Jesus Saves! But How? PART 17 Perseverance

The Sunday school series on salvation continues with Perseverance. This is from Sunday 17th May 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This uh course in the Adult Sunday School, we're we're working through uh a doctrine of salvation. So Jesus saves, it's one of the glorious messages of the Christian faith, it's the heart of the Christian faith. Jesus saves, but how? And so over many weeks now we've thought about the work of Jesus, his perfect life, his dying on the cross, his rising, the pouring out of his Holy Spirit. And then we've also been thinking about how we benefit from what Jesus has done. So if Jesus is the world's best treasure and he is, if Jesus has all of God's treasure and he does, how do I, how do you, how do we actually benefit from what Jesus has? And so we've been thought about, we've been thinking about how redemption, that wonderful work of rescue, is applied and how we receive it and benefit from it. And our topic this morning is perseverance, that is the business of keeping going as a Christian. It's a massively important topic, it's a very practical topic, whether we are right at the start of the Christian life or whether we've been following Jesus for uh decades. So if you could open up Romans chapter eight in your Bibles, Romans chapter eight, if you have one of the Black Church Bibles, that's page nine four four. Good, so Romans chapter eight, uh, pages nine four four. I'm gonna pray, and then I will read from verse twenty eight down to the end of the chapter. Let's pray. Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we are gathered here this morning because of your wonderful love shown us in the Lord Jesus, and we pray that you would be our teacher, uh, teach our minds, warm up our hearts, that we might keep on trusting and obeying all the days of our lives. And we ask that for Jesus' name's sake. Amen. Amen. So, Romans chapter eight, beginning at verse twenty-eight. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he forenew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He did who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all? How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thanks be to God for his word to us. Our topic this morning, keeping going as a Christian. Have you ever asked a question like can real Christians fall away? Can I stop being Christian and lose my salvation? I've heard it said once saved, but always once saved, always saved. But is that true? Now we might ask questions like that because we know people who seemed to be going great as Christians, but who somewhere along the line abandoned faith in Jesus. Maybe we worry about ourselves. It feels like we do not have much faith, we struggle with sin, and we think to ourselves, will I keep on trusting and obeying the Lord? We may also have bumped into scripture passages that might lead us to ask those questions. The Bible warns against stopping believing. It says to Christians, keep on going with Jesus, don't stop. And it records the examples of people who seem to have fallen away. Now, where we're going to end up this morning is this. We're going to see that real Christians persevere because God keeps them going. Okay, real Christians persevere because God keeps them going. There is though quite a lot of important Bible ground to get to, to put that in its context. So the first thing I want us to see is this. Not everyone who says they believe will persevere. What we're talking about here is sometimes called apostasy or falling away. So there is someone who apparently believes in Jesus and then stops believing in Jesus. So if there is a person who will not make it through to what the Bible calls glorification. Glorification. And there are lots of bits of the Bible that make the point that falling away or apostasy is a real thing. So for example, there's some verses from Matthew 13, the parable of the soils. So Jesus tells this parable about how the word, the Bible, the gospel is sown liberally all over the place, and there are different responses. And here is one of them. This is a person. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. Various other scriptures too speak to this. There is a wonderful reality and Bible doctrine called the perseverance of the saints. But these verses and others like them also teach us that there is a person who stops believing in Jesus. Now here's a quote from John Murray, really good book. It is possible to give all the outward signs of faith in Christ and obedience to him, to witness for a time a good confession, and show great zeal for Christ and his kingdom, and then lose all interest and become indifferent, if not hostile, to the claims of Christ and His kingdom. Now, how should we understand this? There does seem to be a phenomenon that we might call false faith. We find it in Scripture, and we also observe it in experience. It's actually one of the hardest and the most distressing things about the reality of apostasy. And I just want to read a couple of scriptures that describe this to us. So I'm going to read from Hebrews 6 on the handout. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. And just over to the top of the second side of the handout, same letter, Hebrews 10, verse 29. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned or treated as unholy the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace? Now those are difficult verses. They're difficult verses at lots of levels. They're quite difficult for our minds to wrap around. They also come with a lot of weight and they come with warning. They tell us that it is possible to come very, very close to the supernatural power of God and yet not experience his personal and saving power. So you can be in the covenant people of God. You can be sanctified in that way. That means set apart from one sphere to another, set apart from the world into the church. At one level, you can know the Christian faith, you can profess faith, but actually not be a real Christian. That's what those verses say. And that person, Hebrews 10.29 says, treats Christ's blood as an unholy thing. Now just don't stop and think about that one for a minute. I think that helps us understand what this is like and what this reality looks like. Here's someone who outwardly professes something, but by their unrepentance and their unbelief, they actually treat the death of Christ as an unholy thing. And they profane the covenant and profane the cross. Now for a while the church might be deceived and even a person might be deceived. The Bible, though, would insist that the apostate, the one who falls away, was never actually born again. So it's not that a real Christian can fall away, they can't. The one who falls away was never a real Christian. It's one of the things I think the parable of the soils, Jesus' parable of the soils, is super clear about and quite helpful about. 1 John 2.19 puts it like this. They went out from us, it's talking about apostates, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out. Now what do we do with this? One of the reasons that the Bible tells us about this, frankly, is to scare us a bit. Sometimes being scared is not a bad thing. I don't know, danger of death sign on an electricity substation. Is that there to spoil your fun? Or is it actually there to rightly scare you and be sensible? I think it's the latter, isn't it? One of the reasons the Bible gives us such stark warning passages is to help us keep going. It's one of the things that warnings in the Bible function to do. So one of the ways in which the Lord keeps his people going is by warning us. So the Holy Spirit comes and speaks to us in various different ways, but one of the things he says is, be careful. And when the Spirit warns, the Christian trembles. So we might ask the question, can I fall away? And one of the Bible's answers is simply don't. Don't. So can I fall away? Don't. Let's keep going. Second big heading. Real saints must persevere. And we are going to see that those who persevere to the end will be saved. And we're going to try and build up a picture of what perseverance looks like. It's not sinless perfection, it is a keeping on going with Jesus. And the Bible tells us the shape of the persevering Christian life. I mean, what does it look like to keep on trusting and obeying in the long haul? So it's just going to read through these scriptures. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. So there is just the fact of endurance. For as long as the Lord gives us in our lives, enduring, keeping on going as a Christian. John 8.31, if you abide in my word, you're truly my disciple. So sticking with the words of Jesus, regardless of what other people think or say, regardless of what our own sinful natures may feel about the word of Jesus. John 15, 6, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. So remaining or abiding in, glued to, close to the Lord Jesus. The Apostle Paul says, 1 Corinthians 9.27, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. So one dimension of the Christian life is disciplining the body, or just learning to grow in self-control. 1 Corinthians 15.2. I'd remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So it's holding firm to the gospel which the Apostle Paul preached. Colossians 1 23, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. It's a tenacious faith, isn't it? Regardless of the ups and downs personally and around us, the Christian holds on to their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. These verses cumulatively tell us that perseverance is necessary. Keeping on going with Jesus is necessary. It's essential that we keep on trusting and obeying. There can be no security if we're not trusting, fighting, standing, holding. So the encouragement, Paul sometimes likens it to an athletics race. So Philippians 3.14, let us press on for the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ. So press on, press on, press on. There's a finishing line. Well done, good and faithful servant. However, and there's a big but this how will we ever persevere? Left to our own devices, we will undoubtedly fall and fail terminally. Every single one of us, we are so weak. One great theologian of the past, Francis Turriton, he put it like this believers in themselves not only can fail, but could not help failing if left to themselves. And that's the critical bit, isn't it? If left to themselves. The flesh within us is so strong. But wonderfully, God does not leave us to persevere on our own. Real saints persevere because they are preserved by God. Can you maybe explain the word saints? Yes, sorry. Yeah, thank you. Saints. So this this doctrine down the centuries has often been known as the perseverance of the saints. It just has been. Now, saints, it doesn't mean um Saint whatever. Helen, special Christian in a superclass. It is simply the Bible's way, one of the Bible's ways of describing every Christian. So it means a holy person whom the Lord has set apart and called to himself. So all Christian people are saints. I am Saint Andrew, you are Saint Natalie, you are Saint Charlotte, and so on. Okay, so saints, don't yes, don't think this is a superclass of Christian. We are all saints if in Christ. And real saints persevere because they are preserved by God. So think about our enemies. We face sin within, Satan and the world on the outside. We may fall into serious sin. We might remain in