Perseverance of the Saints (Part 1 of 2)

What's the secret to remaining true to our faith in guaranteeing our eternal destiny will gratefully be answer is anchored in God's faithfulness, not in ours today on Truth for Life.

Alister Ben continues a study called fix our eyes on Jesus with an important message about the perseverance of the saints. Romans eight and verse 28 and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those he predestined he also called those he called he also justified those he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say in response to this. If God is for us who can be against us. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him graciously give us all things. Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen. It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns Christ Jesus who died more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us, who shall separate eyes from the love of Christ shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your seat we face death all day long we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered know and all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen father we pray that you will come and speak to our lives. This evening through your word far beyond the voice of an mere man.

May we hear you speak and in hearing your voice grant to us comfort and assurance and encouragement, and grace and faith for these we so much need and we look to you alone. In Jesus name, amen. For some weeks now. In our study in Hebrews. I've been wanting to do something to set is it where the Scriptures and balance and I've never really had the opportunity to do so and so tonight I want to speak concerning the flipside of the coin in relationship to the issues of apostasy that have been the area of our study in Hebrews chapter 6 and then again in Hebrews chapter 10 I want to affirm before you, and in light of Scripture and I want you to believe, to be strengthened and encouraged and equipped by it. The fact and the biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, or the preservation of the saints, which in short is this that once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can never be lost.

You can never go to hell. Christ will always be your savior. Now it is this doctrine which runs the whole way through the Bible, the person who sincerely puts his or her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ is said to be safe. Safe in the arms of Jesus.

In the words of the children's him secure and secure eternally. Now I want to underpin this by turning you just a one or two verses of Scripture. They will be familiar versus but I read them purposefully. First of all, in John chapter 6 and in verse 39 Jesus is speaking and he says and this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day for my father's will is that everyone who looks to the sun and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Jesus says a similar thing in the 10th chapter of John and in verses 28 and 29 concerning his sheet, the members of his flock in verse 27 he says my sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, which is obviously a present tense experience is not something I would in a remote and possible future. I give them present tense eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My father, who is given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my father's hand. And then, in the words of Peter in first Peter and in chapter 1 and verse three praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time I let me give you what is Barcroft's definition of the perseverance of the saints.

He says perseverance is that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit in the believer that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit in the believer by which the work of divine grace that is begun in the heart is continued and brought to completion. What is this perseverance that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit in the believer by which the work of divine grace that is begun in the heart is continued and brought to completion. Strictly speaking, the perseverance of the saints, and when the they use the phrase saints, there talk about those who have truly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The perseverance of the child of God is, strictly speaking, the perseverance of God because it is an account of the fact that God perseveres with those who are his children, that those who are his children are enabled to persevere to the very end of their life's. In fact, it is often referred to as the preservation of the saints, rather than the perseverance of the saints because as God perseveres with those he has redeemed he preserves his children as Jesus says my flock to hear my voice.

I called them by name. No one can take them out of my hand, my preserving influence over them is begun in a moment of time is actually begun in the realm of eternity is encountered in a moment of time, and runs all the way through into eternity future in the preservation of the people of God emphasizes the fact that it is God who perseveres. It is God who keeps and it is God who guards us shortly and you may want to turn the first Peter chapter 1 surely Peter of all people would have understood because Peter knew what it was to make a mess of things. Peter knew what it was to be on a fairly steady upward trend and then all of a sudden the becoming crashing down. He knew what it was to make great affirmations of faith and then he had known the experience of Jesus turning German saying get behind me Satan. So for Peter to write as he does in these opening verses to the scattered believers is a tremendous encouragement and he rode out of the wealth of his own understanding of the grace of God, and he writes to let his readers know that it is according to God's mercy that they have been born a new and they have been given new birth verse three into a living hope into a living hope in other words, the child of God, is someone who is been delivered from the realm of hopelessness without God and without God encountered in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Life is extraordinarily bleak. It is an empty, hopeless existence.

There are not enough things to be able to do. There are not enough occasions to be able to look forward to.

