Perseverance of the Saints with Austin Hobbs - part 1

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. It's my 12-second note. After 12 seconds, begin to talk. Today in the studio, Austin Hobbs. Austin, welcome back to the show.

Thank you, Mike. Happy to be here again.

The Doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints and Eternal Security

So many things going on in the world and evangelicalism. Before we get into the topic today, which is perseverance of the saints, we'd rather call it eternal security, perseverance of the saints, or preservation by God.

I like preservation by God, it captures the grace-centered element of it.

So we'll talk about that today, but before that, Austin and I were talking a little bit about the Sam Albury debacle. Any thoughts about that that you could share that might help the listeners navigate that whole issue?

Right, right. I think, you know, we see a professing Christian, you know, he's a member, who was a member in good standing in his church, and it's just very sad to see a fall like that, especially a pastor at that church.

And you know, for us as Christians, you know, who are separated from that situation, that we should pray for Sam Albury, pray for his church, pray for restoration, that he repents and that, you know, ultimately we believe in the doctrine of perseverance of the saints, that God causes us to repent, to keep going, to forsake sin.

And that's my desire for, you know, Mr. Albury, that he repents, he moves forward, he strives for faithfulness. And that's our desire as Christians, too, that we, of course, have serious disagreements with his idea that same-sex attraction is not sin.

I think we would say it definitely is sin, it's evil desire, according to James. It's unnatural. So we just pray for God's Holy Spirit to sanctify him and to look to Christ by faith and to find forgiveness.

He has a merciful, high priest, you can find mercy and grace in time of need.

I think that's wise, Austin. And what we're trying to do, even online and today here during the show, this intro before we get to the topic, separating the person from this theology and this ideology and this push by evangelicalism from the Tim Keller wing to the Gospel Coalition wing, kind of liberal stuff, I don't know, it's just trying to make all that mainstream or something, and maybe what you said earlier is true, trying to make it that we're nice or something, that we're accommodating, that we're gentle and we understand.

Does that make sense?

Oh yeah, you know, I understand, yeah, yeah.

In other words, elaborate on what I just said.

Oh, right, right, right. Yeah, you know, we have to stand firm on our Christian convictions. We can't really take a middle road on this. And a lot of Christians, I think especially associated with the Gospel Coalition, they would disagree with Sam Mulberry, that same-sex attraction is, they would say it is sin, but I think we just can't compromise even a little bit on this issue.

So we have to stand firm on the Word of God and, you know, reprove, rebuke when we need.

It.

Of course we do so. We correct opponents with gentleness, with patience, but we need to stand firm on God's.

Word.

Amen. The other issue that came up here in New England, especially hot, is the Mike Vrabel deal. And without pontificating too much, I just keep thinking of Proverbs 5, 6, and 7, and just the cost of adultery.

And so we want to make sure we walk circumspectly and walk in a manner that's pleasing to the Lord, and that includes with our bodies. So today on the show, Preservation by God, Perseverance of the Saints, Eternal Security.

Why Austin Is Teaching Perseverance to High School Students

Austin, why are you even studying this topic?

Yeah, we're studying this topic because I'm teaching our high school ministry here at Bethlehem Bible Church called Cornerstone, and we're going through the doctrines of grace, and we're doing so not because we just want to be, just have good theology.

We want to have good theology, but we want to know the faith that's been once delivered to the saints, and that this is one of the doctrines, Perseverance of the Saints. It's a critical doctrine, especially for our Christian life, for our communion with God, our worship of Him, and knowing that ultimately God has saved us, and He's going to bring us home to glory.

And so I want our kids to know that they are safe in the hands of Christ. Nothing will snatch them out of His hands. Nothing will snatch them out of the Father's hands. They are kept by the Spirit, and they can persevere.

Austin, when I pull up the London Baptist, 1689, I didn't know it was written in 1677, but it wasn't published until 1689. Did you know that?

Oh yeah, that's right. I think it's because of the religious act of toleration, that they're free to be a Baptist. No more jailing Baptists.

I'm happy for that. Here's what it says, chapter 17, "...those whom God has accepted in the Beloved," this is a definition of Perseverance of the Saints, "...effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, and given the precious faith of His elect unto," by the way, they have lots of commas in this, "...can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved, seeing that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, from which source He still begets and nourishes in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the Spirit unto immortality.".

