The Perseverance of the Savior, Part 1

What's your perspective on your own personal sin?

How do you think about your sin and what do you do about it? And the genuine believer lives with a daily sense of his failure in keeping the commandments. He doesn't throw away the commandments. He doesn't throw away the list. He doesn't throw away a desire for holy living because, well, you know, every day I fail. No, he hungers and yearns to follow after God. And when he doesn't meet the standard, he daily confesses to his Savior.

Thank you! Here we go! As believers, we live with a constant tension regarding our sin. Salvation doesn't mean that we're delivered from sinning. We hate our sin and we want to be rid of it, but it's an ever-present reality for us. Even though we battle the flesh, we don't give in or give up. Our commitment is to be obedient to our Savior. Now, our obedience to God's Word is incomplete and imperfect. We pursue holiness even though we frequently fall short. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey takes us back to the book of Revelation.

An angel makes some proclamations about believers and we're going to see what those are next. A recent USA Today article covered the interview of a well-known media personality and self-made billionaire. In fact, this man is the largest landowner in America with more than 1.6 million acres. There's a lot of grass to cut. I don't know about that.

Half an acre is enough for me. The interviewer was kind of gushing beyond all this wealth and accomplishments this man had seen in his life. Lies, a deeper desire, he said in his interview of this man that this man wants peace and harmony and understanding. Toward the end of the article, this individual man answered specific questions about personal salvation. He said, you know, almost every religion talks about a Savior. But when you look in the mirror in the morning, when you're putting on your lipstick or shaving, you're looking at the Savior. Nobody else is going to save you but yourself.

And you almost expect to hear thunder and a bolt of lightning and 1.6 million acres back on the market. How do you say that? Well, it might sound dramatic, but the core of what he said is actually the foundational belief undergirding just about all organized religion on the planet. You've got to save yourself. Yeah, you believe in somebody or something, but you've got to save yourself. The core of what he said is actually a part of the depraved deception of human nature. In fact, to me, the dramatic thing about this man's comment was not that he thinks he is a Savior, but that he thinks he can be, that he thinks he qualifies, that he thinks he's capable of saving himself. Which, by the way, is very convenient, isn't it? Now you can get rid of God.

Now you don't need him. And a personal accountable relationship with the Savior is no longer necessary because you've applied for the job of Messiah and you have hired yourself. Salvation then is whatever you want, whatever you think it is. It's one of the reasons you can pick up the newspaper, which you may do every once in a while, or a magazine you may subscribe to, and I get a couple. And read the most bizarre statements all over the map about spirituality from very sincere people. Sincere people who have no basis for what they believe other than the fact that they believe it.

Like this billionaire who said in this interview, I just do what I do because I believe it's right. I don't believe in God. I don't need the church. I don't need anything.

I don't need anything that I can't control, which is the human heart. One of the things I periodically read is the Associated Press. Some of it just this month, in fact, revealed that more than 100,000 people living in Great Britain have recently downloaded certificates of de-baptism. They're getting de-baptized from the internet. They're getting these certificates renouncing their Christian faith.

How do you do that? Well, they're doing it, or at least they think this certificate does that for them. It was something they didn't decide. They can't control it, so they don't want it. This internet initiative was launched by a group called the National Secular Society who reported they are now producing, and I quote, a certificate on parchment that they are selling for three pounds, or roughly four dollars a pop.

And the movement is catching fire. Certificates of de-baptism are becoming all the rage, sweeping through heavily populated Roman Catholic areas and Anglican areas in Great Britain, Spain, and Italy. More than 1,000 people a month who were sprinkled as babies are now lining up and paying the fee to get their certificate of de-baptism. They're renouncing it. They don't want anything to do with God or religion that I didn't choose for myself. Although that news is alarming, it's really only a small minority of people who want those certificates.

The majority of the human race is actually the opposite. They want to add to whatever they can. They want to put in their spiritual bag whatever they think might connect them to God and not take away. So let's cover all the bases. Baptism? You bet.

I mean, sprinkled, poor, upside down, dunk, what? I'll do it all. I think that'll get me in. What can it hurt to join the church? What can it hurt to use spiritual vocabulary? We've got to be careful, right?

