The central theme is the doctrine of the "Perseverance of the Saints," a unique Calvinist teaching that assures believers of God's unwavering protection and preservation in their faith, offering profound comfort amidst life's struggles.
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you know my whole career i don't think
i've ever walked to a pulpit had to
raise the mic
just once i'd like that to happen but
it is great to be here with you and um
uh want to thank the pastors in the
session of this church for
inviting us and by that i mean
dr ferguson and me not the royal we
and i have very much enjoyed being here
the congregation those
participating in the conference have
been so gracious and encouraging and
it's been a
delight to be here so thank you all uh
very much
we look today into a really wonderful
subject and
in a sense we could say that the first
four points of the doctrines of grace
that we've talked about total depravity
unconditional election of limited
atonement irresistible grace
are doctrines that calvinists have
in common with others of the augustinian
tradition particularly as i said once
before in the late
uh ancient and medieval periods so
although we call them the doctrines of calvinism
calvinism
in part because probably today
calvinists are amongst the only ones who
still affirm them
they are not unique to calvinism
but today when we come to the fifth point
point
we actually do come to a point that as
far as i'm aware
although i'm sure dr ferguson will
correct me in his sermon
as far as i am aware is unique
to calvinism the doctrine of the perseverance
perseverance
of the saints and the doctrine of the
perseverance of the saints uh is a very
simple one that those who have come
to know christ by faith
god will always protect and preserve
now others have believed that those who
truly come to faith god will preserve in faith
faith
but that we may know that that we may
possess that knowledge that we may
possess that comfort
and assurance is a unique
teaching of calvinism
and i once heard a very learned
professor of theology
by the name of sinclair ferguson
quote another very learned professor of theology
theology
robert bellermann uh the
great roman catholic theologian and
apologist of the late 16th and early
17th century
and robert bellermann at least as quoted
by sinclair ferguson
said the principal heresy of protestants
is that the saints may attain to a certain
certain
state of assurance the principle
heresy not the denial of the authority
of tradition
or the authority of the papacy or even
a denial of cooperation with grace or
justification by
faith and works those are not the
principle and so the principal one
is that terrible calvinist doctrine
that the saints may know that god will
preserve them
to everlasting life now why did
robert bellarmine make such a negative judgment
judgment
about this doctrine well he made it
because he said
it leads inevitably to disasters
it leads either to the disaster of
arrogance elected i know it
i'm better than you hahaha
that's one of bellarmine's concerns
or it leads to a certain passivity why
even try why
even make any effort because it's all up
to god and
it's pointless for me to think about it
worry about it act about it
or it leads to a moral indifference
if god is stuck with me i can
live the way i want to live and he's
now these might seem to be logical
conclusions of the reformed doctrine of perseverance
perseverance
but they are by no means what the
reformed have taught
and in most of the history they are by
no means the way calvinists have
actually reacted
to this doctrine rather
calvinists have reacted as the canons of
dort the first
confessional exposition of the doctrine
of the perseverance of the saints
with clarity in light of its critics
they have said no this doctrine has
exactly the opposite effect
rather than making us proud
it makes us humble to think that god should
should
love us so much and be so committed to
our care
rather than make us passive it will make us
us
active in the service of god and living
for god
and rather than making us morally
indifferent it will morally sensitize
us to the importance of living for god
and i think those things are true i
think those things are
the important fruit of
a right understanding of the reformed doctrine
doctrine
of perseverance and the reason these
things are true i think
is not only that the bible has said
these will be the effects of these doctrines
doctrines
which is the most important point
but that they are such a comfort
to christians as we live life
because life is difficult
now maybe those of you who live in tampa
have not yet learned that
um but i suspect even here in tampa
the bad news seeps in that life is difficult
difficult
and it's difficult in all sorts of ways
for us as christians
it's difficult because we continue to be sinners
sinners
and we struggle with the reality of sin
it's difficult because we can be
assailed by doubts and questions and problems
problems
were you all bad that you're sitting
behind me over here
you know we struggle as christians with
sin we struggle with doubt we struggle
with the misery of this world
that impinges on us as much as it
impinges on anybody else
and so we struggle with with health and
we struggle with financial issues and we
struggle with broken relationships and
