How to Keep Going

Hi, this is the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. Today is the start of a new series called How to Keep Going. How do we keep going in the Christian life when sometimes we find ourselves walking in darkness and we just don't see any light of our own? What about when we feel completely overwhelmed by our failures? when life is just not working out the way we imagined or planned.

Well, we're going to look at several encouraging insights in this mini-series, so thanks for joining us. Let's dive in now. Here's John with How to Keep Going, Part 1. How to keep going.

So Let me introduce it like this. Too often the Christian life is presented as being an experience of unbroken joy. Tranquility. Upward and onward, we're told, right? Victory celebration.

A quiet, a sunny, high life without agony. Free from distress at the quality of one's walk with God and one's service towards others. Everything is bright and everything is happy. It's always a sunrise every day. And so when you first become a Christian, everything is new and fresh and exciting, and you're walking with the Lord and you're seriously loving Him and you're being loved by Him and you're aware of His love for you for the first time in your life.

You're just, you're fully aware that all my sin is forgiven. And so there's a skip in your step, and there's a song of joy in your heart. And then it happens. Certainly. Out of nowhere, it seems that you begin to experience challenges and temptations come in with a force, and you begin to feel mentally attacked.

And the realities of life in a fallen world start to become real, and you begin to feel discouraged. The skirt A near step becomes a limp. And the song of joy becomes a dirge. Your love for God and your love for others grows cold. And then your awareness of God's love for you is a distant memory.

And what was fresh has become stale. What happened, you think to yourself, right? What went wrong? You think back to those early days of joy and spontaneity, and you long for that once again, but all you seem to have is to wake up and have another cloudy day. And then, when you try to do what's right, you don't do it, and the things that you're sick and tired of doing, you keep doing.

And so the discouragement just Keeps coming, and the question is for all of us: how do you keep going on? Right. How do you keep going when you're walking in darkness and you don't see any light of your own? How do you keep going on? This question addresses the topic of what's called perseverance, the doctrine of perseverance.

I want to begin answering this question for you today. How do you keep going? When you're walking in darkness and you don't see any light of your own. All right, so over the next couple weeks, I'm going to give you five insights on how to keep going when you're walking in darkness and you don't see any light of your own. How do you keep going?

All right, so here's the first-hand side for you. First, you have to have a realistic understanding of the Christian life. You have to have just this Realistic understanding of the Christian life. This side of the new heavens and new earth. It's vital to understand the difference between realism and perfectionism.

You see, what we find often in the evangelical culture that we live in is this, are different various shades of what's called perfectionism. This is the idea that somehow, at some point, your Christian walk in life, you're going to come to a point of sinless perfection. All right? This difference of the understanding of the Christian life between realism, which is the ongoing reality of sin in the Christian's life, versus perfectionism, all the different shades, various shades of ideas of somehow. I'm going to get to this point.

I'm going to get to this level in my life where I am the victorious overcomer. And so I have this idea of a sinless, perfect life. Turn with me in your Bibles if you have it to Romans chapter 7. And let's look for a minute at verses 21 through 24. The Apostle Paul was beyond question a devout believer, right?

Super committed. None of us have even gotten close to living the life of the Apostle Paul. But listen here, Romans chapter 7, the Apostle Paul speaks for all Christians when he honestly acknowledges his struggle with sin. Listen to what he says. He says, I find in the principle that evil is present in me, and the one who wants to do good.

He says, For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law. He says, the members of my body waging war. Against the law of my mind, in making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death? His lament in this passage expresses the reality of every regenerate believer.

Every believer Every person to whom the Holy Spirit has given new life, brought to life in the new birth and given true faith, who is united to Christ and the risen Christ, this is the lament. This is the exasperation, confession of every believer who's been given new life by the Holy Spirit. You know this from the next verse because to his question, who will set me free from the body of this death? Look at verse 25. He says this: He says, Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That's not how unbelievers think. That's how believers think. He says, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then, on the one hand, I myself, with my mind, am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh, the law of sin. I want you to note the realism in Paul's. Confession here. He describes the realistic experience of every believer. And he describes this Christian struggle and the Christian life as a war, there's a waging war.

And so, if you think about war, if you think about fighting, you think about battles, the struggle, the battle, and war is real, it is intense, it is. utterly exhausting, it is fatiguing. Right? And look what Paul does. Throughout this whole chapter, he has been close to despair and he has been struggling, confessing that he has struggles mightily with this remaining sin as a believer.

