Title: God's Preservation of the Saints
Scripture: Philippians 1:6
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, there are many things in this life that tend to steal our joy, most of which are bound up in our circumstances, whether it be too many bills, a health trial, a bad relationship, maybe just disappointment or unmet expectations. All of these kinds of things and more have the capacity to steal our joy if we're not careful. But there is another thief of joy that robs Christian believers all the time, and that is a lack of assurance of salvation.
Of course, Satan loves to sow seeds of doubt in our minds and hearts. We almost hear an audible voice that speaks to our minds, our consciences, well, are you sure that you're a Christian? Maybe you're not actually saved. Or you probably won't make it to the end.
Remember that terrible sin you committed? I don't know if you're going to make it. There's all these voices that come into our mind from the enemy to try to steer us away from assurance. Of course, we can also hijack ourselves in the same way we trick ourselves into thinking that our faith and our salvation are a sham.
However, the Bible has much to say about this. In fact, there are ways for us to know whether or not we will make it to the end. And the basis of this knowledge is not on the believer themselves that we must endure, but rather that God is the one who preserves His people all the way through their lives.
And for the Apostle Paul, who we're going to read his letter today, this was a source of tremendous joy. And so, if you haven't already turned there, turn to Philippians chapter 1. We're continuing in our new exposition of the letter to the Philippians chapter 1. As we talked about last week, Paul is writing this letter from a Roman prison. He's accompanied by his young disciple Timothy when he's visited by a Philippian pastor named Epaphroditus.
And the Philippian church, they had heard about Paul's troubles in prison, and they sent their pastor, one of them at least, Epaphroditus, to bring a gift that would help and encourage the beloved Apostle. In response to this generous gift, and in light of Epaphros' near-death health trial, Paul sends him back, and he sends him back with a letter, and in the letter he writes about several important themes, including, which we're going to talk about over the next couple of weeks and months, the primacy of the gospel, the centrality of Jesus Christ, the value of Christian fellowship, and the blessing and importance of Christian joy. And if you were to sort of put a banner over Philippians, you could call this Christian joy.
Everything kind of gets bound up into that larger theme, as we're going to see progressively. Now, the church in Philippi was a faithful church, and Paul knew that already, and he loved this church dearly. And in his opening greeting, he intends to express that love, he expresses his thanksgiving, and he expresses his joy.
We looked at this last, let's look at this again, verses 1-5, so Philippians chapter 1, verse 5 verses, Paul and Timothy bond servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. Now, verse 3 introduces us to the driving force behind all that is said in this greeting, and it will extend all the way through to chapter 1, verse 11 here, this large greeting, but there's one sort of impulse, one big push that namely, Paul is thankful to the Lord.
Verse 3, he says, I thank my God, and that thanksgiving is peppered all throughout this introduction. The reasons for his thankfulness are many. First, he thanks God in his remembrance of the church, in his prayers, he's thankful because he remembers their friendship and their fellowship and their thankfulness, or their faithfulness, excuse me, and all of these remembrances of their friendship, their fellowship, their faithfulness, this brings him joy.
It's like he closes his eyes in prayer, and every time he's praying for the church, a smile comes across his face because he remembers how wonderful they are, how dear they are to him. That brings him joy. He also expresses thankfulness to God because of their participation in the gospel.
They were faithful and consistent partners in gospel ministry, and for that he's thankful. But that's not all. There's yet another reason why Paul rejoices in thanksgiving, and we find that in verse 6. Now, again, we're building on sort of a key Greek word here in verse 3. It's the Greek word eucharisteo, which is an expression of gratitude or thanksgiving.
He connects that to his thankfulness to God. But he adds to this thankfulness, verse 6, this is where we're going to look at today, verse 6, for I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Now, we always want to be careful.
We don't want to rip verses out of context, which is why we're setting this in the context of the passage. We want to look at the broader paragraph here. Again, people say things connected to a larger context, so we don't want to lose that.
Again, these are the key reasons for Paul's joy and thanksgiving. But while he is stating this theological, this basic theological conviction, I think it's helpful for us to then look at this verse and unpack the precious truths that are contained here, because I think they do have a grander application for all believers. Because I believe that Philippians 1-6 teaches a profound and comforting doctrine, namely, the doctrine of God's preservation of the saints, or is also known as the perseverance of the saints.
