Let us turn once again to God's
Word in that portion of Scripture that we read in the first chapter
of the first epistle general of Peter. And I want from what
we read here in verse 5 to consider the doctrine of perseverance. the perseverance of the Saints
is the subject matter, but I want to root that subject in this
particular text of 1 Peter 1 and verse 5, who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. The doctrine then of the perseverance
of the Saints. I'm sure you are familiar with
the fact that it stands, of course, at the end of that little mnemonic,
Tulip, that summary of the great doctrines of the sovereign grace
of God in the Gospel. And remember what those letters
in Tulip stand for, total depravity, unconditional election, limited
atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. And first of all, as we come
to consider this statement that we find in Peter's epistle, I
want to say something with regards to what we might say is the basis
of the doctrine. What is the basis of this doctrine? Well, it is surely to be seen
as that that is rooted in what God himself has determined concerning
his people, and God is the one who does himself preserve them
in this world. This is certainly the truth that
is held before us in this scripture. They are kept. Kept by the power
of God. And the particular verb that
is used, this verb, to keep, literally means to keep under
guard. It has the idea of being garrisoned. It's a very strong verb. that is used with regards to
the way in which God's children are preserved. They are garrisoned
by God himself, by the power of God. And the Lord Jesus himself
reminds us of that, of course, in the Gospel. He speaks, does
he not, of the security of all those that the Father had given
him. He says how He gives unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. None shall pluck
them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all. No man can pluck them out of
my Father's hand." What a security! They're held not only in the
hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is that One who is the appointed
Saviour of them, but they're also held, says Christ, in the
Father's hand. They cannot in any way be lost. They are safe, as well as saved. They are secure for time and
for eternity. Here is the basis, then, of the
perseverance of the saints. They persevere because God Himself
preserves them. Now of themselves, of course,
they are a people who in many ways are scattered, as the apostle
addresses himself to these Christians. See how he speaks of them in
the opening verse of the book. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. They were obviously scattered
in a geographical sense. they were to be found in these
various places that are mentioned. They are spread abroad over a
wide region of the earth, there in Asia Minor. But surely there's also a spiritual
significance with regards to this scattering. God's people
feel themselves so often to be a scattered people. Are we not
those, if we know anything of the Lord, who feel sometimes
in ourselves that our thoughts and our feelings are so confused
and so scattered, left to ourselves how quickly we would fall, how
soon we would depart from the ways of the Lord? Are we not
those who have to confess that we're bent on our backslidings,
we're prone to wander, to depart out of that narrow way that leads
to life? And we see that this has been
the experience of God's people in all ages. Do we not find the
psalmist on occasions having to acknowledge his own failings,
his own confusions? Feels himself, does David there
in Psalm 61, to be at the very ends of the earth, so far off
from God. Hear my cry, O God, he says.
Attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a
shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide
in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the cover of
thy wings, Selah. Here is David. and how he feels
himself to be in that scattered condition, so very far from God
at the ends of the earth, overwhelmed, overwhelmed within his own soul.
This, I say, is so often the experience of the godly. There
are scattered people in more ways than one and they need that
God himself should appear, they need that God himself should
afford that protection. that they so much stand in need
of. And not only do we see it in
the Old Testament, in the language of David, in the Psalms, but
when we come to the New Testament and we consider a man like the
Apostle, what does he say? He speaks of his own situation,
he speaks of course in terms of his own ministry and those
things that came upon him as he sought to engage in that that
the Lord had charged him with. And he says, writing to the Corinthians,
without were fighting, within were fears. Now, of course, he
was the great apostle, he was called to do a remarkable work,
the apostle to the Gentiles. But remember how he does speak
of himself in the opening chapter of his first epistle to Timothy
as the pattern. He says he's a pattern to them
which should hereafter believe. He's a type, he's the typical
believer, as we've said before, and there are those principles
then that we can draw from what Paul says in his various epistles. As he writes these epistles,
he doesn't simply deal with great doctrinal truth, he does that.
