1st Corinthians – Wayne Barber/Part 10
| By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©1998 |
| The eighth characteristic of the church of God is the church of God walks and lives in eternal assurance. Now if you have any struggle with the assurance of your salvation, you listen up to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:8, “who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” |
I Corinthians 1:8
Contents
What Is the Church of God? – Part 7
I hope you understand how important these first nine verses are to our study of 1 Corinthians. They form a grid through which the rest of the book must be looked at. When we leave verses 1-9, and we start dealing with the divisions and the factions and the problems in the church, remember, Paul has already said some things that are very, very key to what causes life to be turned right side up.
What’s happened in Corinth is their lives are upside down. That’s why he’s writing to them. It’s a problem church. There are more problems in this church than in just about any of the New Testament that we study and love so much.
The Church of God Walks and Lives in Eternal Assurance
Let’s go back to the eighth characteristic of the church of God. I want to redo that one and rename it. The eighth characteristic of the church of God is the church of God walks and lives in eternal assurance. Now if you have any struggle with the assurance of your salvation, you listen up to what he’s about to say right here. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:8, “who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, that’s an important, important verse. The word “confirm” there is the future indicative of the word, bebaioo. It’s the word, when referring to persons, that has the idea of strengthening. But it also has the idea of keeping us standing in the grace that we already have. Man, this is beautiful. We have His grace, and we stand it.
But God promises this to the church of Corinth, who’s living upside down lives. They’re not living surrendered lives, but Paul tells them they will be confirmed all the way to the end, blameless until His appearing.
Now look over in Romans 5:1. Paul says the same thing in other places. This is so significant to understand. Believing you can lose your salvation can only come from a misunderstanding of what salvation is to start with. You do not realize what happened to you when you put your faith into Jesus Christ, and you don’t understand the keeping power of the grace of God. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have [that’s a present active infinitive, we continuously have] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through Him we have peace with God. He became sin for us. He that knew no sin became sin for us that we might wear His robe of righteousness.
Verse 2 continues, “through whom [speaking of Jesus] also we have obtained…” perfect active indicative. What does that mean? Something happened way back here, perfect tense, and we made a choice. Alright, now, it’s affecting us way over here. That’s the perfect tense. We’re the state we’re in because of something that happened back here.
He says, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained [perfect active indicative] our introduction….” How did we get this introduction, by the way, into His grace? “by faith into this grace [now look at this next phrase] in which we stand.” In other words, when I received grace and accessed it by faith, then I was invited right in to partake of and to receive that which He’s given me. Now way down the road here, because of that event, I still stand in the grace of God.
You know in the Old Testament they were always worried about God taking His Spirit away from them. That was a constant thing. Or God turning His face away from them was even worse than that. I remember when Cain sinned and was banished he said, “God has turned His face away from me.” But you see, God turned His face away from His own Son on the cross. Why? So that He would never have to turn His face away from you and me. We eternally stand in the grace of God. He’s consistently looking right at us. He does not turn away from us. He loves us through His Son, and His grace keeps us. We stand in that grace, the eternal favor of God that man could never deserve in a million years, that transforming enabling power that God has given us by giving us the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God that lives within us, the loving marvelous grace of God.
You know, I hear people all the time talking about, “Boy, you better hold on to Jesus. You better hold on to Jesus.” Thank God when we studied Hebrews we understand that it’s Him who holds on to us. This covenant is not built upon my faithfulness to God. It’s built upon God’s faithfulness to me as we’ll also see a little later on in 1 Corinthians 1:9. Dwight L. Moody said, “Trust in yourself and you’re doomed to disappointment. Trust in your friends and they’ll die and leave you. Trust in your money and it will be taken away from you. Trust in your reputation and some slanderous tongue will blast it. But trust in God and you’re never to be confounded in time or eternity.” Martin Luther said, “I have held many things in my hands and lost them all but whatever I have placed into God’s hands, I still have.” Just like Paul said, “I know whom I have believed in and am totally convinced that He is able to keep that which I have committed.”