And I think it's helpful when we look at this verse to see that this verse, if you were to map it out and kind of pull it all apart into an outline, this verse really builds on three core Christian doctrines, three core Christian doctrines, and those are the doctrines of regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. We're going to talk about these, so these three main key doctrines here. But before we get to that, I want to begin with Paul's confidence.
Verse 6, he says, for I am confident of this very thing. This word for confidence in the Greek also could be rendered persuaded or even assured. There's a sense of the confidence being built on trust.
There is a trusting that Paul exercises in this confidence that he has in the Lord. And the very thing that he's mentioning is what he's about to reveal, not what he said prior to this, but what he's about to say, namely, that he who began a good work in you, he's referring to the Philippian church, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. That's going to be what he's focused his confidence on.
And this verse, I believe, presents something of a golden chain, a golden chain that connects these three realities. We see a very similar kind of a golden chain, and I'm using the phrase golden chain because that's a very old puritanical phrase. There's a famous book by William Perkins that he talks about the doctrine of this connection, the connection of doctrines from Romans 8, 29, and 30, and I believe it's called literally the golden chain here.
But it's based on these two verses in Romans 8, 29, and 30, for whom He, God, foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom He predestined, these He also called. And whom He called, these He also justified.
And whom He justified, these He also glorified. Again, why do we call this the golden chain? Because God Himself links together foreknowledge, predestination, gospel calling, justification, and glorification. Now, Paul didn't forget about sanctification, but it's implied that that's in there as well.
There are more doctrines that are wrapped up in what's called the order of salvation. There are many doctrines that we see in this line here, but this golden chain, it binds all these doctrines together. And the bonds themselves cannot be broken.
The same goes here in Philippians 1, 6. As we're going to see, there is no break. There's no break in the chain of what the work that God begins and what He brings through to completion. There's no grammatical pause here.
Paul doesn't assert any other preposition. He doesn't bring in any other condition. Everything from start to finish is unbreakable.
And so, I want to look at these three together, okay? Number one, we're going to look at the doctrine of regeneration. Now, lots of multi-syllabic words. We know there's a lot of syllables here, but what is the doctrine of regeneration? Very simply, it's being spiritually born again, born again.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit who takes up residence, indwells the believer at the point of their salvation, and upon their conversion, He remakes us from the inside out. We become new people spiritually from the inside out. We don't look any different on the outside, but something has changed on the inside.
To use the language of the New Covenant from Ezekiel 36, God effectively removes our heart of stone, the one that is dead and trespasses in sins, Ephesians 2.1, and then He replaces it with a new heart of flesh. Or as 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
So that's what we're talking about. Regeneration is the Spirit's recreation. He makes you brand new from the inside out.
And again, to beg a question or a point here, who does this? Do we produce this new heart? Do we do our own heart surgery? Has anyone in the history of the world ever performed their own heart surgery? Is it possible? No. Do we regenerate ourselves? Are we the ones who tell our parents that we want to be born right now? We don't make a decision to be born. We don't make a decision about when we have a new heart put into our chest.
The same thing goes with the Lord. No. In fact, the Bible repeatedly tells us that the doctrine of regeneration, justification, adoption, all of these are 100% work of God.
And not just the receiving of a new spiritual heart, but also the gift of faith needed to believe the gospel. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace, grace is the gift that we receive from God, for by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should boast.
And so grace is God's gift. And this verse tells us faith is God's gift. When Acts 13, 48 speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles to saving faith in Christ, it says literally this, quote, and as many as been appointed to eternal life believed.
Who appointed them to eternal life? God did. God appoints to eternal life. So we call this the doctrine of sovereign.
That's God's reigning and throning over all things, His Lordship, sovereign election. And again, not just the gift of salvation in general, but the effectual faith to believe it. In fact, Paul even says this a few verses later in Philippians 1, 29, you can just dart your eyes down the page a little bit there.
Now, again, this is sandwiched in a larger conversation, but he says, for to you, talking has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. So he's talking about something that is being granted. And he says very specifically, now the point he's going to get to is suffering, but he includes in this exhortation here that has been granted for you as a believer to believe.