But look what he does. He ends verse 25 with a profound doxology of thanksgiving. He says, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Notice the contrast here. Notice this realistic reality, this dual reality in Paul. He has distress and he has gratitude. In the same breath. You see, this reality that Paul is talking about is the realistic experience of every believer in this life.

This side of heaven, this side of glorification, is one of frustration and joy. Exasperation and relief. Victory and defeat, rest in restlessness. Peace and struggle. groaning in gratitude.

Yes, there's joy. Listen to Peter. In 1 Peter 1, verses 8 through 9, he says, You have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. But the Christian life is not all joy all the time.

It isn't. Because we're not yet in the consummated kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth. The Christian life is also one of groaning, intense groaning. Listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 8, verse 23. He says, We ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown.

within ourselves. waiting eagerly. for our adoption as sons and the redemption of our body. We ourselves groaned. We have joy, Peter says, but Paul says we groan.

We have victory, but we have defeat. We have peace, but we have restlessness. This is how it is. This is the realism of the Christian life versus perfectionism. The Bible says that those who are in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17, are what?

What are they? They're new Christians. Creatures. We are part of the new creation that is coming. But it also says that we still live in this present evil age that is passing away.

The Bible says that we have a foretaste of heaven on earth, that we have tasted of the powers of the age to come. But at the same time, our salvation and the redemption of this whole universe is far from complete, and so we continue to struggle. There is a war. And it wages, it rages every single day. This war will rage on and on until Christ comes or until we die.

This is why question 42 in the Heidelberg Catechism asks: Since Christ died for us, why do we still have to die? Listen to this answer. Our death is not a satisfaction for our sins, but it puts an end to sin. And listen, and it is an entrance into eternal life. This room.

A realistic view is that the Christian life is a struggle. All of us this past year, and as we continue now in this culture, Brian was praying for me before the service. Thank you, Brian. I love Brian. He was praying for me.

We struggle. We're all struggling. Be honest. If you're struggling, put your hand up. Everybody's hand is up right now.

We're all struggling. The Christian life, the Bible says, is a war. It is a struggle. It is hard work. 2 Timothy 4, verse 7.

Paul describes a Christian life as a fight in a race. Have you ever been in a fight? I haven't, but. But what do you call it, the guys that Yeah, UFC. I just watched it this weekend with my boys.

It's brutal. It is just bro. I'm like Yeah, it's brutal. This guy got hit this weekend and he was out cold. He just fell over like a stiff log.

I'm like, that is not for me. Ugh. But we UFC fighting is pretty brutal. And Paul says the Christian life is a fight. And sometimes we get KO'd.

He says that the Christian life is a race. I have been in races. I'm not a great racer. I'm like Victoria, I'm a sprinter. If I go past 50 yards, I'm done.

But I've tried to race. I have no endurance whatsoever. I did cross-country for basketball practice, right, preseason to get in shape, and it was just a really bad scene. But I won't tell you all the things that physically happened during those races. But it was just it came from here.

Okay. But Paul says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. That's a race. It is exhausting to race.

It is brutal to fight. He says in Romans 7: War is the ultimate reality of human fallen wickedness that just destroys everything, right? It's brutal. This is the realistic view of the Christian life. Listen as I summarize these scriptures.

Struggle. War. Fight. Race. Equals Utter exhaustion.

And so it's vital to possess this realistic view of the Christian life so you can keep going on. Because if you don't have this realistic view, you're going to be going, what is wrong with me? Nothing. This is exactly what it's going to be like till Christ comes or till you die. When you're walking in darkness and you just don't see any light of your own, how do you keep going on?

You keep this realistic perspective before you. Because I have, I'm a perfectionist. I like everything just done right. All the time.

Sometimes that can be a good thing. When I'm not walking in the spirit, it's just like a bulldozer in a china shop. It's just bad. And so, when life isn't tidy and need for me, sometimes I just get.

So hard on myself that like I KO myself. And sometimes you do that to yourself too. Various forms of perfectionist teaching are depressing because they fail to take seriously the ongoing reality of the struggle in the Christian life. The ongoing reality of sin. in the believers lies.

Perfectionist teaching is depressing because it's unrealistic. All shades of perfectionist teaching offers a greater measure of deliverance from sin this side of heaven than the Scripture promises or that the apostles themselves, as Paul says in our text in Romans 7, even achieved. In Philippians 3, verse 12, Paul says that he acknowledges that he continues to sin and that he's not reached perfection. He says, not that I've already obtained it or have already become perfect. And so, this negative fallout of possessing a perfectionist view of the Christian life, of whatever shade it is, is one of two things.

