What is a Reformed Baptist..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Okay, so once again, we come together and we're, you probably figured it out, we are in the last topic on the doctrines of grace, TULIP. So we've gone through the T and the U and the L and the I, and this week we're in the P of TULIP, which stands for the Perseverance of the Saints.

And this is a very important doctrine, actually the assurance of our salvation. is rooted in this doctrine. And obviously, it's a biblical doctrine. This evening, we'll open it up and see what the Lord has to say to us. So this doctrine is important because many people, and maybe even some of us in this room, have asked the question, how do I know?

How do I know that I will persevere till the end? How do I know that I have genuine faith? The Bible tells us that he who endures till the end is the one who will be saved. Some of us might think that now we're on fire for the Lord, we love Him and we cherish Him, we cherish His Word, but how do we know in a year or two or five or ten, how do we know that we will remain in Him? And so this evening I hope to answer these questions and more.

A proper understanding of this doctrine, the perseverance of the saints, really will give us a proper understanding of our faith in the Beloved. But also, it should remove any complacency we have, or any slothfulness we have in the faith as well. It's not as though we know and we can be assured, therefore we live our lives as we please, because that's not what the Bible speaks to. So, this evening, let's open up our Bibles, if we have your Bibles with you. We're going to be looking at John chapter 6.

I want to have a look at John chapter 6. We're going to read 35 through to 40 passage. We're going to read it, we're going to put it aside, and we're going to come back to it a little further on. But I want this to be in the back of our minds. So if you have John chapter 6 verses 35 through 40.

Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should not 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. Amen. So I'm hoping that as we progress through, I just want this to be in the back of your mind as we go forward, and I'm hoping as we've gone through our study in the doctrines of grace that something has come to the top of your mind, and that is that at the heart of every one of these doctrines is the glory of God. At the heart of every single doctrine that we've studied up until this point is this, that we as people, as sinners, we're defiled and we're wicked and vile in our natural state.

But apart from the work of God for the glory of God, we would still remain in our sins. And so therein lies, therein lies the reason why God does everything And what He does and why He does it, it's ultimately for His own glory. And it's for His own glory in the salvation of sinners. Beloved, we must remember this. We must remember that our God is what we call theocentric.

Because the greatest good is His own glory, and if we, the elect, are gifted are gifted with the faith that he gives us, then we are the recipients of infinite blessings because he seeks his own glory. So this evening I ask you this question. If the salvation of the elect is ultimately for the glory of God, and if it is monogistic, meaning God alone is the sole efficient cause of our salvation, then if God intends to save a people, I ask you this. Is there anything that can frustrate our God or prevent Him from accomplishing His purpose or His plans in the salvation of these people? Now, not only we're looking at God starting the process of salvation, we're saying, will anything prevent Him from starting the process and bringing it to completion?

Think about that, because I want that answer to be in your mind as we look at the doctrines according to the preservation of saints. So what is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints? The title can sometimes be misleading. The name may incorrectly suggest that the persevering of the elect to the final salvation is a work that we do on our own, as though we do it from our own strength. Of course, this is not the intended meaning of the phrase and certainly not the intended teaching of the doctrine.

That's why some have preferred the preservation of the saints instead, because we know it's not by our own strength or faithfulness that we persevere, but because we are preserved by God. So let's start with the definition. Firstly, I'll give you a definition from the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, and it's a small portion that comes from Chapter 17 of the Confession, a chapter on the perseverance of the saints, and it reads like this. Those whom God hath accepted in the Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, and given the precious faith of His elect unto, can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved." Did you hear that?

The elect will persevere to the end and be eternally saved. I certainly can't improve on the Confessions definition, but I do want to give you a shorter definition, something that we may be able to grasp in one sentence, and just to give us a better understanding, I think, of this doctrine that we're looking in today. And that sentence is simply this, God will not fail to completely and finally save each and every single one of his elect people. That's it. That's what this doctrine basically is at its very core.

And I'll say it again. God will not fail to completely and finally save each and every single one of his elect people. Basically, the doctrine says no one of his elect will be lost. No one of his elect will be lost. This point is reiterated throughout the Bible.

with taking you to Romans chapter 8 on so many occasions, and that's because the golden chain of redemption is perfect proof that those who are justified will also be certainly glorified. Verse 30 of Romans 8 says, And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. This text so beautifully expresses this truth. Firstly, attributing all the verbs to God. He's the one who brings us all the way to glorification.

And secondly, all the verbs are in the past tense to declare that in the mind of God, this is an absolute fact. It will come to pass. It's an absolute certainty. the justified elect will all be glorified and none will be lost. The chain is unbroken.

