Many of you would probably know my grandfather was a pastor for over 50 years. He was a General Baptist minister and evangelist. He did tent revivals all in this part of the country, Warren County and Edmondson County, which is where he was from. He founded the General Baptist Church in Brownsville. And if you've ever been to Brownsville, it's right there in the curve as you go right through downtown. And I've spent some days in that church long after he had left. uh... but he would go back pretty frequently to preach he also then founded the state street general baptist church where i grew up as a child uh... that is now the cave mail general baptist church on cave mail road they left downtown uh... many years ago now he's been dead for many years uh... but in my teen years uh... he and i spent a lot of time together and and i was the benefactor of a lot of wisdom from him. But as it regards Christianity, most of our discussions, and there were many, we were at odds with one another. And never over any issue were we more at odds than the subject that's in front of us tonight. My grandfather believed that a believer was saved by their faith in Jesus Christ as long as they maintained that faith, as long as they were earnest to repent of any sin they might commit in a given day. However, if the chance was lost to repent or maybe in a fit of rage even on a Sunday morning walking to a parking lot, which was the analogy I would give my grandfather, and they were hit by a car and killed He was without doubt convinced that they would die and go to hell because they had not been able to repent of that sin before God saw fit to take their life. My argument was, but grandfather, once saved, always saved. And I would say again and again, that's what the Bible teaches. And I still believe that, in some sense at least. The trouble is, as I got older and learned that it's pretty easy to quote these truths just kind of out in the air without any real foundation, I learned how to study the Bible, learned how to look for myself these truths and search them out and try to understand what God says. I realized that once saved, always saved, not in the Bible. It didn't show up in the concordance. And if you Google it today and use all the Bible search engines, you'll not run into it. And so there was a period where I wondered, could I have been wrong about that? Have I been wrongly taught about that? And so I was excited to learn that the history of the Christian church, through the Reformed tradition at least, that has always clung to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, does in fact believe that anyone who is genuinely saved will be saved in the end, and there is nothing that can thwart that. And now I understand what scripture teaches about it. And in all of that, I would say if you were taught in your probably Baptist or Southern Baptist tradition. the response to a consideration of whether or not a Christian makes it. If you were taught that the answer is, once saved, always saved, I hope tonight you'll learn a better answer. That's far too simplistic, and while it reaches for the truth, it perhaps in many ways misses the point to try to make the point. Now, tonight we're going to talk about this, the perseverance of the saints, which is the right way to identify historically the last of these five reformed doctrines of grace. It's fitting that we would end with this, because what we're really talking about here is the application aspect of these great doctrines. In fact, it has been called by some, far less romantic and doesn't fit into our tulip, but it has been called by some the application of the former truths in the life of the believer. If everything we've learned so far regarding the doctrines of grace are true, then this is the reasonable and right application of those truths in your life, or in my life, or in the lives of a believer. Now, here's how we've progressed, and this will catch all of us up together. We are following the the acronym TULIP, which has a historical foundation and we'll touch on that a little later tonight, but it takes the first letters of TULIP and it uses them to identify these tremendous doctrines of grace which essentially summarize the gospel. So here's where we began. We began with man and the condition of man. And what we believe about man is that they are totally depraved, which simply means that the nature of man is to be dead in their trespasses and sins without hope as it regards eternal life. They're living under the wrath of God. They are unable and unwilling to come to God no matter what offer of grace they might be presented with. And you move from that then to God the Father and His work in response to the condition of fallen man. And that's you, unconditional election, or sometimes called sovereign predestination. So while God would be fully just, and we looked at that this morning, in condemning all sinful men and women to an eternal judgment, He has moved only by His love and His will and His own compassion and mercy, He has chosen to save some from among fallen man. And He makes them the recipients of His grace and He grants them everlasting life. Then we move from the work of God the Father to the work of God the Son. which we identify as limited atonement or particular redemption. God can intend to save sinners, but without someone providing the necessary penalty for the sins based on God's determination that the wages of sin is death, then that intention of God can't ever reach its effect. in a sinful man or woman. So someone has to pay the price. Someone has to atone for the sins of all of those who God has chosen. And God the Son is the one who works that out on the cross. It's called particular redemption because He is redeeming a particular people, the people that God has chosen. It's limited in the sense that it only affects, savingly, those God intends to save. And so by that, we believe Jesus actually saves those He intended to save. He didn't die for nothing, for anyone. At the same time, there's a universal aspect to that, because His death, while not providing saving grace for any other than those who believe, it does provide a common grace for everyone. It's that grace wherein God grants favor both to the righteous and the unrighteous. So we have the condition of man, the work of God the Father in determining to save, the work of God the Son in providing the necessary payment for that salvation, and then we