TULIP - Perseverance of the Saints - Grace to the
End
I Peter 1:1-7
INTRODUCTION:
We come to the last of the Five Points of
Calvinism, of TULIP. We have seen
something of the workings of God's wondrous grace in our salvation. T - we are totally
depraved - ruined in our sin, we must have a savior, we cannot save
ourselves. U - God took the initiative
to save us before the foundation of the world by unconditional election. L - Christ died specifically and particularly
for the salvation of those elected. I -
the Spirit of God, sovereignly and omnpotently calls
the elect into a saving relationship to Jesus Christ by graciously working
faith. Lastly, there is P - those
elected, saved by the work of Christ, and called into relationship can NEVER
perish but will preserver and endure till the end.
No
apostle understood better than Peter how unstable human ability and
faithfulness is in the face of trials.
Remember, Peter (Rock) asserted that his loyalty to Christ was far
superior than the other disciples. Mark
THESIS: Our salvation is as secure as if we were
already in heaven.
Boetner, "The saints in heaven are
happier but no more secure than are true believers here in this world."
TEXT
The
Apostle dwells upon how
firm our hope and how secure our salvation is in Christ. -
1. We are God's
·
Contrast - between chosen by God…and strangers scattered in the world.
·
Jews were chosen people of O.T. (now church) - Jews were dispersed
during the captivity (586 B.C.) now the church…the saints.
2. We are sanctified (made holy in God's sight), through the sprinkling of
blood
·
The work of a priest to sanctify
·
The work of a priest to sprinkle the blood especially on the day of Atonement - we have been sanctified, we have had our
sins atoned for by Christ. --CHRIST IS OUR HIGH PRIEST
3. God has given us New Birth to a living hope
·
New birth (regeneration) or
“cause to be born again.”—the Holy Spirit’s act of bringing believers into
God’s family. Jesus used this concept of new birth when he explained salvation
to Nicodemus (see John 3).
·
Being born is a process in which you are passive not active.
4. We have an inheritance which can not be destroyed
·
Jews had looked
forward to an inheritance…their earthly inheritance was, at times, taken away.
·
This inheritance is as
indestructible as God’s Word
5.
Not only is our inheritance indestructible, our
salvation is secure because we our kept by God's power…
·
"Protected"
Greek - Guarded - Military term - of a Garrison of soldiers…
·
Calvin - He answers the objection, Of what use is it
that salvation is "reserved" for us in heaven, as in a calm secure
haven, when we are tossed in the world as on a troubled sea in the midst of a
thousand wrecks? As the inheritance is "kept" safely for the far
distant "heirs," so must they be "guarded" in their persons
so as to be sure of reaching it. Neither shall it be
wanting to them, nor they to it. "We are guarded in the world as our
inheritance is kept in heaven."
How Firm A Foundation (No. 94 in Trinity Hymnal)
This
hymn was sung at the funerals of American presidents Theodore Roosevelt and
Woodrow Wilson, and American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
Spurgeon - Any man who is assured that God has
"chosen him from before the foundation of the world," may well say,
"Wherein we greatly rejoice." Let me be lying upon a bed of sickness,
and just revel in that one thought. Before God made the heavens and the earth,
and laid the pillars of the firmament in their golden sockets, he set his love
upon me; upon the breast of the great high priest he wrote my name, and in his
everlasting book it stands, never to be erased—"elect according to the
foreknowledge of God. "Why, this may make a man's soul leap within him,
and all the heaviness that the infirmities of the flesh may lay upon him shall
he but as nothing; for this tremendous current of his overflowing joy shall
sweep away the mill-dam of his grief. Bursting and overleaping every obstacle,
it shall overflood all his sorrows till they are
drowned and covered up, and shall not be mentioned any more for ever.
THE SCRIPTURES CONFIRM THIS
John
10:28: And I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
Romans 8:35-39: Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
"For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are
accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more
than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Philip. 1:5-6 in view of your participation in the gospel from
the first day until now. 6For I am
confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect
it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Jude 24 "Now to Him who
is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you
stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy"
Jn. 6.37, 39 "ALL that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the
one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out . . . And this is the will of
Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it
up on the last day"
Jn. 10.28-29"And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never
perish; and no one shall 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"
Isa. 54.10 "For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake,
But My loving kindness will not be removed from you, and My
covenant of peace will no be shaken, says the LORD who has compassion on
you".
1 Cor.
1.8-9 "Who shall confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through
whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord"
WHAT ABOUT?
1. Backsliding - Yes - A
Christian can - look at David - No assurance of salvation in that condition…
2. Warnings in Scripture - Yes,
because men delude themselves into thinking they are saved…Because they can for
a time manifest temporary fruit.
3. But, Assurance can be had,
it should be had…and greatly enjoyed.
The Scottish theologian Samuel Rutherford said,
"Believe in God's love and power more than you believe in your own
feelings and experiences. Your rock is Christ, and it is not the rock that ebbs
and flows, but your sea of feelings."
A minister
in
Spurgeon
- This
perhaps will be one of the greatest cordials to a Christian in heaviness, that
he is not kept by his own power, but by the power of God, and that he is not
left in his own keeping, but he is kept by the Most High. Ah! what should you and I do in the day when darkness gathers
round our faith, if we had to keep ourselves! I can never understand what an Arminian does, when he gets into sickness, sorrow, and
affliction; from what well he draws his comfort, I know not; but I know whence
I draw mine. It is this. "When flesh and heart faileth,
God is the strength of my life, and my portion for ever." "I know
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I
have committed unto him against that day." But take away that doctrine of
the Saviour's keeping his people, and where is my
hope? What is there in the gospel worth my preaching, or worth your receiving?
…. Shall they not perish then? No, they shall never perish. But suppose the
pain should grow so hot that their faith should fail: shall they not perish
then? No, "they shall not perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand." But suppose their sense should seem to
wander, and some should try to pervert them from the faith: shall they not be
perverted? No; "they shall never perish," But suppose in some hour of
their extremity hell and the world and their own fears should all beset them,
and they should have no power to stand—no power whatever to resist the fierce
onslaughts of the enemy, shall they not perish then? No, they are "kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed," and
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
Ah! this is the doctrine, the cheering assurance
"wherein we greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if needs be, we are
in heaviness through manifold temptations."
Our
salvation is as secure as if we were already in heaven.