Precise Functions and Importance

Introduction: The Necessity of Perseverance and the Transition to Its Means

0:00 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, June 6th, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Before we ask God's blessing again upon the ministry of the Word,

0:17 I want to read to you the prayer of the psalmist, which I trust will be our earnest prayer. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law. Yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

0:44 In the light of the reading in James 1 this morning, if we come to the ministry of the Word with any other disposition, we stand prepared to be driven deeper into self-deception. James said, If we are hearers and not doers, we delude our own selves. So let us together plead with God that he would teach us to the end that we may observe his statutes. Let us pray.

1:21 Our Father,

1:24 we have been sobered by the reading of your Word in this hour of worship. We confess with shame that all too often we have been hearers only, deluding ourselves. Having received more information, perhaps having even felt some motions of holy longing and holy stirrings after yourself while the Word has been preached, we have not been diligent to do what you have told us to do. Forgive us for our sin of being idle hearers of the Word. With the psalmist, we cry in your presence. Give us understanding and by your grace we shall keep your Word even unto the end. Hear our cry and answer us.

2:28 Minister your Word to our hearts with power. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. For the past six Lord's Day mornings, I have sought to set before you as a congregation one basic issue from the Word of God.

2:53 That issue has been the biblical teaching with respect to the necessity of the perseverance of the saints. Now what do I mean by such language? Well, simply this. The Bible teaches us that salvation, that is, God's work of rescuing men from sin and its consequences, is all of grace, is all of God, and is all of Christ.

3:30 The work of rescuing sinners is a work of grace. It is not merited by the sinner, but is done because of God's sovereign pleasure to show kindness to sinners. And that work in all of its dimensions is all of God. It is not God being half or two-thirds or ninety-nine and forty-four-one-hundredths percent the Savior, but the entire saving work is all of God.

4:03 In the language of Jonah 2.10, salvation is of the Lord. And that salvation is all of Christ as to its meritorious grounds, and it is because of who Christ is and what he has and continues to do and shall yet do for sinners that they will enjoy all of the blessings of this gracious salvation of God. But now the same Bible which teaches these truths from Genesis to Revelation also teaches us that it is necessary for the recipients of this salvation, which is all of grace and all of God and all of Christ, it is necessary for them to continue in a course of faith, holiness and obedience to the end of their pilgrimage if they would be saved in the last day. Now what has been my method in preaching, as it were, one point for six Lord's Day mornings? Well, the method again has been very simple. I have taken twenty-five or thirty of the key texts in the New Testament which teach this doctrine and have expounded them as they come to us in the Scriptures.

5:26 We considered this teaching of our Lord in the Gospels and then in his words to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. We considered the teaching of our Lord in the epistles of Paul, the teaching of our Lord on this subject in the letter to the Hebrews, and finally, the teaching of our Lord is found in the general epistles. And if we are to rid ourselves of this doctrine, we must literally take a pair of carnal, arrogant scissors and cut out not only these twenty-five or thirty key texts, but dozens of other texts which teach with great unanimity and consent this one fundamental truth. If we would be saved in the last day, if we would be saved in the last day, if we would be saved in the last day, if we would be saved in the last day, if we would be saved in the last day, if we would be saved in the last day, it is necessary for us to persevere in faith and holiness and obedience. And though the Bible teaches that it is certain that all who are the people of God shall persevere, our concentration has not been upon the texts which teach the certainty of the saints' perseverance, but the necessity of their perseverance. And now this morning we move to a second major division of this series

Defining the Means of Perseverance Negatively: Not Saviors, Not Automatically Effective

6:49 on the doctrine of perseverance. Having considered the necessity of perseverance, we now proceed to begin a consideration this morning of the means of perseverance. The means of perseverance. Now in his excellent treatment of this subject of perseverance, in his classic little work, on the doctrine of salvation called Redemption Accomplished and Applied, Professor Murray says, perseverance means the engagement of our persons in the most concentrated devotion to those means which God has ordained for the achievement of his saving purpose. Perseverance means the engagement of our persons, that is, the totality of what we are, as redeemed men and women, in the most concentrated devotion to those means which God has ordained for the achievement of his saving purpose. And as we stand on the threshold of this division of our subject, what I desire to do this morning is to set before you something of the teaching of the Word of God with respect to the precise,

8:14 function, and importance of the means of perseverance. Something of the precise function and importance of the means of perseverance. And I'm going to do this, first of all negatively, and then positively. What is the precise function and importance, or what are the precise function and importance of the means of perseverance?

