The Gospel calls us not just to a momentary decision, but to a lifetime of following Christ by faith and obedience to His Word. Like Pilgrim’s Progress, it is a journey full of spiritual dangers, devilish enemies, false brethren, and by-paths that would take us from the straight and narrow way to heaven. This message will discuss the necessity of perseverance and how to overcome common hindrances along the way.
You can find part two here
The National Center for Family Integrated Churches presents Perseverance Part One, The Word, a message given by Joel Beekie at the Power of the Gospel Conference. All right, Scott Brown asked me to speak on perseverance by the Spirit and perseverance in the Word. The only problem I encountered in preparing this is I think we need to begin with the Spirit and then continue with our responsibility with the Word. So with his permission, I'm switching this topic with the one next hour. So hopefully you'll get to hear both.
But thank you for coming to this one. And what I'm going to do now then is perseverance by the Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, and then next hour in the plenary session we'll look at perseverance in the Word. Let's look at several texts here. I want to read to you Jeremiah 32, 32, 39, and 40. I'm going to read to you four Old Testament texts because everyone says the Spirit's not in the Old Testament today and it's a bunch of nonsense.
The Spirit is everywhere in the Old Testament. He's not poured out in the fullness that He is in the New Testament, but He's certainly prevalent in a number of places. So let's look at Jeremiah 32, 39, and 40. And I will give them one heart in one way that they may fear me forever, for the good of them and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good, for I will pour out my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me." Then go to Ezekiel 36, verse 27.
Ezekiel 36, 27. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them. Three chapters later, Ezekiel 39, 28 and 29, just read parts of those verses. Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God. In Isaiah 59 verse 21, Isaiah 59, 21.
As for me, this is my covenant with them, said the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee and my words, which I put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth from henceforth and forever. Let's pray. Great God of Heaven, we ask thy benediction upon this address. We pray that the both of these addresses on perseverance may complement each other and give a fulsome biblical picture of this very precious doctrine.
Help us then, Lord, to know our own indebtedness to thy persevering Spirit who perseveres in us that we in turn may persevere through thy word and keep the holy faith until the end. And give that at the end of this morning, we may have a much more profound appreciation of this glorious doctrine than we have ever had before. We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, there's a fascinating story of Christian when he comes to the house of the interpreter and sees a fire burning by a wall. The devil standing by the fire, pouring water on it to clench out the flames, and you remember, boys and girls, the fire just burns all the hotter.
And Christians mystify it, He says, what does this mean? And interpreter says, well, the fire is the work of God's grace in the heart, and the devil is always wanting to put it out. But come with me, the interpreter says. He takes Christian around the corner, around the wall, and they see a man behind the wall who is secretly pouring oil on the fire so the fire won't go out. And an interpreter says, Christian, The man standing there is Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ does everything by his Spirit, and so the oil is a symbol of his Spirit. He's continually pouring the graces of his Holy Spirit, who takes the things of me, Christ, and reveals them to my people, and pouring it on the fire so the fire will never go out, no matter how much the devil tries to make it go out. Well, that is a beautiful picture of what we call perseverance of the saints. And then as Christian continues his pilgrimage, he must climb the hill of difficulty, resist many temptations, fight against Apollyon, endure persecution in Vanity Fair, escape from the castle of despair, and press on until he reaches the celestial city. But all the while, Christ is in the background, pouring out the oil of his spirit so that his servant will overcome.
This is the perseverance of the saints. Now what is perseverance? Well, it's persistence. It means that despite all that you face and all the times you fail, you'll keep on going in the Christian faith. You know the Bible speaks of the wicked, when they fall they will not rise again, but the righteous, when he falls six times, yea, in seven he will rise again.
The righteous will keep rising to the very end by the oil of the Holy Spirit. John Flavell explained, what is perseverance to the end? It is a steady and constant continuance of Christians in the ways of duty and obedience, despite all temptations and discouragements to the contrary. Now why is this doctrine so precious to believers called perseverance of the saints? It certainly doesn't mean one saved always saved, but that's often applied by people who make a bare profession of faith years ago and are now living an ungodly life, like a guy I knew when I was in the army.
He went out and got drunk every weekend, and I gently tried to admonish him. He said, oh, no problem. He said, I raised my hand, walked the aisle when I was seven years old, and once saved, always saved, and I'm just backsliding now. I'll come back around in due time. You know, a true believer is never careless about sin that way, not indifferent to the judgment that is to come.