all of the misery of the world is ours
and yet we might say we're even
potentially more miserable because we
have to worry about sin
and worry about doubt that other people
and what the doctor of perseverance does
in spite of our struggles in this life
struggles on many different fronts we
can have this wonderful
comforting assurance
that god does care for us and god
will take care of us he takes care of us
not only from eternity in his planning
he takes care of us not only at the
beginning of our christian life when by
irresistible grace he brings us to faith
but he takes care of us right through
the whole
of our christian life that is the great
comfort and this is the great aim
of the wonderful doctrine of the
perseverance of the saints
what is the very essence of the doctrine
it's beautifully summed up in the canons
of dort
fifth head of doctrine article 4
where it says this is the heart of the
doctrine of perseverance
the weakness of the flesh of the christian
christian
cannot prevail against the power of god
isn't that a wonderful statement the weakness
weakness
of the flesh of the christian cannot prevail
prevail
against the power of god no matter how
weak you are as a christian
no matter what a mess you're in today as
a christian
ultimately the weakness of your flesh
cannot prevail
against god's power to save you to
preserve you
to restore you and one of the things the
cannons of dort do
in an amazing way is to reflect on worst
and this is important because sometimes
in life christians find themselves in a place
place
and maybe it's true it's a little unlikely
unlikely
but maybe it's true
and and when we begin to think we're the
worst case ever the temptation comes so god
god
i have managed to escape the grace of
god so
irretrievably i am a hopeless case
to me apply those horrible words that
dante placed over hell
abandon all hope ye who enter here
what a state to be in to be hopeless to
have no
future and christians in their very
worst moments can fall
remember the agonizing of our of the work
work
the agonizing words of our lord from the
cross my god my god why have you
forsaken me
you know of course that those were not
first jesus words
those were first david's words
they are the words that god's people
one of the most surprising things i
think i ever
read was in calvin's commentary on the psalms
psalms
don't usually come to calvin thinking
he's likely to be a big surprise
um but in his commentary on
psalm 22 verse 1 my god my god why have
you forsaken me
calvin writes what christian
and i thought what an interesting
and i have meditated on that i'm i'm not sure
sure
but i think what calvin meant there is
every day of the christian life there is
a sufficient
measure of struggle that we are tempted
to ask where is god in this
why is god letting this happen why
shouldn't things be different
does god know does god care
that that question creeps into our hearts
hearts
and our minds rather unavoidably
and how do we cope with that how do we
how do we deal with that well we
christ on the cross bore our griefs
and bore our sorrows and bore our doubts
and bore our sense of forsakenness
so that he understands he identifies he
cares we can be assured of that
and out of that then in the face of our
daily struggles
we need to be assured of the promises of
god's word
that he doesn't forsake us that he does
take care of us that he will
preserve us so that we can have
in our hearts the joy and the confidence
not as a steady state unbroken but
at the depths of our being we can have
that joy and confidence so that we can
say with paul
as we find it in romans chapter 5
since we have been justified by faith
we have peace with god through our lord
do you know that even if you're struggling
struggling
at the depths of your being can you say
that i have
peace with god through my lord jesus christ
and what is the nature of that peace
well if a theologian were to talk about
it he would say
is this piece objective or subjective
that is is paul talking about
the object of reality that god is at
peace with me
that god through christ is satisfied
with me that god through christ
has accepted me
does an objective state of peace exist
between god and me
or is paul speaking subjectively and
saying i have peace with god in the
sense that i
know and enjoy and experience
peace in my heart in relation to god
and i think the answer is that both
things are true
paul is confessing here he is
objectively at peace with god the war is over
over
but he's also expressing how he's
subjectively enjoying the blessings of peace
peace
in his own life and in his own experience
now when robert bellermann read that text
text
he said oh yes paul is saying that he
has peace with god
objectively and subjectively because he
had a special revelation from god
but you protestants can't take that
verse and apply it to you
you're not the apostle you haven't had a
special revelation
and so we have to ask ourselves
can we have this assurance you do notice
that paul doesn't say i have been
justified by faith he says we have been
justified by faith
but does the new testament
promise to us this kind of assurance
that should undergird us in all of the
struggles of life i want to read
with you from hebrews
i want to to begin at verse 25
and read down through chapter 13 verse 8.
