stable and he's thriving there!

By contrast, we have
the wicked in verse 4.

It says, "They're like the chaff

that the wind drives away."

What a picture. Just little dry husks.

The wind just drives it away.

It's a contrast, isn't it?

Between the stability of the
righteous man, like the tree,

and the chaos of the lost man.

If you are not a Christian today,
this is how God pictures your life!

This is reality for you!

You're like chaff that
the wind drives away.

There is no stability
outside of Jesus Christ.

That's the big problem in your life!

You need to know Jesus!

You need to become a Christian.

And turn from your sin,

put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can be like this tree.

Well, what can we learn from this picture

then about spiritual stability?

Well, the first thing to point out

is that stable Christians are fruitful.

Stable Christians are fruitful.

This tree isn't just there,

but it's a fruitful tree, right?

Verse 3 says,

"It yields its fruit in its season."

And then it says, "In whatever he does,

he prospers."

So, there's life. There's growth.

There's fruitfulness.

There's progress happening

in the life of this saint.

Fruitfulness. What does fruitfulness

look like in our lives as believers?

I assume the first text we
think of in that regard

is Galatians 5.

The fruit of the Spirit, right?

These character qualities

that the Spirit produces within believers.

The fruit of the Spirit is love,

joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control.

The stable Christian

will be producing more love,

more joy, more peace, and so on.

Will be producing these
character qualities

in their life.

But you know, it's also biblical

to think of our fruitfulness

in terms of what we do;

in terms of our service to the Lord -

what we do for Him.

The Apostle Paul says in
1 Corinthians 15:58 -

that last verse in that long chapter -

he says, "Therefore, my brothers,

be steadfast, immovable,

always abounding in the work of the Lord."

You see how he combines the two thoughts

of stability on the one hand

and fruitfulness on the other.

Be steadfast and immovable

that you might be abounding

in the work of the Lord.

You see at times ministry,

at times service to the Lord,

there's times it's not as fun

as other times.

There's times where
you're discouraged, right?

And you think, what's the use?

Why are we messing around with this?

And you start casting your eyes about

at different greener pastures perhaps.

Well, very often, the right
answer is just be stable.

Just be where you're at.

Just be fruitful right there

where God has you in that place.

I thought too of this application.

And I don't know how it
is here in your church,

but I know in many churches,

there's some young men

that have thoughts -

I was in this spot once -

have these thoughts about,

maybe I'm going to be
a preacher someday.

Maybe the Lord is calling me

to some kind of ministry work

in the future.

If you're in that spot;

if anybody's here in that spot,

my question to you, brother,

is how stable is your Christian life?

How stable is your basic walk

with the Lord Jesus?

If it's all up and down;

if it's unstable,

you're not going to be
producing much fruit.

And that instability of your life

is going to hold you back

from doing all this stuff for the Lord

that you imagine yourself doing.

It's going to hold you back way more

than your Greek skills will hold you back

or your ability to cobble
together a sermon

will hold you back.

Is your walk with the Lord stable?

Is it consistent?

Is it solid like this fruitful tree here?

Well, the second thing we see here

about stable Christians

is that they avoid bad influences.

You see that in verse 1.

It says, "How blessed is the man

who does not walk in the
counsel of the wicked,

or stand in the path of sinners,

or sit in the seat of scoffers."

You see, if you want to be a stable,

fruitful Christian,

you've got to be careful

about who is influencing you.

We are all affected by
the people around us,

the friends we have,

the things we're listening to,

the things we're taking in from the media,

the entertainment stuff

that we're into,

the websites we read.

We're affected by all these things.

The Bible talks about it a bunch of places

and it can affect the stability

of your walk with the Lord.

If you've got bad influences,

it can cause you to doubt God.

It can cause you to become discontent.

It can defile your
conscience with foul stuff.

It can cause a worldly way of thinking

to begin to influence you

and change how you think

about spiritual things.

It makes a difference for us.

You start to lose touch
with spiritual reality

and before long,

the chart over there
kind of takes a nosedive.