This is what we call monergism. It's God's single-handed regeneration. And that's what we see here in verse 6, He, God, who began a good work in you.
And so we clearly see that God is the initiator. God is the one who begins this good work, this salvific work in us. Well, how do we know that we're talking about this good work in connection to salvation? I mean, He does a lot of good works in us, right? Is it specifically salvation, regeneration? Well, yes, because that's the context of what Paul's talking about.
Look at verse 5, just before it, he's rejoicing in their partnership in the gospel. And then in the very next verse, verse 7, he's talking about them being partakers of grace with Paul. And so the whole context here from verse 5, 6, and 7 is the work of regeneration.
They are redeemed saints along with Paul. So he's talking very specifically about the grace, the saving grace of God within them. And that saving grace within them refers to this being born again, this regeneration, this new spiritual life that has been produced in us.
Now, some will push back against the notion of sovereign election or monergistic regeneration by quoting verses like Philippians 2.12. You can flip over to look at Philippians 2.12. I know you know this verse. Paul says, "'So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.'" And they'll say, well, doesn't that prove that we are the ones that have to do something in salvation? We have to work this out somehow. Except that that is not what he's saying at all.
Paul is actually saying quite the opposite. He says the very next thing, look at verse 13. "'For it is God who is at work in you.
It is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.'" So Paul blows up this false idea that we're working out salvation itself within ourselves. Paul says, no, it's actually something very different than that. But God's working in you.
God is bringing this about in you. Now, we're going to unpack these verses when we get to them in chapter two. We'll talk a lot more about this.
But the point is here that beginning with our salvation, our regeneration, our justification, what is justification? Well, that's God's act of declaring us to be righteous in His sight, not based on ourselves but purely on the righteousness of Christ that's been given to us. That's justification. I know there's a lot of doctrines and a lot of words here, but if you're following with me, just stay with me here.
But the point is that all of this work of God is taking place that He begins. He's doing all this work in us. God is acting upon us.
The sinners that we are, He is acting upon us and inside of us to produce the work that He desires. But here's the thing, that's not the end of it. There's more.
Not only is God beginning this work in us of regeneration, new life, He's also in the process of perfecting it. Number two, we're going to look at the doctrine of sanctification, sanctification. Sanctification is the process of growing us in Christlikeness, growing us in holiness.
Years ago, I was teaching this doctrine to a whole bunch of children, and I said, don't be scared off by the word sanctification. Think about it this way, that God is cleaning you spiritually from the inside out. He's almost like He's taking dirty dishes, and He's putting them in His sink, washing them clean, and then putting them out.
So this is the process of sanctification. And they all went, oh yeah. So God is cleaning you, He's cleansing you from the inside.
You'll never forget this now, I know it, right? So what is sanctification? It's God's spiritual cleansing of the believer. He's purifying, He's growing us in Christlikeness. I knew you'd like that one.
But that's what the Bible tells us, Romans 12 too, calls this a transformation that comes through the renewal of the mind. God sanctifies our minds through the renewal in truth. He's growing us, He's purifying us, He's transforming us, He's perfecting us to be more like Him.
But here in Philippians 1-6, we read that God is in the process of perfecting the work He began in His people. This Greek word that's used here for perfecting is epiteleo, which is comprised, it's a mashing up of two words here. It's a preposition of epi, which is an intensifier, it's kind of like ultra or mega.
And then teleo refers to completeness or fullness or perfection. Sometimes teleo refers to spiritual maturity or maturing. Many New Testament verses use this word.
We see it oftentimes translated as finished or completed or accomplished. Of course, we know that we're not going to be totally perfected in this life. We're never going to arrive this side of heaven.
But the Lord is in the process of perfecting us gradually, progressively. Even again, through the labor and striving that we do, we are working out the fruit of our salvation with fear and trembling. We're not passive as we live this Christian life.
The Scripture affirms that the reason it's happening is because God is at work in us to sanctify us, to grow us, to perfect us. It's not that God gives by His grace and then we somehow later on flip a switch and then do it in our own strength and effort. God doesn't begin salvation through grace and then we take over.
In fact, Paul rebukes the Galatians for thinking this way in Galatians 3.3, and he uses the same two words here. He says to the Galatian church, are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh? And the answer to his rhetorical question is no. How do we know it's rhetorical? How do we know he's answering in the negative? Because he tells them they're foolish if they believe that.
