FAIL-PROOF FAITH
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· 8 viewsTrue faith can falter but it cannot fail.
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I was glad when Brother Scott call and asked would I be willing to come Antioch preach to the people of God.
I last preached here 21 years ago this month and next month will be 21 years ago that I was married in this church. Much has changed in that time. The Lord has been Brandy and I with two girls. Jasmine just completed her sophomore year at JSU where she is studying Forensics. Angel just completed her freshman year at Samford where she is studying Dietetics with a premed track. We have one child remaining at home and her name is Maggie. She is our 8 years old pug who studies sleeping and eating.
To all who are weary and need rest;
to all who mourn and long for comfort;
to all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares;
to all who fail and desire strength;
to all who sin and need a Savior;
to all who hunger and thirst for righteousness;
and whoever will come
this church opens wide her doors and offers her welcome
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father
Prepare my heart,
Help me to receive
Break the hard and stony ground
Help my unbelief
Plant Your Word down deep in me
Cause it to bear fruit
Open up my ears to hear
Lead me in Your truth
Show me Christ, show me Christ
O God, reveal Your glory
Through the preaching of Your Word
Until every heart confesses Christ is Lord.
In Christ name I pray, AMEN!
During my last 21 years of ministry I have developed a philosophy of ministry that drives everything my life.
I exist to glorify God by making mature those who believe.
I have devoted my life to disciple making. Our churches are full of counterfeit Christian’s because we have called people to make a decision but to become a disciple. Evangelism is not a process whereby we call people to make a decision but to become a disciple. Many have made decisions for Christ and yet this difference has made no difference in their life. Only disciples go heaven. I have baptized many people who have gotten wet but have no witness of the Spirit. I have seen many make professions of faith but possess no visible signs of faith. We are not saved by works but by grace through faith. However, true faith always works. Churches are full of decisions but lacking in disciples.
What is a disciple? One word devoted.
I have met another type of counterfeit Christian. They go farther than the decision maker. They actually get involved. They are doers but they are not disciples. Jesus said in
Churches are full of decisions but lacking in disciples.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7
These counterfeit Christian’s are actually used by the Lord to change the lives of others but their life is not changing.
To those who find themselves in this situation my message to you to simple repent and believe.
Pray: Heavenly Father grant repentance and faith to believe. Grant courage to confess Christ before this congregation at the end of this service.
The aim today’s sermon is to help disciple’s mature in their faith. Those who study discipleship and write books about it tell us the number one reason people are not maturing in their faith is due to a lack of acumen but assurance.
Why do so many struggle with assurance? Constant faltering in our faith opens a door for Satanic and self condemnation. Many Christian’s live buried beneath sin’s condemnation rather than seeing their sin buried beneath Christ blood.
Jesus knows that His disciples will falter. He is not pleased with our falterings but He is not perplexed. Jesus never overestimates our abilities or who we are. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
I have tagged today’s text fail-proof faith.
The big idea from today’s sermon is . . .
True faith will falter but it will not fail.
I want to call your attention to
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,
but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”
Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”
Luke 22:
My aim today is place ballast in your spiritual boat. I want to deposit something into your heart this morning that will enable you to stand against the wiles and devices of the devil.
Our text gives us three truths concerning assurance.
God grants the assurance of our salvation through the assurance of sifting.
This passage is reminiscent of the Old Testament story of Job. A faith that is not tried cannot be trusted. Satanic sifting is used for our sanctification.
God uses everything even Satan to accomplish His purposes. the great reformer Martin Luther said; “even the devil is God’s devil”. The Lord will use the devil not to destroy us but to deepen.
The Lord granted Satan’s request not because He was giving up on Peter. He granted it so that He could gain more of Peter.
Sifting is a process of shaking out all that is not wheat. Spiritual sifting is a process of shaking out all that is not Christ. In sifting Satan is committed to destroying faith in God while God is committed to destroying faith in ourselves.
A shipwrecked man managed to reach an uninhabited island. There, to protect himself against the elements and to safeguard the few possessions he had salvaged, he painstakingly built a little hut from which he constantly and prayerfully scanned the horizon for the approach of a ship. Returning one evening after a search for food, he was terrified to find the hut completely enveloped in flames. Yet by divine mercy this hard affliction was changed into a mighty advantage. Early the following morning he awoke to find a ship anchored off the island. When the captain stepped ashore, he explained, "We saw your smoke signal and came." Everything the marooned man owned had to be destroyed before he could be rescued.
The Lord is committed to the totality of your salvation. He saves you from sin’s penalty in an instance and then He spends the rest of your life saving you from sin’s power so that he can one day save you from sin’s presences.
God permitted the sifting of Peter knowing that it would lead to sin. The omniscient God at times allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.
God's ways are not our ways; neither are his thoughts our thoughts. This is applicable to a variety of things. In fact, there is scarcely a single circumstance connected with the things of God to which these words do not apply but there is a special instance to which they apply particularly. One of these respects the growth in grace of the child of God.
