Eternal Security (A.w. Pink, 1886-1952) Part 3

CHAPTER - ITS BLESSEDNESS 
In an earlier section we dwelt upon the deep importance of this doctrine, here we wish to show something of its great preciousness. Let us begin by pointing Out the opposite. Suppose that the Gospel proclaimed only a forgiveness of all sins up to the moment of conversion and announced that believers must henceforth keep themselves from everything unworthy of this signal mercy: that means are provided, motives supplied, and warnings given of the fatal consequences which will surely befall those who fail to make a good use of those means and diligently respond to those motives; that whether or not he shall ultimately reach Heaven is thus left entirely in the believer’s own hands. Then what? We may well ask what would be the consequences of such a dismal outlook: what would be the thoughts begotten and the spirit engendered by such a gospel? what effect would it produce upon those who really believed it? Answers to these questions should prepare us to the more deeply appreciate the converse.
It hardly requires a profound theologian to reply to the above queries; they have only to be carefully pondered and the simplest Christian should be able to perceive for himself what would be the inevitable result. If the Christian’s entrance into Heaven turns entirely upon his own fidelity and his treading the path of righteousness unto the end of his course, then he is far worse off than was Adam in Eden, for when God placed him under the covenant of works he was not heavily handicapped from the beginning by indwelling sin, but each of his fallen descendants is born into this world with a carnal nature which remains unchanged to the moment of death.
Thus the believer would enter into the fight not only without any assurance of victory but face almost certain defeat. If such a gospel were true then those who really believed it would be entire strangers to peace and joy, for they must inevitably spend their days in a perpetual dread of Hell. Or, the first time they were overcome by temptation and worsted by the Enemy, they would at once abandon the fight and give way to hopeless despair. “I will not turn away from them to do them good” ( Jeremiah 32:40). “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” ( Hebrews 13:5).
Nothing whatever can or “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” ( Romans 8:39). “He will keep the feet of His saints” ( 1 Samuel 2:9).
How immeasurable the difference between the vain imaginations of men and the sure declarations of God: it is the contrast of the darkness of a moonless and starless midnight from the radiance of the midday sun. “Of them which Thou gayest Me have I lost none” ( John 18:9) affirmed the Redeemer. Is not that inexpressibly blessed! That every one of the redeemed shall be brought safely to Heaven. The final apostasy of a believer is an utter impossibility, not in the nature of things but by the Divine constitution: not one who has once been received into the Divine favor can ever be cast out thereof. God has bestowed on each of His children a life than cannot die, He has brought him into a relationship which nothing can change or effect, He has wrought a work in him which lasts “for ever” ( Ecclesiastes 3:14).
It is sadly true that multitudes of empty professors have “wrested” this truth to their destruction, just as many of our fellows have put to an ill use some of the most valuable of God’s temporal gifts; but because foolish gluttons destroy their health through intemperance that is no reason why sane people should refuse to be nourished by wholesome food; and because the carnal pervert the doctrine of Divine preservation that is no valid argument for Christians being afraid to draw comfort from the same. Most certainly it is the design of God that His people should be strengthened and established by this grand article of the faith. Note how in John 17 Christ mentions again and again the words “keep” and “kept” (vv. 6, 11, 12, 13, 15). And His reason for so doing is clearly stated: “these things I speak in the world that they may have My joy fulfilled in them” (v. 13). He would not have them spend their days in the wretchedness of doubts about their ultimate bliss, uncertain as to the issue of their fight. It is His revealed will that they should go forward with a song in their hearts, praising Him for the certainty of ultimate victory.
But the joy which issues from a knowledge of our security is not obtained by a casual acquaintance with this truth. Christ’s very repetition “I kept them those that Thou gayest Me I have kept” ( John 17:12) intimates to us that we must meditate frequently upon this Divine preservation unto eternal life. It is to be laid hold of in no transient manner but should daily engage the Christian’s heart till he is warmed and influenced by it. A few sprinklings of water do not go to the roots of a tree, but frequent and plentiful showers are needed: so it is not an occasional thought about Christ’s power to keep His people safe for Heaven which will deeply affect them, but only a constant spiritual and believing pondering thereon. As Jacob said to the Angel “I will not let thee go except thou bless me” ( Genesis 32:26), so the believer should say to this truth, I will not turn from it until it has blessed me.
When our great High Priest prayed “Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me” ( John 17:11) it was not (as the Arminians say) that He asked merely that they might be provided with adequate means, by the use of which they must preserve themselves. No, my reader, it was for something more valuable and essential. The Savior made request that faith should be continually wrought in them by the exceeding greatness of God’s power ( Ephesians 1:19), and where that is there will be works of sincere (though imperfect) obedience and it will operate by responding to the holiness of the Law so that sins are mortified. The Father answers that prayer of the Redeemer’s by working in the redeemed “both to will and to do of His good pleasure” ( Philippians 2:13), fulfilling in them “all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power” ( 2 Thessalonians 1:11) preserving them “through faith unto salvation” ( 1 Peter 1:5). He leaves them not to their feeble and fickle wills, but renews them in the inner man “day by day” ( 2 Corinthians 4:16).
That Christ would have His redeemed draw comfort from their security is clear again from His words “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven” ( Luke 10:20). To what purpose did the Lord Jesus thus address His disciples, but to denote that infallible certainty of their final salvation by a contrast from those who perish: that is, whose names were written only “in the earth” ( Jeremiah 17:13) or on the sands which may be defaced. Surely He had never spoken thus if there was the slightest possibility of their names being blotted Out. Rejoice because your names are written in heaven;” is not the implication both necessary and clear as a sunbeam; such rejoicing would be premature if there was any likelihood of final apostasy. This call to rejoice is not given at the moment of the believer’s death, as he sees the angels about to convoy him to the realm of ineffable bliss, but while he is still here on the battlefield. Those names are written by none other than the finger of God, indelibly inscribed in the Book of Life, and not one of them will ever be erased.
Take again His words in the parable of the lost sheep: “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth” ( Luke 15:7). “Such exalted hosannas would not resound on these occasions among the inhabitants of the skies if the doctrine of final perseverance was untrue. Tell me, ye seraphs of light; tell me, ye spirits of elect men made perfect in glory, why this exuberance of holy rapture on the real recovery of a sinner to God? Because ye know assuredly that every true conversion is (1) a certain proof that the person converted is one of the elect number, and (2) that he shall be infallibly preserved and brought to that very region of blessedness into which ye yourselves are come. The contrary belief would silence your harps and chill your praises. If it be uncertain whether the person who is regenerated today may ultimately reign with you in heaven or take up his eternal abode among apostate spirits in hell, your rejoicings are too sanguine and your praises too presumptuous. You should suspend your songs until he actually arrives among you and not give thanks for his conversion until he has persevered unto glorification” (A. Toplady). 1. What encouragement is there here for the babe in Christ! Conscious of his weakness, he is fearful that the flesh and the world and the Devil may prove too powerful for him. Aware of his ignorance, bewildered by the confusion of tongues in the religious realm, he dreads lest he be led astray by false prophets. Beholding many of his companions, who made a similar profession of faith, so quickly losing their fervor and going back again into the world, he trembles lest he make shipwreck of the faith. Stumbled by the inconsistencies of those called “the pillars of the church,” chilled by older Christians who tell him he must not be too extreme, he is alarmed and wonders how it can be expected that he shall hold on his way almost alone.
But if these fears empty him of self-confidence and make him cling the closer to Christ, then are they blessings in disguise, for he will then prove for himself that “underneath are the everlasting arms,” and that those arms are all-mighty and all-sufficient.
The babe in Christ is as much a member of God’s family as is the mature “father” ( 1 John 2:13) and the former is as truly the object of Divine love and faithfulness as is the latter. Yea, the younger ones in His flock are more the subjects of the Shepherd’s care than are the full-grown sheep: “He shall gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom” ( Isaiah 40:11).
The Lord does not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax ( Matthew 12:20). He gave proof of this in the days of His flesh. He found some “smoking flax” in the nobleman who came to Him on behalf of his sick son: his faith was so weak that he supposed the Savior must come down to his house and heal him ere he died—as though the Lord Jesus could not recover him while at a distance or after he had expired ( John 4:49): nevertheless He cured him. So too after His ascension, He took note of a “little strength” ( Revelation 3:8) and opened a door which none can shut. The highest oak was once an acorn and God was the maintainer of its life. When we affirm the final perseverance of every born-again soul we do not mean that saints are not in themselves prone to fall away, nor that at regeneration such a work is wrought in them once for all that they now have sufficient strength of their own to overcome sin and Satan and that there is no likelihood of their spiritual life decaying. So far from it, we hesitate not to declare that the very principle of grace (or “new nature”) in the believer considered abstractedly in itself — apart from the renewing and sustaining power of God — would assuredly perish under the corruptions of the flesh and the assaults of the Devil. No, the preservation of the Christian’s faith and his continuance in the path of obedience lies in something entirely external to himself or his state. Wherein lay the impossibility of any bone of Christ being broken? Not because they were in themselves incapable of being broken, for they were as liable to be broken as His flesh to be pierced, but solely because of the unbreakable decree of God. So it is with the mystical Body of Christ: no member of His can perish because of the purpose, power and promise of God Himself.
How important it is then that the babe in Christ should be instructed in the ground of Christian perseverance, that the foundation on which his eternal security rests is nothing whatever in himself but wholly outside. The preservation of the believer depends not upon his continuing to love God, believe in Christ, tread the highway of holiness, or make diligent use of the means of grace, but on the Covenant-engagements entered into between the Father and the Son. That is the basic and grand Cause which produces as a necessary and infallible effect our continuing to love God, believe in Christ and perform sincere obedience. O what a sure foundation is that!
What a firm ground for the soul to rest upon! What unspeakable peace and joy issues from faith’s apprehension of the same! Though fickle in ourselves, the Covenant is immutable. Though weak and unstable as water we are, yet that is “ordered in all things and sure.” Though full of sin and unworthiness, yet the sacrifice of Christ is of infinite merit. Though often the spirit of prayer be quenched in us, yet our great High Priest ever liveth to make intercession for us. Here then is the “anchor of the soul,” and it is “both sure and steadfast” ( Hebrews 6:19).
Ere concluding this subdivision it is necessary to point out in such days as these that it must not be inferred from the above that because the grace, the power and the faithfulness of God insures the preservation of the feeblest babe in Christ that henceforth he is relieved of all responsibility in the matter. Not so: such a blessed truth has not been revealed for the purpose of encouraging slothfulness, but rather to provide an impetus to use the means of preservation which God has appointed. Though we must not anticipate too much what we purpose to bring before the reader under a later division of our subject, when we shall consider at more length the safeguards which Divine wisdom has placed around this truth, yet a few words of warning, or rather explanation, should be given here to prevent a wrong conclusion being drawn from the preceding paragraphs.
The babe in Christ is weak in himself, he is left in a hostile world, he is confronted with powerful temptations, both from within and from without, to apostatize. But strength is available unto faith, armor is provided against all enemies, deliverance from temptations is given in answer to prevailing prayer. But he must seek that strength, put on that armor, and resist those temptations. He must fight for his very life, and refuse to acknowledge defeat. Nor shall he fight in vain, for Another shall gird his arm and enable him to overcome. The blessedness of this doctrine is that he shall not be left to himself nor suffered to perish. The Holy spirit shall renew him day by day, quicken his graces, move him to perseverance and make him “more than conqueror through Him that loved him.” 2. What comfort is there here for fearing saints! All Christians have a reverential and filial fear of God and an evangelical horror of sin. Some are beset with legal fears, and most of them with anxieties which are the product of a mingling of legal and evangelical principles. These latter are occasioned more immediately by anxious doubts, painful misgivings, evil surmisings of unbelief. More remotely, they are the result of the permissive appointment of God, who has decreed that perfect happiness must be waited till His people get home to Heaven. Were our graces complete, our bliss would be complete too. In the meantime it is needful for the Christian traveler to be exercised with a thorn in the flesh, and that “thorn” assumes a variety of forms with different believers; but whatever its form it is effectual in convincing them that this earth is not their rest or a mount whereon to pitch tabernacles of continuance. In many instances that “thorn” consists of anxious misgivings, as the frequent “fear not” of Scripture intimates: the fear of being completely overcome by temptation, or making shipwreck of the faith, of failing to endure unto the end.
Once again we would quote those words of Christ, “Of them whom Thou hast given Me have I lost none” ( John 18:9).
Is not that inexpressibly blessed! That every one of the dear children whom the Father has entrusted to the care and custody of the Mediator shall be brought safely to glory; the feeblest as much as the strongest, those with the least degree of grace as those of the highest, the babes as truly as the fullgrown. Where true grace is imparted, though it be as a grain of mustard seed, yet it shall be quickened and nourished so that it shall not perish. This should be of great consolation to those timid and doubting ones who are apt to think it will be well with Christians of great faith and eminent gifts, but that such frail creatures as they know themselves to be will never hold out, who dread that Satan’s next attack will utterly vanquish them. Let them know that the self-same Divine protection is given to all the redeemed. It is not because one is more godly than another, but because both are held fast in the hand of God. The tiny mouse was as safe in the ark as the ponderous elephant.
