Persevere in the Faith
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21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Let’s pray.
In Bunyan’s book, ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’, we read about a Christian, who appropriately is named Christian. Throughout the book, Christian is faced with various trials on his journey to the Celestial city. Demons, giants, despair, lions, distractions and mountains, are but a few of the trials that Christian faced. Though his trials varied, they all had one thing in common; they all threatened to make Christian turn from his journey only to return to the City of Destruction. Each trial sought to end the pilgrim’s progress.
Bunyan’s allegory of the Christian life captures the various a Christian will likely face in their lifetime. But more important to the the kinds of trials, ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ demonstrates the importance of the Christian’s perseverance in the faith despite whatever temptation might come their way. The perseverance in the Christian life is what we have in our view this morning.
Those who are familiar with the doctrines of grace, which are usually associated with Calvinism, will be familiar with this doctrine. If you know the acronym, T.U.L.I.P., then you know that the P at the end represents the perseverance of the saints.
I am a five point Calvinist, and I love the doctrines of grace. But perhaps the the most precious of these doctrines the perseverance of the saints. But to be clear, I am not a Calvinist, because I feel I owe it to Calvin. And I am not preaching on the the Perseverance of the saints because I am a Calvinist. I am a Calvinist, because the doctrines of grace are thoroughly biblical, and I am preaching on the perseverance of the saints because Paul turns his attention to this point in his letter to the Colossians.
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
You’ll should remember what Tait preached on last week. Paul outlined the reconciling work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. Those who were once far from God, have now been brought near to him because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
Last week, Tait reminded us that we are reconciled to God, right now. This isn’t something we are looking forward to in the future, but it is a reality that exists today. And because of this work, we can rest. We don’t have to perform to earn God’s favor, and we don’t have to pretend to be something that we are not.
But it’s important that we understand the work of reconciliation in relationship to our perseverance in the faith. We often relish in the work of reconciliation, while it is all too easy for us to overlook our perseverance.
Some of us ignore the perseverance of the saints - we do this when we overlook our sin and the sins of others.
Others of us misunderstand the perseverance of the saints - we turn perseverance into a work that we must do to earn salvation
Others still forget about the perseverance of the saints - and so we give into fear and worry about the coming judgment of God
So that the Colossians and so we don’t wander off from this doctrine and from the faith, Paul wrote…
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Lest we, like many others forget our need to continue in the faith, Paul shows us the necessity of our perseverance in the faith.
1. The Necessity of perseverance
1. The Necessity of perseverance
Some might think that since we are now reconciled to God, we no longer need to obey God’s word. But this is far from what Paul is describing here. Yes we are reconciled to God. Our sins have been forgiven, and we have been given the perfect righteous record of Jesus. But that’s not all that happened in the work of reconciliation.
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
Notice how the you once were Christian… you were not just alienated(separated from God)… but you were once hostile in mind. That is to say, your thoughts were opposed to the thoughts of God. Your desires were opposed to the will of God. You thought your sin was good, and that God’s righteous requirements were bad. And so what follows the thoughts of the mind, but the work of the hands. You deeds were evil. Your thoughts were carried out into the members of your body. That’s who you were in the past.
In the future, you will be presented to God as holy, blameless, and above reproach.
But what of the present?… You are reconciled… and in v 23
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Your continuing in the faith, is opposed to the hostility in mind and evil deeds. Christian, if you are not persevering in the faith, then you have a good reason to question if you are in fact a Christian, because if you have been reconciled to God, then you will continue in the faith.
What is meant by, ‘the faith’? - it is the Christian life - from A to Z. It is believing in the work that Jesus has done on the cross. It is the ongoing need of repentance for the sins separate you from God. It is increasing in holiness. And it is trusting in the promise of the glory that is to be revealed.
Continue in the faith… stable and steadfast. These adjectives describe the quality of our perseverance. And you might picture the house that has been built on the rock. It is stable and steadfast, because it is fixed on a foundation that cannot and will not move no matter how hard winds blow.