Now, by the way, then it's got a semicolon, so that's all part of the first part of the.

Sentence.

"...and though many storms and floods arise and beat against them, yet they shall never be able to take them off that foundation and rock which by faith they are fastened.

Upon.".

Semicolon. "...notwithstanding, through unbelief and the temptations of Satan, the sensible sight of the light and the love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured from them, yet He is still the same, and they shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation, where they shall enjoy their purchased possession, they being engraved upon the palm of His hands, and their names having been written in the book of life from all eternity.".

One sentence.

Wow.

Amen.

Amen.

Glorious sentence. That's a paragraph.

I know.

Literally.

That's the whole chapter, chapter 17, section 1, paragraph 1. So if you had to summarize that for a fifth grader, what I just said, what would you just say generally about perseverance?

Perseverance is that God will preserve you to the end. You will always be safe in His arms. Nothing can ruin the work of Christ for you. Nothing can thwart God's plan to save you. Nothing can thwart the Spirit to preserve you, but you'll always continue in faith and repentance.

Even though you may sin and struggle the assurance of salvation, this life will push hard against.

You.

You'll suffer. God will see you home to glory.

Amen. And what I've noticed, Austin, even as I read that, it's a very God-centered way. So early on we talked about perseverance versus preservation, but the way the confession is written, it's written from a perspective of God will preserve you.

That's right.

That's right.

God is the actor. God is the active one. He will preserve. This perseverance, it goes on to say, depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election. So before we get into particulars, tell me how this is tied into the other letters of the Doctrines of Grace that we call TULIP.

Here they're tying it to election. How is this all tied together?

How TULIP Leads to Perseverance

Okay, great, great. So the thing with the five points of Calvinism, or in other words, the five responses to the remonstrance, that's the context of the cans of darts, but all five points, they all follow to each other.

So you can't have one without having all of them, truly. So unconditional election, limited atonement, and irresistible grace, the election of the Father, the atonement of the Son, and the regeneration of the Spirit, that will all lead to perseverance, because as we learned in that first paragraph, you can't thwart the God's decree of election, you can't thwart his plan, you can't ruin or frustrate the merit or intercession of Christ, and you can't just ruin the seed, that imperishable seed of regeneration, the Spirit has worked in us.

So it's all going to follow to perseverance of the saints.

Austin, I've noticed that in the last, I don't know, 40 years that I've been a Christian, 36, 37, that there are a lot of one-point Calvinists. They would call themselves one-point, and the one thing that they do agree on, especially in Baptists, Southern Baptists, they believe in eternal security, they'll call it.

So the T-U-I-L, I can't spell, T-U-L-I, they don't go for any of that. How can people logically and consistently be the one-point Calvinists believing in eternal security?

Because it's so fun! Yeah, I mean, but really, I think that's a good impulse to believe that you can't lose your salvation, that you're secure in Christ. I mean, that's a gospel impulse, because ultimately people believe that it's only by God's grace that we're seen home to glory, that we're brought home to glory.

So I think it's a great impulse, but you need to have more of a theological foundation for believing that. And so if you believe that the Father's election is conditional upon foreseeing faith and perseverance, or the sons did not truly secure that eternal redemption for you to get home to glory, or that the Spirit can be resisted, then you can resist the Spirit after salvation.

The blood of Christ may not bring you home to glory unless you just take hold of it. And that if the Father's election is based upon foreseeing perseverance, that Father's decree is not causing you, going to bring you and plan your final perseverance to the.

End.

So you need that theological foundation of unconditional election, limited atonement, and irresistible grace of the Spirit to really have this doctrine.

Ephesians 1, 1 Peter 1, and God's Unchanging Love

I think about that word, kept. First Peter chapter 1, kept. Why is that so comforting when I think, okay, I'm safe, I'm secure, I'm kept, I don't have to worry about that? Is that something that you think they must grab hold of, where they know they need to be kept because they're afraid of what they could possibly do, or what the world might bring, or Satan's temptations?

I don't know, I'm just rambling now, but it just surprised me that people could be the one-point Calvinists. What do you believe? I believe that we're eternally secure.

