From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We are dealing, as most of you will remember, with the early verses in the 14th chapter in Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

Let me read again the first five verses.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Him that is weak in the faith, receive you, but not to doubtful disputations.

For one believes that he may eat all things; another, who is weak, eats herbs.

Let not him that eats despise, despise him that eats not; and let not him which eats not, judge him that eats.

For God has received him.

Who are you that judges another man's servant?

To his own master, he stands or falls.

Yes, he shall be held up, for God is able to make him stand.

One man esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike.

Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, this is the most important statement as we've seen.

The apostle is dealing with this whole question of our attitude toward matters which are generally described as being matters indifferent.

That means that we are not dealing with specific commandments, but with things about which there is no clear, plain, obvious, explicit ruling or commandment.

Things about which we are to decide in terms of our general understanding of the Christian faith.

So it is important to notice that he is not referring to those who are weak in faith, but those who are weak in *the* faith.

He means by that weak in their understanding of the faith and in their notions and ideas as to how it is to be applied.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now then, Christians therefore are either strong in the faith, or else they're weak in the faith, and it is because of that that troubles tend to arise.

And the troubles that arise, as he indicates, are these: the stronger in the faith tend to despise those who are weaker, and those who are weaker tend to judge those who are stronger.

Now, that's the thing we are dealing with at the moment.

Because the apostle is particularly concerned about this brother who is weaker in the faith, who tends to judge his stronger brother.

And he judges him in the sense of perhaps even doubting whether he's a Christian at all.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: In other words, the subject is this involved subject in many ways, and one which has caused such damage in the church throughout the ages, of men in their weakness generally of understanding, tending to impose upon others artificial rules and regulations of their own devising.

Because they themselves are in trouble, they tend to put other people into trouble, and the apostle is concerned about this.

So he takes up this whole question.

And we have been doing that, and we've commented on the fact that he does at first sight appear here to be contradicting what he says elsewhere, but we showed that he isn't doing that.

He's here concerned to plead for toleration, understanding, mutual trust.

And the danger of dividing over matters like these, and especially the danger of exalting them to such a position that they even divide people who should be meeting together at the Lord's table to partake of the Lord's supper.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, what how does he deal with these people?

What does he got to say with with respect to those who are in danger of judging others, because they are enjoying the liberty which is given to us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, we saw that his first answer is this, God has received him.

If God has received a man, who are you to reject him?

That's his argument.

And God has received, and we ended by considering the ways in which we know that God does receive those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Very well.

Now, that's only the first answer.

We move on now to the second.

And the second is this.

Who are you that judges another man's servant, the fourth verse.

To his own master he stands or falls.

Yes, he shall be held up, for God is able to make him stand.

What's this?

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Well, this is a double statement.

In the first part of this fourth verse, the apostle takes up and uses an illustration.

An illustration which is which was quite familiar to people at that time, and has been familiar throughout the centuries.

Perhaps it's less familiar today than it has ever been.

It's the illustration of the relationship between employers and servants.

And what he's concerned about in particular is the relationship between other people and somebody else's servants.

Now, this is what he says.

Who are you that judges another man's servant?

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: For instance, imagine he says that you're paying a visit to a friend.

And the friend is entertaining you.

And the friend has got servants.

They had many servants in those days.

Many of them slaves, of course.

And the meal would have been prepared by some of these slaves, and some of them would be attending at the table and so on.

Or you can take it more generally.

A farmer may be visiting another farmer, and the farmer employs a number of servants to carry on the work of the farm.

Now, this is what he envisages.

He envisages somebody, let's take the first example, invited as a guest to somebody else's house.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And he says, what would you think of a visitor who took it upon himself or herself to criticize and to judge and to correct the servants of the host, of the one who is providing the entertainment?

Now, he says, you know that that sort of thing isn't done.

It's very rude and very wrong of you to express your judgment on the servant of another man, servants who belong to another master.

Anybody with a sense of delicacy or a sense of rightness and appropriateness, wouldn't dream of doing this.

It's a very rude and an uncouth person who criticizes the servants of another person in that person's house.

Well, I say there's not so much of that today because there are no servants.

But the same principle exactly, of course, is involved with the kind of people who don't hesitate to criticize other people's children, and are ready to do so in the presence of the parents.

They'll do it in their in the parent's home, or they'll do it when they happen to meet somewhere else.

You know, there is this kind of person.

They're ready to criticize anybody or anything.

They're ready to tell everybody how to behave.