No one who is truly justified will fall through the cracks. So from the onset, I want to make sure that we realize that our salvation has its roots solely in our sovereign God and not our own performance. Although we should and must find evidence of our salvation, in our lives, but it's predicated and rooted in God himself. Now, a proper understanding of justification will prevent the mistake that Catholicism makes in mixing justification with sanctification. This is a major reason why Catholicism, as well as other Christian denominations who believe that the elect can indeed lose their salvation, this is the mistake they make.

But the Bible is clear that those who are justified, as we read earlier, will be glorified. Now because we've been teaching through the doctrines of grace, I'm hoping these terms like justified and sanctified are still fresh in our minds. Sanctification or progressive sanctification is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian, making him or her holy unto the Lord. So basically making us more and more like Jesus Christ. It's ongoing.

Justification, on the other hand, is a forensic or a legal term. It declares or it counts a Christian right before a holy God. It's a once-off declaration, and it happens once when the Spirit of God regenerates the elect unto life and gifts him or her with authentic faith in Jesus Christ. By faith we are made right with God and have peace with God because of a righteousness apart from us. One is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Romans 3.28. The righteousness of Jesus is imputed or accounted to us in justification. Romans 5.1.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse nine, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. You see, we've been saved from the wrath of God and enjoy peace with God for all eternity. Why? Because by faith in Christ, we've been accounted pure.

and holy before God, accounted pure and holy before God. You see, if justification is a once-off declaration, which places us in a safe position in union with Christ and at peace with God, then our salvation is secure. You see, if the elect are unable to earn their salvation in the first place, then how are they going to lose it? Because righteousness that justifies is not ours to begin with. It's Christ's.

So that means that the level of our sanctification, the level of our personal wholeness, as important as this is, is not what makes us right with God. It's the righteousness of Christ accounted to us alone. Beloved, we are now just justified as we are just as justified today as we will be in heaven. It does not change. The objective peace we have with God today, for we're in Christ, is the same as what we have in heaven in all eternity.

It does not change. The only thing that does change in this age is the level of our sanctification. But our salvation is not dependent upon the progressive sanctification. So yes, Christians united with Christ are able and do continue to sin, and the enemy will try to accuse us before God and even tell us that we have lost our salvation. But listen to these beautiful words in Romans chapter 8 verse 33.

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. What a relief that our justification Our right standing before God is not dependent upon our progressive sanctification. But having said that, the true Christian faith is evidenced in sanctification and in becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. I hope we can all see how it's just not biblical to think that an elect person can actually lose their salvation.

But if you place sanctification in the mix, you can understand the mix-up. Because your performance will fluctuate, and so will your assurance. But that's not what the Bible teaches. We are justified once by faith in Christ alone. Now I've taken the time to explain this, because I want this to be the foundation of our study this evening.

Because if we get justification wrong, we won't be able to make any grounds in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. So let's go back to the passage we opened up earlier in chapter 6, verse 35-40. John is speaking to a large crowd here, and this same crowd, we're told, will soon desert Christ. I'm sorry, Jesus is speaking to a large crowd, and they'll desert Christ towards the end of the chapter. So verse 35-40, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I say to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my 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." This passage is so rich. Jesus says in verse 38 that He has come down from heaven to do what? The will of the Father. And what is the will of the Father?

Hear this, verse 39 tells us that Jesus should not lose none of those the Father has given Him. That's the elect. But raise it, meaning the church, up. When? On the last day.

After all is said and done, at the consummation of all things, Jesus will raise the church up and He will lose none. Beloved, the question that Christians should be asking is not primarily, will we persevere until the end? But this passage teaches us to ask a different question, and that is, will Jesus, the Son of God, God Himself, be able to accomplish the will of the Father perfectly, or will He fail? You see, what's at stake here? If we were to suggest that those who are given to Christ by the Father can be lost, then we're saying, and this is a difficult thing for me even to pronounce, but that we're saying that Jesus is not a perfect Savior, because Jesus has failed to do the Father's will.

Listen, anything short of perfect salvation from start to finish For all that the Father has given him will be a colossal failure on Christ's behalf. Beloved, even if one is lost, Jesus would have failed. Now that's blasphemous. The seriousness of this claim is beyond measure. I know that many who claim that the elect are able to lose their salvation may not have thought of the implications.

But if Jesus has not accomplished the will of the Father perfectly, no one would be saved. No one. Anything short of perfection means no salvation for anyone. The fact is our salvation is depended upon the perfect righteousness, which equates to the perfect obedience to the Father's will of Christ. We have faith that Our faith, my apologies, you see the seriousness of this implication of this view?

Of course we know that we have been united in a perfect Savior, and He has and will continue to accomplish the Father's will perfectly. And we have faith that none of those the Father has given Him will be lost. But who are these people? Who are the people that the Father has given Christ? Verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. And in John 5, 24, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Those who are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, as in Ephesians 1-4, will come to Christ and believe in Him. And as the passage says, they are the ones that He will save and keep until the last day.