We don't begin by the work of the Spirit that comes upon us and then somehow turn over and just muscle it through the rest of our life. God by His Spirit began a saving work in us, and God by His Spirit is perfecting that work in us. Again, Ephesians 2.8.9, we are saved by God's grace through faith in Christ, not of ourselves.
It's a gift of God. And then verse 10 says, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, listen to this, which God has prepared beforehand so that we can walk in them. So God not only saves us, regenerates us, but He has already purposed and given us works for us to do in our lifetime, and all we have to do is just walk in them.
We are His workmanship. Now it's not that we're passive in sanctification. We're not antinomian.
We're not just like, oh, set it and forget it and just do whatever we want. Well, I prayed the prayer, I'm saved, and we're not hyper-Calvinist where we say, well, you know, we're elect, and so therefore it doesn't really matter because we're going to persevere. Believers don't talk that way.
That's not who we are. No, we are called to walk and to live and to obey, absolutely. But that's the fruit of a heart that is being sanctified.
Again, God is active in our lives in eternity past to prepare the works to do, and He's also active to give us the power in which we are to do them. He enables us to work and to live for Him, and so God has begun this good work of saving and regenerating us. He is active in perfecting us, the work that is in us through sanctification, and He will continue to perfect it until a certain day comes.
And what is that day? Until the day of Christ Jesus, which brings us to number three, understanding the doctrine of glorification, glorification. There is coming a day when all of this is going to come to an end, all of the suffering, all of our sins, the sin that just clings to us and we just can't seem to shake it off. Death is going to come to an end, corruption is going to come to an end, persecution is going to come to an end, even the process of sanctification itself is going to come to an end at some time.
Now, in the Old Testament, we repeatedly see this event. There's a specific event coming in the future called the day of the Lord. If you look that up too in your Bible, you're going to see that phrase over and over and over again, the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord.
And in the Old Testament context, it's the day of judgment, whereby God, He pours out His wrath on the wicked. Now, there are many sort of judgment days. There are times in Israel's history where nations oppose them and God brings judgment and brings wrath.
There are many kinds of prototypical events throughout the course of their history, but there is an ultimate day of judgment that is coming in the future. However, in light of the revelation of Christ, Paul modifies that specific title, that name, six times in the New Testament, and he refers to that day as the day of Christ, or in this context, the day of Christ Jesus. Three times in Philippians alone, he talks about the day of Christ or the day of Christ Jesus.
He refers to this twice in 1 Corinthians and also once in 2 Corinthians. Interestingly enough, in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, he retains that original Old Testament title, the day of the Lord, but it's the same thing. So the day of Christ, the day of the Lord is the same thing.
But what happens on the day of Christ Jesus? Well, according to Revelation 19, Christ returns in glory. You read Revelation 19, we see this amazing picture of Christ returning on the back of a horse with a sword. I mean, He has...it's just a glorious picture, but He comes to judge the wicked.
In fact, if you flip over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, just very quickly, thankfully these epistles are very short, so you're only flipping a few pages here. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul tells them, it's a very short letter, but he tells this church in chapter 1 verse 6, for after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted, and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire. That's Revelation 19 verse 8, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Verse 9, these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. That's talking about a day of judgment, a day of wrath, and so for the wicked and for the unbelieving, the day of Christ is going to be a horrible day of condemnation. But for believers, the very next verse, 1 Thessalonians 1.10 says that on that same day, Jesus will come to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed.
And so the day that Christ returns, for the whole world that hates Him, they're going to be terrified. They're going to run away. They're going to wish that rocks would fall on them and kill them because they don't want to see Him.
But for the believer, we're going to see Him coming. The sign of the Son of Man is going to go across the entire heavens and the earth. Every eye will see Him and every believer in heaven and on earth that sees Him is going to marvel.
We're going to see Him coming and it's going to be the Super Bowl times a million. It is going to be the most exciting, joyful relief and celebration we've ever known. We're going to see Him coming and we're going to know it's finally over and our Lord has finally come back.
