00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Well, last week, as I mentioned,
we began to look at the doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints
and talked about how the Arminian position is uncertainty of perseverance,
and we are here to assert our certainty of the perseverance
of the saints. And so we began to look at that
last week, began to look at several scriptures and truths concerning
that, about perseverance, and we're going to be continuing
that today. And I want to start this morning with a table discussion.
We're going to be using these lists of verses over here for
this table discussion. And this is what I want you to
do during this table discussion. I want you, whatever your table
is, in a manual, you're going to need to get somewhere with
more than just yourself for this, so that you can discuss it with
other people. But I want you to read whichever
Scriptures that you get here for your table, and I want you
to consider the picture, the illustration, the doctrine, the
concept, maybe even a phrase that's within these verses that
really highlights the necessity of perseverance of the saints
or eternal security. We can also talk about the testimony
of Scripture that salvation once given is not something that will
be lost. And I want us to see from these
different concepts and pictures that you've looked at here, And
I realize I'm kind of throwing this on you here, so it's okay
if we kind of have to work through it, all right? But I want to
do that. So let's start with table one. What did y'all see
in your verses? We really saw in like verses
3 to 5 that the inheritance that is for us is reserved in heaven
for us. Okay? And the people that it
is reserved for are those who are protected by the power of
God. through faith for salvation that will be revealed at the
last time. So it really highlights God's sovereign hand of carrying
you through this life into the next. And who is it particularly
that, who are the ones in both of these sets of verses are going
to be the ones that are protected? Those who have been born again.
Those who have been born again. Yes, those who have been born
again. What is that? Those who have
been born again, that's a huge concept for us to grasp in this
reality of eternal security. That's what we call regeneration. So this concept of being born
from above by the Spirit of God, So we're saying that we undo
that, that we are unborn again, and then maybe reborn again at
some point in the future. It doesn't make sense. Once you are born again of the
Spirit of God as a child of God, That's it. You are born into
the family of God. You have an inheritance that
is reserved for you in heaven that cannot be taken away. It's
reserved. So just a beautiful picture there
for us to grasp on to concerning that. Alright, table 2. What
about you guys? What did y'all see in your verses?
Two primary things. One is the adoption of sons that
God chose us. And so we can trust in that that
He's not just like, I don't want you anymore. And the other thing
is being Spirit-led and having the Spirit of God indwelled in
you that He will see you through to the end because of that. Very
good. Anybody else at the table, anything
to add to that? So the concept of adoption and
the indwelling of the Spirit of God within His children. Beautiful picture. And again,
I say these are pictures because we just notice the two pictures
we have side by side. We have the picture of being
born again, being born into the family of God, and then we have
this picture of adopted into the family of God. And so we
are brought from somewhere else into the family of God. but it's
by the amazing power of the Holy Spirit's work within our lives
regenerating us. Table 3, what do you all have
on your verses? The picture of marriage and the
church submitting to Christ as He sanctifies her and presents
the church to Himself in splendor in verse 27. Yeah, exactly. So marriage, right? This is one
of my favorites. I really, really love this picture. I think it's beautiful. I think
it's significant. I think it's important. When
God brought Adam and Eve together from the very beginning, I think
this is so significant. We see it here in Ephesians 5.
God did that knowing. This is before sin came into
the world, mind you. So this just tells you of the
sovereignty of God in all things. He knows the end from the beginning.
He intended for Adam and Eve coming together to be a picture
of Christ in the church. It's a beautiful thing. And what's
significant about marriage? What's the significant thing
about marriage? What's the significant picture?
Steve, you're at that table. Well, I was going to say that
it's permanent. Why is it permanent? because
it's a picture of Christ in the church. They're united, right?
Yeah. The two become one flesh. Amen. Right? The two become one
flesh. So if we are the bride of Christ
when we are saved and we are united to Christ as a bride is
to her husband, they come together in union, that's not something
that can be separated. That's not going to be separated.
That is permanent, as Steve said. It's permanent. It can't be separated. So, another beautiful picture.