A saint is not someone who has just prayed a prayer and received baptism and joined a church. A saint is someone who has experienced the supernatural work of Jesus Christ in saving him or her from the reigning power and damning penalty of sin, and therefore wants to live a life of persevering in faith and in holiness. A saint persists in faith and obedience to the end. Well, that's the doctrine that the Canons of Dort spell out so beautifully. It had five in 16, 18, 19, and then later it was codified by the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 17, in this most famous statement, 17.1.
They whom God hath accepted in his beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved." The great Puritan Thomas Watson put it this way, grace may be shaken with fears and doubts, but grace can never be plucked up by its roots. Now, the doctrine of perseverance, of course, is not only the work of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of perseverance is also our obligation and our responsibility. That's what we're going to see in the second talk of the plenary session in an hour from now. But it is ultimately foundationally the gracious gift of God.
God by his Spirit keeps the feet of his saints. And this work of the Holy Spirit in preserving us to the end is multifaceted. It's a complex work and it's helpful to remember in this work the picture of Bunyan because the work of the Spirit is never separated from the work of the Son. And it's really a conjoined effort, the man standing behind with the oil that keeps the feet of the saints. And so, God triune is involved in our perseverance.
The Father, the giver, the Son, the Son, the one who merits the right of our perseverance, and then the Spirit sent by the Son to work it out in our souls and in our lives. But the question then is, how does the Holy Spirit do that? And the answer, of course, which I'm leading you to, is he always does it through the Son. But how so? Well the Son always does his work as prophet, as priest, and as king in the lives of the people of God.
This is after all the entire work of Jesus Christ summarized in a threefold office. And I'd like to suggest to you this morning, and that's the outline of my talk, that the Holy Spirit enables believers to persevere in the faith through Christ's work as prophet, as priest, and as king. And that is referenced, of course, by the very name Christ, which means anointed, and reminds us that Christ fulfills the ministry of the three kinds of leaders that were anointed in the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings. So here's my thesis statement. The Spirit does this through the perseverance of the saints for what Christ as our prophet promised about the Spirit, Christ as our priest purchased for his people, and Christ as our King pours out upon his people as a mighty power from on high.
I'll say it again. The Spirit perseveres with us that we may persevere Because of what Christ as our prophet has promised about the Spirit, Christ as our priest has purchased for his people, and Christ as our King pours out upon his people. Now let's look at those three thoughts. First of all, the prophets promised perseverance by the Spirit. The prophets promised perseverance by the Spirit.
God's ancient people, Israel, didn't persevere very well, did they? There's no more appalling example of backsliding and apostasy than this nation, which was a physical offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord chose them to be a special treasure. He redeemed them from slavery. He brought them out of Egypt.
And many times, this covenant people professed their allegiance to God, their obedience to his word. But tragically, again and again and again, they turned back to idol worship. Generation after generation, they proved that the vast majority of them were not true saints of God. And finally God raised up Assyria and Babylon to sweep Israel from the land, send most of the people into exile, and after 70 years they returned to their land broken and poor. And yet God's promises were not received by Israel.
She fell into unbelief and sin, and she became a shadow of the original privileges and fall of mankind into sin. And yet throughout this sordid history, The Holy Spirit was working among the people. Exodus 31 says that the tabernacle was built by men filled with the Spirit of God. Numbers 11 says that Moses and those who assisted him were empowered by the Spirit of God. Isaiah 63 looks back to the time of Moses when God's Holy Spirit was among the people and led them forward, verses 11 and 14, yet it says in verse 10, but they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit.
God sends prophet after prophet after prophet to Israel. Israel will not listen. The Holy Spirit inspires then the Holy Scriptures that the prophets write, calling Israel not to harden their hearts against the Lord. Stephen even testifies in Acts 7 that they were a stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ear people who do always resist the Holy Ghost. You see, if you're not truly saved, you can resist the Holy Spirit to some degree, unless He effectually calls you.
Like Israel, people may respond positively to the word for a time, but then later forsake their profession of Christ. That's what Hebrews 6 is, that difficult passage is always talking about. It's talking about people who seem to profess God, seem to profess allegiance, nominal members of the church, you might say today, who make profession of faith, but then with their lifestyle show that they never knew Christ in reality, and they fall away. But that raises the question then. Do we really believe in the apostatizing of the saints?
