All right, folks, let's begin. Let's turn, if you will, just have your Bibles open to First John, Chapter 3. We'll come to that in a bit. Let's just have it open in front of you. So I want to continue to think here about perseverance of the saints and, oh, I made a mistake there. The little thesis statement is from last week, so just disregard that. The canons have been discussing the issue of assurance, the assurance of perseverance. How can we know that we are going to persevere unto the end? How do we know that God will keep us in his grace? And sort of related to that issue is the issue of whether or not knowing that you are going to persevere, having assurance, whether having assurance is a detriment to godly living or is an excitement unto godly living? So, Are You Excited? is the title there. Not excitements like we think of it. We think of excitements more in an emotional way, right? Really exciting, like when I went to a Brazilian barbecue this past week in Kansas City, where I thought I'd never find a Brazilian And we went to a Brazilian barbecue, and I was so excited about it. That was excitement. So we had a Kansas City barbecue the next night, and it wasn't quite as good. But I was very excited to go to a Brazilian barbecue and remember my summer in Brazil. That was exciting. But the word excitement also can mean a stimulus, not just to stimulate your emotions, but to stimulate you to action, so to excite. in that sense. So the issue of assurance and perseverance of the Saints does our knowing that we are in God's grace and that we're going to make it to the end and so forth. Does that cause us to be less excited, less stimulated in our Christian life? Or does that should that make us more stimulated to live a Christian life. So that's the question. Now, on the one hand, of course, there's also the false kind of excitement. This is a charge of the Armenians. So in the 17th century, those that the reformed churches in the Netherlands and across Europe were responding to when they wrote this document, the Canons of Dort, the Armenians said, well, if you believe that you have assurance of salvation, then there's no reason to live a godly life. Now, besides in the 17th century, where else have you heard that kind of argument? Well, if you believe that you're safe, you believe that God's grace is all that you need, or if you really believe that it's God who does the saving and you do nothing, then why should you ever do anything for God? Have you heard that before? Something like that? Book of Romans? Okay, what does Paul say in Romans? Put you on the spot, come on. Okay, go. Yeah, so Paul says, so you're probably thinking about Romans five and six, where he says, we should, if it's true that when we send God's grace abounds, then the response is, you know, well, we should send more, right? That grace would abound more. Okay. Have you heard it in any other form or fashion? Anyone else heard anything like that, where if you believe you're assured you're not really going to do much, the Christian, for the Lord as a Christian? No? What do you think if you're assured? If you're assured, how should that affect us? But if I'm a believer no matter what, why does it even matter? If I'm a believer no matter what, and God's going to bring me to the end, why does it matter what I do? So it's not a Christian attitude to say I should sin that grace should abound or that if I'm going to persevere anyway, then I'll let go and let God. Is that a Christian attitude? No. Josh, yeah. Yeah, we belong to Christ and we've died, we've been raised. And because of that, we have a new life. We should be living for him. So the Armenians, notice there on the outline, they said that perseverance of the saints, an assurance of perseverance, gave a false excitement, meaning a false stimulus. to the Christian and the article begins by saying that this is 5.12. This certainty of perseverance which we saw last week is a possibility as well as should be an expectation of the Christian. This certainty of perseverance however is so far from exciting. in believers, a spirit of pride or of rendering them carnally secure. So they got that language because that's what the Armenians were saying. Well, you believe in the certainty of perseverance. Well, that's going to cause you to have a spirit of pride and to cause you to be carnally secure, to feel secure just because you feel like it or because you think you feel like it in your own simple nature. So they charged the reformed by teaching this idea that perseverance lessens our desire to live for the glory of God. Now, that's also it's not just a charge that's leveled against us because of our theology, but this is what the apostles themselves also warn us. They caution us against this idea. They caution us from thinking. You can see there in Galatians 5, verse 13, 1 Peter 2, 16, Jude 4, Paul says in Galatians 5 that we should not use our liberty for You shouldn't use your liberty for your license, right? Liberty for license. Don't use your liberty in Christ. You've been freed for license, meaning you have a license to go out and sin. 1 Peter 2, 16 says not to use your liberty as a cloak to hide You know, I'm free, I'm a Christian and this and that. But you on the side are living a certain way. And Jude four warns the church of those who creep into the church and they turn the grace of God into