Word of Salvation – February 2025
Why the Saints Persevere
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp on W.C.F. ch.17 & Isaiah 54:4-10
Reading: John 10:22-30; Isaiah 54:1-10; Westminster Confession – ch.17
Singing: BoW.023a The Lord my Shepherd rules my life
– BoW.206 In God the Father I believe
– BoW.372 I know not why God’s wondrous grace
– BoW.526 Now to the King of heaven
Theme: The perseverance of the saints, resting on God’s character and saving work, is illustrated in Isaiah 54.
Introd: Many of us will recognise tonight’s topic as the last of the “Five Points of Calvinism”.
It’s the “P” of the acrostic TULIP – which stands for The Perseverance of the Saints.
Mention that to some people and they say, “Ah, yes! Once a Christian, always a Christian!”
Maybe you’ve heard it expressed that way too.
But that motto, Once a Christian, always a Christian, has been greatly misused.
Some people talk about it as if it automatically assures believers of salvation.
True believers are going to be saved “regardless of what they do”.
The day you decide for Jesus your eternal future is set in concrete.
But that’s not what we mean by the Perseverance of the Saints.
Take it that way and you’re left with some questions.
We’ve all known someone from a Christian home who went right off the rails.
Born, baptised and instructed into the Christian faith… and for a while they embraced it.
But somewhere along the line they tossed in the towel and now they live as atheists.
May we really say of someone like that: Once a Christian, always a Christian?
Today we’re going to see that the Perseverance of the Saints is a little different.
And that we need to be very careful with that motto: Once a Christian, always a Christian!
A] PERSEVERANCE IN CONTEXT OF HUMAN WAYWARDNESS.
- Section 3 of chap.17 of the W. Conf. at first glance also seems to endorse that motto.
It spells out the teaching about Perseverance and then it makes this qualification.
”Nevertheless…!” and then follows a catalogue of problems we can get ourselves into.
Tempted by the world, the devil and our own old sinful nature…!
Neglecting the means of grace and committing serious sins…!
And the result is that we displease God and we grieve His Holy Spirit.
And some of the fruit of God’s grace and His comfort are taken away.
Hearts are hardened… consciences wounded… people hurt.
But never mind, once a Christian, always a Christian…!
All this is happening in people who will in the end… finally still make it to heaven.
What then do we do with some of the Bible’s solemn warnings about human responsibility?
Human accountability is a very clear Biblical teaching.
And I could take you to numerous Bible passages where the Lord lays it on the line.
I think for example of Jesus telling us about the last days before His coming in Matthew 24.
He warns us that as lawlessness increases the love of many will grow cold.
And then he adds: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Surely we want to take Jesus’ warning seriously.
Doesn’t that mean that some will not endure to the end and therefore will not be saved?
What if I don’t endure?
Or I think of the writer to the Hebrews who warns us;
Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil,
unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. (3:12)
He then warns his readers not to become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (3:13).
What if that was to happen to me?
We cannot just assume that we’ll always be Christians regardless how we live.
- Or we could look at this from the angle of God’s anger against the sin of His people.
That’s another very common theme in the Bible.
And a good place to study God’s anger in the Bible is in the book is Isaiah.
The anger and wrath of God are mentioned more than 30 times in Isaiah. Often in very vivid ways.
One of the earliest instances is in chapter 5 – where we have some powerful imagery.
Isaiah 5:25
Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
That’s God’s people it’s talking about and we must not overlook that when considering perseverance.
The context in Isaiah is the looming exile in Babylon.
That was an extremely traumatic experience for Israel.
Seventy years in a foreign land… under the heel of a foreign dictator.
That situation of suffering under God’s anger is pictured also here in Isaiah 54.
In the opening verses Israel is compared to a barren woman bereft of children.
And a little later (vs.4) she is like widow… or in vs.6, a wife deserted. And why?
Precisely because Israel lived by a similar motto: Once God’s people, always God’s people!
And they expected that motto to work regardless of how they lived.
They were the children of Abraham, come hell or high water.
That’s what they prided themselves in… that was their confidence.
But God sent in Nebuchadnezzar who tore down Jerusalem.
Many perished and the remainder were driven away into exile.
They learned the hard way that the motto Once God’s people, always God’s people, didn’t work.
- So we really have two extremes when it comes to this subject of perseverance.