Peter acknowledges the fact that there are many things difficult
to be understood in the writings of Paul. He deals with most profound
doctrinal truth, but then also in Paul's epistles we find those
more practical parts at the end of the epistles, time and again
he gives many exhortations concerning the way in which these Christians
should lead their lives and conduct themselves. But there's not only
the doctrinal and the practical, there are also those parts of
the epistles where he is compelled to say something of himself and
to defend his own conduct, to defend his ministry as an apostle.
And so there are those portions that we might say are more experimental,
they deal with his experience. And why is this so? Because he's
a pattern. And as we read these things,
we're to recognize, are we not, that they're written for our
learning. for our learning that we, through patience and comfort
of the Scriptures, might have hope. And so when he speaks there
in Corinthians of his situation, fighting's without, he says,
and fears within. Isn't that so often the experience
of the godly? The world opposes from without,
and unbelief within. We fear. and fight, and grieve,
and doubt, and feel the load of sin. In the words of Joseph
Hart, how true it is. How God's children have these
experiences. There are those oppositions,
there are those troubles, those assaults that come from without. We know that there is a great
adversary of souls. there is that one who was there
at the beginning of creation. Remember how there, in Genesis
3, we're told how Satan, through the serpent, tempted Arthur's
parents. And how Adam and Eve sinned,
they transgressed, they fell. They believed the lie of Satan,
and he's ever active, ever seeking to assault the works of God.
Or there is a conflict that the believer is involved in. There's
a fight to be fought. The good fight of faith. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, says Paul, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. The assaults of Satan. We're
not to be ignorant. of his devices. He's such a clever
foe, such a subtle foe. And how he can come and he can
entrap our feet so easily. He lays the snare, we fall into
the snare. Oh we sin, and then what does
he do? Why that awful adversary, he immediately turns accuser.
The accuser of the brethren says, John in the Revelation, who accuses
them, die and not before God. Why does he do that? He wants
to shut our mouths when he makes his accusations. We're so ashamed,
we've sinned so many times. How come we keep coming and making
these confessions when we're falling so frequently? Oh friends,
how we need to be kept. kept by the power of God. God
must preserve us. We cannot keep ourselves. That's what we're daily proving,
is it not? But not only that that comes
from without, there's also that within and out. Paul, again,
writes of these things. Do we not have reason to be thankful
that we find in Holy Scripture such a chapter as Romans chapter
7? All what comforts Godly men and
women have found and do find in that particular portion of
Scripture. What does Paul say? Amongst other
things he says this, I know that in me, that is in my flesh there
dwelleth no good thing. He confesses it, you see. In
my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. The good that I would,
I do not. the evil that I would not, that
I do. He felt that in would conflict
the flesh, lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against
the flesh, and how these were so contrary one to the other.
And he says to the Ephesians, you cannot do the thing that
you would. We can do nothing of ourselves. And God will teach
us and show us, you see, our complete and our utter dependence
upon Him. If we know anything of salvation,
we'll discover increasingly that salvation is altogether by the
sovereign grace of God. The psalmist again cries out
to God, keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the
shadow of thy wings. Oh, friends, oh, we need to pray
such prayers as those that we find then there in that precious
book of Psalms, that God would keep us. He says it here, you
see. Kept. Kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. What are we to do with such a
text as this? Why, we do what the Psalmist
does. And we turn this great doctrinal
statement into a prayer and we cry to God and we call upon Him
in the language of the Psalm, we say, keep me, keep me as the
apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wing. Or that we might be those who
know what it is and to be garrisoned by God, He preserves His people.
Here is the basis, I say, of this doctrine of perseverance. God preserves his people in this
world, but there's something else as the basis here. God, you see, has also prepared
a place in heaven for his people. Yes, he preserves them. Why does
he preserve them? Because he has prepared a place. In Matthew, Matthew chapter 25,
the Lord Jesus himself speaks of that great day, the end of
time, when judgment comes. And there is a division made
between the goats and the sheep, that final separation. And the
Lord tells us how each of those groups are to be addressed. He shall set the sheep on his
right hand and the goats on the left. Then shall the king say
unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you. from the foundation
of the world. Here is that kingdom, you see,
that God has prepared and is being prepared from the foundation
of the world, prepared from all eternity. And this is why God
preserves his people, because he has prepared a place for his
people. Again, in Hebrews chapter 11,
where we read of those of Faith, the great examples of Faith in
the Old Testament. Are we not told there, He hath
prepared for them a city? The city's builder and maker
is God. God, you see, has prepared something
and He will preserve His people to that that He has appointed
to be their inheritance. Verse 4, "...to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you." And so, coming to the words of the text, what
do we read? That this salvation is ready
to be revealed. Why is it ready to be revealed?