8:45 Well, stated negatively, the means of perseverance are not our saviors. The means of perseverance are not our saviors. The Word of God is clear, as we've already alluded this morning, in teaching that Christ alone is the savior of his people. Most of you children remember that text, that is so often quoted in conjunction with the Christmas story.

9:19 The angel spoke to Joseph and said in Matthew 1.21, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Christ alone is the savior. First Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world, to save sinners. And in 2 Peter 1.1, he is called our God and our Savior. And nowhere in the scriptures are the means of our perseverance designated as our saviors.

10:04 Every facet of salvation is ultimately but an aspect of the saving activity of the triune God, an activity which, focuses upon the person and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. It's not surprising to find then in such passages as Ephesians 5.25, that the whole saving work of God is attributed to Christ. Christ loved the Church.

10:34 Christ gave Himself for the Church, that He, Christ, might present the Church to Himself, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Christ loved the Church. Christ gave Himself for the Church, that He, Christ, might present the Church to Himself, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Christ is so central as the Savior of His people from beginning to end that He is designated in Colossians 3, 4 as the very life of His people.

10:57 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear. So as we come to consider the means of perseverance, we must never think of their function or importance in terms of their being our saviors. The second thing I want to say negatively about their function and importance is this. The means of perseverance are not automatically effective.

11:27 The means of perseverance are not automatically effective. As one has aptly said, the best of means are but means at best. And the teaching of such passages as 1 Corinthians 10, 1 to 13, and, and Hebrews 4, 1 and following is, that men can be subjected to the God-ordained means of perseverance and yet not persevere. The children of Israel are set forth in type as the people of God.

12:02 And they were given, according to the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 10, all of the means necessary to persevere through the wilderness and into the promised land.

12:15 They were all baptized unto Moses, 1 Corinthians 10, 1 to 13, in the cloud and in the sea. And they all ate of that spiritual food and drank of that spiritual rock. It was all there available to them. And yet the scripture says they were overthrown in the wilderness.

12:31 And again in Hebrews 4, the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith. And God again was displeased and swore in his wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Those two passages, perhaps more than any other, in the New Testament clearly teach that the God-ordained means of perseverance are not automatically effective. So whenever we think of the means of perseverance as to their precise function and importance, we must never think of them as our saviors, nor must we think of them as matters that are automatically effective in the world. In our perseverance. Well, what then should we say positively about the function and importance of the means of perseverance? Well, I've worked very carefully at coming up with as condensed a statement as I've been able to come up with that reflects the teaching of the Bible, and it is this.

Defining the Means of Perseverance Positively: Divinely Appointed and Effectual by God's Blessing

13:39 The means of perseverance are those divinely appointed spiritual activities, which, by the blessing of God, are made effectual to keep us in the way of faith, holiness, and obedience, unto the end. What are the means of perseverance? They are those divinely appointed activities, not activities which grow up out of religious tradition, not activities which the Bible calls mere willful, which men institute based on superstition. The means of perseverance are only those means appointed by God himself. They are the divinely appointed spiritual activities,

14:39 which, by the blessing of God, without his blessing upon them, they accomplish nothing. But by the blessing of God, what do they do? They are made effectual to keep us in the way of faith, holiness, and obedience unto the end. In other words, the God who has declared, it is necessary for you to persevere to the end, the God who has said, it is certain that you shall persevere to the end, has instituted the very means which, by his blessing, secure, secure our perseverance in faith, holiness, and obedience unto the end. Now, I want to use an analogy, a parable, that I trust will set this forth and give you some practical grasp upon it, and then rivet it to your consciences with several lines of application. Try to imagine with me that you lived in the days when there were kings, and there were kingdoms over which kings ruled. And in a certain kingdom, there was a just and righteous and gracious king

The King's Rescue and Provisions: An Analogy for the Means of Perseverance

16:01 who ruled his subjects with kindness, with uprightness, with consideration for all of their needs. But by the perversity of the seduction of a cruel tyrant of a king from another kingdom, this gracious king's entire domain, all of his subjects defected from him to this cruel tyrant of a king, and were carried off by him in ships to another country. And in that country, they became his slaves. And the cruelty of his heart, and the selfishness, and the total absence of principle was manifested in his entire administration of his authority, in plain sight. But I must tell you, if you argue with me, it would take a long time to understand why a tyrant imp advertise his subjects so steeply and expeditiously over and over them in that land to which he took them. But the good and gracious king was determined to have some of his subjects back. And so at great cost to himself, he determined to go into the very kingdom of that tyrant usurper king, and to rescue a vast multitude of his subjects.