have the work of God the Holy Spirit. And this is what we call irresistible grace or the effectual call. This is where through the gospel preached, the Holy Spirit regenerates and grants life to dead sinners. And now the application of Christ's redemption is applied in the believer by faith. Faith is a gift of God given to that born again, individual who now expresses that faith in Christ and by that they are justified. So that's the ground that we have covered. What we have left is how do we apply those truths in our daily lives as Christians, and for that we look into the perseverance or the preservation of the saints. So that's our tulip. Those are the five doctrines of grace. Now let me back up just one by one very quickly, and let's remind ourselves of these truths from Scripture concerning total depravity, The Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 2, but because of your hard and impenitent heart, you store up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. We noticed in verse 8, we looked at this this morning, if you're self-seeking and don't obey the truth, but rather obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. That's the condition of man. That's the sentence of all sinners. because of their refusal to believe. And then when we consider the work of God the Father, we understand from Ephesians chapter 1 where Paul writes in verse 3, places. Verse 4, He chose us. He chose us in Christ and He chose us before the foundation of the world. That is the election that we speak of. God choosing for Himself those that should be, notice the end of verse 4, holy and blameless before Him. And so then, as an act of love, those that He chose He predestined for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ. All of that was according to the purpose of His will. It was for the praise of His glorious grace. And all of that He has blessed on us, the Beloved. That is unconditional election. It has to be unconditional because there would be nothing in fallen man upon which God could condition a choice. There's nothing there that He would be compelled or moved by because all men are sinners. And then we looked at concerning the work of Christ. In this is love, 1 John 4.10, not that we love God, but that He loved us when He sent His Son to be the propitiation or the satisfaction, to pay the price for our sins. That propitiation was paid to God the Father, to whom was due the penalty for the sins. 1 Timothy 4.10, to this end we toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the living God who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. And there we understand there's the universal aspect of Christ's sacrifice. granting another day of life, another day of blessing, another day of opportunity to all sinners, but in a special way, atoning for the sins of those who believe. And then we looked at God the Spirit, and it's all over Scripture, but Ephesians 2 is a great place. There's God's mercy, there's God's great love, there's our death in verse 5, and there is the Spirit who made us alive together with Christ. The Spirit, verse 6, raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places. He did that, verse 7, to show the immeasurable riches of God's grace. And therefore, it's by grace that we're saved, through faith. And none of that is your own doing. It's the gift of God. It's not the result of works, so no man may boast. It's the Spirit giving life. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 1 verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to His great mercy. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope. And the effective agent there is the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. So that's the ground we've covered. I could say it one more way, this way. Man is sinful, destined for judgment and the eternal wrath of God, and then God purposed in election to save to Himself some from among sinful mankind. Christ then provided in the atonement the necessary sacrifice to satisfy the Father's justice regarding the elect, all who were sinners. And then the Spirit produced, in the call of grace, the life necessary in the sinner to respond and to trust in Christ's provision. That's the ground we've covered. That's looking at it from two or three different angles, and if you've been here, that's just a review for you. So what remains? What remains is whether or not all of that effort will produce the desired end. What remains is the certainty of the completion of the work that God has begun. And that again is the reform doctrine that we call the perseverance of the saints. It's sometimes called the preservation of the saints to emphasize God's role in it. But I much prefer perseverance because that gives us a better understanding of what we actually believe here. Now, that language might be new to some of you. Maybe you've just never heard that before. But the language I used earlier, you likely have heard. Those more familiar terms like the doctrine of eternal security. Sometimes it's been called that. Or once saved, always saved. Now to consider this, We're going to go back to where we began in week one. We began in the Netherlands in 1610 and the assault against the gospel that was being waged by the Arminian followers, Jacob Arminius now being dead, but his followers producing a movement to oppose the teaching of the gospel according at that time to the Belgic confession. When we go back there, we go back in particular to the assembly that was put together, which we know as the Senate of Dort, who responded to those charges that the Armenians had made, five of them. They are the one that we would say gave us the five points because Dort just responded to them and by that, We establish historically these five doctrines. When they responded, they responded with the canons of Dort. And if you study church history, you understand that a canon is a body of truth or a doctrinal response. It's a collection of understanding which had been put together by the divines assembled in Dort. And they were then issued in response to the Armenians. And in that, they defended the only and true gospel. Now, that's the canons of Dort simply stated. They actually had a formal title. And much as is always the case, it's not so romantically simple. It really was titled this, The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands. Those are the canons of Dort. Now, they wouldn't have called the response the Five