Well, good evening to all of you. Concerning your Bibles to Romans chapter 8, please. Romans chapter 8. And you can direct your finger to verse 28.
That's where we will start and we'll read to the end of the chapter. We're going to use, not in the sense of ungratefully using God's word, but use this text as a launching pad to speak about the doctrine of perseverance. Romans 8, 28, beginning at verse 28, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who spared, excuse me, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen. Who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you that we can gather again for a reading and a hearing of your holy word. We pray, Father, that you would be with us, that you would send yet again the ministry of your Holy Spirit.
You'd help the preacher, that you'd help the hearer, God. We just pray that we would glorify you in the preaching and in the hearing of your word tonight. And Lord God, again, that we would act in accordance with it. And we thank you for this text, for what it speaks regarding your love, the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. and for our safe protection, not because of us, but because of your perfect plan and your perfect salvation, which is unto your glory.
We pray that you'd be with us now in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Introduction
Well, a wonderful portion of Holy Scripture, one that we've certainly considered before, but we're going to look at it again because it's always good to glory in those precious doctrines that we hold dear. That's the one tonight being that we will consider the doctrine of perseverance, which, believe it or not, is a doctrine that is attacked by those within the walls of Christendom, so-called. Now, I was reminded as I was preparing a sermon tonight, and I'm going to try and tie it in because I was reminded while I was preparing the sermon, but I was putting I was putting my daughter Marissa to bed a number of months ago. It might be over a year now.
And she wasn't able to sleep. And fathers try and comfort their daughters with things to get them to sleep. Sometimes we'll tell them to do particular things we had already prayed. And I asked her one time, because she came out and said, I can't sleep.
Well, I tried to pull the old trick of getting her to count sheep jumping over the fence. And I said, well, sweetie, why don't you try and count sheep jumping over a fence? And she said, well, I've tried that before, daddy, but they never make it. In other words, they keep hitting the fence in her imaginations.
They weren't able to make it because they kept hitting the fence. No sheep making it over. And I thought, as I was preparing a sermon on perseverance, it's a blessed reality that God's sheep, His people, actually do make it over the fence. Not because of their own power, not because of their own leaping strength, but because the Great Shepherd carries them over the fence to the Promised Land.
It is a blessed reality that God's sheep don't hit the fence. Well, again, children will often ask or often need their father's comfort, their father's words of safety or their words of kindness in order to give them nocturnal safety, that all things are well when they rest their pillow at night. We'll pray to them. We'll read them perhaps a psalm.
I know one of Hannah's favorite psalms when she was young was Psalm 4, verse 8, I will both lie down in peace and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety." So we'll try and help them and we'll try and direct them or mount up things as evidences as to why things are safe for them. The doors are locked. The windows are shut and locked.
Your mummy and daddy are here. God is watching over his people. So we'll mount up evidences. And with regards to perseverance, if we were to have a conversation with our Holy Father, If we were to have a conversation with our Heavenly Father and we were to ask Him, how, Father, are we eternally safe?
Where does our eternal safety lie? Perhaps He would point to his word, Romans 8.30, Moreover, whom I predestined, these I also called. Whom I called, these I also justified. And whom I justified, these I also glorified." To change the language for a point.
Perhaps he would direct us to that wonderful language of love in verses 38 to 39. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is a safe place to go for the Christian to rest his head upon a pillow of perseverance, of assurance, of hope. directing his attention away from looking inwardly at the workings of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, but rather looking objectively at the working of God in salvation, the objective realities of predestination, calling, justification and glorification, and all those blessed things that lie in between that skeletal matrix of salvation. Well, we're going to look at what is perseverance and what does our perseverance depend upon tonight?
First off,
Defining Perseverance
what is perseverance? Well, our confession speaks of perseverance similar to these words. Those that God affectionately calls, justifies and sanctifies by his spirit do not totally or finally fall away, but shall certainly persevere to the end and be eternally saved. That's a paraphrase of our confession, speaking in chapter 17.
True Christians are kept by the power of God unto salvation, unto that great day of salvation. We're written on the palm of his hands. We're engraven on the palm of his hands. And we are written in the book of life, the book of life from all eternity.