We must be careful. There may be a God, and we don't want to offend them, but you still don't care about them. There is actually an option for you too. In fact, there's another Internet option I learned about just a few days ago, a journal I subscribed to arrived, and it said if you don't have time to pray but you're unwilling to ditch religion altogether, there is a solution. Prayer outsourcing. A Protestant organization allows you to subscribe, and this company's computers are programmed to recite prayers for you using text-to-speech software. Evidently, you need text-to-speech software because God can hear, but he can't read.

So that's an important thing to remember. The advertisement continues. Protestants can subscribe and pay $3.95 a month for a computer proxy to recite the Lord's Prayer every day for you. Isn't that great? The site boldly says, show God you're serious.

That'll do it. $3.95 a month, Lord, that's serious. Even Catholics can purchase a complete rosary package for $50. Since this is a Protestant organization, Catholics get charged more. Even the site has a prayer package for Muslims too with the promise, and I'm quoting, we promise to turn our speakers toward Mecca. And if you're not real sure about it, you can buy all three packages.

You can cover it all. Is it any surprise that with the view that you can be your own savior, that you're going to have all kinds of convoluted views, are going to be religious hucksters and deceivers now using the Internet to send you certificates so that you can denounce God or a computer password where you can now have a computer pray to God. One of the reasons there are so many shortcuts, one of the reasons there are so many loopholes, so much confusion, is simply because while so many people want to cover their spiritual bases, they do not want to be spiritually obligated. It's certainly inconvenienced. Even among the so-called spiritually committed, more than half of the people polled some time ago by the Gallup organization who said they believed in God, only a minor fraction of them believe the Word of God had any kind of authority over their lives.

We're talking about control again. Most of you are here today because you are a part of that small fraction who believe that God has provided an answer in His Word to how to find them, how to relate to them, how to talk to them. And if you're new around here, we're glad you're here. You ought to know we just meet weekly to reset our watches, so to speak, according to heavenly time. We meet to recalibrate our perspective according to God's wisdom. We refresh our minds with God's revealed truth.

And what a delight it is. So just how does the Bible describe genuine connection with God, a genuine faith in God? It was interesting to me as I was studying the text once again back in Revelation that one of the clearest definitions of genuine Christianity comes from the mouth of this angel we've been studying in Revelation 14 in the context of the tribulation period.

We've been there. Again, Revelation 14. Remember, this angel is going to deliver this message during a time when most of the world will be very religious. In fact, they're all going to just about in unity believe in the same God. They're going to worship Him in His image.

We know Him to be the antichrist. To those who worship Him, accepting His name on their right hand or their forehead, the symbol of their allegiance, the sum of His name being 666, the angel, as you know, has nothing good or reassuring to say to them. Their idolatry and unbelief will lead to the wrath of God upon their lives.

Their suffering in hell will be personal and terrible and painful and eternal. But then the angel shifts gears and encourages those on the planet who've come to faith in Christ after the rapture who are believing in Christ by reassuring them of some wonderful truths. Look with me at verse 12 where we left off. Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.

Let me unpack what he's saying here with three words that we'll use to provide an outline to guide our thinking. The first word that strikes us as we read this is the word perseverance. The angel says, Blessed are these who are these, those who persevere, that is those who effectively do not capitulate and worship the antichrist and in that worship are doomed. But the saint, and the New Testament uses the word saint for not perfect people, but forgiven people, you are called saints in the epistles, true believers will persevere. This is what theologians call the perseverance of the saints. Now this phrase reveals the wonderful truth that genuine believers never need to fear losing their salvation or being lost to God once they're saved. Genuine salvation cannot be lost. Now some would say that the very presence of this phrase, the perseverance of the saints, means that the opposite then is possible. It would be possible for a saint not to persevere.

That isn't true and that doesn't have to be the case at all. When the Bible says that heaven is eternal, that doesn't mean that heaven could possibly be temporary, right? When the Bible says that Jesus is the only way to the Father, that doesn't mean the possibility exists that he is the way to someplace else.

