I Corinthians 15:58 [King James Version]
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
This is the continuance of walking with Christ, coming into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ through His blood and through His Spirit, and then continuing strong with Him, strong enough so that we end the race with a victory. God has a glorious plan for all of us and it requires us to be careful. By and by when we become complacent, the world and all of the opinions around us begin to encroach upon our spiritual life and we can get to a state of self-satisfaction or smugness, and that is the beginning of backsliding. We want to know how to be victorious in the race and to be champions for Jesus Christ. I trust that that is your desire; it certainly is our desire and so let's get into The Word of God and find out how we can be not moved as we go through the journey with Jesus Christ.
So if the Apostle exhorts us by the Holy Spirit "Be steadfast, be steadfast, keep on, keeping on with Christ, don't give up, persevere, be unmovable," then the first thing to look at is how does one gets moved? You see it's only helpful for us to know how to be steadfast when we understand how we can protect ourselves from falling or backsliding or being moved. In order to avoid being moved from the hope of the gospel from the Christian Life, we need to understand that complacency is a dangerous thing for our souls. Many, many people are having a wonderful time enjoying the blessings of God, and that is what God wants. God wants us to enjoy His blessings. He gives us blessings to richly enjoy. So if we have money, we have clothing, food, shelter, and extra activities, that we are privileged to indulge in, God says, "there is nothing wrong with any of those so long as you remain steadfast in me." But this is precisely where many people enjoy the blessings of God in all the countries, you have families that enjoy the blessings of God, and yet they don't pay attention to what it requires to remain steadfast with Him.
So by and by, as I mentioned at the outset, complacency comes in. That is the attitude that says," I have the Word of God, I have a church, I have fellowship, I have teaching that I listen to perhaps through the media, I have my own family celebrations and I include God in there. What is wrong with me? There is nothing wrong with me." Paul says he had not achieved it, but he is reaching forward to that prize. Certainly, he had to leave what was old behind in order to get that which God had for him. So the first thing is to understand that complacency should never come into our lives. Complacency is the poison that begins the downfall of those who have been given freely the gift of life. It's all by grace, but the grace of God must not be held in vain. So, the complacency is that smugness that makes us to have the spiritual state of satisfaction that “Lord, I don't need to pay too much attention to my walk with You because everything is guaranteed, right?” The Lord only guarantees everlasting inheritance to those who are steadfast with Him and persevere to the end. That is the truth. When this complacency comes in and I feel satisfied and self-satisfied, I look out into the field as it were of my own status in society, of my own achievements, and I feel a sense of perhaps thankfulness but also a sense of satisfaction that I have achieved something.
But it is the Christian that is ever alert to the voice of the Holy Spirit that can navigate through prosperity or seeming prosperity and still keep his soul in the right trajectory in the spiritual domain to walk straight toward the Lord Jesus, to bear the cross denying oneself and then bearing all things. Complacency leads to compromise. The downward spiral begins. Compromise is saying that I have made an agreement with something that I know is not favorable to me. In the spiritual sense, it is something that I know is dead wrong, dead set against God's Word and Will, but I begin to make a bargain, you know why? Because I have become self-satisfied that I know what I am doing and I know that I won't fall no matter what I do. It's a false sense of security. So the compromise sets in and it is essentially a concession: I concede to the enemy and all the worldly voices which come and bring pressure on me to deviate from the Word of God. It may mean this, if we have children, particularly teenage children, it may mean conceding or making a concession compromising with the moral and ethical standards God has set forth in His Word. So here comes a teenage daughter and son, they want to mingle with the world and they want to have a relationship with other members of the opposite sex and they are contemplating perhaps marriage in the future. They begin to date; they begin to live together, cohabitation. If I become complacent with my spiritual walk with God based on the pressure that I get from my teenager and perhaps other worldly people around me, I may very well begin to make a compromise and say, "well at least, my child is not doing what this person is doing - something worse. It doesn't mean that this is harmless, this is actually wrong before God, but I'm allowing this relationship because at least they are wise enough not to run off, run away from me." That is the deadly nature of compromise. That our spiritual eyesight becomes dim and we begin to bargain with the devil, bargain with society, with the worldly spirits and we start going further down. That's the danger. We start saying essentially what the Lord God forbids, what I have learned from Christ is not really practical any longer. It's not practical. The most practical thing in the universe is to obey the Lord's commandments because therein lies every good thing and all success and prosperity, now and forevermore. But the voice of compromise says God's standards are too strict, it is antiquated, and I can't live by His standards today and get by in the world.