Why? You're hanging out
with scoffers too much.

It's affecting you.

And so in order to become
more spiritually stable,

you might have to cut off certain things -

certain habits where you say

this is not good for my soul.

I need to change this.

And so you maybe lay aside -

maybe you have to lay aside some friends

or some of the media you consume.

Of course, we want to be
evangelizing lost people.

That's what people say.

I want to witness to my lost friends.

And of course, we want to be doing that.

Jesus hung out with sinners

that He might witness to them.

The crucial thing is who is
influencing who in this deal.

Be careful.

Maybe scoffers are
influencing you too much

rather than vice versa.

There's actually a similar thought to this

over in Proverbs 24:21.

It says, "My son, fear
the Lord and the king.

Do not associate with those

who are given to change."

Interesting verse.

Do not associate with those

given to change.

Who are these people given to change?

Well, it's unstable people.

It's up and down people.

Have you noticed this often?

That unstable people tend to gravitate

towards other unstable people?

And they don't help each other very much.

It's so much better;

so much better if the shaky person

would seek out the solid, mature saints,

like that brother I
described at the beginning.

Maybe he's not the
coolest guy in the church,

but if you'd seek him out;

if you'd hang out with him,

you could learn a lot.

He'd be really good for your soul

in a lot of ways.

A third thing about stable Christians

is that they are consistent

in spiritual disciplines.

Look at verse 2.

It says of this stable saint,

it says, "his delight is
in the law of the Lord

and in His law, he
meditates day and night."

This guy's in the Bible, isn't he?

He's in the Bible.

I mean, we're happy to get somebody

reading the Bible once a day.

This guy's in it day and night.

I mean, his life is saturated

with the Scriptures.

Now, there are Christians -

maybe there's some even here -

who if you had to give a report publicly

of your Bible reading over the last year,

you'd be ashamed.

You'd be ashamed for others to know

your own Bible reading.

Maybe you go days at a time

and don't read anything at all.

And maybe it's just
kind of this haphazard,

just sort of jump around
here and there in the Word.

I was that way for awhile in my life.

I know there were seasons like that.

And you know what was
going on during those seasons?

The chart was looking real bad.

It was going down.

When you're inconsistent in the Word,

it's like everything else suffers.

Brethren, there's some of you

that haven't read certain wonderful books

of the Old Testament

since the Bush Administration
or something.

There's wonderful things in that Bible.

If we don't see them regularly,

we forget they're there.

There's just riches in God's Word.

But look at this guy in Psalm 1.

It's not just that he's disciplined,

but he's also delighting, right?

Those are the two things
you have to hold on to, right?

Both discipline and delight.

Verse 2, "his delight

is in the law of the Lord."

How is it that he's able
to enjoy the Bible?

It says, "in His law, he
meditates day and night."

I think that's the key to it.

He's meditating on the Word.

He's not just grinding along.

"I'm going to read my two chapters today."

Not just reading across
the tops of the words,

like we often do,

but he's meditating on the Word.

He's stopping. He's praying over it.

He's seeking to apply it to himself.

He's seeking to obey the Word of God.

He's meditating on it,

and it's become his delight now.

And now he can't get enough of it.

He's soaking in the Word day and night.

It's a wonderful picture here.

The daily feeding on Scripture.

It's like the streams of water

that keep supplying this tree

that's planted by the stream.

Now, I know Psalm 1 here -

it's just talking about
consistency in the Bible,

but could we broaden
the application a little bit

and just include spiritual
disciplines generally?

I assume you guys are familiar

with Don Whitney's book
on spiritual disciplines?

Really, a fine, helpful work.

I think he covers like
a dozen things in there.

I mean, who's going to keep
track of a dozen things?

I tend to talk about three things

with the guys in our church,

if you'll do these three things,

you're probably going
to be pretty solid:

Bible, prayer, and church.
Bible, prayer, and church.

