Dennis Tuuri

And I’m going to read the entire chapter. Please stand for the reading of Romans chapter 8. Title of our sermon is perseverance or preservation. Romans chapter 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.

He condemns sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God.

For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of God, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, 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 you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God.

And if children, than heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves has grown within ourselves, eagerly awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestinated, these he also called. And whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.

We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. May in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let’s pray. Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would take these words and the words of your scriptures and write them upon our hearts.

Cause us to delight in this great truth from your scriptures, our perseverance because of your preservation. We pray Lord God you would open our ears which too easily we put our fingers in and clog up. Open them up Lord God that we might open our hands this week to work and do all things in thankfulness to you for such great salvation has been accomplished once for all by our savior. We pray you would be at the Sabbath school teachers as well that the children would hear things from your word that they could rejoice in and change their lives by as well.

We ask it in Christ’s name and for the sake of his kingdom. Amen.

A series of messages on the fifth head of doctrine from the Canons of Dort, or from the Synod at Dort: perseverance of the saints. And let me tell you what we’re going to do today. First, we’re going to review, as we’ve done before, the first four heads of doctrine. Then, we’re going to look at a brief paragraph. Hopefully, you got both sheets—not really outlines, two handouts when you came in to worship today. We’ll look at the paragraph, the one paragraph summation of what the Canons of Dort say about this particular truth. We’ll then look briefly at that outline of the various points on the second sheet. We’ll then look at a series of supporting scriptures for these truths. We’ll sum up with the Westminster Confession of Faith, deal a little bit with once-saved-always-saved and then make a closing application relative to the preservation of God of his people.

So we’ll move through a review to a consideration of the summation of the Canons to the scriptures and then make application to once-saved-always-saved and the preservation of the saints. There are two great errors when it comes to this particular doctrine. The one is legalism, that says that it is us who preserve ourselves and if we don’t persevere in the faith then we lose our salvation. That’s works righteousness.

The other great perversion is licentiousness—once-saved-always-saved—which has an element of truth to it but as we’ll see today and into the next couple of weeks also is a tremendous element of danger in being a catchphrase that is not really what the scriptures teach nor what the Canons teach in terms of this particular doctrine. We’ll see that this has tremendous significance for our lives. This is a tremendous crowning jewel of these five heads of doctrine in which we take great delight and we adore God the Father for this great truth properly understood.

It’s tremendous source of blessing to us and great joy. It very much wrapped up in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is the preservation of God of the saints and related to that is our assurance of that preservation of our salvation as well. We’ll deal with that over the next couple of weeks in more detail. First, let’s remember what we’ve talked about so far. The children, some of you children that are staying up today.

TULIP, right, is the acronym. Hopefully, you’re beginning to memorize that. We are, we’ve dealt with it with a little different acronym, LTIP. We’ve gone, we’ve followed the Canons of Dort order instead of the rearranged order of TULIP, but if you’d memorized TULIP, that’s okay. And when you’re an adult, maybe you can then remind yourself that really was arranged a little differently by the church fathers who met nearly 400 years ago now to consider this matter.

If you use TULIP that’s fine, but we’re going to use ALIP this morning to help remember a little bit of this order. We began by talking about God’s unconditional election. And what that means is that election is a choice. We just read again a couple of times here from Romans 8:29 and 30—the golden chain that all this that moves to the glorification at the end of that chain begins with God’s foreknowledge, his for-love of you children, his for-love of us adults. For all things were created, God set his love and affection upon us—no conditions to that. Is exceedingly important for your sanctification, as we see, as we’ve seen over and over, the biggest enemy to our sanctification before God is pride. 1 Corinthians 1 he reminds them of God’s irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit to drive out the pride that thinking they somehow chose for Christ.

You’re not here because you chose for God. You’re here because God chose you and you responded to that with the life he gave you by giving you a new creation inside to choose for him. But it’s God’s choice of you that’s determinative. It’s not based on anything in you. You’re not better than somebody else. It’s simply the grace of God. Very, very important.