And just so the image is fully developed, Paul tells us what this perseverance is not to look like. Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. Again, here you can picture the house that was built on the sand. With just the slightest breeze, the sand shifts, and as the sand shifts, the house becomes less and less steady until it is destroyed.
Understand then what it means to continue in the faith. It means, not to be destroyed by the trials and temptations that come your way. But it means to keep the faith, no matter what comes your way.
Let’s understand what this means in light of the it’s context. It is true that the Christian’s sins all been forgiven… All your sins, past, present, and future have been paid for by Christ. As such, we are now reconciled to God. God has a new disposition to sinners. But God’s disposition to sin has never changed.
But here’s the problem. There are many who find out that to be saved, all they need to do is believe in Jesus. And so they do just that. They believe in Jesus and don’t look to their works as a means of justification. But in that, they often miss an important detail. They begin to view grace as nothing more than what many call sloppy grace. These immature believers and and nominal Christians don’t like it when their sins are exposed, and they don’t like to be called to repentance because they think that looking at the works of a person is some sort of legalism.
But good works are a part of the Christian life!
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
The nominal Christian, when they are called to repentance love to quote scripture to defend their sin.
1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Okay, so if this means that we are not to judge… and by that, you understand that we are to not call a sinner to repentance, then what are we supposed to do if you find out that a friend is being unfaithful to his wife? What you supposed to do if a kid is not honoring their parent… or if an adult isn’t honoring their parent? What are we supposed to do if we know that a fellow Christian is cutting corners at work, or if they are committing tax fraud?… Are we really supposed to not judge them? Well what do the Scriptures say?
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
If you think Jesus was calling for us to not make judgments about one another… just keep reading a little past his judge not statement.
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
As I’ve said, though you have been reconciled to God, God’s disposition towards your sin has not changed
20 The Lord preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
Well, that’s the God of the Old Testament. But my God, Jesus, he is love. This is true. Jesus is love… but Jesus also never changes.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
This means that the God of the OT… who is also love. And Jesus, who is the same God of the OT, will destroy the wicked. Jesus himself said so.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Listen, those who wish to ignore the need for persevering in the faith, and instead insist on turning grace into a permission for sin know nothing of the saving and transforming power of grace that causes a sinner to be raised from the dead.
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
So, Christian, let me ask you this question. Are you continuing in the faith? Are you persevering day by day to remain stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel?
Are you walking in ongoing repentance?
Are you increasing in holiness?
Are you putting your faith in the finished work of Jesus?
Are you hoping in the future glory that is to be revealed?
Christian, if you answer no to any of those questions, then you ought to soberly consider whether or not you are in fact a Christian. If you are not persevering in the faith, then whatever you do, do not rest with the false assumption that you are reconciled to God.
Don’t you know, that many on that day will say
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Don’t you know that
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
If you are not persevering in the faith, then you ought not rest thinking that you are saved. Instead, you ought to fear God, for his wrath burns against the wicked. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you have ignored you perseverance in the faith, then you must come to grip its necessity in the Christian life.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
But recognizing the necessity of continuing in the faith doesn’t necessarily mean that we rightly understand the doctrine of perseverance. If we are to rightly understand this wonderful doctrine, then we need to consider where perseverance comes from.
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
I want us to pay attention to the first two words here… if indeed. As we do so, let’s consider where where Christian perseverance comes from.
2. The source of perseverance
2. The source of perseverance
There are many who aren’t ignoring perseverance. They are persevering in the faith. Or at least they appear to be. But there are some who’s perseverance comes from the strength of their own might. It’s quite easy in fact to turn perseverance into a performance. It’d be far too easy to take this text, and turn this sermon into a peddle faster sermon. But to do so would be to fail to acknowledge where the strength for perseverance actually comes from.