sensuality and so forth. They were they were so, at least in their mind, they were so preaching the free grace of God that, in fact, they were turning it into a sin. They were saying that the sin was a good thing. To sin was just the result of being what you are. But God loves you anyway, and God's going to cover all the sins. You might get a little bit less of a crown in heaven, but you still make it. So the idea that perseverance does not stimulate us, excite us, is one that is against what we believe. First of all, it's a false charge. And secondly, we are cautioned from thinking those terms. So we should never think in these terms that, you know, sin that grace should abound, or I'm going to make it to the end anyway, and so it doesn't matter what I do in between. We should never think in these terms. They're not Christian. They're not healthy. They're not godly attitudes. But there's a true excitement, a true stimulus that the doctrine of perseverance, as well as the assurance that we have does give to us. Notice the article continues there, the second point in the outline, that on the contrary, it's this assurance of perseverance is the real source of humility. How is it a source of humility to us that we are assured of persevering and we will see Christ in glory? How is that a source of humility? OK, so the work of Christ is at center, not us. It's a real source of filial reverence. You know what the word filial means? Yeah, like a filial, literally like son-like reverence, like a son to a father. A son has a reverence and an honor, we hope, for his dad. Filial reverence. So we are sons of God. God is our father. We have a reverence to him. How is perseverance A source of a reverence towards God. Should we just record wave statements, keep playing it, you know, work of Christ, work of Christ, work of Christ. Yeah, Josh. With man, it's impossible, right? We saw earlier, if you remember the very beginning of the Canons of Dort, the fifth head of doctrine, said that it was not just a possibility, but also it would be a reality that we would fall into sin and perish if God wasn't upholding us. With man, it's impossible to persevere. With God, all things are possible. So it should cause us to be reverent towards God, true piety, a true devotion towards God. Perseverance should be a source of a true devotion and a true God-likeness. Patience in every tribulation. How can perseverance be a cause of patience in the Christian life? Is the Christian life a sprint or a marathon? Nini? A marathon, yeah. It's a long, long life, isn't it? Ordinarily. And when we are tempted, We go through trials and tribulations. How can it help us to think of a Christian life as a long marathon, not as a little sprint? In a sprint, you might stumble and fall, you might lose, right? But if you keep running as a marathon, you'll end up making it. Yeah? Okay. Okay. That was not me back in the day when I used to run. Pace yourself, that's a good way of thinking of it. Pace yourself in the Christian life. Fervent prayers. How can perseverance cause us to have fervent prayers, to have a desirous, earnestness in our praying? Wait. Okay. Right? So things like all of our doctrines, like things like election and perseverance, these things that seem so ethereal, they actually cause us to pray. They should, right? So we ought to be aware that we probably don't as we should, but they should cause us to pray fervently. J.I. Packer is still alive in his 90s, a great Anglican theologian, and he wrote a great little book years ago. It's called Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. And he basically has a whole lecture in there where he talks about the relationship between election, predestination, and praying, and what's the connection. And Christian theologians have for 2,000 years dealt with that issue of how do we relate God's ultimate sovereignty to our actually praying. We do believe that God uses our prayers to cause us to persevere. He doesn't just, you know, hold us up like a little puppet on a little string and bring us to the end. He actually uses the things that we do to bring us to the end. So for our prayers, constancy and suffering and confessing the truth, solid rejoicing in God. What does Paul say in Romans 8? The end of Romans 8 is that great section where he talks about the Christian not being separated from God's love. How does that make him right? Look at the end of Romans 8. That we can't be separated from the love of God and Christ. How does he write there in Romans 8? Is he very dispassionate? Is he very logical? Robotic? God loves us, we're going to make it to the end. How does he write at the end of Romans 8? Yeah, he's passionate, isn't he? He gives God all the glory and praise. Nothing can separate us. We're more than conquerors, he says. It goes crazy in that chapter at the end because of the fact that God himself is upholding us. So the article says that so that the consideration of this benefit, when we think about our being preserved by God in this grace, the consideration of this benefit should serve as an incentive. The Latin text says stimulus. OK. This is not a political stimulus. It's not a windfall for the insiders. A real stimulus, right? Did the stimulus work very well in our economy? No. God really is the one who stimulates us by his grace. It's a real incentive, a real stimulus to the serious and