8.
and see what hebrews has to say to us on this
this
subject hebrews chapter 12 beginning at
see that you do not refuse him who is speaking
speaking
for if they did not escape when they
refused him who warned them on earth
much less will we escape if we reject
him who warns from heaven
at that time his voice shook the earth
but now he has promised yet once more i
will shake not only the earth but also
the heavens
this phrase yet once more indicates the
removal of things that are shaken
that is things that have been made in
order that the things
that cannot be shaken may remain
therefore let us be grateful
for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken
shaken
and thus let us offer to god acceptable worship
worship
with reverence and awe for our god is a
consuming fire
let brotherly love continue do not
neglect to show hospitality to strangers
for thereby some of entertained
angels unawares remember those who are
in prison as though in prison with them
and those who are mistreated since you
also are in the body
let marriage be held in honor among all
let the marriage bed be undefiled for
god will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous
adulterous
keep your life free from love of money
and be content with what you have
for he has said i will never leave you
nor forsake you so we can confidently say
say
the lord is my helper i will not fear
what can man do to me remember your
leaders those who spoke
to you the word of god consider the
outcome of their way of life and imitate
their faith
jesus christ is the same yesterday today
and forever now there are a number of
things we want to look at
in this passage but we want to begin by looking
looking
at what is promised here and how the
promises of god made here
relate to this matter of assurance and perseverance
perseverance
and the first thing we can see is the
wonderful promise that god
has made in christ a kingdom for us
this passage reminds us that judgment is
coming one day
and in that judgment the whole world as
we know it will be shaken
shaken apart shaken to fall down
those of us in uh california are treated to
to
four tastes of that reality
and let me tell you a small earthquake
psychologists have even said that
earthquakes are seriously
destabilizing not only buildings
but psyches because
we as human beings are so conditioned to
think that
terra firma will remain firma
and in an earthquake especially if you
have one of some
magnitude suddenly the ground feels like jello
jello
one day god will come in judgment
and shake the whole world apart
but we have the wonderful promise that christ
christ
has established a kingdom that cannot be
shaken that will not be shaken
that will stand that will survive that
will be eternal that's a wonderful
promise we must never
let go of that but we also recognize
it's a promise made to the church as a whole
whole
and so it's possible that there are
promises to the church as a whole
that don't quite satisfy the question of
my heart yes but i'm am i really a
member of the church
will i always really be a member of the
church can i be sure that when the
shaking comes i'll still be part of the
unshakable kingdom
and i think this passage goes on with promises
promises
that do encourage us to do promise that
to us that do give us
a foundation to be assured that we will
be part
forever of that unshakable kingdom
the statement the promise of god i will
never leave you
or forsake you now there's a promise
there's a promise i will never leave you
or forsake you
now you notice that promise is in
quotations it's a quotation from the old testament
testament
it's a quotation first made in
deuteronomy 31 to all of israel
oh well now aren't we right back to that
problem of an unshakable kingdom
it's made to a group and i'm once again
left with this problem
am i part of the group
but god reiterates this problem promise
uh a little later in deuteronomy 31 and
again in joshua one
to joshua individually so as he said
to isaa to israel as a whole i will
never leave you and forsake you then he
comes to joshua
and says to him
individually personally i will never
leave you
or forsake you now think of the
circumstances in which that promise came
to joshua
joshua was taking on the leadership of
israel after the death of moses
and think how many people
in israel came up to him and said
uh think how inadequate at so many
uh the people weren't any better they
were a difficult lot
the task wasn't any easier to lead them
into the land of promise
and god came with this wonderful general
promise that he had made to all his people
people
now to focus it very specifically into
the life and the heart
and the mind and the life of joshua i
will never
leave you or forsake you
yes but no no buts i will never leave you
you
or forsake you and now this glorious
promise that had been
applied by god to joshua individually
is being taken in the book of hebrews to
be applied
individually to all the christians who
read this letter
i will never leave you or forsake you he
is not saying that
generally to everybody he's saying this as
as
individually to every christian as he
