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T.U.L.I.P.
PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
Text: Being confident of this very thing, that
He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ: Even as it is meet for me to think
this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as
both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the
gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace."
(Philippians 1:6, 7).
INTRODUCTION
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The work of grace in saving a lost soul from
hell-fire is a good work of God, a blessed work; for it makes
us good, and is an earnest of good to us. It makes us servants
of God, and fits us for the enjoyment in serving God. That may
well be called a good work which does us the greatest good.
The new nature is kept alive between the jaws of death,
preserved by the power of God from instant destruction; by no
power less than divine could its existence be continued. The
enlightened Christian sees himself to be like a traveler,
standing on the narrow summit of a lofty ridge; on the right
hand and on the left are gulfs unfathomable, yawning for his
destruction, if it were not that by divine grace his feet are
made like hinds feet, so that he is able to stand upon his
high places, he would long ere this have fallen to his eternal
destruction.
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Wherever this good work is begun it is of God's
beginning. We could not begin it ourselves, for we are by
nature dead in trespasses and sins: and what can dead men do
towards raising themselves to life; or how can they begin to
act till they are enlivened in the same respect in which they
are said to be dead, Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13.
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The work of grace is but begun in this life, it
is not finished here; as long as we are in this imperfect
state theere is something more to be done. We have seen too
many professors of religion thus fall. It is the great and
standing grief of the Missionary Baptist Church, that so many
in her midst become apostates, It is true they are not truly
of the family of God, but before hand it is not possible for
the church to know this.
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If the same God who begins the good work did
not undertake the carrying on and finishing of it, it would
lie forever unfinished. He must perform it who began it. We
may be confident, or well persuaded, that God not only will
not forsake, but that He will finish and crown the work of his
own hands. For, as for God, His work is perfect The work of
grace will never be perfected till the day of Jesus Christ,
the day of His appearance. When He shall come to judge the
world, and finish His mediation, then His work will be
complete, and the top-stone will be brought forth with
shouting.
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The Apostle Paul expresses the ardent affection
he had for the members of the Philippians Missionary Baptist
Church, and his concern for their spiritual welfare. Why he
had them in his heart? That is, they had received benefit by
him and by his ministry; they were partakers of that grace God
which by him, and through his hands, was communicated to them.
This makes people dear to their ministers—their
receiving benefit by their ministry.
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He loved them because they adhered to him in
his bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel:
they were as ready to appear in their places, and according to
their capacity, for the defense of the gospel, as the Apostle
was in his, and therefore he had them in his heart. The truest
mark of respect towards our ministers is receiving and abiding
by the doctrine they preach. By this it appeared that he had
them in his heart, because he had a good opinion of them and
good hopes concerning them. It is very proper to think the
best of other people, and as well as we can of them to suppose
as well of them as the matter will admit in all cases.
I. LET US EXPOUND THE
APOSTLE PAUL'S OWN WORDS
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He speaks of a good work of God commenced in
"all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi."
Philippians 1:1. By this he intended the work of grace in the
soul of all the saints through all ages which is the operation
of the Holy Spirit. This is eminently a good work, since it
works nothing but good in the heart that is the subject of it.
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To bring a man from darkness into light is
good, to deliver him from the bondage of his natural
corruption, and make him the Lord's free man, must be good; it
is good for himself, it is good for society, it is good for
the Missionary Baptist Church of God, it is good for the glory
of God himself.
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It is so good a thing, that he who receives it
becomes the heir of all good, and moreover, the advocate and
author of further good. This good is the best that a man can
receive. To make a man healthy in body and wealthy in estate,
to educate his mind. and train his faculties, all these are
good, but in comparison with the salvation of the soul, they
sink into insignificance. The work of sanctification is a good
work in the highest possible sense, since it influences a man
by good motives, sets him on good works, introduces him among
good men, gives him fellowship with good angels. Moreover, the
inner life is a good work, because it springs and originates
from the pure goodness of God. As it is always good to show
mercy, so it is pre-eminently good on God's part to work upon
sinful and fallen men, so as to renew them again after the
image of Him that created them.
