1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
But we’re, I guess, what, about
12, 15 weeks into our study of the Christian life, and we are
making our way across the span or the spectrum of all that God
teaches us in the Bible about growing in grace. And we started,
I guess I should start this way, we started way back in eternity
past with God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit making an eternal decree to save sinners. And we call
that predestination, or God’s decree. And then we get to effectual
calling, where God opens our eyes to see our sin and our need
of Savior. And we get to regeneration, where
God, the Holy Spirit, gives us eyes to see and gives us ears
to hear. He takes dry, dead bones, like He speaks of in Ezekiel,
and He gives those dry, dead bones life. That’s regeneration. And then we come to faith, our
trust and hope in Jesus. We come to justification where
God judicially and decisively says, you’re pardoned of all
your sin and unrighteousness. I see you as if you’ve never
sinned and I look upon you as if you’ve always obeyed. And
it’s only because of the merits of Christ that we receive by
faith alone. And then we go from justification
to adoption where God receives us into his family and we have
all the rights and privileges of the family of God. And then
we spent a couple weeks on sanctification, where God is in the midst of
making us more like Jesus. He’s making us holy. He’s sanctifying
us. And we looked at remnant sin
in us, the flesh. We looked at the world and its
system and how that attempts to drag us down, and then the
work of the devil, of Satan. And so the Christian life is
a hard-fought one. Tonight, we’re gonna continue in that vein of
sanctification with perseverance, making it to the end. But last
week we spoke of good works and how God, because we are saved
and loved him, we want to please him and do what is good. And
so our new hearts and our new desires lead us to do good works
that bring him praise and glory. But the question for us tonight
is, will I make it to the end? Now some of you are runners,
I’ve passed you on the street, and I’ve seen the agony on your
face, the sweat on your brow, and the misery you’re in, and
I still don’t understand why you run, but those of you who
have run or do run, you know that the whole time you’re running,
you’re thinking, I gotta get my time completed, I gotta get
to my destination, I have to complete my task, my exercise,
but it’s one of agony. And you probably have doubts
in your mind at times. Will I make it? Should I just
stop and walk? You know, my gut hurts so badly,
my knees and my hips and my ankles or whatever. But that is the
quandary we are in in the Christian life sometimes is how can I live
another day? How can I make it to the end?
If I’m this age, how can I make it to the average age of my lifespan? And how can I do it with all
the things that want to entangle me? the pressures of the world,
the struggle with our own flesh, and the throes of the devil. And so here’s the thing I want
you to understand with the perseverance of the saints, or the preservation
of the saints. Notice the difference. The perseverance
of the saints seems to point to you. But the preservation
of the saints points to God. And it is both. But here’s something
to consider. We are eternally saved, but we
are temporarily tossed. Okay, you know if you’ve lived
the Christian life, what it’s like to struggle. It’s hard,
it’s work, it’s pain, it’s difficulty. There’s joys, there’s triumphs,
but there’s hardship. And so as we look at this idea
of eternally saved but temporarily tossed, I want us to look primarily
at what the voice of Jesus in the scripture says to us about
our perseverance, about our making it to the end. And as we begin
to look at these scriptures, I want you to understand you
are entitled to believe. to believe these things. It’s
in the scripture. And these things are true. You
must believe them. Otherwise, you will doubt and
be sifted and shaken. First thing we have to understand
is that Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, preserves his
saints. So who does this work? It is
Jesus Christ through his Holy Spirit preserving his saints.
Remember all the way back to the beginning of our lesson what
great overarching theme we talked about. Remember our union with
Christ. It’s the umbrella over predestination
and decree and effectual calling and regeneration. In Christ,
we were chosen before the foundation of the world. In Christ, we have
been saved for good works. In Christ, we are being sanctified. So in Christ, all the realities
of the Christian life become true, and that is very true of
the perseverance of the saints. Jesus Christ, through the Holy
Spirit, preserves his saints. Or another way to put it is this,
the saints persevere in that because they are preserved, they
adhere to the beliefs despite discouragement and opposition.
Have you ever met somebody that it is nearly impossible to discourage? Doesn’t matter what comes their
way, what hardship lands in their lap, they’re just gonna keep
on going. No looking back, no turning aside,
no discouraging words. They’re just gonna keep going.
