The Perseverance of the Saints 2
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There is no playing fast and loose in divine mercy; his gifts and calling are irrevocable. Following that terrible passage, in the sixth of Hebrews, which has raised so many questions, you find the apostle, who seems at first sight to have taught that believers might turn away, you find him in the ninth and tenth verses disclaiming any such idea: "Beloved," says he, "we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister." The apostle Peter, who is in no way given to administer too much comfort to the saints, but deals very sternly with hypocrisy, has put it very strongly in the first chapter of his first epistle, at the fifth verse, where he says of all the elect according to the foreknowledge of God, that they are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Brethren, the fifty-fourth of Isaiah, which I read in your hearing this morning, with many more to the same effect, are scarcely to be understood if it be true that God’s children may be cast away, and that God may forsake those whom he did foreknow.
Yonder Bible seems to be stripped of its life, if the unchanging love of God be denied. The word of God is laid on the threshing-floor, and the chaff alone is gathered, and the wheat is cast away, if you take out of it its constant and incessant teaching that the "path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day."
But further, in addition to the express testimonies of Scripture, we have to support this doctrine all the attributes of God, for if those who have believed in Christ are not saved, then surely all the attributes of God are in peril; if he begins and does not finish his work, all the parts of his character are dishonored. Where is his wisdom? Why did he begin that which he did not intend to finish? Where is his power? Will not evil spirits always say, "that he could not do what he did not do"? Will it not be a standing jeer throughout the halls of hell that God commenced the work and then was unable
to finish it? Will they not say that the obstinacy of man’s sin was greater than the grace of God, that the adamant of the human heart was too hard for God to dissolve? Would there not be a slur at once cast upon the omnipotence of grace? And what shall we say of theimmutability of God, if he casts away those whom he loves - how shall we think that he does not change? How will the human heart ever be able to look upon him again as immutable if after loving he hates? And, my brethren, where will be the faithfulness of God to the promises which he has made over and over again, and signed and sealed with oaths by two immutable things, wherein it was impossible for God to lie? Where will be his grace if he casts away those who trust in him, if after having tantalized us with sips of love he shall not bring us to drink from the fountain head? It is all in vain for us henceforth to trust if his promise can be forgotten and his mind can be turned.
Henceforth we need not talk of Ebenezers in the past as though they comforted us for the future, if the Lord does cast away his children; for the past is no guarantee whatever as to what he may do in days to come. But the veracity of God to his promise, the faithfulness of God to his purpose, the immutability of God in his character, and the love of God in his essence, all these go to prove that he cannot and will not leave the soul that he has looked upon in mercy until the great work is done.
Further, how can it be that the righteous should, after all, fall from grace, and perish, if you recollect the doctrine of the atonement? The doctrine of atonement, as we hold it, and believe it to be in Scripture, is this - that Jesus Christ rendered to divine justice a satisfaction for the sins of his people; that he was punished in their room, and place, and stead. Now if he were so, and I do not believe any other atonements worth the snap of a finger, if he was really our satisfactory vicarious sacrifice, then how could the child of God be cast into hell? Why should he be cast there? His sins were laid on Christ, what is to condemn him? Christ has been condemned in his stead. In the name of everlasting justice, which must stand, though heaven and earth should rock and reel, how can a man for whom Christ shed his blood be held as guilty before God, when Christ took his guilt and was punished in his stead? He who believes, must surely be ultimately brought to glory, the atonement requires it; and since he cannot come to glory without persevering in holiness, he must so persevere, or else the atonement is a thing that has no efficacy and force.
The doctrine of justification, in the next place, proves this. Every man that believes in Jesus is justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. The apostle Paul regards a man who is justified as being completely set free from the possibility of accusation. Have you not the rolling thunder of the apostle’s holy boasting still in your ears: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?" If nothing can be laid to their charge, if there be no accuser, who is he that condemns? If God considers believers just and righteous through the righteousness of his dear Son, if they put on his wondrous mantle, the fair white linen of a Savior’s righteousness, where is there room for anything to be brought against them by which they can be condemned? and if not accused, nor condemned, they must hold on their way, and be saved.
Further still, my brethren, the intercession of Christ in heaven is a guarantee for the salvation of all who trust him. Remember Peter’s case: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not:" and the prayer of Christ preserved Peter, and made him weep bitterly after he had fallen into sin. The like prayer of our ever watchful Shepherd is put up for all his chosen: day and night he pleads, wearing the breastplate as our great High Priest before the throne; and if he pleads for his people, how shall they perish unless indeed his intercession has lost its authority?