OTOH this teaching is denied and rejected by many people.
Many openly teach that we can fall away from God’s grace.
It all depends on the way we live our life.
These people take seriously that warning in Hebrews that we can fall away from the living God.
But of course the sad result is that then you have no ultimate assurance about eternal life.
If it’s possible to fall away then who knows what might yet happen in my life?
So on that basis – if I’m asked whether I am confident about being with God in glory for eternity
then I will have to say: I hope so! I will if… if I persevere in my faith…
but it really all depends on me making sure that I don’t fall away.
OTOH this teaching is often taken in that very mechanical way.
As if it works automatically without any effort on our part.
Once a Christian, always a Christian, regardless of what we do.
Or as Israel saw it at the time of Isaiah, Once the people of God, always the people of God.
But then this teaching becomes a false basis for security about our salvation.
Then we’re complacently trusting in this doctrine to give us certainty about our eternal destiny.
So on that basis – if I’m asked whether I’m confident about being with God in eternity
then I will keep saying that I’m sure, regardless of how far I’ve wandered away from Him
Even on the road to hell I’ll keep repeating: Once a Christian, always a Christian.
What then do we do with this teaching about perseverance? Well, we have to begin with God.
B] GOD’S CHARACTER AND SAVING WORK GUARANTEE IT.
- Both Scripture and confession show us that perseverance is based on who God is and what God does.
Here Isaiah 54 has some wonderful things to say about the character of God.
Three things in particular stand out in this text.
Three things that will give us a very sound, solid basis for the teaching about Perseverance.
First of all there is, what the Confession calls, God’s voluntary, unchangeable love.
It is voluntary in the sense that God gives it even though the object of His love is undeserving.
Israel, by its wickedness, had no right to any claim on that love… yet God loves them.
It is unchangeable in that God has kept loving them from the time He made them His.
It was in love that He already brought them out of Egypt by His mighty power.
It is love in that it is compared to the love of a husband for his wife. God is the loving husband.
Vs.5 For your Maker is your husband – the Lord Almighty is His name.
Why does God still bother with this corrupt bunch of wayward people…?
Over and over they have spurned His love… they have trampled on His affections.
The only reason that they still exist as a nation is God’s voluntary, unchangeable love.
In saying that Isaiah never once overlooks or minimizes God’s anger.
But notice the amazing contrast between God’s anger and God’s compassion in vss.7,8.
“For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment
but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer.
So if we are going to look for the grounds of Israel’s perseverance then it lies not in them.
It lies in this wonderful fact that God’s compassion is greater than His anger.
- Secondly, Perseverance is always grounded in the covenant of grace God made with His people.
In verse 10 God calls it His covenant of peace.
God has entered into a contractual relationship with His people.
And despite His people’s faithlessness, God remains faithful.
To reassure Israel of the utter reliability of that covenant, God reminds them of the time of Noah.
The covenant God made with Noah, after the flood, came with a wonderful promise.
The promise that never again would the earth be totally destroyed.
In contrast to the destructive flood there would be peace and stability in creation.
God – as it were – took an oath that the seasons would continue until the end of time.
But now God says to Israel:
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace removed.”
At the heart of this covenant, lies God’s decree of election.
God chose Israel to His people… He elected Abraham and His descendents to be His own.
Not because of any worthiness in them but simply because God loved them.
And now God utterly refuses to go back on that choice that He once made.
So if we are looking for the grounds of Israel’s perseverance then it lies not in them.
They didn’t keep the covenant but God’s faithfulness to the covenant overshadows their faithlessness.
- Thirdly, the grounds for perseverance lie especially in God’s saving work.
That comes out in a number of ways.
Twice in these verses (in both vss.5 & 8) God calls Himself Israel’s Redeemer.
This language of redeeming especially had to do with slavery.
When someone redeemed a slave they bought that slave’s freedom.
So when was God Israel’s Redeemer…?
Obviously when He delivered them from the slavery of Egypt.
And God is not going to give up on this people because He went to great lengths to save them.
But God’s redeeming work does not end there.
Remember: this chapter is set against the background of the Babylonian captivity.
But these verses are actually looking to a wonderful and glorious future.
God will restore them… there will be a second Exodus.
God will again redeem them; this time by bringing them out of the slavery of Babylon.
