Excerpt from sermon “Perseverance In The Truth”
by Ralph Bouma of the Gospel Chapel
“I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame,” Psalm 119:31.
In 1 Timothy 3:9, we read,
“Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.”
Do you know what “in a pure conscience” means? Abraham was justified by works.
He obeyed even though all human reasoning was against him. This is where the mystery lies. It is against all human reasoning. We read in James 2:21:
“Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?”
Verse 20 tells us:
“But wilt thou know, oh vain man, that faith without works is dead?”
When we talk about the trial of our faith, we are talking about the obedience of faith. We can hold the mystery of our faith in a pure conscience because we are able to pay the price. We are able to put it on the altar and say:
“Lord, if I have to forfeit everything, I am able and willing to do so. I want to do thy will.”
David was sincere when he said, “I have stuck unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:31), but he follows that with “put me not to shame,” that is, that he would not put into practice what he proclaims to be not true. In other words, he said, do not let me have a defiled conscience that I did not put it into practice, that I would slip and not pay the price.
Our text says:
“I have stuck unto thy testimonies [that is, I have put them into practice]: O LORD, put me not to shame.”
In 2 John 1:8-9, we read:
“Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.”
Persevering is so important. If we do not hold fast to those things, we will not receive the full reward. What was the doctrine of Christ? The doctrine of Christ was unconditional surrender to the will of the Father. He was willing to obey in stepping into the Father’s wrath and submitting Himself to the most ignominious death.
David said, “I have stuck unto thy testimonies.” All our love for the truth, all our watching and prayer, all our striving to enter by the strait gate will come to nothing if we do not stick to the truth. We can follow God to a given point and no more. After that point, we refuse to obey.
It drove a sword through my soul when I showed my pastor the Word of God and he said, “In this instance, I cannot obey,” and he did not.
In Ezekiel 18:24, we read:
“But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.”
Let me give you an illustration: You get in a car with me and we go to New York City. We abide by every speed limit, we stop for every stoplight; we follow all the traffic laws. Then, we get to the outskirts of New York City and we ignore a stoplight. When the policeman pulls us over, I say, “Oh, but I came all the way from Montana and did not break the law once.” He says: “That was your duty. You have now violated the law.”
You may have walked according to the truth all your life but you have now got a set of circumstances where you cannot pay the price. What does it say again?
“In his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.”
This is why David says, “I have stuck unto thy testimonies.” We must persevere to the end. Doing the will of God all of our lives was only our duty to do.
There is no merit in it. When we transgress the law, we have to die. We are not going to merit heaven by perfection, but we are going to merit God’s displeasure by willfully transgressing his love. Amen.
Thou my everlasting portion,
More than friend or life to me;
All along my pilgrim journey,
Savior, let me walk with Thee.
Fanny J. Crosby, 1820-1915
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