What a marvelous day. And not only will justice finally be served completely, and all things will be reconciled in Christ, and rewards will be given, and His kingdom will be inaugurated and fulfilled. And all these things taking place, but inside of our hearts, this is going to be the deepest sigh of relief.
The battle is over. It's won. Now, it already has been won.
We've been justified. But this wrestling with the flesh that we feel, the terror of the evil one, done. What a day that's going to be.
And so the day of Christ Jesus is when He comes in glory and He will glorify us. Our ultimate glorification includes not only the salvation of our souls, which we've received the down payment of now, the Bible says, but according to 1 Corinthians 15, if you read verses 35 to 58, that whole section, the glorification of our bodies as well through resurrection. We had this conversation in a study group recently, well, what is that going to be like? What's our body going to look like? And you go to 1 Corinthians 15 and Paul doesn't really give us a, he gives us something.
He doesn't give us a lot. We don't know exactly what our bodies are going to look like, how big they're going to be, how they're going to function, anything like that. But we do know that Paul says we receive heavenly bodies, 1 Corinthians 15, 40.
We receive imperishable bodies, verse 42, glorious, powerful bodies, verse 43, and spiritual bodies, verse 44. Now however that all washes out in the end, I have no idea, but that sounds pretty good to me. Heavenly imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual body, I'll take that.
It's better than what we have now, right? But that's a glorified body, a glorified life. Bodies and souls that are renewed in Christ and incapable of sinning against Him. And on that day, the good work that has begun in us will come to its perfect completion in Him.
In fact, that's even what he says in Philippians chapter 3, if you go back to Philippians, Philippians 3.20 and 3.21. He says in verse 20, Philippians 3.20, our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 21, listen to this, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. In other words, the power that He possesses, the power that He exerts, He will unleash on His believers, on His saints, and He will transform our humble, fleshly, fragile, sinful bodies, and He will transform us into glorious bodies like His own. We won't be God, but we will be like Him in some way, glorified with Him.
And so God is active and engaged in the work of redeeming and preserving His people from beginning to end. Again, this is what is known as the perseverance or preservation of the saints. Now over the last 400 years or so, this specific doctrine has come under intense scrutiny along with four other doctrines that make up what is known by scholars as the doctrines of grace.
While the debate between free will and sovereign election, that goes back all the way to the time of Augustine and Pelagius in the 5th century, I mean this has been an in-house debate for a long, long time. And I think the error that theologians and pastors and preachers and believers make is that we think we're just going to solve this tension on our own right here and now. There's a reason I haven't ever plunged us into this elongated debate, not because it's not valuable, not because the Bible doesn't talk a lot about it, but because it's been a debate for 1,700 years.
Maybe a little less. But is there something to it? Just to give some historical context, this was revived in the early 1600s in the Netherlands. There's a man named Jacob Arminius who was a student of John Calvin and Theodore Beza, even though he was a student in Geneva after Calvin had passed, but he studied under Beza, the successor.
And then he eventually pastored a church in Amsterdam. Now, he came to believe that several of the accepted doctrines of the Reformation were taught incorrectly, and he became very vocal about it. And after his death in 1609, he had followers, 43 of them, who signed a document called the Remonstrance or Protest, which challenged the teaching of the Reformed churches in the Netherlands.
And of their many complaints were five key points of doctrine pertaining to salvation. Now before too long, the Dutch Reformed Church held a synod in the city of Doorts to evaluate these points of disagreement. They heard all the arguments and they wanted to figure out, well, what does this mean and is it biblical and should we make a change here? When the synod finally concluded in May 1619, they produced a document known as the Canons of Doort, reasserting the teaching of those specific five points.
And they contended against the followers of Arminius that, number one, election is unconditional depending on the sovereign will of God, that Christ's atonement is limited to the elect, that it was definite and particular to the saints, that humanity is totally depraved and unable to contribute to their own salvation or to the merits of Christ because of their sinfulness, and that God's grace to sinners because of regeneration is irresistible. But the last point was that the saints will persevere in the faith being kept by the power of God. And again, people to this day argue and fight about these doctrines.