You see, grace is something that keeps us. If we don’t understand that then we’re constantly worried about something that God’s not worried about and constantly thinking, “Have I lost my salvation in case of failure in my life or whatever?” But the Scripture says that He will confirm us blameless until that day.
Look there at 1 Corinthians 1:8, “who shall also confirm you to the end.” I want to make sure we understand what “the end” is because the context has already told you in verse 7. The end there does not mean just until the day you die. That’s nice to know that He will do that, by the way. It’s not just until then. It’s not just until He’s finished with whatever it is He’s assigned you or me down here on this earth. But it’s all the way until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. That word telos is the word that means to accomplish a goal.
I remember when my son first played t-ball. Well, he didn’t understand the bases. I had taught him all this stuff, but his mind froze up when people were watching him. He got up to the plate and hit the ball really well, knocks it. He didn’t know which way to run. I’m going to help him. I came out of the stands and said, “Follow me, Stephen.” You see the goal was to get all the way around the bases. When you touched home base you’ve accomplished the goal. I remember going by first base and I said, “Touch that bag!”, and he touched that bag and kept on running. “Touch the bag!” We ran all the way around. When we came across home plate, they all applauded me. I’m just trying to help him out.
But you see, crossing the goal, finishing or accomplishing something. He wasn’t accomplished if he just got to first base. He wasn’t accomplished until he got all the way around to home. He finished what he set out to do. There was a task at hand and he accomplished that task.
Now the task is being preserved blameless until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, that day of Christ, the appearing of Christ, has everything to do with our glorified body. Do you know you’re going to get a glorified body? We’re all in desperation, aren’t we? We need a glorified body. That’s going to come when we see the Lord Jesus. When we see Him, He’s going to give us that glorified body. When Christ comes, the final chapter of our adoption is going to be written. That final chapter is when we get a glorified body. So He’s going to confirm us until that day, not just until we die. We may die before the Lord Jesus comes for His church. Not just until we finish our task down here. We may be taken out of here in no time. We don’t know when that’s going to be. But He’s going to confirm us. He’s going to make us strong. He’s going to keep us standing in the grace that He has given to us all the way until the goal has been accomplished of our redemption which is that we get a glorified body.
The word telos is the word used in John 19:30: “When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine (on the cross), he said, ‘It is finished!’“ In other words, that which I came to do is finished. You see, man never took Jesus’ life on the cross. He dismissed His own human spirit and gave His life upon the cross. “And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.”
In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul uses that same word. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” I believe what Paul is saying is, “I’ve won the battle over Paul and learned to allow God to use me the way He wants to use me. I know He’s accomplished what He wanted to accomplish in my life, and now I’m looking forward to going to get the crown that God has for me.”
So again, what is the goal of which He is confirming us until the end? What is the end? What is the goal? The end is, the goal is, the appearing of our Lord directly associated with our adoption and our glorified body one day. When you add verses 7 and 8 together, it makes all the sense in the world: “so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We know that the day of our Lord Jesus Christ is something the church should be looking forward to. Do you know the differences in the terms, “the day of the Lord” and “the day of Christ”? There are two different terms there. The “day of the Lord” is something to be feared. The “day of Christ” is something to be looked forward to by the church because that’s when He appears for us. That’s when He takes us up to be with Himself and that’s when we get our glorified body. Notice, He’s going to confirm us until that end and that end would be that day.
But how’s He going to confirm us? He’s not going to confirm us sinless; He’s going to confirm us blameless. That’s all the difference in the world. How in the world can you confirm a bunch of people like the people in Corinth who made a meal out of the Lord’s Supper and totally obliterated the meaning of it, who chased after gifts, who were calling Jesus a curse? How in the world could He ever confirm them? He couldn’t confirm them sinless but He could confirm them blameless. That’s very, very important. No accusation can ever be brought against us, now listen to me, which would threaten our eternal position in Jesus Christ.
Now to say that no accusation could ever brought against us against us, that’s crazy. Any time you do something or I do something, somebody will bring an accusation against us. But whatever accusation comes against us, none of them can threaten the position we have in Christ and the position we have in His grace, under His grace because He’s going to accomplish a goal in our life of taking us all the way to the finish line, of taking us all the way through to being glorified.