What encouragement is there here for the godly, who when they view the numerous Anakims in the way and hear of the giants and walled cities before them are prone to dread their meeting with them. How many a one has trembled as he has pondered that word of Christ’s “Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” ( Matthew 19:23,24) and said with the apostles, “Who then can be saved?” If it be such a difficult matter to get to Heaven, if the gate be so strait and the way so narrow, and so many of those professing to tread it turn out to be hypocrites and apostates, what will become of me? When thus exercised, remember Christ’s answer to the astonished disciples, “with God all things are possible.” He who kept Israel on the march for forty years without their shoes wearing out, can quite easily preserve thee, O thou of little faith. “Thou has a mighty arm: strong is Thy hand, high is Thy right hand” ( Psalm 89:13).
Grandly is that fact displayed in creation. Who has stretched out the heavens with a span? Who upholds the pillars of the earth? Who has set limits to the raging ocean, so that it cannot overflow its bounds? Whose finger kindled the sun, the moon, and the stars, and kept those mysterious Lamps of the sky alight all these thousands of years? Whose hand has filled the sea with fishes, the fields with herds, and made the earth fertile and fruitful? So too the mightiness of the Lord’s arm is manifest in providence.
Who directs the destinies of nations and shapes the affairs of kingdoms?
Who sets the monarch upon his throne and casts him from thence when it so pleases Him? Who supplies the daily needs of a countless myriad of creatures so that even the sparrow is provided for when the earth is blanketed with snow? Who makes all things work together for good — even in a world which lieth in the Wicked one — to them that love Him, who are the called according to His purpose?
When a soul is truly reconciled to God and brought to delight in Him, it rejoices in all His attributes. At first it is apt to dwell much upon His move and mercy, but as it grows in grace and experience it delights in His holiness and power. It is a mark of spiritual understanding when we have learned to distinguish the manifold perfections of God, to take pleasure in each of them. It is a proof of more intimate communion with the Lord when we perceive how adorable is the Divine character, so that we meditate upon its excellences separately and in detail, and praise and bless Him for each of them. The more we are given to behold all the varied rays of His pure light, the more we are occupied with the many glories of His crown, the more shall we bow in wonderment before Him. Not only shall we perceive how infinitely He is above us, but how there is everything in Him suited to our need; grace to meet our unworthiness, mercy to pardon our sins, wisdom to supply our ignorance, strength to minister to our weakness. “Who is like unto Thee, O Lord among the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders!” ( Exodus 15:11).

How this glorious attribute of God’s power ensures the final perseverance of the saints! Some of our readers have passed through sore trials and severe tribulations, yet they prevailed not against them: they shook them to their foundations, but they did not overthrow their faith. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” ( Psalm 34:19).
Fierce were the foes which many a time gathered against thee, and had not the Lord been on thy side thou hadst quickly been devoured, but in Him thou didst find a sure refuge. The Divine strength has been manifested in your weakness. Is it not so, my brother, my sister: that such a frail worm as yourself has never been crushed by the weight of opposition that has come upon you—Ah, “underneath were the everlasting arms.” Though you trembled at your feebleness, yet, “out of weakness were made strong” ( Hebrews 11:34) has been your case too. Kept alive with death all around you, preserved when Satan and his hosts encompassed you. Must you not say “strong is Thy right hand!” 3. What comfort is there here for souls who are tempted to entertain hard thoughts of God! The awful corruptions of the flesh which still remain in the believer and which are ever ready to complain at the difficulties of the way and murmur against the dispensations of Divine providence, and the questionings of unbelief which constantly ask, Has God ceased to be gracious? how can He love me if He deals with me thus? are sufficient in themselves to destroy his peace and quench his joy. But when to these are added the infidelities of Arminianism which declares that God takes no more care of His children than to suffer the Devil to enter in among and devour them, that the Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, affords no more security to His flock than to allow wolves and lions to come among and devour them at their pleasure, how shall the poor Christian maintain his confidence in the love and faithfulness of the Lord? Such blasphemies are like buckets of coldwater poured upon the flames of his affection for God and are calculated only to destroy that delight which he has taken in the riches of Divine grace.
The uninstructed and unestablished believer is apt to think within himself I may for the present be in a good state and condition, but what assurance is there that I shall continue thus? Were not the apostate angels once in a far better state and more excellent condition than mine: they dwelt in Heaven itself, but now they are cast down into Hell, being “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day” ( Jude 6)!
Adam in paradise had no lusts within to tempt and seduce him, no world without to oppose and entangle, yet “being in honor” he continued not, but apostatized and perished. If it was not in their power to persevere much less so in mine, who am “sold under sin” and encompassed with a world of temptations. What hope is there left to me? Let a man be exercised with such thoughts as these, let him be cast back solely upon himself, and what is there that can give him any relief or bring his soul to any degree of composure? Nothing whatever, for the so-called “power of free will” availed not either the angels which fell or our first parents.
And what is it which will deliver the distressed soul from these breathings of despair? Nothing but a believing laying hold of this grand comfort: that the child of God has an infallible promise from his Father that he shall be preserved unto His heavenly kingdom, that he shall be kept from apostasy, that the intercession of his great High Priest prevents the total failing of his faith. So far from God being indifferent to the welfare of His children and failing in His care for them, He has sworn that “I will not turn away from them to do them good.” So far from the good Shepherd proving unfaithful to His trust, He has given express assurance that not one of His sheep shall perish. Rest on those assurances my reader, and thy hard thoughts about God will be effectually silenced. As to the stability and excellency of the Divine love, is it not written, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing” ( Zephaniah 3:17).
What can more endear God to His people than that! How it should fix their souls in their love to Him. Well might Stephen Charnock say of Arminians, “Can these men fancy Infinite Tenderness so unconcerned as to let the apple of His eye be plucked out, as to be a careless Spectator of the pillage of His jewels by the powers of Hell, to have the delight of His soul (if I may so speak) tossed like a tennis ball between himself and the Devil.” He that does the greater thing for His people shall He not also do the less: to regenerate them is more wonderful than to preserve them, as the bestowal of life exceeds the maintaining of it. The reconciliation of enemies is far harder than dealing with the failings of friends: “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then being now justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” ( Romans 5:8-10).
If there was such efficacy in the death of Christ, who can estimate the virtue of His resurrection! “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” 4. What comfort is there here for aged pilgrims! Some perhaps may be surprised at this heading, supposing that those who have been longest in the way and have experienced most of God’s faithfulness have the least need of consolation from the truth. But such a view is sadly superficial to say the least of it. No matter how matured in the faith one may be, nor how well acquainted with the Divine goodness, so long as he is left down here he has no might of his own and is completely dependent upon Divine grace to preserve him. Methuselah stood in as much need of God’s supporting hand during the closing days of his pilgrimage as does the veriest babe in Christ. Look at it from the human side of things: the aged believer, filled with infirmities, the spiritual companions of his youth all gone, perhaps bereft of the partner of his bosom, cut off from the public means of grace, he looks forward to the final conflict with trepidation. “And even to your old age I am He, and even to hoar hairs will I carry you” ( Isaiah 46:4).
Why has such a tender and appropriate promise been given by God if His aged saints have no need of the same? They, any more than the young, are not immune from Satan’s attacks. He is not slow to tell the tottering believer that as many a ship has foundered when in sight of port so the closing storm of life will prove too much for him: that though God has borne long with his unbelief and waywardness, even His patience is now exhausted. How then is he to meet such assaults of the Fiend? In the same way as he has done all through his course. By taking the shield of faith, wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked one ( Ephesians 6:16), by having recourse to the sure promise of Him who has said “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end.”
Ah, my aged friend, how often have you proved in your experience the truth of those words “thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee” ( Deuteronomy 33:29).
What a shameless liar the Devil is! Did he not tell thee in some severe trial, The hand of the Lord is gone out against thee: He has forsaken thee and will no more be gracious to thee: He has deserted thee as He did Saul the king and now thou art wholly given up unto the powers of evil: the Lord will no more answer thee from His holy oracle; He has utterly cast thee off.
Yet you found that God had not deserted you after all, and this very day you are able to join the writer in thanking Him for His lovingkindness and to testify of His unfailing faithfulness. How often has thine own unbelief whispered to thee, I shall one day perish at the hand of this foe who seeks my life: my strength is gone, the Spirit withholds His assistance, I am left alone and must perish. Yet year after year has passed, and though faint you are still pursuing, though feeble you will hold on your way.
Has not Satan often told you in the past, Your profession is a sham, iniquities prevail over you, the root of the matter is not in thee. Thou was a fool to make a profession and cast in thy lot with God’s people: there is no stability in thee, thou art certain to apostatize and bring reproach upon the cause of Christ. And did not your own doubts second his motion, telling you that your experience was but a flash in the pan, some evanescent emotion, which like a firebrand would die out into black ashes. Unbelief has whispered a thousand falsehoods into your ear, saying this duty is too difficult, this toil will prove too great, this adversity will drown you. What madness it was to lend an ear to such lies. Can God ever cast away one on whom He has fixed His everlasting love? Can He renounce one who was purchased by the blood of Christ? Thus will it prove of thy last fears: “Thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee.” 5. What comfort is there here for preachers! Many a rural minister views with uneasiness the departure into cities of some of his young converts.

And may well he be exercised at the prospect of them leaving their sheltered homes to be brought into close contact with temptations to which they were formerly strangers. It is both his duty and privilege to give them godly counsel and warning, to follow them with his prayers, to write them: but if they he soundly converted he need not fear about their ultimate wellbeing. Servants of God called to move into other parts are fearful about the babes in Christ which they will leave behind, yet if they really be such they may find consolation in the blessed fact that the great Shepherd of the sheep will never leave nor forsake them.
CHAPTER - ITS PERVERSION 
Nowhere is the depravity of man and the enmity of their minds against God more terribly displayed than in the treatment which His Holy Word receives at their hands. By many it is criminally neglected, by others it is wickedly wrested and made to teach the most horrible heresies. To slight such a revelation, to despise such an inestimable treasure, is an insult which the Most High will certainly avenge. To corrupt the sacred Scriptures, to force from them a meaning the opposite of what they bear, to handle them deceitfully by picking and choosing from their contents, is a crime of fearful magnitude. Yet this, in varying measure, is what all the false cults of Christendom are guilty of. Unitarians, Universalists, those who teach the unconsciousness of the soul between death and resurrection and the annihilation of the wicked, single out certain snippets of Scripture but ignore or explain away anything which makes against them. A very high percentage of the errors propagated by the pulpit are nothing more or less than Truth itself, but the Truth distorted and perverted.
Broadly speaking the doctrine which we have been expounding in this series has been perverted by two main classes. First, by open Arminians, who expressly repudiate most of what has been advanced in the preceding sections. With them we are not here directly concerned. Second, by what we can only designate “mongrel Calvinists.” This class deny the sovereign and unconditional election of God and also the limited or particular redemption of Christ. They are one with Arminians in believing that election is based on God’s foreknowledge of those who would believe the Gospel, and they affirm Christ atoned for the sins of all of Adam’s race, and yet they term themselves “Calvinists” because they hold the eternal security of the saints, or “once in grace, always in grace.” In their crude and ill-balanced presentation of this doctrine they woefully pervert the Truth and do incalculable damage unto those who give ear to them. As they do not all proceed along exactly the same line or distort the Truth at the same particular point we will divide this branch of our subject so as to cover as many errors as possible. 1. It is perverted by those who predicate of mere professors what pertains only to the regenerate. Here is a young man who attends a service at a church where a “special evangelistic campaign” is being held. He is not seriously inclined, in fact rarely enters a place of worship, but is visiting one now to please a friend. The evangelist makes a fervent emotional appeal and many are induced to “go forward” and be prayed for, our young man among them—again to please his friend. He is persuaded to “become a Christian” by signing a “decision card” and then he is congratulated on the “manly step” he has taken. He is duly “received into the church” and at once given a class of boys in the “Sunday School.” He is conscious there has been no change within and though somewhat puzzled supposes the preacher and church-members know more about the matter than he does.
They regard him as a Christian and assure him he is now safe for eternity.
Here is another young man who is passing a “Gospel Hall” on a Lord’s day evening; attracted by the hearty singing, he enters. The speaker expatiates at length on John 3:16 and similar passages. He declares with such vigor that God loves everybody and points out in proof thereof that He gave His Son to die for the sins of all mankind. The unsaved are urged to believe this and are told that the only thing which can now send them to Hell is their unbelief. As soon as the service is over the speaker makes for our young man and asks him if he is saved. Upon receiving a negative reply, he says, “Would you not like to be, here and now?” Acts 16:3 is read to him and he is asked “Will you believe?” If he says yes, John 5:24 is quoted to him and he is told that he is now eternally secure. He is welcomed into the homes of these new friends, frequents their meetings and is addressed as “Brother.”
The above are far more than imaginary cases: we have come into personal contact with many from both classes. And what was the sequel? In the great majority of instances the tide of emotion and enthusiasm soon subsided, the novelty quickly wore off, attending “Bible readings” soon palled, and the dog returned to its vomit and the sow to her wallowing in the mire. They were then regarded as “backsliders” and perhaps told “The Lord will bring you back again into the fold,” and some of these man-made converts are foolish enough to believe their deceivers and assured that “once saved, saved forever” they go on their worldly way with no trepidation as to the ultimate outcome. They have been fatally deceived.