17:24 And at great cost to himself, he did just that. power he delivered them from the dominion and authority and the very realm in which the usurper king exercised his cruel mastery over them and he brought them again to the shores of his own kingdom and having rescued them and set them upon the shores of his own kingdom their eyes have been opened to see the folly of their original rebellion they now see that it was the most stupid unreasonable irrational thing to rebel against a king so gracious and loving and kind and to subject themselves to one who was the very essence of tyranny and cruelty and injustice now out of love to their king they are disposed to obey him and to do whatever he bids them do and as he places them down upon the shores of his own kingdom he tells them it is my purpose to bring every single one of you at last into my very palace at the other side of the farthest reaches of my domain and to that end i'm setting you upon the one road in my domain that leads from

18:46 this shore to my palace and to my immediate presence now along the road there will be many dangers you will find yourself beset with many enemies but i say to you my subjects that all along the way i have made every provision that you may be adequately furnished to complete your journey you will find along the way food stations and when you get hungry you're to stop and eat all that you need is provided furthermore along the way you'll find map stations so that you will never lack for a clear directive as to how to make your way to my palace and to my immediate presence furthermore there are little armories along the way where you may furnish yourself with all of the necessary weapons to fight against any enemies that come across your path in the way there are food stations there are little armories along the way there are map stations there are resting places he says to these rescued subjects i know there are times when you'll become weary and you'll need to rest but you'll need to rest in the assurance that you will be safe in your resting and i've provided such

20:12 places along the way and i am pledging my word that though you may not see me nor those whom i've appointed to my place of worship nor those whom i've appointed to protect you all that is necessary to bring you from the shores of my kingdom on which i've now placed you ultimately to my palace in my immediate presence everything essential for the journey is there for you but you must not be indifferent to my provisions If you do not eat the food that I have provided, you will not have strength for the journey. If you do not avail yourself of the map stations and continually check your bearings by the maps I have provided, I give you no assurance that you will stay upon the proper road. If you do not avail yourself of the resting stations, I give you no promise that you will have sufficient strength to arrive at the end. And all my rescued subjects hear me. I am committed to bringing you safely from the shores on which I have placed you into my palace.

21:29 But you must see the means I have placed at your disposal to secure the certainty and the success of your journey.

21:48 Do you see where I am going?

21:51 What are the means of perseverance? They are God's resting stations, God's food stations, God's map stations. They are the means Almighty God has set before us, so that having rescued us out of the kingdom of darkness, and having set our feet upon the way to the celestial city, and having promised that he would bring us safely, he has commanded us to use every means that he has put at our disposal so that we might arrive safely at last in his immediate presence in the palace of the king himself. Now I know that all analogies and illustrations walk, as it were, on half a leg, or like a three-legged table, perhaps find it difficult to stand, but the main thrust of what I am trying to set before you is embodied in that simple parable. Now in the light of those realities, I want to bring three lines of application, and here we will turn to some specific text of scripture. First of all,

Application 1: Trusting the Means is Idolatry

23:16 to trust in these means themselves is a subtle form of idolatry. You see, the means are but means, and to trust in them is a subtle form of idolatry. Weary pilgrims are to trust in the pledge and word and promise of the great king who has rescued them, and in his own word of promise that the means made available will be effectual in order to help and assist them, but their confidence is not in the means, but in the God who has provided, and in the God who has invited them, and in the God who has pledged to make them effectual. Hear the word of God in Jeremiah 17 and verse 5. Cursed be he that trusts in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Jehovah. Cursed is the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart, and whose heart departs from Jehovah.

24:29 You see, there is an antithesis between trusting in Jehovah and trusting in man. And as we consider these means of our perseverance and consider them, we must, we must. In our initial study, I'm anxious to underscore that though we must consider them, and though we must diligently use them to trust, in these means is to be guilty of a subtle form of idolatry. The scriptures tell us again in Proverbs 3 and verse 5, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

25:13 Well, if the whole heart is trusting in the Lord, there's nothing left of the heart to trust in anything else.

Application 2: Despising the Means is Gross Presumption

25:21 We are to trust in the Lord with all our heart. And when we trust in Him, with all our hearts, then we are prepared to use the means without making an idol out of the means. Then the second point of application that I want to make, and this is the heart and the burden to you, the people of God, this morning. To despise these means is to be guilty of gross presumption.