Important, too, because we talked to about how in adults now the perversion of this by the Arminians destroys the integrity of the covenant. One of the great truths that we’ve come to in this church, most of us coming out of baptistic or dispensational theology, is an appreciation that our relationship to God is by way of covenant. The distance between us and God is so great that God makes himself known by condescension, by way of covenant relationship with us. And that covenant is secured in the eternal covenant of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to affect what we’ve talked about.

Father chooses people. The Son dies for those people. The Spirit comes and calls those people effectually to himself. But if you move away from unconditional election and think that God’s election is based upon something that he thinks he sees you doing in the future, then you destroy the covenant relationship because now you’re adding. You’re making a different covenant by saying that the real terms of the covenant are not perfect righteousness anymore, but it’s you choosing in your sinful state, even making a small choice of faith for Christ.

But God says that to have relationship with him, you’ve got to be totally righteous—impossible to do that based on your choice. It’s the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we’ve seen that a perversion of unconditional election destroys the integrity of that covenant. It also destroys the security of believers. Children, if you know that you’re a Christian because of God’s choice of you, not your choice of him, then that leads directly into this doctrine we’re talking about now—that you can be assured of your salvation knowing that choice. It’s not dependent upon you. If it’s my decision and my ability to persevere, to do what’s right as a Christian, that keeps me from falling away, if there’s conditions on me that if I don’t meet then somehow God isn’t going to choose me, then see I’m lost there’s no comfort in that at all.

You know how much you sinned. You know how much your mom and dad sinned, parents. You know how much you sin. You know how much your children sin, and you know if it’s up to you and you can lose your salvation, you’re sure enough going to lose it. You’re sure enough going to lose it. Tremendous implications.

We talked about limited atonement, particular redemption. Jesus didn’t die for everybody. Jesus died for all those people that God loved from eternity. And you remember what the importance of that is, kids? I heard this again. I mentioned this last week, mentioned again today. It’s such an important lesson. I talked to adults this week about sin in their lives and they said, “Well, yeah, but it’s because, you know, this guy said this to me or this guy said this or this happened to me this way.” They blame somebody else for their sin.

I’d love it if every child in this church memorized that short phrase from an old church liturgy, the order of complying: “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” My fault, my own fault, my own most grievous fault. Every time you sin, children, and parents, it’s your own fault. It’s your fault. It’s your own fault. It’s your own most grievous fault you sin. It’s never your wife’s fault. Never your husband’s fault. Never your children’s fault. Never the weather’s fault. Never the state’s fault. Never the church’s fault. Never the pastor’s fault.

None of that. Your fault. It’s my fault when I sin.

Now, why is that atonement? Because in the atonement that we read from Isaiah 53, God puts the blame for our sins on Christ. He imputes it, lays it to Jesus’s account. If you blame your mom for your sin, he doesn’t blame—he doesn’t lay your mom’s causing you to sin on Jesus. He lays your sin on Jesus. Do you understand? So there’s no atonement, no satisfaction for your falsely blaming your mom for your sin.

What you’re going to do then is whoever you put your blame on, that’s who you’re going to want to make atone, or pay the price for your sin. You know, Charlie Brown, somebody’s going to pay for this. Well, for your sin, for your own sin, for your own most grievous sin, Jesus paid for that. But when you blame other people, you’re going to make them pay for your sin. And some people kill other people to make them pay for their sin.

The Arminian view of unlimited atonement—no real death of Christ for anybody’s sins—leads to humongous problems in our world because everybody’s blaming everybody else.

Now, let’s remember some verses here. Unconditional election—Ephesians 1. You’re going to talk to somebody about you going to remind yourself what that truth is. Memorize or remind yourself of that place. Ephesians 1. Limited atonement—what do you want to look at for that? Isaiah 53. That’s one reason why I read it in the forgiveness of sins section today. Memorize. You may have the whole passage. Memorize that address in your mind.

