TEXT: I Peter 1:5b

SUBJECT: Watson on the Perseverance of the Saints #8

For the last couple of months, we’ve been studying Thomas Watson on the Perseverance of the Saints. Watson is a name you know; he was an English pastor and author. In my opinion, except for Matthew Henry, Watson is the easiest Puritan to read. Unlike his colleagues, he knows what a period is—and uses it now and then! Many of his books are still in print and I highly recommend them to you.

As for the doctrine itself, The Perseverance of the Saints means that believers cannot be lost—not in this life, not in the life to come. Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. When the Holy Spirit gives you faith, He does not take it back. He’s not an Indian Giver. The faith you have in this life does not result in sinless perfection—or anything like it. What it does result in, however, is a Christian life. People who profess faith and then live without Christ and holiness only profess faith—they don’t have it. In this life, the saints persevere.

And, on the Day of Judgment, those who have truly put their faith in Christ will not be disappointed. They will be publicly exonerated from all their sins and cordially welcomed into the Party God has planned for them from before time was.

In an earlier part of the chapter, Watson says over and over again:

That sums up the doctrine we’ve been exploring for the last several weeks.

Now, at the end of the chapter, Thomas Watson tells us how to persevere. The fact that all believers endure to the end does not mean we do it by lying in bed all day. No, the Lord has appointed means or ways of persevering and we are responsible to use them. If we don’t use them, we won’t persevere and we will not be saved.

We are saved by faith alone and not by works, but the faith is not a disobedient faith, a worldly faith, a faith that was serious way back when, but now, is happy to live without Christ.

How then do we keep on keeping on? Watson has a lot to say here, so let’s get to it.

No truth is more obvious than this one and no truth is more ignored than this one! If you want to stay in good health, you need to do two things: positively, you eat right, get enough sleep, and so on. But negatively, you stay away from things that damage your health! You don’t kiss and smooch your wife is she’s coughing up blood! You don’t lie out in the Arizona sun eight hours a day! You don’t eat rat poison! You don’t run in front of cars! Good health depends on staying clear of some things.

And so does the health of the soul! Some things take your mind off Christ and harden your heart. Watson names presumption, hypocrisy, and unbelief. We could name many others.

Take inventory of your life: what do you do with your spare time? Do you think watching hours of vulgar TV every day will bring you closer to Christ? I am not a legalist! I am not against all TV! I would not try to monitor your conscience. I want you to do that—no one else can!

But don’t leave it with outward things like too much TV. Think about the inner things, the things no one notices but God. Remember the words Watson used:

• Presumption which is the belief that you’re so safe with God that you can sin, ignore Him, do whatever you want, forget all about Him and still make to heaven. No one sees that! And that makes it harder to identify. Ask yourself if you’re guilty of it and pray for God to open your eyes to it if you are. For presuming on the Lord is deadly!

• Hypocrisy which is pretending to love God and His word, playing at obedience, acting like you enjoy church and prayer and so on. Having a form of godliness won’t do. If the Pharisees are any guide, hypocrisy will bring you to a bad end faster and more surely than anything else. We’re all subject to this—I am more than anyone here! He who plays Christian will never persevere to the end. For a time will come when you cannot pretend any longer.

• Unbelief. The writer of Hebrews warns that many people who claim to be disciples of Christ aren’t! For though they talk up faith, their hearts are unbelieving. Again, this is something that comes on gradually, for the most part, and won’t be seen by others until it is very far advanced. Just a few weeks ago, a man told his wife, kids, and church: "I’m tired of pretending to be a Christian". You think that occurred to him five minutes ago? No way!

To summarize: if you want to persevere in the faith, name the things that hinder you, and as much as possible, stay away from them! If it’s not possible to avoid them, pray hard the Lord will keep you, even in them. That’s Number One.

Here I think Watson may have overstated his case a bit—but just a little bit. Our danger is in understating the value of true doctrine.

Does doctrine matter? It all depends on if truth matters. Could knowing that Jesus Christ is a Man—as well as God—help you when you’re hurting? Of course it does! Does knowing that God loved me before I ever did a good thing in my life help me when I’ve sinned? Sure! Might knowing that God is sovereign and nothing happens without His will do anything for me when I get the late night phone call? How can it not help me?