25:54 To despise, to neglect these means, is to be guilty of gross presumption. Let me illustrate. We meet a man who supposedly has been delivered upon the shore and seems to be part of that great multitude who have been rescued by the gracious King. And we see him along the way and we notice that he doesn't stop at the map stations.

26:21 He just struts along so confident that he knows his way. He doesn't need to stop and take down the maps. He doesn't stop at the food stations. stations. He doesn't stop at the armory and we begin to notice this pattern and we tap him on the shoulder and say, sir, sir, what are you doing? I've noticed over many days that you've never stopped at a map station. You seem to be so cut sure of your way that you never pause like the other travelers and study the map and look at where they are in conjunction with that map to make certain they are on the one way that leads to the king's palace. Why is it that you don't stop at the map station? And sir, I've noticed that you never pause at the food stations, never

27:08 seem to replenish and refresh yourself. The other pilgrims seem to come to the point of fainting and with great delight when they see the next food station, they stop and they are refreshed and strengthened and go on their way with vigor. He breaks us off and says, look, my friend, these poor people may need food stations, map stations, but don't you know what my king said when he put me on the shore? He said he was committed that all who are landed on the shore would be brought safely into his immediate presence at his palace. All I need is his promise.

27:47 Didn't the king say to all of his subjects, I will certainly bring you home to my palace? And into my presence? And we'd have to answer what? Yes, he did. But did he say he would bring us home to his palace and his immediate presence, irrespective of whether we use the means?

28:15 To plead the king's promise while defying the king's prescription is high-handed presumption. And when people quote the verses, my sheep will never perish, kept by the power of God, I give to them eternal life and claim to be in the way to the celestial city while ignoring and despising the means of their perseverance, they are guilty of the grossest form of presumption and are probably on the high road to apostasy and to hell itself.

29:09 God has nowhere said in his word, he will take men to heaven irrespective of what they do with the means he has appointed to bring them there. He has said he'll take them to heaven in the use of the means he's appointed to get them there, not irrespective. Now let me illustrate it from a classic passage in the word of God. And it's been used again and again in this connection in the history of the church. And you know why it's been used again and again? Because it's worthy to be used again and again. Acts chapter 27. Acts chapter 27. You remember the setting? The apostle Paul is on his way to Rome as

29:58 a prisoner. He's on a ship. And a journey that started out quite well now is on the verge of becoming a disaster. And a tremendously fierce storm, a tempestuous wind, has brought broken down upon the ship. Acts 27 and verse 14. Verse 15 says, when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven. And then Luke goes on to give this graphic account of all of the struggle and all of the activity trying to save both the ship and the lives that are on that ship. And then the Lord himself intervenes. Verse 21 of Acts 27.

30:50 And when they had been long without food, then Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me and not have set sail from Crete and have gotten this injury and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer. For there shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. Now here is an unconditional promise, a declaration.

31:19 Verse 22. There shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. There shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. The ship will be destroyed, but no life. Now, Paul, where did you get that information? Well, he's going to tell us.

31:31 Verse 23. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God whose I am, whom also I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must stand before Caesar, and lo, God has granted you all them that sail with you. Verse 24. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God that it shall be even so as it hath been spoken unto me. But we must be cast upon a certain island. Now, is there any uncertainty in Paul's mind about God's promise? No loss of life, but only of the ship. Does Paul have any doubt about the certainty of that promise? Any question? None whatsoever. He said, Sirs,

32:19 I believe God. It shall be exactly as it hath been spoken. No life will be lost.

32:30 Now, let's read on. Verse 27.

32:34 But when the fourteenth night was come, and we were driven to and fro in the sea of Adria about midnight, the sailors surmised that they were drawing near to some country, and they sounded. That doesn't mean they blew a trumpet, but they sounded. That is, they sent down a line with a weight on it to see what the depth was. What was the depth of the contour of the bottom of the ocean, knowing if they were coming near to land, it would become more and more shallow. And they found twenty fathoms, and after a little space they sounded again and found fifteen fathoms. And fearing lest perhaps we should be cast ashore on rocky ground, they let go four anchors from the stern and wished for the day. And as the sailors were seeking to flee out of the ship, they were about to jump overboard and had lowered the boat into the sea, let down what we'd call the lifeboat, under color as though they would lay out anchors from the foreship. Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved.