Doctrines of Grace. They certainly wouldn't have called them the Five Points of Calvinism. But history has chosen to apply those fitting labels to the response that's carried forward in the Canons of Dort. These were a judicial decision. It was a formal act of the state to determine what the Church of the Netherlands would actually believe. And the opposition party, the Armenians, were labeled as a result heretics because of their perverted view, the canons would say, regarding the essentials of the gospel. These canons are a judgment, a judgment of the Senate appointed by Parliament against that remonstrance, which is what the followers of Arminius were called. Now, the canons of Dort are cherished today by Christians, certainly Christian historians. It's likely that I'm looking at a group of people, maybe none of you have ever read them. They're easy to find online, as are all the historic confessions of the church. But the reason the canons of Dort have remained kind of treasured is a good word, is because they're so simple. They're so easy to understand. They're incredibly logical. It's very difficult to get lost in them. And because of that, it's a great way actually to be introduced to Christianity. If you met someone who knew nothing of Christianity, a great place to go would take your copy of the Canons of Dort and just start at the beginning and just kind of read through it together. You won't lose anybody. You don't have to have a theological degree. You don't have to understand five-syllable words. It really is written for the common man. Now, our attention tonight, as we've said, is the perseverance of the saints. And what we're going to do is use the canons to understand it. If I tell you they're simple, then maybe you would be helped if I showed you how simple they were. But not just simple, thorough, convincing, compelling in their arguments. And as it regards this doctrine, way better than once saved, always saved. Because that really, like I said, misses the point to try to make the point. So here is a summary from the Canons of Dort regarding the fifth main point of doctrine, which is the perseverance of the saints. And it's written in articles. Now there's 15 articles, but don't be intimidated, they are simple. and we'll get through all 15 of them, and you'll really understand what the perseverance of the saints means. Here's the articles. Article 1, the regenerate not entirely free from sin. Article 2, the believer's reaction to sins of weakness. Article 3, God's preservation of the converted. Article 4, the danger of true believers falling into serious sin. Article 5, the effects of such serious sins. Article 6, God's saving intervention. Article 7, renewal to repentance. Article 8, the certainty of this preservation. Article 9, the assurance of this preservation. Article 10, the ground of this assurance. Article 11, doubts concerning this assurance. Article 12, the assurance as an incentive to godliness. Article 13, assurance, no inducement to carelessness. Article 14, God's use of means in perseverance. And finally Article 15, contrasting reactions to the teaching of perseverance. Now that's a lot of ground to cover. But I hope you will be surprised It may be more than that, encouraged to see how clear and simple these canons themselves are to make the point and to give you a real understanding of what we mean when we speak of the perseverance of the saints. So let's take them one at a time. Here's Article 1. The regenerate not entirely free from sin. Those people whom God, according to His purpose, calls into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and regenerates by the Holy Spirit, He also sets free from the reign and slavery of sin, though in this life not entirely from the flesh and from the body of sin. So we begin with this principle, Christians still sin. So when we think of the perseverance of the saints, however that ends, it doesn't end by Christians not sinning, because the Bible simply doesn't allow for that possibility. Christians will battle with sin. The great Apostle Paul battled with sin. We're able to look into that in some measure in Romans chapter 7, where he gives his own testimony and he says, I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law. That is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Now, we could work the rest of the night through Romans 7. We won't do that. Most of you have some understanding of this. But understand this. The Apostle Paul admits an ongoing struggle with sin. But at the same time, and he actually says it three times, only twice here, but if you read the chapter, he says it three times. He is not describing a sin or sins that he so regularly surrenders to that he could be identified by those sins. In other words, They're not sins that would mark his life. He's not an adulterer. He's not a thief. He's not one who practices sin to the degree, as the Bible would say, you could identify that man by that sin. In fact, what he says is, these sins assail me and I do indeed fall into that temptation. I do what I wish I wouldn't do. But I don't do it so often that you could identify me with it. In fact, I do it rarely enough that when I do it, I can say to you, it's not me doing it. You can't identify me with that sin. It's the sin that's still in me. It's my flesh that's doing it. The point for us is simple. The regenerate man is not entirely free from sin. We will still battle sin. Article 2. The believer's reaction to this ongoing battle of sin, the sins of weakness. And here's what Dort wrote. Hence, daily sins of weakness arise. and blemishes cling to even the best works of God's people, giving them continual calls to humble themselves before God, to flee for refuge to Christ crucified, to put the flesh to death more and more by the spirit of supplication and by holy exercises of godliness, and to strain toward the goal of perfection until they're freed from this body of death and reign with the Lamb of God in heaven. And here's where you pick up the notion of the whole idea of perseverance. There is this persevering, ongoing, regular struggle with sin. They freely admit that it's a daily struggle. And Christians, I would encourage you, should freely admit to the daily struggle with sin. They even indicate that on our best days we're still tainted with the reality of our sin. Our intentions will always be less than pure. Our selfishness and our pride and our desire to gain. always