So, what is perseverance again? It is that Christians do not totally, or finally, true Christians do not totally, or finally, fall away from the faith, but will be eternally saved.
Objections to Perseverance
Now, unfortunately, this doctrine is attacked by those who would call themselves Christian, those who profess faith in Christ, attack this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. And I'm convinced that for some of them it's because of a misunderstanding of what perseverance actually means. They'll often say, well, you Christians who believe in that doctrine, you're puffed up in your own Christianity. You think by your own strength that you can walk yourself into everlasting life and keep yourself preserved.
Of course, that's not what we're arguing. We don't point the finger at us and say perseverance of the saints. we point our fingers to God in an honorable way, in a respectful way, and say, Perseverance of the Saints. It is God who keeps us, it is God who preserves, it is God who protects. But just briefly, before we get to what our perseverance depends upon, a couple things that they'll use to attack the doctrine.
They'll say, what about biblical admonition, asking or exhorting, commanding Christians to persevere unto the end. Why, if perseverance is certain, must it be the case that the apostles have to admonish Christians to persevere? That's a valid question. What are the apostles doing when they are exhorting Christians to persevere?
Well, just like God has an end And with regards to salvation, just like our Lord has an end, the salvation of His people unto the praise of His glory, He has a means to bring about that particular end. One of the means unto salvation is the preaching of the Word. People are saved by the Word that is preached, by the Spirit attending in His power to it. But also with regards to the perseverance of those who are saved, the means unto the end of that perseverance is throughout their life they are exhorted by the Word of God and by God unto that particular end.
And a perfect example of this, if you can turn there quickly, is in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 27. It's a wonderful example, and it's a picture of perseverance of the saints, and that there is a particular end in view, but nevertheless, a preaching of a means that needs to be participated in by the people the situation touches. This is the storm on the sea. that Paul and all of his compatriots and fellow travelers are caught up in.
Look at verse 22. Just think in context, the tempest, the storm, things are chaotic. Verse 22 of Acts chapter 27. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
Verse 24, Do not be afraid, Paul, you must be brought before Caesar, and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you. Verse 34, Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you. So there is a declaration of the certainty of salvation, in quotes, of the fact that none of these would lose their lives. Well, look at verse 31.
Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes and the skiff and let it fall off. Do you get what's going on here? Paul has already been promised by God that none of these would be lost, that no loss of life would be among you.
But nevertheless, Paul goes about the means of exhortation. He says, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. This is a picture of why or of apostolic admonition. The apostles, the Christian knows the perseverance of the saints.
They know that God, that Jesus Christ keeps us unto that day of salvation with sovereign and with high protection. Nevertheless, we will say, ensure that you walk and you conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. we will ensure that the admonition goes forth that unless you persevere unto the end, you will not be saved, knowing that God preserves his people, but nevertheless requires an active preaching of the means that work out unto that particular end. So
Acts 27 and the Means of Perseverance
biblical admonition is perfectly consistent with the perseverance of the saints, but also there are those texts that seem to affirm that Christians can or have fallen away from the faith.
Hebrews 6 and Apostasy
Turn to Hebrews 6 for a moment and then we'll move on to a brief survey of the grounds of our perseverance. Hebrews chapter 6 at verse 4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to an open shame. For the earth, which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God.
But if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned." So, we would come to a passage like this, or those who would oppose our sacred doctrine of the perseverance of the saints will come to a passage like this, already neglecting, of course, John chapter 10, 25 to 29, already neglecting all of those benedictory addresses by the apostles that say God keeps us. All those greetings that say that God keeps us unto the day of salvation, that we're sealed by the Holy Spirit, etc. They'll come here and they'll say, well, here you go. Here is a proof text of the fact that Christians have or can fall away from saving grace.
But it's very interesting the language that we have right after that. But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. We are confident of better things concerning you, the brethren. those who are actual Christians. Yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.
