Dennis Tuuri

I can sermon text for today. I will read John chapter 10. Please turn your scriptures to John chapter 10. Well, our particular focus will be on verses 25 through 30. I will read beginning at verse 1 through verse 30. This is an excellent section of God’s word to put to our memory at least the address of it for consideration of the topics of our sermons for the last four or five months. John chapter 10. Please read standing rather for the reading of God’s word.

Verily, verily I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that cometh in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were, which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door.

By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.

The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Another sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me because I laid down my life that I might take it up again.

No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. There was a division therefore among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, “He hath a devil and is mad. Why hear ye him?” Others said, “These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?” And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.

And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, “How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”

Let’s pray. Father, thank you for your word. It is a delight and joy to us. Cause our delight and joy and resultant obedience to grow by having your spirit. Take this word and write it upon our hearts. Open our ears to hear the message. Help me to speak plainly, Lord God, that we might indeed glorify you, rest in the finished work of the Savior, and be motivated to persevere as you preserve us in all things. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

There is a beauty to God’s preservation of his people that I think we can see even in the historic documents of the church. Here in the Canons of Dort, we find a wonderful conclusion to their consideration of the sovereignty of God and our salvation. And this concluding head of doctrine contains with it much truth for our sanctification and the way that proceeds as well.

We’ll begin to touch on that in today’s sermon. It is a wonderful doctrine that we here consider in an inestimable joy as the Canons say accompany God’s people as they consider this particular doctrine. This is the climax of five heads of doctrine and I have provided you on your outlines today little notes summing up these five points as we have articulated them to date and as the Canons articulate them.

I provided some Scripture memorization portions if not memorizing the verses indicated memorizing the addresses of where these verses can be found in your scriptures so that upon any moment’s notice you can sit down and talk with someone about the sovereignty of God and salvation about what divine election and reprobation are all about the particular redemption affected by the death of our Savior about man’s original creation and the wonderful height of that as well as his depravity with the fall the depth of that fall and yet his reclamation to being recreated as it were.

Ephesians 4 tells us in truth, through righteousness and holiness, wonderful truths of what man is called to be and is recalled to be in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And at a moment’s notice, you should be able to have texts memorized, the addresses that is to talk to people about the effectual call of the Holy Spirit, irresistible grace. These are easy tools, easy addresses to remember. I give you the chapter citations so that if you have your scriptures with you at any particular time, you can turn to that chapter and see appropriate truths in the context of them.

These are really very simple truths. They become complicated because man and his sin gets very complex and convoluted. But these are simple statements of truth that really most of us here should be able to articulate at least in some rudimentary fashion and be able to go to these particular Scripture verses and open these Scriptures up to those of the elect who hear the shepherd’s voice as he speaks through his people, through his word, and through his Spirit.

And so I’d really encourage you, we will not take the time this morning to review these points again, but please review these during your week. Understand the significance of these truths. We talked I think that maybe one of the things I will mention by way of review again is limited atonement, particular redemption. A lot of people claim they’re four-point Calvinists, but fudge at this particular point.

And yet this point is so integral, as all of them are, to the integrity of the covenant of grace to the reality of our salvation being affected not hypothetically, not potentially on the cross, but being affected by our Savior’s work on the cross. So critical for the core doctrines of the faith. So critical as well to avoiding the horrific sin that we are so prone to fall into as Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent of false imputation.

False imputation produces no release from the guilt of the sinner. False imputation seeks more release by striking out and producing false atonement, making somebody else pay for the sins that are totally our own fault. One short point of review. Many more could be made. Please review these during your week. Teach these truths to your children. Teach them to memorize these addresses of particular Scripture locations.

This last week we began a consideration of perseverance of the saints, the fifth head of doctrine. The P in TULIP or ALTIP. ALTIP, remember, is simply the order in which they are presented by the fathers at Dort. TULIP was an acronym made up so we could remember them a little more easily. ALTIP is the order I prefer because it’s what the Canons are. The TULIP is fine, too. In any event, the last point, the fifth point in either formulation is the perseverance of the saints.

And we said last week that the perseverance of the saints is integrally tied and connected to the preservation of God’s people by him. By way of review on the perseverance of the saints, I will read I did not provide them this week but I will read the paragraph summation of this doctrine that we mentioned last week.