Election: Ephesians 1. Limited atonement: Isaiah 53. Okay. Total depravity. Now, when we talked about that—the third point—we also said that if you’re going to understand how far man fell, you got to understand how exalted he was to begin with. Psalm 8, Ephesians 1, Isaiah 53. Psalm 8—for total depravity doesn’t sound like the right one because it talks about how great man is—but that’s where we fell from. And then Romans 3 for the depth of our fall from that exalted position of Psalm 8.

Okay. That reminds you of where we’re recalled to in the Lord Jesus Christ. Total depravity is too often used to make us always feel guilty about who we are—that man’s a jerk and man’s terrible. No. The scriptures say that man is made a little lower than God. Man is here. God’s here and the world’s here. He’s put all things under our feet. That’s why this world gets so messed up when non-Christians rule.

But when Christians rule, things are better for the created order. See? So, total depravity—why does that make a difference? I had the privilege of going down to Bend this last Monday after the hearing in Salem Monday morning to speak to a group of homeschoolers. Nice size group, too. I bet there was 60, 70 people there, something like that. And what a privilege to be able to speak to them. They’re so happy, you know, with what we’re doing and everything.

And God has made us in this position where we can serve the extended body of Christ, mostly Arminians. And I can go to these people and talk about the bill and they’re happy about what we’re doing. And then I can talk to him about total depravity and about Pelagius and about Arminius and about these men who said that man’s real problem is just that he needs a little more information. His intellect is kind of messed up and he’s prone to sin.

But man’s basically okay, or he’s a blank slate. He’s basically good, whatever version you want to pick. That’s why we’re in the problems we are as a culture. That’s why we got to go to Salem and say all we want you to do, state, is leave us alone so we can teach our kids. They want to control our education because they’re Pelagians. They’re Arminians. They think that the key to changing this world for the better is not the gospel of Christ and not the conversion of men who are completely dead in sins, but rather it’s education.

That’s why it’s so important. What a privilege to be able to go to these Arminian homeschoolers and tell them that and say, “You know what you guys really need? What we all need long term is for you to read Calvin’s Institutes.” You know, they hear that and some of them actually start doing it. It’s a great thing. So important. These are not dusty doctrines that aren’t important for us personally or society.

You move away to a conditional election, you ruin the covenant, you ruin assurance. You move away from total depravity and you end up thinking that all man needs is a little more education, a little more culture. And you know that’s the Nazis. They came out of those great concert halls, well-educated men, lots of good cultural influences, and made lampshades out of people’s skin. This man’s depraved apart from the regeneration of Christ.

Irresistible grace. 1 Corinthians 1. Lots of places to look. 1 Corinthians 1 is a good one. Emphasis on God’s calling of us. The only difference between the Jews and the Greeks who thought it was a stumbling block and foolishness and those who converted is the call of God, the irresistible call of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 1, Ephesians 1, right? Unconditional election, limited atonement, Isaiah 53. Total depravity, Psalm 8, Romans 3. And then irresistible grace, 1 Corinthians 1, or you could use something like Luke 13 would be another one.

The banquet supper, calling of God. You know how he says go out and compel people to come to the wedding feast, to the banquet, and they’re lame, they’re blind. They got to be lifted up and carried in. That’s what the Holy Spirit did with you. He lifts you up, drops you in. Okay? Now, that’s important, too. So, we don’t believe that when we tell our friends about Jesus, we’re going to try to make an emotional appeal to them, rather than teaching the pure gospel, simple as it is, that the Holy Spirit uses to bring conversion.

We’re going to try to make us be the means of the grace of God calling them and we’re going to mess things up. Okay.

Now, we come to the final head of doctrine: perseverance of the saints. And I’m going to read the summary paragraph. You can follow along with me. A little paragraph I drew up out of some—I the version I’m using for this particular series is a Canadian and American Reformed Church’s version of the Canons. I think it’s a better translation than some you’ll find. And what I did was I took—they had subject headings which is on your outline. We’ll get to that in a minute. And I sort of ran those together and gave a nice little summation here I hope of what this doctrine means and what we find.

