In the Words of Paul, Part 1

Acknowledging the Need for the Holy Spirit and Introducing the Series

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, April 25th, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us once again consciously, in the presence of God, acknowledge our individual as well as our corporate need, the present aid of the Holy Spirit as we seek to understand the Word of God. Let us all with one heart seek the face of God in prayer. Our Father, as we come to open again your holy and infallible Word, we are frightened when we read in that Word that the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith. Oh, fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written. Our Father, we confess.

1:09 We confess the tendency to folly and to slowness of heart, that we have all too often heard the Word without profit because we did not mix it with faith. And so we come in this conscious acknowledgement of our need and pray that for the sake of your beloved Son, that he may see of the travail of his soul in this people and be satisfied. Do come. Do come to us. Make the Word effectual as we go on in our studies of this vital doctrine that touches us at every turn in our Christian experience. Oh, Lord, may we think your thoughts after you. Hear us and help us, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Framework of Salvation and the Denial of Perseverance

2:04 Now, as I indicated last Lord's Day morning, having completed our verse-by-verse study, in the book of Philippians, before we take up again the study of another book of Holy Scripture in our morning expositions, I have been constrained to bring several brief series of messages. And the first of these series has to do with the biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, or more accurately stated, the necessity as well as the certainty of our continuance in faith, in holiness and in obedience if we hope to enter heaven at last. Now all that we consider, as I indicated last Lord's Day, must be set in the context of the teaching of the Bible with respect to the great doctrine of salvation. Deliverance from sin and its consequences, which is what salvation is, is set before us in the Bible as a blessing

3:23 which in all of its parts is all of grace. Salvation is all of grace. That is, it is not by human merit. It is rooted, it finds its source in the free disposition of God to be kind to sinners. Furthermore, the Bible teaches that salvation in all of its parts is all of God. From election in eternity and to glorification at the second coming, it is God who chooses, God who calls, God who justifies, God who glorifies. And then thirdly, the Bible teaches us that salvation in all of its parts is all of grace. Christ, its meritorious grounds are to be found in the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so any thinking about any aspect of the doctrine of salvation that does not

4:31 begin with this framework is doomed to fail. Salvation is all of grace, all of God, and all of Christ. And yet the same Bible which sets that truth before us, sets before us the truth that only those who persevere in the way of faith, holiness, and obedience are indeed the recipients of that salvation which is all of grace, all of God, and all of Christ. Now there are many who profess to believe the Bible that do not believe that. For instance, I hold in my hands a booklet put out by a publishing concern that prides itself in believing in the word of God as the word of God, and the author of this particular pamphlet says, quote, the Bible teaches and I believe in the eternal security of the born-again believer, the man who has trusted Jesus Christ has everlasting life and will never perish. And to that I trust each of us can say a hearty amen. But now listen to the next statement.

5:57 But the eternal security of the believer does not depend upon his perseverance. I do not know a single Bible verse that says, that says anything about the saints persevering. But there are several Bible verses that mention the fact that the saints have been preserved. Perseverance is one thing.

6:24 Preservation is another. No, the saints do not persevere. They are preserved, end quote.

6:36 And so when I assert that this doctrine is vital, that precious, few people understand it, and even fewer believe it, I am not creating a straw dummy. I am not creating a straw man. We are dealing with something which is misunderstood openly and blatantly denied by some, and my great concern in this congregation, a truth which may perhaps intellectually be believed by not a few, but whose lifestyle does not prove that it is spiritually believed and regulative of spiritual experience. And so what I have attempted to do thus far is to take some of the pivotal text from the teaching of our Lord as recorded in the Gospels. Texts which set forth the necessity of the saints' perseverance. And we looked at about eight or nine of those texts.

7:41 And we looked at about eight or nine of those texts. And we looked at about eight or nine of those texts. And we looked at about eight or nine pivotal texts from the Gospels last Lord's Day, each of which points in this one direction, the saints must persevere. Only those who endure to the end shall be saved at the end.

