This teaching came from a little book called:
“ALL OF GRACE”
By
Charles H. Spurgeon
I needed encouragement one evening a few nights ago and God led me
to this section of that little book so I decided to put it up for all to receive
encouragement, I hope it blesses you as it did me!
Why Saints Persevere
The hope which filled the heart of Paul
concerning the Corinthian brethren we have already seen to be full of comfort
to those who trembled as to their future. But why was it that he believed that
the brethren would be confirmed unto the end?
I want you to notice that he gives his reasons.
Here they are:
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his
Son Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:9)
The apostle
does not say, “You are faithful.” Alas! The faithfulness of man is a
very unreliable affair; it is mere vanity. He does not say, “You have faithful
ministers to lead and guide you, and therefore I trust you will be safe.” Oh,
no! if we are kept by men we shall be but ill kept. He
puts it, “God is faithful.” If we are found faithful, it will be because God is
faithful. On the faithfulness of our covenant God the whole burden of our
salvation must rest. On this glorious attribute of God the matter hinges. We
are variable as the wind, frail as a spider’s web, weak as water. No dependence
can be placed upon our natural qualities, or our spiritual attainments; but God
abideth faithful. He is faithful in His love; He
knows no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is faithful to His
purpose; He doth not begin a work and then leave it undone. He is faithful to
His relationships; as a Father He will not renounce His children, as a friend
He will not deny His people, as a Creator He will not forsake the work of His
own hands. He is faithful to His promises, and will never allow one of them to
fail to a single believer. He is faithful to His covenant, which He has made
with us in Christ Jesus, and ratified with the blood of His sacrifice. He is
faithful to His Son, and will not allow His precious blood to be spilled in
vain. He is faithful to His people to whom He has promised eternal life, and
from whom He will not turn away.
This faithfulness of God is the foundation and
cornerstone of our hope of final perseverance. The saints shall persevere in
holiness, because God perseveres in grace. He perseveres to bless, and
therefore believers persevere in being blessed. He continues to keep His
people, and therefore they continue to keep His commandments. This is good
solid ground to rest upon, and it is delightfully consistent with the title of
this little book, “all of grace.” Thus it is free favor and infinite mercy
which ring in the dawn of salvation, and the same sweet bells sound melodiously
through the whole day of grace.
You see that the only reasons for hoping that
we shall be confirmed to the end, and be found blameless at the last, are found
in our God; but in Him these reasons are exceedingly abundant.
They lie first, in what God has done.
He has gone so far in blessing us that it is not possible for Him to run back.
Paul reminds us that He has “called us into the fellowship of his Son Jesus
Christ.” Has he called us? Then the call cannot be reversed; for, “the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance.” From the effectual call of His
grace the Lord never turns. “Whom he called them he also justified, and whom he
justified them he also glorified:” this is the invariable rule of the divine
procedure. There is a common call, of which it is said, “Many are called, but
few are chosen,” but this of which we are now thinking is another kind of call,
which betokens special love, and necessitates the possession of that to which
we are called. In such a case it is with the called one even as with Abraham’s
seed, of whom the Lord said, “I have called thee from the ends of the earth,
and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee
away.”
In what the Lord has done, we see strong
reasons for our preservation and future glory, because the Lord has called
us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ. It means into
partnership with Jesus Christ, and I would have you carefully consider what
this means. If you are indeed called by divine grace, you have come into
fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, so as to be joint-owner with Him in all
things. Henceforth you are one with Him in the sight of the Most High. The Lord
Jesus bare your sins in His own body on the tree,
being made a curse for you; and at the same time He has become your
righteousness, so that you are justified in Him. You are Christ’s and Christ is
yours. As Adam stood for his descendants, so does Jesus stand for all who are
in Him. As husband and wife are one, so is Jesus one
with all those who are united to Him by faith; one by a conjugal union which
can never be broken. More than this, believers are members of the Body of
Christ, and so are one with Him by a loving, living,
lasting union. God has called us into this union, this fellowship, this
partnership, and by this very fact He has given us the token and pledge of our
being confirmed to the end. If we were considered apart from Christ we should
be poor perishable units, soon dissolved and borne away to destruction; but as
one with Jesus we are made partakers of His nature, and are endowed with His
immortal life. Our destiny is linked with that of our Lord, and until He
can be destroyed it is not possible that we should perish.
Dwell much upon this partnership with the Son
of God, unto which you have been called: for all your hope lies there. You can
never be poor while Jesus is rich, since you are in one firm with Him. Want can
never assail you, since you are joint-proprietor with Him who is Possessor of
Heaven and earth. You can never fail; for though one of the partners in the
firm is as poor as a church mouse, and in himself an utter bankrupt, who could
not pay even a small amount of his heavy debts, yet the other partner is
inconceivably, inexhaustibly rich. In such partnership you are raised above the
depression of the times, the changes of the future, and the shock of the end of
all things. The Lord has called you into the fellowship of His Son Jesus
Christ, and by that act and deed He has put you into the place of infallible
safeguard.
If you are indeed a believer you are one with
Jesus, and therefore you are secure. Do you not see that it must be so? You
must be confirmed to the end until the day of His appearing, if you have indeed
been made one with Jesus by the irrevocable act of God. Christ and the
believing sinner are in the same boat: unless Jesus sinks, the believer will
never drown. Jesus has taken His redeemed into such connection with himself,
that He must first be smitten, overcome, and dishonored, ere the least of His
purchased ones can be injured. His name is at the head of the firm, and until
it can be dishonored we are secure against all dread of failure.
So, then, with the utmost confidence let us go forward into
the unknown future, linked eternally with Jesus. If the men of the world should
cry, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her
Beloved?” we will joyfully confess that we do lean on Jesus, and that we mean
to lean on Him more and more. Our faithful God is an ever flowing well of
delight, and our fellowship with the Son of God is a full river of joy. Knowing
these glorious things we cannot be discouraged: nay, rather we cry with the
apostle, “Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord?”
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Have a happy
JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!
WHEN HE WAS BORN ~ LIFE WAS BORN AGAIN!
MERRY CHRISTMAS &
HAPPY NEW YEAR!