When I was younger, I fought all the time about these doctrines. It was like a hobby of mine, and so many young restless and reformed guys do, but now that I'm old, crotchety, and calvitist, I just don't want to fight anymore about these things. I was told, love more, fight less, okay? And every now and then, you know, I'll get into a discussion and I just don't want to fight about it, not because I don't believe in these doctrines, but because, again, you're not going to settle in five minutes something that's been battled over for over 1,000 years.
That doesn't mean that there's not merit to talking about this, and I do believe that there is a biblical position, but if we're teaching the doctrines of grace, I think grace should be emphasized here and recognized, and this is an in-house debate. Those who do not hold to this understanding of these doctrines are not somehow non-Christians. They're not heretical.
We're believers in Christ through the gospel, if we hold to the gospel, but I do believe that there is misunderstanding about these five doctrines that need to be clarified. And so the question is, are these doctrines of grace biblical? And I think when you consider today's text and today's subject, the perseverance and the preservation of the saints, I think we have to admit it certainly is. Over and over again, Jesus Himself expresses the certainty of eternal life and the assurance of believers.
Just a couple of verses, John 3, 36, Jesus says, He who believes in the Son has eternal life. You have it. It's certain.
You can know. John 5, 24, truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment. John 6, 39, this is the will of Him who sent me that of all that He has given me, I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day.
Again, because the objection is that it's possible for someone to believe the gospel, be saved, and that sometime later on apostatize and lose their salvation. Now, again, we're not talking about false profession, a person who fakes it and then comes to be proven false. We're talking about a person who believes the gospel, receives salvation, and loses it later.
John 10, 27, Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. And so the question is not, can a Christian lose their salvation? The question really is, can God lose a Christian? The answer is no, emphatically no. And Paul is convinced that the answer is no in this verse, Philippians 1, 6. He says, I'm convinced.
I'm assured. I'm trusting. I know that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
It's a done deal. God finishes what He starts. Now, again, the person might ask, yeah, but how do I know that my faith and my salvation are real? That's a legitimate question.
It's a matter of fruit, frankly. And a lot of times, and I've seen this more and more recently, believers, and even with many conversations I've had with some of you, believers who are struggling with the issue of assurance, how do I know? And I think you could read 1 John, study 1 John. I've expositions of that from years and years ago, but 1 John, there are definitely tests that the Apostle John gives, but even just consider some of these questions.
Is your life changing? Since you first began to believe, has God been working in you? Is He growing you? Is your life changing? Are your desires godly? Do you only want the things of the flesh, or do you have desires that are Godward? Do you love His righteousness? Do you love holiness? Do you desire to see God's glory manifested everywhere? Do you desire to see God's glory in your own life? How about this question? Do you love the Lord? That's probably the most basic question. And I'll tell you, unbelievers, they don't love the Lord. In fact, they don't even call Him Lord, 1 Corinthians 12, 3. No one can say Jesus is Lord apart from the Holy Spirit.
Now, maybe you can fake mouthing the words, but you press a person, is Jesus Lord, and they're like, I don't know. I don't know if He's Lord, but, well, for believers, yes, He is Lord. My Lord, Lord of all.
Let me ask you this question. Do you confess sin? That's a huge one. Repentance is a massive part of this.
If you're a person who prayed a prayer, but you do not confess your sins to the Lord and find forgiveness in Him, that's something to consider. Apologizing for wrongdoing, worldly sorrow, is very different. 2 Corinthians, I think it's chapter 6, maybe chapter 7, but versus godly sorrow, huge difference.
Worldly sorrow feels bad about the consequences. Godly sorrow feels terrible because of the affront to God and the hurting of God's people and the own defilement of your own conscience. Do you confess sin? How about this one? Do you love the body of Christ? Do you love other believers? These are evidences.
Again, there's no spreadsheet of, okay, check these boxes and I've got it, but this is fruit. Fruit inside of the heart and mind of a believer. How is your heart being drawn? Are your desires Godward or are they only fleshly? Romans 8, 16 says, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
For believers, there's something inside of us whereby we can know. We can know. And what is the Lord pressing on you? Do you love Him? Do you desire Him? Are you comforted by Him? When your world falls apart, do you just like go inward toward yourself or do you lean into the Lord? Do you fall into His arms? One thing I like to tell people when they are questioning their salvation, again, all things being equal, I mean, there's a lot of variables here, but one thing I like to ask people, I think this is right, is when they say, I don't know if I'm a Christian, I'll say, well, do you want to be with Jesus when you die? I don't say do you want to go to heaven because everybody wants to go to heaven.
