15.5 God Gives More: Preservation
Table of Contents
The Text
Revelation 12:10-12 (ESV) And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
The Chapter
Such is the provision which God hath made through Christ in the covenant of grace for the preservation of believers unto salvation; that although there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation; yet there is no sin so great that it shall bring damnation on them that repent; which makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary.
The Confession
Isaiah 1:16–18 (CSB) “Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from my sight. Stop doing evil. Learn to do what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause. “Come, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are crimson red, they will be like wool.
When the Christ has opened our eyes, opened our ears, changes our mind, unmutes our tongue, gives us a new heart, give us the same Spirit that raised him from the dead, you and I will see the face of the blessed Savior and the darkness of our wickedness and sin.
Isaiah 55:7 (CSB) Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive.
We see how deep and dark our sins go because my sins are the one that hung my Christ on that cursed tree. My sins are numerous. And I continue to sin. And my heart aches.
1 John 1:9 (CSB) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But Christ descended into his creation with me, as a sinner, on his heart and mind since before he created time and space. He has sovereignly dictated and ordain everything so that Christ would be born of a woman and of God, perfect in every way, and did it so to do one thing: to save us from our sins.
My beloved, I would be a liar unto God if I told you stop sinning on this side of heaven. Then where is the hope for relief from our sins? We look upon the risen Christ to save us, to sustain us, to sanctify us, to glorify us and bring us all the way to the Father.
I know my sins are deep. They have infected me in every way.
"There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still.”
Corrie Ten Boom
Christ is deeper still.
Praise be to God!