Cp. 10 A Final Exhortation - Part 2

There are five reasons that God uses His power to be the saints lifeguard.

1. They are His own dear children.
2. The love He has for His children.
A. He loves the believer as the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.
B. He loves them as the purchase of His Son’s blood and
C. He loves them for the likeness to Himself He sees in them.
3. The covenant He has given them.
4. The dependence on and expectations that we the saints have of God.
5. Christ’s presence and the fact that Christ stands in the gap on our behalf before God.

We, the believers, must exercise our faith in the almighty power of God because our obedience and comfort are strong or weak according to the measure of faith we have that allows us to be strong in the Lord. Our Almighty is more then many mighties. You as a saint and believer must utilize God’s Almighty power to your best advantage. Use it for the agonies of conscience that arise from the realization of your sinfulness. Fly for refuge into the Almighty power of God. Use this power when you are beset by temptations, when you are overcome or about to be by the corruption in your heart. Use this power when you are oppressed by the weight of any duty or service which is part of your place or calling. If you are called to suffer anything, don’t be ashamed to be afraid. You could never bear up if God didn’t help you. Examine yourself and find all your weaknesses and wants and then put them before the Almighty.

If you are one of those disconsolate Christians who say, “but I have prayed and prayed again for strength against a particular corruption but I have received no answer!” Could it be that while you are looking for God to come through the front door and slay this sin or temptation with a mighty blow, that He sneaked a blessing in the back door that you might not be aware of? If before you were praying for deliverance might you not be praying more earnestly and with more zeal then before? If sin was overcoming you, wouldn’t it have weakened your spirit of prayer and not strengthened it? If it seems God continues to deny you, could it be that He might want you to guard more carefully that which you do have or it could be that He is holding back because He foresees an opportunity to express His love in a greater way? It could be that He might withhold some of His assisting strength so that He might be able to increase His supporting strength which is grace. It might also be that which hinders you is yourself. Do you go to God for the strength to perform your duties or do you try and do them on your own and only call on Him when it gets rough? Do you continuously thank God for the strength you do have? Are you humble in the assistance and strength God has given you or do you take pride in whatever you may have accomplished? Do you get so brave that you may lay your head in the lap of temptation, foolishly taking chances that a more humble Christian might not even dare attempt?

Perhaps, if you had always had a picture of God working for you and if you had a lengthy time of peace you might not come before God because you would feel you didn’t need to, that He was already there fixing things so why bother asking Him? If all these things don’t satisfy you then let it be your resolution to live and die waiting upon the Lord. If you persevere to wait on God it will be evidence of the strong grace that is within you.

Reassure yourself when you are in your greatest difficulty that strength shall come. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Thus you can say with Paul to God, “that your grace is sufficient for me” and agree with James 5:11 which says: “You have heard the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.”

It is not enough to just attain salvation because Satan will come like a thief in the night to steal your joy. We must arm ourselves for battle because it is in the midst of the battle that we can see ourselves growing spiritually. The Christian armor we wear is of divine institution and appointment. You can not use any old thing that works. You must be clothed as God tells you and fight as He tells you otherwise confusion might slip in and defeat you before you have begun the battle. Our weapons are only mighty through God. True grace when weakest is stronger than false grace when strongest. You must have on your complete armor for it only takes a small hole for one of Satan’s darts to enter in. Sin is an enemy that surrounds us. Satan divides his temptations into different squadrons. One to attack here, while another storms the back and a third feints to the side. You must have and use all the armor, weaponry and graces that God has provided. Martin Luther has said, “Faith fattens or strengthens on good works. To your faith, add virtue, to your virtue add knowledge, then add temperance, to temperance add patience, then add godliness, to godliness add brotherly-kindness and finally add love. We are stewards of these gifts from God. When we have achieved all these gifts, we are to add faith to faith, virtue to virtue, etc. thereby always growing greater in the Lord.”

You must constantly exercise your grace, gifts and weapons. Our armor and our garment of flesh should go off together at death. Keep your armor on at all times, at work, by day, while asleep, etc. This should be your daily exercise: pray without ceasing, rejoice evermore and giving thanks in everything. We do this in respect for others. One coward that turns and runs causes others to follow. Your Christian duties are burdensome only if you are infrequent in their use. If we do all this then it can ever be said that “the gates of hell did not prevail against us.”