First of all, if you had this perfectionist view, whatever shade it is, It does this, it leads you to self-deception. Professing that you have entered into the state when you have not. This is exactly what the Apostle John writes in 1 John 1:8. He says, if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves. And the truth is not in us.

But second, if you don't get deceived, you become disillusioned and despairing. Because you begin to look around at others, in the case of those who sought this higher victorious state, they got it, but you failed to achieve it because they're somehow I'm less than a Christian. Right. This is not the realistic view that Paul has in Romans 7. He's not deceived and he's not filled with despair.

He's realistic about his current state. Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you hear that realism? And so he shows us that justified, believing sinners turn again and again to Christ for forgiveness and free acceptance with God.

And so if we are to keep going on, when we are walking in darkness and we don't see any light of our own, we have to understand the difference between realism and perfectionism. That's the first. Here's the second. And we'll try to get through this. Tundra A.

Here's the second. Consider the mixed nature of the lives of believers throughout redemptive history. Listen carefully. There are no superheroes in the Bible. I see that kind of stuff taught to children in vacation Bible school and Sunday school classes all the time.

Let's study the superheroes of the Old Testament. There are none. Naran. There are no superheroes. They're all zeros.

We see repeatedly throughout scripture how the lives of believers testify to the mixed nature of the Christian life, this reality of that Latin phrase from the Reformation some more used to say at Picotter, one and the same time righteous or just and sinner. The biblical account, and I've said this many times, but today I'm going to make it very clear to you. We're going to have a Jerry Springer show this morning, right here. All right, so I just want you to hang on because we're going to go through it. We're going to do it.

I've mentioned it many times, and I finally said this week, I'm going to show it to them as clearly as I can. as tactfully as I can. We're going to turn on Jerry Springer today and watch it in church. Because the biblical account of the lives of believers reads like the best of Jerry Springer, not just Jerry Springer, the best of. Jerry's finger.

The Bible says, let me set it up like this: the Bible says that we are counted just and righteous. By faith alone, in Christ alone, his righteousness is imputed and reckoned to our count, and as a result of that, we are counted. Just. We are righteous in his sight. This is the very heart of the gospel.

But In another very real sense, we are sinners. Because in and of ourselves, under the inspection of God's law, you heard it this morning. Love, Jesus said to you this morning, love God perfectly and love your neighbor perfectly. And what is our response in worship, Lord? Have Mercy, not Lord, I have done it.

So, when we come under the microscope and inspection of God's law, we are still sinners. And so, let me give you. But we don't even have time to look at the best out Jerry Springer this morning, so I'm gonna give you four examples. All right. Four examples of believing sinners.

I want you to get used to saying that: believing sinners. Which makes clear this mixed reality in the Christian life, this reality of ongoing sin in the Christian life. All right, here's the first guest on the Jerry Springer show: Noah. Genesis chapter 6, verse 8. Listen, Noah found favor, grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Verse 9: Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

Now, this is interesting because the biblical narrative speaks of God's favorite grace alongside Noah's righteousness. And the Bible text doesn't explain about whether Noah's righteousness is the cause or the effect of God's favor toward him. But you have to keep reading narrative. That's the point of narrative. Just keep reading the story.

Because the story about Noah makes it clear that God's grace is the cause. of Noah being righteous. When you get to Genesis chapter 9, Noah and his family disembark from the ark and they come into the new creation that God has created from the flood waters of judgment. And as soon as they come out of the ark, Noah and his family are still inclined to evil. Listen to, okay, so here comes the Jerry Springer best off.

Genesis chapter 9, verses 21 through 23. We're told that Noah became drunk. And he lies in a drunken naked stupor wide open for the world to see. Just pretty bad. Ham, his son, shamefully, verse 22, looks on the drunkenness and nakedness of his father in the tent, and he reports it to his brothers.

Now the text doesn't tell us clearly what happened, but it's clear from the context to just say tactfully that Ham humiliated and dishonored his father, and he sought to make his brothers a part of that humiliation. Shameful. what took place here. I told you this was Jerry Springer moment. This narrative is quite clear that Noah and his family are at their very best.

one and the same time, righteous and sinful. The Genesis narrative makes it clear that Noah does not possess perfect faith. He doesn't have certain virtues or good works which qualified him to receive God's favor. Because that would undermine the meaning of grace. No sinful rebel deserves God's grace and to be rescued from judgment.