And they will always take it upon themselves to correct other people's children.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: God knows we know the temptation is very great at times.

But that's not the question.

The question is whether under any circumstances this is something which is right and which is allowable.

And the apostle lays down what has always been the universal opinion of mankind with regard to this question.

It is indeed a very faulty, not to say an entirely wrong action for us to take it upon ourselves to make the servants or the children of other people behave themselves.

It's not our prerogative.

It's not our position at all.

And to do so is something which contravenes all the canons which govern social behavior and conduct.

Now then, the apostle takes this up as an illustration.

Who are you that judges another man's servant?

You are criticizing these fellow Christians of yours, he says.

You're doubting whether they're Christians at all.

But even if you don't do that, you're loud in your condemnation of the way in which they're behaving.

Don't you realize, he says, that this is sheer presumption, that you're violating a universal canon governing behavior in these matters?

You have no right to do this at all.

So he comes to his application.

In the first part, it is to the in the natural realm, to his own master, he stands or falls.

It is his own master who has the right and the prerogative of deciding and determining what the conduct of his own servants should be.

When you are in another man's house, well, you are not in charge.

He's in charge.

He's the master.

He's the Lord.

He's the one who decides what what happens there.

Whatever you may think about it.

It doesn't matter.

You may say it to him if you like and discuss it with him.

But you must most certainly not correct his servants, his employees, his children in his presence.

You mustn't take it upon yourself and presume in that way.

And then you see what he's really doing is to lift it all right up, to say this.

The God has received him.

Yes, but God has not only received us.

We belong to him.

We are his children, we are his servants, or to use the favorite expression of the Apostle Paul, we are the bondslaves of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: He is our owner.

He's our master.

It is to him we stand or fall.

It is he who has the right to tell us what to do.

It is he who has the right to judge.

It is he who has the right to chastise us.

And he alone has this right.

That's the point the apostle is making.

So, if we set ourselves up in judgment upon our fellow members in the Christian church, we are usurping the authority of God.

We are usurping in particular the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because he, as we are reminded so constantly, particularly in the writings of this particular apostle, he is the head of all things for the church.

He is in control.

He is the head.

He alone has the authority.

He is the Lord.

And judgment belongs to him and to him alone.

Now, let me remind you again, as I did in passing last Friday night, that this doesn't do away with the whole question of discipline in the church.

But that discipline in the church is something that the Lord himself has taught us about.

He's indicated what we are to do and how we are to do it.

And it is our duty to carry that out.

Paul is here dealing with things, as I reminded you at the beginning again tonight, which the Lord does not lay down.

And you see how scrupulous this apostle is.

Take for instance what he says in the seventh chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, where he was dealing with a very vexed and difficult question about people getting married and so on, and the whole question of children of unbelievers in the church and so on.

Now, you remember how he draws a very sharp distinction there.

He's been laying down what he regards the rule.

Then he suddenly says, now from here on, I have no commandment of the Lord, but I'm giving you my opinion for what it's worth.

That's precisely the distinction that he's drawing here.

When you have a commandment of the Lord, there is no discussion.

If you haven't.

Well then, says the apostle, be very careful about expressing judgments.

He is the judge.

You may have your views, but don't condemn one another.

That is certainly not your prerogative.

It is the Lord alone who has the right to do this.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: So I would sum it up by saying, that we must always remember that we are not called upon to be spiritual detectives, still less are we called upon to be spiritual judges.

This is something which is a very real danger.

You remember how our Lord himself has dealt with this.

He puts it like this in the sermon on the mount.

At the beginning of the seventh chapter of Matthew's gospel, Judge not, that you be not judged.

For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.

And with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again.

And why behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye?

Or how will you say to your brother, let me pull out the mote out of your eye, and behold a beam is in your own eye?

You hypocrite.

First cast out the beam out of your own eye, and then shall shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye.

But the great commandment is, judge not.

That he be not judged.

Very solemn warning.

A warning that we all should heed.

James echoes that at the beginning of the third chapter of his Epistle.

My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

If you set yourself up as a master of others, and take it upon yourself to criticize them and to condemn them, be careful, says James.

Knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

For in many things we offend all.

If any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

But the warning is, don't be many masters, don't be many judges.

Be careful what you're doing.

It'll come back upon you.

You set yourself up as a judge, very well, you'll be judged according to your own standard.

And remember, says James, that we none of us are in a position to set ourselves up as judges, or as rulers, or as masters, deciding and determining what other people have got to do.