Saints though delivered from sin’s dominion and slavery are not free from indwelling sin and thus engage in daily sins of weakness. Hence, we could not persevere. But God does preserve us and causes us to persevere. Still, saints may fall into serious, atrocious, detestable sins through their own failure of diligence and reap various ill effects. But God will not permit his elect to be lost and will again renew his elect to true repentance.

It is God’s grace that preserves us. And this assurance of preservation can and is known by the believer through the word, the Spirit, and a desire for good works and a good conscience. Though for a season doubt of this may occur, this assurance does not lead to pride, complacency, or carelessness, but rather to humility and the various fruits of humility, good works, diligence, and a great desire to have God’s countenance shine upon us.

As God began his work in us by the use of means, so he continues it also by means, notably the word, discipline, and sacraments. 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 this truth as a treasure of inestimable value. This is the tremendous blessing that this doctrine is to the saints correctly understood.

And so we’ll try to help us all to come to an understanding of it over the next few weeks. There is a relationship between perseverance and what we do every Lord’s day in the book of Revelation. You know that we’ve been having a class going through that. And by the way, let me just say how pleasurable it is to be able to preach on truths such as the perseverance of the saints and the other elements of the findings of the fathers at Dort.

These are truths that we know of a certainty. They’re not complicated. They’re not difficult. Much of the book of Revelation is complicated and difficult. It is the capstone and it assumes a knowledge of many things. So it’s hard for us and when I am teaching the class that we’re going through now you know it’s I cannot say “thus saith the Lord” of the most things we talk about in that class. We’re trying to grab hold of that book and deal with the structure of it.

But here in this doctrine we can say thus saith the Lord he will preserve you. And he commands you to persevere as well. And these things are related. Every Lord’s day, the Scriptures tell us the Lord Jesus visits us. It is a day of the Lord. And we read the epistles to the churches, the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. We see the repeated theme that those whom Jesus comes and deals with on the Lord’s day, as he did in the Passover, as they came out of Egypt, are repeatedly reminded of the need for perseverance.

Listen to Revelation 2 and 3, to various portions of it. Of the church at Ephesus, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” To Smyrna, “Be thou faithful, persevere unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”

To Pergamos, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written on which no man knoweth saying, he that received it.” Great blessings come to him that overcomes. To Thyatira, “But that which ye have already hold fast till I come and he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” And the Spirit says over and over to him that overcomes these great blessings will be granted. To Sardis, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment. And I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. No perseverance. Your name is blotted out of the book of life.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” To Philadelphia, we read that the world will try them to dwell upon the earth. Rather, verse 11 of the letter, the epistle of the Philadelphians in Revelation 3 says this, “Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” And to the Laodiceans, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. The Lord’s Supper is being spoken of here. And as we persevere and as we open the door and invite Jesus in, as it were, to our supper, invite him into our bellies, so to speak.

When we partake of the Lord Jesus in the sacraments, he promises that he will come into us. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as also I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Every Lord’s day, perseverance is the requirement by which as we come forward, God promises to us the blessings of the attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ of eternal life of having our names maintained in the book of life and on and on it goes. Perseverance is sternly related to the Sabbath day itself and so the need for it in our own particular lives.

Now the Canons of Dort address this topic in some detail and as I said they address it in such a way as to give us ample opportunity to discuss sanctification. What happens after we become a Christian. How does God preserve us and how do we persevere? So, we’ll talk about these things in the next few weeks.

Now, I want to review very quickly again what the Canons say by pointing us to the flow and I’m on point four now of your outline or notes. Point four is the flow of the Canons relative to the perseverance of the saints. And they begin by saying this is what a saint is. We cannot talk about perseverance of the saints if we do not have a definition for who saints are. And having articulated who the saints are in the first article.

It goes on to talk about the fact that while we are saints, while we are regenerate, while we are called into communion and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and are maintained in that by his sovereign action, we sin. We engage in sins of weakness. We engage in blemishes to all of our works. And it brings up this point primarily to tell us that because of this indwelling sin in us, there is no way that we can persevere without the grace of God preserving us.

So it’s a guard against legalism. It’s a guard against perfectionism. The perseverance of the saints must always be connected to the preservation of the saints by God. And so the Canons make this connection very early on.

The saints also sin grievously. Now we will talk more about this in the next couple of weeks, but it’s not as if the words serious or grievous. It’s not as if any sin is not serious or grievous. But there are different sorts of sins mentioned in the Scriptures. We’ll look next week on the differentiation between the sins of weakness. You come here today and you’re trying to worship God and you get distracted and you don’t watch and pray and you don’t gird yourself up real hard to listen to what’s being said from the word and you tend to tune out sometimes.