serious sin for a time. This grieves the Holy Spirit of God, incurs God's discipline. Remember, he's a father who loves us. We thought about that last week, didn't we? Adoption. That kind of ongoing sin hurts us, it may hurt others too. But despite all of that, real Christians cannot ultimately fall away. Now hopefully you've still got Romans chapter 8 open in front of you. It'd be great if you did. So page 944, if you shut your church Bibles. God has planned an unbreakable chain of salvation. And that's the point that Paul makes in Romans 8, 28 to 30. There is an unbreakable chain of events here. If you just skim through, look at verse 29. Those God foreknew. So he chose to set his love on people in eternity past, and then he predestined them. And those who were predestined, verse 30, are called. Do you remember calling? We thought about when God calls a person, he doesn't just call to their ears, he calls to their heart, and he brings them powerfully, effectively into relationship with him. Those same ones he justifies. Remember, we thought about justification, how we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. We do not have righteousness of our own, but we are clothed with Jesus. And those same ones will be glorified. Now, glorification actually is a future reality for us. But it's so certain, Paul can put it in the past tense here. We're going to think much more about glorification next. So it's like an unbreakable flowchart, an unbreakable chain, a golden chain of events from eternity past. The Christian is known and loved in the mind of God before the world began. And that person will be got safely all the way to glory with Christ in heaven, then a new resurrection body, happiness and holiness perfectly in a renewed creation. And if you're in that chain, you can't fall out of it. Now, verse 30 is actually really emphatic. It's the same people, these ones to whom this happened, these ones, well, the next bit will happen too as well. We're so sinful we cannot save ourselves. Hopefully we know that. God freely chooses those he's going to save. Those who God chooses to save are those for whom Christ dies. Then no one can actually resist God's summons to life, and the Christian will be kept by the power of God. Now, hopefully you see how that golden chain fits with the whole scheme of God's salvation. It is his work all the way down the line. It's not that we're passive, we're called to repent and believe, but even the ability to repent and believe is enabled by God. Salvation is God's work. It's not 50% him and 50% us, it's not 90% God and 10% us. The saving work of God is 100% God. Both the application of redemption in the work of Jesus, sorry, in the accomplishment of redemption, and even in applying it to a Christian's life. Turn it round from another angle. God does not come and say to us, right, okay, I've predestined you, sacrificed my son for you, I've drawn you to Jesus. Now over to you, stay Christian. He doesn't say that. God be praised. So the Lord upholds your hand. Into this a little more, we find that each person of the Trinity works to keep us. So the Bible says there is but one true and living God, and he exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and all that God is, He does. He is one God in three persons. There is a united saving work of God. So firstly, God the Father. So John 10, 28, 29, I give them eternal life. This is Jesus speaking, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. The Christian actually is like a gift, given by God the Father to God the Son. It sort of puts us in our place, by the way. It's very wonderful and beautiful, but it's also very humbling. We are a gift, given by God the Father to God the Son. And the honor and glory of the Father depends on this gift being safely delivered to fruition, its purpose. So of course they are secure. We are secure if in Christ. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. So in that last verse, there is the call of the gospel, by the way. There is the call of the gospel. Anyone who looks to the Son, that means looks in dependence and repentance. Everyone who looks on the Son has eternal life now and will be raised in a new resurrection body on the last day. And the gap between now and that last day, it's entirely secure. You see, the Son's mission is to do the Father's will. That's actually the thing that animates Jesus most. He desires to do his father's will. So God the Son, in his human nature, the thing he desires to do most is obey his father, submit to his father. And the Father's will is that none of Jesus' people are lost, and Jesus is so seriously committed to his father's will. So of course, no one who believes in Jesus will be lost. So the Lord Jesus, he keeps such a firm hold on us, infinitely firmer a hold than ever we have on him. If you've got your Bibles open still at Romans 8, do you see how Paul says something very, very similar? So Romans 8 verse 32. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? It's like a package deal. If Jesus died for you, then with Jesus you will be given all things. Or verse 35, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. And that even includes ourselves. You and I, we cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ. Even given all of my frailties and weaknesses. Look at verse 34. The Lord Jesus is interceding for us. And the prayers of the Son they cannot fail. So, Hebrews 7.25. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. And God the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, at work in our preservation, in him you also, in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. So every single Christian person, at the moment of their conversion, they receive the Holy Spirit, who, among other things, is like a down payment or a guarantee of our inheritance, our full inheritance. When we come into the immediate presence of Christ, when we get to enjoy that renewed creation together with him, God will always keep his promise. The perseverance of the saints does not depend on their own free will, but on the unchangeableness of the decree of election, that is, God does not change his mind. Flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, on the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ, on the continuing presence of the Spirit and the Seed of God within them, and on the nature of the covenant of grace, these are the grounds of the certainty and infallibility of their perseverance. If there are other other things you've heard this morning you want to discuss or raise questions, let's let's do that. We'll take five minutes or so just to talk with a friend, and then we'll see if we've got any questions that we'd like to share. Go for it. I probably ought to repeat that. So is there a puzzle here around God's sovereignty? So the Lord holds on to and will keep his elect. At the same time, we are absolutely warned against the danger of apostasy. If a if a person who professes faith just loses interest and drifts away, does that therefore call into question God's sovereignty? I I think the answer the answer is no. I I think it just it exposes something about that person's heart, that they weren't actually a Christian in the first place. So I think that would be the headline, sort of in principle answer to that. And when you and when you read the read the Bible, the you find that Old Testament church, New Testament church, the church has actually always been a mixed gathering. So when 1 Corinthians 10, 1 to 4, when the Apostle Paul reflects on the story of the Old Testament Church, he says that these people, they had seen the wonders of God, they were baptized in the sea, they had ate from the you know the bread from heaven, they'd kind of shared in the sacraments, as it were. Um they'd even drunk from Christ, that's what he even says, yet with them, with most of them God was not pleased. So, in other words, I think the story of the church down the ages has always been it's been a mixed, it's a mixed gathering. Um the Lord knows, the Lord sees, no surprises to him, but I guess just from our end, just understanding the reality of the mixedness of it. But part of the reason we are told about it is so that believers stay far away from that road that leads to apostasy. So if you belong to Christ, you can't go down that road, but don't go down that road. In fact, don't even go close to it. And I I I think that's probably what we're meant to do with this. And I think what you've just articulated is the kind of the tension between the mental puzzle and then the kind of the practical response to it. So the mental puzzle is there is there is puzzle there. But just personally, okay, I know I now I know what I need to do with this. I don't want to go that way, I want to go this way. Um else got a question they'd like to chip in with? Go on, Natalie. Yeah, so how how do I know I'm in the chosen category? Yeah, you're right. That is it's really a question about assurance. Uh slightly annoyingly, next Sunday, actually, I'm going to be preaching a sermon on that. So we're pausing in James for a Sunday, and God willing, I'm going to be preaching a sermon about what really about how you grow assurance. So the Bible does want us to grow our confidence that we belong to God. Now we're not saved by feeling sure. That's one of the so important to remember that we're saved by Christ and by faith in Christ, not by feeling confident about it. So am I joined to Christ? That's all that matters. But he does want us to grow in that confidence, and I'll gonna actually preach a sermon on that next Sunday. So annoying non-answer to that question. Yeah. Come back next week. Yeah. Uh last question, then Coffee. Yeah. Isn't the gospel wonderful? So uh Vic's question, uh end of life, mortal sin, and I'll tell you why that's a terrible idea in a minute, uh, and necessity of perseverance, keeping on going right to the end, then you look at someone like the thief on the cross, who almost by definition had zero perseverance. Right. Okay, so the idea of mortal sin and venial sin, higher grade, lower grade sin is a Roman Catholic idea. It's not a it's not a biblical idea. Uh there are you can distinguish certain sorts of sins, but that's not that's not helpful. In fact, it's just plain it's just plain wrong. Uh, yes, Christians must persevere, they must endure to the end. Uh our endurance is a gift of God, uh, it's entirely of God's grace, and the thief on the cross is perhaps the most glorious example of that. Um He is someone who had who professed faith in Christ. Remember me when you come into your kingdom, and he had 15 minutes of perseverance. I don't know, I made that figure up, but and yet, and yet, yeah, today you'll be with me in paradise. Yeah? We're not saved by our perseverance, we're saved by Christ and through faith in Christ. Yeah, and you bless him for that. Other other questions? Uh let me have them. We probably will have a bit of a question time at some point as well. I'm gonna pray. Uh Father in heaven, we need your grace. We bless you that you are gracious. We uh want and need persevering grace to uh trust you, obey you, keep on trusting you, keep on obeying you. Uh help us to keep walking with Christ from our end. We thank you that we do not do that in isolation. We thank you that your hand, your son, your Holy Spirit are upon and grip your children. Encourage our hearts, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.