In this video, Steve Hopkins explains some of the effects a wrong view of the doctrine of perseverance can have on your family.

It wasn't to be repetitive, but what we were looking for was, I think what Scott was looking for was, okay, so lay down the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and then let's look at the question of what happens when Churches and families and churches get this doctrine wrong the first thing comes to my mind is young people the tragedy of how many young people are leaving the faith and in the in the whole body of course of doctrine you know stands or falls together and If you take any any one of the doctrines of grace and you get them wrong, then you get it all wrong. It's no different with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which is also called the doctrine of the preservation of the saints. When you get that wrong, it infects everything. What I did is I went through and laid down the doctrine from Scripture, and then began to Apply that to families and to churches and say okay What impact is this having on our children when we when we get this doctrine wrong and there's this there's there's one area is the area of It's a it's a legalism it's a it's a legalism it's it's it's where you have You have have children who are brought up believing that to persevere in the faith of God's elect, which they probably don't even use that terminology, but to persevere in the faith is to persevere in this outward conformity to a set of principles, and they may even be good principles, may even be good laws, but they're basically coming off trusting in appearances.

And so you've got this clean cut, modest family, kids are saying, yes sir, yes ma'am, picture perfect homeschool family and everything. But the gospel has never never been applied to them in such a way Well, the Holy Spirit has never wrought or worked an internal change of the affections of the heart. They're dead in their trespasses and sins. But in their minds, they're persevering, they're doing what everybody else is doing in the family. They look the way Everybody else looks in the family, they're saying, yes sir, yes ma'am, like everyone else in the family, but they're on their way to hell.

Because the internal affection of the heart never been changed. They have never seen themselves in the light of the holiness of God. They have never seen their depravity, their vileness. They've never come to the place where they realize that they're an object of God's wrath They look in the mirror and they look great. You know the appearance of the family is great Maybe they've even been I gave one example of you know a family that was paraded you know at home school events as a model family But when the kids turn 15 16 17 years of age they are running into the world I mean with greediness with arms wide open to to to embrace the world and and all that has to offer There was never a change of heart.

There was never regeneration. In their minds, they were persevering in what everybody else was persevering in the family, which is conformity to a set of outward appearances. When the internal reality of what was going on in their hearts? There's no change never never been a change something we're seeing in in home school You know families that have been in you know age integrated churches, and you know that's one of the ways to get it wrong. Then on the other hand you have folks that get it wrong, families that get it wrong, churches that get it wrong, young people specifically that get the doctrine wrong, And after hearing something like what I just just said that they come back and they say oh well.

Yeah, yeah I'm I'm I'm not a legalist like one of those you know families that's all about appearances and everything, but then you look at them and They are conformed to the world you know in in in every way they can they can they could be there They they look like the world or acting like the world to listen to the world's music They listen they're watching the world's movies and everything and in their minds and their hearts are saying yeah I'm not like one of those legalist families, you know, I'm like on the cutting edge of hip Christianity, modern, contemporary Christianity or whatever. They get it wrong too because Jesus said that conforming to the world means the love of the Father is not in you. So then we went there. And then you have the crowd that gets it wrong. And again, this is young people that I was specifically addressing or trying to really address the most and you have the young people that are saying, okay, so if the doctrine of the preservation of the saints is correct, if it's biblical, and if God is going to preserve me to his heavenly kingdom, then it doesn't really matter what I do.

And so then you have this licentiousness. So you have a legalism on one side and you have the licentiousness on the other side.