The point is made well in the English, but it's so much stronger in the original language. You see, the strongest way The strongest way to negate something in the Greek is what they call the double negative. It's a powerful negative and it's used in this verse to express that those who come and believe upon Christ will never hunger or thirst. One lexicon says the double negative in this passage is like saying this, it will never happen, it's unthinkable, there's not even the slightest possibility that it will ever, ever happen. Strong words.

So what does that mean? Well, it means that the elect whom the father has given to the son will be saved with a complete and enduring spiritual satisfaction that can never, never, never, never be taken away. They will always be satisfied in Christ, who is the bread of life and the spring of life. He will save his people from the spiritual deadness fully and finally. Listen to the language of John 5.

24 about the one who believes. He does not come into judgment, he says, but has passed from death to life. The believer will not be judged by God. Why? Because Christ has been judged on our behalf.

And it's in the past tense. It says here, and has, that's past tense, passed from death to life. This is great news, beloved. The person that has placed his authentic faith in Christ is already enjoying life in Him. The life Jesus speaks of is stated in verse 40.

It's the eternal life. Eternal means eternal. You can't have eternal life for a year or two or fifty or a hundred. Eternal is eternal. And Jesus says that those who believe in him have been given this life already, both in quality and duration.

And of course, this life will be experienced in its fullness in heaven. We have a perfect Savior who is able to save his people to the uttermost. None will be lost. Scripture is filled with these affirmations that Christ will fully and finally save his people in all aspects, despite their weaknesses and their sins. Listen to these verses, and I'm gonna go through them fairly quickly.

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. He's a perfect Savior who intercedes for his people. 1 John 2.

1 But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He's our advocate before God when we sin. 1 Thessalonians 5. Now, may the peace of God Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear these words, He who calls you is faithful, He will surely do it.

The God of peace is at work in us to sanctify us. and His will is perfect and He will bring it to completion. Listen to the language, He will surely do it. The true Christian cannot fall away. This is assurance.

Now listen to the beautiful doxology in the book of Jude. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of the glory with great joy to the only God and Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, authority before all time now and forevermore. Amen. Again, Christ our Savior is able to keep you from stumbling and falling. That's to say that Christ, in Christ, there is no apostasy.

No one falls away finally because our glorious Savior preserves us. in his strength. Paul writing to the Christians in Philippi says, and I am sure of this, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. If Christ has begun a work in us, beloved, it means you can be assured he will bring that work into completion. This next passage also speaks to the preservation of the Christian by the power of God.

1 Peter 1, 3 and 5, and we're familiar with this passage. Our brother's been preaching through the book. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again. He has caused us, listen to that language, this is the work of God himself, to live in hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guided through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Christian, you are being guided by the power of God through faith to the very end. This faith enables us to trust in the power and the faithfulness of God and to look and lean upon Christ, for everything in life until he returns or until we go home to be with him. So we know that we are justified through faith and those with true faith will persevere till the end. But how do we know we have this authentic faith? Let's open up our Bibles once more to Romans chapter 4 and we'll be reading from verses 4 through 8.

Romans four, from four to eight. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but he's due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one whom God counts righteous apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man whom the Lord will not count his sin. Paul's argument here is simply the one who does not work but believes in Christ, his faith is counted as righteousness. No one is counted righteous based on the performance of his own obedience to the law. We know this, Galatians 2 tells us that. Paul then goes on to say, blessed is the man whose sins are covered and forgiven, the man whom the Lord will not count sin against him.

Who is this person? Who is this person whose sins are covered? The one who has faith and not work. Our salvation and preservation is not because of our work, it's because of the work of Christ. that is being imputed to us by faith.

This is the person who has a true faith which will guard and preserve him by the power of God until the end. It was not our work that got us saved in the first place, was it? So to suggest that someone can lose his salvation is completely unbiblical and lacks a proper understanding of what the monogistic work of God is in salvation. It's incredible to me that Catholicism states that salvation can be regained through the sacrament of penance, which are themselves a work. So logically, one can lose his salvation by committing what they call a mortal sin.

And then, after doing works, penance, he'll find himself back in a saved state. This is salvation by works. Romans 4 is clear, the one who does not work, but believes, his sins will be forgiven. Assurance must be apart from one's own performance. It must be rooted in the object of our faith, the person and work of Jesus Christ himself, because he is our perfect savior.

One of the clearest passages for eternal security are in the beautiful words of John in John chapter 10, 27 through 30. Open your books if you'd like to. to John chapter 10 from 27 through 30. And it reads, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

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. I and the Father are one." These are such beautiful words. So Christian, who is able to snatch you out of the hand of Christ and out of the hand of the Father?

And I've said this before, it would require someone who is more powerful than the Almighty God himself. And that is an impossibility. But the next question we need to ask is this, is the description of the sheep in this passage also a description of us? Do I hear and obey the voice of the great shepherd? Do I trust and obey in his word?

