God Causes Us to Endure - Friday get_app
Yesterday, some of us might have walked away from these studies a bit upset or confused as we grappled with the ongoing struggle against sin and the serious warnings Scripture gives about continuing in sin. Today, I hope we’ll all be encouraged by the truth that God causes all of his people to do exactly what yesterday’s lesson warned we must do - to persevere to the end.
The Baptist Faith & Message says it this way,
“All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end ... they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.”
Hopefully you saw that last phrase in yesterday’s study as well. Today we’re going to flesh this biblical truth out a bit. Let’s start with the encouragement within the very passages that warned us yesterday.
Read
- According to
Hebrews 6:11 , what is the author’s desire for those he is warning?
(to have full assurance of hope until the end) - According to
Philippians 2:13 , who is it that causes us to want and to do God’s good pleasure rather than wanting and doing sinful things?
(God)
Read
- As you read these passages, be reminded of God’s faithfulness to complete his work of salvation in all of his people.
Read
- What does John say about those who do ultimately fall away and do not persevere?
(“they were not of us;” in other words, they were not truly believers, those graciously chosen and kept by the power of God unto salvation) - How does this comfort and encourage you?
God causes his people to endure to the end by his own power. Even the warning passages are a
means by which he causes us to endure, forcing us to work out our own salvation with fear and
trembling (
Close in prayer, thanking God for the blessed assurance we have because he causes all his people to persevere to the end and receive salvation.