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The work of grace has its root in the divine
goodness of the Father, it is planted by the self-denying
goodness of the Son, and it is daily watered by the goodness
of the Holy Spirit; it springs from good and leads to good,
and so it is altogether good. The Apostle Paul calls it a
"work," and, in the deepest sense, it is indeed a work to
convert and save a lost soul by God.
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If Niagara Falls in Canada could suddenly be
made to leap upward instead of forever dashing downward from
its rocky height, it were not such a miracle as to change the
perverse will and the raging passions of men. To wash the
Negro white, or remove the leopard's spots, is proverbially a
difficulty, yet these are but surface works; to renew the very
core of manhood, and tear sin from its hold upon man's heart,
this is not alone the finger of God, but the baring of His
arm. Conversion is a work comparable to the making of a world.
He only who fashioned the heavens and the earth could create a
new nature. It is a work that is not to be paralleled, it is
unique and unrivalled, seeing that Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, must all cooperate in it; for to implant the new
nature in the Christian, there must be the decree of the
Eternal Father, the death of the ever-blessed Son, and the
fullness of the operation of the adorable Holy Spirit. It is a
work indeed by God.
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The Apostle Paul affirms that this good work
was begun by God. He was evidently no believer in those
remarkable powers which some theologians ascribe to man's free
will; he was no worshipper of that modern Diana of the
Ephesians. He declares that the good work was begun by God,
from which we gather that the faintest gracious desire which
ultimately blossoms into the fragrant flower of earnest prayer
and humble faith, is the work of God.
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If you could develop what is in the heart of
man, you would produce a devil, for that is the spirit which
worketh in the children of disobedience; develop that carnal
mind which is enmity against God, and cannot by any
possibility be reconciled to Him, and the result is Hell. The
fact is, that the divine life has departed from the natural
man; man is dead in sin, and life must come to him from the
Giver of Life, or he must remain dead forevermore. The work
that is in the soul of a true Christian is not of his own
beginning, but is commenced by the Lord.
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The Apostle Paul's main drift in Philippians
1:6 is that this good work which is begun in the believers by
God, which can only be further performed by God, most
certainly will be so carried on. You observe he declares
himself to be confident of this truth. Why did Paul need to
write so positively, "being confident of this very thing?"
Surely, as an inspired man, he might simply have written, "He
which hath begun a good work in you!" but he gives us over and
above the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the confidence which
had been wrought in him as the result of his own personal
faith.
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If the Lord began the good work of salvation,
why should He not carry it on and finish it? If He stays His
hand, what can be the motive? When a man commences a work of
building a house, and leaves it half complete, it is often
from want of power; men say of the unfinished building, "This
man began to build, and was not able to finish." Want of
forethought, or want of ability, must have stayed the work;
but can you suppose the Triune God, the Omnipotent, ceasing
from a work because of unforeseen difficulty which He is not
able to overcome? He sees the end from the beginning, He is
Almighty God; His arm is not shortened; nothing is too hard
for Him. It were a base reflection upon the wisdom and power
of God, to believe that He has entered upon a work which He
will not in due time conduct to a happy conclusion.
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Notice the time mentioned in Philippians 1:6—the
good work is to be perfected in the day of Christ; by which we
suppose is intended the Second Corning of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Christian will not be perfected until the Lord
shall descend from heaven with a shout with the trump of the
archangel, and the voice of God. But how you say concerning
those who have died before His coming? How is it with them? We
answer, their souls are doubtless perfect and made mete to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; but Holy
Scripture does not regard a man as perfect when the soul is
perfected, it regards his body as being a part of himself, and
as the body will not rise again from the grave till the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, when we shall be revealed in the
perfection of our whole being, even as He will be revealed,
that day of the Second Coming is set as the day of the
finished work which God has begun, when without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing, body, soul, and spirit, shall see
the face of God with acceptance, and forever and ever rejoice
in the pleasures which are at God's right hand.
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This is what we are looking forward to, that
God who taught us to repent, will sanctify us wholly; that He
who made the briny tear to flow, will wipe every tear from
that selfsame eye; that He who made us gird ourselves with the
sackcloth and the ashes of penitence, will yet gird us with
the fair white-linen which is the righteousness of the saints;
He who brought us to the cross will bring us to the crown; He
who made us look upon Him whom we pierced and mourn because of
Him, will cause us to see the King in His beauty, and the land
that is very far off.