As a matter of fact, look over in Romans 8:1. The word “blameless” tells you everything. It’s that accusation that can be brought against us, but it can never in any way threaten our position in Christ. We may fail, we may sin, we may blow it royally down here on this earth, but if you’re a believer, you cannot have an accusation brought against you that would in any way threaten your life in Christ.
Some people think that’s a cop-out. “Yeah, that’s great. You just gave license to people to live like they want to live.” No, no, no. Listen to it all the way through. That’s just a statement I made right there concerning these verses. There are other verses that cover those bases and we’ll get to those when it’s time. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Where were you before? You see, before we were in Adam. That’s where the condemnation was. That’s when sin entered in the world and death by sin because all sinned. But what happens when you put your faith into Christ, receiving the grace that He has given to you, you are taken out of Adam and you’re put into Christ and once you’re in Christ, all the blame fell on Him. How can it fall on you? He took it for you. Therefore no accusation can threaten your position of being in Christ Jesus.
Look at Romans 8:33-34. If you’ve ever studied Romans, you know what he’s talking about. He’s talking about what Christ has done for us. Romans 6:7-8 are critical to understanding this whole message of grace. Romans 8:33 reads, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?” Anybody want to stand up? Paul under the leadership of the Holy Spirit is saying, “Anybody want to stand up and bring a charge against God’s elect?” Look at what he said, “God is the one who justifies [Not man, God justifies]; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
In other words, it’s almost like, who will bring a charge against God’s elect? Who? Do you mean somebody would dare stand up and threaten that which Jesus Christ has done for us upon the cross? That’s the idea here, that we’re in Him. We will be preserved, confirmed, kept under His grace until the end, until He carries our redemption all the way through.
Now, let’s go back to that question. Many, many people believe that if you believe in eternal security, then evidently you must give license to sin. That’s what they think. But again, they say anybody who says they love Jesus is a Christian, too. They don’t even understand what belief is all about and what it means to become a believer. But they use that as a blanket statement. You say, “Well, that’s a pretty good statement, isn’t it? Look at the church of Corinth. You’re telling me they’re going to be confirmed until that day?” No, I’m not telling you. That’s what Paul’s telling them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. How can that be? Does that mean when we see Jesus one day, then it’s all going to be the same? Does that mean we’re each going to get the same reward regardless of how we’ve lived down here? Not at all.
Look in 1 Corinthians 3:8. This is one of the verses. We’ll look at more when we get there. 1 Corinthians 3:8 says, “Now he who plants and he who waters are one [But now look at this next phrase because it’s so key and it’s used many times. We’ll study all those places when we get to this verse]; but each will receive his own reward according to his own [what?] labor.” Just like it says in another place that we’ll be judged according to the deeds done in the body. In another place it says it will be “wood, hay, and stubble, and precious stones.” In other words, the wood, hay, and stubble is what we did after our own flesh offered it back to God, but precious stones will be that which we allowed God to do through us as we found our purpose was to be a vessel through which God could work.
But all who are in Christ, regardless of their immaturity, regardless of what they do or don’t do, will be kept blameless until that day. No one can bring an accusation against us that would threaten in any way what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.
Now, let’s talk again about that day of our Lord Jesus Christ, the “day of Christ” versus the “day of the Lord.” There’s going to be a great day that Christians are looking forward to. We’re all looking to His return, to His appearing, to the day of Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the one who came to pay the penalty of our sin. We’re looking forward to that or at least we say we are. I hear people all the time saying, “The King is coming. The King is coming.” Everybody’s talking about the coming of the Lord and nobody’s living as if they expect Him to come. It’s interesting to me. But the day of Christ is what we focus on.
Now, on the flip side of that, the day of Christ begins something else. Once the church has been taken out, there’s another day that’s going to start and it’s called the “day of the Lord.” It’s interesting here that Paul writes “the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.” You’ve got the whole thing built into this. You’ve got the day of the Lord. That’s when He, Himself, is going to come and put an end to sin on this earth. It’s going to be a seventieth week of Daniel, the seven year period of time. We all know that’s another study. But that’s the day of the Lord. Remember, the great day of the Lord is the last three and one-half years of that seven year period of time.