And what of their deceivers? They are guilty of perverting the Truth, they have cast pearls before swine, they have taken the children’s bread and thrown it to the dogs; they gave to empty professors what pertained only to the regenerate. 2. It is perverted by those who fail to insist upon credible evidences of regeneration, as is the case with the above examples. The burden of proof always rests upon the one who affirms. When a person avers that he is a Christian that averment does not make him one, and if he be mistaken it certainly is not kindness on my part to confirm him in a delusion. A church is weakened spiritually in proportion to the number of its unregenerate members. Regeneration is a supernatural work of grace and therefore it is a great insult to the Holy Spirit to imagine that there is not a radical difference between one who has been miraculously quickened by Him and one who is dead in trespasses and sins, between one who is indwelt by Him and one in whom Satan is working ( Ephesians 2:2). Not until we see clear evidence that a supernatural work of grace has been wrought in a soul are we justified in regarding him as a brother in Christ. The tree is known by the fruits it bears: good fruit must be manifested on its branches ere we can identify it as a good tree.
We will not enter into a labored attempt to describe at length the principal birth-marks of a Christian; instead we will mention some things which if they be absent indicate that “the root of the matter” ( Job 19:28) is not in the person. One who regards sin lightly, who thinks nothing of breaking a promise, who is careless in the performance of temporal duties, who gives no sign of a tender conscience which is exercised over what are commonly called “trifles,” lacks the one thing needful. A person who is vain and self-important, who pushes to the fore seeking the notice of others, who parades his fancied knowledge and attainments, has not learned of Him who is “meek and lowly in heart.” One who is hypersensitive, who is deeply hurt if some one slights her, who resents a word of reproof no matter how kindly spoken, betrays the lack of a humble and teachable spirit. One who frets over disappointments, murmurs each time his will is crossed and rebels against the dispensations of Providence, exhibits a will which has not been Divinely subdued.
That a person belongs to some “evangelical church” or “assembly” and is regular in his attendance there, is no proof that he is a member of the Church which is Christ’s (mystical) body. That a person goes about with a Bible in his hand is no guaranty that the Divine Law is within his heart.
Though he may talk freely and fluently about spiritual things, of what worth is it if they do not regulate his daily walk? One who is dishonest in business, undutiful in the home, thoughtless of others, censorious and unmerciful, has no title to be regarded as a new creature in Christ Jesus, no matter how saintly his pose be on the Sabbath Day. When the pharisees and sadducees came to Christ’s forerunner to be baptized of him, he said, “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” ( Matthew 3:8):
I must first see some signs of godly sorrow for sin, some manifestations of a change of heart, some tokens of a transformed life. So we must demand the evidences of regeneration before we are justified in crediting a Christian profession, otherwise we endorse what is false and bolster up one in his self-deceit. 3. It is perverted by those who sever the cause from its necessary effect.
The cause of the believer’s perseverance is one and indivisible, for it is Divine and nothing whatever of the creature is mingled with it; yet to our apprehension at least it appears as a compound one and we may view its component parts separately. The unchanging love, the immutable purpose, the everlasting covenant and the invincible power of God are conjoint elements in making the saint infallibly secure. But each of those elements is active and brings forth fruit after its own kind. God’s love is not confined to the Divine bosom but is “shed abroad” in the hearts of His people by the Holy Spirit ( Romans 5:5), from whence it flows forth again unto its Giver: “we love Him because He first loved us” ( 1 John 4:19). Our love is indeed feeble and fluctuating, yet it exists, and cannot be quenched, so that we can say with Peter “Thou knowest that I love Thee.” “I know My sheep and (though imperfectly) am known of Mine.” ( John 10:14) shows the response made.
The preacher who has much to say upon the love of God and little or nothing about the believer’s love to Him is partial and fails in his duty.
How can I ascertain that I am an object of God’s love but by discovering the manifest effects of His love being shed abroad in my heart? “If any man love God, the same in known of God” ( 1 Corinthians 8:3). “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” ( Romans 8:28).
It is by their love for Him they give proof they are the subjects of His effectual call. And how is genuine love for God to be identified? First, by its eminency: God is loved above all others so as He has no rival in the soul: “whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there in none upon earth that I desire beside Thee” ( Psalm 73:25).
All things give way to His love; “Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee” ( Psalm 63:3).
The real Christian is content to do and suffer anything rather than lose God’s favor, for that is his all. Second, true love for God may be recognized by its component parts. Repentance is a mourning love, because of the wrongs done its Beloved and the loss accruing to ourselves.
Faith is a receptive love, thankfully accepting Christ and all His benefits.
Obedience is a pleasing love, seeking to honor and glorify the One who has set His heart upon me. Filial fear is a restraining love which prevents me offending Him whom I esteem above all others. Hope is love expecting, anticipating the time when there shall be. nothing to come between my soul and Him. Communion is love finding satisfaction in its Object. All true piety is the expression and outflow of love to God and those who bear His image. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is love desiring more of God and His holiness. Joy is the exuberance of love, delighting itself in its all-sufficient portion. Patience is love waiting for God to make good His promise, moving us to endure the trials of the way until He comes to our relief. Love “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” ( 1 Corinthians 13:7).
Third, real love for God expresses itself in obedience. Where there is genuine love for God it will be our chief concern to please Him and fulfill His will. “He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me” ( John 14:21). “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” ( 1 John 5:3).
Inasmuch as it is the love of an inferior to a superior it must show itself in a respectful subjection, in the performance of duty. God returneth love with love: “I love them that love Me” ( Proverbs 8:17 and cf. John 14:21). “A Christian is rewarded as a lover rather than as a servant: not as doing work, but as doing work out of love” (Manton). If we love God we shall do his bidding, promote His interests, seek His glory. And this not sporadically but uniformly and constantly; not in being devout at certain set times and the observance of the Lord’s supper, but respecting His authority in all the details of our daily lives. Only thus does love perform its function and fulfill its design: “whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected (attains its proper goal): hereby know we that we are in Him”( 1 John 2:5).
From what has been pointed out in the last three paragraphs it is clear that those who dwell upon the love of God for His people to the virtual exclusion of their love for Him do pervert the truth of the security of the saints, as the individual who persuades himself that he is the object of God’s love without producing the fruit of his love for Him is treading on very dangerous ground. This divorcing of the necessary effect from its cause might be demonstrated just as conclusively of the other elements or parts, but because we entered into so much detail with the first we will barely state the other three. The immutability of God’s purpose to conduct His elect to Heaven must not be considered as a thing apart; the means have been predestinated as much as the end, and they who despise the means perish. The very term “covenant” signifies a compact entered into by two or more persons, wherein terms are prescribed and rewards promised: nowhere has God promised covenant blessings to those who comply not with covenant stipulations. Nor have I any warrant to believe the saving power of God is working in me unless I am expressly proving the sufficiency of His grace. 4. It is perverted by those who lose the balance of Truth between Divine preservation and Christian perseverance. We may think it vastly more honoring unto God to write or say ten times as much about His sovereignty as we do upon man’s responsibility, but that is only a vain attempt to be wise above what is written, and therefore is to display our own presumption and folly. We may attempt to excuse our failure by declaring it is a difficult matter to present the Divine supremacy and human accountability in their due proportions, but with the Word of God in our hands it will avail us nothing. The business of God’s servant is not only to contend earnestly for the Faith but to set forth the Truth in its Scriptural proportions. Far more error consists in misrepresenting and distorting the Truth than in expressly repudiating it. Professing Christians are not deceived by an avowed infidel or atheist, but are taken in by men who quote and re-quote certain portions of Holy Writ, but are silent upon all the passages which clash with their lop-sided views.
Just as we may dwell so much upon the Deity of Christ as to lose sight of the reality of His humanity so we may become so occupied with God’s keeping of His people as to overlook those verses where the Christian is bidden to keep himself. The incarnation in nowise changed or modified the fact that Christ was none other than Immanuel tabernacling among men, that “God was manifest in flesh,” nevertheless we read “Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren” ( Hebrews 2:17), and again “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” ( Luke 2:51).
The theanthropic person or the Mediator is grossly caricatured if either His Godhead or manhood be omitted from consideration. Whatever difficulty it may involve to our finite minds, whatever mystery which transcends our grasp, yet we must hold fast to the fact that the Child born, the Son given, was “the mighty God” ( Isaiah 9:6); nor must we suffer the truth of God’s garrisoning of His people to crowd out the necessity of their discharging their responsibility.
It is perfectly true there is a danger in the other side and that we need to be on our guard against erring in the opposite direction. Some have done so.
There are those who consider the humanity of Christ could not be true humanity in the real sense of that word unless it were peccable, arguing that His temptation was nothing more than a meaningless show unless He was capable of yielding to Satan’s attacks. One error leads to another. If the last Adammet the Devil on the same plane as did the first Adam, simply as a sinless man, and if His victory (as well as all His wondrous works) is to be attributed solely to the power of the Holy Spirit, then it follows that the exercise of His divine prerogatives and attributes were entirely suspended during the years of His humiliation. Hence we find that those who hold this fantastic view endorse the “kenosis” theory, interpreting the “made Himself of no reputation” or “who emptied Himself” of Philippians 2:7 as the temporary setting aside of His omniscience and omnipotence.
Contending for Christian perseverance no more warrants the repudiation of Divine preservation than insisting on the true manhood of Christ justifies the impugning of His Godhood. Both must be held fast: on the one hand reasoning must be bridled by refusing to go one step further than Scripture goes; on the other hand faith must be freely exercised, receiving all that God has revealed thereon. That which is central in Philippians 2:5-7 is the position Christ entered and the character in which He appeared. He who was “in the form of God” and deemed it not robbery “to be equal with God” took upon Him “the form of a servant” and was “made in the likeness of men.” He laid aside the robes of His incomprehensible glory, divested Himself of His incommunicable honors, and assumed the mediatorial office instead of continuing to act as the universal Sovereign.
He descended into the sphere of servitude, yet without the slightest injury to His Godhead. There was a voluntary abnegation of the exercise of full dominion and sovereignty, though He still remained “The Lord of glory” ( 1 Corinthians 2:8). He “became obedient unto death” but He did not become either feeble or fallible. He was and is both perfect and “the mighty God.”
As the person of the God-man Mediator is falsified if either His Godhead or manhood be denied, or perverted if either be practically ignored, so it is with the security of the saints when either their Divine preservation or their own perseverance is repudiated, or perverted if either be emphasized to the virtual exclusion of the other. Both must be maintained in their due proportions. Scripture designates our Savior “the true God” ( 1 John 5:20), yet it also speaks of Him as “the man Christ Jesus” ( 1 Timothy 2:5); again and again He is denominated “the Son of man,” yet Thomas owned Him as “my Lord and my God.” So too the Psalmist affirmed “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee, will not slumber... The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and for evermore” ( <19C103> Psalm 121:3,7,8); nevertheless, He also declared “By the Word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer” ( 17:4), and again “I have kept the ways of the Lord...1 have kept myself from mine iniquity” ( 18:21, 23).
Jude exhorts believers “keep yourselves in the love of God” and then speaks of Him “that is able to keep you from falling” ( 21:24).
The one complements, and not contradicts, the other. 5. It is perverted by those who divorce the purpose of God from the means through which it is accomplished. God has purposed the eternal felicity of His people and that purpose is certain of full fruition, nevertheless it is not effected without the use of means on their part, any more than a harvest is obtained and secured apart from human industry and persevering diligence.
God has made promise to His saints that “bread shall be given” them and their “water shall be sure” ( Isaiah 33:16), but that does not exempt them from the discharge of their duty or provide them with an indulgence to take their ease. The Lord gave a plentiful supply of manna from heaven, but the Israelites had to get up early and gather it each morning, for it melted when the sun shone on it. So His people are now required to “labor for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life” ( John 6:2 7).
Promises of Divine preservation are not made to sluggards and idlers but those called unto the use of means for the establishing of their souls in the practice of obedience; those promises are not given to promote idleness but are so many encouragements to the diligent, assurances that sincere endeavors shall have a successful issue.
God has purposed to preserve believers in holiness and not in wickedness.
His promises are made to those who strive against sin and mourn over it, not to those who take their full thereof and delight therein. If I presume upon God’s goodness and count upon His shielding me when I deliberately run into the place of temptation, then I shall be justly left to reap as I have sown. It is Satan who tempts souls to recklessness and to the perverting of the Divine promises. This is clear from the attack which he made upon the Savior. When he bade Him cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple and to rely upon the angels to preserve Him from harm, it was an urging Him to presume upon the end by disdaining the means; Our Lord stopped his mouth by pointing out that, notwithstanding His assurance from God and of His faithfulness concerning the end, yet Scripture requires that the means tending to that end be employed, the neglect of which is a sinful tempting of God. If I deliberately drink deadly poison I have no ground for concluding that prayer will deliver me from its fatal effects.

The Divine preservation of the saints no more renders their own activities, constant care and exertions superfluous, than does God’s gift of breath make it unnecessary for us to breathe. It is their own preservation in faith and holiness which is the very thing made certain: they themselves, therefore, must live by faith and in the practice of holiness, for they cannot persevere in any other way than by watching and praying, carefully avoiding the snares of Satan and the seductions of the world, resisting and mortifying the lusts of the flesh, working out their own salvation with fear and trembling. To neglect those duties, to follow a contrary course, is to “draw back unto perdition” and not to “believe to the saving of the soul” ( Hebrews 10:39). He who argues that since his perseverance in faith and holiness is assured he needs exercise no concern about it or trouble to do anything toward it, is not only guilty of a palpable contradiction but gives proof that he is a stranger to regeneration and has neither part nor lot in the matter. “Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments, for therein do I delight” ( <19B935> Psalm 119:35) is the cry of the renewed. 6. It is perverted by those who deny the truth of Christian responsibility. In this section we shall turn away from the “mongrel Calvinists” to consider a serious defect on the part of “hyper-Calvinists,” or as some prefer to call them, “fatalists.” These people not only repudiate the general offer of the Gospel, arguing that it is a virtual denial of man’s spiritual impotency to call upon the unregenerate to savingly repent and believe, but they are also woefully remiss in exhorting believers unto the performance of Christian duties. Their favorite text is “without Me ye can do nothing. “but they are silent upon “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” ( Philippians 4:13).