And first thing we see is that saints though delivered from sin’s dominion and slavery are not free from indwelling sin. Now when we talk about the perseverance of the saints, how you define saints is important, right? Because we’re not talking about perseverance of all church members. We’re not talking about perseverance of all baptized people. We’re not talking about perseverance of all people that go forward at the Billy Graham crusade. We’re talking about perseverance of the saints. So the Canons start out by defining what a saint is.

Regenerated, born again. Now, if that’s what a saint is, they’re going to persevere. Okay? But when we talk about their perseverance, it’s not as if they don’t sin. Romans 8 begins with there’s now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. It’s talked in Romans 7 about the believer’s experience so that he doesn’t end up doing what he wants to do. You wanted to obey your mom and dad at the center of your heart.

You didn’t do it this last week every time. Parents, you wanted to spend time with your wife and your children and have kind words and encouraging words and sometimes you yell at them probably, or at least were sullen to them or whatever it is. Saints though delivered from sin’s dominion and slavery—we don’t have to sin. God gives us power to be delivered from sin’s dominion and slavery—are nevertheless not free from indwelling sin.

And by the way, what the Canons will tell us here is that everything we do has an element of sin to it. We have this flesh. The scriptures use the body, the flesh as a metaphor for our Adamic nature before we were recreated in Christ. In Adam, our habits and our patterns are sinful ones. And we still have those habits, those tendencies that we had prior to our conversion. Okay? And they affect us and they cling—they spot every little thing we do.

Nothing we do is perfectly good. So we acknowledge sin in the perseverance of the saints. And Romans 8 tells us that the people that it’s going to say God will preserve are those who are sinners. Okay? And thus engage in daily sins of weakness. Every day you sin. Hence we could not persevere. But God does, must preserve us.

Preservation or perseverance? What’s going on here? Well, next week we’ll talk about the dynamic between those two a little more. And it has to do with our understanding of covenant. And it’s quite an important truth. And again, we’ve mentioned before Herman Hoeksema’s idea of the covenant of friendship. And I have some material now for those of you who are interested in getting it. I’ll give you copies from a fellow named Norman Shepherd who now is a CRC pastor, time taught at Westminster, and he—I think it’s very important that as we understand and think through what covenant theology is about—that we understand that the covenant is grace.

It’s never a covenant of works for us, ultimately for man. God graciously gives Adam life and relationship with him and then calls him to do certain things based on that faith. And we’ll talk about the relationship of those two. We are exhorted by scripture to persevere. It’s a command to us but ultimately it’s the preservation of God. That is the motivation to us to persevere. And when we persevere, we then are assured of our preservation by God.

See, there’s a dynamic there that works through because of our relationship to God. So, ultimately it is preservation. But from our perspective, God does say it’s perseverance. Your life will model perseverance from the time of your new birth to the time of your death. Now, not perfectly, but essentially you will persevere. And if you know someone who makes a profession at a Billy Graham concert, after a year, no fruits, not going to church, not being consistent walking with our Lord, no reason to think—every reason to think at that point—not a Christian anymore.

See, but God says that we’ll persevere, but it’s because of God’s preservation of us over the long haul. Okay? If it was up to us, we have daily sins of weakness and we would not persevere. But God does preserve us and causes us then to persevere.

Here, still saints may fall into serious sins. You know in Romans 8, again it says that God preserves us. What can separate us? But it says that—it says—there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. God preserves us in the midst of all the sins we read about in Romans 7 and some that are referenced here too. God preserves us that our lives are essentially characterized as walking in the spirit. So it’s not to give a false sense of assurance to people that are in rebellion.