constant practice of gratitude and good works, as appears from testimonies of Scripture in the examples of the saints. So, I want you to think about that last, that section there where it says that, you know, as we think about this benefit, this stimulates us to notice serious and constant practice of gratitude and good works. So, I preached last Lord's Day, if you remember that far back, on how the Christian relates to the law. So, how should we think in terms of the Christian life, in terms of like zeal and action activity? Is it something for us to do? We just sit back and let go and let God like the bumper sticker said, Listen, I was growing up, let go and let God God's my co pilot, you know, those simple things. Should we be active in our Christianity? Should we be passionate about the Christian faith? Okay, Should we be constantly practicing, as it says there, good works and gratitude? Yes. The holiday season, you don't get a pastor in holiday season. So we need to be zealous. We need to be constant in our practice of gratitude and good works. And then notice the, this is from the, the Kansas as well, where it says who teach. So this is in the rejection of errors. I mentioned there, and you'll notice here has as first John is listed there. So I had to turn to first John three beginning, um, first on three versus one through three, this wonderful section. So the, we reject the errors of those who teach this, that the doctrine of the certainty of perseverance and of salvation from its own character and nature, So just because what it is, what it teaches is a cause of indolence and is injurious to godliness, good morals, prayers and other holy exercises, but that on the contrary, it is praiseworthy to doubt. So we reject those who say this with the Armenians would say that it's injurious. Perseverance is injurious to godliness, good morals, prayers and other exercises. But then it says this, this is what we teach the second paragraph for these show that they do not know the power of divine grace and the working of the indwelling Holy Spirit. That's a pretty powerful thing to say, pretty strong. But it's true that if you don't understand. Grace and the work of the Holy Spirit, you would say this. And if we think of ourselves as well, you know, we're going to we're going to make the end of our doctrinal statement, say in the past, tell me that and I'm good to go. Then you don't understand grace in the work of the Holy Spirit. God's grace and the Holy Spirit are the not us, not what we think, not what we feel. It's God's grace and Holy Spirit that stimulate us and move us. This is this. They say this and they Contradict the apostle John, who teaches the opposite with express words in his first epistle, his first on three beloved. Now we are now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him even as he is. Now, notice this. This is first on three verse three. And everyone that have this hope set on him purify himself, even as he is pure. So this is wonderful thing that we know now that we are sons of God. We've been adopted by grace and we know because we've been adopted by grace that we will see Christ when he returns. That's the perseverance part of it. What does John say about the attitude and reaction of us who know that we are adopted and we know that we will see Christ? What does that do for us? Okay, why? Okay, but why should we want to be like Christ? Does a Buddhist want to be like Buddha? Why should we want to be like Christ? He's without sin. Why should I want to be without sin? Terrible, isn't it? If we feel that way, then we should really want to be like him, right? The weight and the burden, the struggle of being a sinner should want us as believers, as he says there, we should purify ourselves as he is pure. So the Old Testament says, the New Testament says elsewhere that we should, God is holy, therefore we should be holy as the Lord our God is holy. So furthermore, These are contradicted by the examples of the saints, both the old and the New Testament, who, though they were assured their perseverance and salvation, were nevertheless constant in prayers and other exercises of godliness. So behind this, what examples do we have? Well, just think of the example of David, for example, and all his prayers, which we can read, not all of them, but we can read. some of his prayers in the Psalms and how important it is for Christians and in the reformed tradition, the Psalms, of course, are the the priority of what we sing, because we believe that when we not only are they the words of God, but we sing them as well because they teach us how to pray and we can pray those words as David prayed. Then we can pray them, knowing Christ and knowing the reality of what they're saying. But the substance of seeing David, a sinner, but yet saved by grace. And we see him constantly in prayer. and how we should follow that example to be holy as the Lord is. So. Is perseverance a stimulus to godliness? If you think no, raise your hand. All right, good job. You'll pass. It's not a stimulus to godlessness, but a stimulus to godliness. And I hope and pray that as you as you know that, but as you read more and more of the scripture, that you'll see that and you see how the apostles themselves are so zealous, so constant in practicing gratitude and good works because of the power of God's wonderful grace. So let's pray.