And we say no. We say no because those who are truly saved will be kept by the Holy Spirit. You see, the prophets promised a work of grace in the Old Testament that overcomes the wickedness of the heart. They didn't just promise that God would offer grace to everyone, they promised an infusion of grace in the soul. That's what we read from Jeremiah 32.
I'll give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and of their children after them. I'll make an everlasting covenant with them. I will not turn away from them to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me." God promises his people that they will fear him forever. They'll have a sense of his sovereignty and majesty that will humble them, Jeremiah 5 and Jeremiah 10 and Jeremiah 44, and it will move them to obey his commandments, God says, forever.
And how will God do that? Ezekiel 36, 26, 27. I will put a new heart within you and a new Spirit, a Holy Spirit I'll put within you and I'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh. I'll give you a heart of flesh I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk on my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them. You see if the Holy Spirit is not convicting you to keep God's commandments out of love for Christ, you better question your entire salvation.
This is the Spirit's work. He's the one who effectually calls you not only, but he's the one that perseveres in you and makes you willing in the day of his power and then keeps you willing to want to walk in the way of God's commandments so that you're not estranged from God forever. Yes, you can backslide times, times you can slip and fall at times, but not be estranged from God forever. And that's why Ezekiel says, chapter 39, 28, 29, then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, neither will I hide my face any more from them for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel. Seth the Lord God.
You see the Spirit is the one who keeps us close to Christ. He uses means, We'll see that next hour. But the beautiful thing is, you see, I can go to God in prayer and say, oh Lord God, I'm wicked. I battle indwelling sin. I'm disappointed with myself.
In many ways, I'm my own worst enemy. But I do believe that thy Holy Spirit will keep me close to Christ. That's my trust. I believe the promises, these rich promises of the Old Testament. I believe Isaiah 44, verse 3.
I will pour out my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. That's how I parent. That's how I keep looking at my children. I trust the promises of God that he will do what he said he will do. And what an encouragement that is for you and for your children.
This work of the Spirit guarantees that God's people will receive and continue to receive God's word and never let it go. Isaiah 59, 21 says, As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord God, my spirit that is upon you, and my words which I put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed, say, that's your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Thank God for His Holy Spirit. So in this new covenant, God's people will no longer reject his word but cling to it because the Spirit, Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34, is in them, richly, fully.
It doesn't mean that under the old covenant the Spirit's not there, we've just seen that, but it does mean that in the new covenant there's a fulsome outpouring of the Spirit and the Spirit works along those covenantal lines so that we may trust him to work also in our children. The Spirit will not give up on us. Thomas Watson said, when a boat is tied to a rock it is secure. So when we are fast tied to the rock of ages by the Spirit we are impregnable. So these promises of the Old Testament answer a common doubt about the doctrine of perseverance.
Can't people fall away from the Lord if they want to? Theoretically, the answer is yes. In actuality, the answer is this. If you're a child of God, you won't want to because the Spirit's given you a new heart. And God doesn't save people, you see, against their will, but he makes them willing in the day of his power.
He gives them a new will, he gives them a new taste for the things of God, and then he satisfies that thirst forever by the Spirit taking the things of Christ and revealing them to you. So the Holy Spirit works perseverance in the believer by causing you to love God's Word so much that you cannot let it go any more than He can let you go. So if, as the Spirit has said in Ezekiel, that He's able to effectively change stubborn sinners into faithful children of God, then He's also able to keep them faithful despite their temptations and failures because of indwelling sin. And so these promises also answer another objection, and that's this. If all true believers will persevere, then why should we read our Bibles?
Why should we pray? Why should we do family worship? Why should we go to church? Well, there are many reasons to do that, of course, but one major reason is this, that God promises to work perseverance in us by his Spirit through our use of the means. It's precisely through the reading of the Word, through the hearing of the Word, the praying of the Word, the family exposition of the Word, the singing of the Word, the seeing of the Word in baptism and the Lord's Supper that the Spirit works.
And so the prophets and Jesus Christ, the greatest prophet, promised that the Spirit of God will teach and will keep the feet of the saints, despite backslideings, all the way to the end. And so we are to respond to this prophetical ministry of Jesus by His Spirit through the Old Testament prophets with faith and with wonder and with gratitude. We're to be amazed at God's goodness to us in keeping us. You know, it's just as great a wonder to me that the Spirit keeps me saved than He saved me in the first place. When you look at how we've sinned against grace received, Not only is our initial conversion a miracle, our ongoing daily conversion is a miracle.