Or you may try to sing but your voice is cracking and you just don’t really have the full energy that you should have had if you would have gone to bed earlier to come forward and sing to God. You fall short. You’re shooting at the target. Children, you’re trying to do what God wants you. You’re trying to obey mom and dad and instead of saying yes, Mom. Yes, Mom. But you’re struggling. See, you’re falling short, aren’t you? I mean, you really should be saying with all of your heart, yes, Mom, you fall short. That’s a sin of weakness. That’s the sin that besets us every day.

The Lord’s prayer is a daily prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts. Forgive us our trespasses.” Every day we pray that because every day we do it, you see. But there are other times that aren’t like those kind of sins. When Peter denies the Savior or when David sleeps with someone who is not his wife and then arranges for the murder of her husband. This is not a falling short of the target. This is turning your arrow a different direction and shooting it.

You see, it’s a different kind of thing. It is a high-handed presumptuous sin against God premeditatedly and for, you know, sinful purposes to do things that are greatly abhorrent to God. And those are different kind of sins. Now, the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and God’s preservation of us must deal with the fact that we have sins and it must deal with the fact that we have sometimes what we would call atrocious sins as David’s or Peter’s were.

So the Canons deal with that truth and actually point out that this is no problem to the preservation of the saints and in fact this is actually linked to and part of God’s preservation of his people. Even these sins when God removes his grace and lets us of our own fault, of our own volition, not God’s fault, our fault, fall into grievous sins, this is part of God’s sanctification. It is done righteously by him, the Scriptures say.

And the reasoning then flows from we are saints. We have sins of infirmity and weakness and blemishes. If we had to persevere or we wouldn’t do it, God preserves us. We also have these atrocious sins. And even those atrocious sins are part of God’s secondary means whereby he does indeed preserve his people and he will not cause us to fall away utterly. We will not lose salvation if salvation is defined as what the Scriptures say it is being regenerate being effectually called having your sins atoned for in Christ etc.

The Canons move on to talk about the assurance of this preservation by God can be known and in fact is known to the saints in varying degrees. And so we’ll deal with assurance as we go through this series as well. Finally, it talks about the means employed for this preservation as well as our love for this particular doctrine. And I’ve provided you a sermon schedule for the next few weeks that deal with the flow of these Canons.

And we’ll deal with the scriptural truth of them as we go through and talk about the fact today that perseverance is both command and promise. And then next week, the relationship of perseverance, preservation, and sin, etc. You can keep these if you want for a review of what we will be speaking about and preparing yourself perhaps to do some personal study in these areas.

Okay. Today we’re going to add an important Scripture address for the Canons of Dort and we’ve addressed it actually several times before but and I did put it in as well in your review of TULIP but John 10. John 10 burn that address into your memories. It’s a very important text of Scripture by which much of what we have talked about in terms of the Canons of Dort are found.

I mean we had for instance the clear statement that the sheep hear the voice of our Savior and they will come to him. We have the irresistible call of the sheep pictured in John 10. We have God’s election of people pictured because he says you don’t hear my voice because you’re not my sheep. You weren’t chosen by me. Father never made a covenant with me about your eternal redemption. He made it about the sheep. You’re not the sheep. And that’s why you don’t hear the voice.

Now, it’s true, too, that their disobedience means, you know, indicating that they’re not the sheep. But the point is it’s God’s election that’s being spoken of. And here in the context of John chapter 10, our Savior says very clearly that it is the sheep for whom he has died.

And if you look at the top part of your outline under the review section in terms of limited atonement, I list verse 15 of John chapter 10. “The Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life not for everyone. I lay down my life for the sheep.” For the sheep. So John 10 is filled with references to the truth of the Canons of Dort. And we have here a particularly strong set of verses in John 10 to remember as proof demonstrable to anyone who is not completely blind that God does indeed assure the perseverance of his saints because we read in John chapter 10 beginning at verse 26 we read this “but ye believe not because you are not of my sheep as I said unto you my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

I and the Father are one.”

Now, our Savior here in this passage of Scripture drives home with a sledgehammer the truth of the perseverance of the saints. Notice that in speaking of his sheep, the ones that he died for, he says, “I give them eternal life.” This is eternal life that has been given to us by Jesus and the Father and the Spirit. Eternal life means it does not end. It means it is imperishable life.