The Authority of Paul's Words and Romans 2:7-10 on Judgment by Works

8:02 Only those who continue to bring forth fruit with patience have any grounds to believe they have truly embraced the power of the Lord. embrace the word in a good and an honest heart. Now we come today to the second major division or collation category of collation of the biblical materials. Having considered the words of our Lord in the gospel records pointing to the necessity of perseverance, we consider today the words of our Lord through the Apostle Paul, which point in the same direction. And then, God willing, in the next study, the words of our Lord through the writers of what we generally call the general epistles, Hebrews 1 and 2 Peter, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and the book of Jude. Now then, today, some of the key texts in the letters of the Apostle Paul, which constitute the words of our Lord. Lord through the Apostle, and I use that terminology because the words of Paul in the scriptures are the words of our Lord Jesus, and he was conscious of that, for he wrote in 1st Corinthians 14, 37, if any among you seemeth to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that

9:25 the things which I say unto you are the commandments of the Lord. Or 1st Thessalonians 2, 13, God be thanked that when you receive the word of the Lord, you will receive the word of the Lord. received the word of God from us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is indeed the word of God. And so I don't like red-letter Bibles unless you make all of it red, for it's all the word of the Lord Jesus. And our great prophet speaks to us not only in his word as recorded in the gospel records, but in the epistles as well. Now open to the book of Romans, if you will, please. And we're going to look at three or four pivotal texts in this great epistle of salvation by grace, in which the apostle speaks of the necessity of perseverance in faith and holiness and obedience unto the end, if indeed we would be saved. Now those of you familiar with Paul's letter to the Romans will know that it is the closest thing, we have, to a systematic treatise of the great doctrines of the grace of God. In the opening

10:41 chapters, he deals with the subject of human sinfulness, and then he goes on to expound the doctrine of justification and sanctification and the work of the Spirit, and on into the practical implications of those great truths. But now in this epistle, so full of the doctrines of salvation, which is all of grace, all of God, and all of Christ, there are three or four of the strongest statements on the necessity of perseverance to be found anywhere in all the writings of Paul. And I think that's very significant. Whatever we deduce from the doctrines of salvation by grace, we must never deduce what this author has deduced. I believe in eternal security. I do not believe that the saints need to persevere. The apostle believed no such combination of things. Turn, please, to Romans chapter 2. In this chapter,

11:50 he introduces the subject of the judgment of God, beginning with verse 5.

12:04 In the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works, the day of judgment will find men being dealt with according to their works. And in that day, the works of men will find them divided into two distinct categories. Notice verse 7.

12:34 That by patience, steadfastness, or we might translate, to them that by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, for such eternal life. But unto them that are factious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation, and death. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that works evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to every man that works good to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no respect of persons with God. Now, the apostle here tells us that the day of judgment, God's judgment at the last day will be based upon the works of men. And in that day, men's works will come under one of two categories. Either the category of verse 7, which

13:55 is expanded again in verse 10, or the category of verse 8. Now, those who are truly set upon obtaining eternal life according to this passage, they will attain it only in one course, by continuance in well-doing. You see the language? To them that by patience or endurance or perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruption, to them and to them alone, eternal life.

14:35 Eternal life will be conferred in its full and final and consummate dimensions in the day of judgment. And those who are factious, who do not obey the truth, notice, they have come into contact with the truth, either by general or special revelation, but they have not given up themselves to the power and the influence of truth. They do not obey the truth.

15:07 That's not my language, it's biblical language. But to them that are factious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, that is, they obey those dictates of the world, the flesh and the devil, which move in a path contrary to holiness, shall be wrath, indignation, tribulation, and anguish, like the body of a beast. Notice the accumulation of the vigorous words upon every soul of man who works evil. There is no suggestion of annihilation. There is no suggestion of anything other than all of the horrendous language of the Bible that draws to the doctrine of hell, and it's all compressed in these words, wrath, indignation, tribulation, and anguish, that draws to the doctrine of hell, and it's all to these words, wrath, indignation, tribulation, and anguish, that draws to the doctrine of hell, and it's indignation, tribulation, anguish upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory, honor, and peace, the consummate blessings of salvation to every man who works good.

16:29 Now the apostle is not at this point in the epistle teaching the grounds upon which a sinner finds acceptance with God. He is not dealing with the motives which prompt a man to a life of holiness and obedience. He is not treating anything to do with the power by which a man perseveres in the course of doing good. These are not the issues at stake.

17:01 The issue in focus is this. In the day...

