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I. WHEREIN LIES THE TRUE NATURE OF APOSTASY FROM GOD.

1. Every failure and defect in the exercise of grace is not to be reckoned as an apostasy. The soul may faint and flag in the pursuit of God, and yet not be carried off so far as to steer a contrary course.

2. Every positive discovery of corruption in the actual commission of sin is not apostasy. A man may halt and slip, yea, he may stumble, and fall, and yet not go back.

3. Apostasy from God includes not only a deviation in the life, but an alienation of the heart (Psalm 95:10; Acts 3:39; Psalm 44:18).

4. Apostasy from God is really an undoing of all the good which we have done. It is ending in the flesh, after we have begun in the Spirit; when our faces have been towards Zion, and our doings framed to turn to God; this is a revoking and disannulling of all, and driving towards hell.

II. OF WHAT CONCERNMENT AND IMPORTANCE IT IS TO BELIEVERS TO RE SECURED AGAINST SUCH APOSTASY.

1. How much they are in danger of it, viz. if left alone, and abandoned to themselves.

(1) Grace in us is very weak.

(2) Corruption in us is very active (James 1:14). There is folly enough remaining in the wisest and best of men to prevent and mislead them.

(3) The temptations which come upon us are very numerous. Every place, every condition, every employment, every relation is full of them.

2. How much danger they incur by apostasy, if they should be left to be guilty of it.

(1) They must needs at the present lose all comfortable communion with God.

(2) They can never see the kingdom of God, unless they remember from whence they are gone back, and return and do their first works.

(3) If they come back to God again, it must be by very bitter and sorrowful repentance.

III. HOW IS THE STRENGTH OF CHRIST OUR SECURITY IN THIS CASE?

1. Omnipotence belongs to Christ, on the account of His Godhead, and this shall be exerted on the behalf of them that believe, as there is occasion.

2. Christ was anointed with power, as Mediator, the improvement whereof is not to His own advantage, but the advantage of those that believe in Him (Isaiah 63:1; Luke 1:69).

3. Christ hath destroyed the power of the devil by a power superior to him. This is meant by His dividing the spoil with the strong (Isaiah 53:12).

4. Christ, by the matchless efficacy and merit of His blood, hath purchased for us confirming grace, and the perpetual presence of the Spirit with us.

5. Christ's prevailing intercession secures to us the needful, actual succours of grace, while we are here in this world.

IV. WHY HATH GOD ORDERED IT SO, THAT BELIEVERS SHOULD BE SECURED AGAINST APOSTASY BY THE STRENGTH OF CHRIST?

1. This agrees with God's general design of heaping all the glory possible upon Jesus Christ.

2. This suits with God's design of grace in our eternal election; for we are chosen in Christ (Ephesians 1:4). Therefore it is fit that we should be also preserved in Christ (Jude).

3. It is necessary that we should be secured against apostasy by the strength of Christ, because He is the First and the Last in our sanctification.

4. It is necessary that Christ should secure us in our way to glory, because it is His business to receive us into the possession of that glory at the close of all (John 14:3).

5. The wisdom of God is hereby seen in a most shameful baffling of the devil.

6. Believers could not have a better security than that whereof there hath been a visible experiment in the Person of Christ Himself.

V. USES.

1. This lays open the ground of the devil's enmity against Christ, which hath been always most extreme and implacable.

2. It is inexcusable folly for any one in the world to lean to his own arm.

3. Make no promises of perseverance in your own strength.

4. Look to your faith as the principal grace, which contributes to your establishment (Isaiah 7:9).

5. Do not arrogate the honour of your standing in Christ, and abiding with Christ, in the least measure to yourselves. Let Christ have all the glory of your setting out, and holding out; let Him have it now, and let Him have it at the last.

(T. Cruse.)

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KJV: So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

WEB: So we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name.