It cannot be lost. It cannot be killed. As we read from Revelation last week, the second death has no effect upon those who have been given the resurrection of the Savior. Our Savior tells us that we will indeed persevere in the faith because he gives us eternal life. And as you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is your present possession as a saint of his. You have not potential eternal life.

You have eternal life. Praise God. Praise God. I know my weakness. I know some of your weaknesses. You know my weaknesses. You know your own better than you know mine probably. But you know that when God tells us through his Spirit and his word that you have eternal life, your heart should sing out, “Praise God.” What a blessing.

But he doesn’t leave it there. He goes on to say, as so they won’t miss the point, they shall never perish. We don’t have to assume it from the phrase eternal life. He gives us his word. His word is always promise. His word is always promise. He is the faithful witness. We are unfaithful witnesses all too often. He is the faithful apostle, the faithful messenger, the faithful witness who is truth incarnate. And he does not lie. He doesn’t have to say, “I promise you this.” His every word is promised to us. And this is a promise.

“I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.” Praise God. Because I know how weak I am. And I know that if it’s up to me to earn perseverance or to persevere so that I might earn eternal life, I’m not making it. I’m worn out. I’m not going to persevere in my flesh. Not going to do it. I’m weak. The older you get, the more you realize how much your sins beset you and the more you cry out for God for holiness and sanctification of life.

But you realize as your sight improves, you know, my sight, you know, in the Adamic nature, our sight goes downhill, the Adamic body, but in the providence of God, the maturation of the saints, your sight improves as you get older. And your improved sight shows you more and more of how weak you are and how sinful you are. Now, you see the strengths as well. You praise God for him, knowing that it’s totally his grace.

But, you know, you shall never perish. We know this body is going to die. We know it more every year. Our friends die in their bodies as we get older. Our bodies have infirmities. But praise God, Jesus says we shall never perish. And then he doesn’t just leave it there. He goes on to say thirdly then that neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

We’re in his hand. I had a friend years ago who used to sign the letters in his grip, you know, and it sounded kind of funny to me, you know, grip is like an English word for a suitcase. In his suitcase, you know, but the point is we’re in his grip. We’re in his hand. He doesn’t hold the whole world in that same hand as us. The apple of his eye in Christ, those are in his hand to be kept, to be preserved, so that they might persevere.

Neither shall any man. Now, you’re part of any man, right? Dennis is part of any man. Dennis cannot pluck Dennis out of the Father’s hand. Dennis didn’t get in there ultimately. God did. And Dennis can’t pull himself out because God is stronger than Dennis. He’s stronger than all the opposition of men. He’s stronger than the opposition of anything that comes against us as Romans 8 reminds us repeatedly and in very great detail.

So, we’re given this third assurance of our perseverance. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. We’re in Christ’s hands. And then he brings his Father into the picture. “My Father which gave them me, he is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” We’ve got a double keeping force in our security, in our eternal security, in our preservation. We got Christ’s hand and we have the Father’s hand wrapped around us as well.

And the Father is greater than all, omnipotent, cannot be striven against successfully. And our Father’s hand is wrapped with Christ’s hand around us. The doctrine of the preservation of the saints and their perseverance has this four-fold statement from our Savior in John chapter 10 nailing it home increasingly: I give them eternal life; they won’t perish; they can’t be plucked out of my hand; my Father who is the strongest of all men and he has them in his hand and no man is able to take them out of my Father’s hand.

“I and my Father are one.” Now that’s a great truth that we need to know that Jesus and the Father are one okay they’re one they’re one God we don’t have three different gods we have three persons. They’re one.

So, it’s a nice statement of the Trinity. But realize that the purpose here of this statement is to reinforce the fact that I and the Father are one. I think we could make by implication at least covenantally the Father and the Son and the Spirit we could throw into the mix are one in purpose for you. That’s what he’s saying. He’s saying child of God who believes in the Lord Jesus who loves him and who hates your sins.

He’s saying that my Father and I are united in this with the Spirit. We’ve all worked it out. We’ve all decided your fate is eternally secure. You shall surely persevere in the faith. John chapter 10 tells to all who have eyes to see that this tremendous doctrine is biblically based that we shall indeed persevere in the faith.

Now, quickly going on this perseverance, however, we don’t you know there’s I said last week that there are two poles. We want to keep away from two opposite heresies. On the one hand, legalism, on the other hand, license. We want to stress over and over eternal security. And we want to agree with that portion of the statement once saved always saved. That means if you’re really saved, you shall be saved. But we want to avoid on the other hand the error, the strong error of saying that somehow you can pray the prayer and then live your life whichever way you want it and count on these kind of promises that I have just given to the elect in Christ because the Scriptures command us to persevere.

