THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAVIOR

Dr. Hank Pharis 8-19

I hope you have enjoyed and been blessed by our series this summer like I have

Many of you may not have thought about the order of salvation before
but this is not a new study

Probably the most famous work on it in church history was by William Perkins

William Perkins was a Puritan who taught at Cambridge & in 1591 he published
A Golden Chain or Description of Theology Containing the Order & Causes of Salvation & Damnation

In it he produced perhaps the most famous theology chart in church history

summarizing the order & causes of salvation & damnation

Now in the spirit of William Perkins I want to go into some detail today
regarding the next to last link in the golden chain

We normally go through a passage of Scripture every Sunday

and that is definitely my preference

But I’m going to break all the norms today and not even really preach

Think of this as more like a Sunday School lesson in which I’m going to attempt
to summarize most of what the Bible says about the preservation of our salvation

I realize I’m giving you 2-3 times the amount of material we normally get
and therefore I made handouts for everyone so you can consider this more later

I should also say that there are two sides as it were to perseverance
There is God’s work and our cooperation

Today I am focusing only on God’s preserving us

Most of what Jeremy said last week about our part in sanctification applies to perseverance
But we could easily do another entire sermon on our part in perseverance

I should also say that if you have any questions about all of this send then to me on slack

Dating can be exciting

But dating can also be drag

Most of us as children remember seeing someone, or even doing it ourself, take a flower
and begin to pull the pedals and say: "She loves me, she loves me not"

And whatever pedal we ended up with was supposed to prove whether our girlfriend loved us or not

Dating can be a drag because we often don’t know where we stand

Does this person feel about me the way I feel about them?
If I tell them how I feel will I scare them off?
On and on it goes
Dating can be a drag
 Relationships can be on again off again
Break up, get back together, break up, get back together

Getting married can be a great relief!

That is, if both partners are truly committed to the death

BUT what if marriage were a conditional relationship

"If you provide the lifestyle I want then I'll remain your wife."
"If you keep a perfect home then I'll remain your husband."

"If you bounce one more check I'm history!"

"If you come home with one more toy I'm out of here."

On and on it could go

How awful to live in a marriage where we're never sure whether our mate is really committed to us or not
How horrible to live constantly on pins and needles as to whether we might do something wrong and
lose our marriage

How horrible to have a marriage only as secure as the whims of our mate

BUT how much more infinitely horrible to have such a relationship with God

Some people imagine God looking down from heaven as it were with a cosmic hammer
waiting to smash us if we cross the wrong line

Other Christians imagine that they signed a contract with God and now they can live however
they please and God is obligated to save them a place in heaven

Is salvation forever or can we lose it?

Christians have debated this issue for centuries

Probably the majority of Christendom does believe that if we mess up badly enough
God is going to drop kick us out of His kingdom

Of course this raises the obvious question: How bad is bad enough to lose our salvation?
OR positively stated: how good do we have to be to keep our salvation?

Praise God salvation does not depend on us

Salvation is God's gift

It depends on Him not us

Our theme verse if you will for this sermon is Phil. 1:6: “And I am sure of this, that He Who
began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

The point of our message is that “God ensures those He justifies never stop believing.”

Before we consider the reasons our salvation is secure I want to tell a story to illustrate this issue

When I was a Youth Director for five years more than 4 decades ago,
 many of the youth were very much like younger brothers and sisters to me

One of the young men who we'll call Mick today was especially close
We had many things in common

He came to faith my first year of ministry there as a seventh grader and from day one he became
one of the primary leaders of the 100 plus youth we had in our group over the next few years

He was one of the first people that the other kids sought out
if they had some issue they were struggling with

He led a small group and was a very smart young man

When he was a junior in high school we had him preach one Sunday morning at our church

But his senior year his family went through some awful crises
and he came to believe that either God was not good or not great

He could explain a Christian view of suffering as good as I could at that point

but he gave up on God

We still have periodic contact but after four decades he has never returned to faith

So question: Was Mick truly saved or not? Did he lose his salvation?

How do we deal with someone like Mick?

Now let me be quick to say that I don't believe we can ever be certain of anyone's salvation
except our own

A person's salvation is between them and God

2 Tim. 2:19 says that “the Lord knows who are His.”

And Col. 2:2 and many other passages say that God desires for us full assurance of our faith.”