They delight to quote the promises wherein God declares “I will” and “I shall” but they ignore those verses which contain the qualifying “if ye” ( John 8:31) and “if we” ( Hebrews 3:6).
They are sound and strong in the truth of God’s preservation of His people, but they are weak and unsound on the correlative truth of the saints’ perseverance. They say much about the power and operations of the Holy Spirit, but very little on the method He employs or the means and motives He makes use of. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God” ( Romans 8:14).
He does not compel but inclines: it is not by the use of physical power but by the employment of moral suasion and sweet inducements that He leads for He deals with the saints not as stocks and stones but as rational entities. “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye” ( Psalm 32:8), The meaning of that is more apparent from the contrast presented in the next verse: “Be ye not as the horse (rushing where it should not) or as the mule (stubbornly refusing to go where it should) which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle. “ God does not drive His children like unintelligent animals, but guides by enlightening their minds, directing their inclinations, moving their wills.
God led Israel across the wilderness by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night: but they had to respond thereto, to follow it. So the good Shepherd goes before His sheep, and they follow Him.
It is true, blessedly true, that God “draws,” yet that drawing is not a mechanical one as though we were machines, but a moral one in keeping with our nature and constitution. Beautifully is this expressed in Hosea 11:4, “I drew them with cords as a man, with bands of love.”
Every moral virtue, every spiritual grace, is appealed to and called into action. There is perfect love and gracious care on God’s part toward us; there is the intelligence of faith and response of love on our part toward Him; and thereby He keeps us in the way. Blessed and wondrous indeed is the inter-working of Divine grace and the believer’s responsibility. All the affections of the new creature are wrought upon by the Holy Spirit. He draws out our love by setting before us God’s love: “we love Him, because He first loved us,” but we do love Him, we are not passive, nor is love inactive. He quickens our desires and revives our assurance, and we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” He brings into view “the prize of the high calling” and we “press toward the mark, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before” ( Philippians 3:13,14).
It is very much like a skilled musician and a harp: as his fingers touch its strings they produce melodious sounds. God works in us and produces the beauty of Holiness. But how? By setting before our minds weighty considerations and powerful motives, and causing us to respond thereto.
By giving us a tender conscience which is sensitive to His still small voice.
By appealing to every motive-power in us: fear, desire, love, hatred, hope, ambition. God preserves His saints not as He does the mountain pine which is enabled to withstand the storm without its own concurrence, but by calling into exercise and act the principle that was imparted to them at the new birth. There is the working of Divine grace first, and then the outflow of Christian energy. God works in His people both to will and to do of His good pleasure, and they work out their own salvation with fear and trembling ( Philippians 2:12,13). And it is the office of God’s servants to be used as instruments in the hands of the Spirit. It is their task to enforce the responsibility of the saints, to admonish slothfulness, to warn against apostasy, to call unto the use of means and the performance of duty.
If the hyper-Calvinist preacher compares the method he follows with the policy pursued by the apostles, he should quickly perceive the vast difference there is between them. True, the apostles gave attention to doctrinal instruction, but they also devoted themselves to exhortation and expostulation. True, they magnified the free and sovereign grace of God and were careful to set the crown of glory upon the One to whom alone it belonged, yet they were far from addressing their hearers as so many paralytics or creatures who must lie impotent till the waters be moved. “No,” they said, “Let us not sleep, as do others” ( 1 Thessalonians 5:6), but “awake to righteousness and sin not” ( 1 Corinthians 15:34).
They bade them “run with patience the race that is set before us” ( Hebrews 12:2) and not sit down and mope and hug their miseries. They called upon them to “resist the Devil” ( James 4:7), not take the attitude they were helpless in the matter. They gave direction “keep yourselves from idols” ( 1 John 5:21) and did not at once negative it by adding, “but you are unable to do so.” When the apostle said “I think it meet, as long as lam in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance” ( 2 Peter 1:13), he was not usurping the prerogative of the Spirit but was enforcing the responsibility of the saints. 7. It is perverted by those who use the doctrine of justification to crowd out the companion doctrine of sanctification. Though they are inseparably connected yet they may be and should be considered singly and distinctly.
Under the Law the ablutions and oblations, the washings and sacrifices went together, and justification and sanctification are blessings which must not be disjointed. God never bestows the one without the other, yet we have no means of knowing we have received the former apart from the evidences of the latter. Justification refers to the relative or legal change which takes place in the status of God’s people. Sanctification to the real and experimental change which takes place in their state, a change which is begun at the new birth, developed during the course of their earthly pilgrimage and is made perfect in Heaven. The one gives the believer a title to Heaven, the other a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light; the former clears him from the guilt of sin, the latter cleanses from sin’s defilement. In sanctification something is actually imparted to the believer, whereas in justification it is only imputed. Justification is based entirely on the work which Christ wrought for His people, but sanctification is principally a work wrought in them.
By our fall in Adam we not only lost the favor of God but also the purity of our nature, and therefore we need to be both reconciled to God and renewed in our inner man, for without personal holiness “no man shall see the Lord” ( Hebrews 12:14). “As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation (behavior); because it is written, Be ye holy for I am holy” ( 1 Peter 1:15,16).
God’s nature is such that unless we be sanctified there can be no intercourse between Him and us. But can persons be sinful and holy at one and the same time? Genuine Christians discover so much carnality, filth and vileness in themselves that they find it almost impossible to be assured they are holy. Nor is this difficulty solved, as in justification, by recognizing that though completely unholy in ourselves we are holy in Christ, for Scripture teaches that those who are sanctified by God are holy in themselves, though the evil nature has not been removed from them.
None but “the pure in heart” will ever “see God” ( Matthew 5:8).
There must be that renovation of soul whereby our minds, affections and wills are brought into harmony with God. There must be that impartial compliance with the revealed will of God and abstinence from evil which issues from faith and love. There must be that directing of all our actions to the glory of God, by Jesus Christ, according to the Gospel. There must be a spirit of holiness working within the believer’s heart so as to sanctify his outward actions if they are to be acceptable unto Him in whom “there is no darkness.” True, there is perfect holiness in Christ for the believer, but there must also be a holy nature received from Him. There are some who appear to delight in the imputed obedience of Christ who make little or no concern about personal holiness. They have much to say about being arrayed in “the garments of salvation and covered with the robe of righteousness” ( Isaiah 61:10), who give no evidence that they “are clothed with humility” ( 1 Peter 5:4) or that they have “put on...bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another” ( Colossians 3:12).
How many there are today who suppose that if they have trusted in Christ all is sure to be well with them at the last, even though they are not personally holy. Under the pretense of honoring faith, Satan, as an angel of light, has deceived and is now deceiving multitudes of souls. When their “faith” is examined and tested, what is it worth? Nothing at all so far as insuring an entrance into Heaven is concerned: it is a powerless, lifeless, fruitless thing. The faith of God’s elect is unto “the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness” ( Titus 1:1). It is a faith which purifieth the heart ( Acts 15:9), and it grieves over all impurity. It is a faith which produces an unquestioning obedience ( Hebrews 11:8). They therefore do but delude themselves who suppose they are daily drawing nearer to Heaven while they are following those courses which lead only to Hell. He who thinks to come to the enjoyment of God without being personally holy, makes Him Out to be an unholy God, and puts the highest indignity upon Him. The genuineness of saving faith is only proved as it bears the blossoms of experimental godliness and the fruits of true piety.
Sanctification consists of receiving a holy nature from Christ and being indwelt by the Spirit so that the body becomes His temple, set apart unto God. By the Spirit’s giving me vital union with “the Holy One” I am “sanctified in Christ Jesus” ( 1 Corinthians 1:2). Where there is life there is growth, and even when growth ceases there is a development and maturing of what has grown. There is a living principle, a moral quality communicated at the new birth, and under sanctification it is drawn out into action and exercised in living unto God. In regeneration the Spirit imparts saving grace, in sanctification He strengthens and develops it: the one is a birth, the other a growth.. Therein it differs from justification: justification is a single act of grace, sanctification is a continued work of grace; the one is complete the other progressive. Some do not like the term “progressive sanctification” hut the thing itself is clearly taught in Scripture. “Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit” ( John 15:2). “I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgment” ( Philippians 1:9).
That you “may grow up in Him in all things” ( Ephesians 4:15) is an exhortation thereto. 8. It is perverted by those who fail to accord the example of Christ its proper place. Few indeed have maintained an even keel on this important matter. If the Socinians have made the exemplary life of Christ to be the whole end of the incarnation, others have so stressed His atoning death as to reduce His model walk to comparative insignificance. While the pulpit must make it clear that the main and chief reason why the Son of God became flesh, was in order that He might honor God in rendering to the Law a perfect satisfaction on behalf of His people, yet it should also make equally plain that a prominent design and important end of Christ’s incarnation was to set before His people a pattern of holiness for their emulation. Thus declares The Scriptures: “He hath left us an example that we should follow His steps” ( 1 Peter 2:21) and that example imperatively obligates believers unto its imitation. If some have unduly pressed the example of Christ upon unbelievers, others have woefully failed to press it on believers. Because it has no place in the justification of a sinner, it is a serious mistake to suppose it exerts no influence upon the sanctification of a saint.
The very name “Christian” intimates that there is an intimate relation between Christ and the believer. It signifies “an anointed one,” that he has been endued with a measure of that Divine unction which his Master received “without measure” ( John 3:34). And as Flavel, the Puritan, pointed out “Believers are called ‘fellows’ or co-partners ( Psalm 45:7) of Christ from their participation with Him of the same Spirit. God giveth the same spirit unto us which He most plentifully poured out upon Christ.
Now where the same spirit and principle is, there the same fruits and operations must he produced, according to the proportions and measures of the Spirit of grace communicated. Its nature also is assimilating, and changeth those in whom it is into the same image with Christ, their heavenly Head ( 2 Corinthians 3:18).” Again; believers are denominated “Christians” because they are disciples of Christ ( Matthew 28:19 margin, Acts 11:26), that is, learners and followers of His, and therefore it is a misuse of terms to designate a man a “Christian” who is not sincerely endeavoring to mortify and forsake whatever is contrary to His character: to justify his name he must be Christlike.
Though the perfect life of Christ must not be exalted to the exclusion of His atoning death, neither must it be omitted as the believer’s model. If it be true that no attempt to imitate Christ can obtain a sinner’s acceptance with God, it is equally true that the emulating of Him is imperatively necessary and absolutely essential in order to the saints’ preservation and final salvation. “Every man is bound to the imitation of Christ under penalty of forfeiting his claim to Christ. The necessity of this imitation convincingly appears from the established order of salvation, which is fixed and unalterable. Now conformity to Christ is the established method in which God will bring many souls to glory. ‘For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren’ ( Romans 8:29).
The same God who hath predestinated men to salvation, hath in order thereto, predestinated them unto conformity to Christ, and this order of heaven is never to be reversed. We may as well think to be saved without Christ, as to be saved without conformity to Christ” (John Flavel).
In Christ God has set before His people that standard of moral excellence which He requires them to aim and strive after. In His life we behold a glorious representation in our own nature of the walk of obedience which He demands of us. Christ conformed Himself to us by His abasing incarnation, how reasonable therefore is it that we should conform ourselves to Him in the way of obedience and sanctification. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” ( Philippians 2:5).

He came as near to us as was possible for Him to do, how reasonable then is it that we should endeavor to come as near as it is possible for us to do. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.” If “even Christ pleased not Himself” ( Romans 15:3), how reasonable is it that we should be required to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him ( Matthew 16:24), for without so doing we cannot be His disciples ( Luke 15:27). If we are to he conformed to Christ in glory how necessary that we first be conformed to Him in holiness: “he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself so to walk even as He walked” ( 1 John 2:6). “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” ( 2 Timothy 2:19): let him either put on the life of Christ or drop the name of Christ.
CHAPTER - ITS SAFEGUARDS 
There may be some who will at once take exception to the employment of this term in such a connection, affirming that the Truth of God requires no safeguarding at the hands of those called by Him to expound it: that their business is to faithfully preach the same and leave results entirely to its Author. We fully agree that God’s eternal Truth stands in no need of any carnal assistance from us, either in the way of dressing it up to render it more attractive or toning down to make it less offensive; yea, we heartily subscribe to the apostle’s dictum that “we can do nothing against the Truth, but for the Truth” ( 2 Corinthians 13:8) —God overrules the opposition of those who hate it and makes the wrath of His enemies to praise Him. Nevertheless in view of such passages as Mark 4:33; John 16:12; 1 Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12 it is clear that our presentation of the Truth needs to be regulated by the condition of those to whom it is ministered. Moreover, this raises the question, What is faithfully presenting the Truth? Are there not other modifying adverbs which are not to be omitted?