It is impossible to amass enough material possessions or take enough vacations to be able to fill up the emptiness of the human soul.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark and the experience of the loss of his father mopes and gropes his way around the palace there at Elsinore and his uncle comes to him and said how is it that the clouds still hang on you and of course Hamlet stands as it where in Shakespeare's play is the very epitome of a hopeless experience leaves voice stood on many occasions. How really stale, flat and unprofitable seemed to me all the uses of this life. What then is it that puts a spring in the step of a believer. What is it that lifts the chin off the chest. What is it that fixes our gaze on somewhere else. It is this fact that, according to God's mercy we have been born again or given new birth into a living hope and along with that we have been granted an inheritance verse four and the unique nature of this inheritance is described for us here.

It is untouched by death is unstained by evil, and it is unimpaired by tying there is no possibility of it diminishing because it can perish. It can spoil it can fade and it is in heaven with your name on it and the believer has been brought to an awareness of this through the reading of the Bible and the considering of the wonder of God's goodness and Peter says to his readers. I want you to realize that your new birth is brought you into living hope it is granted you an inheritance which is absolutely certain, and in the meantime, notice what he says, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time we don't have the expedience of all, to which our title deed assures us that there are dimensions of what it means to know God, that are yet. Unbeknownst to us that one day we will see the Lord Jesus, and we will be like him. And when we're tempted to say to ourselves, so I wonder if I will ever make it to heaven. I wonder if I will ever be able to keep going for another day. I wonder if I'll make it to another Sunday. I wonder if I can continue on this journey had such a struggle. I'm so aware of my own waywardness. In my own sinfulness. I wonder if I will ever make it here loved ones. Here is the assurance you were given new birth you can make yourself alive.

Did you know you aren't physically born as a result of the decision on your part, nor were we spiritually born as a result of a decision on our part.

Surely we came to the day where we acknowledged that we must decisively embrace Christ in faith, but as we look back down the corridor of time.

We realized the long before ever we reached out her hand to grab his discover that his hand had been reaching down to lay hold upon us. He gave us new birth. He promised as an inheritance and tonight he keeps as he shields us by his power. Now this term is a lovely term here, shielded by God's power essentially a military term. It's a term to describe the gardening which is done by soldiers in the bringing of somebody safely to their destination is not uncommon when you read history to discover that an individual in ancient times, making their journey from one place to another would be guarded by a company of soldiers.

The same is true in the book of now. Meyer, for example, when now Meyer makes the journey across the Fertile Crescent from Susa back to Jerusalem. Remember, one of the things that he requests his mood and letters and one of the bonuses that he receives from Arctic Xerxes is this great company of soldiers who surround him and his friends and guard them on the journey wonderful picture the same picture. Incidentally, when you used to see Mohammed Ali coming into the ring and he would be all with that thing around his head and he would have the gloves in the towels and the blankets and all the stuff and then this great huge man is surrounded by a group of individuals you ever wonder what these folks are doing that. I guess they got the best seat in the house. For one thing, but it always struck me as interesting. Why would he of all people need these folks around as if they could protect him when he was so strong will to fight in the matter is that he did need protection and so they gathered around him to take him safely to his destination.

That's the picture here. You are a believer tonight you're aware of the rigors of sin in your life you're buffeted in your discourage. Perhaps here's the wonderful truth God has garrisoned you shielded you by his power, and in this, the beleaguered believer find security for our soul's. Now you'll notice that this does not take place in a vacuum, because then in verse five we come to the little phrase through faith, through faith.