because it is already prepared. We are to think here in terms
of that great purpose of God. This is why it is so readily,
because God from all eternity has purposed the salvation of
this people. And so it was that in the fullness
of the time God sent forth his Son to redeem this people. That's why Christ came, for that
very explicit reason that he might redeem these people, that
they might enter into that inheritance, what the Father purposed in eternity,
God the Son came to procure in the fullness of the time. And
how did Christ procure that salvation, that glorious inheritance? He
did it by the life that He lived. He was made of a woman. He was
made under the law. He came to stand in that law
place for His people and to answer for them before the holy, righteous,
just Lord of God. And He honoured it, of course,
by that life of sinless obedience or how He magnified it in all
its parts. He lived a righteous life and
then that holy, righteous and just One died the accursed death. He died as a substitute and there
we see Him bearing in His own person that punishment that was
there just as those that the Father had given to Him, why
He took all their sins upon Himself. and bore that penalty that was
there just deserved. He has procured that salvation,
that inheritance in that the Father had purpose. And so when He comes to the end
of His earthly ministry, oh what gracious works, the words of
comfort the Lord Jesus Christ is able to speak to the disciples
in my Father's hands. are many mansions if it were
not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you
and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again he
says and receive you unto myself it is a place prepared it was
I say prepared from all eternity in the great purpose of God the
Father but it is the Son you see who has done all that is
necessary in procuring this blessed salvation. It's in heaven then. It's in heaven that believers
will enter into all the fullness of that salvation that is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what's being spoken
of here at the end of our text. Kept by the power of God through
faith onto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Ready to be revealed in the last
time, at the end of time. When they come into the possession
of all the fullness of that salvation, they must then be kept throughout
their life here upon the earth in order that they might enter
into this possession. Remember the golden chain that
we find in Romans chapter 8 which takes us from eternity to eternity. Whom he did foreknow he also
did predestinate that he might be conformed to the image of
his Son. And whom he predestinated them
he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom
he justified them he also glorified. There is the end, you see. The
last link in that glorious golden chain is their glorification.
The fullness of salvation revealed in the last time. All they must
be kept, you see, to glory. When did God set His love upon
them? Why, He has foreknown them. He
knows them in that sensuality that He has set His sovereign
love upon them. And those whom He has set that
love upon, those whom He has such an intimate knowledge of,
He predestinates them. It reaches from eternity to eternity. And now these apostles, Paul,
Peter, John, they all speak the same language, they speak with
one voice. They all speak, of course, as they are moved by
the Spirit of God. There is no jarring note anywhere
in Scripture does Peter speak of that salvation that will be
revealed in the last time. Well, Paul also speaks of glory. They are glorified ultimately.