And he was just rescued from judgment, not because he was righteous and earned grace, but because God was gracious to him and delivered him, though he was still inclined to evil. He wasn't anything in himself, and he did nothing to move God to give him grace. The emphasis on Noah finding grace in the eyes of the Lord lies in what God does for the man on whom his favor rests. Noah found favor. In the eyes of the Lord.

That is sovereign. Free Unmerited grace. Listen, he rescues Noah and his family despite their ongoing sin. Look at this picture up here. There are eight people in that ark.

Being carried through the floodwaters of judgment, and they're all inclined to sin. And when they come out of that great deliverance, they do this shameful deed. But God still delivered them because He had favor on them. And so the example of Noah shows us that God's grace is the cause of unrighteous people becoming righteous. This is why Noah was righteous.

The example of Noah shows us that God's grace is an attitude of God for the good of those who do not deserve the good. There wasn't a single person inside that ark being carried safely through judgment that deserved it. That's the point of the text. They were just as bad as a whole world that drowned in the floodwaters of judgment, but God had grace upon them. That's the first Jerry Springer superstar.

Here's the second one, Abraham. Quintessential example of faith from all believers. And just like the story of Noah, the story of Abraham is a story of grace. As with Noah, there's nothing special about Abraham that deserves the goodness of God in promising him such tremendous blessings. This is how Grant Goldsworthy says it, and it's wonderful how he states it.

He says, There's no hint that God was responding to Abraham's goodness. On the contrary, the narrative about Abraham is brutally honest in his worst-and-all portrayal of the patriarch. The whole account of Abraham makes it clear that he deserves nothing of what the Lord promises him. Nothing. First of all, his faith is far from perfect.

Genesis chapter 15, verses 2 and 3 is faith is not strong and at times borders on disbelief. Genesis chapter 12, 11 through 20, Genesis chapter 20, verses 1 through 18. He's not above lying about his wife on two separate occasions to save his own hide. I don't know about you, but you'd be in the doghouse if you did that today when you went home. Big trouble.

He is a liar. He is a deceiver. He sacrifices his life to save his own hide. And there it works to undermine God's promise that Pharaoh would have a son. He works against God.

to thwart God's promise. Which is unbelief because he didn't believe at that point. He was wavering. He was simple, Yusuf Zedbakutter. He was at his very best, just like Noah, one and the same time, righteous and just, but sinful.

And so the narrative about Abraham emphasizes that God's goodness to Abraham is not deserved. Narrative of Abraham highlights God's free and sovereign grace to justify the ungodly. That's exactly what Paul says in Romans 4 when he uses Abraham as the example of one who is ungodly, that God justifies by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, the ungodly. And he also uses the example of David.

So, this brings us to the third best of Jerry Springer. David. King David, what about David?

Well, we're told over and over, but he's a man after God's own heart. He is the hero. He is the giant slayer. And here's how it goes. Listen very carefully.

He is God's anointed king who defeats giants. And you too, like David, can defeat the giants in your life. Like David, we all have to meet the Goliaths in our lives, but we can defeat them with our sling of faith and our five stones of virtue: obedience, service, Bible reading, prayer, and fellowship. That's not how we read David. Just like the stories of Noah and Abraham, the narrative about David is a story of grace.

I don't have time to rehearse the whole life of David from 1 and 2 Samuel, but let me get you the highlights. Because despite David's pious devotion, being a man after God's own heart, he's remembered also as one of history's greatest sinners. And so, like Abraham and like Noah, the biblical narrative about David is brutally honest in its warts-and-all portrayal of David.

So, just very quickly, there's the famous story of David's adultery with Bathsheba. You know that. There's a subsequent murder of her husband Uriah.

So here's Jerry Springer. We have a drunken man who's naked, whose son does shameful things to his father. That sounds like Jerry Springer. We have Abraham who is lying, deceiving. manipulating Unfaithful husband, that sounds like Jerry Springer.

We have David, he commits adultery, cheats on his wife. That definitely sounds like Jerry Springer. He commits murder. That doesn't sound worse than Jerry Springer. He commits murder.

He commits murder. And then there's Psalm 51, which is probably the best known of the penitential Psalms that David composed as a result of Nathan the prophet convicting him. You're the man of committing adultery with Bathsheba for arranging for the murder of her husband. And David begins his prayer. Have mercy on me.