said it to joshua and this is those one
of those promises worth
memorizing we don't much give ourselves
to memorizing anymore
because we all have our little
electronic device
like dumbledore's pencil into which we
put our memory
uh and if the battery goes dead we can't
call anyone
because we don't know any phone numbers anymore
anymore
we only know the number that connects us
with the number
i don't even understand these things
because i can't i don't know how to put
numbers into my phone
my my my children are hysterical when i
haul out my ragged bit of paper with all
the phone numbers i need
but i always point out to them that my
ragged piece of paper
so we need to memorize certain crucial things
things
so that in those days of struggle those
days of trouble those days of
of difficulty we are able to bring them
to mind
and here's one that we're going to need
i talked about how the cannons of dorth
had wrestled with the problem of
thinking that surely the lord can't
forgive me can't restore me surely the lord
lord
will forsake me
and of course the two great examples of
that in the scripture are david and peter
david who became an adulterer and a murderer
maybe that's what led david to write my
god my god why have you forsaken me
but god's response to david is i will
never leave you or forsake you
you may sometimes feel forsaken in your
rebellion against god
but god says to the real christian i
will never leave you
or forsake you and so what did he do
with david he restored him
he led him to repentance he restored him
to grace
because in a critical moment he was revealed
revealed
as a coward and an apostate
i never knew him
and although peter had said of jesus i
never knew him jesus never said to peter
i never knew him
jesus said to peter i will never leave
and and so here's a a glorious promise of
of
a foundational promise that we need to
hold on to that we need to treasure
that we need to have in our memory bank
so that in those days of trouble
we can be preserved and if one promise
isn't enough
hebrews 13 verse 6 goes right on so we can
can
confidently say you notice that he
he doesn't say we can doubtfully say or
we can sometimes say or
if you're lucky you can say
or if your life is going perfectly you
no he says we can confidently say
the lord is my helper i will not fear
now this is another quotation a
quotation from david
it's again a perfectly personal
statement god is
there are a number of bible passages
um we read that god is our helper
and uh that's true he's the helper of
one of the great things i've appreciated
about the dutch reform tradition you
know i try to help you presbyterians out
where i can
um one of the things i've appreciated
about the dutch reform tradition is
historically every service began with
the words our help
is in the name of the lord who made the
heavens and earth
who helps us the creator
he's in charge of everything he made
heaven and earth
but here the dutch stole that from
calvin and calvin stole it from the
ancient church
and the ancient church stole it from
david so it's an honorable line of plagiarism
plagiarism
um and uh it's a uh
a beautiful thing to begin
worship by meditating on that great
truth god
is our help but david here again
is taking the general problem and
particularizing it for us
god is not only our help but he's my help
help
david who had this giant lumbering after him
that was a man who maybe could have done
a lot to david
or david who got chased again and again
by saul who tried to murder him
or david who got driven from his capital
by his own son
what can man do to me man can do a lot
david had seen how much man could do to him
david wrote about the distress of the
companion who ate with him at his table
lifting up his hand against him
not only prophesying what our lord would
experience but talking about his own
but what david is saying poetically here
is what man
thinks he can do to me
even what man actually does do to me
cannot ultimately separate me from the
love of god in christ
because god is my helper
bellarmine and the whole theological
tradition that he represented in the
roman church
thought fear was a very good thing for
christians be afraid all the time be
doubtful all the time of your status and
but the message of the scripture is we
ought not to be afraid
because god is for us who can be against us
us
now that is not to say we won't fear
sometimes but we don't need to fear
it's not good to fear there's no
ultimate value to fear
because we ought to be surrounded by the
confidence of the promise
i will be your helper i will never leave
and and we need those promises to
encourage us to buoy us up
precisely because life is such a struggle
struggle
really the foundation of all the promises
and that promise is that
assurance is given by god
it's not something we have to work up
it's not something we have to work
to accomplish but ultimately our
preservation and the assurance of our pro
pro
preservation is a gift from god
i god says will never leave you or
forsake you
the lord is my helper i will not fear
and then this is all under girded for
the christian in verse 8.