Now, what's going on here is that, of course, the apostle here is dealing with those who we're rolling with, who we're in the company of, the actual New Covenant believers. They were those who perhaps came to church, they came to the gatherings of the Christians, they were under the preaching of the Word, they tasted the heavenly gift, they were partakers of the Holy Spirit, not insofar as that salvific sealing, but rather in the context of of that, you know, a common grace environment where they're gathered together with the people of God, where they can hear the preaching of the minister, where they are the recipients of the hospitality of the saints and of good conversation and all of those sorts of godly things that come along with the Christian life. But nevertheless, they would be of those that John speaks of in his first epistle. Remember, John drives something of a of a nail into the coffin of any doctrine that would say that Christians do not persevere. 1 John 2.19 They went out from us, but they were not of us.
For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. God, by the Apostle, couldn't have been more clear that those who are apostate were never Christians to begin with. And so Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 to 8 cannot be teaching that Christians can fall away because of the rest of Hebrews, but also because, of course, of the immediate context.
But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, those who are believed, those who do not go out from us because you are of us.
The Grounds of Perseverance
Moving on, then, to what our perseverance depends upon. First off, a negative statement, what it does not depend upon. Our Confession says, chapter 17, paragraph 2, our perseverance does not depend upon our own free will. So our perseverance, any tax against us, are very often based upon that, that we keep ourselves, by our strength, in in perseverance, or in salvation, or in the walk of everlasting life.
Well, no, perseverance does not depend upon our own free will. It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. That's where the plan comes from, that's where the strength comes from, that's where the sustaining power comes from. John 6.44, of course, no man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." So not only does our entering into, our coming to salvation, our coming to Christ not depend upon our own free will, neither does our keeping in the faith, our keeping in Christ Jesus.
Now, of course, just a very brief distinction is always good with regards to free will. We're not attacking the notion of free agency that man doesn't choose. Man does go through the actions of actually choosing particular things. I might choose Wheaties over life for my cereal in the morning.
We're not denying that man has an agency whereby he can go about cognitive actions of learning and choosing particular things. We deny a free will that says that man's actions are not in bondage to a particular nature. Martin Luther wrote a wonderful work called The Bondage of the Will. Oh, we have a will, but it is in bondage to our ethical disposition.
It's in bondage to our nature. That's what we read in the Holy Scriptures when we read such passages, like in Jeremiah, where he says, Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its fox? Well, then let you who are accustomed to doing evil do good. The hearts of men are wicked.
They do evil continually. Madness is in them, and they are mad until they die. There is that perpetuity of our nature. Unless amazing grace touches us, unless victorious grace touches us, unless God removes that heart of stone and puts in it a heart of flesh that beats and wills rightly, then we will not ever choose for God.
We will not ever choose for Christ. A wonderful picture, and I'm modifying a little bit, but a wonderful picture is if you think about this idea of bondage to our nature. You take a carnivorous animal like a mountain lion. You won't find many mountain lions prancing in cabbage fields or hunting lettuce. or going to pray after carrots.
Why? Because their fancies, their will is dictated by their nature. They're meat eaters. You throw a cabbage at a mountain lion, it's going to bat it out of the way and it's going to come and pounce on you.
It wants meat. Sorry to scare the children here, but always run away from a mountain lion or don't go near them. But mountain lions, if you went to feed it a cabbage, no. It's not going to take it.
It's going to wait for the meat. It's going to go after the meat. Well, so the sinner, the sinner is like the puma and the cabbage is. I don't want to compare Christ to cabbage, but the sinner is like the mountain lion.
He will not. He will not take Christ because Christ is opposed to his nature, to his disposition. He hates the things of Christ. The one who is dead in his trespasses and sins hates Christ, wants nothing to do with his people, wants nothing to do with this church.
But the one redeemed by grace, the one redeemed by amazing grace, works after his nature also. It is his nature that he is in bondage to Christ. He is a slave to righteousness. He is a slave to his master, the Lord Jesus, and he acts according to his nature.
He chooses Christ. He's not going to take the pig slop and the nastiness of sin he works in accordance or he operates in accordance with his new will that is aligned to the wishes and the commands of our Savior, his Savior, in his glorious gospel. It does not, of course, depend upon our own free will, nor does staying in, getting in, or staying in depend upon works of righteousness which we have done. We don't stay in based on good deeds performed.
We don't stay in based on works wrought in holiness of heart. It is not works that keep us in, although the saved and the persevering will do works that befit repentance. We will do works that are conducive with our profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what does it then depend upon?