If you're in the Bible every day,

if you have a time of private prayer -

real private prayer,

not just saying a couple
sentences in the car,

but real private prayer with God -

and then thirdly, if you're involved

in church life an a thorough,

healthy way,

if you do those three things consistently,

you'll probably grow like crazy.

There's great grace that comes

through just doing
the basic means of grace

that God has given to us.

So, anyway, this fellow in Psalm 1,

he's consistent in
the spiritual disciplines.

A fourth thing about stable Christians

is that they can
handle the trials of life.

And I get that from verse 3

where it says that,

"its leaf does not wither."

Its leaf does not wither.

So picture this time of terrible drought

in the land,

and all around this tree,

there are plants that are withering.

There are even trees that
are dropping their leaves

and about to die.

It's a bad scene out there.

And then you look over at this tree

by the water,

and he's still doing just fine.

His leaves aren't dropping.

His leaves aren't even withering.

He's continuing to thrive

in the midst of the drought.

There in Jeremiah,

the prophet uses a really
similar picture to this.

I'll just read it - Jeremiah 17:7.

He says, "Blessed is the man

who trusts in the Lord,

for he will be like a tree
planted by the water

that extends its roots by a stream

and will not fear when the heat comes,

but its leaves will be green;

it will not be anxious
in a year of drought

nor cease to yield fruit."

That's it exactly.

The tree that's stable

can handle the drought;

can handle the hard times,

the trials of life.

See, spiritual stability is not the idea

of, well, I'm doing okay now,

and I'll do okay as long
as nothing bad happens.

See, that won't get you very far

because bad stuff is going to happen.

It's promised to us.

There will be tribulation.

There will be hard trials.

A verse on that - 1 Thessalonians 3:3.

Paul says, "that no man may be

disturbed by these afflictions,

for you yourselves know

we've been destined for this."

He says you've been destined - for what?

Destined for afflictions.

He says I'm telling you this so that

you'll not be disturbed by them;

you'll not be destabilized

by the afflictions when they come.

I'm telling you in advance,

you're destined for this

that the Lord might sustain you

when it arises.

You see this sometimes though.

Somebody seems to be a Christian;

they seem to be doing okay,

but some crisis happens.

Something happens in their family.

Something happens with their kids

or their job or something,

and it's like they just fall apart.

You know, they start missing meetings,

stop communicating, become distant

and disappear.

It doesn't have to be that way.

Psalm 55:22 is such a wonderful promise.

Do you know this promise?

It says, "Cast your burden upon the Lord

and He will sustain you.

He will never allow the righteous

to be shaken."

So here's this burden, right?

Here's this problem

that is weighing down on you.

What does it say to do?

It says cast your burden upon the Lord.

Put it upon Him.

Lord, You take it.

I can't handle this, Lord.
I'm putting it on You.

I'm trusting You with this.

And then the promise

that He'll not allow
you to be shaken by it;

the promise that He will sustain you

in that trial.

Stability, consistency, fruitfulness

can continue right through the trial.

And you know how it is
with many Christians.

Their life becomes sweeter

and more fruitful

as they go through hard things.

There's more glory to God

coming from those times.

God is sustaining them.

Similar verse - Psalm 112:6

says, "For he will never be shaken;

the righteous will be remembered forever.

He will not fear evil tidings.

His heart is steadfast
trusting in the Lord.

His heart is upheld.

He will not fear."

Just saying it again and again,

God will sustain you.

You don't have to be shaken by this.

You can be steadfast and stable

through the trial

because God is sustaining you in it.

That's spiritual stability.

That's encouraging, isn't it.

So that's four things from this psalm,

but I'd like to add a few more thoughts

if I could from the New Testament

and kind of build this
out a little further.

A fifth thing that we see -

a fifth characteristic
of stable Christians

is that they embrace sound doctrine.

Stable Christians embrace sound doctrine.

Truth is a big deal.

Maybe we could turn in the New Testament

to Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4 is talking about

at the beginning of the chapter

about how Christ has given gifts

to all these preachers

for the building up of the body of Christ

that we might become a mature man,

it says in verse 13.