jesus christ is the same yesterday and today
today
now when you come and visit california
there are many sites to see
and probably at the very top of your list
list
will be to visit angelus temple
does anybody here know about angelus temple
you know it's very discouraging for a
historian to see
how much work remains to be done to
catch people up on
angelus temple was the great church
built by
amy temple mcpherson how many people
here have heard of amy semple mcpherson
amy semple mcpherson was the most famous
she was a notable pentecostal
preacher and faith healer and
in 1924 she opened angelus temple
her great church that seeded more than the
the
crystal cathedral of robert schumer
seated about 5500 people and she filled
it two or three times
every sunday and often during the week
she was one of the most remarkable characters
characters
of her generation and if i ever get
invited back i can give you a very interesting
interesting
not helpful but very interesting uh
lecture on amy simple difference
and plastered on the front of her
uh temple are the words jesus christ the
same yesterday today and forever
and of course she was using that verse
to make the point that if jesus was a
healer yesterday
then he's a healer today because he's
the same
i think that was a as
as much as i like amy i think that was a
what what is the purpose of this verse
well what's the purpose of the book of hebrews
hebrews
it's to encourage christians to persevere
persevere
in their faith it's to encourage
christians who've become
doubting to continue to endure it's to
encourage particularly jewish christians
who are beginning to wonder
did we have it better off in the old religion
religion
not to begin to think that the old
temple is better than the heavenly temple
temple
not to think that the old sacrifices are
better than the sacrifice that jesus offered
offered
not to think that those beautifully
dressed high priests are not more significant
significant
than jesus our high priest
and so the appeal is what you once believed
believed
continue to believe and have confidence
in this
great truth jesus christ is the same
he's the same sacrifice the same savior
the same high priest
that you knew yesterday he is the same today
today
and he will be the same forever for you he
he
undergirds all of the promises of god
uh the greek of this verse is kind of
intriguing literally translated to be
jesus christ yesterday
it's as if the writer is sort of
primarily thinking as he begins that
verse about
yesterday and today and how what was
true yesterday is true today and what
you held on to yesterday you need to
hold on to today
and then he says and by the way it goes
on forever true
he remains forever the same
he is forever the yes to god's all prom
all of god's promises he is forever the one
one
who personally says to us
individually i will never leave you or
forsake you
he is the lord of whom david said the lord
lord
is my helper and so so jesus
is the one who undergirds
all of our promises from god who is
we might say the face of all of those
promises the assurance
of all of those promises and it is
jesus of course who sends his own spirit
to witness in our hearts
that we are the children of god sends a
spirit to take those promises and bring
them to our minds and apply them to our
hearts to assure us
now maybe when i read this passage you
were very attentive
and you thought to yourself isn't there
an awful lot
in this passage that seems to imply the
i see some of you were thinking then
aren't there warnings in this passage
aren't there warnings about falling away
aren't there directives that we're
instructed we must uphold
doesn't that mean that these promises
are only good
as long as we are following the directives
no but what it does mean
is that assurance
if this is a helpful expression must be
that is assurance is experienced
in our living before god
promises are part of our living before
god that build our assurance and our
sense of his
warnings are part of that
directives are part of that
precisely because we think robert
bellerman was wrong
assurance is not set over against
directives from god or warnings from god
but assurance
recognizes that god's warnings
and god's directives are part of the way
in which he will
to preserve us and to bring us
and to restore us and to renew us in
that confidence
you see this section of scripture i read begin
begin
with a directive doesn't it see to it
that you do not refuse him who is speaking
and just because you have assurance
doesn't mean that you have now floated
above the realm in which it is necessary
to hear the word of god
why is that because we have a
personal relationship with god
we're part of god's family it's like a family
my mother once said to me when she was