But the day of Christ is what we look forward to. He’s going to confirm us until the day of Christ. That’s going to be His appearing. That’s going to be when we get our glorified body. We live in an evil day, but the day of Christ is coming. Thank God for it. He’s going to take us out. That word in 1 Thessalonians 4 when it says, “He will take us up,” is the word harpazo. It means to snatch. It’s like a wolf coming in to a flock of sheep and snatching one out. It’s imminent. It’s sudden. He’s going to take us out of here and we’ll meet Him in the air. Then begins the day of the Lord.
Go over to Philippians 1:6. Paul says the same thing. He talks about this day and what we have to look forward to. It’s a wonderful, wonderful day to look forward to if we’re living set apart for His purposes. If we’re living as those who depend upon His grace and His peace, as if we lack nothing in Christ, we look forward to it. You don’t look forward to it when you’re not living that way, if you live as if you lack. Notice the wording in Philippians 1:6. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it [or perform it or carry it to its fullest accomplishment] until the day of Christ Jesus.” Here is that day again, the same day he mentions in Corinthians to the church of Corinth. There’s a day coming when Jesus is coming for His church.
Somebody asked me recently, “How close do you think we are to that day?” I’m going to be honest with you. Every time I go to Israel it just pumps me up and fires me up one more time. I believe that we’re so close to it, folks. If we really understood how close we are, it would change every bit of our living tomorrow. If we really believe this, how close we really are. Nothing has to happen except the fullness of the Gentiles. When that last Gentile comes to know Christ, whenever that is, buddy, that’s it. That’s when Jesus comes for His church, the fullness of the Gentiles. Then He turns His eyes from the Gentile world and turns His eyes to the nation of Israel that He has not forgotten. You see, the day of the Lord is something that unbelievers would fear but the day of Christ is something that believers look forward to.
Look over in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 just to make sure that you understand that we do not have to receive the wrath that is coming. We won’t receive it as believers. I’ll tell you why, because Christ has already received that wrath upon the cross. You either receive the lamb or you receive the wrath. The Psalmist says, “Who has known the wrath of God?” Only one. That’s Jesus Himself. When God the Father turned His back to Him when He was on the cross He understood the full wrath of God upon sin and then was raised from the dead. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, “For God has not destined us for wrath [By the way, that’s not even a definite article there. For any type of the wrath of God to fall upon us] but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Remember, salvation is in three tenses. We have been saved. We are being saved, and one day we shall be rescued from this evil world that we live in. Then starts the day of the Lord and the wrath of God will fall. And during the last three and one-half years, the great wrath of God will occur. So I’m going to say it again. The day of Christ is what we look forward to and we’ll be confirmed until that day. It is on that day, when we see Him, that we’ll be given a body, a glorified body which will close the book on redemption as far as the three chapters are concerned. It will be the final chapter. Then another one will be written from that point on because now we’re with Him, and we’re like Him. We will be confirmed blameless until that day.
You ask, “Can we be sure that we’re going to escape that wrath? How can we know for sure that we’re going to be confirmed until the end? I know I just read it but what can you tell me that might somehow make me sleep better at night?” Well, let me just go on to 1 Corinthians 1:9. The first phrase of verse 9 shows you the character of the one who says this through the apostle Paul. This is so important to understand. What are the first three words of chapter 9? “God is what faithful.” I could say, “Now listen, folks, you can trust me. I’m faithful to tell you the truth.” But I’d go home and lose a lot of sleep. I’m not saying that to you. I didn’t write it. I didn’t say it. God said it through His apostle Paul and it’s based upon the character, not just the conduct, of Almighty God who said it. God is faithful.
There’s no verb there. “Is” should be in italics. Actually faithful is an adjective describing the character of God. The word for faithful is pistos. It can be used in an active or passive sense. When it’s used of man, it’s in an active sense because man must put his trust into God. That’s something man must do. But when it’s used of God, it’s never used in an active sense. It’s used in a passive sense and it means that God is worthy of our trust. What he’s saying here is, write this one down, “God is worthy of our trust.” Don’t you dare trust Wayne Barber. Don’t you ever trust what I say. You go back to the Word and let the Word of God be the foundation. If you think I’m wrong then study it out, reason to see if that’s what God says. And I’ll tell you what, if that’s what God says, you trust what it says and you trust the One who said it and the character of the One who said it. God’s reliable and God is worthy of our trust. He is faithful. Again, it’s not a reference to His conduct but a reference to His character.