Talk about that a little bit later. But it says that even in the context of sin, our lives are essentially marked by a perseverance that’s based upon God’s preservation. Still, saints may fall into serious sins. Okay? Now, we have these daily sins of weakness, which we all have, but now we’ve got big sins like adultery, like murder. Oh, you mean Christians can commit adultery and murder. Well, yeah. I mean, I fully expect to see David in heaven. Don’t you? And yet, David was a man who committed adultery and to cover it up, had a guy killed, murdered. See, and that’s a great model to us of the fact that even in the context of serious sins that we look for God’s grace in our life, not our own works.

Okay? So, Christians can commit serious sins. The perseverance of the saints doesn’t mean that you’re always going to do the right thing and it doesn’t mean that sometimes you won’t do a very bad thing. Okay. So serious sin is engaged in by Christians. Saints may fall into serious sins through their own failure of diligence and we’ll talk more about that in the next couple of weeks—that we don’t want to do that.

We don’t want to offend Almighty God. And so there are various means that the Canons point out to us to avoid serious sin. And they reap various ill effects, terrible effects of serious sin. Lives get really damaged. You cut off your arm? Repent of that sin. God’s going to forgive you. But you know what? You walk around without another arm. God can grow one back, but he doesn’t normally do it. There are serious effects.

But God will not permit his elect to be lost and will again renew his elect to true repentance. How does God preserve us? Well, when we commit big sins, he chastens us. He disciplines us and he renews us to repentance. If he doesn’t, then that’s the picture of a man who is not really a saint after all, but was just pretending—like those different kinds of seed grow up for a while but don’t persevere. They’re not really grown up.

It’s God’s grace that preserves us. And this assurance of preservation can and is known by the believer. So, not only is this doctrine true that God preserves us so that we persevere in spite of daily sins of weakness and serious sins on occasion in believer’s lives, but the scriptures assert and the Canons do as well that we can know that—Romans 8 says, these things so that we can know these things to assure our hearts before him. First John says that we can assure our hearts before God. And Romans 8 says the same thing. He’s convinced, Paul says, that none of these things can separate us from the love of God. We’re supposed to know that. It’s not some general doctrine. It has relevance to me and to you individually as well. You can know this truth. And what a great blessed truth it is. Okay.

It’s known by the believer and can and is known through and—How is it known? It’s known, the Canons tell us, and the scriptures tell us, through the word, through the spirit, and through the desire on the part of the person for good works and a good conscience toward God. It’s not known by some kind of special revelation. That’s what the Arminians said. If you know you’re eternally secure, it’s because God gives you some kind of vision, some kind of special mystical knowledge.

No, it’s the plain truth of God’s word, his spirit, and your spirit answering his spirit by desiring good works and a good conscience in you. Not in the perfect performance of that—you’re going to sin. But if you desire good works and a good conscience, the word and the spirit witnesses to you that your life is an evidence of the spirit’s work. You can know, you can be assured of your preservation by God.

Though for a season, the paragraph goes on, doubt of this might occur. Doesn’t mean you’re always going to know this—always full. You’re going to have doubts from time to time. This assurance does not lead to pride, complacency, and see your carelessness. You know, Arminius said, “Well, you guys, you know, if you believe that, if you believe that you’re always—if you know you’re going to go to heaven—then you’re going to be prideful in that.

I’m a saint of God. Aren’t I proud?” No. A proper understanding that it’s God who’s preserving us and causing us to persevere is a humbling thought. It’s like unconditional election. It’s just the reverse. It leads to a humility. It doesn’t lead to carelessness. Properly understood, it means that not just will God preserve us—it doesn’t mean once-saved-always-saved. Whatever we do is okay. It means that we’re going to be real worried about our preservation.

We’re not going to have this assurance if our lives are marked by a carelessness and a sin, you see. So properly understood, this doctrine tells us to be careful how we live our lives and not to be careless because then you remove this assurance of God’s preservation. Doesn’t lead to pride, complacency, or carelessness, but rather humility—its very fruits, that is, the fruits of humility. The Canons articulate those works—leads to proper works of faith, diligence, and a great desire to have God’s countenance shine upon us.