And then the next verse, verse 14,

he says, "As a result..."

So, as a result of these ministries

of teaching and proclaiming truth to us,

enabling us to become mature -

as a result of that,

Ephesians 4:14,

"We are no longer to be children

tossed here and there by waves

and carried about

by every wind of doctrine,

by the trickery of men,

by craftiness in deceitful scheming.

But speaking the truth in love,

we are to grow up in all aspects

into Him who is the Head,

even Christ."

What imagery this is in verse 14!

Children, tossed here and there by waves;

carried about by every wind of doctrine.

I picture little kids in a rubber raft

out in some storm at sea or something.

It just is this horrible, scary position.

I mean, they're just
being blown everywhere.

They can't do anything about it.

They're up and down
and all over the place.

And there's people
whose lives are that way

because they're not grounded in truth.

See, the issue here is truth.

It's sound teaching.

It's truth that will settle us down

and make us stable.

Hebrews 13:9 says,

"Do not be carried away

by varied and strange teachings."

Carried away.

Drawn off course by varied

and strange teachings.

Have you met a Christian before

that seems pretty solid,

seems to love the Lord a lot,

but they have this strange teaching?

It's like there's this one
thing that's just weird

that they're into.

And that one thing never
helps them, does it?

They think it's a big deal,

but it's not helping them.

It's drawing them off course.

It's getting them away from
the things that matter -

Christ and Him crucified,

the gospel essentials.

Varied and strange teaching.

When the Apostle Peter warns

about false teachers, he says

in 2 Peter 2 - he says that they entice

unstable souls.

He says false teachers are actually

looking for unstable people

and they prey upon them.

So the person that's unstable

because they don't have truth,

now the false teacher comes after you

and now you get worse.

It's like this downward spiral into error.

Fearful picture.

Peter says something
similar in the next chapter.

We probably ought to turn over to this.

This is 2 Peter 3:15.

2 Peter 3:15.

So here Peter is talking about

these letters from our
beloved brother Paul.

And he mentions in verse 16

that in his letters are some things

hard to understand,

and we know what he's talking about there.

We've encountered some of those things

in Paul's letters that are
hard to understand.

But what he has to
say is really very serious.

It says, "Which the untaught

and unstable distort."

Untaught and unstable.

That always goes together -

just about always goes
together, doesn't it?

Untaught people tend
to be unstable people.

And what do they do?

Well, the verb is distort.

They distort those difficult things

as they do also the
rest of the Scriptures.

So, they're distorting Scripture.

The untaught person;

the spiritually unstable person;

the person not grounded in truth,

they're distorting the Bible.

They're taking it out of its
proper proportion, right?

They're majoring on minor stuff often.

And it's like why do you
think that's a big deal?

Can't you see the big
picture looks like this?

It's distorted. It's twisted.

But the consequence
of this is big, isn't it?

It says, "to their own destruction,"

at the end of verse 16.

It's not just their
theology's a little wrong,

but no, they can be destroyed

for distorting the Scripture,

not understanding truth.

And then he goes on in verse 17,

"you therefore, beloved,

knowing this beforehand,

be on your guard."

He says we need to be careful about this.

"Being carried away by the error

of unprincipled men,

you fall from your own steadfastness."

It's like you think you're solid.

You think you're doing well now.

Well, just be careful,

you don't get enticed

by some of this false teaching out here

and you lose your own steadfastness.

You can be steadfast and then lose it

when you get into error.

That's what he's warning against.

So truth matters, right,

you cannot separate good doctrine

from right living.

The more grounded in truth you are

the more stable and consistent

your Christian life ought to be.

Well, that leads us to a sixth thing

about stable Christians,

and that is that stable Christians

resist the devil

with the whole armor of God.

Stable Christians will resist the devil

through the whole armor of God.

See, there's things that come at us

to try to destabilize us.

So false teaching tries to do that.

Trials seek to do that.

Well, here's one more. Here's the devil.