And so we respond with wonder and thankfulness for this work of the Spirit, and we respond by embracing God's promises by faith, believing what he says about the work of the Spirit. I believe today, despite all my sin and all my weakness, that the Holy Spirit of God will keep me to the very end, even as I know that I must use the means to be kept to the very end. You see, both God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, as we heard earlier in this conference, are brought together in this way. God is 100% sovereignly gracious, and we are 100% responsible to use the means prayerfully and diligently. But secondly, the priest secures perseverance by the Spirit.
So Christ not only works out this perseverance through his own prophetic office by the prophets, through the spirit, but he secures it as a priest by the Spirit. You see, someone might object to the promises of perseverance and say, well, I understand that the Spirit works perseverance in a person's heart, but isn't it possible to sin away the Holy Spirit? Can I become so sinful and so offend the Spirit that the Spirit leaves me and I'm lost forever? Well, it's possible, of course, to resist the Spirit's illumination and conviction by the word so that an unconverted sinner is left hardened in his sin. But if the Spirit determines to call a person to life eternal in an inner saving work of grace, that person will be saved and will be made willing and will not fall away.
Believers can grieve the Spirit, but they cannot drive Him out because they are sealed by the Spirit. Ephesians 4.30. Now that may not fully answer the doubts about perseverance however, Since that doubt is rooted in God's justice and holiness, how can a Holy Spirit dwell in an unholy, rebellious temple? Well, the answer to that is simply the Gospel, the priesthood of Christ. You see, we must recognize that the Spirit's work is not based on our worthiness, but on the righteousness of Christ.
Christ has secured this gift of perseverance by the Holy Spirit through His work as our priest. And what is his work as our priest? Well, it's primarily his offering, his sacrifice, and his intercession. Those are the two main tasks of the Old Testament priest. And so What Jesus does is this.
First, the promises of the new covenant stand upon Christ offering himself up to die for sinners. This copy says when he instituted the Lord's Supper, is the New Testament, the new covenant, in my blood shed for you. Obadiah Sedgwick, the Puritan, says this. Had Jesus Christ, our mediator, confirmed the covenant by his death? Then, O Christian, keep up thy faith and draw out thy faith and exceedingly rejoice in Christ for thy state is sure, thy soul is sure, thy salvation is sure, all is sure because all is surely confirmed by the death of Christ.
As sure as Christ has died, so sure art thou to enjoy all that God has coveted with you, for there shall not fail one word of all the good in which he has promised." So you see, our perseverance ultimately rests upon the offering, the sure offering of the Lord Jesus Christ who shed his blood once and for all for our sin. But that perseverance is kept up in the priestly ministry of Jesus by his priestly prayers. It's not only his offering, it's also his intercession. John 14 16, I will pray the Father, Jesus said, he shall give you another comforter that he, the Holy Spirit, may abide with you forever. Now there's something beautiful about this.
You notice the links to the chain that come forward also in Romans 8. What Paul is saying in Romans 8 is Christ intercedes for his people before the Father. The Father gives the Spirit through His Son to give spiritual comfort, perseverance, and help, and the Spirit stays with us forever. And all of this is like, well, I like to call it a chain of prayer. And think about it this way.
The Father decrees your prayer. Then the Son merits that true prayer that you might offer. The Spirit then groans it within you. So you have this chain, you see. It begins with the Father, comes through the merits of the Son.
The Spirit groans it within you and sends it back up to the Son, who then sprinkles it with the salt of his own sufferings and makes it acceptable and purified, and then presents it back to the Father. And so there's this wonderful, glorious chain that God will keep you in the circle of his prayer through the intercessions of the Lord Jesus Christ. That leads Paul to then say at the end of this chapter, Romans 8, what shall we then say to these things of God before us who can be against us? He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? And you're going to say, I condemn myself. Satan condemns me. The law condemns me.
But the Bible says it is Christ that died. Yea, rather that is risen again, who's even at the right hand of God who makes intercession for us. You see, his offering, his intercession, makes you, dear believer, when you trust in him, uncondemmable, who shall separate us then from the love of Christ? No one and nothing. And so my only comfort in life and death is that I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, Heidelberg Catechism, question one, but belonging to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins and delivered me from all the power of the devil." So if you have doubts about your salvation, even if you have a small but sincere longing after Jesus and his kingdom.