Even atheists who don't believe in heaven want to go to heaven, right? That's not the question. The question is when you die, do you want to be with Jesus? Because Jesus is where, that's heaven. It's not the place.
It's the person who's there and sovereign over that place. Heaven is wherever Jesus is. Do you want to be with Jesus when you die? And some believers will either smile or some believers will either get pent up and cry with tears of joy and longing, and they'll say, yes, I want Jesus.
And so as John Cotton used to say, if you want Christ, it is a good sign that you have Him. Of course, in desiring Christ, you must believe in Him. You must confess your sins to Him.
You must live for Him. You must follow Him. But you can be encouraged.
You can have joy, my friends, that you cannot lose a gift that God has given to you freely. I want to close with 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 5. Again, just verses that help solidify this, I believe, in our minds. 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 5. Now, Peter is writing this letter to churches in the dispersion.
They're suffering under persecution. They're cast out of their homelands. They're struggling.
They're trying to figure out how to live their life as a Christian. And so it's in those times of opposition, suffering, persecution that doubts creep in, that the enemy attacks. But I want you to look at how Peter begins his letter to the church that is dispersed and afflicted and persecuted.
1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 5. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Is that not a commentary on Philippians 1-6? You read this. He's caused us to be born again.
He's given us hope. He's given us an inheritance which is unperishable, undefiled, it won't fade away. It's reserved.
It's protected. You're protected and you'll be revealed with Him. Does that not sound like He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus? Over and over and over again, God has begun something in the hearts of His people.
There's been a divine stirring. You've heard the gospel. You've been convicted of your sin.
You believe the gospel. You've turned away from your sins. You've confessed them to God.
And as you're walking, you're walking trying to please Him. Not because it earns you favor, but because you're following the one who's given you life. In a healthy relationship, children don't obey their parents to earn their love, right? We'd say that's crazy.
Why do children try to please their parents? Because that's my dad. I love him and I know he loves me. And if we're sinful and we get that, how much greater is a perfect God who possesses all majesty and grace and blessing and mercy and kindness and benevolence toward His people? We don't earn anything from Him.
God is gracious and He begins a work in His children and He perfects it and one day it's going to come to completion. And for that, we can be grateful. That's why Paul's so thankful.
He looks at this church and he says, I'm so thankful. I thank my God that He's done this work in you. I'll tell you, there is, John says that there's no greater joy than to see my children walking in the truth.
Oh, it's a pastor's dream to see believers walking in Christ's likeness. Why? Well, because that's the Father's delight as well. How do you know that you're in Christ? You must believe the gospel.
That Jesus Christ came into this world and gave His life on the cross to shed His blood to pay the cost of our sins. He died and the condemnation that was due to us died with Him. But then He rose again the third day to bring new life, to show us regeneration.
And all who have confessed their sins and trusted in Him, not just once, but believe on Him daily, it's evidence that we have been born again. But you must believe, my friends, you must believe. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your Word. Even just this one precious verse, Lord, a diamond that is just sitting there for us to take up, that gives us not only the precious truths of salvation, but Lord, also glimmers and shows us the hope that we have in Christ.
And Lord, we are feeble. Oh, heavens, I am so feeble. We are flawed.
We are sinful. And Lord, it feels like we're just hanging on by a thread. But thankfully, we are not the ones that hang on to You.
You have held us in the palm of Your hand. Your fingers have clasped us and held us close to Your heart. And You have said from Your own mouth that no one is able, not even us, no one is able to pluck us out of Your hand.
And so, Lord, yes, we struggle in our trials and our sins. We need to confess. We need to be forgiven.
We need to be holy. We need to follow You. We need to chase You.
And yet, Lord, for those who are struggling in doubts and fears and worries and where they do feel like they're just barely hanging on, not sure if You're going to accept them at the end. You have made a promise to Your people that by Your grace, through faith, You will persevere us to the end. We thank You for this precious, gracious promise.
We don't receive this with pride or arrogance, O Lord. We receive this humbly and thankfully as a pillow on which we can rest our head at night. Thank You for Your goodness to us, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.