And John says much the same, Beloved, now are we the sons
of God and it does not appear what we shall be But we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is." Or the great purpose of God, that's that God
has prepared for them that love Him. And we have then Christ
Himself as that One who comes, as I said, to accomplish a salvation,
to procure Glory for those who were only deserving of eternal
sufferings in hell. And now when Christ comes to
the end of His earthly ministry we see Him praying for them. There in the 17th of John, Father,
I will that they also who thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory, the glory which I had
with thee before the world was. Christ has prayed, you see. Here
is the basis in our perseverance. There must be the preservation
of these people because Christ has prayed for them. And Christ
has not prayed in vain. He says there in John 17, I know
that thou hearest me. Oh, he knows that the Father
always hears him. Oh friends, the Scripture says
now is our salvation nearer. than when we believe. That is the comfort of the child
of God. As he continues in that narrow
way, is his salvation not nearer than when he believed? Nor what
a salvation! I hath not seen nor heard, neither
hath entered into the heart of man the things that God hath
prepared for them that love him, who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time. We have the basis, the basis
of the doctrine. But let us turn in the second
place to consider the experience of the doctrine. If we find the
basis in what God has done and what God does do, God has prepared
the place. Christ has come to procure the
salvation. God will therefore preserve his
people. And it's because of that that
these people persevere. Their perseverance, you see,
is rooted and grounded in God. those gifts and callings of God
which are without repentance. Look at the language that we
have here in the text. You are kept, it says, by the
power of God through faith. They are kept, yes, by the power
of God, but how is it? It is, it says, through faith. And those are very significant
words, are they not? What is this faith? What is this
faith that is so necessary to their being kept? By the power
of God, yes, but through faith. What is the faith here? Well,
it is not just an intellectual assenting to the truth. It's
not that. It's not just a knowledge in
the understanding of the letter of the truth of the Word of God. What is this faith? Oh yes, of
course, there must be that right understanding. God does deal
with us in that fashion, does he not? Paul says much of the
necessity of a sound mind. And God has made us in that way,
that we are rational thinking beings, and he communicates his
truth to us through our minds, and he opens our understandings
that we might receive his truth. But it's not enough, is it, to
be clear-headed with regards to the doctrine. Faith is more
than that. Faith is more than a mental ascent.
Faith really is the very life of God. that comes into the soul
of a man, through religions more than notion, something must be
known and found. This is what faith is. It has
that element of trust in it, that looking away from self,
that leaning hard upon the Lord Jesus Christ. True faith is the
life of God, deep in the heart it lies, it lives and labours
on the Lord. Though damped, it never dies. It's the life of God, I say,
that has come into the soul of a man. And we read something
of that faith, do we not, in the context here? He goes on in verse 7 to speak
about how that faith is tried. that faith that is so precious,
that is more precious than gold that perishes, that faith has
to be proved in the fiery furnace. Later in chapter 4, he says,
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that
is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. God tries the faith of His people.
The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Here we have it, you see, the appearing of Christ at the last
time, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. All friends, how important it
is that we are those who learn the doctrines of the grace of
God experimentally. How important it is. That vital
necessity of a heartfelt experience of the power of the doctrines
of grace. A heartfelt experience. Now you think about What particular
truth were made to learn and to feel in respect to each and
every one of those familiar doctrines of Christ? First of all, there's
the doctrine of total depravity. And what does that mean? What
does it mean to come to terms with the doctrine of total depravity? It means that we know something
about ourselves. we know something about ourselves we learn in our experience what
we are we are made to feel the awful reality of our sinnership
and all that that entails we are so impotent what are we by
nature? we are those who are dead in
trespasses and in sins and we're brought to feel that. That's
the strange thing, is it not? When God begins with us, we feel
it. We feel our sad condition, our
awful plight. We're unable to do anything.
We're not sufficient of ourselves, says the apostle, to think anything
as of ourselves. We cannot even begin to think
a right thought. We have to learn this doctrine,
total depravity, and we have to learn it in our soul's experience. It's a knowledge of ourselves.
Ourselves as sinners. But then the next doctrine is
that of unconditional election. And what do we learn in that
doctrine? Well, we learn the knowledge
of God the Father, do we not? We learn the knowledge of God
the Father. Who is the one who has made choice
of a people? Whom he did foreknow. He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Who is being spoken of there?
It's the Father who has predestinated a people that He has set His
love upon and that to be conformed to the image of His only begotten
Son the Lord Jesus Christ. We know from what Paul writes
there in the opening chapter of Ephesians that it is the Father
who makes choice and He chooses a people in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world, that
we should behold Him without blame, before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself. according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He has made us accepted in the Beloved." All to know the Father. And where do we come to know
the Father in that great doctrine of unconditional election? And
the basis of that choice is God's love, whom He did foreknow. That
foreknowledge is not God foreseeing those who would believe and then
making choice of them because he foresees their faith. That's
the nonsense that the Arminian comes out of. No, that foreknowledge
is God setting his love. He has an intimate knowledge
of them. He knows them. He knows them because he loves
them. And to experience it. that great doctrine of unconditional
election, why is it not to have the love of God shed abroad in
the heart, to know Him and to call upon Him as our Father in
heaven? Or like as a father pities his
children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him. To know something
you see of that fear, your fear to fear Him. But not an enslaving
sort of fear. All but to reverence his name
he is, holy is he not. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. It's to know God the Father. And then we come to the next
great doctrine, that of limited atonement. And who is the one
who has made the great atoning sacrifice? It's not God the Father. It is not God, the Holy Spirit. It's God the Son. When the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth His Son. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins, says John. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
has made that great sacrifice, that propitiatory sacrifice. And what does it mean, propitiation?