Moreover, do you not remember that every believer is said to be "one with Christ"? "For you are members of his body," says the apostle, "of his flesh, and of his bones." And is your imagination so depraved that you can picture Christ, the Head, united to a body in which the members frequently decay - hand, and foot, and eye, perhaps rotting off so as to need fresh members to be created in their stead? The metaphor is too atrocious for me to venture to enlarge upon it. "Because I live, you shall live also," is the immortality that covers every member of the body of Christ. No fear that the righteous should turn back to sin, and give themselves up to their old corruptions, for the holiness that is in Christ by the vital energy of the Holy Spirit, penetrates the entire system of the spiritual body, and the least member is preserved by the life of Christ.
Once more: the inner life of the Christian is a guarantee that he shall not go back into sin. Take such passages as these, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever." 1 Peter 1:23. Now, if this seed be incorruptible, and lives, and abides forever, how say some among you that the righteous become corrupt, and fall from grace? Hear the Master: "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." How say you then that this water which Jesus gives dries up and ceases to flow? Hear him yet again: "As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, even he shall live by me.... He that eats of this bread shall live forever." John 6:57, 58. The life which Jesus implants in the heart of his people is allied to his own life: "For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." "When he who is your life shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory." The Holy Spirit dwells in us. Know you not that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?" O beloved, God himself shall as soon die as the Christian, since the life of God is but eternal, and that is the life which Christ has given to us: "I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand."
I leave the doctrine with your understandings, the word of God being in your hands, and may the Spirit of God put it beyond a doubt in your souls that it is even so. Remember, it is not the doctrine that every man that believes in Christ shall be saved, let him do as he wills, but it is this doctrine: that each man believing in Jesus shall receive the spirit of holiness, and shall be led on in the way of holiness from strength to strength until he comes unto the perfection which God will work in us at the coming of his own dear Son.
III. Lastly, we have to DRAW CERTAIN USEFUL INFERENCES from this doctrine. One of the first is this: there is much in this truth by way of comfort to a child of God who today walks in darkness and sees no light. You know that sometime ago the Lord revealed himself to you; you remember times when the promises were peculiarly sweet, when the person of Christ was revealed to your spiritual vision in all its glory; then, beloved, if some temporary depression of spirit should just now overwhelm you, if some heavy personal trial should pass over you, hear you the words, "I am the Lord, I change not." Believe that if he hides his face, he loves you still. Do not judge him by the outward providences, judge him by the teaching of his word. Do as the bargemen do on the canals, when they push backwards to drive their boat forwards. Take comfort from the past; snatch firebrands of comfort from the altars of yesterday to enkindle the sacrifices of today. "Determined to save, he watched over your path, When Satan’s blind slave, you sported with death: And can he have taught you to trust in his name, And thus far have brought you to put you to shame?"
This doctrine should suggest to every Christian the need of constant diligence, that he may persevere to the end. "What," says one, "is that an inference from the doctrine? I should have thought the very reverse, for if the believer is to hold on his way, what need of diligence?" I reply, that the misunderstanding lies with the objector. If the man is to be kept in holiness until life’s end, surely there is need that he should be kept in holiness; and the doctrine that he shall be so kept is one of his best means of producing the desired result. If any of you should be well assured that, in a certain line of business, you would make a vast sum of money, would that confidence lead you to refuse that business, would it lead you to lie in bed all day, or to desert your post altogether? No, the assurance that you would be diligent and would prosper would make you diligent. I will borrow a metaphor from the revelries of the season, such as Paul aforetime borrowed from the games of Greece - if any rider at the races should be confident that he was destined to win, would that make him slacken speed?
Napoleon believed himself to be the child of destiny, did that freeze his energies? To show you that the certainty of a thing does not hinder a man from striving after it, but rather quickens him, I will give you an anecdote of myself: it happened to me when I was but a child of some ten years of age, or less, Mr. Richard Knill, of happy and glorious memory, an earnest worker for Christ, felt moved, I know not why, to take me on his knee, at my grandfather’s house, and to utter words like these, which were treasured up by the family, and by myself especially, "This child," said he, "will preach the gospel, and he will preach it to the largest congregations of our times." I believed his prophecy, and my standing here today is partly occasioned by such belief. It did not hinder me in my diligence in seeking to educate myself because I believed I was destined to preach the gospel to large congregations; not at all, but the prophecy helped forward its own fulfillment; and I prayed, and sought, and strove, always having this Star of Bethlehem before me, that the day should come when I should preach the gospel.