obscure even our best works. What we're talking about here is the need for the believer to mortify sin, to be killing sin. As the great Puritan once said, you must be killing sin or sin will be killing you. And he speaks there into the lives of believers. He speaks like Paul spoke in Romans 8. So then brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit, and here's our word, you mortify, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. This is the ongoing struggle in the believer's life against the sins that Paul says would so easily beset us. It's a reality. And it's not reasonable to consider the perseverance of the saints and not consider this reality. This is what we persevere in. Article 3, God's preservation of the converted. Because of these remnants of sin dwelling in them and also because of the temptations of the world and Satan, those who have been converted could not remain standing in this grace if left to their own resources. But God is faithful, mercifully strengthening them in the grace once conferred on them, and powerfully preserving them in it to the end. Now this is so important. What this says is, in the reality of the battle of sin, if you try to fight this on your own, you'll lose. There is no way with all of your striving that you could keep from failing. That is, if God left you to yourself. So what we understand is that God is powerfully at work in the believer's life. And it's by grace then that we can prevail. I've heard John MacArthur say many times, if my security, my eternal security were up to me, I would not make it. And neither would I. And neither would you. The book of Philippians addresses this. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You're going to have to persevere at this. You're going to have to be killing sin. But notice, in all of your striving, in all of your effort, understand this. It is God who works in you, both to will and to work. for his good pleasure. Without the present work of God in the believer's life, you would fail. You wouldn't make it. You would not persevere. Article 4. The danger of true believers falling into serious sin. Now it's easy to look at the idea of sin and say, yeah, you know, I lost my temper yesterday or I eat too much. But what about serious sins? Not that those aren't serious, but stay with me here. Dort writes, although that power of God strengthening and preserving true believers in grace is more than a match for the flesh, yet those converted are not always so activated and motivated by God that in certain specific actions they cannot, by their own fault, depart from the leading of grace, be led astray by the desires of the flesh and give in to them. For this reason, they must constantly watch and pray that they may not be led into temptations. When they fail to do this, not only can they be carried away by the flesh, the world, and Satan into sins, even serious and outrageous ones, but also by God's just permission, they sometimes are so carried away. Witness the sad cases described in Scripture. Cases like David and Peter. and other saints falling into such serious sins. Serious sins like in the life of Peter, the denial that he even knew who Jesus was. So there's a real danger here, this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints acknowledges. And it's important to kind of press on and see how we respond to that. Article 5, the effects of those serious sins. What happens if a believer falls into such a serious sin? Well, the canons say, by such monstrous sins, however, they greatly offend God, deserve the sentence of death, grieve the Holy Spirit, suspend the exercise of faith, severely wound the conscience, and sometimes lose the awareness of grace for a time, until, after they have returned to the way by genuine repentance, God's fatherly face again shines upon them. The effects of a believer falling into serious sin are profound effects. If you read that, you see things like, stop growing in the faith, stopping the exercise of faith. It will stunt your growth. We've been talking about that on Sunday mornings. It can wound your conscience. You can become numb to the reality of the grievousness of those sorts of sins. And sometimes you can lose the awareness that you, in fact, are a Christian. And we'll look at that again in a few minutes. So the effects are serious. Article 6, God's saving intervention. For God, who is rich in mercy, according to His unchangeable purpose of election, does not take His Holy Spirit from His own completely, even when they fall grievously. Neither does He let them fall down so far that they forfeit the grace of adoption. and the state of justification, or commit the sin which leads to death, which is the sin against the Holy Spirit, and plunge themselves, entirely forsaken by Him, into eternal ruin. God limits the fall of His children. Even when they fall into such grievous sins, and even though they might endure the effects of those sins, they will not fall away from the Father's love. Instead, Article 7, renewal to repentance. For, in the first place, God preserves in those saints when they fall His imperishable seed from which they have been born again, lest it perish or be dislodged. Secondly, by His Word and Spirit, He certainly and effectively renews them to repentance, so they have a heartfelt and godly sorrow for the sins they have committed. Seek and obtain, through faith and with a contrite heart, forgiveness in the blood of the mediator. Experience again the grace of a reconciled God. Through faith, adore His mercies. And from then on, more eagerly work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. God grants repentance. In His time, having accomplished the purpose of the discipline or the lessons that the believer falling into such a grievous sin should learn, He will certainly renew them to repentance. Now that repentance exercises itself in the believer. We know this text, 1 John 1, 9. The believer, if they confess their sins, then they know that God is faithful and just to forgive them their sins and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. They do not fear God rejecting them because of their sin. In fact, they know that He is faithful and just. And having granted them repentance, He will forgive them. Article 8, the certainty of this preservation. You see now we speak of preservation because we've seen how God is actively at work even in the life of that believer who's battling sin and sometimes