It is because of that spirit that is in you, because the son has bought you with his blood and intercedes for you. And you are his and you will always be his if even the smallest marks of grace are in you. You see, that's the tie-in between assurance and perseverance. Last night, we looked at assurance, and you remember what we said? Here are all these marks of grace.
You need to be able to look at your life and say, by the grace of God, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, I know something of these marks. I know something of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. But you see, a sensitized conscience then says, but I'm not sure I see that mark of grace and that mark of grace and that mark of grace. But you see with God it's all one package. And that led William Perkins, the father of Puritanism, to say this.
If you can see one mark of grace in you and you can't see dozens of others, you can be assured they're all there because it's all one package. He said it's like a necklace around a woman's neck. If you can tug at one of the links and say, I know something of that, there will be a tug on all the rest. So even if you have one mark of grace, it's a proof you're a child of God, because you can be blind to so many of them. But if you can see at least one, you know you are in the keeping graces of the Holy Spirit of God.
Now you see, this is what Jesus does. He offers himself for us, for our salvation. That's good once and for all. No more shedding of blood. That's good for our entire Christian journey.
Like Luther said, one drop of his blood could save 1, 000 worlds. But he goes on praying for us every single moment to keep us as priests through the ministry of his Holy Spirit. And through that ministry, he sends his servants to bring us the Word of God. We have what we call church. We have the means of grace.
He uses all these things, praying for us always that our faith fail not. That's a beautiful thing in that whole sad story about Peter that turned out so well, surprisingly well. Peter denies him. He goes out. He weeps bitterly when he receives the look of Christ that broke his heart.
But Jesus had warned him already, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan, his desire to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. I find that so interesting, don't you? He didn't say, Peter, I prayed for you that, I haven't prayed for you that you won't lose your position number one among the apostles. I haven't prayed for you that your self-righteousness won't fail.
I haven't prayed for you that all kinds of things about you won't fail, Peter. Your high-mindedness. But I have prayed for you only one thing, that your faith will not fail. And you'll say, you know what it means in the Christian life to be assailed by troubles and trials and they come in like waves. Sometimes certain seasons of your life they're overwhelming, you feel like you're going to drown, and yet you cry out to God.
There's so much you can't see. There's so many marks of grace you can't see. You feel so backslitting, you feel so far from God, you cry out to God, yet your faith, you see, is not failing. You're kept by the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ through its application to you by the Holy Spirit. And then finally, the King.
The King pours out perseverance by the Spirit. Now maybe you have to say, I agree with everything you've said so far. Prophetical ministry of Christ, priesthood ministry of Christ, but I've got a deeper problem you don't understand. No doubt the Spirit labors within me. I can't deny all marks of grace all the time, but my sin is so strong, And Romans, Paul tells me that sin will not have dominion over you, but I feel like it, my bad habits are so ingrate, I feel like it does have dominion over me.
My faith is a very dim light. My love is weak and cold. My fear is not that he will leave me, but that I will leave him. How can I hope to persevere? Well, I think every believer will resonate with this at certain periods of their life.
For we are all prone to wander. God said in Jeremiah, my people are bent to backsliding. In the canons of Dort, head five, article three, say this, by reason of these remains of indwelling sin and the temptations of sin and of the world, those who are converted could not persevere in a state of grace if left to their own strength. But you see what happens is the king, Jesus Christ, not only is that priest who intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father, but as king he exercises his power by the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He was bought you with his blood, dear child of God, and who intercedes for you at the right hand of the Father.
He will keep you by his Holy Spirit. He's done too much for you to let you go. You know what it's like when you have a child that is very naughty? You love that child still. You cannot let that child go, No matter how many children you have.
There was a man with 10 children came to the concession and was talking to the president and this was in a pedo Baptist church and came to ask permission to baptize his 10th baby. And the chairman said to him, how do you manage to raise 10 children? Well, the man said, it's not easy. It's not easy. It's overwhelming sometimes.
Sometimes I just, I just don't know how we can keep on going. Well, the chairman said, I'll tell you what, I'll take two or three of your children from you. The other guy said, you can't have one of them. My wife and I have done too much to let them go. And you see, that's what Jesus can say.
I've done too much to let you go. He won't let you go. He'll keep you by his almighty power. In the old days, it used to be that ministers would actually test their people, especially on deathbeds, make sure their salvation was solid. Today, So many ministers just go around and comfort people all the time, never ask any searching questions.