17:04 In the day of judgment, God will render to every man according to his deeds. His deeds will be the indisputable evidence of the true state of his heart, of the motives and perspectives which regulated his life. Now in the case of those who persevere in well-doing, yes, it is gospel motives, it is gospel powers, it is gospel dynamism that has made them such, but that's not his concern. At this...

17:34 At this point, he simply states the fact none shall be granted eternal life in the last day but those who seek it in a way of continuing in doing good. Now if your Bible says anything with clarity, it says precisely that, as does mine.

17:58 Now Wilson, in his lovely, helpful little commentary, and I do commend these commentaries to you if you're not familiar with them, let me quote, let me quote what Wilson says on this very passage. In this passage, it does not fall within the scope of the Apostle's purpose to explain the dynamic, that is, the power, the impulse from which these good works spring. For that, see chapter 3, 21 and following. His present design is to prove to the Jew the complete impartiality of the divine administration.

18:35 When this section is interpreted, it is teaching salvation by works. Paul's teaching becomes involved in a hopeless self-contradiction. Against that, it is sufficient to note that the heavenly aspirations which characterize the righteous are not found in a hard and impenitent heart, verse 5, they are the fruit of a restored relationship to God. It is true that many idly dream of glory and honor and immortality, but obediently, and persevering are the invariable marks of those who cherish a living hope.

19:16 Such continuance in well-doing is the indispensable condition for the attainment of eternal life.

Application of Romans 2: The Seriousness of Continuance in Well-Doing

19:27 Now, my friend, do you believe that? Sitting here this morning, do you believe with every fiber of your being that if you do not continue, continue in well-doing, you're going to go to hell at the end of the road? Do you really believe that? With every fiber of your being, do you believe that?

19:51 If you do, then how will you react to anything that stands in the way of your continuance in well-doing? If you believe that the only way to eternal life is by the path of continuance in well-doing, what will be your future? you do in the presence of anything or anybody that would impede you in traveling that path?

20:25 How will you treat that person or that thing? You'll treat that person or thing with holy vengeance as the mortal enemy of your soul. And that's why I'm convinced some of you don't believe this, because you are not treating people and things that stand in your way of continuance and well-doing with holy vengeance. You are coddling and fondling to your best the very people and things which are turning you out of the way of continuance and well-doing and are going to land you in hell unless you repent. And it doesn't care what you profess, when you stand before Almighty God, and He's going to render to you according to your works.

21:21 Your works, not your profession. Your works, that's what it says, who will render to every man according to his works.

21:32 And what are your works in the accumulation, but your works in the individual decisions that are made. When you sit down in front of your television and something begins to come into the eye gate that will impede you in continuance in purity of mind, what do you sit and look for in your eyes?

22:03 What did you do last week? What do you know you ought to do? What does your conscience say is the proper course? What have you done?

22:15 That's the issue.

22:19 When you have felt resentment and envy and lust and pride welling up in your heart, what did you do?

22:29 Did you cry to the Lord, Lord, Lord Jesus, take this from me. This that is an abomination in your sight, an impediment to a life of holiness. Did you entertain it? Welcome it?

22:44 Let it fester. Brood over it.

22:50 The works, in the specifics of the past week, do they indicate that you're seeking for eternal life in the only path in which God says it comes? Continuance in well-doing? My friend, if you're seeking it in another path you're in for a terrible surprise.

23:07 You try to get to Hazelton by staying on Route 287 to the end and you ain't never going to make it to Hazelton.

23:16 You've got to take Route 80 West.

23:19 You'll never get there by taking Route 287 South. You hope to get to heaven because you've made a profession. You've cleaned up your act enough to get into the membership of Trinity Baptist Church and you keep it clean enough that you don't come under the official discipline of the church. But you are not with all of your friends.

23:37 You are with your being continuing in well-doing. You've found all the little areas where you can compromise your conscience and still maintain the credibility of your profession.

23:53 My friend, you're not going to deal with your elders in the Day of Judgment. You're going to deal with God who knows the whole story. May God help us to take this word seriously. Now pass over, please, into the 6th chapter of Romans for a second.

Romans 6:22-23 on Fruit Unto Holiness and Eternal Life

24:21 Pivotal text with regard to this whole subject of the necessity of perseverance as taught by the Apostle.