giving me some advice
well you may be 60 but you're still my child
child
and i will always be your mother
and she was quite convinced i would
and something a little more profound
happens with our heavenly father
with whom we have a personal
relationship the the great
danger of so much religion is that we
make our relationship with god something mechanical
mechanical
god puts in one piece of the machine and
i put in another piece of the machine
and if you get the pieces
coordinated right it just runs
automatically forever that's not
what our relationship with god is like
it's not what he wants our relationship
with him to be like it's a personal
relationship it's a familial relationship
relationship
that means we need advice we need
direction we continue to need that
so don't refuse him who is speaking to you
you
and realize that if you were
permanently to refuse him
there would be judgment that's a real warning
it doesn't imply that you'll really fall
that there are real consequences to
actions you have to really think about that
and left to ourselves we would fall away
it's not just that we might fall away or
that we could fall away
the truth is left to ourselves we would
fall away
we are in constant need of god's grace
of god's presence of god's word
of god speaking of god's imperatives of
god's warnings
so that we'll be constantly built up in
the faith what did
what did god do when david became such a gross
gross
sinner he sent him his word didn't he
in the person of nathan the prophet
because we can know that we are god's
own children
it doesn't mean all of a sudden we don't
and so this passage is is almost
it's sort of what a kid experiences as
he's about to leave for college
and you're walking towards the car and
mom and dad have
so many one more things it's very hard
you know and here we have you know
directions about
marriage and directions about strangers
and directions about going to prison and
directions about
money boy it's a it's a it's a very
and and we need help in all those areas
from the word of god
and and so it's from the word of god and
from the community of god's people you
notice there's
instructions here about our relationship
to the church and the leadership of the church
if god's irresistible grace has
regenerated my heart because of the
saving work of jesus for me
if i have the promise that god will
never leave me or forsake me
well they need employment you want to
what we need them for is that we remain
weak now they're weak too
but they're called to an office
they help us see that that we are part
the whole scripture reminds us over and
one of my very favorite phrases in the
heidelberg catechism
uh relative to the second commandment
and and idolatry but i think
good to apply to the whole christian
life the catechism says
we must not be wiser than god
isn't that a great phrase we must not be
wiser than god
any time you think you can do it better
than the bible tells you to do it you're
trying to be wiser than god
and the bible says we need the church
christ established his church
and and we need the fellowship of his
people but we also need the structure
of his organization
you know that's why presbyterians have
ministers and elders to rule over the church
it's not just a sort of sociological thing
it's because that's how we read the
scripture about how christ
has structured his church we need
discipline we need structure
we need leadership honor your leaders
obey your leaders
follow them in the lord the scripture says
says
why is that it's one of the ways that
we're built up
now you ever noticed if you
for some reason perhaps illness you're
forced to
miss church services don't you find a
kind of
something's missing and if that were to
go on
in a prolonged period of time
we wouldn't be nourished the way we need
to be nourished
i've had some ministers come to me and
say you know i worked so hard at sermons
and it seems to me
week in and week out i don't know
and and i've i've thought a lot about
that because of course it's true
a good minister works really hard at his
sermons puts in a lot of hours
and it can be very tempting to think
where did all that time and energy go
somebody comes a month later and asks me
a question and i think to myself
i covered that a month ago and i know
you were there
i even saw you taking notes what is
going on here
and what i say to young ministers is um
think about it as a mother
making food for children you work really
hard at that you plan you think about
health more importantly i hope you think
about sugar and
but whether the meal is meager and
slapped together or
glorious and a huge amount of time
invested in it
a month later not too many people
remember did that make it unimportant