Table 4. I think that's you guys up here
in the front. We looked at printouts and saw a lot of references about
the human body being made of many parts, Jews, Gentiles, eyes,
arms, all these things. But Diane pointed out that God
builds the body. And if God built the body, he's
going to build it to be permanent, to have longevity. Yes. Exactly. You have this picture
of the body of the cross. God is the one placing the members
of the body there. And so, if perseverance of the
saints of eternal security isn't right, then you have members
of the body being placed in, and then they're taken back out,
and then they're placed back in again, and they're taken back
out. It doesn't make sense. It completely goes against the
nature of the picture that we're being shown about the body of
the cross. So, yes. Very good. Table 5. Yeah, our verse focused a lot
on circumcision. Things that came out in the conversation
were, much like circumcision is a physically permanent thing,
what Christ does is a permanent thing. And where does it happen? the permanence of it at the cross. Okay, but where does it happen?
In our heart. There you go. And that was another
thing, our heart is circumcised, which also touches on Hebrews.
But also, not only is the circumcision permanent, you can't undo it.
So even if you sin in life, it's not like, oh, you're not part
of the family. No, you're still in, you still
seek forgiveness. It's an eternal thing. I was
trying to think if there's anything else that popped for us. And there's nothing we can do.
It's all in Christ. Christ is the only one. We just
bring our sinfulness. Christ does all the work. Right.
Yeah, so we go from being circumcised of heart to being uncircumcised
of heart. Like you said, external circumcision
is something that's permanent. God's circumcision of our heart
is something that's permanent. And of course, we can really
start to really connect that picture particularly to the whole
concept of the covenants, the Old Covenant versus the New Covenant. Circumcision of the heart is
this permanence of the New Covenant. So, just again, a beautiful picture. Once God circumcises our hearts,
it can't become uncircumcised again at some point in the future.
So, very good. Table 6. I think that's you guys
up here. Yeah, I think we talked about
verse 14 summing it up. It's a single offering. He is
perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified. So
you don't have to have continual offerings because you have sinned. It happened one time. and it's
made us perfect. Perfect. That word perfect is
so significant, right? And that's something we have
trouble with, but what we have to understand is that perfection
is not based on us. It was never based on us. It
was always based on Christ. So the only way that we can lose
our salvation is if Christ's perfection somehow gets sullied,
which we know is not possible. So, again, yes, the salvation
is something that's permanent. Very good. All right. Table 7. It was hard to... the verses
just speak so clearly for us. So, out of John 5, those who
hear the voice of the Son of God will live. Let me back up. When the dead will hear the voice
of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. And then
I'm going to jump over to our next passage. It's the will of
God that Jesus should lose nothing. All that he has given him will
be raised up on the last day. And then the very last part says,
I will raise him up on the last day. So there's, it's pretty
clear and there's very little gray. Yeah. So, so this one's a little bit,
you're absolutely right. The wording that I want you to
look at here, and this is a little bit subtle, I guess, but there's
this phrase in there that says, eternal life. He who believes
in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the
last day. I actually found a quote from Charles Spurgeon on this. This is what he said. If anybody
said that he had eternal life and lost it, he would be flatly
contradicting himself. If the life that Christ gives
us when we are born again can die, it is not eternal life,
or else words have ceased to have any meaning. I love that. I thought that was great. Joe
actually mentioned that last week. So that same idea. But yeah, I love that. Again, he gives us eternal life. If we are given eternal life,
can you lose eternal life? That doesn't seem to make sense.
And it doesn't make sense. All right, table eight. I'm sure this has been pointed
out before, that they tried to stand on the grounds of their
own works as a means of justification for their lawlessness. And the
Lord said, well, you're standing on your works as a means of justification. I never really knew you because
you didn't do those works in my name, you did them in your name.
Yeah, absolutely. And you said the significant
phrase there, I never knew you. Right? Not, I knew you at some
point, and then I stopped knowing you. He says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness. So again, I never knew you. Even though you were doing all
these things, I never knew you. You were never one of my children.