33:35 Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. What kind of double talk is this? Paul, you said a few days ago that Almighty God appeared to you saying, There shall be no loss of life. Full stop. Period. No loss of life. No loss of life. No loss of life. No loss of life. No conditions. Now you come along and say, If we don't abide in the ship, we won't be saved. We'll be destroyed. We'll lose our lives. That's right. Now how do you put those two things together? When God gave the promise there should be no loss of life, included in that promise was his commitment to the very means by which life would be preserved, which was staying in the ship. And you say, Well, suppose someone does. Well, suppose someone didn't do it. He would have perished. And all the smart alecks who become skeptics

34:36 at statements like that. It was certain they'd be preserved. But it was necessary to use the divinely ordained means of being preserved. And for anyone to start to jump over the side saying, Paul, I don't need to listen to you. I've got God's promise. No loss of life. So you just plunk over the side. His bloated body would have been floating on the face of the water as a monument to his folly. My friend, do you feel something of the weight of the pressure of the tremendous place we ought to give to the means appointed for our perseverance? When Almighty God committed himself to preserving his own people unto the end.

35:36 He committed himself to preserving his own people unto the end. He committed himself He committed himself to preserving his own people unto the end. He committed himself to their preservation while at the same time ordaining the very means of that preservation which are the very things that are set before us as the means of our perseverance. And to be guilty of neglecting those means is to be guilty of gross presumption and how many will sink into hell quoting promises of an unconditional preservation.

36:12 And as I've said again and again in this series, the lifestyle of some of you reflects you really don't believe that the means of your perseverance are necessary for your perseverance. If you believed it, your lifestyle would reflect a totally different pattern. To trust in those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolatry. To despise those means is a subtle form of idolat

Application 3: Attempting to Use Means Without Conversion is Futility

37:21 for those who are spiritually alive and who have spiritual appetites and faculties and who are endowed with spiritual graces. It is only those who have been rescued from the kingdom of that tyrannical, usurping prince and have been brought by gracious Prince Emmanuel into the kingdom of grace. Only such can persevere along the way that leads into his immediate presence. And I have no doubt but what there are sitting here this morning, some men and women and boys and girls who cannot begin to use the means ordained for your perseverance because you've never been put on the road. You've never come through in the language of Matthew 7, the narrow gate of true conversion. Therefore, you cannot make progress upon the narrow way that leads unto life. Jesus said, enter in by the gate, for narrow is the gate and straightened is the way that leads unto life.

38:32 You cannot be found upon the way unless you come through the gate. And that gate is nothing less than a true biblical conversion. Standing in the nakedness of your sinfulness, standing in the consciousness that you are in, that you're under the canopy of divine wrath and can do nothing to rid yourself of that canopy,

38:56 receiving the wonderful, glorious word of the gospel that God in Jesus Christ has justly dealt with human sin, that he has punished his own beloved son on behalf of sinners, that Christ has swallowed up the Father's wrath, that the canopy might be justly removed. My friend, until you take that stance of the naked, guilty, helpless sinner, looking off to Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and risen from the dead as the only hope of sinners, and cry to him that for his own namesake, to magnify the glory of his grace, he would forgive and pardon and cleanse and bring you, as it were, by the hand into the presence of the Father until, for you, you are saved. Until, for you, you are saved. Until, forsaking all trust in yourself, in what you are and what you've done, or even what you hope to do, standing, as it were, at the gate and looking onto the road and saying, Oh, God, I purpose to cleave to that one road. I purpose to stop by the food station and by the armory and by the rest stations.

40:11 Oh, Lord, because I'm so determined to be a good pilgrim on the road, accept me now, my friend. Christ, Christ, Christ alone must be the object of your trust and confidence to come through the gate and to enter upon the way that leads to life. It is not your resolution to be a good pilgrim. It is not your determination to use all the means of perseverance.

40:42 The scriptures are clear that you must repent and believe the gospel. You must turn from yourself and all confidence in your own works and rest only and solely in what Jesus Christ has done and then wonder of wonders. When the heart has been brought to rest in Christ, that heart will always love him. We'll see that in the subsequent message, God willing.

41:12 For faith always works by love. And when you come to love the Savior whom you've trusted, the fruit of that love will be a resolution to be a faithful pilgrim. The resolution to use all the means he has appointed for your perseverance along the way. But all of that will be the fruit of faith.

41:35 And don't substitute your resolutions. Don't substitute them for Christ. Don't substitute even the most resolute determination to be a faithful pilgrim. Don't substitute.

41:49 That for Christ. Christ alone is the Savior of sinners. This is the faithful saying, worthy of all acceptance. And if you attempt, if you attempt to use the means of perseverance, while yet undelivered from the kingdom of darkness, my dear friend, it will be an exercise in futility that will lead to cynicism and despair or something worse than that.