We have this spirit. Romans 8 says that cries out, “Abba, Father.” It’s our great desire to be in the shining light of God’s countenance upon us. And when we sin, and particularly serious sin, big clouds come between us and God. There’s a sense of distance from God. Children, you know this by your parents. If you sin and don’t come to amendment, your parents sometimes may not discipline, may not spank you now—maybe they’ll remove their presence from you. The presence of God is removed when we fall into unrepented sin. And that’s the worst thing for the believer. He wants more than anything else to know that his Father loves him and to feel the countenance of his Father’s love upon him through the word and the spirit and also through the church. And so this is a doctrine that leads to that kind of desire for the countenance of God.

Our spirits cry out, “Abba, Father.” As God began his work in us by the use of means, so he continues it also by means, namely the word, discipline and sacraments. How does he preserve us? How does this preservation of God work its way out? Not magically through no involvement, no secondary means. God uses the secondary means of the word preached to bring people to conversion in Christ. And he uses the secondary means, the Canons say, of the word, discipline, and sacraments to preserve us.

While this doctrine is no source of joy to the world, the flesh, and the devil, neither to hypocrites and heretics, the church loves and defends it as a treasure of inestimable value. The Canons say Satan hates this doctrine. Heretics pervert this doctrine. Hypocrites ridicule this doctrine. Everybody who’s outside of the church hates this doctrine. But us. We love it and we love Romans 8 and we love to sing metrical versions of it because it’s a great source of comfort to our souls—that we can know of a certainty that as we live out our course in this life, at the end of that time we are ushered into the presence of God Almighty through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To know that gives you strength for everything else in life. Then you can say as Paul said: the suffering to this day aren’t even worth comparing to the glory of God’s grace. You see, if you’re having trouble with sufferings, maybe it’s the preservation of you by God and your assurance that really you ought to focus on because then you understand these sufferings are for a season. I’ve told—I’ve said this several times lately, but you know, it’s a tremendous thing. As I get older, the grace of God has taught me to say that and not to say—not always to act this way.

As I mature, I hope he causes me to act this way more and more—to recognize we got very few years left. You know, I’m I don’t know, 46, 47, whatever it is this year, and I, you know, I’m over halfway done probably and I don’t have much time left to witness to the goodness of Christ in the midst of troubles and persecution. James B. Jordan on this tape going through the book of Revelation says, you know, don’t let people tell you that Jesus died and suffered so that you don’t have to.

Jesus died and suffered so that your death and your sufferings can have meaning and significance. Well, that’s a source of comfort. Everybody here has had sorrows. Probably a lot of you had sorrows this last week. Sufferings, sure. But you see now understanding that God preserves us to the end and is using us in the context of this world to preserve each other—Wow. Now, these sufferings are tremendous opportunities to say, “Hey, you know, I can witness to the goodness of God in Christ and keeping me through these sufferings—not to deliver me from him.

That’s what we want. Of course, not bad to seek that. But if he leaves you in trouble, hey, it’s a tremendous opportunity, which another 50 years from now, most of us won’t be able to do anymore because we’re done. We’re done with this world and trials and tribulations. So, that’s a summation of these doctrines.

And now, briefly, we go through these articles. Article one. And again, the part in parenthesis is my part. The original part is off the internet off of Canadian and American Reformed Church’s version of the Canons with nice summary at the top. Article one, and the Canons say that the regenerate or the righteous rather are not free from indwelling sin. However, they are delivered from dominion, the slavery of sin. Okay. So, in terms of this now, you’ll notice on your outlines that I have eight bolded because that’s kind of the center of these 15 points.

It’s the center number wise, but it’s also kind of the center affirmation of God’s preservation of the saints. And the sections that lead up to that—1 through 7—deal in the context of discussing that with sin and serious sin in the life of the believer. And then after number eight, it begins a discussion of the assurance of those things. And then in 14, you’ll see bolded hopefully on your outline is the word means because it now is addressing a new topic.