Now, that's precisely the thing with which the apostle is dealing here in this verse that we're looking at and indeed in this whole context.

But he doesn't leave it at that, you notice.

He goes beyond that.

That's the first part of the fourth verse.

And that is enough in and of itself.

But he doesn't leave it there.

He goes on to say, yes, having said to his own master, he stands or falls.

He then says, yes, he shall be held up.

For God is able to make him stand.

Now, what does this mean?

This is a most interesting and to me a most important statement.

There are those who think that this is a reference to the final judgment.

He shall be held up, for God is able to make him stand.

And immediately their minds, you see, turn to what we are told, you remember in the first Psalm, as it is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly and so on.

Then we are told about the ungodly.

The ungodly are not so, but they are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

And thinking of that and the word stand being used, they come to the conclusion that this is a reference to the last judgment.

As if he was saying this, don't you worry, you are not the masters, and you are not to express your judgments.

God alone is the Lord and he is the master.

And it is he who has the prerogative and the right, and he will exercise it, of making a final pronouncement at the last judgment concerning these people.

Don't you judge therefore.

Leave it to him who alone is the judge.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, is it that?

Well, I agree with those who say that it is not that.

At this point, you will notice some of you that Charles Hodge and Robert Haldane are in disagreement.

And I am most definitely on the side of Robert Haldane and the majority of commentators as against Charles Hodge.

Charles Hodge decides that this is a reference to the last judgment.

And yet he himself points out something which to me at any rate puts out that as a possible explanation.

Our position in the last judgment is always presented to us in terms of grace, not of power.

But here the whole emphasis is on power, he shall be held up for God or the Lord is able, that's the power, to make him stand.

Now, nowhere is it taught in the scriptures that it is the power of God that enables us to stand in the last judgment.

It is the grace of God that does that.

The grace of God, the mercy of God, the forgiveness of God.

But here the whole emphasis is upon the power.

So I think we've got to reject this idea that this is simply a statement to the effect that it is God who is going to judge him, or the Lord Jesus Christ who is going to judge him at the last judgment.

Well then, what does it mean?

Well, I think, and again I'm entirely in disagreement with Charles Hodge here.

He rejects what I'm going to say in terms that it's not congruent with the whole argument at this point.

It is because I think what I'm going to say is alone congruent with the argument, that I think he must be wrong and that it means this.

It's not a reference to the last judgment at all.

What is it then?

Well, it's a reply to this weak brother.

This brother who is weak in the faith.

And who at his lowest is worried about the stronger brother.

And then he gets so worried about him that in the end he really doubts whether the man is a Christian at all.

But even short of that, the weak brother is fearful for the stronger brother.

He says, no, that's an extremely dangerous thing to do.

He says, this is the whole argument about the weaker brother as you remember.

He's governed by the spirit of fear.

That's why he multiplies rules and regulations.

He's trying to hedge himself in.

He's trying to prevent his falling.

As I say, he gets to the point in which he becomes a legalist, falls back on justification by works, and denies justification by faith only.

But it's all because of this nervous apprehension.

He says, look here, this meats offered to idols, or to eat meats in connection with Jewish sacrifices and so on.

These things, he says, it's terribly dangerous.

A man who does that is bound to fall.

He's going to make shipwreck of the faith.

And he's terrified.

Now, I believe the apostle is dealing with that.

That's the thing he's already been dealing with.

I think he's still dealing with it.

And what he's saying merely to the weaker brother is this.

You know, he says, you are nervous and apprehensive about your brethren, and you're quite convinced that they're going to fall, make shipwreck of the faith, and perhaps finally be lost.

Simply because you are defective in your understanding of this Christian salvation.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: So what he's saying is this, look here.

It is God who has called us.

It is God who has received us.

And God knows what he's doing with us.

He has delivered us from being under the law.

He's entirely delivered us from the throld and of the pagan religions to which some of you once belonged.

He has entirely delivered you from the ceremonial law that was current amongst the Jews.

He's delivered you out of all that into a liberty.

Now, this is, of course, the great and central argument of the Christian faith.

Paul is really saying the same thing, he says, at the beginning of Galatians 5, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

That's what it is.

Stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Now, this is just another way of saying that.

He says, you know, the Lord who has called us to liberty will maintain us in that liberty.

Don't you be worried, you weaker people.

Don't be worried about that man who is strong in his understanding of the faith and who's practicing this Christian liberty.