God's Immutable Decree of Election
First off, perseverance depends upon the certainty and immutability of God's loving and eternal plan. Our Confession says it this way, perseverance depends not upon our own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of God flowing from the unchangeable love of God the Father. The immutability of the decree of election flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father. That's what our perseverance depends upon.
You don't need to turn there, but I'm just going to read from Romans 9 for a moment, just to see something more of this language of God's eternal plan and what salvation depends upon. Romans chapter 9, certainly familiar to most Calvinists, one of our go-to passages in our arguments with the Arminian, and rightfully so, but not the only one. Romans 9, beginning in verse 10. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, the older shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. verse 16, so then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
And we read, and Pastor Butler referred to it last time as that golden chain of redemption, Romans 8.30. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. Why is it called a golden chain of redemption? Because it's impenetrable.
From first to last, the golden chain is impenetrable, and none are lost along the way. Notice from beginning to end, none of the people who are being saved in this glorious chain of redemption are lost. Moreover, whom he predestined, those who are predestined, these he also called. Those who were predestined and also called, these he also justified.
Those who were predestined, called and justified, these he also glorified. It's not as if a body was started that were predestined, a few dropped off, before the calling, or at the point of calling, then more dropped off and were left with a handful at the point of glorification. No. All of those whom God purposed to save, will be saved, are saved, have been saved.
It's interesting, the language of salvation in our Bibles is used past tense, present tense, and future tense. Not because the writers of Holy Scripture are confused, but they'll use the language of you have been saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved. And it's all part of the glorious economy of salvation, that from first to last, we are saved, being saved, and will be saved. And non-purpose to be so will be lost.
So, first off, we have the fact that our perseverance depends upon the immutability of God's decree of election. And one thing, just before we move on to our next point, if you want to turn there, great. If not, that's okay, too. 2 Thessalonians 2, and it speaks wonderfully to this point, and very amazingly, after it sets forth the certainty of salvation, it gives an admonition to persevere. That's what's so wonderful about our Bibles.
In the context of establishing certain perseverance, sometimes the Apostle will immediately say, you need to persevere. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which he called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle." So notice the certainty of election. From the beginning, God chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. And the certainty of it wrapped up in the glory of Christ, to which he called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The perseverance of the saints, the fact that from beginning to end we are protected by a sovereign God, is unto the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So it is certain and it depends upon the immutability of God's decree of election.
The Perfection of Christ's Work
Secondly, perseverance depends upon the perfection of Christ's work. Our perseverance is tied to Christ. It's not as if the people who are incensed against our doctrine of perseverance are attacking us. That's not the issue.
And Pastor Butler said that before from the pulpit. The issue isn't us. Who are they really attacking? They're attacking Christ.
They're weakening the work of the Savior. They're diminishing, they're offering a defective view of Christ's saving work. That's what they're doing. They ought to be indicted.
They ought to be reviewed because it's not men who are the issue. It's Christ in that case. You're attacking His perfect and His saving work. Hebrews chapter 9.
Hebrews chapter 9. If you want, you can turn there. There will be a lot of turning, so you don't need to. You can listen.
Hebrews 9, beginning at verse 11, speaking about the perfection of Christ's work as being a foundation for perseverance. But Christ came as High Priest, this is verse 11 of Hebrews 9, of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place, once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." Not that maybe they might receive, but the language is that they will receive. the eternal inheritance. And notice that Christ, at the end of verse 12, has obtained eternal redemption, not the possibility of it, not a maybe, a perhaps, or if all goes well, redemption. No, He has obtained eternal redemption for His people by the shedding of His precious blood. The saving work of Christ in His cross work was fully efficacious.
That means fully powerful, or it did accomplish all that it was intended. accomplish. Christ didn't fail at the cross. Christ didn't make men savable at the cross. Christ died for them that they might perfectly inherit eternal life.
He died perfectly so that all those whom God had given him would enter into eternal life on the last day. None are lost. by the saving of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only would it be an attack upon Christ's cross work to say that Christians can be lost, that those whom Christ died can be lost, but it would be an attack on his intercessory work. On his intercessory work.