That is the voice of the devil who has only been able to speak that to you if you have felt that complacency in your life that, "I am untouchable, I can't be touched by the devil because I'm secure in Christ, I don't need to watch my life, I'm covered by the blood, it's all secure from now on." The Scripture says the contrary. It says, "be unmovable, be steadfast." The exhortations are "watch yourself, watch your life and your doctrine, make sure that no one takes your crown" so it's contrary to scripture. But that's what happens. Complacency leads to compromise. Once that compromise comes in with all the pressures coming into our heads and our minds, into our hearts, the natural result is total confusion. The confusion that comes and makes us lose our spiritual compass, our moral compass, our ethical compass: everything. This is how it starts.
We all know that addictions never grip a person overnight. They come in doses and over time. As a person concedes to the wrong and unwanted things in this world, by and by those things grab a hold of the heart and then the heart becomes confused; and it loses all direction and anything that is right, and it is just a matter of time before the devil can destroy that person altogether. We all are rescued from a state of confusion. We were held captive by the devil against our will but the Son of God came, and by His grace He rescued us. We thank God for that, but like the woman at the Samaritan well who was immoral, when she was forgiven so freely and so readily by the Lord Jesus Christ, He expected her to go on; and she immediately, as we heard in the prophecy, left everything, that water, that well that she boasted off, she left everything to go and tell the good news. So must we; God wants us to go forward and be steadfast. So we need to guard against complacency, guard against compromise which will lead to confusion and that confusion will only lead to condemnation.
The condemnation can be looked at from two angles - one is our own heart condemning us. We know that although we are confused, we are in the wrong place. We know deep within ourselves that, "I have been complacent, I have therefore compromised now I am confused and certainly I'll be condemned." The scripture says this in I John 3:20, for if our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.
I'll mention it again, I John 3:20 and also 3:21 [King James Version]
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
You see, he knows us better than we know ourselves. Before we feel condemned for something that we have done wrong and our conscience condemns us, our heart condemns us, God already knows that, and God will mete out the appropriate judgment if we don't repent.
I John 3:21 says that
Beloved, good news is if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
It goes on there, we won't read it, but it goes on to say that, that confidence gives us assurance that what we ask God for, He will grant. We have a hearing with the Lord. How wonderful!! The truth is balanced to show very clearly that the wicked - those who know Christ and who have rejected Him by compromising will be punished; but the Lord says in Ezekiel [English Standard Version][, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Why will you die O Israel?" Death is trying to make inroads into our families every day.
All of our choices will determine our destiny, the choices that we make in moral standards, ethical standards, things that God has told us specifically to do, we have neglected because of complacency, “I don't need that now. I don't need that warning" - that will end the person in hell. But when I say, "Lord, I humbly come to You every day, praising You and honoring You, but examining my heart before You, when I have the Word of God" is a Christian.