So yeah. All right, table nine. We talked a lot about our verses
were a lot about like you've been crucified with Christ and
our life is now hidden in Him and just this concept of death
is once for all and then life is in Him completely and we're
to bear fruit for Him and yeah, just that it's with Him, it's
hidden with Him. He's the one that's governing
our life and helping us to bear fruit and yeah, there's purpose
and intent there. Yeah, so death is once for all,
right? So here's what I love in these
verses, is it actually talks about our death in Christ. our old man dying in Christ,
okay? And again, we are then united
with Him, our new life is in Christ, and so our old man has
died when we are saved. So to say that you could then
lose that would mean that your old man would have to come back
to life again. Your old man comes back to life,
and then your old man dies again, and then your old man comes back
to life if you're in some of these places to where you can
continually gain salvation, lose it, get it back, and lose it
again. Your old man is dying and resurrecting. Frankenstein's coming back to
life, you know, all the time. But as was said over here, death
is something that happens once. And so our old man dies and our
new lives are encrossed forever. So yeah, I hope that's helpful. I hope as we go through and we
see all of these different concepts that they're not just things
that we kind of see and we think, oh, you know, that's neat. There
is great significance in these pictures, these illustrations,
these teachings from Scripture that apply to our eternal security
in Christ. So, any other comments or questions
on any of that before we move on? All right. Okay, very good. Last week I also mentioned what's
implicated by perseverance in the Perseverance of the Saints
and the implication there is that we go through trials, we
go through difficulties and we talked about that some and I
do just want to spend a little bit more time on that this morning.
Because, again, the question might be, well, why? Why is that
necessary for us to do that? Why do we get to persevere, as
we talked about last week? And there's a few verses that
I want us to go to, because I want us to really get this idea in
our minds, too. Why is perseverance necessary? So, let's go to Romans 8.17 first. Laurel, would you read that for
us when you get there? Romans 8.17. And then, Matt Harber, would you
get Philippians 3.10? Hmm. Provided we suffer with
Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Alright?
Philippians... Matt Harber, Philippians 3.10?
"...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and
may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death." May share
His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. And then the
last one we're going to look at is 1 Peter 2, 20 and 21. Let's see. Zeke, would you read
that for us when you get there? 1 Peter 2, 20 and 21. Yep. For
what credit is better, if when you sin and are harshly treated,
you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right
and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this harm is favored
with God. For if you have been called for
this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, believing you
an example So we are called to, and you
see the words there, endure. That's persevere. We are called
to endure, to suffer, so that we can actually be like Christ.
It's a part of our being like Christ. Our being conformed to
the image of Christ in this life is to persevere, to go through
trials, to go through difficulties. and to endure those things, to
persevere through those things. And so, it's a part of our becoming
like Christ is to do that. And actually, the last place
I want to go... Well, still not the last place I want to go,
but go to Hebrews chapter 12. And I want us to look at verse
11 to start. It says there, Hebrews 12, 11,
For the moment, all discipline, or training, if you go back up
to verse 7, it says, it is for discipline that you have to endure,
that you have to persevere. So this is training. For the
moment, all discipline, training seems painful rather than pleasant. But look at this, "...but later
it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who
have been trained by it." So, what we have to do is look beyond
the present difficulties, beyond the present pain, to what comes
after it. And again, in doing that, we
are imitating Christ. Because if you go back up to
verse 2 of this chapter, when we are being exhorted to run
with endurance, at the end of verse 1, "...let us run with
endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,
the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that
was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." So, Jesus
endured the cross. He went through suffering and
He It says, for the joy that was set before Him, He was able