The devil's coming at us

to try to destabilize us;
to knock us down;

to make the chart go crazy.

Ephesians 6. Let's just
read that paragraph

about the armor.

Ephesians 6, and as we read this,

I want you to look for all the references

to stability in these familiar verses.

Ephesians 6:10, he says,

"Finally, be strong in the Lord..."

Be strong.

"...And in the strength of His might.

Put on the full armor of God

that you may be able to stand firm..."

There's the stability term.

"...Stand firm against the
schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers,
against the powers,

against the world forces
of this darkness,

against spiritual forces
of wickedness

in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the full armor of God

that you may be able
to resist in the evil day

having done everything to stand firm.

Stand firm therefore,

having girded your loins with truth;

having put on the
breastplate of righteousness;

having shod your feet with the preparation

of the gospel of peace,

in addition to all,

taking up the shield of faith

with which you'll be able to extinguish

all the flaming missiles of the evil one.

And take the helmet of salvation

and the sword of the Spirit

which is the Word of God."

So the devil is constantly attacking us.

He's trying to destabilize us with lies,

with slanders, with temptations,

with all sorts of unbelieving
thoughts and ideas.

However he can get those into our heads.

Ultimately, he's trying
to make us casualties.

He's trying to get
you off the battlefield.

He's trying to destroy your soul.

Christ on the other hand,

He wants us to stand firm

against the devil's schemes.

To resist. Resist him.

Resist the doubts and temptations.

How are we going to do that?

Verse 13, "Take up the full armor of God."

The full armor.

I emphasize that "full" part.

We're not going to go through,

we don't have time to go through

each of the parts of the
armor that he mentions here.

The point is that God has
given us the equipment.

God has given us sufficient means

whereby we don't have
to be exposed to him.

When somebody keeps being attacked

by the devil and brought down,

it's often the case that they're just not

applying the spiritual armor.

They're leaving themselves exposed somehow

and the devil's going
right after that thing

again and again.

They're in trouble.

Their life is unstable as a result.

God's armor is sufficient to protect us;

to enable us to stand firm.

He's provided all the means necessary,

but it's up to us to put on the armor.

That's what it says.
You've got to do something here.

You've got to apply this.

You've got to put it on yourself.

You've got to walk in this reality.

And if we do, we'll stand firm.

We can stand firm against him.

We can resist the devil

and he'll flee from us, it says.

Very encouraging words.

We can resist him

through the armor that He's given us.

So six things so far
about stable Christians.

We'll see if I can remember them.

The first is that stable
Christians are fruitful.

They're fruitful.

You might think of stability

as being something kind of boring.

You think a person that's real stable,

I bet they're not really
accomplishing much for God.

No, just the opposite.

The stable Christian is going to be

the one abounding in fruitfulness.

He's going to be the productive Christian.

So fruitfulness is first off.

Secondly, stable Christians avoid

bad influences.

They're not hanging out
with scoffers all the time

and being brought down by that.

Thirdly, stable Christians are consistent

in their spiritual disciplines.

Just read your Bible and pray every day.

Just that kind of stuff.

Fourthly, stable Christians can handle

the trials of life without
being destroyed by it;

without being brought down by it.

Fifthly, stable Christians embrace

sound doctrine.

You've got to have truth

if you're going to stand firm.

Then sixthly here, stable Christians

resist the devil through
the whole armor of God

that He's provided.

And that leaves us with one more.

Stable Christians make it to heaven.

Stable Christians will make it to heaven.

I want you to be clear.

I'm not preaching about these things

just so your pastors will
have an easier time

counseling you in your life.

Though it may have that effect.

But I'm talking about these things

because they're essential

for you making it to heaven at all.

Without this stability,

I doubt whether we can make it.

If the chart is just volatile,

if it's just up and down
and up and down,

maybe at some point, it just crashes,

and you're never heard from again.

You see, a true Christian

doesn't just make a profession of faith,

but he also steadily perseveres

in that profession.

He perseveres. How long? How far?

All the way to the end.

