Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage. Be strong.Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
4 sermons cite this verse
… And I hope you're going with us. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 13 says, Watch, stand fast in the faith. Be brave. Be strong. men we are to provide that and now listen a woman who's gotten bamboozled by the feminist movement says something like this I can be brave and strong we're not saying you can't I can take care of myself I don't have to have some man provide for me of course not but there's an order to God's blessings God has put some things in order here. and we live in a very broken world because the Bible has been consistently disobeyed. Strong words, I understand, but I'd rather give you strong words than have you get ready. Somewhere, listen, somewhere out there is a godly man saying, oh Lord, lead me and guide me to a godly woman. The presumption is this, godly. All the single girls are looking out to him right there. Young people that you're waiting, I've been, Pastor Jack, I've been waiting, I've been waiting and waiting and waiting. Don't panic. God is able to bring to you that which is exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think of them. Don't, don't, don't panic and jump out of the will of God just because you're lonely. …
… So I'm gonna talk to the men. The Bible says this in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13 and 14. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in love. And so the Bible tells us to act like men. I think the way to understand this verse is act like men is like the hub in the middle of the wheel and the imperatives around it are how we are to do that. And the way the apostle Paul starts is this, be watchful. That means to be on watch is how some translations translate that. This is a military term. For those of you that served in the military, thank you, thank you, thank you. and when you are on watch, you know that you are in a defensive position and because we are at war. Most of us didn't wake up this morning and realize we were at war, but we are. The Bible says that we have an enemy and he's a thief and he only wants to steal, kill, and destroy. …
It is one promise of the covenant of grace, that the saints shall keep God’s commandments. Ezek. xi. 19, 20.—Yet that is no argument that they have no need to take care to keep these commandments, or to do their duty. So the promise of God, that the saints shall persevere in holiness, is no argument that it is not necessary that they should take heed lest they fall away. Therefore the Scriptures abundantly warn men to watch over themselves diligently, and to give earnest heed lest they fall away. 1 Cor. xvi. 13. “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” 1 Cor. x. 12. “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” Heb. iii. 12-14. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” Heb. iv. 1. “Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” 2 Pet. iii. 17.“Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.” 2 John 8. “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.”—Thus you see how earnestly the Scriptures press on Christians exhortations to take diligent heed to themselves that they fall not away. And certainly these cautions are not without reason. …
Here then it is, that God Himself offers us His aid by His Word, and in His Church. Left to ourselves, we seek good from the world, but cannot find it; in youth we look forward, and in age we look back. It is well we should be persuaded of these things betimes, to gain wisdom and to provide for the evil day. Seek we great things? We must seek them where they really are to be found, and in the way in which they are to be found; we must seek them as He has set them before us, who came into the world to enable us to gain them. We must be willing to give up present hope for future enjoyment, this world for the unseen. The truth is (though it is so difficult for us to admit it heartily), our nature is not at first in a state to enjoy happiness, even if we had it offered to us. We seek for it, and we feel we need it; but (strange though it is to say, still so it is) we are not fitted to be happy. If then at once we rush forward to seek enjoyment, it will be like a child's attempting to walk before his strength is come. If we would gain true bliss, we must cease to seek it as an end; we must postpone the prospect of enjoying it. For we are by nature in an unnatural state; we must be changed from what we are when born, before we can receive our greatest good. And as in sickness sharp remedies are often used, or irksome treatment, so it is with our souls; we must go through pain, we must practise self-denial, we must curb our wills, and purify our hearts, before we are capable of any lasting solid peace. To attempt to gain happiness, except in this apparently tedious and circuitous way, is a labour lost; it is building on the sand; the foundation will soon give way, though the house looks fair for a time. To be gay and thoughtless, to be self-indulgent and self-willed, is quite out of character with our real state. We must learn to know ourselves, and to have thoughts and feelings becoming ourselves. Impetuous hope and undisciplined mirth ill-suit a sinner. Should he shrink from low notions of himself, and sharp pain, and mortification of natural wishes, whose guilt called down the Son of God from heaven to die upon the cross for him? May he live in pleasure here, and call this world his home, while he reads in the Gospel of his Saviour's life-long affliction and disappointment? …