24:33 The 6th chapter begins with the question, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound, having demonstrated that the ground of our acceptance with God is not our works but the work of another? Paul then takes what we would call the devil's logic right from someone's mouth. Someone would say, Well, how?

24:54 If we're saved by the doing of another, what we do makes no difference. So let's go ahead and go on sinning. And then the more we sin, the more God will magnify His grace by covering and pardoning our sin on the basis of what Christ did. So let's continue in sin that grace may abound.

25:09 Paul says, God forbid. He said there is something in the whole dynamic of how we receive salvation that makes that an utter impossibility. And it's the great doctrine of union with Christ. No one is saved from the condemnation of sin apart from being saved by the grace of God.

25:24 No one is saved from being united to Christ by faith. And if we're united to Christ by faith, and I'm summarizing now the teaching of Romans 6, we are united with Him in the virtue of His death, His burial, and His resurrection. And we too have died with Him to the dominion of sin. We too have risen with Him to newness of life.

25:45 Now having opened up that great truth in some of its practical implicates, now notice verse 22 of Romans 6. 22 and 23.

25:57 But now being made free from sin, that is from sin's dominion, not sinlessly perfect, but being made free from sin in the sense he's been describing in this chapter, and become servants to God. That's conversion. You get a new master. Sin is dethroned.

26:21 The living God is enthroned. Being made free, free from sin, and become slaves to God, you are having your fruit unto holiness or sanctification, and the end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now do you see the richness of this passage?

26:54 It tells, tells us in no uncertain terms that salvation is all of grace. It's the free gift of God. It is all of Christ. Look at the language of verse 23.

27:07 The free gift of God is eternal life where? In Christ Jesus our Lord. But that salvation which is all of grace and all of Christ is a salvation that brings us to eternal life by what path? A change of masters and a change of practice that sticks.

27:34 You see the passage? Look at it. Verse 22. Being now made free from sin and become servants to God, that's the change of masters that comes in a true conversion, you are having, present tense, your fruit, the general issue of your life, it is not unto self, unto the world, unto the flesh, but it is fruit unto, in the direction of, fruit issuing in sanctification and the end,

28:13 the end of spiritual experience that begins with true conversion, change of masters, a pattern of holiness, the end, eternal life. And if you, if you think you can have that end, bypassing the radical change of masters in true conversion and the proof of that change of masters by progressive and by adherent, progressive sanctification with adherence, my friend, you have an eternal life which God never gives to any sinner. For when he says in the next verse, but though the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, it is an eternal life which comes within the framework already described in verse 22. Change of masters, change of practice, eternal life. Now you say you have the free gift of life in Christ, do you? Is that your profession?

29:21 You have turned away from all confidence in your own works, in your own doing, in your own performance, and you've laid hold of Christ alone, is your hope of salvation. Is that your profession?

29:35 If that profession is real, the evidence will be that you're bringing forth fruit unto sanctification. Not perfectly, and sometimes more intensely than others, but the bent, the drift, the direction, the pattern, the issue of your life is the life that is separate unto God. And the apostle knows of no eternal life purchased by the doing and the dying of Christ that takes people to heaven by way of a path of carnal indulgence.

30:17 That's the devil's heaven which is in reality nothing but hell.

30:23 So if you say you're going to heaven without fruit unto holiness,

30:29 you've got to create your own heaven because that's not the one God's made.

Confronting False Security and the Love of Sin

30:35 Could anything be plainer? And yet a man who, who professes to be a teacher of the Bible says, the eternal security of the believer does not depend upon his perseverance. I don't know a single Bible verse that says anything about the saints persevering. What Bible is he reading?

30:56 My friend, what Bible do you read that lets you go on playing with those things that are not productive of holiness,

31:08 sweeping it under the rug of your so-called Christian liberty, sweeping it under the rug of your so-called freedom in Christ, sweeping it under the rug of saying well God knows and God understands and God this and God that. When the issue is this, you simply love those patterns of self-indulgence more than you love holiness. And it's proof that you love them more than you love holiness. You love them more than you love Christ.

31:38 Nobody who loves his sin and self more than Christ, And Christ goes to heaven when he dies.

31:46 Now turn over to Romans 8.