If the Holy Spirit is showing me the truth and I don't become complacent, I don't compromise, I don't go into confusion, I'm not condemned, then I'm walking in the right way. It's very important to follow the Spirit of God. If the Spirit of God is showing you that certain things will take you away from the right course, it will cause you to lose your steadfastness, you must be very keen on obeying Him rather than man, to be a God pleaser and not a man-pleaser. Doesn't matter if it's your own children, do not be a man-pleaser but be a God-pleaser. Once you please God, then you can build up your fellow man, your family, for edification for good. So, these are the steps down to backsliding or losing my steadfastness with the Lord. The glorious thing is we don't have to backslide. You may have seen many people backslide; you may have seen many people compromise; indeed, it is true! When we look at the cross-section of Christianity in the church there is tremendous compromise across the board, and across the world; people don't value holiness anymore. Holiness is a secondary or tertiary concept. The first thing is you must feel good, you must feel that you're important and that people notice you. This is nothing different from the world. If I have that worldliness in me, I have compromised. I need to get back and say, "Lord, forgive me for becoming what I used to be; what I should have left, Lord I'm back in the same place. You came, You gave me tremendous worth, You gave me Your own life, Your own blood, I'm worth something much more than I could have ever dreamed. Why do I need the world's approval? Lord, help me not to drift away from you."
So if these are the steps to a downward spiral of backsliding and losing the steadfastness, how do I maintain my steadfastness? And that is the title of the message and the topic, how to remain steadfast in the Lord or how to be steadfast in the Lord? The Lord is coming for a bride who will be steadfast in the truth, who will be steadfast in holiness, steadfast and not compromising with the world. The opposite of all this is, first of all, to be careful; it is very important that we guard against any tendencies to backslide in our Christian walk.
The first step is to be careful, give carefulness, and be very careful about the things of God. What things of God? The essentials: We can call the essentials, namely prayer, the reading of the Word, holy fellowship, obedience, and a life of praise. These are indispensable and absolutely required for us to be steadfast in the Lord to go forward, without backsliding or losing ground. Why should we lose ground? If you recall in the Old Testament, the Lord said to the Israelites, you have spent enough time here on this mountain, it's time for you to move forward. By the time Joshua took over in the book of Joshua and Moses had gone on, the Lord said to Joshua, there remains yet much land to be possessed. Whose fault is that that it wasn't possessed? Was it God's? Certainly not! God said," I wanted you to possess it but you are off from my time schedule here, you are off from my calendar. I wanted you to do this, that, and another thing to gain victory in my kingdom, But you stayed behind, you began to go backward. We don't need to be like that. All these things are written not to emulate but to be an example for us so that we don't go in the wrong way and lose the benefits of God by compromising. The Israelites compromised a great deal. God had to continually warn them. In fact, in I Corinthians and II Corinthians there is mention of Israel about how they had the word but they didn't mix it with faith. They didn't believe it. They didn't go forward. They started neglecting certain things. They neglected the law. God purposely and specifically told them, Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that you observe to do according to all that is in them: then you make your way prosperous and then you have good success.
So the success God wants to give us is based directly on His word. So the first thing to avoid backsliding in my life and your life is to give attendance to the reading of the Word of God. That's the very basic thing. Someone may think, why do you mention that? That is already understood. You're a Christian, you read the Word of God. It's not so simple because many people neglect that very thing. They minimize it or they do away with it altogether. They begin to feed on the diet of listening to others who read the Word for them. When you have the Word of God, a copy of the Word of God, it is your high privilege to read that book day in and day out, to not only become familiar with the ways of God but to actively incorporate that Word into your life so that it can minister to you - mix it with faith, so it can produce good fruit. So, first thing is to give attendance to reading the Word of God. In I Timothy 4:13 it says "till I come give attendance to reading to the exhortation to doctrine." Now, how can I get a spiritual exhortation in doctrine if I don't have the reading of the Word of God? I need the Word of God to show me the difference between God's voice and the other voices. So, the first thing to guard me against backsliding, against you from backsliding is to give careful attention to the reading of the Word of God. How much do you read every day and how often do you read? There is a gentleman that got saved about a year and a half now and he was completely in the world, that's all he knew. When He got saved, no one had to tell him, but he got himself a Bible and though he worked long hours every day and came home to a family that needed his attention with small children, he would not neglect the reading of the Word of God. He was absolutely exhausted, working some 12 or 14 hours, and coming home. The food is not ready, nothing is cooked, he had to cook sometimes, the children are crying, they want his attention, noise everywhere and he has to get up again early in the morning. Do you know what he did? He found himself a little haven, as it were, in the restroom. In his own house, in that place, he opened the Word of God and made sure that he read the Word of God every day. Within 8 or 9 months, he completed the whole Bible. It wasn't a race but, his heart's desire was, "I must know God!", and so he read the Word every day. And so if he can do that and he came from a background where he didn't like to read at all - He didn't do well in school; He was amidst a culture that was basically accustomed to the street life; they were not at all involved in reading books or education for that matter - but look at the desire and the steadfastness because he was careful to read the Word of God. You and I must do that. Otherwise, we will begin to become complacent. So, the first thing is to give carefulness, the attendance to the reading of the Word of God.