falling to it. God is the one who's working to preserve them. And so we read, so it is not by their own merits or strength but by God's undeserved mercy that they neither forfeit faith and grace totally nor remain in their downfalls to the end and are lost. with respect to themselves this not only easily could happen but also undoubtedly would happen but with respect to god it cannot possibly happen since his plan cannot be changed his promise cannot fail the calling according to his purpose cannot be revoked the merit of christ as well as his interceding and preserving cannot be nullified and the ceiling of the holy spirit can neither be invalidated nor wiped out every one of those statements in many of your minds is bringing up a verse that those statements are saying that's what God has said. God has said that His plan cannot be changed. God has said His promises cannot fail. God has said His calling and election is without repentance. It cannot be changed or revoked. God has said all of these things. And of course, God, through Paul, said this, I am sure of this. that God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So even though we battle sin, even though we are saints and sinners at the same time, we are certain that God is faithful to His own, faithful to His own, not meaning us, faithful to His own intentions, faithful to His own promises, faithful to His own provision. He is faithful to His own gift, the Holy Spirit, which He gives every believer as an assurity that in fact they will make it to the end. He is faithful when He begins a work to finish that work. Now, at this point I would say it's one thing to talk about doctrinal certainty and really that's what this perseverance of the saints has done so far. The doctrinal certainty that God will finish what He started But it's another thing to experience that, to know that, to be, our word would be, to be assured. So it's one thing to be certain, it's another thing to feel it, right? It's one thing to know it, it's another thing to enjoy it. And so now the perseverance of the saints turns its attention to assurance. What is the assurance of this preservation? concerning this preservation of those chosen to salvation and concerning the perseverance of true believers in faith, believers themselves can and do become assured. Now watch this, we become assured in accordance with the measure of their faith. by which they firmly believe that they are and always will remain true and living members of the church and that they have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. You reach for faith and faith, what you believe and know about the certainty of God's promise, that produces in you the assurance. One of the dangers of the simple doctrine, once saved, always saved, is it's almost always coupled to the caboose that says, you can know for sure that you're saved. You should be constantly assured of your salvation. And the reality is you can know for sure, but you can't be constantly assured. Even as you struggle with sin, even as your faith might rise and fall and waver at times, so will your assurance. And what the canons teach here is that if you want to be more assured, if you want to enjoy the reality of what God has promised, then you'll need to increase your faith. You'll need to be more confident in what God has said and what you believe. Now at this point, if you'll bear with me a minute, the Apostle Peter does probably the most thorough job of expressing this aspect of the perseverance of the saints in 2 Peter chapter 1. And you could turn there if you want, but I printed the text here for the sake of time. So follow this with the Apostle Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter 1, verse 3. Here's where Peter begins. He says, God's divine power has granted to us believers all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. by which, there is God again, His divine power, has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that's in the world because of sinful desire." Now that's Peter's statement of the doctrinal truth. It is certain that God has given you everything you need. You're not lacking anything. So there's the truth. But now, how do you experience that truth? How do you enjoy that truth? How do you feel the assurance that this truth should grant you? Well, here's how Peter goes on. Next verse. For this reason, for the very reason that you have it, you need to make every effort to supplement your faith. Or as the King James Version says, you need to add to your faith. You need to grow from that position of certainty in knowledge to an experience of certainty in your life. Notice how you do it. You supplement your faith with virtue, and then your virtue with knowledge, and your knowledge with self-control, and your self-control with steadfastness, and your steadfastness with godliness, and your godliness with brotherly affection, and your brotherly affection with love. That's the spiritual growth of the believer. And Peter is saying, the truth is certain. Do you want to experience it? Then start with saving faith and begin to grow. Begin to grow in your virtue, your pursuit of godliness. Begin to grow in your understanding of Christ. Begin to now exercise self-control because Christ is in you and working through you. Be steadfast in it. Not self-control occasionally, but now more regularly self-control, more certainly self-control. And then godliness begins to be formed in you. People are recognizing it and seeing it now. And then Peter says, now you're ready to reach out effectively and love your brothers and sisters in Christ. But even more than that, you can exercise love for all people. This is the expression now of the assurance, the experience of the assurance. But how did it happen? You had to strengthen your faith. You had to add to it. You had to work at it. Now Peter goes on to say, if those qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if you lack those qualities, here's what will happen. You'll get so nearsighted that you're blind, Christian, blind. You'll forget that you were saved. You will lose your assurance. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, because if you'll practice these qualities, if you'll add to your faith and grow, you will never fall. So do you see that? Knowing the truth is one thing, experiencing it is another, and it takes our engaging, it takes our persevering, and God rewards that, and your certainty grows. Absent that, oh, you'll still be a believer, but you've met this believer. They're not sure anymore. They're not even sure they remember whether God has forgiven them or not. That's Peter's warning against not persevering, and more than that, against falling away from the assurance that every believer should have. So assurance comes, as the canon said, in direct proportion with the growing of your faith. I meet Christians all the time who doctrinally believe that God has saved them and will always finish what He starts. But they're struggling with their assurance. They're not experiencing the joy of their salvation. And we always begin here together with 2 Peter and say, have you added anything to your saving faith? Have you worked at all to let that work out in you? because unless you do I'm not just gonna sit here and say oh you're sure brother don't you let the devil rob you of your assurance that's not helpful what's helpful is to grow in your faith that's what the Bible teaches now even as you do that article 10 says don't forget the ground of this assurance accordingly This assurance does not derive from some private revelation beyond or outside the Word, but from faith in the promises of God which He has very plentifully revealed in His Word for our comfort. It comes from the testimony of the Holy Spirit testifying with our spirit that we are God's children and heirs. And finally, from a serious and holy pursuit of a clear conscience and of good works. And if God's chosen ones in this world did not have this well-founded comfort that the victory will be theirs and this reliable guarantee of eternal glory, they would be of all people most miserable. There are few things more miserable than a Christian who doesn't have assurance. And they struggle and they'd like to share that struggle with you and me. And they need to go back to the ground of assurance. always and only at rest in the promises of God that's where it begins God is our certainty so let me just give you one of those promises because we looked at it not too many weeks ago Jesus said my sheep hear my voice I know them and they follow me I give them eternal life they will never perish no one can snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. That's the promise to every believer. Jesus gave you life, not temporary, not experimental. He gave you eternal life. He promises you you will never perish. There is no power on earth or in heaven that can rob the believer from his position in Christ. That's the ground of our assurance. But yet, doubts. Doubts arise. Doubts concerning this assurance. So meanwhile, Scripture testifies that believers have to contend in this life with various doubts of the flesh and that under severe temptation they do not always experience this assurance, full assurance of faith and certainty of perseverance. But God The Father of all comfort does not let them be tempted beyond what they can bear, but with the temptation He also provides a way, and by the Holy Spirit revives in them the assurance of their perseverance. There is a principle that this seeks to communicate that I want to kind of nail down for the benefit of all of you. There is a doubt that only Christians can have. Many, many Christians have been, in this conversation of eternal security and perseverance of the saints, been encouraged to think, you shouldn't doubt, you shouldn't doubt. Assurance should take away your doubt. But listen to me, genuine believers express doubt that no one who's not a genuine believer would ever express. And the best example of that, that I hope will make sense to you, is John the Baptist. of whom Jesus said, listen, no man has ever lived who had a faith like John the Baptist. John the Baptist, you know, was arrested. He's about to lose his head, literally. And while in prison, he calls to himself a couple of his disciples. When John heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent word to Jesus by those disciples. And here's what he said to Jesus. Are you the one or shall we look for another?" What is that? That's John the Baptist. After announcing at the baptism of Jesus, there is the Son of God. Wondering now whether he's made a mistake. Maybe I was wrong. And so he sends disciples and says, ask Jesus, are you the promised Messiah? Or have I missed it? You see, doubts were rising. Doubts that no unbeliever would ever ask. No unbeliever would ever ask, was I wrong about whether or not you were the Messiah? Because they don't believe he's the Messiah. So do you understand what I'm saying? There is a doubt that can rise up in a believer that in a sense should assure you that you're a believer. Because only believers would make such an inquiry. Are you sure? Well, when the disciples arrived at Jesus, we won't take the time to look at it, but Jesus didn't say, what kind of believer would doubt? What happened to the faith of John? No, Jesus said, you just go back and remind him. Remind him what I've said and you remind him what I've done. And in that, he will again be sure. And God will do the same for you. When doubts arise and fears assail, we go to the word of God. And we know that He will always prevail. And our assurance is born again from the seeds of doubt. That assurance then becomes an incentive. An incentive to godliness. I love this. This assurance of perseverance, however, so far from making true believers proud and carnally self-assured, is rather the true root of humility. of childlike respect, of genuine godliness, of endurance in every conflict, of fervent prayers, of steadfastness in cross-bearing and in confessing the truth, and of well-founded joy in God. Reflecting on this benefit provides an incentive to a serious and continual practice of thanksgiving and good works as is evident from the testimonies of Scripture and the examples of the saints. You need to know that those who cling to the assurance of the believer are often criticized by those who don't believe that, that you're just proud and boastful and arrogant in your certainty. But as we rightly understand the assurance at work in the believer, it doesn't produce pride or arrogance. We are humbled by it and it produces in us the pursuit of godliness. And most importantly, It doesn't produce in us sinfulness, which is the other charge, right? Because you're so certain, then you can just do what you wish? The Apostle Paul wrote about that, Romans chapter 5. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So wherever there's sin in the life of a believer, there's more grace than there is sin. And so, what shall we say then? The Apostle Paul says, should we just continue in sin so the grace will abound? Because we're going to make it anyway. We're sure of that. His answer? By no means. How can a believer who's died to sin continue to still live in sin? The reality is our assurance doesn't produce in us sinfulness. It does the opposite. It produces in us the pursuit of godliness because of humility. And also it should be said, Article 13, assurance is no inducement to carelessness. Neither does the renewed confidence of perseverance produce immorality or lack of concern for godliness in those put back on their feet after a fall. But it produces a much greater concern to observe carefully the ways of the Lord which He prepared in advance. They observe these ways in order that by walking in them they may maintain the assurance of their perseverance. Lest, by their abuse of His fatherly goodness, the face of the gracious God, for the godly looking upon His face is sweeter than life, but its withdrawal is more bitter than death, they turn away from them again with the result that they fall into greater anguish of spirit. If you've fallen and God has restored you, you are not tempted to fall again. No believer wants to go back there again, where they did for a moment lose the wonder and the glory of the face of God, smiling on them because of the work of grace within them. No believer wants to repeat that. No believer wants to go through that again. So assurance doesn't induce carelessness. It doesn't induce a repetition of, well, I repent and I repent and I repent. That's a presumption of grace. That's not persevering grace. Article 14, God's use of means in perseverance. And just as it has pleased God to begin this work of grace in us by the proclamation of the gospel, So he preserves, continues, and completes his work by the hearing and reading of the gospel, by meditation on it, by its exhortations, its threats, its promises, and also by the use of the sacraments, or we would more comfortably say the ordinances, where we speak of baptism and the Lord's Supper. So the gospel that saved you? is the gospel wherein you persevere. We just keep going back to the truth. There's a sense, I say this often, I said it last week to one of you, I don't remember who it was, we never get very far from the doctrines of grace. You don't ever stray very far from that. Because it's enough to guide you and direct you in life. And so we just keep going back to the well of the gospel, to who we are, and what God determined, and what Jesus did, and what the Holy Spirit has done in our lives. We just keep going back to that. And in that, we persevere. But I want to make a point here. Notice, the gospel threatens. You see that? We go to the gospel, we go to the Word of God with its threats. It's important to note the use of God and his use, I should say, of threats toward our perseverance. These are troublesome scriptures, but they have a purpose. Scriptures like Hebrews chapter 6, where we read, For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away, it's impossible to restore them again to repentance since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. I've taught on this text and most of you have worked through this text. Lots of different interpretations. I prefer the simple reading. It's a warning. And it's meant to warn believers of the seriousness of falling away into sinful and even sinful unbelief. But what purpose warnings What purpose could warnings possibly serve? In the context of the perseverance of the saints, what purpose is such a warning? Two purposes. Number one, the warnings exist to alert pretenders to the danger of their false profession. Many people pretend to be believers and by such warnings and by their behaviors, they're warned that it's a dangerous thing to pretend. Because when you fall away from that gospel you pretended to believe, There will be no other gospel to offer you and you will be forever condemned. But the second and the relevant for our purposes, the warnings are to believers so that they would be steadfast in their perseverance. I don't know about you, but I'm motivated by warnings. I don't know whether they will do what they said they would do or not. but the warning was sufficient. At least sufficient if it's coming from someone with the authority to take the action that they've warned against, and God certainly has the authority in this case. So the purpose of that warning is to help Christians persevere. It's not to move them away from God or to threaten them if they do, it's to make sure they don't. It boxes them in. And the writer of Hebrews understands that because having said that, he then says this, we speak in this way, yet in your case, in the case of believers, notice what he says, we feel sure of better things. There's not a certainty of that, there's a certainty of this. Things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you've shown for His name and serving the saints, and you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the, look, to have the full assurance of hope until the end so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Why do the warnings exist? Why are they issued to believers who are promised perseverance? They're issued so you won't be sluggish. They're issued so that you'll be imitators of people who finish the work that God began in them as they work out their salvation with fear and trembling. That's the desire of the warning. That's the purpose of the warning. And again, notice we speak in that way, but we don't really apply it to you. We speak in that way to motivate you. All right, but it's the gospel that is working in us so that we might persevere. We've only got one article left. You didn't think we'd get there, but we're here. Article 15, contrasting reactions to this great doctrine of perseverance. This teaching about the perseverance of true believers and saints and about their assurance of it, A teaching which God is very richly revealed in his word for the glory of his name and for the comfort of the godly, and which he impresses on the hearts of believers. This doctrine is something which the flesh does not understand. Satan hates, the world ridicules, the ignorant and the hypocrites abuse, and the spirits of error attack. The bride of Christ, on the other hand, has always loved this