The Truth should not only be preached “faithfully” but wisely, proportionately, seasonably as well. There is a zeal which is not according to knowledge nor tempered by wisdom. There is an unbalanced presentation of the Truth which accomplishes more harm than good. We read of “the present Truth” ( 2 Peter 1:12) and of “a word in due season” ( Proverbs 15:23 and cf. Isaiah 50:4), which implies there is such a thing as speaking unseasonably, even though it be the Truth itself which is spoken and that “faithfully.” What is a “word in season?” Is it not a timely and pertinent one, a message suited to the condition, circumstances and needs of the persons addressed? In His wisdom and goodness God has provided cordials for the faint and comfort for those who mourn, as He has also given exhortations to the slothful, admonitions to the careless, solemn warnings to the reckless, and fearful threatenings to those who are defiant. Discrimination needs to be used in our appropriation and application of the Scriptures. As it would be cruel to quote terrifying passages to one who is already mourning over his sins, so it would be wrong to press the promises of Divine preservation upon a professing Christian who is living a carnal and worldly life. “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” ( Matthew 26:41).
Those words furnish an illustration of a “word in due season.” The disciples (not Peter only) had boasted “though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee.” They were self-confident and temporarily blind to their own instability. Their Lord therefore bade them guard against self-reliance and seek grace from above, for though they were quite sincere in their avowal, yet were they much too feeble to resist Satan’s attacks in their own strength. They thought themselves immune from such a horrible sin as denying their Master, but instead of bolstering them up in their sense of security He warned them of their danger. Another example of a seasonable word is the apostle’s exhortation to the one who claims that he “standeth by faith,” namely, “Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest He also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on those that fell, severity; but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” ( Romans 11:20,22).
But it is rather those safeguards by which God Himself has hedged about the subject of the everlasting security of His people that we would now particularly consider, those defenses which are designed to shut out unholy trespassers from this garden of delights; or to change the figure, those descriptions of character and conduct which serve to make known the particular persons to whom alone His promises belong. In the preceding section we dwelt at some length on how this blessed doctrine is misrepresented by Arminians and perverted by Antinomians. To use a term employed by an apostle, it has been grievously “wrested,” torn from its setting, disproportionately contorted, divorced from its qualifying terms, detached from the necessary means by which it is attained, applied unto those to whom it does not belong. Hence our present object is to direct attention unto some of the principal bulwarks by which this precious truth is protected and which must be duly emphasized and continually pressed by the servants of God if it is to be portrayed in its true perspective and if souls are not to be fatally misled. Only thus shall we “faithfully” present this truth. 1. By insisting that it is the preservation of saints and not every one who deems himself a Christian. It is of deep importance to define clearly and sharply the character of those who are Divinely assured of being preserved unto the heavenly kingdom—that God be not dishonored, His Truth falsified, and souls deceived. “He preserveth the souls of His saints” ( Psalm 87:10), but of none others. It is so easy to appropriate (or misappropriate) such a promise as “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory” ( Psalm 73:24), but before so doing honesty requires that I ascertain whether the experiences of the one described in the context are those of mine. Asaph confesses to being envious at the prosperity of the wicked (vv. 3, 12) until he felt he had cleansed his own heart and hands “in vain” (v. 13). But he checks himself, tender lest by such murmuring he should stumble God’s children (v. 15), recording how his “heart was grieved” and his conscience pricked at giving way to such foolish repinings, until he owned unto God “I was as a beast before Thee” (v. 22). The recollection of God’s gracious forbearance (v. 23) moved him to say “it is good for me to draw near to God” (v. 28).
When I can find such marks in myself as the Psalmist had, such graces operating in my heart as did in, his, then—but not before — am I warranted in comforting myself as he did. If I challenge the utterances of my mouth as to whether or no they are likely to offend God’s little ones, if I make conscience of envying the prosperity of the wicked and mourn over it, if I am deeply humbled thereby, if I realize “my steps had well nigh slipped” (v. 2) and that it was a longsuffering God who had “holden me by my right hand,” alone preserving me from apostasy; if this sense of His sovereign goodness enables me to affirm “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee” (v. 25); if all of this produces in me such a sense of my utter insufficiency as to own “My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart” (v. 26), then am I justified in saying “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory.” Yes, God “preserveth the souls of His saints,” but what avails that for me unless I be one of them!
Again; how many there are who eagerly grasp at those words of Christ concerning His sheep, who have only the vaguest idea of the ones whom He thus designates: “And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of My hand” ( John 10:27).
The very fact that the verse opens with “and” requires us to ponder what immediately precedes, and because His flock is but a “little” one ( Luke 12:32) it behooves each one who values his soul to spare no pains in seeking to ascertain whether he belongs to it. In the context the Savior says “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Observe diligently the three things which are here predicated of them.
First, they hear Christ’s voice. Now to hear His voice means far more than to be acquainted with His words as they are recorded in Scripture—more than believing they are His words. When it was said unto Israel “the Lord will not hear you in that day” ( 1 Samuel 8:18) it signified that He would not heed their requests or grant their petitions.
When God complained “When I spake, ye did not hear,” it was not that they were physically deaf but their hearts were steeled against Him, as the remainder of the verse indicates: “But did evil before Mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not” ( Isaiah 65:12).
When God says “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him” ( Matthew 17:5) He is requiring something more of us than that we simply listen respectfully and believingly to what He says: He is demanding that we submit ourselves unreservedly to His authority, that we respond promptly to His orders, that we obey Him. In Proverbs 8:33 “hearing” is contrasted from refusing, and in Hebrews 3:15 we read “If ye will hear His voice harden not your hearts.” When Christ declares of His flock “My sheep hear My voice” He signifies they heed it — they are not intractable but responsive, doing what He bids. Second, He declares “and I know them,” that is, with a knowledge of approbation. Third, “and they follow Me “: not the bent of the flesh, not the solicitations of Satan, not the ways of the world, but the example which Christ hast left them ( 1 Peter 2:21). Of this it said “they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” ( Revelation 14:4) But in order to follow Christ, self has to be denied and the cross taken up ( Matthew 16:24). Only those who thus “hear,” are “known” of Christ, and who “follow ” Him, shall “never perish.” 2. By insisting that no person has any warrant to derive comfort from the doctrine of Divine Security until he is sure that he possesses the character and conduct of a saint. This naturally grows out of the first point, though we have somewhat anticipated what should be said here. Not every one who bears the name of Christ will enter Heaven, but only His sheep. It therefore follows that only those bearing the marks of such have any claim upon the promises made to that favored company. And the burden of proof always rests upon the one who affirms. If one answers some advertisement from an employer of labor for a skilled workman, he is required to give evidence of his qualifications by well-accredited testimonials. If a person puts in a claim to an estate he must produce proof that he is a legitimate heir and satisfy the court of his bona fides. If a captain requires an additional hand for his ship he demands that the applicant show his papers or give demonstration that he is a fully qualified seaman. Before I can procure a passport I must produce my birth certificate. And one who avers himself a saint must authenticate his profession and evidence his new birth before he is entitled to be regarded as such.
God’s saints are distinguished from all other people, not only by what He has done for them but also by what He has wrought in them. He set His heart upon them from all eternity, having loved them “with an everlasting love” ( Jeremiah 31:3) and therefore were they “blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ,” chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, predestinated “unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself,” and “accepted in the Beloved” ( Ephesians 1:3-6).
It is true that they fell in Adam and became guilty before God, but an all-sufficient Redeemer was provided for them, appointed to assume and discharge all their liabilities and make full reparation to the broken Law on their behalf. It is also true that they are “by nature the children of wrath even as others,”being born into this world “dead in trespasses and sins” ( Ephesians 2:1-3); but at the ordained hour a miracle of grace is performed within them so that they become “new creatures in Christ Jesus” ( 2 Corinthians 5:17) and their bodies are made “the temple of the Holy Spirit” ( 1 Corinthians 6:19). Faith and holiness have been communicated to them, so that though they are still in the world they are not of it ( John 17:14).
The saints are endowed with a new life, with a spiritual and supernatural principle or “nature” which affects their whole souls. So radical and transforming is the change wrought in them by this miracle of grace that it is described as a passing from death unto life ( John 5:24), from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son ( Colossians 1:13), from “having no hope and without God in the world” to being “made nigh by the blood of Christ” ( Ephesians 2:12,13), from a state of alienation to one of reconciliation ( Colossians 1:21), out of darkness into God’s marvelous light ( 1 Peter 2:9). Of them God says “This people have I formed for Myself: they shall show forth My praise” ( Isaiah 43:21).
Obviously such a tremendous change in their state and standing must effect a real and marked change in their character and conduct. From rebellion against God they are brought unto subjection to Him, so that they throw down their weapons of opposition and yield to His scepter. From love of sin they are turned to hate it, and from dread of God they now delight in Him. Formerly they thought only of gratifying self, now their deepest longing is to please Him who has shown them such amazing grace.
The saints are those who enter into a solemn covenant with the Lord, unreservedly dedicating themselves unto Him, making His glory their paramount concern. “Formerly soldiers used to take an oath not to flinch from their colors, but faithfully to cleave to their leaders; this they called sacramentum militare , a military oath; such an oath lies upon every Christian. It is so essential to the being of a saint, that they are described by this: “gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me” ( Psalm 50:5).

We are not Christians till we have subscribed this covenant, and that without any reservation. When we take upon us the profession of Christ’s name, we enlist ourselves in His muster-roll, and by it do promise that we will live and die with Him in opposition to all His enemies...He will not entertain us till we resign up ourselves freely to His disposal, that there may be no disputing with His commands afterwards, but, as one under His authority, go and come at His word” (W. Gurnall, 1660). 3. By insisting that perseverance is an imperative necessity. Adherence to the Truth no matter what opposition is encountered, living a life of faith in and upon God despite all the antagonism of the flesh, steadfastly treading the path of obedience in face of the scoffs of the world, continuing to go forward along the highway of holiness notwithstanding the hindrances of Satan and his emissaries, is not optional but obligatory. It is according to the unalterable decree of God: no one can reach Heaven except by going along the only way that reaches there—Christ “endured the cross” before He received the crown. It is according to the irreversible appointment of God: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” ( Ephesians 2:10).
It is according to the established order of God: “that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience (the Greek word may be rendered, perseverance with equal propriety) inherit the promises” ( Hebrews 6:12). It is according to the design of the Atonement, for Christ lived and died that He might “purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works” ( Titus 2:14) Assurance of Divine preservation no more renders less imperative the saints own perseverance than God’s informing Hezekiah he should live a further fifteen years abolished the necessity of his eating and drinking, resting and sleeping, as hitherto. “The elect are as much chosen to intermediate sanctification on their way as they are to that ultimate glorification which crowns their journey’s end, and there is no coming to the one but through the other. So that neither the value, nor the necessity, nor the practical value of good works is superseded by this glorious truth...It is impossible that either the Son of God, who came down from heaven to propose and make known His Father’s will; or that the Spirit of God, speaking in the Scriptures and acting on the heart, should administer the least encouragement to negligence and unholiness of life. Therefore that opinion that personal holiness is unnecessary to final glorification is in direct opposition to every dictate of reason, to every declaration of Scripture” (A. Toplady).
Alas, the attitude of multitudes of professing Christians is, “Soul, thou hast much good laid up...take thine ease” ( Luke 12:19), and the doom of the fool will be theirs.
Concerning the imperativeness of perseverance C.H. Spurgeon said in the introductory portion of his sermon on “The righteous shall hold on his way” ( Job 17:9), “The man who is righteous before God has away of his own. It is not the way of the flesh, nor the way of the world; it is a way marked Out for him by the Divine command, in which he walks by faith. It is the king’s highway of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it: only the ransomed of the Lord shall walk there, and these shall find it a path of separation from the world. Once entered upon the way of life, the pilgrim must persevere in it or perish, for thus saith the Lord ‘If any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.’ Perseverance in the path of faith and holiness is a necessity of the Christian, for only ‘he that endureth to the end shall be saved.’ It is in vain to spring up quickly like the seed that was sown on the rock, and then by-and-by to wither when the sun is up; that would but prove that such a plant has no root in itself, but ‘the trees of the Lord are full of sap’ and they abide and continue and bring forth fruit, even in old age, to show that the Lord is upright. “There is a great difference between nominal Christianity and real Christianity, and this is generally seen in the failure of the one and the continuance of the other. Now, the declaration of the text is, that the truly righteous man shall hold on his way: he shall not go back, he shall not leap the hedges and wander to the right hand or the left, he shall not lie down in idleness, neither shall he faint and cease to go upon his journey; but he ‘shall hold on his way.’ It will frequently be very difficult for him to do so, but he will have such resolution, such power of inward grace given him, that he will hold on his way’ with stern determination, as though he held on by his teeth, resolving never to let go. Perhaps he may not always travel with equal speed; it is not said that he shall hold on his pace, but he shall hold on his way. There are times when we run and are not weary, and anon when we walk and are thankful that we do not faint; ay, and there are periods when we are glad to go on all fours and creep upwards with pain; but still we prove that ‘the righteous shall hold on his way.’ Under all difficulties the face of the man whom God has justified is steadfastly set towards Jerusalem, nor will he turn aside till his eyes shall see the King in his beauty.” 4. By insisting on continuance in well doing. It is not how a person commences but how he ends which is the all-important matter. We certainly do not believe that one who has been born of God can perish, but one of the marks of regeneration is its permanent effects, and therefore I must produce those permanent fruits if my profession is to be credited.
Both Scripture and observation testify to the fact that there are those who appear to run well for a season and then drop out of the race. Not only are there numbers induced to “come forward” and “join the church” under the high-pressure methods used by the professional evangelists, who quickly return to their former manner of life: but there are not a few who enter upon a religious profession more soberly and wear longer. Some seem to be genuinely converted: they separate from ungodly companions, seek fellowship with God’s people, manifest an earnest desire to know more of the Word, become quite intelligent in the Scriptures, and for a number of years give every outward sign of being Christians. But gradually their zeal abates, or they are offended at some wrong done them, and ultimately they go right back again into the world.