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The same dear hand that smote and afterwards
healed, will in the latter days caress us; He who looked upon
us when we were dead in sin, and called us into spiritual
life, will continue to regard us with favor till our life
shall be consummated in the land where there is no more death,
neither sorrow nor sighing. Such is the truth which the text
in Philippians 1:6 evidently teaches us.
II. GROUND FOR OUR BELIEF
IN THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
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Our first ground shall be the express teaching
of the Holy Bible. To quote all the Scriptural passages which
teach that the saints shall hold on their way, would be to
quote a large proportion of the Scripture, for, to our minds,
Scripture is saturated through and through with this truth;
and we have often said that if any man could convince us the
Holy Bible did teach the perseverance of believers, we would
at once reject Scripture altogether as teaching nothing at
all, as being an incomprehensible book, of which a plain man
could make neither head nor tail, for this seems to be of all
doctrines the one that lies most evidently upon the surface.
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"The righteous also shall hold on his way, and
he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger" (Job
17:9). Not, "the righteous shall be saved, let him do what he
will." That we never believed, and never shall, but "the
righteous shall hold on his way." His way of holiness, his way
of devotion, his way of faith He shall hold to that, and he
shall make a growth meanwhile, for he that hath clean hands
shall add "strength to strength shall be stronger and
stronger."
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"They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount
Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. As the
mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round
about His people from henceforth even forever." (Psalm
125:1,2). Here are two specimen ears pulled out of these rich
sheaves which are to be found in the Old Testament. As for the
New Testament, how peremptory are the words of Christ, "And I
give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father,
which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to
pluck them out of my Father's hand" (John 10:28, 29).
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"For the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance" (Romans 11:29). That is, whatever gifts the Lord
gives, He never repents of having given them so as to take
them back again; and whatever calling He makes of any man, He
never retracts it, but He stands to it still. There is playing
fast and loose in divine mercy; His gifts and calling are
without repentance.
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"Who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter
1:5). The Apostle Peter, who is in no way given to administer
too much comfort to the saints, but deals very sternly with
hypocrisy, has put it very strongly.
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In addition to the express testimonies of
Scripture, we have to support this doctrine all the attributes
of God, for if those who have believed in Christ are not
saved, then surely all the attributes of God are in peril; if
he begins and does not finish His work, all the parts of His
character are dishonored. Where is His wisdom? Why did He
begin that which He did not intend to finish? Where is His
power? Will not evil spirits always say, "that He could not do
what He did not do?" Will it not be a standing jeer throughout
the halls of Hell that God commenced the work and then stayed
from it? Will they not say that the obstinacy of man's sin was
greater than the grace of God, that the adamant of the human
heart was too hard for God to dissolve? And what shall we say
of the immutability of God, if He casts away those whom He
loves? How shall we think that He does not change?
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The doctrine of the atonement, as we hold it,
and believe it to be in Scripture, is this—that
our Lord Jesus Christ rendered to divine justice a
satisfaction for the sins of His people; that He was punished
in their room, and place, and stead. Now if He were so, and we
do not believe any other atonements worth the turn of a
finger, if He was really our satisfactory vicarious sacrifice,
then how could the child of God be cast into Hell? His sins
were laid on Christ, what is to condemn Him? Christ has been
condemned in his stead. In the name of everlasting justice,
which must stand, though heaven and earth should rock and
reel, how can a man for whom Christ shed His blood be held
guilty before God, when Christ took his guilt and was punished
in his stead? He who believes, must surely be ultimately
brought to glory, the atonement requires it; and since he
cannot come to glory without persevering in holiness, he must
so persevere, or else the atonement is a thing that has no
efficacy and force.
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The doctrine of justification, in the next
place, proves this. Every man that believes in Jesus Christ is
justified from all things, from which he could not be
justified by the Law of Moses. The Apostle Paul regards a man
who is justified as being completely set free from the
possibility of accusation. Have you not the rolling thunder of
the Apostle's Holy boasting still in our ears: "Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifieth" (Romans 8:33, 34). If nothing can be laid to their
charge, if there be no accuser, who is he that condemneth? If
God considers believers just and righteous through the
righteousness of His dear Son, if they put on his wondrous
mantle, the fair white linen of a Savior's righteousness,
where is there room for anything to be brought against them by
which they can be condemned? And if not accused, nor
condemned, they must hold on their way, and be saved.