It's the first thing he says. Oh God, according to your steadfast love, where does that come from? The Davidic covenant? The Abrahamic covenant. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, from which I feel so filthy and defiled by, and cleanse me from my sin. And so it's clear when we read about the narrative of David that he, like Noah and Abraham, at his Very best. Is one in the same time righteous? In center. David doesn't deserve the goodness of God in promising him such tremendous blessings from the Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7.

The whole story of David. testifies Listen not to David the superhero who slays giants, but to the steadfast love of the Lord who is unfailing. Faithful to his covenant promise, despite David's failures. This is what the psalmist in Psalm 89, verse 37 tells us. The psalmist says that the Lord's promise to David was established forever like the moon in the skies.

Like the moon, it shall be established forever. A faithful witness in the skies. The psalmist says that the only way for God's promise in the Davidic covenant to be broken is for God to lie, which God can never do. Listen carefully, what the psalmist says would not break God's steadfast love and covenant promise to David to bring a righteous son of David to rule on his throne forevermore. Listen to what did not break his promise.

Muslim. It was not David's adultery and it was not his murder. That is shocking. It was, God said, I'll break it if I lie, and I can't lie, so I'm not going to break it. Grace.

Steadfast was. And so, listen, I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness. That's what we sang about this morning. That's what I was telling you: God's not like us.

If I was like God and David did what he did, you're done. Done, right? But I have sworn by my holiness, I am nothing like you. I would not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun.

Before me, God's promise to David just awaited the arrival of the righteous son of David, which is Jesus Christ. And it is in Christ that we most clearly see the steadfast of the Lord. All right, so here's our fourth best of as we finish. The Apostle Peter, the great apostle to the Jews. The New Testament reveals that Peter struggled with great sin before Pentecost and after Pentecost.

After the coming and outpouring of the abundance of the Holy Spirit, he still struggled. The Peter's list of sins in the Gospels are huge.

So let me just give you a couple. Luke chapter 22, verse 24, one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible. On the night before Jesus' crucifixion, Peter is filled with selfish ambition as he argues with the disciples about who's going to be the greatest. In the kingdom of God. In Matthew chapter 16, Peter seeks to prevent Jesus from accomplishing the single greatest reason that he came, which was to die on the cross to save his people from their sins.

And in response, Jesus severely rebukes Peter, Matthew 16:23. Listen to this rebuke. If anything would make you melt, this would have been it. Get behind me. fading.

Gosh. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have In mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Don't prevent me from dying on the cross for you, Peter. Peter resists Jesus when he says that he is going to wash Peter's feet.

Peter says to Jesus, quote, No. You shall never wash my feet. They are hubris. John 13: Jesus corrects Peter and Peter, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. If I can't serve you, if I can't be your servant, Peter, forget it.

Can't save you. In the moment of great temptation, Peter fails to pray with Jesus. Instead, he falls asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus finds Peter and the apostles sleeping, disciples sleeping. He says to them, The flesh is weak.

But the Spirit is willing. Pray. that she may not fall into temptation. Matthew chapter 26, Peter denies Jesus with oaths and cursing, swearing. Foul mouth.

to a little slave girl. Matthew chapter 26, verse 75, after Peter does this horrific sin of denying Jesus, horrific sin. Matthew says, Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said before a rooster crows, you will deny me three times, and he went out and wept bitterly. How many of you have wept like that over your sin? I have.

You just weep, grieve, you can't sleep. You can't eat. After Pentecost, when Peter is in Antioch, He pulls back from meeting with the Gentiles out of fear of the circumcision party, and his hypocrisy was so bad. It threatened to undermine the heart of the gospel, justification by grace through faith in Christ alone, and forever divide the Jewish and Gentile church forever. It was a grievous sin that he committed in Antioch as an apostle.

It was so bad that Paul, Galatians 2, verse 14, says to Peter and the Jews who followed him in his hypocrisy. Peter, you're not, quote, being straightforward about the truth of the gospel. Peter, you are seeking to undermine the gospel. And note carefully: this is the second time in the biblical narrative that records Peter's attempt to undermine the gospel. Before Pentecost, he sought to undermine the gospel.

And after Pentecost, he sought to undermine the gospel.

So great is his sin that Paul confronts Peter publicly in front of the church. And he says in Galatians chapter 2: listen to this paraphrase: I said to Cephas, Peter, in the presence of all, so everybody could hear Paul confront Peter's sin. He says, Peter, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews here in Antioch, how is it that you, Peter, now compel the Jews here in Antioch to live like the Jews? He says, Peter, you and I both are Jews by nature. We're not sinners among the Gentiles, but know this, Peter.