Remember the word ‘if’ there at the beginning of v23. Here’s how I fear many of us might understand this verse. You are reconciled to God… if you continue in the faith. We make it seem like God is treating us the way we treat our kids around the dinner table. You can have dessert… if you eat your vegetables… Do you want dessert? Then you had better eat you vegetables. Do you want to be reconciled to God? Then you had better keep the faith.
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
What we have here is a classic example of putting the cart before the horse. If your reconciliation was dependent upon your perseverance, the way getting dessert was dependent on eating your vegetables, then you would be the one who reconciled yourself to God. You who do so, turn perseverance into a work that earns God’s favor. But we know better don’t we?
If our perseverance earns our reconciliation, then we have every reason to boast if we are able to persevere. But what does the Bible say?
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
If reconciliation is earned or even perfected by our perseverance, then we haven’t really been saved by grace alone have we?
But we know better than to think that we could ever persevere so as to earn our reconciliation. So what would be the result if we couldn’t persevere no matter how hard we tried? The result would be absolute despair. If the gospel was Jesus did 99% of the work of reconciliation, and the last 1% is up to you… well then the gospel would not be good new at all. For if all we had was 1%, we would still fail to meet our end of the deal. If your perseverance was up to you, then you would absolutely fail. Moses knew this to be true of Israel.
Deuteronomy is Moses’ giving the Law to Israel one last time before he dies.
24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, 25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, 26 “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. 27 For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death!
Come on Moses… why are you being so hard on them? He is coming down hard, because he knows just how deep sin runs. RC Sproul said it well. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.
If you are the source of your perseverance, you will either have a false sense of pride, or you will rightly feel without hope. But you are not the source of your perseverance.
v23 should not be compared to the desert one gets after they eat their vegetables… because the text doesn’t say that you are reconciled if you persevere…
It says that you are reconciled…
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Get rid of the eat your carrots condition for how we are reconciled to God… Instead let me compare it to this.... how many of you have had to get tested for COVID? You get the cotton swab, and stick in up your nose until you tickle your brain. Then you stick in in the solution for a bit and put the piece of paper in the solution. Then the solution gives you either a positive or negative result…
You do not have COVID if indeed your test comes back negative.
Do you see the difference? Does the result of the test either cause COVID or remove COVID? No… the test simply shows you what is really there. So it is… you have been reconciled to God… if indeed you continue in the faith. Perseverance in the faith does not merit your reconciliation. Your perseverance simply shows that you have in fact been reconciled to God.
Continuing in the faith is owing to the fact that we aren’t simply forgiven. Continuing in the faith demonstrates that God has changed our hearts.
What Jeremiah prophesied has come to pass
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Listen again to today’s text.
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Continuing in the faith is not being commanded here. It is assumed that the Colossians who have been reconciled to God are will in fact persevere to the end. And this is incredibly good news as Spurgeon noted “The least sin ought to make you humble, but the greatest sin ought not to make you despair.”
This leads us to the final point. Since our perseverance is up to God and not us, we can rest in the guarantee of our perseverance.
3. The certainty of perseverance
3. The certainty of perseverance
We ought not to neglect our perseverance by ignoring sin
Don’t misunderstand it either by turning it into a work to merit your salvation
And don’t forget about the perseverance of the saints, for it’s guarantee to us by God is what makes this doctrine so sweet to the one who is able to savor it.
Our perseverance is a guarantee, because God has the power to keep us to the end.
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Why is Paul so confident in the Philippians perseverance here? In Deuteronomy, Moses had no confidence at in Israel at all… remember
27 For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death!
Moses knows that they will rebel…
but here Paul knows something else…
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
What makes the difference? Moses’ doubt was with man. But Paul’ confidence was in God, not man. Understand, you can be just as sure of your perseverance as Paul was of the Philippians, because God has the power to keep you to the end.
Furthermore, our Lord has given us his word.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 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.
Paul’s himself had this doctrine settled in his own heart and mind
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
Conclusion
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”