Right, right.

So as you approach the cornerstone young people, you had a kind of a strategy on teaching them. What did you start off with when you introduced them to the subject, Perseverance of the Saints?

Yeah, we really just began by that confessional definition, like what have people said over the centuries about this doctrine, especially what our Church confesses? And then we just went into, how does Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, how does that naturally lead to that?

So I want to basically tie all the pieces of the puzzle together and show that here's why we're learning this. Ultimately, if you want to commune with God and to enjoy Him and to have assurance of salvation, you need the rest of these doctrines.

So I'm showing, I wanted to show them how all that we've learned previously in this semester will follow into this glorious doctrine that you are safe in Jesus' arms, just as we talked about now.

So for all of us, if we think about assurance, we think about the hope of heaven, we think about eternal life, without this doctrine, I mean, where would we be? What would we think? We'd think that maybe if our faith wasn't strong enough, maybe we didn't repent enough, maybe that our sin was so grievous that the Lord would reject us.

What does this tell us about God's immutable love? I think that's maybe a good place to jump off. The immutable, unchanging nature of God's love.

Right, right. I mean, Ephesians 1 tells us that God has chose us in Him for the foundation of world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. It's in love He predestines us for the adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will.

Our assurance of salvation, our preservation to the end, is based upon God's unchangeable decree of election, in particular Him setting His love on particular people before the foundation of the world.

So that is impossible. God does not go back on His promises. And here, He says He has chosen people, just like He chose Israel. We see the covenantal overtones here, that He chose us, He has a covenant people before the foundation of the world that Christ will redeem, the Spirit will apply that redemption.

So God, there's no way to thwart God's plan, to thwart His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. That's verse 10 of Ephesians 1.

It says, verse 11, in Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. God will complete what He began.

He will finish what He started. And this is something that was planned with the foundation of the world. It's basically to thwart that God's decrees, be better than God, be greater than God. That's impossible.

God is God, He will accomplish the counsel of His will.

Austin, I think it was Gerhardus Voss that said, how do I know God's love for me won't change? He said, the best way to think through that is to remember that God's love for me never started.

Amen.

So there's no starting point, there's no ending point. It just kind of blows my mind a little bit. How do we get our minds wrapped around that? His love for me never began, because He loved me eternally in Christ.

Good words. You are reading Ephesians chapter 1, it goes on to say in verses 13 and 14, as it talks about the Holy Spirit and His work, sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory.

Sealed. They had seals back in the day to seal letters or important documents, and it talked about ownership and possession. Talk to our listeners a little bit about that, how God owns us and how He's purchased us with a price.

That's right, that's right. So God has purchased us with a price, that price was the very blood of Christ. In Him, as Ephesians 1 says in verse 7, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.

So Christ, He has bought a bride for Himself, and we'll see later on in Ephesians chapter 5 that He loved the church and gave Himself for the church to present the church holy and blameless before Him, without spot or wrinkle, but in splendor before Him.

Mike, here's how I kind of approached this. I was like, you know, Mike, you're a Christian, right? You believe in Christ's command to love your neighbor as yourself. Would you say that?

I'd say yes, I believe that.

Yeah, and you'd say, you know, women are your neighbors, right? You should love women, right?

Correct.

Should you love all women the exact same way you love your wife Kim?

Well, to steal your thunder here a little bit, I've said regularly to people, when I say to Kim, I love you, and then I say to my three daughters, I love you, individually, then I say to another lady at church, I love you, I have different meanings for that.

Right, right.

That's true, that's true. Christ has a particular love for His bride, so He purchased a bride for Himself, and that's ultimately in fulfillment with the Old Testament prophecies, how God's going to restore this marriage covenant relationship with Israel, that's going to be an eternal covenant, it's not going to be breakable, He's always going to have a bride, they'll never be divorced, never be exiled, never be cast out, and hopefully this is found in Jesus Christ.

He is going to secure their eternal redemption and apply that by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is that seal, until we actually obtain possession of our inheritance.

Mike Ebendroth of Austin Hobbs. Today, talking about Perseverance of the Saints. We'll do this today and next episode as well. I have been officiating weddings for about 30 years, Austin, and so far, thankfully, there has been no runaway brides who have gotten cold feet and who have said on their wedding day, I can't go through with it.