to look beyond the cross to see the end result of the sufferings
and things that He was going to have to go through for the
benefit that was beyond the cross, which was His resurrection and
also our resurrection with Him. Again, for us to persevere in
this life, to go through trials and sufferings and to be able
to see beyond those things, to see the end result, the peaceful
fruit of righteousness and the ultimate joy of being with Him,
that should help us to persevere. to the end in this life. And again, it's a privilege to
be able to do that. This is actually the last one
on this. 1 Peter 1, verses 6-9. 1 Peter 1, verses 6-9. Nathan, would you read that for
us? Nathan Hamm. 1 Peter 1, verses 6-9. In this you rejoice, though
now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various
trials. So that the tested genuineness
of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though
it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and
glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have
not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him,
you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with
glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith and salvation of your
souls." Focus in on the end of verse 7, that these trials, the
tested genuineness of your faith, may be found to result in praise
and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, there's
a little bit maybe of a question here of who this praise, glory,
and honor goes to at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Is it going
to us? Is it going to Christ? Is it going to God? I think there
might be an aspect of both that that happens, but certainly,
Our trials, our difficulties makes our time when we get to
heaven much more glorious. It is much more glorious than
it would otherwise be because of the current trials and the
struggles and difficulties that we go through. It makes that
just this glorious, beautiful time of going to be with the
Lord and giving Him praise and honor and glory for His salvation
that He has given to us in Jesus Christ. And we get to bring Him
honor and glory through our lives here and now. So I just think that's important. You think about the trials and
the struggles that we as believers can go through, and we persevere
through those. We maintain our faith in God. And the world doesn't understand
that. They can't grasp Why would you continue to... I think of
Job. Think of Job. Why would you continue
to trust in God in the midst of your great trials? And so
it brings honor and glory to God. Of course, the only reason
that we do that is because of what He has done in us, in our
lives, making us one of His children, changing us, regenerating us,
putting a new heart and a new life within us. Our old man dying. Yes, Robert. having the ability to put your
faith in God's faithfulness because you've just experienced it. Yeah,
yeah. And we're also able to comfort
others with the comfort with which we have been comforted
as well, so very important. Alright, to finish up here, to
kind of wrap up, I want to I want to just give a little bit of
time to why eternal security might be something that would
not be held to. Why would people not hold to
eternal security? And the first reason I have here
is fallen humanistic thinking that creates a small view of
God and a high view of man. So we create this small view
of God that God is small and therefore He is not powerful
to save, and His will is not the one that is determinative,
but man's will is determinative. Man's will is the one that matters,
and so you begin to go down this road of of that kind of thinking
to where God is not determinative. And truthfully, we've talked
about Arminianism and just kind of their uncertainty of perseverance. But the reality is, once you
start down that road, the logical end of that to where man has
to be the one who makes the ultimate determination. God does a little
something. He kind of seeds the ground for
you a little bit, but at the end of the day, you're the one
who makes the decision. Of course, the problem with that
is when you start redefining, say, foreknowledge just simply
to mean that God looked down the corridors of time and He
saw who would choose Him, And therefore, those are the ones
that God calls the elect, those who would choose Him. Well, the
problem with that is, if you already have a problem with things
being set, is that with that mindset, you know what? Things
are still set. Because God has looked down, He has seen who
all is going to believe, He has declared them to be the elect,
and that's set. And therefore, still nothing
unthought of is going to occur. And so for some people, that's
still not good enough. And so then you end up in what's
called open theism, to where God doesn't even know the future.