Nevertheless, Listen, you got to know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, keeping the Mosaic covenant, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Even we, Peter, who are Jews, You and I have believed in Christ Jesus so that we, Peter, may be justified by faith in Christ and not by keeping the Mosaic covenant, since by keeping the works of the law, Neither Jew nor Gentile will be justified before God. That's what he said to Peter in front of the whole church. And so here again we see clearly from the biblical narrative that Peter, like Noah, Abraham, and David, at his very best, was one and the same time righteous and sinful. And like Noah, Abraham, David, Peter's life testifies to and emphasizes God's free and sovereign grace.

I don't have time to show you, and I told you this would go long, so I'm trying to wrap it up as fast as I can. But in every instance where Peter fails in Scripture, listen to the summary of Jesus' responses. To Peter's sin, Jesus instructs him. corrects him. Praise for him that is faith and does not fail.

Rebukes him, dies for him, is buried for him, raised for him, restores him, and recommissions him back to his apostolic calling. But he never once, throughout anywhere in the gospels, rejects him or condemns him. What Jesus always did for Peter was call Peter into a greater understanding of who he is and why he came. In other words, he led Peter to a deeper understanding of the gospel at every point of his failure. That is how he kept Peter going on.

Because it would be Jesus by his power and grace who would carry him to the finish line. Just like in this arc. God delivered Noah and his wicked family through those floodwaters of judgment, not because they deserted, but he carried them by his power and his grace. This is what Peter would write later on near the end of his life in 1 Peter 1, verses 3 to 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, His grace, His favor, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of the dead to obtain an inheritance.

To obtain it, certainty which is imperishable and undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. Listen. Who are protected by the power of God through faith? Pete, learn that hard lesson, did it was Jesus. When he told him, he says, Peter, you're going to deny me, but I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

And when you turn again, strengthen the brothers with this message of grace, that through my power and grace, I'll keep you and I'll carry you to the finish line. Pete to learn this lesson. He says, We're protected by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed. And the last time. And so we see how Scripture testifies to the mixed nature of the Christian life.

This reality of one and the same time, righteous and just. And if you want to keep going on, look to the lives of every one of these Jerry Springer moments because that is your moment that you're looking at. And that is God who is faithful to you to preserve and keep you.

So when you.

So here it is. How do you keep going on? When you're walking in darkness and do not see any light of your own. First, Have oh. Realistic understanding of the Christian life, this side of the new heavens, the new earth.

Avoid all forms of perfectionism which offer false hope. and turn to Christ again and again. Second. Consider the mixed nature of the lives of believers throughout redemptive history. The biblical narratives of Abraham, Noah, David, and Peter, they all reveal.

that at their very best. One and the same time, righteous and sinful. And this is exactly what our lies reveal as well. The look on narratives of Noah, Abraham, David, and Peter testify to and emphasize God's free and sovereign grace to undeserving sinners. We have seen drunkenness and shameful acts in Noah and his family.

God delivered them. We have seen lying, deception, and fraud in Abraham. God justified him. We have seen adultery and murder in David, and he receives steadfast love. We have seen selfish ambition, denial, betrayal, fear of man, and an undermining of the gospel itself, the heart of the gospel itself, by Peter, and God restores him and recommissions him as an apostle.

And so, if we are to keep going on, when we're walking in darkness and do not see any light of our own, consider the mixed nature of the lives of believers throughout redemptive history. Why? Because in their lives we see our lives. Listen, when we see the reality of sin in our lives, We're like David. We're humbled and driven over and over again.

We're like Paul to Christ, wretched man, who will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, this realistic view of my life. That when I'm humbled by the reality of my ongoing failures and sins, I look again and again. to Christ, to the free and sovereign grace. That he gives to undeserving sinners, that through his power and through his grace, He carries us all.

to the finish line. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this encouraging word to us this morning. And we thank you that despite Our sin, in our rebellion, in our failures. We thank you that we see time and again throughout your word.

that you are faithful to protect. and preserve by your power and grace. Your people. For the sake of Christ. And so encourage our hearts today and help us to look upward and outward from ourselves and to look to Christ, who is the author and the finisher.

of our faith. We pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks again for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. Please subscribe if you haven't already for all our new episodes.

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