This is Hebrews 7 beginning at verse 20. And inasmuch as he was not made priest without an oath, for they have become priests without an oath, but he with an oath by him who said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. By so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. That's massive.
For someone who opposes the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints to come to that text and to still affirm that opposition to such a doctrine is to defy reason. It's to actually manifest evidence that they are in rebellion against the living and true God. or they're just in lack of understanding because you can't come to our Savior, the Savior of Golgotha, the Savior of having ascended to the right hand of the majesty on high, interceding for us and say that he loses his people. Christ died a perfect death for them, fully efficacious. And now the one who lives forever, the one who, as the text said, is able to save them to the uttermost, now always lives to make intercession for them.
The sinless, perfect, spotless Lamb of God, who is God manifested in the flesh, now ascended to the right hand of the Father, does things perfectly, and one of those things is interceding for his people. He doesn't lose them. In fact, that's what he says in John chapter 10. My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and they shall never perish.
Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hands. I and my Father are one. That's another text that it just defies reason. It baffles my mind that you can come to that text and then just sort of brush it off and say, yeah, but Christians can lose their salvation.
You Calvinists are horrible. Boggles the mind. Christ's perfect salvation.
The Oath of God
Thirdly, perseverance depends upon the oath of God. Perseverance depends upon the oath of God. In fact, we sang that tonight. We sang that tonight.
That hymn was very rich with the doctrine of perseverance. 582, the oath of God. His covenant, his blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. The hymn writer didn't just pull that out of thin air.
He pulled that out of Hebrews chapter 6. And it's interesting, right after the passage that those who hate perseverance will go to, to defend their wretched doctrine, we have the oath of God as the grounds of our hope of perseverance right after it. Verse 13 of Hebrews 6, For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation. who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Shame on you for saying that Christians can lose their salvation.
Shame on you. It flies in the face of an oath-making, promise-taking God. It flies in the face of our precious God, who not only promised, but not even needing to do so, because He's God making the promise, swears by an oath that He would keep that promise. It's absolutely amazing.
And notice the hope. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. That's Christian hope. That's biblical Christian hope.
Again, not that hope, oh, I really hope the Canucks will win tonight, although that's more realistic lately. But that's not a hope that's grounded in sure and steadfastness or assurity. That's not biblical and Christian hope. No, biblical and Christian hope is certain expectation that something will be brought to pass, that something will take place.
In this case, We rest upon the oath of God who says that he will never lose his covenant people. Fifthly, or excuse me,
The Abiding of the Holy Spirit
fourthly, perseverance depends upon the abiding of the Holy Spirit within us. Just one more after this perseverance depends upon the abiding of the Holy Spirit within us. And you can turn to Second Corinthians chapter two, please. Second Corinthians, chapter two.
Perseverance depends upon the abiding of the Holy Spirit within us, and I hope you notice that perseverance is Trinitarian. Perseverance is Trinitarian, Father, Son and Holy Spirit working to bring about the redemptive purpose perfectly unto the praise of his glory. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, was speaking about the surety of the sealing of the Holy Spirit and tying it to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sealing of the Holy Spirit is something that is, or serves rather, as the foundation of the Holy Spirit, as the foundation of our perseverance.
And Paul uses the same language in Ephesians chapter 1 at verse 13. In him, this is still speaking of Christ, in him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Who is, Paul continues, who is the guarantee of our inheritance. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance.
Now, notice the language here. It's striking. First of all, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That's a certain sealing.
This is a sealing that is done by or with the third person of the Blessed Trinity. This isn't just some loosey-goosey sealing. This is the sealing by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of promise, who not only we are sealed by, but who is also the guarantee of our inheritance. He is the guarantor of the fact that we will enter into everlasting life, that we will obtain the redemption, the purchased possession, or that we will have that guaranteed for us.
Now, that is impenetrable. And not just before that, he has already written about the eternal love of God in predestination, in election. He has already written about perfect redemption by the blood of Christ. And he ends the discourse, or he ends the benediction, or the doxology rather, with the Holy Spirit.
That the Holy Spirit's work is perfect. First, the Father's is sure and perfect. Secondly, the Son's is sure and perfect. And thirdly, the Holy Spirit's. is sure, and it is perfect.