We read of a certain class “who for a while believed, and in time of temptation fall away” ( Luke 8:13).
There were those who followed Christ for a season, yet of them we read “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him” ( John 6:66).
There have been many such in every age. All is not gold that glitters, and not every one who makes a promising start in the race reaches the goal. It is therefore incumbent upon us to take note of those passages which press upon us the necessity of continuance, for they constitute another of those safeguards which God has placed around the doctrine of the security of His saints. On a certain occasion “many believed on Him” ( John 8:30), but so far from Christ assuring them that Heaven was now their settled portion, we are told “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, IF ye continue in MY word then are ye My disciples indeed” (v. 31).
Unless we abide in subjection to Christ, unless we walk in obedience to Him unto the end of our earthly course, we are but disciples in name and semblance.
We read of certain men who “came to Antioch and spake unto the Grecians there, preaching the Lord Jesus.” The power of God accompanied them and richly blessed their efforts, for “The hand of the Lord was with them and a great multitude believed and turned unto the Lord” ( Acts 11:20,21).
Tidings of this reached the church at Jerusalem, and mark well their response: they sent Barnabas to them, “who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (v. 22). Barnabas was not one of those fatalistic hyper-Calvinists who argued that since God has begun a good work in them all would be well, that the Holy Spirit will care for, instruct, and guard them, whether or no they be furnished with ministerial nurses and teachers. Instead, he recognized and discharged his own Christian responsibility, dealt with them as accountable agents, addressed to them suitable exhortations, pressed upon them the indispensable duty of their cleaving to the Lord. Alas that there are so few like Barnabas today.
At a later date we find that Barnabas returned to Antioch accompanied by Paul, and while there they were engaged in “confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith” and warning them that “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” ( Acts 14:22).
How far were they from believing in a mechanical salvation, reasoning that if these people had been genuinely converted they would necessarily “continue in the faith!” Writing to the Corinthians, the apostle reminded them of the Gospel he had preached unto them and which they had received, yet failing not to add “By which also ye are saved IF ye hold fast that which I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain” ( 1 Corinthians 15:2).
In like manner he reminded the Colossians that they were reconciled to God and would be preserved unblameable and unreproveable “IF ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel” ( 1:23).
There are those who dare to say there is no “if” about it, but such people are taking direct issue with Holy Writ.
Even when writing to a minister of the Gospel, his own “son in the faith,” Paul hesitated not to exhort him, “Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine; continue in them,” adding “for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself (from apostasy) and them that hear thee” ( 1 Timothy 4:6).
To the Hebrews he said “But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house are we IF we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” ( 3:6).
And again, “For we are made partakers of Christ IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” ( 3:15).
How dishonestly has the Word of God been handled by many! Such passages as these are never heard from many pulpits from one year’s end to another. It is much to be feared that many pastors of “Calvinistic” churches are afraid to quote such verses lest their people should charge them with Arminianism. Such will yet have to face the Divine indictment “Ye have not kept My ways, but have been partial in the Law” or Word ( Malachi 2:9).
We find precisely the same thing in the writings of another apostle. James though addressing those whom he terms “my beloved brethren,” calls upon his readers “But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any one be a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was (that is, nothing but a superficial and fleeting effect is produced upon him). But whoso looketh into the perfect Law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” ( 1:22-25).
The word for ‘beholdeth” is a metaphor taken from those who not only glance at a thing but bend their bodies towards it that they may carefully scrutinize it —used in Luke 24:12, and 1 Peter 1:12; denoting earnestness of desire, and diligent enquiry. To “continue therein” signifies a persevering study of the Truth, and abiding in the belief of and obedience to the same, thereby evidencing our love for it. Many have a brief taste for it, but their appetite is quickly quenched again by the things of this world.
It is perfectly true, blessedly true, that there is no “if,” no uncertainty, from the Divine side in connection with the Christian’s reaching Heaven: everyone who has been justified by God shall without fail be glorified.
Those who have been Divinely quickened will most assuredly continue in the faith and persevere in holiness unto the end of their earthly course. This is clear from 1 John 2:19, where the apostle alludes to some in his day who had apostatized: “They went out from us, but they were not of us” — they belonged not to the family of God, though for a while they had fraternized with some of its members. “For” adds the apostle, “if they had been of us (had they really been one in a personal experience of the regenerating power of the Spirit) they would have continued with us” — nothing could have induced them to heed the siren voice of their seducers. “But they went Out from us that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us”—but merely temporary professors, stony-ground hearers, nominal Christians, members of a totally different family.
Previously they had every appearance of being the genuine article, but by their defection they were exposed as counterfeits. No, there is no “if” from the Divine side.
Nevertheless, there is an “if” from the human side of things, from the standpoint of our responsibility, in connection with my making sure that I am one of those whom God has promised to preserve unto His heavenly kingdom. Continuance in the faith in the path of obedience, in denying self and following Christ, is not simply desirable but indispensable. No matter how excellent a beginning I have made, if I do not continue to press forward I shall be lost. Yes, lost, and not merely miss some particular crown or millennial honors as the deluded dispensationalists teach. It is persevere or perish: it is final perseverance or perish eternally—there is no other alternative. Romans 11:22 makes that unmistakably clear; “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them that fell (the unbelieving Jews) severity: but toward thee (saved Gentiles, 5:11) goodness, IF thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” To continue in God’s goodness is the opposite of returning to our badness. The evidence that we are the recipients of God’s goodness is that we continue in the faith and obedience of the Gospel. The end cannot be reached apart from the appointed means.
But I cannot see the consistency between what has been set forth in the last two paragraphs, some will exclaim. What of it: who are you? who am I?
Merely short-sighted creatures of yesterday, upon whom God has written “folly and vanity.” Shall human ignorance set itself against Divine wisdom!
Does any reader dare call into question the practice of Christ and His apostles: they pressed the “if” and insisted upon the needs-be for this “continuing”; and those ministers who fail to do so—no matter what their standing or reputation—are no servants of God. Can you see the consistency between the apostle affirming so positively of those who have received the Holy Spirit from Christ “ye shall abide (“continue” - the same Greek word as in all the above passages) in Him,” and then in the very next breath exhorting them “And now, little children, abide (“continue”) in Him” ( 1 John 2:27,28)—if you cannot it must be because of theological blinders. Can you see the consistency of David asserting so confidently “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy Lord, endureth forever” and then immediately after praying, “forsake not the works of Thine own hands” ( <19D808> Psalm 138:8)—if you cannot then this writer places a big question-mark against your religious profession. 5. By insisting that there are dangers to guard against. Here again there will be those who object against the use of this term is such a connection. What sort of dangers, they will ask: dangers of the Christian’s severing his fellowship with God, losing his peace, spoiling his usefulness, rendering himself unfruitful?—granted, but not of missing Heaven itself. They will point Out that safety and danger are opposites and that one who is secure in Christ cannot be in any peril of perishing. However plausible, logical, and apparently Christ-honoring that may sound, we would ask, Is that how Scripture represents the case? Do the Epistles picture the saints as being in no danger of apostasy? Or, to state it less baldly: are there no sins warned against, no evils denounced, no paths of unrighteousness described, which if persisted in do not certainly terminate in destruction? And is there no responsibility resting on me in connection therewith? Apostasy is not reached at a single bound, but is the final culmination of an evil process, and it is against those things which have a tendency unto apostasy against which the saints are repeatedly and most solemnly warned.

One who is now experiencing good health is in no immediate danger of dying from tuberculosis, nevertheless if he recklessly exposes himself to the wet and cold, if he refrains from taking sufficient nourishing food which supplies strength to resist disease, or if he incurs a heavy cough on his chest and makes no effort to break it up, he is most likely to fall a victim to consumption. So, while the Christian remains spiritually healthy he is in no danger of apostatizing, but if he starts to keep company with the wicked and recklessly exposes himself to temptation, if he fails to use the means of grace, if he experiences a sad fall, and repents not of it and returns to his first works, he is deliberately heading for disaster. The seed of eternal death is still in the Christian: that seed is sin, and it is only as Divine grace is diligently and constantly sought, for the thwarting of its inclinations and suppressing of its activities, that it is hindered from developing to a fatal end. A small leak which is neglected will sink a ship just as effectually as the most boisterous sea. And as Spurgeon said on Psalm 19:13, “Secret sin is a steppingstone to presumptuous sin, and that is the vestibule of ‘the sin which is unto death’” (Treasury of David).
Did no dangers menace Israel after Jehovah brought them Out of Egypt with a high hand and by His mighty arm conducted them safely through the Red Sea? Did all who entered upon the journey to Canaan actually arrive at the promised land? Perhaps some one replies, They were under the old covenant and therefore supply no analogy to the case of Christians today.
What says the Word? This, they “were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” What analogy could be closer than that? Yet the passage goes on to say, “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness” ( 1 Corinthians 10:2-5).
And what is the use which the apostle makes of this solemn history? Does he say that it has no application unto us? The very reverse: “Now these things were our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted...neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents” (vv. 6-9).
Here is a most deadly danger for us to guard against.
Nor did the apostle leave it at that. He was still more definite, saying “Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come,” making this specific application unto Christians, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (vv. 10-12). Paul was no fatalist but one who ever enforced moral responsibility. He inculcated no mechanical salvation, but one which must be worked Out “with fear and trembling.” Charles Hodge of Princeton was a very strong Calvinist, yet on 1 Corinthians 10:12 he failed not to say: “There is perpetual danger of falling. No degree of progress we have already made, no amount of privileges which we may have enjoyed, can justify the want of caution. ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth,’that is, who thinketh himself secure...neither the members of the church nor the elect can be saved unless they persevere in holiness, and they cannot persevere in holiness without continual watchfulness and effort,” i.e., against the dangers menacing them.
The above is not the only instance when the apostle made use of the case of those Israelites who perished on their way to Canaan to warn N.T. saints of their danger. After affirming that God was grieved with that generation, saying “They do alway err in their heart and they have not known (loved)My ways, so I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest,” Paul added, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” ( Hebrews 3:12,13).
We are not here warned against an imaginary peril but a real one. “Take heed” signifies watch against carelessness and sloth, be on the alert as a soldier who knows the enemy is near, lest you fall an easy prey. Those here exhorted are specifically addressed as “brethren” to intimate there are times when the best of saints need to be cautioned against the worst of evils. An “evil heart of unbelief” is a heart which dislikes the strictness of obedience and universality of holiness which God requires of us.
After referring again to those “whose carcasses fell in the wilderness” to whom God sware “they shall not enter into My rest, because of their unbelief” or “disobedience” ( 3:18, 19), the apostle said “Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” ( Hebrews 4:1). “Fear” is as truly a Christian grace as is faith, peace or joy. The Christian is to fear temptations, the dangers which menace him, the sin which indwells him, the warnings pointed by others who have made shipwreck of the faith and the severity of God in His dealings with such. He is to fear the threatenings of God against sin and those who indulge themselves in it. It was because Noah was “moved with fear” at the warning he had received from God that he took precautions against the impending flood ( Hebrews 11:7). God has plainly announced the awful doom of all who continue in allowed sin, and fear of that doom will inspire caution and circumspection, and will preserve from carnal security and presumption.
And therefore are we counseled “passing the time of your sojourn here in fear” ( 1 Peter 1:17)—not only in exceptional seasons, but the whole of our time here.
We can barely glance at a few more of the solemn cautions addressed not merely to formal professors but to those who are recognized as genuine saints. “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith” ( 1 Peter 5:8,9).
Obviously such a warning would be meaningless if the Christian were not threatened with a most deadly danger. “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness” ( 2 Peter 3:17).
This warning looks back to the false prophets of ( <610201> 2:1, 2) and what is said of them in vv. 18-22. The “error of the wicked” here cautioned against includes both doctrinal and practical, especially the latter— forsaking of the “narrow way,” the highway of holiness which alone leads to Heaven. “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” ( Revelation 3:11) —cling tenaciously to the Truth you have received, the faith which has been planted in your heart, to the measure of grace given you.
But how do you reconcile the Christian’s danger with his safety? There is nothing to reconcile, for there is no antagonism. It is enemies and not friends who need reconciling, and warnings are the Christian’s friend, one of the safeguards which God has placed around the truth of the security of His people, preventing them from wresting it to their destruction. By revealing the certain consequences of total apostasy Christians are thereby cautioned and kept from the same: a holy fear moves their hearts and so becomes the means of preventing the very evil they denounce. A lighthouse is to warn against recklessness as mariners near the coast, so that they will steer away from the fatal rocks. A fence before a precipice is not superfluous, but is designed to call to a halt those journeying in that direction. When the driver of a train sees the signals change to red he shuts off steam, thereby preserving the passengers under his care. The danger signals of Scripture to which we have called attention are heeded by the regenerate and therefore are among the very means appointed by God for the preservation of His people, for it is only by attending to the same they are kept from destroying themselves.
In the foregoing volume we devoted four sections to a setting forth of the principal springs from which the final perseverance of the saints (in their cleaving unto the Lord, their love of the Truth, and their treading the path of obedience) does issue, or the grounds on which their eternal security rests.