Jesus talked about it again and again.

Jesus made a big emphasis

that it's not in how exciting;

it's not in how much drama there is

when you become a Christian,

but it's continuing on steadily

in that walk with the Lord

that gets you there;

that gets you to heaven in the end.

Jesus says repeatedly really,

but here's Matthew 10:22,

"It's the one who endures
to the end who'll be saved."

Jesus kept saying that.
Endure to the end.

Endure to the end and you'll be saved.

How about there in Luke 9

where Jesus says,

"No one who puts his hand to the plow

and looks back...

is fit for the kingdom of God."

If you become a Christian -

if you put your hands on the plow,

you go right straight on across the field.

Don't keep looking back.

Don't keep looking back to Egypt.

You press on with the Lord.

Jesus' parable about the
sower and the soils.

Really, it's the same thing, right?

You guys are familiar with
the four different types of soil.

It's not the beginning that matters.

In three of those cases,

the seed germinates and grows

and looks great at first.

The issue is what's going to be fruitful

in the end.

There's only one of those four

that actually makes it to maturity;

actually becomes a fruitful plant

in the end.

That represents the real Christian.

The book of Hebrews gives so many warnings

about the danger of apostasy.

One thing it says in Hebrews 10:23,

it says, "Let us hold fast the confession

of our hope without wavering."

Without wavering.

Without this up and down inconsistency.

Hold it fast without wavering

all the way to the end.

You see, this is why spiritual stability

is so important.

A lifetime is a really long time.

A bunch of you younger folks,

you might need to follow Christ -

if the Lord tarries,

you might be following
Christ another 50 years.

A whole lot of stuff's going to
happen in those 50 years.

Things are going to happen to you.

Things are going to happen in the world.

We can scarcely imagine I suspect.

How are you going to
continue on with the Lord

if there's not a settledness;

if there's not a day to day consistency

in your walk with Him;

if you're just up and
down and up and down.

How are you going to make it that far?

How are you going to make it that far?

We want you to make it all the way home

to Heaven.

There's a race that's set before us

the Bible says.

There's a race. And it's not a sprint.

It's not a sprint, is it.

It's a long distance marathon.

It's an ultra-marathon
that is set before us.

Those marathon runners -

they're not flashy.

They're not usually very muscular.

They're almost mechanical.

They just keep on going.

They get to the pace

and they maintain that pace

until they reach the end.

That's a picture of the Christian life.

That's steadiness.

That's consistency.

That will get you to heaven.

Paul could say at the end of his life,

"I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the course.

I've kept the faith."

He finished the course.

He was consistent all the way to the end.

Now, brethren, we know that it's God -

it's God in His mercy

that enables us to persevere, right?

I mean, we're kept by the power of God

it says in 1 Peter 1.

We know that. We know it.

Peter says in chapter 5 that it's God

who perfects and confirms

and strengthens and establishes us.

Our perseverance is a
miracle of divine grace.

But this sermon's not about that.

It's not about the
sovereignty of God side.

This is about the
responsibility of man side.

That God has given us the means;

He's put it right in our hands

right in front of us -

means we can lay hold of

to become more spiritually stable

in our walk with Him,

and thus more fruitful;

thus more productive in the kingdom;

thus have more love and joy and peace;

thus know Him more, etc., etc.

God has put the means in our hands

if we'll be diligent to lay hold of them.

So that's our exhortation for today.

And as we do that,

our chart will start to smooth out.

Instead of the big ups and downs,

the ups and downs will get smaller.

And the line will start going upward.

There will be growth.
There will be progress

with the Lord.

Are we all convinced that
we can make progress?

We can grow in grace.

Are we all convinced

that we can become more sanctified?

That there's more of Christ to be known?

There's more reality to walk in?

There's more of Canaan to be conquered

and enjoyed in this life?

Are we still pressing on the upward way?

New heights I'm gaining every day?

Though some may dwell where these abound,

my constant aim is higher ground.

Can we say that?
Is that a reality for us?

I hope so.

Amen.