Just in the Bible, one of the things that Waldron notes in his exposition on the doctrine of perseverance is that in the Greek language, sealing carries with it three striking meanings, and they touch upon the doctrine of perseverance. It touches upon authenticity, John 6, 27, the authenticity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, giving or sealing Christ Jesus and His authentic ministry. among them. Protection, Matthew 27, 66, the language being used of the stone rolled across the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was sealed, protected, and then possession and ownership in Revelation chapter 9 at verse 4.
So the sealing of the Holy Spirit, it is sure, it is perfect. It indicates authenticity, protection, and possession. We are God's prized possession. We are God's possession.
We are owned by the Great King, the High King of Heaven.
The Covenant of Grace
And fifthly, perseverance depends upon the nature of the covenant of grace. Perseverance depends upon the nature of the covenant of grace. In this case, the fullest revelation of the covenant of grace is the New Covenant. The New Covenant should never be equated directly with the covenant of grace.
It is that point in redemptive history, or it is at a part at a particular point in redemptive history, that the New Covenant is ratified by the Lord Jesus Christ, it being a part of the Covenant of Grace, God's plan to save a people perfectly by Christ Jesus. And the nature of the Covenant of Grace serves as the grounds of perseverance. Jeremiah 31, you don't need to turn there, but the Old Covenant had a fault. That's what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 8.7. that the first covenant wasn't faultless by the design of God.
It's not as if God was imperfect. He established a covenant not knowing that it would somehow have a fault. But the first covenant was not faultless The new covenant is different from the old covenant. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
Notice the difference, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. This covenant would be different than the old one in that everyone in the covenant, the new covenant, would know the Lord. They would have the forgiveness of sins. They would have the law written upon their hearts and upon their minds.
They would all be saved if we can use that language. And we can use that language. All in the New Covenant are saved by God. They're sealed, having been won, having been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then Jeremiah 32, 40 strengthens the fact that the nature of the New Covenant is the grounds of our perseverance or serves as the grounds of our perseverance. Sorry, Jeremiah 32, 40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me." An old covenant, an Old Testament announcement that God's covenant people, His new covenant people, would not fall away, would not depart from Him. They cannot, because of the nature of the new covenant that was preached by Jeremiah, that was ratified by the blood of our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me. Blessed truth. Blessed truth. God will not depart from us.
And by his grace, we will not depart from him. So perseverance, again, depends upon the immutability of the decree of election flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father It flows from the perfection of Christ's perfect work, or from the perfection of Christ's cross work, his intercessory work. Perseverance depends upon the oath of God, upon the abiding of the Holy Spirit within us, and upon the nature of the covenant of grace.
Application
And in closing, brethren, a Christianity that denies perseverance is grossly defective. A Christianity that denies perseverance is grossly defective. Oh, that's mean. No, it's not.
No, it's not. A preacher of such an abhorrent doctrine basically takes his audience by the hand and he takes them on a tour of the things that we just toured. And he said, God does not actually have an effective eternal purpose. That God's election is actually constrained by the will of man, not the other way around.
That it is God who is bound by the decision of man and elects based upon that foreseen decision. He grabs them by the hand and he takes them to Golgotha and he says, that wasn't perfect. That wasn't perfect. Oh yeah, we love the Lord Jesus Christ.
He died upon the cross for sinners, but it is up to the sinner to make it efficacious. Christ is knocking wimply on the door of the hearts of sinners. They need to grab, grip, turn with their strength and he can hobble in. They take their audience to Golgotha and they say Christ failed at the cross.
Of course, they don't say that, but brethren, that is the striking and obvious implication. They go to Hebrew 6 and they say that God lies. Oh, he made a promise and he made an oath. We're reading that language.
But what about our hope? What about our hope that sure and steadfast, that's the anchor of our soul, that was won for us by the forerunner who entered before us, our mediator, even Jesus Christ, the surety of a better covenant? They take them by the hand and they say, God's a liar. They take them by the hand to the third person of the Blessed Trinity and they say, yeah, he's seals, but not really. not an efficacious sealing, it's just some sort of contingent sealing and man by his own free will and works wrought by holiness of heart will somehow keep him in.