But it goes even further than that.
I’m going to state the obvious when I tell you that Isaiah 54 comes after Isaiah 53.
But what is Isaiah 53 all about…?
It’s about the Suffering Servant who gives His life for His people.
It’s a prediction of the suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
And that redeeming work of the Suffering Servant cannot be for nothing.
It will be effective in the lives of God’s people.
It will bring about what it sets out to achieve.
So if we are looking for the grounds for the perseverance of God’s people, it does not lie in us.
In lies in the fact that God’s redeeming work is never, never in vain.
God will accomplish His purposes in the lives of His people.
C] THE HUMAN RESPONSE TO GOD’S PERSEVERING GRACE.
- Okay, let’s ask then: what do we do with these wonderful truths?
Does it still not seem as if that motto is true: Once a Christian always a Christian…?
Don’t we see here in Isaiah that same reality: Once the people of God, always the people of God?
God guarantees that, first, because His compassion is greater far than His anger.
Second: we can be sure of it because even if we are faithless He remains faithful.
Third: it is absolutely certain because God’s redeeming work in Jesus will always be effective.
Let me say two things to help us get this right.
First, all this needs to be taken hold of by us in faith.
You and I may only speak about perseverance in the way of faith in God.
Only in connection with claiming God’s promises by faith.
The point I’m making is that there is a world of difference between these two things:
OTOH those who mumble that motto as a mantra.
As if it is all going to happen automatically regardless of what I do.
OTOH those who believe this because their trust is in who God is.
They know their own weaknesses but they trust in God’s love and faithfulness.
You see, there are two parts to the covenant:
God’s saving love OTOH and our response OTOH.
You need two oars to row straight: one oar is that of God’s saving love and faithfulness.
What’s the second oar? Not our good works. Rather that of accepting God’s love by faith.
- But there is a second way we need to safeguard this teaching against abuse.
When we talk about perseverance we need to ask: ‘perseverance in what?’
At first glance we seem to be talking about “perseverance unto salvation”.
And in a certain sense that is correct.
The confession says that we will “continue in that state to the end and be eternally saved”.
Isn’t that really saying: Once a Christian always a Christian… regardless of what I do?
No! Not quite.
It is talking about being in a certain state.
So what’s the state that we are going to persevere in?
It is talking about being in a state of grace.
And we can only say that about people who have been effectually called by God.
People whom God has set apart by the sanctifying work of His Holy Spirit.
IOW you are in a state of grace…
when you have responded in faith to the call of God…
when the Spirit of God is at work in you in a saving way.
Let me put it this way: perseverance applies only to the converted.
And those who have been converted find it impossible to go on living as they did before.
Okay… it’s true that sometime there is still a lot of cleaning up to do in the life of the believer.
That’s abundantly clear in the case of Israel in Isaiah.
And section 3 of ch.17 in the WCF paints a pretty torrid picture of carnal Christians.
But at the end of the day we are talking about those in a state of grace.
Those who have answered the call of God.
Those set apart by the renewing work of God’s Spirit.
Once a Christian, always a Christian…!
You may say that… but only if you have placed your faith in Jesus.
Only as you claim for yourself God’s promised love and faithfulness.
- I guess one last question remains.
Can we really apply God’s loving assurances to Israel to ourselves as individual believers?
It’s one thing for Israel as a nation to continue to exist beyond the exile.
It’s another thing to apply this to individual Israelites… and to us today.
Sure… the nation of Israel survived because God was gracious.
But there were many individuals in the nation who perished.
Well, let me say it again: You need two oars to row straight.
The covenant has two sides.
Israel too had to believingly trust in God’s love and faithfulness.
So individual Israelites needed to appropriate these promises in faith.
In these studies on the Confession of Faith I’ve picked up on themes from Isaiah.
And we certainly have there this powerful language about God’s graciousness.
The future of God’s people is assured not because they are so good and loving and faithful.
No… our future is secure only because our redeeming God is so loving and faithful.
We today have that spelled out much more clearly for us in the NT.
Jesus puts it beautifully in John 10.
In verse 28 Jesus says: “No one can snatch (my sheep) out of my hand.”
And then just make sure we get the point he repeats it with a different slant.
In verse 29 Jesus adds: “No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”
Persevere in your state of grace by claiming those promises in faith.
Amen