In this book we devoted a chapter to a setting forth of the principal springs from which the final perseverance of the saints (in their cleaving unto the Lord, their love of the Truth, and their treading the path of obedience) does issue, or the grounds on which their eternal security rests. It is therefore fitting, if the balance of truth is to be duly observed, that we should give space unto a presentation of the safeguards by which God has hedged about this doctrine, thereby forbidding empty professors and presumptuous Antinomians from trespassing upon this sacred ground. In this chapter we have already dwelt upon five of these safeguards and we now proceed to point out others. In such a day as this it is the more necessary to enter into detail upon the present branch of our subject that the mouths of certain enemies of the Truth may be closed, that formalists may be shown they have no part or lot in the matter, that hyper-Calvinists may be instructed in the way of the Lord more perfectly, and His own people stirred out of their lethargy. 6. By insisting on the necessity for using the means of grace. There are some who assert that if God has regenerated a soul he is infallibly certain of reaching Heaven whether or not he uses the means appointed, yea that no matter to what extent he fails in the performance of duty or how carnally he lives, he cannot perish. Now we have no hesitation in saying that such an assertion is a grievous perversion of the Truth, and in view of Satan’s words to Christ “If Thou be the Son of God cast Thyself down (from a pinnacle of the temple),for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over Thee, and in their hands they shall bear Thee up” ( Matthew 4:6), there is no room for doubt as to who is the author of such a lie. It is a grievous perversion because a tearing asunder of what God Himself has joined together. The same One who has decreed the end has also ordained the means necessary unto that end. He has promised certain things unto His people, but He requires to be inquired of concerning them; and if they have not, it is because they ask not.
Even among those who would turn away with abhorrence from the extreme form of Antinomianism mentioned above, there are those who regard the use of means quite indifferently in this connection, arguing that whatever be required in order to preserve from apostasy the Lord Himself will attend unto, that He will so work in His people both to will and to do of His good pleasure that it is quite unnecessary for ministers of the Gospel to be constantly addressing exhortations unto them and urging to the performance of duty. But such a conclusion is thoroughly defective and erroneous, for it quite loses sight of the fact that God deals with His people throughout as moral agents, enforcing their responsibility. Whether or not we can see the consistency between the Divine foreordination and the discharge of human accountability, between the Divine decree and the imperativeness of our making use of the means of grace, is entirely beside the point. Christ exhorted and admonished His apostles, and they in turn the churches; and that is sufficient. It is vain to pit our puny objections against their regular practice.
Just as God has ordained material means for the accomplishment of His pleasure in the material realm, so He has appointed that rational agents shall use spiritual means for the fulfilling of His will in connection with spiritual things. He could make the fields fertile and the trees fruitful without the instrumentality of rain and sunshine, but it has pleased Him to employ secondary causes and subordinate agents in the production of our food. In like manner He could cause His people to grow in grace, make them fruitful unto every good work, and preserve them from everything injurious to their welfare, without requiring any industry and diligence on their part; but it has not so pleased Him to dispense with their concurrence.
Accordingly we find Him bidding them “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” ( Philippians 2:12), “Labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” ( Hebrews 4:11).
Promises and precepts, exhortations and threatenings, suitable to moral agents are given to them, calling for the employment of those faculties and the exercise of those graces which He has bestowed upon them.
It is a serious mistake to suppose that there is any conflict between one class of passages which contain God’s promises of sufficient grace unto His people, and another class in which He requires of them the performance of their duty. In his exposition of Hebrews 3:14 John Owen pointed out that the force of the Greek rendered “if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end” denotes “our utmost endeavor to hold it fast and to keep it firm and steadfast”; adding “Shaken it will be, opposed it will be, kept it will not be, without our utmost diligence and endeavor. It is true our persistency in Christ does not, as to the issue and event, depend absolutely on our own diligence. The unalterableness of our union with Christ, on the account of the faithfulness of the covenant, is that which does and shall eventually secure it. But yet our own diligent endeavor is such an indispensable means for that end that without it, it will not be brought about.” Our diligent endeavor is necessitated by the precept, which God commands us to make use of, and by the order He has established in the relations of one spiritual thing to another.
The older writers were wont to illustrate the consistency between God’s purpose and our performance of duty by an appeal to Acts 27. The ship which carried the apostle and other prisoners encountered a fearful gale and it continued so long and with such severity that the inspired narrative declares “all hope that we should be saved was then taken away” (v. 20).
A Divine messenger then assured the apostle, “Fear not Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar; and lo God hath given thee all (the lives of) them that sail with thee,” and so sure was the apostle that this promise would be fulfilled, he said unto the ship’s company “Be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of life among you, but of the ship, for I believe that it shall be even as it was told me” (vv. 21-25). Yet next day, when the sailors feared they would be smashed upon the rocks and started to flee out of the ship, Paul said to the centurion “except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved” (v. 31)!
Now there is a nice problem which we would submit to the more extreme Calvinists: how can the positive promise “there shall be no loss of life” (v. 22) and the contingent “except these abide in the ship ye cannot be saved” (v. 31) stand together? How are you going to reconcile them according to your principles? But in reality there is no difficulty: God made no absolute promise that He would preserve those in the ship regardless of their use of appropriate means. They were not irrational creatures He would safeguard, but moral agents who must discharge their own responsibility, and neither be inert nor act presumptuously. Accordingly we find Paul bidding his companions “take meat,” saying “This is for your health” (v. 34), and later the ship was lightened of its cargo (v. 38) and its main-sail hoisted (v. 40), which further conduced to their safety. The certainty of God’s promise was not suspended upon their remaining in the ship, but it was a making known of the means whereby God would effect their security.
Reverting to Owen’s exposition of Hebrews 3:14, he said: “Our persistency in our subsistence in Christ is the emergence and effect of our acting grace unto that purpose. Diligence and endeavors in this matter are like Paul’s mariners when he was shipwrecked at Melita. The preservation of their lives depended absolutely on the faithfulness and power of God, yet when the mariners began to fly out of the ship Paul tells the centurion that unless his men stayed therein they could not be saved. But why need he think of the shipmen when God took upon Himself the preservation of them all? He knew full well that He would preserve them; but yet that He would do so in and by the use of means. If we are in Christ God has given us the lives of our souls, and hath taken upon Himself, in His covenant, the preservation of them. But yet we may say, with reference unto the means that He hath appointed, when storms and trials arise, unless we use our own diligent endeavors we cannot be saved.” Alas that some who profess to so greatly admire this Puritan and endorse his teaching have wandered so far from the course which he followed.
If it be asked, Did the purpose of God that Paul and his companions should all reach land safely depend upon the uncertain will and actions of men?
The answer is, No, as a cause from which the purpose of God received its strength and support. But yes, as a means, appointed by Him, to secure the end He had ordained, for God has decreed the subordinate agencies by which the end shall be accomplished as truly as He has decreed the end itself. In His Word God has revealed a conjunction of means and ends, and there is a necessity lying upon men to use the means and not to expect the end without them. It is at our peril that we tear asunder what God has joined together and disrupt the order He has appointed. The same God who bids us believe His promises, forbids us to tempt His providences ( Matthew 4:7). Even though the means may appear to us to have no adequate connection with the end, seeing God has enjoined them, we must use the same. Naaman must wash in the Jordan if he would be cleansed of his leprosy ( 2 Kings 4:10) and Hezekiah must take a lump of figs and lay it on his boil if he is to be recovered ( 2 Kings 20:4-7).
They are greatly mistaken who suppose that since the preservation of believers is guaranteed in the covenant of grace that this renders all means and motives, exhortations and threatenings, useless and senseless. Not so.
The doctrine of the everlasting security of the saint does not mean that God will preserve him whether or not he perseveres, but rather that He has promised to give him all needed grace for him to continue in the path of holiness. This supposes that believers will be under such advantages and have suitable aids used with them in order to this, and that they shall have motives constantly set before them which induce and persuade unto obedience and personal piety and to guard them against the contrary.
Hence the propriety and usefulness of the ordinances of the Gospel, the instructions and precepts, the promises and incentives which are furnished us to perseverance, without which the purpose of God that we should persevere could not be effected in a way suited to our moral nature.
Christians are indeed “kept by the power of God” ( 1 Peter 1:5), yet it needs to be pointed out that they are not preserved mechanically, as a child is kept in the nursery from falling into the fire by a tall metal fender or guard, or as the unwilling horse is held in by bit and bridle; but spiritually so by the workings of Divine grace in them and by means of motives and inducements from without which call forth that grace into exercise and action. We quite miss the force of that declaration unless we complete the verse: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” It is not “for” or “because of faith” but “through faith” yet not without it, for faith is the hand which, from a sense of utter insufficiency and helplessness, clings to God and grasps His strength—not always firmly, but often feebly; not always consciously, but instinctively. Though the saint be “kept by the power of God” yet he himself has to fight every step of the way. If we read of “this grace wherein ye stand” ( Romans 5:2), we are also told “for by faith ye stand” ( 2 Corinthians 1:24).
Viewing the event from the standpoint of the Divine decree it was not possible that Herod should slay Christ in His infancy, nevertheless God commanded Joseph to use means to prevent it, by fleeing into Egypt. In like manner, from the standpoint of God’s eternal purpose it is not possible that any saint should perish, yet He has placed upon him the necessity of using means to prevent apostasy and everything which has a tendency thereto. True, he must not trust in the means to the exclusion of God, for those means are only efficacious by His appointment and blessing; on the other hand, it is presumption and not faith which talks of trusting God while the means are despised or ignored. Nor have we said anything in this section which warrants the inference that Heaven is a wage that we earn by our own industry and fidelity, rather do the means appointed by God mark out the course we must take if we would reach the desired Goal. It is “through faith and patience” we “inherit the promises” ( Hebrews 6:12): our glorification will not be bestowed in return for them, yet there can be no glorification to those devoid of these graces.
The sun shines into our rooms through their windows: those windows contribute nothing whatever to our comfort and enjoyment of the sun, yet are they necessary as means for its beams to enter. The means and mediums which God has designed for the accomplishment of His ends concerning us are not such as to be “conditions” on which those ends are suspended in uncertainty as to their issue, but are the sure links by which He has connected the one with the other. Exhortations and warnings are not so much the means whereby God’s promises are accomplished, as the means by which the things promised are wrought. God has promised His people sufficient grace to enable and cause them to make such a use of the means that they will be preserved from fatal sins or apostasy, and the exhortations, consolations, admonitions of Scripture are designed for the stirring up into exercise of that grace. The certainty of the end is assured not by the nature or sufficiency of the means in themselves considered, but because of God’s ordination in connection therewith.
God has assured His people that His grace shall be all-sufficient and that His strength shall be made perfect in their weakness, but nowhere has He promised a continuance of His love and favor unto dogs returning to their vomit or to sows which are content to wallow in the mire. If our thoughts on this subject be formed entirely by the teaching of God’s Word (and not partly by carnal reason), then we shall expect perseverance only in that way wherein God has promised it, and that is by availing ourselves of the helps and advantages He has provided, especially the study of and meditation upon His Word and the hearing or reading the messages of His servants.
Though God has promised grace unto His people, yet He requires them to—sincerely, believingly, earnestly—seek it: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” ( Hebrews 4:16).
And that grace we are constantly in need of as long as we are left here:— “Day by day the manna fell, O to learn that lesson well.”
Much confusion has resulted on this and other points through failure to distinguish between impetration and application, or what Christ purchased for His people and God’s actually making over the same unto them according to the order of things He has established. As faith is indispensable before justification so is perseverance before glorification, and that necessarily involves the use of means. True, our faith adds nothing whatever to the merits of Christ in order to our justification, yet until we believe, we are under the curse of the Law; nor does our perseverance entitle us to glorification, yet only those who do persevere unto the end will be glorified. Now as God requires obedience from all the parts and faculties of our souls, so in His Word He has provided motives to the obedience required, motives suited unto “all that is within us” — that love, fear, hope, etc. may be called into action. Of ourselves we are not sufficient to make a good use of the means, and therefore we beg God to work in us that which He requireth: Colossians 1:29.
God has promised to repair the spiritual decays of His people and to heal their backslidings freely, yet He will do so in such a way as wherein He may communicate His grace righteously to the praise of His glory.
Therefore are duties, especially that of confession of sins to God, prescribed to us in order thereto. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” ( Proverbs 28:13). “I will heal their backsliding” ( Hosea 14:4): there is the promise and the end. But first “Take with you words and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously” (v. 2): there is the duty and the means unto that end. Although repentance and confession be not the procuring cause of God’s grace and love, from whence alone our healing or recovery proceeds, yet are they required in the appointed method of God’s dispensing His grace.
It must be insisted upon that the Christian’s concurrence with the Divine will by no means warrants the horrible conclusion that he is entitled to divide the honors with God. How could this possibly be, seeing that if he does what he is bidden he remains but an “unprofitable servant?” How could it be, when to whatever extent he does improve the means it is only the power of Divine grace which so enabled him? How could it be, when he is most sensible in himself that far more of failure than success attends his efforts? No, when the redeemed have safely crossed the Jordan and are safely landed on the shores of the heavenly Canaan they will exclaim with one accord “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, for Thy Truth’s sake” ( <19B501> Psalm 115:1).

To sum up. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, in the pursuit and practice of holiness as it is set forth in God’s Word, provides no shelter for either laziness or licentiousness: it supplies no encouragement for us to take our regeneration and glorification for granted, but bids us “give diligence to make your calling and election sure” ( 2 Peter 1:10).
Exhortations and threatenings are not made unto us as those already assured of final perseverance, but as those who are called to the use of means for the establishment of our souls in the ways of obedience, being annexed to those ways of grace and peace which God calls His saints unto.