Romans 8:12-14 on Mortification of Sin and Sonship

31:50 All we're trying to demonstrate is the necessity of perseverance. That this is not something theoretical. This is actual. We're dealing with life and death matters.

32:05 In Romans chapter 8, we have that glorious statement at the beginning of the chapter. Here, many of us can remember this as one of the first verses we memorized after our conversion. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And for anyone who's known a condemning conscience under the whiplash of the law of God, what can be more precious than to come to that confident, settled conviction that if I am in Christ Jesus by faith, there is no condemnation, no condemnation now, no condemnation in death, no condemnation in the day of judgment, no condemnation of any kind, no legal liability for sins past, present, and future. They were swallowed up in that final cry. It is finished and forever buried in Joseph's tomb. What a wonderful truth.

33:08 And that's how this chapter begins. The basis on which that great truth rests is opened up in verses 2 and 3, but then the fruit of it in verse 4, and then that introduces what we might call the ultimate issue of that great transformation described in terms of two realms in which people live. Those who live in the realm of the flesh and those who live in the realm of the spirit. Those who are carnally minded, those who are spiritually minded, and he draws this contrast again and again through those opening verses until he comes to verse 12 and then exhorts, So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if ye live after the flesh, and this is strong language in the Greek, you Greek students, you have a form of mellow with the infinitive, which is used in some instances even to mean the infinite, to set forth divine purpose. There is tremendous strength in that construction. If you live after the flesh, you must die.

34:25 But if ye through the spirit do mortify, literally go on mortifying the deeds of the body, simple future, ye shall live.

34:39 For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they, or these, are the sons of God. Now what do these verses tell us about the necessity of perseverance? Well, they focus the subject of perseverance in terms of the continuous putting to death of the deeds of the body. That is, those sins that in a special way come to expression through remaining corruption in our hearts, but corruption which cuts an avenue in terms of physical members and appetites and passions.

35:21 And here the apostle says that those who live after the flesh must die. Now what is that death? It is not physical death, for those who live after the spirit die physically.

35:37 The dead in Christ shall rise first. That refers to their experience of death and the state of their bodies. What he is saying is simply this. Someone hears the exhortation of verse 12 growing out of the teaching of the previous verses.

35:55 We are debtors to thee. So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. Well, how deep is my indebtedness? All right, I have a debt in the virtue of what Christ has done in me by the spirit to bring me out of the realm of flesh and into the realm of the spirit.

36:15 I have a debtor to live consistently with what God has made me. But how great is that debt? What are the issues at stake? Paul says, I'll tell you what the issues are.

36:27 If you don't take that exhortation to heart and live accordingly, you'll go to hell. That's what he's saying. If you live after the flesh, you must die. Eternal secondary.

36:52 Only those who live after the spirit, and in this context, living after the spirit means putting to death in the concrete realities of my own particular remaining sins, continually mortifying, putting them to death. Only such shall live. Look at the text. But if ye by the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

37:22 For as many as are led by the spirit of God, and in the context, being led of the spirit, the spirit of God means this, being given both the motivation and the power, to put to death the deeds of the flesh. These are the sons of God. And only these. Now my friend, if that's so, are you a son of God?

37:49 Do you have any grounds to claim sonship as you go back over the past week? What sins have you self-consciously been putting to death? What patterns of your life have you self-consciously, been seeking to bring to Christ's death that they might be put to death in you in the virtue of his death for you. Owen understood the spirit as well as the language of this text.

The Agony of Mortification and the Danger of Presumption

38:24 When he wrote those words that are well-known words, let not that man think that he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts. He who does not kill sin in his way takes no steps towards his journey's end. You don't mortify your sins when you're sleeping. Ye by the Spirit do mortify, and there is an engagement of kindness and salt in yourст factor. You marries your husband and accept all your tt Times our hands and feet because we are told to enter not into the path of the wicked, walk not in the way of the evil men. He who seeks to probably death thusly lives美味ouslyос , is a del passant . In the old testament, Job said