You see, it is a mistaken notion which regards our preservation has some kind of blanket guarantee irrespective of the lives that we live in the once saved always saved notion is often trotted out by people who have no expression of continuous faith in their lives. And that's why it's very important we pay attention to what the Bible says that there is no preservation without faith and also it makes clear that it is those who have faith who persevere and that is exactly what he say remember back in Hebrews that it was a very absence of faith on the part of the listeners which resulted in the word proving of knowing value to the remember back in chapter 4 in verse two, he says, and those they hear the word but it was no value to the why not because they did not combine it with faith. The side and listen to the Bible being preached they read the Bible, and yet it had no value to them at all because of an absence of faith, as if somehow or another you can simply sit in the church and if somebody read the Bible and that would be all that was necessary as if you would be transformed into a Christian, just as a result of that you would be as quickly transformed into a car is by sitting in a Gary for the rest of your life is not going to happen. We persevere through faith and never apart from faith know what the New Testament is emphasizing and this is the absolute certainty of the Christians preservation you been given new birth you have an inheritance that is certain, and you are now being kept in guarded and shielded by God's power. Note turn if you would to Romans chapter 8 I want is to draw your attention to this familiar territory here to take a long time on it, but I do want just to underscore the fact that nothing can separate God's children from Christ's love. This is the reason for his rhetorical questions here in the middle of the chapter who or what he says shall separate us from the love of Christ. Verse 35. Is it possible that once having been laid hold of by the good Shepherd that we will then be separated from his love.

That is what some people teach that you become a Christian. As a result of some decision that you make in something that you do and since you started it, you can finish it and so if you determined to finish it. You just finish it and then if you want to start that again you just started again be no relationship at all. It would be absolutely dreadful in here. The Bible is saying when the Lord Jesus comes in the winds and the wounds those who are his beloved and he draws them to himself.

He seems as for all of eternity. And once we are saved we are always saved, you can never be lost if you're in Christ. You can never go to hell he will always be your savior, you will never ever ever quit on the New Testament also makes it very very plain that no man or woman may suppose that the love of the Lord Jesus has embraced him or her unless that man or woman has come as a sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now this love which God is displayed toward sinners was displayed toward sinners. If you go back a few chapters to chapter 5 in verse eight, you come to this amazing verse, God demonstrates his own love for is in this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is a result of this amazing love demonstrated by God that we are elected and justified, and glorify and on account of this Paul further asks the question in Romans eight in verse 33.

Who then will bring any charge against God's elect, or against those whom God has chosen. After all, he says it is God who justifies. It is God who looked at as in all of our sin and declared as righteous on account of the sacrifice of his son. On what basis did God in looking at is in our sin as his justifying sentence. Was it because we were so righteous, no, because we were unrighteous was it because we were so interested in the things of faith know because we were disinterested in the things of was it because we were so lovable just by dint of our very personalities in nature.

Was it because we were so obviously religious, and God was looking for religious people and he looked around, and he found a few sort of religious susceptible folks who were sort of into that kind of thing and he said no. This is the kind of person that I need was that know if we were to stand up and give our testimony would go all the way across the board.

God looks down and round we went on godly, and when we were liable to death on account of our sins, he declared as righteous on the basis of the sacrifice of his son. It is for this reason that I quote so often the phrase from the him because the sinless Savior died, my guilty soul is counted free for God, but justice satisfied to look on him and pardon me on what basis did God pass his justifying sentence not on the basis of righteous deeds that we had done for all of our righteousnesses. Ultimately, as the province is like filthy rags. Even our best stuff stinks. Even our religious endeavors are futile and worthless. So unless it was on the basis of what another had done.

There was absolutely no possibility of sinful men and women ever being declared in a right standing with a holy God, and it is exactly on that basis. He knew the worst about us and he accepted us for Jesus sake the very thing which he passed on as his final our future with God is guaranteed not by our best efforts, but through his persistence listing to Truth for Life and a message from Alastair Begg about the perseverance of the saints. This final message in our series called fix our eyes on Jesus will conclude tomorrow if you'd like to hear more from Alistair's teaching in the book of Hebrews. You can download the audio files for all three volumes of the study toll-free when you go to Truth for Life.org or when you use the mobile app you can also purchase the teaching on CD or USB.

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Today Alastair explain the extent to which God has relentlessly pursued his children. Even though were sinners, he declares us righteous and then defends us for eternity. These wonderful biblical themes in the book of Hebrews motivated us to select the book created to draw near from Pastor Ed Welch if you ever felt like God's silence was a sign that he was ignoring you. You should know you're not alone.

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Alistair's message about the perseverance of the Saints continues tomorrow, and it's the final message from our study of the book of Hebrews called fix our eyes on Jesus.

So join us again Wednesday I'm Bob Lapine. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living