January 2nd, the first Sunday in this New Year, 2022: let’s begin the year with a look at the word perseverance, “persistent in something despite difficulty”; let‘s look at it in a spiritual sense. The Baptist of old referred to perseverance as belonging to the saints, and Christ called it “enduring to the end” (Matthew 24). Did we wonder last year, in such a time of unrest, how God’s plans for our perseverance would work for our good and His glory? And don’t we wonder again this year as the unrest seems to be even more so. Let’s begin by looking at it in terms of our salvation; the “New Baptist “ of our day have concocted something entirely different, they speak in terms of “once saved, always saved.” I have no problem with the eternal security of the saints, but I do have a problem with the “once saved, always saved” idea in that there appears to me to be a misconception of what “saved” means. Salvation is not a profession of faith and a name on a Baptist Church Membership Roll. Over the years of preaching and pastoring I have talked to a great number of poor souls who are living with a foggy idea that a profession of faith, baptism, and church membership some ten, fifteen and twenty years ago is salvation. It doesn’t seem to disturb them that soon after that point of time they have lived with very little of any change of life and attitude or interest in the things of God. These people may continue for years and never darken the door of the church, or read their Bibles, or pray; with the exception of when some crisis in life appears. After our initial salvation we learn one of the most vital doctrines that Jesus taught was the doctrine of spiritual union and communion with Him. He does this in John chapter six. After having set forth this union with Himself, brought about by the sovereign will and power of His Father in vv’s 44-45, He says in vv’s 53-54, “Verily, verily, I say unto you except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” The thought of “eating and drinking” the flesh and blood of Christ is in the present continuing mode. Just as necessary for our physical sustenance is our daily food, so our spiritual sustenance as we commune with Him through the Word of Christ, the Bible. Christ was not talking about cannibalism; He is speaking of daily communion with Him through the Holy Scriptures, which set forth that doctrine of His person and Work. He concludes that it is those alone who participate in a persevering way that have “life with Him.” He also speaks to His people and compares them to sheep in John 10. He says in v.4 that they “know His voice and follow Him.” His voice is His Word, His doctrine, the Truth of Who He is and what He accomplished for them as their Substitute. His sheep grow, prosper and persevere in these things. They never lose interest, nor cease to be satisfied with learning of Him, walking with Him, and abiding in Him. They are those that “Keep on Keeping on” because of His persevering care. Let us take a look at His-tory, had not General Washington persevered through all his difficulties, we would not be a free nation today (watch “The Crossing” on Fox Nation).
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