But in the old times, they used to test people. Ebenezer Erskine, the great Scottish secession minister in the 18th century, went to test one of his dying saints. Came to her and he said, Are you ready to die? She said, yes. He said, on what grounds?
Well, she said, Pastor, on the grounds that you've set before us. Well, he said, what grounds have I set before you? Well, she said, you've always taught us that we're in the palm of his hand on the basis of the word of God, and therefore, he will not let me go." And now the pastor got just a tad bit naughty, and then questioned her further and said, yeah, but what if you slip through his fingers? And you fall. Oh, pastor, she said, that won't be possible either.
Well, why not, he said. Well, because of what you told us, she said. What did I tell you, he said. Well, you said we're part of his body if we're a believer, so How can I slip through his fingers if I'm one of his fingers? That's a quaint story.
But there's a spiritual substance to it, you see. Christ cannot let us go not only because he's done so much for us, but because we're part of him. We're His body. He's not going to cut off His finger. And so by His power, He will keep us.
He will rule at the right hand of God. The Heidelberg Catechism says it so beautifully. I think the most beautiful answer about the session of Christ at the right hand of God, any Reformed confessional document. It says, but if Christ leaves us and is at the right hand of the Father, Isn't He distant from us? And the answer is no, no, no.
He remains with us with His Godhead, with His majesty, with His grace, and with His Spirit. A fourfold remaining with us by the exercise of the kingship of his office. It was as king that he poured out his spirit. It's as king that he keeps with us with his majesty. It's as king that he exercises his godhood with us.
And so Through Christ and his power as King, the Holy Spirit will keep us. That's what Peter is saying all throughout his Pentecost sermon. He says, being by the right hand of God exalted, having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he shed forth this which you now see and hear. You see, we dishonor the Holy Spirit when we treat him as though he merely comes to plead and to persuade us. Recently I read this in a book whose name I won't mention, is that the Holy Spirit is to be compared to chocolate syrup poured into a glass of milk waiting passively at the bottom of our lives until we choose to stir Him up.
That's a disaster. You're never going to choose to stir him up. You're corrupt in yourself. We're lost forever. No, the Spirit pours himself out into us and takes charge with authority by the kingly power of the Lord Jesus Christ whom he exalts.
The Spirit does not just come with impressions and suggestions, he comes to rule and reign in you with kingdom power from the King of Kings. And recognizing the kingdom power, the Spirit, you see, answers yet another objection to the perseverance of the saints. Because people say this, telling people that God will surely preserve them will encourage them to live in sin and live as they please. But the Bible doesn't say that. The prophets tell us that the Spirit helps us to persevere in holiness, not apart from holiness.
And Peter says in 1 Peter 1 verse 2, doesn't he, that we are elect to holiness by the sprinkling of blood through the sanctification of the Spirit. You see, the triune God is involved. And so that means that through the power of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, God will keep his people in that power so that they will have the power to live the Christian life to the very end. So let me conclude by just looking at six or seven ways, just very, very briefly, how the Holy Spirit strengthens and guards through this threefold law of Christ so that we may persevere in faith. Let me put them in the form of questions.
Are you Christian, suffering persecution? Well the Spirit will keep you by giving you comfort and joy. Acts 9, 31, then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, were edified and walked in the fear of God in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and were multiplied. Are you, Christian, tested by false doctrine that could destroy your salvation? The Spirit will teach you the truth so you won't totally fall away into soul-damning heresy.
First John 2 27, the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you by the Spirit, and you need not that any man should teach you. But the same anointing teaches you all things and is truth and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him. Are you, Christian, ever tempted to return to a lifestyle of sin? The Spirit will prevent you from returning to a life of continual sin. 1 John 3, 9, who soever is born of God does not commit sin, the original Greek does not continue to live a lifestyle of sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot live that lifestyle of sin because he's born of God.
Spurgeon had a beautiful way of putting it. He said, the Holy Spirit is always doing one of two things for me. When I'm tempted to sin, He removes the opportunity. And when the opportunity is present, he removes the desire. The Spirit is working at us, working in us, working through us in all kinds of ways, hidden ways sometimes that we don't even realize.
You know, I like to think of it this way. The most dangerous place you can go for your physical continuation in this world is on the road. You know, I fly a lot, people often ask me, aren't you afraid to fly around the world? I said, no, there's a greater chance that, humanly speaking, I'm gonna get in an accident and die on the way to the airport than flying around the world. The road is a very dangerous place.