You need have no fear about him.

Don't you vex your selves over him.

Don't you lose sleep at night.

Don't you hold up your hands in horror and in alarm.

You say, he's going to fall, he's going to fail, he's he's going to bring the whole church down with him and so on.

You needn't be nervous, says Paul.

And you are nervous because you don't understand the full nature of this salvation into which you've been brought by the grace of God.

Now, this is an exhortation, you see, that is greatly needed.

As I've been already reminding you.

There are people who hedge others round with these rules and regulations.

Their motive is excellent.

This it's got to be done.

They're certain to fall into temptation.

They're certain to go wrong if you don't do this.

So they bring in their rules and we'll make this impossible.

We'll make this a condition of membership, they say.

And not only that, there are some people who do this for themselves.

And it's interesting to notice the ways in which we tend to do this.

It can be done in a mild way as well as in a more open and forcible manner, such as prohibition to come to the Lord's table and so on.

The milder ways to which I'm referring to are these.

That some people are quite convinced that the way to live the Christian life and to withstand the temptations of the world and the flesh and the devil, is perhaps to wear a badge.

You'll wear the badge and then at the moment of temptation you'll see your badge, it'll hold you.

Or others wear ties.

Others find that the way they think it is best is this, that you sign a pledge.

You sign a form.

You say, henceforth, I'm not going to do this, that or the other.

And the whole argument behind badges, ties, pledges and so on, is just this argument that you do these things in order to strengthen yourself, to remind yourself in the moment of temptation, when you're on the verge of falling.

You remember you signed the pledge.

Or you look at your badge, you see the tie, this holds you.

Now, this is something that is has often been done in the church, as you know, and at one time it was very much more popular than it is at the present time.

But all I'm anxious to show you is that the principle behind all that is really being raised here.

Am I condemning that kind of procedure altogether?

Well, I would hesitate to go as far as that.

But I am certainly condemning it in principle.

I am suggesting that it is falling well below what the apostle says here.

Indeed, I will go further, and I would say that there is a sense in which all that doesn't belong to the Christian realm.

That is, the way in which the world at its best thinks.

Now, if you ask me whether badges, ties, and pledges are good psychology, I'd have to say yes.

And that is why I'm a little hesitant.

Here is a great question for you, a problem for you to work out together, discuss this in your Christian circles.

To what extent are things which are good and helpful in and of themselves to be used in the Christian life?

Does the Christian, or put it in a different way, does the Christian still use means and methods which are employed by the world?

Or does he say, as a Christian, I don't need them at all.

I'll have nothing to do with them.

It's a sign of weakness.

Well, it's a very interesting and a somewhat difficult question to decide.

I would hesitate, as I say, to condemn these things root and branch and say that they should never be used at all.

It is if you like, comparable to the question of use of means use of means in connection with the treatment of diseases.

There are those who say, you never use any means at all.

You trust only, exercise faith.

Well, it may not be an exact parallel, but it's a similar kind of thing.

And I hesitate therefore to say that this is wrong in total.

But it is certainly at a very much lower level than that which is taken here by the great apostle.

What he says is this, don't you be worried about this man who is exercising his Christian liberty.

Why?

Well, for this reason, he shall be held up.

He shall be held up.

He shall be upheld.

Then he goes beyond that.

The Lord has the power, has the ability, has the strength to make him stand.

Now, here, you see, is indeed a most important matter for us.

This is undoubtedly the New Testament teaching.

The apostle, you remember at the end of Ephesians 6, reminding these Christian people of the powers they're standing against, says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Take on the honor that he provides.

And it's in that kind of context that I would query the necessity for badges or ties or pledges.

It's falling to a lower level.

But if you find that you're so weak that you need these adventitious aids, well then I wouldn't condemn you altogether.

But it is my business as a teacher to exhort you in terms of this great exhortation and say, get out of that.

Stand fast, be a man.

Put away childish things.

You shouldn't need that kind of thing.

So, let's put it like that, that we don't condemn it all together.

But that we do say this, that the Christian must realize that he mustn't have a fearful spirit.

He mustn't be frightened whatever is set against him.

And he's reminded very constantly of what is set against him.

He is reminded that he shall be held up.

That the Lord is able, has power, to make him stand.

So there is no need for the weaker brother to be nervous and apprehensive concerning him.

What is this?

Well, to me, what we're dealing with here, you see, is just another way of putting the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints.

What a doctrine it is, and how important it is for us.