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Further still, the intercession of Christ in
heaven is a guarantee for the salvation of all who trust Him.
Remember Peters case: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan bath
desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat; but I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32). And the
prayer of Christ preserved Peter, and made him weep bitterly
after he had fallen into sin. The like prayer of our ever
watchful Shepherd is put up for all His chosen: day and night
He pleads, wearing the breastplate as our great High Priest
before the throne; and if He pleads for His people, how shall
they perish unless indeed His intercession has lost its
authority?
III. WE HAVE TO DRAW CERTAIN
USEFUL INFERENCES FROM THIS DOCTRINE
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There is much in this truth
by way of comfort to a child of God who today walks in darkness
and sees no light. You know that sometime ago the Lord revealed Himself to you; you remember times when the promises were
peculiarly sweet, when the person of Christ was revealed to your
spiritual vision in all its glory; then, beloved, if some
temporary depression of spirit should just now overwhelm you if
some heavy personal trial should pass over you, hear you the
words, "For I am the Lord, I change not. therefore ye sons of
Jacob are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6). Believe that if He hides
His face, He loves you still. Do not judge Him by the outward
providences, judge Him by the teaching of His word.
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It suggest to every
Christian the need of constant diligence, that he may persevere to
the end. If the man is to be kept in holiness till life's end,
surely there is need that he should be kept in holiness; and the
doctrine that he shall be so kept is one of his best means of
producing the desired result. If any of you should be well
assured that, in a certain line of business, you would make a
vast sum of money, would that confidence lead you to refuse that
business, would it lead you to lie in bed all day, or to desert
your post altogether? No, the assurance that you would be
diligent and would prosper would make you diligent.
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Let us learn from the text
in Philippians 1:6 how to persevere. Brethren, you will observe
that the Apostle Paul's reason for believing that the members of
the Philippians Missionary Baptist Church would persevere to the
end was not because they were such good and earnest people, but
because God had begun the work. So our ground for holding on
must be our resting in God.
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This doctrine has a voice
to the unconverted. If anything in this world first led us to
desire to be a Christian, it was the doctrine of the
perseverance of the saints. Does not this attract you? We hope
there may be some who will be allured by such a salvation as
this. We preach no rickety gospel which will not bear your
weight; it is no chariot whose axles will snap, or whose wheels
will be taken off. This is no foundation of sand that may sink
in the day of the flood. Here is the everlasting God pledging
Himself by covenant and oath, and He will write His law in your
heart, that you shall not depart from him; He will keep you,
that you shall not wonder into sin, and if for awhile you stray,
He will restore you again to the paths of righteousness.
CONCLUSION
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There is no fear that the
righteous should turn back to sin, and give themselves up to
their old corruption, for the holiness that is in Christ by the
vital energy of the Holy Spirit, penetrates the entire system of
the spiritual body, and the least member is preserved by the
life of Christ.
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Once more, the inner life
of the Christian is a guarantee that he shall not go back into
sin. Take such passages as these, "Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter 1:23. Now, if this
seed be incorruptible, and liveth, and abideth forever, how say
some among you that the righteous become corrupt, and fall from
grace?
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We leave the doctrine with
your understandings, the word of God being in your hands, and
may the Holy Spirit put it beyond a doubt in your souls that is
even so. Remember, it is not the doctrine that every man that
believes in Christ shall be saved, let him do as he wants, but it
is this doctrine: that each man believing in Jesus shall receive
the spirit of holiness, and shall be led on in the way of
holiness from strength to strength until He comes unto the
perfection which God will work in us at the coming of His own
dear Son.
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All who are chosen by God,
redeemed by Christ, and given faith by the Spirit are eternally
saved. They are kept in faith by the power of Almighty God and
thus persevere to the end. Salvation is accomplished by the
almighty power of the Triune God. The Father chose a people, the
Son died for them, the Holy Spirit makes Christ's death
effective by bringing the elect to faith and repentance, thereby
causing them to willingly obey the gospel. The entire process
(election, redemption, regeneration) is the work of God and is
by grace alone. Thus God, not man, determines who will be the
recipients of the gift of salvation.
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