No. The perseverance of the saints is actually a positive doctrine. But immediately upon hearing it, most believers might think, oh, I wonder if I'm going to last. But it's actually a positive, comforting doctrine in the word of God that reinforces as a category all of the verses of scripture that tell us that God will lose none of his, John 18. From God's perspective, the perseverance of the saints means that God will lose not one of his children. From the believer's perspective, the perseverance of the saints means that the genuine believer will persevere in his relationship with Christ to the end. From God's perspective, this means God will not abandon his children. From the believer's perspective, it means that the Christian will not abandon God. Well, what about all those who fall away? You have that phrase appearing in a few passages of scripture, one of them is in Mark, and there in that wonderful story that describes for us the different kinds of soils, the different kinds of people who hear the gospel, and how they respond is actually encouraging for those of us who would believe in the perseverance of the saints.

Why? Because he talks about some seed fell on ground, and it seemed to produce life, but it seemed to have something that would last. But over some period of time, things happened. It could be affliction, it could be a desire to go back into a lifestyle of sin, it could be persecution because of the claims of the gospel because of the word. They fell away, proving then that it really didn't take root.

It wasn't genuine. Hebrews 6 speaks of the same issue. They have the appearances of salvation. They seemed interested.

They were even seemingly delighted. They tasted the things of God, like Christ, who tasted death. Oh, but Christ tasted death and it was only temporary.

They were even involved in some kind of participation with the things of God, but then they abandoned the gospel and they hardened their hearts. They said, we really don't believe that. Nothing more could be given to them. You couldn't say anything more to them. You can't teach them one new thing. There isn't some nugget. They say, I've heard it. I've seen it.

I don't want it. And even if Christ were crucified all over again, it would make no difference to them. They're like Judas, who for three years was associated with Christ, but he didn't believe in Christ. Certainly wasn't his Lord and Master. Judas, you remember, shocked everybody when Jesus informed his disciples in the upper room and he said, one of you will betray me. The other 11 didn't look at Judas and say, we knew it.

We had our eye on you from the beginning. No. They all said what? Matthew 26, 22, Lord, is it me?

Is it me? There are those who associate with Christ, but later abandon Christ. It seemed to take root, but over the course of time, they turned their backs upon God. Though we certainly don't believe baptism or sprinkling of saves, they effectively said we want a certificate to denounce God. Templeton, a former preaching companion of Billy Graham, in fact, they together co-founded Youth for Christ International, walked away from God and abandoned any semblance of believing the gospel. He said, effectively, I don't believe any of it anymore.

The last published book, if you can imagine, before he died, made headlines for its title alone. Simply this, Farewell to God. Subtitle, My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith. Does that mean he lost his salvation?

No, it means he never had it. And it took a while to show up. Just rehearse again the scene in your mind in Matthew 7, that awful scene of judgment where many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not preach in your name? Did we not deliver the truth of your word? Did we not cast out demons? That is, didn't we, in your name, fight against the kingdom of darkness?

Did we not perform miracles? And Jesus will say, I never what? I never knew you. You will not say, well, I used to know you, but not anymore. You used to be related to me, but not after you pulled that stunt. You used to belong to the family of God, but then that rebellious streak hit you and you never got around to praying again for your salvation all over again.

So tough luck. I never, he says, never ever knew you. Wayne Grudem in his systematic theology provides these insightful words. He says, one of the purposes of this phrase, the perseverance of the saints, is not to make those who are trusting in Christ worry that at some time in the future you might fall away. Rather, it can be used to warn those who are thinking of walking away that if they do, this will be a strong indication that they were never saved in the first place. So it's a comfort to those who believe in Christ. God will not lose you, and it's a warning to those who walk away that they were never saved. Now be careful here, be careful.

This is a tricky, tricky thing. Don't get out your stopwatch and say, okay, he missed three Sundays, four and he's out. You know, he rotated off the usher, not serving anymore, didn't park in cars anymore. Yeah, we didn't think he was saved anyway. They did what? They said what?

Well, they're obviously out. Listen, you didn't gain your salvation by being sinless, and you don't lose it by sinning. In fact, Paul preached the doctrine of abounding grace, and he knew people would get all riled up, which they certainly did. You're going to encourage people to sin with abandon if you preach God's abounding grace.

No, he won't. Grace in the life of a genuine believer does not lead the believer to want to go sin. It leads the believer to want to please God out of gratitude for his grace. The person who says, oh, I'm saved now, wow, I can go back to the world, needs to listen to this angel. The truth is you sin after salvation. Have you discovered that yet? How many of you sinned this last week?