How many hundreds of thousands of times have you been spared traveling on the road with just one little turn of the wheel, one person on the other side of the road coming down the road, getting just a tad bit more drowsy, falling asleep, and you'd be a dead person. You don't even know How many times your life has come close to being extinguished on the road? Probably all of us hundreds of times. Holy Spirit's work is like that. How many times has He protected you from sin?
How many times has He kept temptation away? How many times has he kept desire away? How many times has he preserved you and given you persevering grace that you're not even aware of thousands of times? Are you, Christian, losing hope in Christ's coming? Well, the Spirit sustains our hope so that we eagerly and patiently wait for his return?
Romans 15, 13. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound through the power of the Holy Spirit. Are you a Christian experiencing profound sorrow and pain and you're afraid that it will overwhelm you and you'll abandon the faith? No, the Spirit enables believers to cry out to the Father in their prayers so they'll find grace in the midst of suffering. Romans 8, whereby we cry Abba Father, we groan within ourselves, the Spirit helps our infirmities.
He makes intercession for us. Are you a Christian fearful and weak? Well, the Holy Spirit will give you courage and strength. 2 Timothy 1.7, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And are you Christian thinking, you cannot endure another day, you just can't go on.
Well, the Holy Spirit supplies you with the strength to go on. You can go on. You can go on even to the point of martyrdom. Philippians 1 19 and 20. What would we do?
What would we do without the gift of the persevering ministry of the Holy Spirit grounded in Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King. We would end no better than Adam in the garden, no better than Israel at Mount Sinai. Our perseverance does not rest upon ourselves ultimately, but upon our prophet, priest, and king, Jesus Christ, having the Spirit minister to us out of those offices so that we persevere to the end. Well, let me close with this illustration. John Newton, John Newton, a slave trader who was wonderfully converted, you know the story, said that when he was a sailor, before he was converted, he had an amazing dream.
He dreamed he was on a ship in the harbor of Venice, walking the deck at night. And someone came to him and gave him a ring. And they charged him to keep the ring carefully. This stranger said, if you keep this ring on your finger, you will be happy and successful all your life. But if you lose the ring, you'll be sad and you'll have heartache.
So in his dream, Newton puts on the ring, and he feels good about wearing it, he's confident, he's superstitious, it'll make him happy. Then a third person enters the scene, and seeing the ring on Newton's finger, he starts asking questions. And he says to Newton in his dream, you know, that's silly, you're being superstitious, actually this ring isn't gonna do anything for you, and you've gotta get rid of your stupid reasoning, and you've gotta drop the ring over the side of the boat. And Newton drops the ring into the water. And immediately, in his dream, the mountains behind Venice burst into flames.
And the third person begins to mock him, saying he's thrown away God's mercy. And he says, you must now come with me to the burning mountains. Newton is terrified. And suddenly a fourth person enters his dream. And asks Newton, why are you so upset?
And Newton tells him the story. And the man then rebukes Newton and then leaps into the water and reappears five minutes later with a ring in his hand. And as soon as Newton looks at the ring, the flames and the tempter disappear. And Newton approaches his deliverer with joy and gratitude and says, thank you so much for returning the ring to me. But the man says, you may see the ring, but I will keep it, I will keep it, and I'll make it available to you whenever you need it Well Newton forgot that dream for many many years until he got converted Then he remembered that dream and he said not that it was a vehicle of special revelation, don't get me wrong, but the application of the dream when he was awake made him feel that it was an apt illustration of the doctrine, He writes this, an apt illustration of a doctrine of Christ's persevering grace through his spirit that my mother had taught me.
You see, Christ has not gone to such trouble to save sinners like us, to leave our destiny subject to our own fickleness. He holds on to our salvation by putting his spirit within us to keep us safe forever. Thank God that our salvation ultimately rests in hands more faithful than our own. Thank God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.
Great God of heaven, We thank you so much for the persevering ministry of the Son and of the Spirit and of thyself as the electing Father. We thank you for the Trinitarian involvement in our perseverance. And we thank thee, Lord, that all three persons co-labor in our salvation. We say with Samuel Rutherford, I know not which divine person I love the most, but this I know, I love each of them and I need them all. Lord, continue to bless us in this coming hour as we now turn and look at how we are to use the means from our side to persevere.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. On the subject of conforming the church and the family to the Word of God. And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org. And see fic.org.