39:41 że Sleeping God is a hundredten grams shorter than all men, is a avocecal nessälthium. are given to change. The word of God says that we should not remain in the presence of a tail bearer. The word of God tells us to avoid an angry man, lest we become like him. Brothers and sisters, do you take this seriously? If ye by the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. If ye live after the flesh, ye must die. Later on in this chapter, when the apostle speaks of that unbroken chain of divine purpose, the unbroken chain of its application to elect sinners, doesn't trouble him at all to state whom he for those whom he foreordained, verse 30, them he also called,

40:37 whom he called, he justified, and whom he justified, he also glorified. But you better not draw comfort from that verse, lest you come to it by way of Romans 8, 13 and 14. Between justification and glorification, he assumes that as long as that time remains for the thief on the cross, it was a matter of minutes or hours. For some, it's a matter of 50 or 60 minutes. For others, it's a matter of hours. For others, it's a matter of minutes or hours.

41:08 But between their justification and glorification, there is a constant and unending process of mortification. And if you want to go from justification to glorification and avoid the agony of continuous mortification, you've got to cut a new road to heaven. Almighty God has laid no such road. He hasn't. That's why people go off into teaching that promises, I mean, easy way. It's wearisome. It's wearisome business, killing our lust, walking over the bellies of our lust every single day of every single week of every single month of every single year until we cross the river. And remember Bunyan said that there was a door to hell from the very gate of heaven. He saw people that came 20 years ago. He saw people that came 20 years ago. He saw people

42:12 that came 20, 30, 40, 50 years, but fell away at the very end of the journey. Do you believe, my friend, do you believe this? At any point, even though you may have apparently mortified the deeds of the flesh for 20 years, is there any point at which you can say, well, 20 years is capital. I can afford a few weeks of living after the flesh. I got 20 years capital.

42:48 Can I live off the interest? Not according to this passage. That's why Paul could say, I count not myself to have apprehended or yet laid hold, forgetting the things that are behind. I press toward the things that are before. My friend, you aren't in heaven till you're in heaven.

43:10 Don't ever forget it. You aren't glorified till you're glorified. And until you're there, mortification is the order of every day. To be led by the Spirit means to be led away from sin, away from self-indulgence, away from pride, away from lust, away from conformity to the world, into the way of obedience to the norms of Scripture for you as a husband, as a wife, as a father, as a mother, as a son, as a daughter, as a workman, as a citizen. It means meticulous concern to have all of life conformed by the Word of God. From the thought life right out to the outer extremities of every deed in detail.

44:05 Pastor, how many people go into heaven to live like that? Aren't many going there? That's right. That's why Jesus said, straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life.

44:19 Few there be that find it. But until God comes down from heaven and shows me a different way, I'm not going to barter my soul upon some flimsy hope that I can pare down my life. I'm going to go down the way of the Bible to suit my own flesh. You and I had better be determined that we shall walk that road at any cost, for it and it alone leads to life.

Shattering False Hopes and Comforting True Believers

44:49 This is the clear teaching of these passages in Romans. I hope to get on to the Apostles' teaching in some other passages in the New Testament, but I think I've laid before you enough for consideration. Let me now seek to draw to a pointed word of application as I close. What should this teaching do if we take it seriously?

45:15 And I've not engaged, I trust, in any kind of difficult, fanciful exposition. The plain sense of the words is the true meaning of the words in these passages.

45:30 Well, as I said last week, so I say again this morning, some of you ought to be shattered. You ought to be torn in a hundred pieces if you've taken what you've heard seriously. Because the facts are, your life does not manifest. Did you believe this?

45:48 You're hoping somehow you can make it, but not this way. Not the way of Romans 2, perseverance in well-doing. Not the way of Romans 6, fruit unto holiness. Not the way of Romans 8, mortifying the deeds of the flesh being led of the Spirit.

46:10 Not that way, some other way. My friend, there is no other way.

46:19 And if you entertain me... In hopes of going to heaven some other way, my hands are clean of your blood.

46:26 Some of you ought to be shattered and shaken to the very core of your being. Because if you're honest, and that's the big problem, you've got a deceitful heart that delights to pump lies into the ears of your soul. And your unregenerate soul licks up the lies with delight. It's a little overwrought.

46:50 You know, that's one of his hang-ups. He reads too much of the Puritans, a little extreme. My friend, listen to me. Listen to me.