Put your hands up. Did you have to get saved all over again? If you had to get saved all over again every time you sinned, how often would you have to be saved? This leads to the doctrine within the Roman Catholic Church of the last rites. You bring a guy right up to the edge of death right before it, and you give him the last rites to absolve his sins, and hopefully he won't sin between there and death. Compare scripture with scripture. Here's one John wrote in 1 John 2. One of my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. In other words, I'm instructing you so that you'll say no to sin. The Christian can say no to sin. But if anybody sins, speaking to believers, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If anyone sins, remember your advocate. Jesus Christ never sins, and he stands as your advocate, defending you, as it were, before the justice of God's jury. Ladies and gentlemen, the perseverance of the saints is in the final analysis, the perseverance of the Savior.

Paul would talk about how there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus Christ guards us. Jesus Christ intercedes for us. He guides us. He holds us firmly in his hand. He instructs us. He empowers us. He enables us.

He disciplines us. He leads us, and then he will complete us in the day we see him. Philippians 1.6. The perseverance of the saints is not to our glory. It is to the glory of Christ. And so may this encourage those of you who believe in him. You will persevere to the end.

And for those of you who are even perhaps now thinking of walking away from him, it may be a sign that you never did belong, and you've been deceived. There's another word beyond the word perseverance here in this text. It is the word obedience.

This is where it gets even more personal. John writes, here is the perseverance of the saints. Who are they? They're the ones who keep the commandments of God. In other words, the genuine believer is one who keeps the commandments of God. Now, there are some who would add to the end of this phrase the words without failure. If you look back at your text, you'll not find those words. Now, this is a participle from the Greek word tereo. It means to observe.

You could have the idea of pursuit. You may fail at the standard, but you don't throw the standard away. His commandments are your desire. His word is your manual. You want to obey him, and it troubles you when you do not. In fact, one of the differences between a true believer and a false believer is not that the true believer never sins and the false believer does. The difference is that while both of them may sin, the genuine believer is disturbed by it. He's troubled by his sinfulness. He agonizes over his failure. He hurts that he hurt his fellowship with God his Father. And the false believer isn't troubled except for maybe troubling consequences. Yeah, that's kind of troublesome. But other than that, it's really not a problem. Let's not beg off too quickly. While obedience is not a condition to salvation, obedience is an evidence of salvation.

I like the way one person put it. You may have heard this put this way, if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you in a court of law? Any evidence? What if they tailed you this week, watched you? Would there be evidence? What if they got into your computer or your files? What if they sat by your Bible and waited? What if they interviewed people you work with?

What if they went along on some dates you had? Then you were hauled into court. On the basis of that evidence, would they convict you for being a Christian? Anybody who really doesn't want to obey God, who doesn't care about the Word, who lives however they want to live, is in need of a warning from this angel.

I agree with one author who said this. Obedience and genuine faith are mutually interpreting. Obedience involves faith and faith involves obedience. Faith and obedience are not separate stages of the Christian experience. This is Paul's thought in Ephesians 2-10 when he wrote to them, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Listen, even though genuine faith is not the result of works, genuine faith what?

Works. Genuine faith works. And the genuine believer lives with a daily sense of his failure and keeping the commandments. He doesn't throw away the commandments. He doesn't throw away the list. He doesn't throw away a desire for holy living because, well, you know, every day I fail. No, he hungers and yearns to follow after God. And when he doesn't meet the standard, he daily confesses to his Savior, thank you, you are my advocate.

Now, forgive me for what I've just done to hurt you or your name. See, that's an evidence of a genuine faith. It's a desire to keep and a pursuit in keeping the commandments.

That desire to relentlessly pursue obedience is a mark of a genuine believer. There's others as well, but we need to end right here for now because we're almost out of time. When we come back on Monday, we'll do a little bit of review and then bring you the conclusion to this lesson. You've been listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Between now and Monday, when we have our next broadcast, there are several ways you can remain engaged with our Bible teaching ministry. I encourage you to visit us online at wisdomonline.org. You can also follow us on Twitter or Instagram, hit the like button on our Facebook page to receive updates, and you can install the Wisdom International app to your tablet or mobile device. All of those are great ways to keep in touch with us and receive our resources. We're not in the office today as the staff enjoys the Thanksgiving holiday, but you can leave a message at 866-48-BIBLE. And of course, join us Monday for more Wisdom for the Hearts. .