Even so the belief that we shall one day be perfect, never hinders any true believer from diligence, but is the highest possible incentive to make a man struggle with the corruptions of the flesh, and seek to persevere according to God’s promise. "Well, but," says one, "if God guarantees final perseverance to a man, why needs he pray for it?" Sir, how dare he pray for it if God had not guaranteed it? I dare not pray for what is not promised, but as soon as ever it is promised I pray for it; and when I see it in God’s word I labor for it. "Say what you will," says one, "you are inconsistent." Ah, well, my dear friend, we are bound to explain as best we can, but we are not bound to give understanding to those who have none; it is hard trying to make things appear aright to eyes that squint.
It will sometimes happen that people cannot see truths which they do not particularly want to see; but the practical is the main thing: and I hope it shall be ours by practical argument, to prove that while those who think that they can fall from grace run awful risks, and do fall, those who know they cannot, if they have truly believed, yet seek to walk with all carefulness and circumspection. I would seek to live as if my salvation depended on myself, and then go back to my Lord, knowing that it does not depend on me in any sense at all. We would live as the opposite doctrine is supposed to make men live, which is exactly as the Calvinistic doctrine actually does make men live - namely, with earnestness of purpose, and with gracious gratitude to God, which is, after all, the mightiest influence; gratitude to God for having secured our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Another matter drawn from the text is this: let us learn from the text how to persevere. Brethren, you will observe that the apostle’s reason for believing that the Philippians would persevere was not because they were such good and earnest people, but because God had begun the work. So our ground for holding on must be our resting in God. There is a dear brother sitting here this morning, a member of this church, who was once a member of another denomination of Christians. One night, when he was quite young, and lately converted, he knelt down to pray, and he felt himself cold and dead, and did not pray many minutes, but went to bed. No sooner had he laid down than a horror of darkness came over him, and he said to himself, "I have fallen from grace." Dear good soul as he was and is, he rose from his bed, began to pray, but got no better; and at five o’clock in the morning, away he went to his class leader, began knocking at the door and shouting to awaken him. "What do you want?" said the class leader, as he opened the window. The reply was, Oh, I have fallen from grace. Well, said the class leader, if you have fallen from grace, go home and trust in the Lord. "And," said my friend, "I have done so ever since."
Yes, and if he had known the great truth before, he would not have been taken up with such nonsense as that of having fallen from grace. "Fallen from grace! then go and simply trust in the Lord." Ay, and this is what we must all do, fallen or not; we must not trust within, but always rely on that dear Christ who died on the cross. Lord, if I am not a saint, and I often fear I have nothing to do with saintship, yet, Lord, I am a sinner, and you have died to save sinners, and I will cling to that. O precious blood, if I never did experience your cleansing power; if, up until now, I have been in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity, yet there stands the grand old gospel of the cross, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Lord, I believe today if I never did before; help my unbelief. This is the true theory of perseverance; it is to persevere in being nothing, and letting Christ be everything; it is to persevere in resting wholly and simply in the power of the grace which is in Christ Jesus.
Lastly, this doctrine has a voice to the unconverted. I know it had to me. If anything in this world first led me to desire to be a Christian, it was the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints. I had seen companions of my boyhood, somewhat more advanced than myself, who were held up to me as patterns of all that was excellent. I had seen them apprenticed in large towns, or launching out in business for themselves, and soon their moral excellences were swept away. Instead of being patterns, they came to be people against whom the young were warned for their predominance in vice. This thought occurred to me: "That may also be my character in years to come; is there any way by which a holy character can be ensured for the future? is there any way by which a young man by taking heed may be kept from uncleanness and iniquity?" And I found that if I put my trust in Christ, I had the promise that I should hold on my way, and grow stronger and stronger; and though I feared I might never be a true believer, and so get the promise fulfilled to myself, for I was so unworthy, yet the music of it always charmed me.
"Oh, if I could but come to Christ and hide myself like a dove in his wounds, then I should be safe. If I could but have him to wash me from my past sins, then his Spirit would keep me from future sin, and I should be preserved to the end." Does not this attract you? Oh, I hope there may be some who will be allured by such a salvation as this. We preach no rickety gospel which will not bear your weight; it is no chariot whose axles will snap, or whose wheels will be taken off. This is no foundation of sand that may sink in the day of the flood. Here is the everlasting God pledging himself by covenant and oath, and he will write his law in your heart, that you shall not depart from him; he will keep you, that you shall not wander into sin, and if for awhile you stray, he will restore you again to the paths of righteousness. O young men and maidens, turn in hither! cast in your lot with Christ and his people. Trust him, trust him, trust him, and then shall this precious truth be yours, and the experience of it be illustrated in your life:
My name from the palms of his hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on his heart it remains
In marks Of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
Are the glorified spirits in Heaven!
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