47:00 Are you prepared to meet me at that door and open your Bible under my eyes and say, Pastor, that verse does not mean what you say it meant? Are you prepared to do that? Are you? Are you prepared to do that with me this morning?

47:18 Say, oh, when you opened up that Romans 2 passage, that really doesn't mean that. Those who by continuance in well-doing seek for honor, immortality, eternal life, it doesn't mean that. This is what it means. Unless you're prepared to show that I have manipulated the Word of God to say something it doesn't say.

47:38 My friend, this is God's Word, not Pastor Martin's hobby.

47:45 Are you prepared to say that Romans 6.22 doesn't mean what it obviously means? Change of masters? Fruit unto holiness?

47:54 The end eternal life? Then, oh, I plead with you. Oh, may the...

48:02 May the soft word break the bones of your heart. My friend, I plead with you. Give up your false hopes of being saved in your present state. Give them up now.

48:20 Take them from you with violence in the day of judgment and send you to hell. Some of you ought to be shattered. Thank God, again, I can say as I did last week, some of you ought to be greatly comforted.

48:39 You've asked yourself why. With all of the pressure of my sinful remaining, my remaining sin, and all of the pressures of an ungodly world, and all of the peculiarly intensified pressures of this generation, as Pastor Nichols has been outlining those pressures in these messages, how in the world have I made it this far? You look back and you wipe the sweat off your brow and say, I feel like I'm always just about...

49:12 This is a way from the precipice that keeps creeping up behind me. But wonder of wonders, you haven't gone over.

49:22 Now, how did that happen? Not because you're so clever at moving at the right time, but because God has put his hand on it. And having become a good work in you, he's going to carry it on until the day of Jesus Christ. And that's the proper comfort to take from the past.

49:42 Look back and say with John Newton, Yes! T'was grace that taught my heart to fear. Grace my fears relieved. Yes!

49:52 How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, many toils, many snares, I have already come. T'was grace that brought me safe thus far. Oh yes, grace that did not bypass my conscious effort.

50:11 Grace that did not bypass my own arduous application. To the means of grace and to the disciplines of the spiritual life. But it was grace that was at work. God working in me to will and to work for his good pleasure.

50:28 Grace has brought me safe thus far. Now, what's the reasoning of faith? Not, oh well, grace brought me thus far. Then it must be certain I'm as good as in so I can coast.

50:37 Oh no. The reasoning of grace is this. Grace brought me safe thus far. Thank God I'm not in a fool's air.

50:46 And I'm going to roll up my sleeves and stick with it. Because grace will bring me home the same way it got me this far. How did grace get me this far? Not resting on my oars.

50:59 But by the engagement of all of my faculties. To take these verses seriously. To take seriously everything God has said about how a man, a woman, a boy, a girl. Perseveres in the way.

51:13 Grace brought me safe thus far. With my sleeves rolled up. And armed with the power of God. Armed to the teeth against the world.

51:23 The flesh and the devil. And hallelujah. Grace is going to bring me safely home. That's the reasoning of grace.

51:35 The moment you look back and say, Well, I've been on the way long enough that it's a pretty certain thing I'm a child of God. Therefore, I can begin to be a little more loose. A little more indulgent with my Christian liberty. A little more indulgent with my flesh.

51:50 My friend, those are the whisperings that take men out of the way. Into apostasy and down to hell. And some of you are listening to those whispers. You actually smile at yourself when you look back as a young Christian.

52:10 Oh, how sensitive your conscience was. How it would smart at the slightest deviation from God's law. And even on things indifferent. If anything dampened your ardor for Christ.

52:22 One tenth of one hundredth of a degree. You looked upon it as your mortal enemy. And now what do you do? You hug to your bosoms.

52:31 Things that have chilled your love to Christ until it's almost non-existent. And you say, Oh, well, I know better now. Christian has liberty. Christian's free.

52:43 Christian's not free to cooperate with the devil to send him to hell.

52:48 You read 1 Corinthians 10.

52:51 And some of you under the cloak of indulging your liberty. Are cooperating with the devil to damn your soul.

53:02 But others of you ought to be comforted. I'm comforted this morning. I'm comforted. There's no way any character like me could be in the way for 30 years.

53:11 If God didn't start it and God wasn't committed to finish it. Knowing what's left in this character. There's no way I'd be here preaching this morning. If God didn't get me in the way and keep me.