Yeah, he's sealed, but not really. He goes to the covenant, he goes to the new covenant or the covenant of grace and actually most of those who believe against our particular doctrine They really don't have a proper understanding of the covenant of grace and of the new covenant anyway. And I don't want to be seen as someone, oh, you know, I've got doctrine down. I've got all my theological ducks in a row and I just know doctrine to a T.
No, I'm not trying to be arrogant. But they don't have a proper understanding of the nature of the new covenant that God says, I will not depart from you, nor will you depart from me. Why? Because I'll put my spirit within you.
I'll put my spirit within you. they take their audience to the God of the Covenant and they say he's not strong to keep it. And he was lying when he said that his people would persevere in it and that they would not depart from it. Now we ought to pray We ought to pray that God would give us the grace, that would give us the humility, even, to rebuke such preachers, such Christians, who would even consider such an abhorrent doctrine, that Christ cannot keep those who are his. We take them by the hand to the God of eternal decree, who eternally decrees based on a strong love.
We take those preachers and those Christians, so-called, who had subscribed to such a doctrine, we take them to Golgotha, we take them to Calvary, to a battered and bloodied and beaten Savior. And we say, look upon that Christ and tell me if you now want to affirm a doctrine that says, that wasn't perfect, that failed. Tell me that now. Look upon the Christ who's battered and beaten and walk away reviling the doctrine of perseverance.
It's idiocy. Jude chapter three will close with this doxology. Jude chapter three. There is only one chapter in Jude.
Jude 1.24. By the way, Jude opens up this particular epistle by saying to those who are called sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ. preserved in Jesus Christ. He ends his epistle with this blessed doxology. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
To God, our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Our Christ is fully able to keep us from stumbling.
Fully able. And the passage that we opened up our night with, brethren, is impenetrable. Any Christian who comes to that, who somehow affirms in misunderstanding a doctrine that you can fall away from the faith, that you can ultimately and finally be lost, ought to fall to their knees and repent when they read what we closed with in the opening of our scripture reading. Yet in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen and amen. If you know Christ, glory in the doctrine of perseverance. Don't look inwardly.
Don't look at yourself. Remember what Pastor Butler instructed us not to do is look for the grounds of our perseverance on ourselves, on our good deeds, on our functioning in the way everlasting. But to look to Christ, to look to that one who is the surety of a better covenant. And if you're not Christ's, believe in him.
Yeah, it's the simple message of the preacher kids that you've heard time and time again, but it's what God says in his word. and you are instructed, along with kings and those who are in authority, to kiss the Son, to kiss Christ, to obey Christ, lest He be angry and you perish in the way. There is that tender-hearted Christ who will welcome you as His own, if you believe in Him, if you're His. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved and He won't be that one with heavy feet who will grind you to powder. Believe in Him, walk in His ways, love His people, and look forward to that blessed day when we will inherit that purchased redemption, that purchased possession, that's sure and steadfast.
Right now, as Christians, we are just as saved as those who are singing the praises in Emmanuel's land. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're not saved, own Christ and His perseverance. If you are, let's pray.
Let's bless the name of our Holy Father.
Closing Prayer
God, we thank You so much for the fact of perseverance. We thank You, Lord God, knowing what it means that it does not mean or it does not depend upon our own free will or upon our works or upon our obedience, Lord God. Though, of course, we should seek and we ought to seek to do Your will, to follow after You, to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, But God, knowing that it depends upon your eternal love, your unchanging plan, the immutability of the decree of election, that it flows father, that it depends upon the perfect work of our Lord Jesus Christ, that perfect sacrifice for sinners and that one who perfectly intercedes for us. We thank you, Lord God, for your oath, for your covenant, for your grace and for the sealing of the Holy Spirit.
We pray, Lord God, because it is possible with you, Holy Father, that you would save even every single one in this room, that those having entered in not knowing you would leave singing the praises of Jesus Christ, that each and every one would bend a knee right now to the King of kings and to the Lord of lords, and that we would love him, that we would serve him, that we would seek to be kind and hospitable to his people, that we would love coming to this church where we get to hear of such a glorious Christ. We pray that you'd go with every one of us now, help us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of our glorious Christ. And it's in His name that we pray. Amen.