TEXT: I Peter 1:5b

SUBJECT: Watson on the Perseverance of the Saints #5

The standard Puritan sermon was made up of three parts: explication, doctrine, and use. In the first, the preacher explained the text—what the verses say. In the second, he explained what the verses teach. In the third, he explained what the verses mean or what they mean to us in our everyday lives.

The Puritans were not always good in explaining the verse and sometimes they got the teaching wrong, too, but when it comes to the use (or the application) they were at their best! Even secular scholars (who do not share the Puritans’ theology or vision) often admire their preaching as wonderfully creative and useful to the people who first heard from the pulpit or read it in their books.

This is what we’ve now come to. In Thomas Watson’s fine study of Perseverance, we have made our way to the uses or the applications. From here on, he won’t be teaching or defending the doctrine, but he will show us what to do with it!

On this point, it’s easier to admire the Puritans than it is to imitate them. What do we do with the Doctrines of Grace? Do we mostly use them to start arguments with other believers? Do we use them to feel superior to others for whom Christ died? The Lord did not give us His dear truth for such unworthy purposes. He wants us to know the doctrines so we can praise Him and be a blessing to His people. And not a know-it-all-pain-in-the neck who poops every party he goes to and bums out everyone who has the misfortune to be around him.

Martin Luther said the Germans were Jolly folks—and they should be, for the truth of God’s grace had set them free from the open pride and the secret fear that salvation by works so often produces.

In looking at these things, therefore, let’s be cheerful! Not smug and arrogant, but happy the Lord has revealed them to us—and all by His grace.

Thomas Watson has three uses to be made of the doctrine of perseverance. We’ll look at the first one tonight. He calls it

I think he chose the wrong word: he doesn’t mean he’s going to instruct us in something new—or add to what he’s already taught us. No, he really means praise!

If all believers persevere in the faith—and if we all do it by grace alone—then, the Puritan says--We

What’s the difference between a good suit and a bad suit? Or, a good car and a bad car? Or, a good marriage and a bad marriage? Many things could be said, of course, but the most obvious one is also the most important: good things last and bad things don’t!

Now, grace is a very good thing! Because it does not wear out and fall to pieces. The nine year old boy who is born again by God’s grace will still have that grace when he’s eighty-seven! Other things will die, and return to the dust—but not grace: it’s permanent. In this life and in the life to come.

Watson compares grace with other good things, like health and money. Wellness does not last. The healthiest, strongest, most vigorous man in the world will eventually become sick and die. Think of the men who lived before the Flood—they were men!—not the pathetic guys we are—but real men! They lived nine hundred years—fathered children when they were centuries old—built ships, planted vineyards, fought wars! They were strong and robust and vigorous! And yet, in reading their genealogies, you keep coming across the line…And he died.

Noah lived a long time and Methselah even longer: but grace lives forever. Watson says it lives as long as the soul, as long as heaven. And we might add: it lives as long as God!

How precious grace must be if it perseveres! If it never gets old or tired or worn out; if it never dies; if it outlives the earth and the moon and the stars, we ought to see the excellence of grace. And feel it.

The Puritan calls grace, durable riches, in contrast to the uncertain riches on which so many people pin their hopes. Grace is an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for [us]". I’m not sure how many more times and ways Peter could say it. Grace does not decompose; it does not decay; it is not ashes returning to ashes or dust to dust. Grace is an attribute and gift of God that cannot fail.

Watson also calls grace a lease, but unlike the kind we sign in life, it has no expiration date. Some leases are short: one year for an apartment; 99 years for Hong King. But the lease we have on God’s favor is without end.

What does perseverance mean to me? It means God’s mercy endures forever. It means the grace that guarantees my perseverance is an excellent thing! That’s the first use.

The perseverance of the saints means we ought to love and thank God for His lasting grace! We are saved by grace alone—but "saved" means more than the new birth or justification or repenting and believing. No, it’s the whole enchilada! From election to glory—our entire salvation is secured by grace alone. Do we work? Of course we do, but our works are but the fruit of His grace!

Did you thank the Lord when He first saved you? Did you love Him when you first realized His Son died for you? If so, keep on thanking Him and loving Him! For perseverance is also part of your salvation.

Our love and gratitude are doubled when we remember what we have been since we have been saved. Setting aside the evil things we did before we knew Christ, how often have we provoked the Lord since we knew Him? Would your husband or wife put up with the sins you’ve committed against Him? Would you parents have disowned you if you had treated them as shabbily as you did the Lord? Would any friend stick with you if you grieved him every day without exception and only said, I’m sorry, maybe one time in a hundred?

No way! No human love has been sinned against as often or as deeply as we have sinned against the love of God. But it’s still there as strong as ever!

How grateful we ought to be for the love of God that makes our perseverance sure!

We would do well to meditate on Watson’s question,

How much would a wife love her husband if he pledged to love, honor and cherish her as long as she did everything he told her to do, when he told her to do it, and from the heart? If, on the other hand, she ever displeases him, he’s dumping her for someone else? She might stay with such a man—maybe—but she could not love him because love is about commitment. And the Lord has committed Himself to love us—and His commitment is proved every day we persevere. This makes us love Him.

That’s the second use. Here’s the last one:

We’re always shocked when people we know fall away from the Lord. When Christian leaders are caught in a scandal or renounce the faith, we’re are thrown for a loop: how could they? These things are always surprising.

But what ought to surprise us even more is when people don’t fall away from the Lord! When ordinary Christians—who don’t know that much, who aren’t super disciplined, who have fifty blind spots and a hundred glaring weaknesses—stay with the Lord and slowly, but surely, keep the faith.

How can we account for this? There’s nothing in the believer himself to explain it. He’s got the same temptations that others have—and fall to. The world is not going easy on him and the devil is cutting him no slack. Yet—with the devil always busy, the world beating down on him, and his flesh betraying him every day—he still perseveres!

A million books could be written to explain this, but one little word will is needed: God.

We persevere by God’s power, by His wisdom, and by His grace. There’s nothing in us and no church, pastor or set of rules can make us keep on keeping on. Only the Lord can do this: and not only can He do it, but He does it—every day in the lives of ordinary, hum-drum, messed up Christians.

Do the saints persevere in the faith? Yes we do—every one of us does—without exception.

What does this mean? It means grace is an excellent thing and that we ought to love and admire the Lord for it.

That’s Thomas Watson on the Perseverance of the Saints.