Good Morning!
If there is one doctrine of the Christian faith that we have all learned a little bit more about in the past year and a half it is the perseverance of the saints. R.C. Sproul was well-known for changing up the last P of T-U-L-I-P to "preservation of the saints" and while I think there is some wisdom to that I'd rather stick with the former, especially considering what life has been like for all of us in God's providence (another "p" word) in the recent past.
So what is it about this teaching of Scripture that we know a bit more about today than yesterday? Well, for our prayer and worship help today we are going flesh this out a bit in order that we can be further blessed by the reminder of God's love for us. It is an important part of the faith to remember the hold that the Lord of glory has on our lives. He has us in His hands and nothing can draw us out. Sometimes we can make talks about theology and the Bible be far more complicated than they need to be. Most of the time we need only a child's faith to receive great comfort from the remembrance of the simple truth that God is God and we are not. No matter how wildly out of control things seem to be the peaceful truth that He has the whole world in His hands is enough to calm our spirits from the most difficult of circumstances. While all that may seem to be more about God's sovereignty than our perseverance it is these blessings that give the certain knowledge that we will "persevere" to the end. The more we remember that the chief end of all things is the glory of God, the greater our peace will be in times of trial.
In the 103rd Psalm this is exactly what gives comfort to David in the midst of reflecting on his own life.
"As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all."
Now it must be said that David there in pointing toward the covenant promise is not saying that we are able to make it to the celestial city based on our keeping of the covenant as a merited law. Rather what he means in this Psalm is that it is in this keeping close to the heart of who the LORD is and will always be, this treasuring of the nature of our God, as is shown in His promises to us, this is what moves us to rest in the goodness of God. One of my favorite examples of this is in the story of Ruth. This dear saint was an infant in the heart of the LORD, but she was mighty in faith. When given the option to return back to the land of her fathers she refused. And why? Because she had seen, heard, and knew the certainty that she had in the God of Naomi and this is why she pleaded with her to go back to the land of Israel.
Hear her words:
And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
That language "the LORD do so to me" is not a threat, but a deep trust in the fact that Ruth knows the power of Romans 8:28. That what the Triune God decrees is always right and holy, and that whatever comes to pass will never destroy us, no matter how difficult, for the LORD is with us, He keeps us, and it is in Him that we persevere through the fading of the flower and the withering of the grass for the Word of our LORD stands forever.
May you find great peace in these truths today. Remembering the covenant promise laid on you in Jesus Christ, by whose blood you have been washed and in whose grace you stand.
For today's reading here is a brief testimony that will be helpful to apply what we've learned today:
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/safe-in-the-hand-of-god/
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church