The Scriptures command us. Perseverance is a command. Moving on with your series of notes. Point number six. And I mentioned here the term “covenantal response.” “Covenant responsibility.” Perseverance is a covenant responsibility. That is language from Reverend Curnow Shepard, formerly professor of systematic theology at Westminster Seminary, now pastoring a CRC church, I believe in Illinois. And one Shepherd has been influential in fighting the decline into liberalism with the CRC.

He and several other men have gotten into trouble with the denomination for calling a conference to deal with the heresy and the liberalization of the CRC, particularly the ordination of women. So he’s a good guy. Sound in faith and I have a tape by him and in this tape he mentions these Scripture references I give you for these next two points “covenant responsibility” and “covenant grace” come from Reverend Shepard these are his Scripture verses but they are excellent and I wanted to share them with you as part of this particular talk.

So first of all perseverance is commanded. Perseverance is a command. We have these great promises given to us in John chapter 10 but recognize that they are a command. We know first of all that it is a command that to endure it. It’s a command that we have faith. Acts 16:31 says “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved you and your household.” There is this condition that you must believe and that if you believe you will be saved. That is a command to believe. This is the essence of the gospel. A command to men to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 24:13 says that he who endures to the end shall be saved. It’s not a point action faith that has no continuing belief, but rather it is those who abide in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who are said to receive eternal life. It is a commandment to abide in faith.

Secondly, there are exhortations to perseverance or we could say commands in 1 Corinthians 15:58. “My beloved brethren, be steadfast immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Hebrews 12:1, we have these great cloud of witnesses. “Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life.” It’s as if a prize to be had by your efforts, your command to persevere. Lay hold on eternal life. Fight the good fight of faith.

Children, it is important to learn in your life diligence in reaching for this particular end. Don’t rest in your laurels. Don’t say, “Well, Jesus has done everything. I will do nothing. I will sit and do whatever I want to do, and yet I’m eternally secure because I believe in Jesus.” No, no, no. The Scriptures say that kind of faith without works is dead. There is no faith. There is no salvation. There is no assurance to you. The only thing that awaits you is the fiery God you shall consume all men eternally in hell.

Eternal destruction. Scriptures say you got to persevere. It’s a command. It is a covenantal responsibility.

Hebrews 10:36, “You have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. After you do the will, then you get the promise. For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now, the just shall live by faith.” See, it doesn’t mean the just shall live in terms of eternal life by a one-time exercise of faith. The just shall live their lives on the principle of faith in the word of God.

And if you’re not living your life in a persevering way, then you’re not the justified. You see, that’s the implication of the verse. If anyone, and it goes on to say, if anyone draws back, fails to persevere, my soul has no pleasure in him. Doesn’t say I just have a little bit of displeasure. My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back to perdition. He’s talking about drawn back to perdition. You see, if you don’t persevere, you’ve drawn back to perdition.

James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience or perseverance. And let perseverance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

So the end result of perseverance is this perfection and being complete, lacking in nothing. “Blessed is the man who endures temptation. When he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, whom the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

Luke 21:19, “By your patience, by your perseverance, by your remaining steadfast to the Lord Jesus Christ, you will possess your souls. You have this eternal life by your perseverance.” The Scriptures say, “Revelation 14:10-12, we read a description of those upon whom God’s judgment falls. The smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. In verse 11, they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience or here is the perseverance of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

If you don’t want to be part of that eternal judgment, you must have perseverance, patience, a keeping of the commandments of God. Perseverance is given as a commandment to God’s people.

But secondly, in the context of this particular portion of the outline, perseverance is a promise. It is a covenantal responsibility, but it is also covenantal grace. We read in 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4, I’ll begin in verse two. “We give thanks to God always for you all. Making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and perseverance or patience of hope in our Lord Jesus in the sight of our God and Father.”

Wonderful phrase here that Paul in thinking of the saints And as we think of one another, we thank God for the perseverance of those people that we have known for a period of time. It is a perseverance, however, that is born of hope. We thank God for the patience of hope. That means the patience coming forth from hope. And maybe in your translations, other translations do a little better job than the King James here of relating this patience to being founded and motivated by hope.