What does it look like to be a sheep of Christ? What does true faith really produce? And how can someone identify authentic faith that guides and preserves by the power of God until the end, and a counterfeit faith that does not. How do I know I am a true sheep of the Beloved? Well, apart from endurance, true faith will endure to the end.

We're told that. But the answer, I think, is found in Matthew chapter 7 verse 20. You will recognize them by their fruit. In both the parable of the soil in Matthew 13 and the parable of the vine and the branches in John 15, Jesus expresses the truth that those who have been united in him will what? They will bear fruit.

This is a must. There's no exceptions here. In both parables, counterfeits seem to have some growth. They look similar to some degree to the genuine article, but it's neither. But in neither is there genuine abiding fruit.

Spiritual fruit is only possible, beloved, hear this, in the regenerated person who is in union with Christ. Listen to John 15 verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do what? Nothing.

Nothing. Now I want to stress that our assurance, the assurance of our salvation should be rooted in the finished work of Jesus Christ, our perfect Savior and the promises in His word. But beloved, we need to also be aware that the regenerating work of God in the life of a Christian must produce fruit, spiritual fruit, starting with true faith and repentance, which is themselves the first fruit of spiritual life. Ephesians 1.13-14 says, In him you also, 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 if we have authentic faith which justifies us, we also have the gift of the Holy Spirit residing in us. He is the guarantee that will guarantee our salvation fully and finally and guarantee that we acquire the inheritance prepared for us. He empowers us to produce fruit. How does he do this? Well, by the power he gives us and by placing a desire in us to grow in holiness and godliness.

In effect, He places in us and empowers us to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. The following passage speaks to the fruit that we should see being grown in us, or we should see being produced in us by the Spirit of God. And that's, we all know where I'm going. Galatians 5, 19 through 24, and let me read this for you. Now, the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who do such things cannot and should not have true assurance. But then he goes on, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its desires. And Peter tells us of the things we should pursue.

in our walk with Christ. 2 Peter 1 5-8 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, hear that, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord. Jesus Christ. So what does the Spirit of God do?

Ephesians passage tells us He guarantees for us what's to come, and that is in our inheritance. But He also places in us, as I said before, a great longing and desire for holiness and obedience to be like we've just read in these passages. Mark 13 verse 13 says, But the one who endures till the end will be saved. So the last verse, this Mark, the verse that we just read, speaks of endurance. And this leads us to ask this question, can an elect person really apostate from the faith?

We've got to answer, from what we've just read and heard this evening, a definitive no. None of those who have been given to Christ will be finally lost. Some use the warning passages in Hebrews to argue that salvation can be lost, but we must see this as a distortion of the Biblical truth. Beloved, the question comes down to simply this, and it was the first question in the Bible study. Is Jesus a perfect Savior, or is He not?

Has Jesus accomplished the will of the Father perfectly, or has He failed? It's as simple as answering that question. We believe we've been saved despite our sins, and we remain saved despite our sins. And to deny this would be a denial of the absolute sovereignty of God, and to deny the perfection of our Savior in accomplishing the Father's will, which was in place before the creation of the world, before you and I ever existed, it was in the mind of God. in closing and answering the last question about fully and finally falling away from the believer.

I want to compare two people in the Bible, the Apostle Peter and Judas Iscariot. Both followed Christ for three and a bit years. Both experienced first-hand the deity of Jesus Christ, his words of wisdom, his miraculous actions, his mercy, his love, and so on. They saw it all, but nonetheless, they both betrayed Christ. Both turned their back on the only Savior of the world.

Judas sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver, but Peter denied him three times and once to a young slave girl. or servant girl. From a human point of view, beloved, they're both just as bad as each other. But beloved, I want to say this evening, the difference between the two outcomes is not found in them, but in Christ. You see, when Christ revealed that Judas would betray him, these are the words he said, what you are doing, what you are going to do, Do quickly, John 13, 27.

As for Judas, the words of 1 John 2, 19 are of him. And they are, 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 that it may become plain that they are not of us. He never was in Christ.

He had a human profession of faith, but not the authentic gift of faith that justifies. But when Christ revealed to Peter, on the other hand, that he would betray him, listen to what Jesus says. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. This verse needs no explanation.

It would suffice to say that our eternal security, our preservation and our perseverance in the faith is because of what Jesus Christ has done and continues to do for his people. He always lives to make intercession for his own people. As he did with Peter, he does also for us. For Peter and all the genuine Christians, united in Christ with a true, authentic faith from above, they will be kept in Christ, the perfect Savior, till the end. I'll end in this passage in Romans 8, 38 and 39.

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 of creation will be able to separate us, that's the true Christian, from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen and amen. God will never fail to save every single one of his elect in Christ. for all eternity. Amen.

Amen. So let's come to the Lord in prayer.