But ignore the humanity of Christ and I’ve got no one to sympathize with me when I’m hurting. Forget the electing love of God and, when I sin I fall into despair wondering if God still loves me. Deny His sovereignty and I cannot accept bad things happening to good people!

If you want to persevere, you’ve got to know that God loves you, when He started loving you, and why He loves you. That’s a doctrine! If you want to endure, you’ve got to know how and why He accepts you. That’s a doctrine. If you want to hold on, you’ve need to know Who is in you and what He can do. That’s a doctrine!

In the last hundred years, the American Evangelical Church has lost its mind. Its heart is warm, but its head is empty. Not that we’re all stupid—that’s not true, many highly intelligent, well-educated people are Christians. But that we don’t know our doctrine!

This causes—not only mistakes in theology—but, even worse, it creates a spider web of personal problems.

If you want to persevere, learn the doctrines of the Bible! Don’t be satisfied with devotional reading or just memorizing verses (though both are good), but go on to use your head for thinking and learning the truth as it is in Christ. That’s Number Two.

This—I think—is one of the most important things Watson has to say in the chapter. We all say we believe in salvation by grace. But do we? If we did, we’d love grace far more than we do and we’d thank the Lord for it more fervently than we do.

Nothing saved you but grace. Nothing keeps you saved but grace. Nothing will bring you to heave but grace. We are not saved by God’s grace plus our works or God’s grace and the prayers of the Church or God’s grace and the sermons of the pastor. No, it is Grace Alone that saves us—from beginning to end!

Meditating on the freeness and the fullness and the sweetness of God’s grace spurs the Christian life on as nothing else will. When we start valuing our works, we become proud (or discouraged if we’re honest). When we think about the power of sin and the world and Satan we feel like giving up. But when we remember what grace is and what it does for us, we’re ready to carry on whatever comes our way.

Prize grace and you’ll persevere. That’s Number Three.

As I said earlier, the obvious things are the ones easiest to miss. Regular, fervent, faithful—or even plodding—prayers will do us more good than a thousand books on the Christian life or a million sermons urging us to live it.

Do you want to persevere? If you do, pray to persevere. Pray for it every day. Pray for it, especially, when you’re drawn away in wicked desires or when you’re lazy in matters of holiness. Most of all, pray hard to persevere when you don’t feel like praying!

Is there any verse in the Bible truer than the one in James?

Has anyone ever fallen away from Christ when earnestly praying to stick with Him? It’s not possible, for the prayer itself is a kind of persevering and betokens a bright future for the one offering it. Nothing is more important to your happiness than persevering in the faith. So pray for it. And don’t quit until your faith becomes sight. That’s Number Four.

Enduring to the end is hard work! Satan will use the difficulty to make you doubt that it can be done. If it cannot be done, why even try?

The fact that millions of people are now in heaven means it can be done! Add to this that the ones in heaven were made of the same stuff that we are. They had the same temptations we have and sometimes they fell for them as badly as we do.

Saints like Joseph, Daniel, and Paul leave me discouraged. As far as I know, there’s not a bad word in the Bible about them! They seem to be cheerful wherever they are and faithful in whatever they’re called to do. I have a hard time relating to these men. I admire them, but I cannot identify with them.

The men who mean so much to me are men like Jacob, Gideon, Samson, Peter, James, John, Thomas—and most of all Jonah and Lot!

It’s not that I want to imitate their follies and sins—no! But it’s good to know that men like they were were also loved by God and made it to heaven!

If there’s a place in heaven for men with bad attitudes, roving eyes, short tempers, doubts, compromises, and cowardice, then there’s a place for me too. And that’s encouraging.

Thomas didn’t make it to heaven because he had an iron faith; Gideon didn’t make it because he had a lion’s heart; James didn’t make it because he had a tender heart. No, they all made it by grace—the same way you and I will persevere in the faith and die in hope and rise to glory!

See them wearing the victor’s crown and you’ll be encouraged to persevere to the end and be saved!