Romans 8:32, “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?” You see, as much as the verses we just read says that perseverance is a covenantal responsibility, is a command from God, now we begin reading a set of verses that tell us that indeed the assurance God will preserve us is what creates the perseverance or patience. God says, “Hey, you’ve been delivered from death, eternal death. Will he also continue to give you all things in the context of life?”

You see, he says, “If you’ve got perseverance, it’s been born by hope.” Parents, I would encourage you to memorize 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4. I would encourage you and I encourage myself that we bring this message to our children particularly as they grow older that we do not ask them to persevere without linking that perseverance to the preservation of God and the hope that his Scriptures repeatedly give that he shall indeed keep those who are in Christ Jesus. You see what I’m saying? See, there’s two ways to fall off this fence.

And one way is to stress perseverance without seeing that the Scriptures say the root of the saints perseverance. The dynamic that drives us to persevere is the assurance that those who persevere that those who are called in Christ will be preserved by God. You see that? You see the importance that grace drives this obedience to our covenantal responsibilities. We must always tell and then we have a whole series of verses. I won’t read them all, but let’s look at a couple.

1 Corinthians 1:8, “Who will also confirm you to the end. Yes, we’re called to persevere, but ultimately God is preserving us to the end.”

Philippians 1:6, “He will complete this good work that he began until the day of Christ Jesus.”

1 Peter 1:5, “that you have this inheritance reserved in heaven, who are kept by the power of God through faith. It’s not through your efforts. Ultimately, it’s through the preservation of God, the means by which you persevere.”

2 Thessalonians 3:3, “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and to the perseverance of Christ. He prays. So we pray for our kids that God would direct their hearts into the perseverance or patience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because God is the only one who can bring it to pass.”

Romans 15:4, “Whatever things are written before were written for our learning, that we through the perseverance or patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. That hope drives us to perseverance and that perseverance drives us to and increases our sense of hope in the context of God’s preservation.”

I can list more Scriptures. They abound in the context of the Scriptures over and over. I’ve listed various ones for you. There are more.

1 Samuel 2:9, “He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness. For by strength shall no man prevail. God will keep us. It is not by our strength.”

Psalm 31:5, “Into thine hand, that hand that will not release us. I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, oh Lord God of truth.” Ultimately, our preservation by God is what we always claim before God as we seek his assistance. We commit ourselves into his hand because he has redeemed us.

Psalm 37:28, “The Lord loves judgment and forgets not his saints but are preserved forever. The seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The saints are preserved forever by God.”

Psalm 125:1-2, “They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion which cannot be removed but abideth forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever.”

Our Savior gives us everlasting eternal life. We shall not perish. And that’s because the perseverance of the saints is undergirded by the preservation of them by God. The dynamic of this relationship is that the assurance that God gives to us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, this hope that we have, not a willy-nilly, not a wishy-washy hope, but a firm fixed resolution that God has determined these things. This truth of God’s preservation of us drives us and produces perseverance in us.

And as we persevere, we become more convinced of the assurance of God and of that very hope. The perseverance produces hope. You see, it’s a synergistic relationship, a modern term. It is a revolving forward initiated by God’s calling and God’s sovereignty, God’s grace and God’s hope and God’s gospel. But from that point it becomes a reliance upon that gospel that is essentially a command to us. We obey the command which increases our appropriation of the blessings and assurance of God’s preservation of his people.

Preservation and perseverance. It’s not just a tricky thing to try to remember these things together. It is of the essence of this doctrine. It is of the essence to understand the relationship between preservation and perseverance so that we do not fall off on the one hand to legalism and we do not fall off on the other hand to license. And finally, that we can correctly counsel and comfort ourselves, our children, and our friends in the Lord that this is the message that their perseverance stems from the hope and the assurance that God gives them.

So important in terms of encouraging each other to faithfulness to the Lord.

What is the basis of all of this? The basis of this assurance is in the very counsel and immutability of God himself. Let me read the Fifth Article as we come to a conclusion. The Fifth Article of the Canons of Dort.

“So it is not through their own merits or strength but through the undeserved mercy of God that they neither totally fall back from faith and grace nor persist in their backslidings and are finally lost. As far as they are concerned, this could not only easily happen, but would undoubtedly happen. But as far as God is concerned, this cannot possibly happen. Since his counsel cannot be changed, his promise cannot fail, the calling according to his purpose cannot be revoked, the merit, intercession, and preservation of Christ cannot be nullified, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit can neither be frustrated.”