they don't remember my meals i'm not
going to feed them anymore what would be
the fruit of that
you see god has set things up
brilliantly helpfully
majestically and we need
all the helps he's given us we need the
help of his word we need the help of prayer
prayer
we need the help of fellowship we need
the help of the structure of the church
and in those helps that come to teach us
to keep on living for christ
foundationally of these promises
that should keep coming back to us that
should keep
reinvigorating us that should keep
restoring us that should keep helping us
in the great struggles of life i will
never leave you or forsake you
the lord is my helper i will not fear
what can man do to me
jesus christ
yesterday and today the same and forever
that's our hope that's our confidence
may god
fill us with the grace of perseverance
and strengthen us by his promises thank
you very much do we have time for
there's always the awkward pause in
which the speaker thinks all they're
dr ferguson is here and he would be glad
to answer uh
about robert bellermann in particular yes
right i think that's very important the
question is are we uh
really as the chapter 12 instructs us
grateful for having received a kingdom
that that's part of what is required of
us to live by faith
is that we are constantly coming back
not only
to hope in the kingdom we'll one day see
but to live by faith as citizens of the
kingdom that has already
been established because scripture
doesn't say jesus
will be lord of lords and kings of kings
he says jesus is
the lord of lords and king of kings
revelation begins by saying he
is the ruler of the kings of the earth
right now
and uh we don't yet see everything
in subjection to christ but everything is
is
in subjection to christ and that's
another those great comforts and
encouragements to us
think yes the term perseverance of the saints
saints
has a connotation has implications
uh healthier than the contemporary term eternal
yes the question is is the term uh
perseverance of the saints more helpful
than the more widely used term today
eternal security and the answer is yes i
think it's true
eternal security is true but it does imply
imply
a certain passivity um and i i think if
you want to try to get
um everything in the phrase it's good to
say the
preservation and perseverance of the saints
saints
because as we are active in
sanctification even though
we're sanctified by grace we have to be
active in sanctification
and so we are active in perseverance and
god does preserve us but he preserves us
in the activity
of fellowship study prayer all of those
i'm having trouble hearing you there's
this fan right behind me
do you think that the reason we lose
hope sometimes
is because we are so focused in building
right that's a great question the
question is
are we sometimes so involved in what
we're doing here and focused on what
we're building as a kingdom for
ourselves here
that we're distracted from the kingdom
of heaven and and you notice that
the promise is introduced here precisely
in the context
of uh keeping us free from the love of
money and being content with what you have
have
as a as a christian um
and and yeah i think you know one of the
american temptations
is that we have so many things that are
so good
in this country that we begin to think
can heaven really be better
and then we we grab on to this life and
to the things of this life
and to the things that the world tells
us are really important in life
and it can definitely be a worldly distraction
distraction
from pursuing the heavenly kingdom
trusting the promises of the heavenly
kingdom and knowing that we have that
heavenly life already yeah
i think maybe we better close there and
let's uh let's close in prayer together
father we are so thankful for the rich
truths of your word and the promises
that assure us as your people that you
are for us
and that you will preserve us and that whatever
whatever
struggles we face you are
with us in them and so we we pray for
those here today who are struggling
whether it's with health or with sin or
with doubt
or with all of the misery that can come
into this world
and we pray that these promises would
comfort them would
reassure them would draw them closer to you
you
and how we do rejoice that jesus christ
is the same yesterday today and forever
and now as we look forward to worshiping
you as we look forward to the
proclamation of your word we
pray your blessing on those who will
lead us in the service we pray your
blessing on
on the message we pray with thanksgiving
for the sabbath day as a day apart
to turn our hearts and our minds to you
and to be built up in faith
so work by your spirit among us and help
us we pray
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