teaching very tenderly and defended it steadfastly as a priceless treasure. And God, against whom no plan can avail and no strength can prevail, will ensure that she will continue to do this. To this God alone, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever. Amen. You see, the question from this doctrine, rightly understood as, I hope now you better understand, the questions that arise usually start like this. So you teach that a Christian can be a saint and a sinner at once? You see, the flesh doesn't understand that. The flesh will always work as though it can have the victory one day. And so they said the flesh will argue against this doctrine. Satan hates it. Satan hates this truth because it leaves him powerless against God's children. The world ridicules anybody who has such a confidence in a God you cannot see. And they would argue perhaps doesn't even exist. The ignorant and the hypocrites turn it into a license for sin. Well, if I'm eternally secure, why not live however I want? And many Christian traditions twist it and load it with errors. And such was the case in 1610 in Holland and the assault of the Armenians. You see, this was their position. And as this saving faith is free and rejectable in its beginning, so through life it continues. The Christian is as obliged through the grace of God assisting to freely retain it as at first to freely exercise it. It is of the very essence of his probationary freedom that he is able to renounce his faith and apostatize just as he was able to refuse to believe at first. The Armenian tradition having rejected unconditional election and particular redemption, limited atonement and the grace that cannot be resisted now continues the error into the perseverance and says you could have not believed from the beginning and you can anytime you want stop believing. It's those kind of errors that the Canon of Dort is speaking of when it says they rise up against this doctrine. Roman Catholicism has a similar position. In opposition also to the subtle wits of certain men who by pleasing speeches and good words seduce the hearts of the innocent, it is to be maintained that the received grace of justification is lost not only by infidelity whereby even faith itself is lost, but also by any other mortal sin, whatever. though faith be not lost. Thus defending the doctrine of the divine law which excludes from the kingdom of God not only the unbelieving, note, but the faithful also who are fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, liars with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, railers, extortioners, and all others who commit deadly sins from which with the help of divine grace they can refrain and on account of which they are separated from the grace of Christ. Both Arminians and Roman Catholics teach that a believer can have been justified and fall from that justification and ultimately lose their grace. So convinced was Rome about this that they had their own response to the doctrines of grace. They met at the Council of Trent and they famously issued the anathemas, the curses against anyone. for believing in justification by faith alone, or for believing in the perseverance of the saints. Here is Canon 15 from the Council of Trent. If anyone says that a man who is born again and justified is bound of faith to believe that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate, let him be anathema. You can't have that kind of certainty. You can't believe having been born again notice who is born again you you can't have any assurance and then if anyone says that he will for certain of an absolute and infallible certainty have that great gift of perseverance unto the end unless he learned this by special revelation let him be anathema it's by these kind of teachings that churches keep their grip in people by producing not in them the certainty of their salvation but the ever-present doubt that there is any hope at all. But Christians, the bride of Christ, we know it's true and it's a treasure and it's worth defending for the glory of God, we would say. One text and we're done. Romans chapter 8 and verse 29 gives us this whole story of these great doctrines. For those whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom God predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. So certain It's the perseverance of the saints that glorification here is spoken of in the past tense. As if it has already happened. Though we know it hasn't happened yet. Not in my life. Not in your life. So these then are the doctrines of grace. It first addresses man and his total depravity and unwillingness and inability to respond to God. It addresses the work and determination of God the Father in electing from among fallen man some who would be His own. It addresses God the Son who provided the price necessary to the Father so that those who believe would actually be saved because their sins have been paid for, have been redeemed. It addresses God the Spirit and His work in us, the irresistible grace, the call of the gospel that produces life and gives us faith by which we believe. And then it applies those truths in a much more involved way than once saved, always saved, but in the reality of the perseverance of the saints. Saints and sinners at the same time, but evermore becoming conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ. Richard Phillips in his book, What's So Great About the Doctrines of Grace, gives us this conclusion. Summing up all the doctrines of grace, This is what's so great. Those who know and rely on God's all sufficient grace, the grace of the father, the grace of the son and the grace of the Holy Spirit are inspired to live for his all consuming glory. There's nothing greater than that. For our greatest joy is found in fulfilling our highest purpose, and our highest purpose is to live for the praise of our all-glorious God of grace. To Him be glory, both now and forever, through His grace at work in us." And I would agree with Phillips. These doctrines are great indeed. You've been listening to Pastor and Bible Teacher Steve Wilson of Grace Community Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We trust you have been encouraged and challenged by this message. If you would like to listen to more of Pastor Wilson's messages or obtain more information on the ministry of Grace Community Church, you can go to our website at gccbg.com. That's gccbg.com or call 270-781-2595. Yeah.