Nor have there been a potential husband, a groom, who said, I can't go through with this anymore. And the reason why I bring that up is because Ephesians chapter 1 talks about the Holy Spirit, who's given as a pledge.

And so I'm sure with Ashton, you got down on one knee, did you?

I did, I did indeed.

And you gave her something as a pledge, as a down payment, as there's something more to come. And what did you put on her finger as a pledge?

I gave her a ring.

And we could say sometimes, you know, because men, they're sinful and they don't follow through on their promises. But for you, thankfully, and for me, I gave Kim an engagement ring. And I was basically saying, this is a pledge that I'm going to give you something more.

And that is, on our wedding day, I'll give you a wedding ring to show you how secure you are and safe. But here's my pledge. Will you marry me? She said, yes, I will. By the way, after I asked Kim that, she said yes, and then I said to her, can I ask you one more time, because I just want to make sure I heard that right, will you marry me?

And then there was this great celebration, right, of we're going to get married, then we plan everything. And thankfully, I did follow through with the wedding ring, and we got married. So even if grooms fall short and they go back on their word, we think about God's character, God's nature, God's essence, and He will never lie.

He keeps His promises, and He will deliver us with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Amen, that's right.

How could—if God lost one, how could then we give Him praise for losing one? In other words, at the end of chapter 1, verse 6, it says, to the praise of His glory, or earlier in the verse, then in verse 12, to the praise of His glory.

Verse 14, spirit pledge to the praise of His glory. If He could lose a Christian, then how would He be praised?

Right, right. I mean, the reason why you can't lose your salvation, because you didn't earn it to begin with. Salvation is of the Lord. That's why we give all praise, all glory to God for our salvation.

So things like faith, the gifts of faith, and repentance, and perseverance, those are all given to us as a free gift by God Himself. He works those good things in us. So even of our faith, even of our repentance and perseverance, that is ascribed to the.

Lord.

We give Him all praise to the glory of His name.

So I have in front of me a booklet called The Five Points of Calvinism, subtitled Defined, Defended, Documented. I guess these guys are Baptists.

Yeah, three points, alliteration.

Daniel Steele and Curtis Thomas. I believe there's a newer version that Lance Quinn updated, but this is the old version, and I can tell it's really old, Austin, because as you know, I keep the price tags on the books that I buy.

This was $2 .75.

Well, very cheap. I know. Before inflation.

It says, under perseverance of the saints, the elect are not only redeemed by Christ and renewed by the Spirit, they are also kept in faith by the almighty power of God. Nothing can separate them from the eternal and unchangeable love of God.

They have been predestined unto eternal glory and are therefore assured of heaven. So that talks about power and love. We discussed love for a moment. Tell me about the power of God and why it's important to understand God's omnipotence or that He's almighty in light of keeping our salvation.

God's Power, His Pledge, and the Assurance of Salvation

Right, right. God is omnipotent. He is all-powerful. By the very word of His power, He upholds all things. He brought all the world into existence by the word of His power, and that is the same word that upholds your salvation.

You can't be more safe than being in the very power of God. And that's exactly what 1 Peter 5 says. You are being kept—this inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

The very omnipotent hand of God who holds the world in His hands is holding you, Christian, in His hands. And that's why Jesus says, nothing can snatch them out of my and my Father's hands.

Yeah, but what if you jump out? We're going to talk about objections next show, but let's just talk about that one for a second. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, but what else?

Maybe we can jump out. Maybe we can fling ourselves away.

Yeah, well, even this in 1 Peter 1, verse 5, it says, who by God's power are being guarded through faith. So we see, by God's power through faith. So we are going to persevere in faith. We will indeed keep believing, keep repenting, keep following after Christ.

But why, Mike? It's by God's power. So God's going to keep working His power within us so that we would work out our salvation with fear and trembling. That's what Ephesians 2 says, that you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

And Philippians 1, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ.

The word benediction means good word. And of course, worship services often end with a good word. And here's a good word that we regularly give for a benediction that ties in this idea of perseverance with God's power.