That is the privilege we have in the Christian life. Whatever
falls in our lap, whatever comes our way, we just keep going. There’s a book by the title,
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. And that’s a great
way to look at the Christian life. It’s a long, it’s a long
distance, right? It’s a long distance, a long
obedience, and it’s in the same direction. Did y’all catch the
words we sang in the first hymn tonight? As with gladness, men
of old. I think it’s the last verse. Jesus, keep me in that
narrow, narrow way. And so we thank the Lord that
he provides a way for us. So perseverance of the saints
is through Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, and we will make it to
the end. Now let’s look at a handful of
biblical passages that teach this. I’m just going to fly right
through them so you can come steal my notes later or try to
keep up. But first is this, Jesus promised
the Father and us that he would keep us. It is a promise of Jesus. In John chapter 6, Jesus says,
All that the Father hath given me will come to me, and whoever
comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but to the will of Him who sent
me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose
nothing of all that He has given me, but I shall raise it up on
the last day. For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should
have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day.
Twice, He says, those the Father has given to me will be raised
up on the last day. Now that’s especially comforting
if you’ve put a loved one in the grave. If they’re in Jesus,
God will raise them up on the last day. Death and that grave
have no final say over them. That’s just entrance into glory.
So Jesus promises the Father and us that he will keep us.
This is echoed again in the 10th chapter of John when John says,
I give them eternal life and they will never perish. and no
one will snatch them out of my hand, that my father has given
them to me, and he is greater than all, and no one is able
to snatch them out of the father’s hand. You see, parents, when
they’re out in public with their kids, and my kids know this,
when the death grip comes, they’re extra safe, right? That’s how
we understand. And that’s the way our God is.
When he catches you, when he saves you, he will never, ever
let you go. If it hadn’t been for the need
and desire to sing Christmas hymns, maybe tonight we would
have sung that great song, Oh Love That Will Never Let Me Go. One of the theologians and preachers of
our time, R.C. Sproul, says that when he first
read the Bible, the thing that struck him the most as a young
man is that God plays for keeps. Isn’t that an interesting statement?
God plays for keeps. That’s a wonderful way to put
it. And so Jesus promised the Father in us that he would keep
us. The second thing is Jesus prays that saints will be preserved. And guess what? God will answer
the prayers of the Son. But if we look at the high priestly
prayer of Jesus, in John 17, Jesus is praying before his death,
and he’s praying all kinds of things. And he says, you have
given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to
all you who have given him. So Jesus is saying to God, you’ve
given me the authority over all flesh to give eternal life. And
I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out
of the world. Yours they were and you gave
them to me and they have kept your word. And he goes on to
say, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world.
but I’m praying for those you have given me for they are yours.
And here’s his desire. I desire that they also whom
you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory
that you have given me because you love me before the foundation
of the world. So that is Jesus’ high priestly
prayer the night before his death. That you, his loved ones, would
be with him in glory. Not only you would be with him,
but you would see the glory that God the Father has given to the
Son. In Romans chapter eight, a wonderful
passage that speaks of our assurance of salvation. Verse 34, Paul
the Apostle says, who is to condemn? Okay, could you stand for condemnation
again? Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus
is the one who died. More than that, who was raised,
and he is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding
for us. So where is Jesus now? He’s in
heaven and he’s praying for you. He’s cheering you on. He’s your
champion. And so we have that great comfort
as well. So Jesus prays that the saints will be persevered.
He did that in the high priestly prayer in the garden, and he’s
doing that at the right hand of God the Father now in heaven.
And then Hebrews chapter seven, verse 25, speaking of Jesus says,
consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost. And then it has a parenthetical
statement. next to uttermost completely at all times. So at all times and fully and
finally God is able to save you in the moment by moment bits
of life and even at the very end he is able to save you. Y’all read the book of Revelation
lately? It’s kind of a tumultuous end to life. but God will be
with us in even those moments. He is able to save to the uttermost,
and he always lives to make intercession for us. So Jesus has prayed for
you, he is praying for you, and he will continue to pray for
you to the end. Okay, so Jesus has promised the Father and us
that he’ll keep us. He’s praying for our preservation,
our perseverance, And the third thing we want to consider in
this thought of the perseverance of the saints is that the Apostle
Paul affirms the present and future security of the saints.
If anybody gets it, it’s the Apostle Paul. In Romans chapter
8, 31 to 39, he says, what shall we say to these things? If God
is for us, who can be against us? There’s no enemy that can
snatch us, right? He who did not spare his own
son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against
God’s elect? It is God who justifies. And
then verse 34, we read it just a moment ago. Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died, and more than that, who was raised.
Who is at the right hand of God, and who is indeed interceding
for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation? or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, as it is written, for
your sake all day long we are being killed and regarded as
sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. How much more
clear could it be? I don’t know that he could have
said it any better. But why do we not believe this?