So these first seven points really say that in the context of understanding the doctrine of perseverance of the saints, that really it’s preservation because you will have daily sins, then we could not persevere. So it’s got to be God’s preservation of us ultimately that’s causing this thing to come to pass. It’s God who says that we’re not able to be separated from him through any creature, including us.

It’s not that I’m going to hold on to God and nothing will be able to release my grasp upon God that I freely chose as a result of my will and now will freely continue to do. I’m going to hold on to God and nothing will be able—height or depth or persecution—to separate to cause my hands to loosen off of God. That’s not what’s really being said. Ultimately, it is, but in the first application, it’s God’s hand on us and he won’t let us go. We’re in his hand. Jesus said, “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Okay? And we are holding on to God in there, but it’s his holding unto us.

So, article three goes into sin—to God’s preserving of his own because we would definitely not persevere. Article four, saints may fall into serious sins. However, the saints cannot be conquered yet—can yet they can sin seriously. So the idea of this is to watch and pray. When we don’t watch and pray, we can and do fall into serious sin. So there’s a lot to do in these Canons with our with our sanctification and the way God works out our sanctification, which we’ll talk about the next few weeks.

Article five, the effects of these serious sins are discussed. Article six, God will not permit his elect to be lost. And then the not effects of serious sins—the serious sin they may fall into does not mean they’re ruined. Okay? Means certain things which aren’t good. But ultimately, even in the context of serious sins, those who are born again, who are regenerate, who are saints, will not be permitted to be lost by God.

Article seven, God will again renew his elect to repentance. This will evidence itself in certain ways. Article eight, the grace of the triune God preserves, not merit. It’s not our merit. Reasons for assurance of this truth are articulated in that doctrine. And then the in article nine, the assurance of this preservation. Saints can and do know it. The grounds of this assurance are the word, the spirit, and our works.

This assurance is not always felt. Doubts do come. They’re regarded as temptations. Doubts are, but assurance will return. The assurance doesn’t lead to complacency and its root pride, but rather humility and her great fruits and works. The fruits of humility articulated there. And works. That’s what it leads to. This assurance also does not lead to carelessness. Very opposite. It leads to diligence to be in God’s countenance.

And then the use of means is articulated in article 14 as it was in our call. Here the use of the means are word, discipline and sacraments. This doctrine is hated by Satan but loved by the church. And then they always articulate errors and they say that those people who say that perseverance is a root of salvation, not a fruit of it, are wrong. In other words, the Arminians would say, “Well, perseverance, we believe in perseverance.” But perseverance, when God sees we’re going to persevere, that’s what causes him to call us and elect us.

You see, it’s the root. And God’s election is the fruit of that root. But no, the scriptures say the root is God’s foreknowledge, his love. Those whom he foreknew, the golden chain says, ends up being glorified. We’re in that last part of the chain now in this discussion. The Arminians also said that perseverance is dependent ultimately on man’s will. It’s up to you whether or not you persevere. And that’s why the church fathers go out of their way to articulate the fact that, hey, it’s up to us. We’re going to fail because we even sin every day.

Regenerate believers can and often do lose their salvation. This is what they said. That’s wrong. True regenerate believers can commit the sin unto death, the sin against the Holy Spirit. That’s wrong. Without a special revelation, we can have no certainty of future perseverance in this life. Wrong. Scriptures teach you can know you personally, not just the church is going to have a lot of blessings in the future. You can know that you personally are headed toward blessing with God eternally by the ordinary means of the scriptures, the spirit, and the evidences of the spirit in your life. Six, the doctrine is harmful to sanctification. He said it’s it’s good to doubt.

They said, “No, it isn’t good to doubt. Doubt is a temptation. Doubt can be sin. It’s not good for sanctification to doubt.” Seven, the faith of those who believe for a time does not differ from justifying and saving faith except with respect to its duration. You see, they said, the Arminians said, well, it’s the same kind of faith. You know, that seed again, the seed that doesn’t really take hold, springs up for a moment, the sun comes up and it goes away. That plant, same kind of faith is a work as the one who stays and bears fruit. The only difference is the duration of the faith. We would say no. There is a temporary faith, so to speak, a temporary hearing of the word, a temporary tasting of the spirit, but it’s not saving faith that is being evidenced by that person.