I would go so far as to say this, that were it not for the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, nobody would ever be saved.

We should all fail completely.

My dear friends, we are not dependent upon badges and ties and resolutions and pledges.

The world is, because it's got nothing better.

And it has to fool itself in all sorts of ways.

You see, co-ism does help people.

Many things help people.

But a Christian is in a different realm.

He shouldn't need those aids.

He's got to understand the truth.

And a part of the truth is to say this, that the Lord not only saves us, he keeps us.

And if he didn't keep us, not one of us would ever be saved.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, this is something that is taught, of course, very extensively in the in the scriptures.

Let me give you some examples of it, because it is such an important doctrine.

There is something sinful about this nervous apprehensiveness of the weaker brother.

It is really due to the fact that he does not understand the Christian faith as he should have done.

Even David could see beyond that.

He says, in Psalm 37, verses 23 and 24, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way.

Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

This is the idea.

And then you've got it again in the same way in the 40th Psalm.

I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the mire and clay, and he set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

He did it.

It is the Lord who did it.

It is the Lord alone who can do this.

David knew this.

David knew that he'd be finished if he had to rely upon himself and these expedients and methods and all the tricks we have to play with ourselves to do these things.

They really do not belong to this realm of the children of God.

We've got to realize this tremendous, this blessed truth.

Well, there it is in the Old Testament.

It's here in this 14th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans in the New Testament.

But listen to this in the Epistle to the Ephesians.

I'm only picking out some of them.

There are many examples of this.

Paul, in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, tells them that he's praying for them.

What's he pray for?

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.

What for?

Well, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and secondly, what is the glory of the riches of his inheritance in the saints.

Thirdly.

Here's the thing, what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us word that believe according to the mighty working of his power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places and so on.

He says, you know, if you only knew that and realized that, that's what you need to know.

The exceeding greatness of his power to us word that believe.

This is the power that raised Christ from the dead, it's raised us up with him, and it'll hold us and keep us on our feet.

Again, you see, he comes back to it at the end of the third chapter.

Now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

That's it.

It's this power that works in us.

That's the thing that is going to keep us.

And on he goes.

Listen to him putting it to the Philippians.

First chapter, sixth verse.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Now, this is an astounding statement.

The background to that statement, let me remind you, is this.

The great apostle was in prison.

And he was a sick man.

And he says that he has been hearing rumors that he may be put to death at any moment.

He's in the hands of this capricious ruler, the Emperor Nero.

And Paul was hearing these rumors.

You never knew what he'd do next.

He knew that his time in this world was very limited.

He had messages to say that there is trouble in the church of Philippi.

Two women, you and in, were quarreling.

People were forming factions round them.

And there were other troubles in the church that Jewers were threatening to press in upon them.

Think of this man.

There he is a prisoner and bad in health, and death at hand.

He thinks about these churches far away in Philippi, there's a church and all these other churches that God had used him in establishing.

He knows exactly the position that the world, the flesh, the devil and all the principalities and powers are set against them.

And yet, you see, he's able to say this, being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

He's quite happy about them.

On what grounds?

That they've signed pledges?

Of course not.

He couldn't feel all right like this if he was simply relying upon their pledged word or their proposals or all the various tricks that they were applying.

Of course not.

He's able to write like this for one reason only.

That he knows that they are Christians at all because of him.

He which has begun a good work in you.

Who had ever called them, who had ever convicted them, who had ever regenerated them, who had ever made them Christians?

There's only one answer.

It is God.

He which has begun a good work in you.

This is his confidence.

I know, says Paul, that he will perform it.

He'll carry on with it until the day of Jesus Christ, until the final judgment.

I'm dying, he says.

I know I'm going, and I know all about the difficulties.

But you're not in my hands, you're not dependent upon me, you're not dependent upon yourself.

He has started this.

And what I know, says Paul, is this.

He never starts a work and then leaves it incomplete or unfinished.

He always finishes it.

God is eternally different from men.

Great characteristic of men is that he's always starting things, then he gets tired.

We are all like that, aren't we?

Suddenly we are, suddenly we are, suddenly we are.

Season in the church.

Wonderful, we are going to do that.

Soon goes.

That's the characteristic of man.

Doesn't complete, doesn't finish, loses interest, loses power.

But you see, we are not in that realm at all.

We're in the realm of God.

He sees the end from the beginning.

And what he has purpose to do, he is certainly going to do, and nothing and nobody can stop him.