If we were asked; what was most conducive to spiritual growth and how we should set about it, perhaps some such scheme as this might occur to our mind. Place him in the country, in a quiet and retired spot, where he would have no business nor worldly anxieties to distract his mind; there let him read his Bible, be surrounded by religious friends, fix certain hours to meditate, watch, and pray. Such might be a faint sketch of what we would consider the right mode of educating a Christian in the things of God. This scheme has been acted upon. By it men have been driven into the cave of the hermit; monasteries and convents have been formed upon this plan; and instead of being the abodes of religion, they have eventually proved little else but dens of wickedness.
Our text proves that the fountainhead of all truth and wisdom are vastly different and better than ours.
John Newton wrote the greatest hymn, Amazing Grace. However, he also wrote what I believe to be the second greatest hymn for which many have never sung, “ I asked the Lord that I might grow.”
I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and ev’ry grace,
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.
And seek more earnestly His face.
‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer,
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.
‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer,
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.
I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request
And, by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in ev’ry part.
Yea, more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe,
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Humbled my heart and laid me low.
“Lord, why is this,” I trembling cried;
“Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death?”
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”
“These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”
When wheat is sifted only that which is not wheat falls through. When faith is sifted only that which is not faith falls through. What is fail-proof will never fail.
God sifted Peter’s strength
Satan
In the highlands of Scotland, sheep occasionally wander off among the rocky crags and get themselves trapped on dangerous ledges. They leap down to get the sweet grass on a ledge, but they can’t get back up. A shepherd will allow the helpless animal to remain there for days, until it becomes so weak that it’s unable to stand up. Finally, he ties a rope around himself and goes over the ledge to rescue the straying sheep.
You may ask, “Why doesn’t the shepherd go down right away?” The answer is that the sheep are so foolish that they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if the shepherd didn’t wait until their strength was nearly gone. (“Our Daily Bread,” Winter, 1980.)
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
Those are not words explaining a theoretical idea but a truth experienced and lived out.
God sifted Peter’s self-righteousness.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Satan wants to prove that we are phonies. Jesus permits this process to prove that we are His possession.
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
God grants the assurance of our salvation through the assurance of the Savior.
Jesus preserves us through prayer.
Dear Christian you will survive the sifter because Christ is praying for you! The prayers of Jesus fortify faith. The Father, Son, and Spirit have conspired to hold you tight.
Jesus is praying that Peter’s faith would not fail. Fail means to cease, run out, die out, or beyond recovery.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
If you could lose your salvation you would. The prayer of Jesus preserves us in order to present us.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
All other religions say “fail and you will die”. Jesus says “fail and I will die for you”. Satan may succeed in temporarily breaking our communion with Christ but he can never break our union with Christ.
The prayer of Jesus preserves us as well as
Jesus preserves through pursuit.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
John
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Jesus preserves through promise.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
If you are a child of God today you will be a child tomorrow. God never adopts temporarily.
John
Jesus counts and calls every star and sheep by name.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God grants the assurance of our salvation through the assurance of strengthening.
When you turn not if you turn. True faith cannot fail because repentance is present. We know that our faith is true not because we have cease to sin because we not ceased to repent. True faith is a life of repenting and believing. Repentance renews and refreshes us.
If the Trinity were not busy day and night strengthening your faith it would evaporate in a minute.
Peter wasn’t able to strengthen the brethren by taking a classes at Capernaum Bible College or Tarsus School of Theology. He became a strengthen by being put in Satan’s sieve.
How do we know that Peter strengthen? We could read and see that Jesus prophecy in concerning Peter was fulfilled.
I want to put before you one that is less obvious. The Gospel of Mark is attributed to John Mark. John Mark was not one of the 12. Yet he wrote a Gospel concerning Christ. Scholars believe that John Mark recorded Peter’s account. Scripture introduces us to John Mark in name only in . It was his mothers home that Peter went to after his miraculous release from prison. We next see John Mark in with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. tells us that John Mark was a cousin to Barnabas. However, by John Mark is leaving the team and returned to Jerusalem. We later see John Mark’s name appear in as Paul and Barnabas set out on missionary expedition number two. Barnabas wanted to take John Mark along but Paul refused. This led to a separation between Paul and Barnabas.
At this point John Mark disappears from the Biblical record for ten years. He resurfaces in as a prison companion of Paul’s in Rome. Paul then sends John Mark to Philemon with the Letter to Philemon. Our final appearance of John Mark is found in Paul’s farewell letter of 2 Timothy. Paul writes the following words in
John Mark re
Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
How did Mark go from useless to useful. Scholars believe that part of Mark’s ten year absences from Scripture was spent in a Roman prison with Peter. This is taken from
She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.
This story reinforces today’s sermon God uses our falterings to strengthen our faith and the faith of others.
One-third of Mark’s Gospel is dedicated to the cross. Those who faulter need strength to finish. Peter faulted but Christ finished. It is finished fuels us to finish.