42:19 It will lead, to self-righteousness and to Phariseeism. And you'll clean up your act externally. And you'll do all the things that the people on the road to the celestial city do. But you'll never have the root of the matter in you.

42:34 And that's why John Bunyan wisely said, at the end of his pilgrim's progress, you remember a man who crossed the river with apparent confidence that he would be welcomed at the gate. And he saw him turned away, and one of the last words, or it is the last word of pilgrim's progress is, and so I perceived and saw that there is a way to hell from the very gate of heaven.

43:01 The poor deluded person who had all the appearances of someone persevering on the way, but he had never truly engaged at the beginning of the way.

43:18 And so he didn't meet him at the end.

43:21 Oh, my dear friend, don't miss Christ. For if you miss him at the beginning, you won't find him at the end, no matter what you seem to have along the way.

Christ as the Essence of the Means and Concluding Exhortation

43:35 But blessed be God, if we truly have dealings with him at the beginning of the way, all of the way stations, I say it reverently, are but God's own inscrutable wisdom manifested in devising means whereby some dimensionally, the dimension of the power and saving virtue of Christ are communicated to his people. For what is the food station but him who is the bread of life? What are the resting places but the great Shepherd who causes his sheep to come to quiet places of rest to be refreshed in the journey. What is the armory but a place where various dimensions of the power virtue of Christ, are made available for the Christian to arm himself for the conflict. You see, the Christ whom we engage at the head of the way is the Christ who is our strength, who is our armor, who is our rest, who is our map, who is our direction, who is our means of perseverance, I say, are but various wonderfully conceived instruments of Almighty

44:59 God by which the virtue and power of Jesus Christ are conveyed to the people of God. My friend, are you on the way? Have you come through the gate? If so, then may you be convinced in the light of our study this morning.

45:22 Of what the Bible teaches concerning the precise nature and importance or precise function and importance of the means of our perseverance. They are not our saviors. They are not automatically effective, but they are the divinely appointed spiritual activities which, by the blessing of God, are made effectual to keep us from suffering. Keep us in the way of faith, holiness, and obedience unto the end. Don't trust in them.

45:59 That's idolatry. Don't despise them. That's presumption. Don't attempt to use them until you're in the way. That's futility. God willing, next week we'll begin to consider the identity of these means that God has ordained for our perseverance upon the way. Those means which are social or public, which have to do with the corporate life of the people of God. And then those means that are private and individual, which have to do with your own individual walk before God and the keeping of your own heart beneath His eye. But it would be futile for us to take up the specific identity of the means unless we are convinced of their God-ordained function.

46:52 Let us pray. Our Father, we worship You and praise You this morning, that in grace and in mercy, You came to us when we were in the far country of Satan's domain, of his dominion, of his power over us. We thank You that at great cost to Yourself, even the giving of Your own dear Son, not only the rending of his heart, but of Your own heart, beholding the one whom You loved with intense eternal and holy love, crying out, my God, my God, why have You forsaken me? We thank You, Lord, that at great cost You have rescued a great multitude whom no man can number. And we pray that having put our feet upon the way, we may never make saviors out of the means You have ordained for our perseverance. And oh, deliver us from being presumptuous, thinking that we will attain the end while

48:17 despising Your appointed means. Forgive us when we have trifled with grace. Keep back Your servants from presumptuous sins, we plead with the psalmist. And oh, God, we ask that You forgive us.

48:32 We ask that You would have mercy upon those who cannot effectively use the means of perseverance because they are still strangers to Your grace. Oh, Lord, draw them, draw them, we pray, to that place where, standing in the nakedness of their sin, they will cry to You for mercy because of what Your Son has done on behalf of sinners. Seal them, the Word, to our hearts. And on this day, make it a moment of peace.

49:06 And give us the vine of the Lord, the fruit of the spirit, to help each one of us find the fruit of the spirit. Oh, Lord, be with us in our homes, in our family life, in our times of interaction with one another, in the further ministries of the day. In Jesus' name, amen. We thank You for this resting place along the way of our peace.

49:29 Oh, Lord, we thank You for this resting place along the way of our peace. And we pray that You would have mercy upon this place upon this day, we pray, to that of our pilgrimage the return of another lord's day and oh god we believe you've ordained this means to refresh us and strengthen us and oh we ask that you will do that with power today hear our cry and answer us we plead through jesus christ our lord amen