Perseverance consists in a continual exercise of spiritual graces in the saints, and exhortations are the Divinely appointed means for stirring those graces into action and for a further increase of them. Therefore those preachers who do not press upon the Lord’s people the discharge of their duties and are remiss in warning and admonishing them, fail grievously at one of the most vital points in the charge committed to them. 7. By enforcing the threatenings of Scripture. The One with whom we have to do is ineffably holy and therefore does He hate sin wherever it is found.
He will not ignore sin in His own children when it is unjudged and unconfessed any more than He will in those who are the children of the Devil. The pope and his underlings may traffic in their vile “indulgences” and “special dispensations,” but the Lord God never lowers His standard, and even those in Christ are not exempted from bitter consequences if they pursue a course of folly. But God is also merciful and faithful, and therefore He threatens before He punishes and warns before He smites. In His Word He has described those ways which lead to disaster and destruction, that we may shun them; yet those who deliberately follow them may know for certain that they shall receive the due reward of their defiance. It is therefore incumbent upon the minister of the Gospel to press the Divine threatenings, as it is the part of wisdom for his hearers or readers to take the same to heart. “If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” ( Matthew 6:15). “And that servant which knew his Lord’s will and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes” ( Luke 12:47—spoken to Peter: 5:41). “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” ( John 5:14). “If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast into the fire and they are burned” ( John 15:6—spoken to the eleven apostles). “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” ( Romans 8:13). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting” ( Galatians 6:7,8).
Have such passages as these been given due place in the preachings and writings of the orthodox during the past fifty years? No indeed: why?
There are three particular passages which claim a fuller notice from us in this connection, passages which are among the most solemn and frightful to be found in all the Word of God, yet which are nevertheless addressed immediately unto the people of God. Before citing the same we would preface our remarks upon them with this general observation: they have not received the attention they ought in the practical ministrations of God’s servants. The minister of the Gospel has only discharged half his duty when he clears these verses of the false glosses which his opponents have placed upon them. It is quite true that Arminians have made an altogether unwarrantable and wrong use of them, but probably God suffered His enemies to thereby bring them into prominent notice because His friends ignored them. The Christian teacher must not only show there is no conflict between these passages and such verses as John 10:28 and Philippians 1:6, but he must also bring out their positive meaning and the solemn bearing which they have upon Christians themselves. “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away—to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs, meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned” ( Hebrews 6:4-8).
Those words are addressed to “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling” ( <580301> 3:1), and their connection is as follows. In 5:11-14 the apostle had reproved the Hebrews for being slow in their apprehension of the Truth and in walking suitably thereto, and after the exhortation of <580601> 6:1-3 he warns them of the awful danger of continuing in a slothful state—“For it is impossible.” But, it may be objected. Surely it is not the intention of our Heavenly Father to terrorize His own dear children. No, certainly not; yet He would have them suitably affected thereby. Though such threatenings are not designed to work in Christians a fear of damnation, yet they should beget in them a holy care and diligence of avoiding the evils denounced. There is no more incongruity between a Christian’s being comforted by the Divine promises and alarmed by the Divine threatenings, than there is between his living a life of joyful confidence in God and also one of humble dependence upon Him. We must distinguish between things that differ: there is a fear of caution as well as of distrust, a fear that produces carefulness and watchfulness as well as one which fills with anxiety. There is a vast difference between a thing that is meant to weaken the security of the flesh, and the confidence that faith has in Christ. Assurance of perseverance is quite consistent with and ought ever to be accompanied by “fear and trembling” ( Philippians 2:12,13).
In his opening remarks on Hebrews 6:4-6 John Owen said, It “is a needful and wholesome commination (denunciation) duly to be considered by all professors of the Gospel.” And in the course of his masterly exposition pointed out, “For not to proceed in the way of the Gospel and obedience thereto is an untoward entrance into a total relinquishment of the one and the other. That they therefore may be acquainted with the danger hereof, and be stirred up to avoid that danger, the apostle gives them an account of those who, after a profession of the Gospel, beginning at a non-proficiency under it, do end in apostasy from it. And we may see that the severest comminations are not only useful in the preaching of the Gospel, but exceeding necessary towards persons that are observed to be slothful in their profession.” Scripture nowhere teaches that the saint is so secure that he needs not to be wary of himself, nor unmindful of the defection of those who for a time seemed to run well.
Another of the Puritans said on this passage, “Certainly all of us should stand in fear of this heavy judgment of being given up to perish by our apostasy, to an obstinate heart, never to reconcile ourselves by repentance, even the children of God; for he proposeth it to them...The apostle saith, It is impossible they should be saved, because it is impossible they should repent.
This is a fearful state, and yet, as fearful as it is, it is not unusual: it is a thing we see often in some that have made a savory profession of the name of God, and afterwards have been blasted. O, then, you that have begun and have had a taste of the ways of God, and to walk closely with Him, you should lay this to heart! Therefore this is propounded to believers, that they should keep at a very great distance from such a judgment, lest we grow to such an impenitent state as to be given up to a reprobate mind and vile affections” (Thos. Manton).
The best preventative is a conscience kept tender of sin, which mourns over and confesses to God our transgressions, and seeks grace to mortify our lusts. “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who bath trodden under foot the Son of God, and bath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith He was sanctified an unholy thing, and bath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know Him that bath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall in to the hands of the livingGod” ( Hebrews 10:26-31).
It is outside our present design to give an exposition of these verses (which we did when going through that Epistle), as we shall not now expose the Arminian errors thereon (which we hope to very shortly); rather do we now direct attention unto them as another example of the fearful threatenings which are directly addressed to Christians, and which it is madness and not wisdom to scoff at.
The scope of the above passage is easily grasped: Hebrews 10:23 gives an exhortation, verses 24, 25 announce the means of continuing in that profession, while verses 26-31 declare what will befall those who relinquish the Truth. In his comments John Owen points out, “The apostle puts himself among them (“if we sin” etc.), as is his manner in comminations: both to show that there is no respect of persons in this matter, but that those who had equally sinned shall be equally punished; and to take off all appearances of severity towards them, seeing he speaks nothing of this nature but on such suppositions as wherein if he were himself concerned he pronounceth it against himself also. The word ‘willingly’ signifies, of choice—without surprisal, compulsion or fear... If a voluntary relinquishment of the profession of the Gospel and the duties of it be the highest sin, and be attended with the height of wrath and punishment, we ought earnestly to watch against everything that inclineth or disposeth us thereto.”
John Owen concluded his remarks on these verses by saying, “This therefore is a passage of Holy Writ which is much to be considered, especially in these days wherein we live, wherein men are apt to grow cold and careless in this profession, and to decline gradually from what they had attained unto. To be useful in such a season it was first written, and it belongs unto us no less than unto them to whom it was first originally sent.
And we live in days wherein the security and contempt of God, the despite of the Lord Christ and His Spirit, are come to the full, so as to justify the truth that we have insisted on.” If the pressing of this passage on the attention of all professing Christians was deemed so necessary in the palmy days of the Puritans, how much more so in the dark times in which our lot is cast! How woefully remiss, then, are those preachers who not only fail to devote a whole sermon to these verses, but who never so much as quote them from one years’ end to another, except it be to refute the Arminians in such a manner that empty professors are made to believe there is nothing for them to fear. “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” ( 2 Peter 2:20-22).
At the close of his remarks on this passage Matthew Henry says, “If the Scriptures give such an account of Christianity on the one hand and of sin on the other as we have in these verses, we certainly ought highly to approve of the former and persevere therein, because it is a ‘way of righteousness’ and a ‘holy commandment,’ and to loathe and keep at the greatest distance from the latter because it is set forth as offensive and abominable.” Far better never to make a profession, than make a fair one and then sully and repudiate it. “He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be cut off, and that without remedy” ( Proverbs 29:1).
The solemn threatenings of Scripture are so many discoveries to the Church in particular and to the world in general of the severity of God against sin and that He adjudges them worthy of eternal destruction who persist therein. If professing Christians turn a deaf ear to exhortations, admonitions and warnings, if they steel their hearts against entreaties and threatenings, and determine to follow a course of self-will and self-pleasing, they place themselves beyond the hope of mercy. It is therefore the imperative duty of the servant of Christ to faithfully warn God’s people of the fearful danger of backsliding and of what awaits them if they remain in that state: to definitely point out the connection which God has established between sin and punishment, between apostasy and damnation, so that a holy fear may be instilled to preserve them from making shipwreck of the faith, and to prevent carnal professors from indulging the vain hope of once in grace always in grace. 8. By holding up the rewards. Many preachers have failed to do so, allowing the fear of man to withhold from God’s children a portion of their necessary bread. Because certain enemies of the Truth have wrested this subject, they deemed it wisest to be silent thereon. Because Papists have grievously perverted the teaching of Scripture upon “rewards,” insidiously bringing in their lie of creature-merits at this point, not a few Protestants have been chary of preaching thereon, lest they be charged with leaning toward Romanism. Rather should this very abuse move them to be the more diligent and zealous in presenting their right and true meaning and use. Threatenings and rewards: does not the one naturally suggest the other? The former to act as deterrents, the latter as stimulants: deterrents against evil doing, stimulants or incentives unto the discharge of duty. But if the one has been shelved in the pulpit, the other has received scant attention even in orthodox quarters. We can but briefly touch upon the subject here, but hope to devote a separate article to it in the next section.
In Scripture “eternal life” is presented both as a “gift” and as a “reward”— the reward of perseverance. To some it may appear that such terms and concepts are mutually opposed. Yet is not prayer both a privilege and a duty? Is not the natural man startled when he finds that God bids His people to “rejoice with trembling” —what a seeming paradox! The apparent difficulty is removed when it is seen that the “rewards” which God has promised His people are not those of justice but of bounty; that they are not a proportioned remuneration or return for the duties which we perform or the services we have rendered, but the end to which our obedience is suited. Thus the rewards proposed unto us by God are not calculated to work in His people a legalspirit but are designed to support our hearts under the self-denials to which we are called, to cheer us amid the sufferings we encounter for Christ’s sake, and to stir us to acts of obedience meet for what is promised. Certainly Moses was inspired by no mercenary spirit when “he had respect unto the recompense of the reward” ( Hebrews 11:26).
That eternal life and glory is set forth in God’s Word as the reward and end of perseverance which await all faithful Christians is clear from Hebrews 10:35, to cite no other passages now: “Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward.” On those words Matthew Henry said, “He exhorts them not to cast away their confidence, that is, their holy courage and boldness, but to hold fast the profession for which they had suffered so much before, and borne those sufferings so well. Second, he encourages them to this by assuring them that the reward of their holy confidence is very great: it carries a present reward in it, in holy peace and joy and much of God’s presence and power visited upon them; and it shall have a great recompense of reward hereafter.” While the Christian sincerely endeavors to walk obediently and mix faith with God’s promises the Spirit comforts and witnesses with his spirit that he is a child of God; but when he becomes careless of duty, and neglects the means of grace, He not only withholds His witness but suffers the threatenings of Scripture to so lay hold of him that Psalm 38:2, becomes his experiences. 9. By insisting on steadfastness. “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering” ( Hebrews 10:23).
Press forward along the path of holiness, no matter what obstacles and opposition you meet with. Your very safety depends upon it, for if you deny the faith either by words or actions, you are “worse than an infidel” who never professed it. The very fact that we are here bidden to “hold fast” our Christian profession implies that it is no easy task assigned us, that there are difficulties to be overcome which call for the putting forth of our utmost strength and endeavors in the defense and furtherance of it. “Without wavering” means, with unvarying and unflinching constancy. Sin is ever seeking to vanquish the Christian; the world is ever endeavoring to draw him back into its seductive embraces; the Devil, like a roaring lion, is ever waiting to devour him. Therefore the call to him is “be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” — the duties He has assigned ( 1 Corinthians 15:58).
The need for pressing such exhortations as the above appears from the solemn warning addressed to those whom the apostle calls “beloved” in 2 Peter 3:17: “Beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.”
Upon this Matthew Henry says, “We are in great danger of being seduced and turned away from the Truth. Many who have the Scriptures and read them do not understand what they read, and too many of those who have a right understanding of the sense and meaning of the Word are not established in the belief of the Truth, and all these are liable to fall into error. Few attain to the knowledge and acknowledgement of doctrinal Christianity; and fewer find so as to keep in the way of practical godliness, which is the narrow way which only leadeth unto life. There must be a great deal of self-denial and suspicion of ourselves, and submitting to the authority of Christ Jesus our great Prophet, before we can heartily receive all the truths of the Gospel, and therefore we are in great danger of rejecting the Truth.”

Ministers of Christ, then, need to insist much upon the imperativeness of steadfastness and constancy. 10. By withholding from backsliders the comfort of the truth of eternal security. After all that has been said under the previous heads there is little need for us to enlarge upon this point. Any preacher who encourages the slothful and the undutiful is doing great harm to souls. To tell those who have deserted the paths of righteousness that because they once believed in Christ all will come out well with them in the end, is to put a premium on their carnality. To assure those who have forsaken the means of grace and gone back again into the world that because they formerly made a credible profession God will recover and restore them, is to say what Scripture nowhere warrants. A griping purgative and not rich and savory viands is what is needed by one whose system is out of order. The Divine threatenings and not the promises need to be pressed upon those who are following the desires and devices of their own hearts. Only by heeding the ten things mentioned in these sections is the precious truth of the eternal security of the saints safeguarded from profanation.

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