53:24 And I'm encouraged that he's not going to let off until he gets me home at last. Because my savior died. Albert N. Martin.

53:34 And with all his sin might one day be in his presence. So worked on by his grace that he will be conformed totally to the image of his own beloved son. Some of you ought to be shattered. Others you ought to be comforted.

A Clarion Call to Seek Christ and Live Out the Doctrine

53:52 Others this ought to be a clarion call to cry to God to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. You can't change your heart. You can't give yourself the resolution to be a Christian. If this is what it means.

54:07 But God says I will take out the heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my laws within you. I'll put my fear within you.

54:15 I'll cause you to walk in my statutes and keep my judgments. My friend go to Christ the mediator of the new covenant. And ask him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. To get you into this way that must be walked.

54:31 If we would be home at last with him. It's a call to seek the Lord. While he may be found. And finally it ought to constrain all of us with all the vigor of our being.

54:43 To seek to understand and live out and where appropriate to speak out. The true biblical doctrine of the preservation and the perseverance of the saints. Some of you have got loved ones. Who are resting on the fact that they made a decision 20 years ago.

55:03 And everything is going to be all right. And it is. And so. You've got to be true to their souls.

55:10 And lovingly point them to the word of God. The very passages we've dealt with this morning. Some of you have children perhaps. Made decisions when they were kids.

55:22 But for years there's been no evidence of food unto holiness. And somehow you say well I'd like to cling to the fact. I remember those sweet little prayers they prayed. My friends they may have been very sweet little prayers.

55:35 But if there's no food unto holiness. You have no grounds to believe. That they will have the glorious end of eternal life. You're not playing God and making a final pronouncement.

55:46 All I'm saying is you've got no biblical grounds to have any hope for your children. If they are not presently in the way of holiness. I don't care what they once were. And how much they had in that former state.

56:00 On the eve that Judas betrayed Christ. Nobody suspected what he was.

56:07 Jesus knew. All along. But no one else did.

56:12 And some of you parents need to get off that horse of presumption. And down on your knees. Because you're resting in some past experience. Your children professed to have had.

56:25 May have even brought them into this church. And into the waters of baptism. But if you don't see a pattern of fruit unto holiness. You ought to cry to God.

56:37 Assuming from the scriptures. That they probably don't have the root of the matter in them. And you ought to cry to God. And you ought to sit them down and tell them the truth.

56:48 Don't coddle them in their carnal notions that all is well. While they pursue self. And the world. And the flesh.

57:02 Is it necessary to persevere in faith, holiness and obedience to the end if we would be saved? The answer of our Lord is clear. It's an unequivocal yes. The answer of the apostle in the book of Romans is clear.

57:16 And unequivocal yes. As we shall see in our next study that answer is equally clear in the remainder of the epistles and on into the general epistles. The unanimous testimony of the word of God is he that endures to the end the same shall be saved. Thank God all who are in Christ shall endure.

57:38 But the certainty does not negate the necessity.

57:43 If it's certain that you're going to live to tomorrow. It's necessary that you go on breathing till tomorrow. And the certainty of your life does not negate the necessity of your breathing. If you think it does, try it.

57:58 And the certainty that we shall endure does not negate the necessity that we must endure. And that enduring means the engagement of all of our faculty in prayerful dependence upon our blessed Lord. That we shall indeed press on in the way of holiness. Until he calls us to himself.

Closing Prayer

58:21 Let us pray.

58:31 Our Father we are thankful that you have given us a word that is clear. That is pointed to us in our need. That does not allow us if we seek to be honest with you and with that word. To find some gray area where we may hold up and be comfortable in our sins.

58:56 We ask that the word preached this morning. We'll do that. We'll do that. We'll do that.

59:01 We'll do that. Work in the hearts of men and women and boys and girls. Which will draw them to your son. Draw them more firmly and more resolutely into the way of holiness.

59:15 Oh God where that word should be a hammer to shatter false hopes and presumptions. May it do its work. Where it should be a bomb to comfort and to heal and to encourage. Oh may it do its work there.

59:29 Gracious God. Seal your word to our hearts and may it bear its holy fruit in all of our lives and to your name and to your name alone be praise and honor and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.