When we think of the faithful and trustworthy character of God, look at what Paul has already told us. To the Corinthian church he says, “God has enriched you in everything.” He was faithful to do that. He says in verse 6, “He confirmed His testimony in you and among you.” Then in verses 7 and 8 it extends all the way to the future. “I’m going to confirm you,” He says, “all the way to the day of Christ, to the day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus.” Listen to me. In the changing world we live in, thank God, there’s an unchangeable truth and that truth is God is faithful. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. The very word “faithful” has the idea of something that is steadfast, immovable, never changes. Something that is trustworthy.
In a silly way a compass can be used at times to be trustworthy although there are times when the compass gets off, especially if there’s anything that can pull it off. But you can trust that most of the time to take you a certain direction. The idea of being faithful is that God will never vary, not like a compass. God is always going to be who He is. He’s going to stand upon that which He said and will carry us all the way through just like He said He would do.
Peter uses this word. The reason I’m saying that is the changeable circumstances of our life sometimes turn us upside down and all of a sudden we get everything out of kilter. “God, do you even know what’s going on?” Habakkuk did it. Jeremiah did it. Go through the Old Testament. “God, where are you?” You see, they don’t seem to understand that God’s always there and God’s always faithful even though life’s circumstances sometimes may be so unchangeable it can throw us off course.
As a matter of fact, it happened in Asia Minor when Nero burned Rome and blamed the Christians for it. The persecutions swept the continent of Asia Minor, so Peter sat down and wrote them a letter, as he, himself, was looking forward to being a martyr for the faith. Look at what he said in 1 Peter 4:19. He uses this word “faithful” in a context that I think should speak to every one of us. Again, the context is the worst time believers had ever gone through. He says, “Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls….” Now, he’s talking to people who are suffering. You see, just because God is faithful doesn’t mean we won’t suffer. But in the midst of our suffering God is still faithful. That’s what he’s saying. He goes on to say, “to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”
Now folks, I don’t know what’s going on in your life. Maybe everything has calmed down a little bit in your life and you can say, “Well, I can accept that.” But I want to tell you. Everything could turn upside down. Everything can change but don’t lose sight of that which is unchangeable. God is faithful. God is faithful. Like that old lighthouse that stood out on the point. I love that song, “If it wasn’t for the lighthouse.” I love that song because that lighthouse is a picture, again, of something that’s steadfast, immovable, something that’s always the same. It gives you direction, and you start anchoring your life to these truths. God is faithful.
I’ll tell you. The faithful character of God is seen in all He has sovereignly established. The laws of nature, for instance, and the law of gravity. You know, if you throw something up in the air, it’s going to come down. The laws of gravity haven’t changed, folks, and God established them. Look at the seasons of the year. They come, don’t they? Aren’t you glad every morning the sun comes up? You can set your watch by it in certain seasons of the year. Sometimes it can change a little bit because we have daylight savings time and Pacific time and so forth. Who cares what time zone you’re in? The sun still comes up and the sun goes down at night. You can rest assured that those things won’t change because the God who established them is unchangeable, you see. You can look around you and see the faithfulness of God.
There’s a beautiful picture of the faithfulness of God in the Psalms. Look over in Psalm 36:5. The King James translation, to me, picks it up better then the New American Standard. It says in verse 5, “Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens.” And then it gives you an idea of the limitless of it. It goes on, “Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies.” That’s a precious thought, but the King James version doesn’t say, “the skies.” It uses the same Hebrew word, but it translates it “to the clouds.” When I looked it up it seemed like it has more the idea of clouds, not just skies. I like that better.