God doesn't know what's going to happen next. He might have
some good guesses of what's going to happen, but he doesn't really
know what's going to happen next. And the reason that becomes necessary
is because, again, Man's free will has to be the ultimate determining
factor. God can't have really any part
in our salvation. It has to be based on men. And so, again, a small view of
God. An elevated view of man is one
big reason why you can end up in a camp to where you don't
believe in eternal security. Secondly, it's something that
we kind of already talked about last week, but I want to talk
about again just for a minute here. It's just our ongoing struggles
with sin. You know, we have these ongoing
struggles with sin as believers, and we think, well, I can't really
be saved. I wouldn't be struggling with these sins if I was truly
saved. I wouldn't continue with these
struggles. And I don't have the amount of time
that I wanted to give to this, but Romans 7, which is a chapter
that I've kind of gone back and forth on My view of that, whether Paul
there is speaking of his pre-conversion experience or his post-conversion
experience, but at least at this point, I have landed on that
he is talking about his life after becoming, at least largely,
he's talking about his life after becoming a Christian. and just
the difficulty that's involved in that. Because he's in the
midst of talking about salvation and the believers' ongoing life
in Christ and sanctification. And the verse that I want us
to focus on just here is verse 24. of chapter 7, where Paul
says, "...wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this
body of death?" You know, that might be where some of us are
sometimes. "...wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from
this body of death?" And what Paul is giving, what he is helping
us understand there is that though his His inner man has been renewed. Though He has been born again,
He still has this body of flesh that has this desire and this
tendency still towards sin that wants to pull us away from sin. And in Galatians, He talks about
that battle that's going on between the flesh and the spirit, and
we need to walk in the way of the Spirit. and put to death
the deeds of the flesh." And so then verse 25, he says, in
answer to his question, "...thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then, I myself, my true self,
serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve
the law of sin. My flesh, that I'm still in in
the here and now, still is not renewed. It's still waiting for
that final consummation of salvation that's going to come in the future. But then look at verse 1 of chapter
8. There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus." And that's what we have to grasp
on to. Even in our great struggle with sin that we still have as
believers because we have this body of flesh that we are still
carrying around with us, There is no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. There is no possibility of it
because Christ has taken it all upon Himself. We are fully forgiven
in Christ and there is no condemnation that's possible from the law
because He took it all on Himself. And so, in our struggle with
sin, we have to keep that in mind. Now, before I finish here,
I have to talk about this for a minute. And I want us to... How many of you have heard the
phrase, once saved, always saved? I'm sure most people have heard
that. And the phrase by itself is basically saying the same
thing that we would say, eternal security, perseverance of the
saints. However, in my experience, what I have seen largely, is
that when that phrase is used, what's typically being referred
to is a scenario where people have raised their hand, they've
walked the aisle, they've prayed a prayer, and they've put their
faith in Jesus at some point in their life. And then that's
it. The idea is they have been saved,
they had this experience, and that's it. They're saved and
that's it, and there's nothing else that comes along with that.
There's no concept of continuing to follow Christ, continuing
to pursue Him in your life. I mean, I grew up in a church
that was like that. and so somebody would come and
they would have an experience some Sunday, and then you'd never
see them again. But they were on the church roll, and they
were talked about as a saint and everything else, and you'd
hear about how they're living their lives and whatnot, and
they would still be seen as somebody who is once saved, always saved,
and that is just the absolute wrong mentality. We do not see
that in Scripture. And if we stay there in Romans
8, Paul even addresses that. He says, "...if you live according
to the flesh that you still have, if you live according to the
flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the
deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit
of God are sons of God." For you did not receive the spirit
of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the
spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The
Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children
of God." And so he is saying, yes, there is a battle that is
going on in our lives as believers with sin. but it's a battle that
we can win and that we must be engaged in and really. The big difference between typically
the mentality of once saved, always saved, and what we're
talking about here in perseverance of the saints. Perseverance is
that there is a battle that's occurring. There is a battle
that's going on, whereas the once saved, always saved is basically
you just kind of have an experience at one point, you put your faith
in Christ, and then there is nothing that comes after that.
But as believers, we are called to persevere, to fight this battle
with sin that still resides in us, not for the sake of salvation,
but for the sake of the glory of Christ, because we want to
walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been
called. Such a big difference in those
two mentalities and definitely wanted to give just a little
bit of time on that and so Jeremy yes, it's it's amazing to me
that that seven and eight go together so well Yeah, because
in seven you see that works has no transformational power yeah,
but Christ is the transformational power, but eight says Christ
is a transformational power. Yeah, the Spirit working in us. The Spirit is, yes, and there's
an actual transformation. And if there's not an actual
life transformation, you need to ask yourself some crucial
questions. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. All right, we've got a minute.
Any questions or other comments? Alright, very good. Let's close
with a word of prayer.
Perseverance of the Saints Part 2
Series God's Grace in Your Salvation
An historical and theological consideration of the doctrines of grace.
| Sermon ID | 29251925111555 |
| Duration | 35:43 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Bible Text | Romans 7-8 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.