The second thing is to give attendance and be careful to pray. Do not neglect prayer. God says to us in Colossians 4:2: continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Again someone might say, this is basic, of course, we will pray - but how much do you pray? How often do you pray? How well do you pray? Do you pray with faith? Is your prayer regular? Is your prayer regular before the Lord? Do you have constant communication that you will not forfeit regardless of the pressures of the world or the pressures on your physical body from being at work or doing things during the day to give that carefulness? This is the deciding factor. We can go through a laundry list as it were of what to do and what not to do. But the essential thing here is the word carefulness, be careful, guard it, prioritize it, value it above everything else, value the reading of the Word of God, and have a staple diet in the Word of God. Like that person that got saved, I just mentioned a few moments ago, be in this book even if you are down and out and tired. He found a way to read because he had the will to read. So, the next thing is the prayer, regular prayer.
The third thing is holy fellowship. It says in Hebrew 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting or encouraging one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching. What day? The day of the Lord. The judgment day. The end. As we have a view as a Christian far from being complacent but being careful to the things of God as we give attendance to the Word of God to reading it, to prayer, regular prayer both with faith not just a routine without faith but with faith and fervency. Third, don't neglect but be careful to have that holy fellowship. Holy fellowship is having fellowship not only with God but also with those who are like-minded. Those who are determined to get the crown from the Lord, at all costs, who are determined to obey the voice of the Lord, who are determined to stand alone if it were against all of the distractions in the world, against all of the ridicule and the persecution and the isolation that very often comes when we walk in the right way. Those who have like-mindedness gather together, and there is a holy fellowship. Find those people. Ask God to show you those people. As I said, the majority are more interested in how to have one foot with God in His kingdom and one foot in the world. To find that compromise, seems the right thing to be, that practical thing to do, but it is actually the deadly thing to do, it's the wrong thing to do. So when you find people who want to go with Jesus Christ all the way and please Him, who enlisted them as soldiers in His kingdom, the high privilege. When you come together and you don’t forsake that assembling but rather you encourage each other as you see the day approaching.
The fourth thing to avoid backsliding is after reading, praying, and maintaining holy fellowship, very essential to build our inner man and maintain our walk, the fourth thing is obedience, again someone might say, well that is so simple, that is understood, but again most people do not obey God. They may obey in some things but they don't obey in all things. God wants wholehearted obedience. In Titus 3:8 the apostle speaks of maintaining good works. When I obey Jesus Christ and I'm in the vine, the fruit will flow, they will come out, it'll be produced, and the fruit will be the light that will come out from me and then into the world and the people see the good works and then glorify my Father, which is in heaven. So the obedience is as it says in Titus 3:8 This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. Do you have that in your life? Good works that issue forth from a living faith, it says these things are good and profitable unto men. We are not speaking of simply charity without genuine faith, we are speaking of those who have been grafted into the vine of Jesus Christ and have His life flowing through them and they produce the good fruit, which becomes that charitable work. They know who they are in Christ and they rely upon Him to produce the good works and those good works will last.