Think with me for a second. “Thy faithfulness extends to the clouds.” Think for a second what he’s saying here. Is there anything any more uncertain than a cloud? Have you ever laid on your back on a day when a rainstorm was coming and looked at the clouds? I have and found little animals in the clouds or faces or whatever. How quickly you find it and how quickly it changes. Which direction is the cloud going? Well, you think it’s going that way, but suddenly you look and it’s going that way. Is there any rhyme or reason to a cloud? There’s nothing structurally that you could put there. There’s nothing direction-wise you could put there. That’s just totally out of sorts. But God’s faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. In other words, behind what you think is unstable up there in the skies is a sovereign faithful God who’s in charge of it. What looks to us as uncertain, to Him is not uncertain. For He is faithfulness and His ways are steadfast.
What could the Psalmist be saying to us in our life? Look at your life right now. What’s going on in your life right now? I guarantee you, somebody is about ready to check out. You’ve probably said, “God, if this is salvation, just take me home.” Have you ever done that? I prayed one night to die. I did. I’m glad God doesn’t answer all my prayers the way I ask. Life sometimes gets like those clouds. You don’t know where it’s headed. You don’t know what’s going on. You don’t have any answers. And you start going to man, which is the worst thing you can do. Behind all that uncertainty, like the clouds that are in the sky, God is in control.
Do you know how I know that? Because He’s faithful and that which is faithful is immovable and steadfast and never can be questioned. That’s the character that you trust. That kind of God will carry us all the way through to His appearing, to the day of Christ. His sovereign power orders those things.
You know how a storm can bring terror in your life. We can talk about that literally or figuratively. I used to love storms when I was growing up. My daughter never liked storms. Whenever there was thunder I would have to go lie down with her for a while because she just couldn’t stand it. But I love storms. Recently we’ve had a storm I’m not so sure I’d love. But I mean, a typical thunder storm. But what is the first thing a child thinks of? It’s terror. He hears the thunder, the noise and the lightning and the wind and it strikes terror in that child’s heart. But if that child understands who the God of the storm really is, then that child, by trusting in the faithful character of God, which is steadfast, immovable and trustworthy, that robs that storm of its ability to put terror in his heart by trusting the One who is faithful, not in the uncertainty of the storm. We rob it, take it right away from it.
How quickly life will turn on you. How quickly that storm will move in to your life. How quickly that thunder will roar and all of a sudden you think God is as changeable as you are and you forget and you move off dead center that He is faithful and He is faithful to do that which He has said He’ll do. Behind every circumstance of your life, no matter whether you planned it or didn’t plan it, God’s behind it. Don’t turn to man. Turn to Him and remember He’s the God of the storm and will confirm you blameless to the end. You’re going to make it. That’s what Paul’s saying to them. You’re going to make it. Now get in line with what God says instead of what your mind’s telling you and let God be who He is and do what He wants to do through your life. He confirms us to the day of Christ. He’s bringing us through. His faithfulness anchors our trust. That’s what he’s saying.
I don’t know about you but if you live fully possessed by God, you’ve been bought with a price, if you live set apart for His purpose, you wake up every day and say, “Okay God, let’s go. What do You want done in my life today?” You live trusting and depending on Him for everything, particularly His grace and His peace. You live as if you lack nothing in Christ. He is your total sufficiency. There’s nothing you do not have in Him. You live eagerly awaiting His coming and you walk in the assurance of your salvation, you’re going to be one different kind of person than the people we find at Corinth and in the letter of I Corinthians.
So my question to you is also the question right back to me. “How are we living?” How are we doing? We ought to get a T-shirt and put the word “But” on it. Isn’t that a word we use a lot in our vocabulary? I can hear people saying it to me all the time. “But, Wayne.” Or my kids used to say, “But, Dad.” Hey, folks, get off that kick. If God said it, live under it and watch how your life will be different. You watch. He anchors us. He’s faithful.
You say, “Well, I don’t see how you can say all this stuff.” I can say it because I’ve studied the Word of God and that’s what I believe it says. You check it out and see if I’m right. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I’m not the authority but I rest in what I know the Word of God has to say. He tells me that He’s going to confirm me all the way to the end, failure or no failure. Now, it’s up to me to understand the goodness of God and what brings a man to repentance.