Why do we not live out of the riches of these truths? Well,
it’s faith, right? We need to be reminded of these
things and believe them. That no matter what takes place
in the world, no matter what happens in next year’s election,
no matter what prognosis our doctor gives us, Or if we find
ourselves on our sickbed, our deathbed, God is with us, and
he will see us in this life and also in the next. Philippians
1.6 is a great passage where the apostle says, I am sure of
this, okay, he doesn’t say I’m uneasy or 50-50, I am sure of
this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to
completion at the day of Jesus. So this predestination and effectual
calling, regeneration, faith, and justification, adoption and
sanctification, all the way to glorification. God is at work
through and through in you, in your life, and he will see it
through. And nothing can take it away.
Paul is sure of this. In 1 Corinthians, he speaks of
God who will sustain you to the end. He will sustain you to the
end guiltless. In the day of our Lord Jesus,
God is faithful, by whom, notice what he says, whom you were called.
There’s that calling way back. You were called into the fellowship
of the Son, the Lord Jesus. So what God starts, he finishes.
What God begins, he completes. And so the Apostle Paul over
and over says that he, will be ours. This wonderful benediction
we read earlier, may the God of peace himself sanctify you
completely through and through, and may your whole spirit, soul,
and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus.
He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it. There’s
a wonderful word if you read through the New Testament letters.
It’s the word kept. God keeps you. Where do we hear
that every Sunday? At least if the benediction is
from Numbers 6. The Lord bless you and keep you. That’s right, the Lord bless
you and keep you. So may the God of peace keep you blameless
until the coming. Second Thessalonians gives another
one of these. The Lord is faithful, he will
establish and guard you against the evil one. So, so far do we
feel pretty sure, we feel pretty comfortable, right? We’re on
a mission, we’re on our way to heaven, and it’s gonna be a hairy,
scary path. Have y’all read Pilgrim’s Progress? It’s a little bit dark and scary,
right? But he had it figured out pretty
good, but God is with us on that pathway. And then finally, 2
Timothy 1, verse 12. In 418, Paul says, I suffer as
I do, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed,
and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day
that which has been entrusted to me. And then he speaks at
the end of that letter of his difficulty, of his imprisonment. The Lord will rescue me from
every evil deed, and he will bring me safely into his heavenly
kingdom. To him be the glory forever and
ever. You know the Apostle Paul had
the best days of his ministry in a little prison cell in Rome
where people came to him and he ministered to them. People
of influence, people who would go into great houses. And so
never, as John Piper says, don’t waste your cancer. or don’t waste
your retirement, don’t waste your, you name it, don’t waste
that opportunity. For God always, he always has
a way of working out wonders. Somebody, I think it was Margaret,
was telling me today about a man at the Gaither concert the other
night who was giving away his kidney to somebody he didn’t
know, but somebody that needed it. And when they removed his
kidney to give it to this young person, they found out he had
some other medical condition that he would not have otherwise
had. Aneurysm. Yeah, that’s right. So he would
have been a goner. So you never know what God is
doing, but we happily Though with fear and sadness sometimes
and trepidation, we walk through these things. But we never know
what God is up to, but we do trust him. Okay, so Jesus promised
the Father that he would keep us. Jesus prays that we’ll be
kept. Paul affirms these things. Now
let’s talk about your job, your responsibility. Where do you
fit in all this? Well, the other week we read
and had a sermon on Hebrews chapter three, verse six. I guess that
was a couple, three, four weeks ago now. But it says, Christ
is faithful over God’s house as a son. Remember the comparison.
Moses was a servant in God’s house, but Jesus is the son of
the house. Christ is faithful over God’s
house as a son, and we are of his house if indeed we hold fast
our confidence and our boasting in our hope. So what’s your job? Especially in light of all the
promises we’ve just read. We hold fast our confidence. in our hope and in our boasting. Where’s our boasting? It’s in
Jesus. We boast in him and him alone. And so what is the responsibility
for the Christian? It’s to stand firm and hold fast.
Paul tells that to the Thessalonians. It’s to hold fast our confidence,
to not let our faith be shaken. One of the delights, I think,
of coming back to church on Sunday night is we begin and end the
day in the same way, in the Lord’s house with the Lord’s people
and the Lord’s word. And tonight’s a little more special,
I think. Because the morning has primed
the pump. We’re ready to hear again. But we come and we pray
tonight. And we pray for ourselves and others that we be kept as
we live life in this world. But we must hold fast our confidence. And you have voice after voice
after voice yelling at you and screaming into your ear saying,
believe this. Give that up. Jesus is a bunch
of hooey. The church, why are you wasting
your time? And no, we march forward, don’t we? We say Jesus is our
God, our Savior, and our King. And so we hold fast our confidence. And again, in Hebrews in chapter
six, verse 11, the preacher there says, we desire each one of you
to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of
hope until the end. How is it that you will have
assurance of salvation? Well, I’ve just read almost two
pages of scriptures to you. That’s one of the great ways.