Jude 24 and 25. Now to Him who is able, there's the power, to keep you from falling and, so that's the negative side, He keeps you from falling, the positive side, and to present you without blemish before the presence of His glory with joy or rejoicing.

To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, glory, majesty, dominion, authority before all time, now and forever, amen. So that keeps us on the negative side from falling, and on the positive side to present us without blemish before the presence of His glory.

Do you think that joy is our joy, or do you think that's God's joy?

Oh, yeah, that's a good question. Read that verse again, I want to see that again.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, I think this is King James, and to present you without blemish before the presence of His glory with rejoicing. So, some commentators have said, as there would be joy in heaven when angels understand that somebody got saved, that there's joy within the triune God with His handiwork that is the salvation of people.

Right, you know, God rejoices over His people. That's what God had prophesied in the Old Testament, that He's going to rejoice over His people as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. So, yeah, God definitely loves His people, and we're going to experience and see the face of God in that joy, in the face of Jesus Christ forever and ever.

I think of Zephaniah 3, verse 17, and I think this is where people go to when Jude 24 -25 comes up. Zephaniah 3, 17, the Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior.

Okay?

And we like that. Power, warrior, our Savior, our Captain. He, the Lord your God, will exalt over you with joy. He will be quiet in His love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

Amen.

Amen.

I think about these people that have shouts of joy when their basketball team wins. I think this is a different kind of shouting, a different kind of joy. Do you think this is language of accommodation, so we can try to understand it?

How do you take that?

Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, God wants to—all Scripture, as Calvin says, is baby talk to us. He's trying to communicate truth to us in a way that's understandable for us as mere creatures. So, you know, that's just—those shouts of joy are expression of God's eternal love for His elect that He will realize ultimately in the new creation, forever us beholding His face.

Regeneration, the Resurrection, and the High Priestly Prayer

So before we talk about objections, we need to wrap this particular show up. Anything else you want our listeners to understand, or how did you approach the young people at Cornerstone this last week?

What was your main theme? Did you go through a bunch of verses? Did you try to work it out logically through TULIP? What was your strategy?

Yeah, you know, I tried to work it out logically through TULIP. And also, I wanted to just introduce them to this idea of inaugurated eschatology. And all that means, Mike, is that the new creation has dawned at the resurrection of Christ, so that now, if you're in Christ, you are a new creation.

And so right now, we're experiencing the very benefits of new creation, even eternal life right now. So this is what 1 Peter 1 says, it says, you know, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to His great mercy, He caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That's very important. Regeneration is connected to the resurrection of Christ.

And that regeneration is this new creation life that has dawned in all believers. And so that—and how does it happen? What does the resurrection mean for the dawning of new creation? Well, Christ Himself, Him being raised from the dead, He is earning the reward that was originally held out to Adam in having glorified life in a new glorified creation and permanent righteousness and permanent holiness.

So now, if you're in Christ, you now participate in the very resurrection, new creation life. We'll have that in its fullness when Christ comes again to raise the dead. So as we'll be raised from the dead on that day, in some way right now, Mike, we're raised with Christ to walk in the newness of life, as Ephesians 6 says, or Romans 6 says.

Merit says, like, our regeneration is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So you can't lose your regeneration in the same way that Christ can't be unresurrected for the dead. Christ would have to be put back in the ground for you to become unregenerate again.

But since Christ, His resurrection is permanent, your regeneration is permanent. That's an imperishable seed of regeneration that can never be thwarted.

I love that. I was just thinking about John 17 and the high priestly prayer that the Lord Jesus prayed. And it says in John 17, While I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me.

I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. I do not pray that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil one.

And so wherever you go in scripture, it just seems like there are verses after After verses that talk about how we have eternal life upon our belief that God has granted us to believe. And then things like Colossians chapter 3, you've died and your life is hid with Christ.

In God.

When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory. Promise after promise after promise.

All right.

Well, we just were talking about Perseverance of the Saints, and we here at No Compromise Radio want you to know that you can write us, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. I think you need to have a No Compromise email, austin at nocompromiseradio .com.

It's got a good ring to it.

Yeah, right.

Right.

So all the dirty work, like if you've got questions, I'm going to start having you email.

Austin.

You can write us, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. We'll see you next time.