It means that all the wrath of God, all the wrath of God that
was the sinners just as earth, all that wrath that should have
been visited upon that people that the Father had set His love
upon, it was all visited upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And he cries, does he not, in
agonies, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? How it
cost him, how it cost him his very lifeblood. How he must pour
out his soul unto death, or to know the Son. To have an interest
in what God the Son, God's manifest in the flesh has done. He has
borne the punishment. that was the sinner's dessert.
And do we not there, if we have a right view of the cross, see
how awful our sins are? We see the horror of sin against
the Holy God in the light of the Ten Commandments, the law
of God. By the Lord is the knowledge
of sin. It's all quite straightforward. But when The love of God is shed
abroad in the sinner's heart, and he views the cross of Christ.
All he sees is what his sins have done. And his sins were
there, driving the nails into Christ's hands and feet, thrusting
the spear into his side, to feel the awful character of
our sin, to grieve over a crucified Christ, to know something of
that love of Christ constraining us. We have to experience it,
you see. It's not enough just to see the
doctrine and ascend into the doctrine. And then we come to that fourth
point, irresistible grace. Remember the mnemonic tulip?
Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement,
irresistible grace. What is it that we come to a
knowledge of in terms of this doctrine? It's God the Holy Ghost,
is it not? It's God the Holy Ghost. He is
the One. He is the One. Who has come in
all the fullness of His gracious power on the day of Pentecost.
or where there is that glorious anointing of the Spirit, when
the Spirit takes of the things of Christ and reveals them to
a sinner. When the sin you see is born again, it's a spiritual
birth, is it not? He's born from above. It's the gracious work of the
Spirit that is so necessary. in making that salvation a reality
in a man and a woman's soul, he must come, and he must work,
and he must work effectually. It's that irresistible grace
of God, the Holy Ghost, or do we know anything of the Spirit? Our God must come, you see, by
the Spirit and reveal His Son in us. Isn't that what real religion
is it's a revelation it's the spirit coming and opening
blind eyes and non-stopping deaf ears it's a spirit coming and
illuminating the dark minds and moving all that sinful stubborn
will and making the people so willing it's a spirit coming
and working in the heart we come to a knowledge of the
spirit the irresistible grace of God,
the peculiar work of God, the Holy Ghost. And then this doctrine
of the perseverance of the saints, which we're principally concerned
with tonight. These who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. What do we learn in the perseverance
of the saints? Well, we bring all these All
these things together, this knowledge of ourself, this knowledge of
God the Father, this knowledge of God the Son, this knowledge
of God the Holy Spirit. What do we see when we come to
perseverance? Do we not see the great truth,
friends, that salvation is Trinitarian? It's all the persons in the Godhead. Salvation is of the Lord. to
comprehend the great 3-1 is more than highest angels can or what
the Holy Trinity has done from death and how to rescue man,
but all true Christians this may boast a truth from nature
never learnt that Father, Son and Holy Ghost to save our souls
are all concerned. Surely such As salvation as this,
the work of the triune Jehovah, it cannot be aborted. It cannot
be overthrown. All these sinners must be kept. They must persevere, because
it's the work of God. He that shall endure to the end,
says Christ, the same shall be saved. They have to endure, they
have to persevere. The Scriptures are full of it,
the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Paul in Hebrews
3 says, we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Yes, there must be a
beginning, there must be a right beginning, but there must also
be an end. We must continue in the Word.
we must hold on our way and it's not some vain self confidence
it's not presumption how is it that the child of God can persevere
as I said at the beginning the doctrine is rooted in God it's
because God preserves the people it's because God has appointed
salvation for that people and Christ has come and has obtained
that salvation and gone to prepare a place for that people. It's
not vain self-confidence at all. Look at the language of the text.