It’s a different kind of faith. Eight, it is not absurd that one having lost the first regeneration is again and even often born anew. They would hold to the fact the Arminians would you can be born again a number of times. Revelation specifically says that if you partaken in that first resurrection, the second death won’t touch you. So, that’s just simply wrong.

And then Christ has prayed nowhere that believers should infallibly continue in faith. Now, for each of those errors, there’s accompanying scripture which you can look at over the next couple of weeks, but just this is a summation of what this doctrine is, and we’ll be dealing with this in more detail in some of these various aspects in the next few weeks.

Now, let’s look briefly then at some of these scriptures. Obviously, Romans 8 talks about this. It talks about the fact that for sinners, it talks about the fact that we will persevere in the context of life. We will walk not according to the flesh, or have lives characterized by walking according to the spirit. And it says that in verse 14, as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. There’s a definition of who the saints are. It’s those sons, those saints led by the spirit of God who will indeed persevere. And then in it goes on to talk about the fact in Romans 8:30, verse 31 of Romans 8, what shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? He has given us life. He will also freely give us all things. So Romans 8 is a clear assertion of this preservation of the saints by God as well as the sinfulness of men that they can and do fall into various sins. And yet God preserves them by keeping them from being separated from him by the various difficulties that are incumbent in our lives. So Romans 8, but there are many more scriptures that we can reference in terms of this particular truth.

Philippians 1:6, Paul says that he’s confident of this very thing, that he which began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. Perseverance there is clearly stated in Ephesians 1. Remember that’s the chapter you to memorize for reference to for unconditional election. But it also was important in terms of this truth in verse 13. In whom ye also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

And verse 13 of Ephesians 1 says, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. One of the great demonstrations or proofs of the perseverance of the saints is the spirit is given to true believers who are regenerate in Christ and effectually called. He is given as a seal or as a down payment of that which is to be revealed and the culmination of our lives.

See, so the spirit isn’t given—God’s not an Indian giver. The spirit is given as a guarantee or seal of what is ours in Christ. So we will persevere and God will preserve us.

John 5:24, he says that he that believes in him that sent me has everlasting life. He doesn’t say has life which may be temporary. He has everlasting life. Everlasting life is everlasting life. It’s perpetual. It can’t be cut off. Shall not come into condemnation but is past tense from death to life. So another great proof of the preservation of the saints is that we have been—we are termed over and over again as those who have moved from death to everlasting life.

Romans 8:1, there’s no condemnation for us. Romans 8:9, you’re not in the flesh, but in the spirit. And if you don’t have the spirit of Christ, he’s none of his. Contrary to that, if you have the spirit, the down payment, you are his and will remain so. As many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Jesus said that he none will be lost. Jesus in his prayer in John 17 said he didn’t lose any, the Father won’t lose any.

Romans 8:28, all things work together for our good. Things that could tend to be seen as by some as separating us from God actually work together for our good. In Revelation 20:6, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. Can’t die once you’re born again.

1 Peter 1:5, “Believers are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” God preserves his saints. We are kept not by our willingness, not by our abilities, ultimately by the power of God through faith unto salvation. In 2 Peter 2:22, we read, “The sow that was washed returns to her wallowing in the mire.”

Some people say, “See, there you got guys returning who weren’t—who lose their salvation.” But this sow was not converted. You see, this sow was cleaned up, but it was still a sow. You might have corpses here in the context of this worship service who put on nice clothes and some perfume and occasionally do something to make people think they’re Christians. But if that’s the case, they’re not going to persevere in life.

They’re going to demonstrate that they’re dead in trespasses and sins. They’re going to return to the mire—the sow that’s not converted and cleansed partially in contact with the people of God, cleaned up a bit for a season. They’re going to demonstrate they’re not the saints and thus will not persevere over time. They’ll return to