Sermon Tone Analysis

Prologue

Before I begin this morning, I have to make a note.

I am not a pastor of this church, so I cannot officially speak for Highland View Baptist Church.

But as a student of the Word, I am obligated to use this pulpit this morning, and reaffirm that the Scriptures are clear.

In Christ, there is no Jew or Gentile.

All ethnicities are equal.

God made each of us the ethnicity He did for His own glory, and it is evil to speak of someone as “less than” because of the amount of melanin in their skin.

The Bible condemns idealogies like white supremacy and Nazism.

Our Lord redeemed for Himself a people from all tribes, all tongues, all nations.

I do not believe that I am in the minority here, and I doubt that there is anyone here who doesn’t believe as I do.

But when idealogical wickedness rears its ugly head, it is important that we speak out against it.

Coworker COGIC story - “You go to God how you died.”

Introduction

A few years back I had a coworker who was part of a group known as the Church of God in Christ.

At first it seemed like the two of us agreed on much.

But as we were talking it became clear to me that he denied the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

I asked him about it, and he told me that he grew up hearing this phrase: “You go to God in the state you die in.”

If you die in Christ’s favor, then you’re good.

But if you die while sinning, you have no hope.

I remember walking away from that conversation, and I just pitied him.

If he really believed that, such a terrifying life!

At any moment, you could succumb to sin, and if you happened to die before coming back to Jesus, you’re done for.

That’s it.

This is what we will be looking at today.

The last four weeks we have looked at some of the core tenets of Calvinism, called the Five Points of Calvinism.

Total Depravity; we are completely depraved.

Unconditional Election; God chooses us based on nothing we bring.

Limited Atonement; Christ died for the elect, and for those He died for, he definitively purchased salvation.

Irresistable Grace; God’s regenerative grace is so amazing we won’t refuse it.

Today we finish it up with Perseverance of the Saints.

Those who Persevere are the Saints, and those who are Saints will Persevere.

We will be looking at and 1:9-11 this morning, so you can go ahead and open up to our text.

It’ll be a little while before we get into our text, because I want to lay some groundwork concerning perseverance of the saints, and the personal assurance of our salvation.

Now, these two are so close that its confusing between the two.

By “perseverance” I mean the idea that you can’t lose your salvation.

By “assurance” I mean your personal awareness of being genuinely saved.

Your perseverance doesn’t waver, but your assurance does.

Perseverance and Synergism

Opposing Views on Perseverance

But before we get too deep into the biblical view, lets quickly go over the opposing views.

These are two extremes, and both popular.

No Assurance

First is the view that we can have no assurance at all over our salvation.

It could be the view that my coworker had.

It could be the Roman Catholic view which rejects assurance.

Who knows if you’ll make it to Heaven, or how much time you’ll have to spend in Purgatory?

They would say that we cannot have the hope of assurance.

Assurance by Profession or Relation

But the other extreme is the one we are probably more familiar with.

This is the one that says that if you’ve professed faith in Christ, or if you have professing family, that you are assured salvation.

That simply isn’t true.

If you have professed faith, that all by itself doesn’t automatically guarantee that you are a Christian.

If your parents are Christian, that doesn’t make you a Christian.

If you were baptized in the church, and grew up in the church, that doesn’t automatically mean you a Christian.

The real question is about perseverance.

God has made a separation between joy and idleness, between assurance and laziness; and therefore it is impossible for you to bring these together that God has put so far asunder.

Assurance and joy are choice gifts that Christ gives only to laborious Christians.

The lazy Christian has his mouth full of complaints, when the active Christian has his heart full of comforts.

God has made a separation between joy and idleness, between assurance and laziness; and therefore it is impossible for you to bring these together that God has put so far asunder.

Assurance and joy are choice gifts that Christ gives only to laborious Christians.

The lazy Christian has his mouth full of complaints, when the active Christian has his heart full of comforts.

Both God and Man Working

So let’s talk about perseverance.

How does this work?

Does our perseverance come from God, or from man?

The fact is that it is both, it is something called “synergism” from the Greek “to work together”.

Now some of you may have red flags going off now, so let me address the issue you might be having.

Synergism in Sanctification, Not Justification

Now, not everyone hears these theological terms much, but if you are familiar with the terms synergism and monergism, to hear me say that synergism is correct might be shocking.

The reason is that these words are typically used in talking about justification, the act of making us right with God.

The synergist believes that God has a part in man’s salvation, and that man has a part in his own salvation.

That simply isn’t true.

This church is a monergist church; We are dead in our sins, totally depraved, and it is God who does all the work.

We agree with Jonathan Edwards when he said, “The only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary.”

But that is justification, the act of making us right with God.

But when we talk about sanctification, the act of making us more like Christ, the Scripture is clear.

God works in us, but we actively participate as well.

It is something that we do, as well as God.

Working in, Working Out

(Spurgeon on )

Charles Spurgeon, in his commentary on a different verse in Philippians, I think really helps us understand the relationship between God’s working in our sanctification and our working.

This is what he writes:

God, we are told, works in us, therefore it is that we are to work the inward toward the outward.

We work out, bring out, educe from within ourselves to our exterior life, that which God p 72 constantly works in us in the interior secret recesses of our spiritual being.

If He does not work it in, you will never work it out.

1689 on Perseverance of the Saints

We are almost done with our groundlaying work, but I want to read one more resource, this time from a Confession.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession has a full chapter on the Perseverance of the Saints.

I’ve taken the first section, and modernized and slightly abridged the text to make it easier to understand.

This is my view on the perseverance of the Saints.

On Perseverance of the Saints:

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, seeing the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, whence he still begets and nourisheth in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the Spirit unto immortality; and though many storms and floods arise and beat against them, yet they shall never be able to take them off that foundation and rock which by faith they are fastened upon; notwithstanding, through unbelief and the temptations of Satan, the sensible sight of the light and love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured from them, yet he is still the same, and they shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation, where they shall enjoy their purchased possession, they being engraven upon the palm of his hands, and their names having been written in the book of life from all eternity.

Those whom God accepted, called, and santified by the Spirit, and whom He has given genuine faith, cannot fall from the state of grace, but will certainly persevere to the end, be eternally saved.

Though many storms and floods shall arise and beat against, yet they shall never be removed from that foundation and rock which by faith they fastened upon.

That being said, through times of unbelief, and temptations of Satan, the sight of God’s love and light may for a time be clouded and hidden from them, yet God is still the same, and they will certainly be kept by the power of God unto salvation, where they will enjoy their purchased possession, having their names written in the book of life from all eternity.

This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope, but an infallible assurance of faith founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel; and also upon the inward evidence of those graces of the Spirit unto which promises are made, and on the testimony of the Spirit of adoption, witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God; and, as a fruit thereof, keeping the heart both humble and holy.

This certainty is not a baseless conjecture, a probability grounded upon a fallible hope.

Instead, it is an infallible assurance of faith founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel; and also upon

But we do not believe this because it is in the Confession, but because it is in the Scriptures.

So open up to .