It's the power of God through faith. Yes, faith. But see the
connection here. The juxtaposition of the words.
It's the power of God through faith. It's the exceeding greatness
of his power to Oswald who believed according to the working of his
mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead. What does Christ say? Thy dead
men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. And here we have it, you see,
in verse 3, His abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. We have to have an experience
of the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
All the great doctrines of Scripture have to come into our soul's
experience. It's not just a question of us
understanding with our heads and descent into these precious
truths. We have to know something of the power of the doctrine.
Even this doctrine of Christ's resurrection. Oh, it must come
home to us. It must be wrought in our very
souls. This is what God has done, begotten
us again unto a lively hope, how? By the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is what faith is. It's the
power of God. It's that faith that is of the
operation of God. It's not something a man can
do, it's not a duty a man performs. It's the work of God in the soul
of a man. And where that work is wrought,
the man will press on and persevere and continue in the ways of God.
I find Those opening words of Isaiah 53, remarkable words. How does that great chapter open? You know, the chapter of the
suffering servant of the Lord. It begins like this, does it
not? Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Those are parallel statements.
What is it to believe the report? To believe that record that God
has given us of His Son? What is it to believe the Gospel?
We can only believe the Gospel as the arm of the Lord is revealed.
You see what it's saying is this, we believe that report only when
God makes bare His arm. God Himself, you see, must do
it. If the sinner is to be saved, if the sinner is to come to saving
faith, to believe the Scriptures, to trust in that Christ who is
set before us here in the Gospel, God must make bare His arm. God
must stretch forth His hand and God must save the sinner. And
what is true with regards to the beginning, is also true with
every step that that Christian takes in the gospel way. The
same arm must be made bare to protect from all the assaults
of Satan, from all the inward conflicts with the old nature. God must make bare His arm. I
can do all things through Christ which strengthens me, says the
Apostle. The only way, you see, Those who overcome in the revelation
in those letters to the seven churches, how do they overcome? They overcome by Him who is the
overcomer, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Our God must constantly
make bare His arm to protect His people, to preserve His people.
Our God must constantly hold them in the hollow of His hands,
otherwise Otherwise how soon, Lord? Yes, there's a doctrine
of perseverance, friends. All but how it's rooted in our
knowledge of God. We walk, says Paul, by faith
and not by sight. Now what is it to walk by faith?
It is to see Him who is the invisible God. That's walking by faith. we see the invisible God. If
we're those who are justified and have known that great blessing
of justification in our soul's experience, justified by faith,
we must be those then who are walking by faith and living by
faith. Back in the Old Testament, Hebrews
chapter 2 and verse 4, we have that statement, "...the just
shall live by his faith." And three times, three times in the
New Testament, Romans 1, Galatians 3, Hebrews 10, Paul quotes that
scripture. We have it, first of all, Habakkuk
chapter 2 and verse 4. And then three times the Apostle
emphasizes how the just man lives. Who is the just man? He's the
justified sinner. He's the person who is being
spoken of here in the text. He's living the life of faith.
That's how he has to live his life. No other way. And what
is that life of faith? It's that life of trust. all
his dependence, he recognizes to rest in God. God is his salvation,
and God is all of his salvation. All this precious doctrine, friends. God grant that we might learn
it, and learn it not only here because we see it on the page
of Holy Scripture, but all that this might be to us, that engrafted
word, that implanted word. able to save our souls, who are
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to
be revealed in the last time. And so, what does he say? As
he continues here, verse 6, Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now
for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness, through manifold
temptations. It's ever the life of faith,
it's ever the struggle of faith, the good fight of faith. But
our God's people are able to rejoice in all that God is and
all that he's done for their salvation. The Lord be pleased
to bless his word to us. Hymn number 350 and the tune
is Arnold's 91. Ye pilgrims of Zion and chosen
of God, whose spirits are filled with dismay, since ye have eternal
redemption through blood, ye cannot but hold on your way. Hymn number 350.