So if he's begun, you can be quite sure he'll go on, and he'll finish.

Yes, says Paul, to these weaker brethren in Rome.

Don't worry, don't worry about this stronger brother.

God has started the work in him.

He'll hold him.

He's got the power.

And he'll bring him through to the end.

But this isn't confined to the Apostle Paul.

The Apostle Peter teaches exactly the same thing.

Listen to him in his first Epistle and in the first chapter.

Verses three and following.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again into a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you.

Who are you?

Who are kept, kept by the power of God.

Unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

Kept by the power of God, and if we were not, we'd none of us arrive at the inheritance.

That the God who has begotten us again is the God who will keep us.

Not only saves us, he keeps us and will keep us to the very end.

Yes, says Jude, it's quite right.

This is how he puts it, says Jude.

Now, to him that is able, same expression, has the power and the ability and the might.

Him that is able to keep us from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.

Amen.

But let the Lord himself have the last word in the New Testament scriptures about this very matter.

This is how he puts it.

Same thing exactly, no difference.

My sheep hear my voice.

John 10:27.

My sheep hear my voice.

And I know them.

That doesn't just mean that he knows about us, he has a personal interest in us.

He knows us in that sense, the same sense as Amos 3:3.

You only have I known of all the nations of the world.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

I and my Father are one.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Lord has power to hold him up.

He's able to.

And because he's able to, he will.

Now, that is the apostle's argument.

And you see, it is this great doctrine that runs through the New Testament.

And the writers of the hymns have caught it, many of them.

For some amazing reason, and perhaps not amazing.

The hymn book that is here before you has excluded most of these hymns I'm about to quote you.

You see, people no longer believe these things.

And that's why the church is as she is.

They're lying upon themselves and their pledges and their societies and their badges.

No, no.

Bring near thy great salvation, thou lamb for sinners slain, fill up the role of thy elect, then take thy power and reign.

Or take another.

Loved with everlasting love, led by grace that love to know, spirit breathing from above, thou hast taught me it is so, this full, this perfect peace, this transport all divine, in a love which cannot cease.

I am his, and he is mine.

Here's forever, forever, only his.

Who the Lord and me shall part.

Or with what a rest of bliss.

Christ can fill the loving heart.

Heaven and earth may fade and flee, first born light, in gloom decline, but while God and I shall be, I am his, and he is mine.

These are the writers of the hymns.

Yes, one which is in our hymn book.

By Isaac Watts.

Now, let my soul arise, and tread the tempter down.

My captain leads me forth to conquest and a crown.

A feeble saint shall win the day, though death and hell obstruct the way.

The saint is feeble.

But he's relying upon this all powerful captain, my captain leads me forth.

And though death and hell shall be in the way.

He will lead me, he will keep me, he will guide me all the way.

And so, you see, Toplady is able to put it in his way.

The work which his goodness began, the arm of his strength will complete.

His promise is yes and amen, and never will I be lost, for this I've profited yet.

Things future and things that are now, not all things below nor above, can make him his purpose forgo.

Or sever my soul from his love.

Don't worry, says Paul, to these weak Christians in Rome.

Don't be apprehensive.

Don't say he's certain to fall and to fail.

Try and understand this great salvation more thoroughly.

You seem to think that it's a salvation into which a man can be brought today and go out tomorrow, like a man coming ever to the penitent form, saved today, regenerated today, lost, unregenerated tomorrow, and back and forth and perhaps lost in the end.

Nonsense.

Ignorance.

That isn't how God does things.

Don't be worried, don't be nervous, don't be apprehensive.

He shall be held up.

The one who's brought him into the liberty will keep him in the liberty.

For the Lord is able to make us stand.

Stand in his great might, stand in his strength alone, and take to arm you for the fight.

Not the means and methods of the world, but the panoply of God.

Amen.

O Lord, our God, we thank thee for thy blessed, glorious truth.

We praise thy name more than ever that thou hast not left us to ourselves, that thou does not merely give us this life and then leave us to guard it and to live it.

We thank thee, O Lord, that thou does call us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Because it is God that works in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

O Lord, give us understanding of these things.

Lest in any way we should lean on the arm of flesh, we know the arm of flesh shall fail us.

We dare not trust our own.

We thank thee that thy mighty hand is upon us, and that thou will not let us go.

Receive our unworthy praise and worship and adoration.

We offer it in the name of thy dear Son, our blessed Lord and Savior.

And now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, abide and continue with us, now and evermore.

Amen.