I can tell you about, I don’t know, about three, four years
ago, Amanda and I were having a really hard time in our church
setting, really difficult situation. And I called my friend who’s
a pastor and I said, you need to come to our house as fast
as you can and read the Bible to us. And that is exactly what
he did. And I want to say probably for
two hours, he stared us in the eyeballs and quoted scripture.
And that is the only thing that would repair that hardship in
the Christian ministry. And so that is what we need.
We need to have the Bible proclaimed and proclaimed and rained down
upon us. We show earnestness to have full
assurance. And finally, Hebrews chapter
10 says, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great
reward, for you have need of endurance. Okay, he’s telling
the Hebrews, he’s telling us, you need endurance. It’s gonna
be a hard row, a hard race. So that when you have done the
will of God, you may receive what is promised. So why endure?
So that you’ll receive the promises. looking forward to Christmas
holidays. I think Carol, where’s Carol? Yeah, Carol’s looking
forward to school getting out. Some of you are looking forward
to a little vacation time, some days off. We look forward to
these little milestone moments. And we look forward to heaven.
And why, what’s one reason we want to persevere? Is there’s
a reward for us. Those of you who run, you finish
the race to get a prize. And that’s what the Apostle Paul
says. Christian life is a race. It’s one of agony and pain, but
we continue in it. And so he says, he continues
to say, a little while and the coming one will come and he will
not delay. But my righteous one shall live
by faith. So how do we live confidently,
persevering? We live by faith. And if he shrinks
back, my soul has no pleasure in him. So there’s a little warning
there, don’t shrink back. You want to shrink back? Get
yourself out of the Word. Remove yourself from worship.
Leave the fellowship of the saints. Quit putting yourself in the
path of God’s means to grow and give you grace. But then he says,
we are not of those who shrink back and who are destroyed, but
we are of those who have faith and we preserve our souls. And
so that’s a wonderful reminder that the Christian life is hard,
and it takes work. It takes nitty gritty work. And
so we labor in these things. Now, what else of man’s responsibility? Well, in Matthew chapter seven,
we read of this little parable, not everyone
who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one who does the will of my father in heaven. And on
that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy
in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty
works in your name? And I will declare to them, I
never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness. So it’s not simply to say, Lord,
Lord, it’s to say, Lord Jesus, my Savior, my faith and my hope
and my trust is in you. And so the challenge for your
responsibility is careful and not careless living. Careful
living in light of Jesus. So not all who profess will be
saved. We may have a church full of
people who say, oh, I love Jesus and I’m here. But at the end, we may see that
the church is a little smaller than it appears to be on earth.
Jude chapter two gives us a great promise. Jude is another of those
brothers of Jesus. And he says to those who are
called, beloved in God the Father and kept By Jesus Christ, may
mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. I tell you, you read
the beginning and the ends of all the little letters of the
New Testament, you get some wonderful theology. To those who are called,
beloved in God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. And 1 Peter 1 verse 5 says, by
God’s power you are being guarded. We’ve heard that word guard a
few times. this evening by who God’s power are being guarded
through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last
times. And so what are we to think of
all these things? What about the perseverance of
the saints in light of our continual sin? There is therefore no condemnation
for those in Christ. Repent. Believe in Jesus again.
Understand that Jesus loves you. That’s one of the great truths
we have over and over. He loves you. and he is concerned
for you. And he knows that you are eternally
saved, but temporarily tossed. You know, I have this feeling
that we’re gonna come sliding into heaven, our hair’s blown
back, and we got a little black on our face, and dirty fingernails,
because that’s what life is, it’s just labor, it’s work, it’s
nitty gritty. But we give thanks to our God
for these wonderful truths. And let’s pray now and ask for
God’s blessing on that which we’ve heard. Our father, we thank
you for the these great truths that you preserve us, that we
are inseparably united to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
that his continual intercession for us and the work of his Holy
Spirit in us is full of great power to save us and to keep
us in a state of grace and to land us safely on heaven’s shore.
We pray for grace to live well, for faith to live strong, and
that you would see us landed safely on Canaan’s side of the
Jordan. In Jesus’ name, amen. ♪ Jordan’s stormy banks I still
hear ♪ ♪ And still wish for high ♪ ♪ To Canaan’s fair and happy
land ♪ ♪ Where my possessions lie ♪