But nowhere are we promised to know for sure who else is a Christian

There are certainly many people who give every evidence of being a Christian
and we should assume that they are saved

But if we’re dealing with a person like Mick do we counsel them? As a believer or an unbeliever?

Sometimes we do have try to discern whether someone is saved or not

because we will counsel them very differently depending on their spiritual status

So when we have a friend or family member who seems to fall away from the faith
how do we try to evaluate where they are spiritually?

Well there are

1) Three Views of Salvation's Permanence

out there

You might think of these three views as a spectrum

 On one end of the spectrum

a) Some believe that Christians can lose their salvation

If someone was supposedly saved but no longer believes in God did they lose their salvation?

On the other end of the spectrum

b) Some believe that if someone ever responds positively to the gospel

then they are eternally secure

How many dozens, if not hundreds, of people I have known over the years
who went forward at an altar call and prayed the prayer the preacher told them to pray

They then went on with their lives as if nothing had ever happened

They were supposedly saved but there was no change in their life

Now many would say that if anyone ever "prays to receive" Christ
then they are eternally secure, they are guaranteed a place in heaven

But I reject both eternal security and the belief that genuine salvation can be lost
Neither of these views deals adequately with all of what the Bible says

I believe that the Bible teaches that

c) Those genuinely saved will by God's power persevere in their faith

until they die
This is in no way to deny that genuine Christians may fall into grievous sin
David was guilty of adultery and murder
Peter betrayed Jesus on the night He was arrested

But David and Peter, like all genuine believers, were restored to God
and continued in faith until they died

The Bible does not teach that genuine Christians can lose their salvation The
Bible does not teach that any profession of faith guarantees eternal security

The Bible teaches that those God saves He converts

He makes them new creatures in Christ and keeps them saved for the rest of their lives

Well let's look very briefly at

2) The Biblical Case for Perseverance

a) The Father's Purpose (John 6:37-40; Rom. 8:28-39; Phil. 1:6)

God's purpose in salvation is not only just give people forgiveness of sins
but to progressively transform people to become more like His Son

Again as Phil. 1:6 states: 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to
completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Jesus says in John 6:

39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on
the last day.

40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and
believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

God's will, God's purpose is that none of those He gives to the Son be lost
God's will, God's purpose is that if He gives someone eternal life they not lose it but be raised with it

As we have seen before Romans 8 says:

30 … those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

All of those justified, declared by God to be righteous, will be glorified.

Will be saved not only from the penalty of sin but the power and presence of sin

To be declared righteous by God through Jesus' payment for our sin

is to be always carried by God on a one way trip to heaven

As Paul goes on to say in Romans 8:

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

If God has saved us who can possibly unsave us?

Well theoretically couldn't God?

But Paul goes on for six verses to say only God could condemn us
but He is the One Who gave His Son and saved us and then Paul concludes

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing in life can separate us from God's love, God's bringing us to salvation
Neither can death separate us from God's love

No earthly ruler, no angel, nothing present today nor present in the future
can separate us from God

No power, which in this context probably refers to demons

Nothing in creation, no creature, not even ourselves, can separate us from God's love

If we are truly saved we will persevere in faith and be glorified

because that is why God saved us

Not to just give us a ticket to heaven

but to transform us and transport us all the way to heaven
 The Father's purpose argues for perseverance as does His Power

b) The Father's Power (1 Pet. 1:3-5)

Peter the Rock melted before those who accused him of knowing Jesus
He denied knowing Jesus at all

But Jesus did not give up on Him

Jesus restored Him and made Him the foremost leader of the early church
Thus Peter wrote:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

Now does an inheritance that is imperishable and unfading and kept in heaven for us
sound like something that can be lost?

Obviously not but how is this inheritance kept in heaven for us?

5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time.

It is God's power that keeps us saved

It is God that preserves the genuinely saved all the way to heaven

And Jesus says further that we are preserved by His promise

c) The Son's Promise (John 10:28-29; cf. Heb. 13:5b)

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the
Father's hand.

Jesus promises that no one, which includes each Christian, will ever be able to remove themselves
from His or His Father's hand

All of us who have been parents know what it is like to take a young child to some large social event
A state fair or or street fair or whatever

But when we take our child through a large crowd or through some other dangerous situation
we hold onto their hand for dear life
 They may try to pull away and investigate something along the way
They may get annoyed by our firm grip but because we love them there is no way
we are going to let go of them

And on a cosmic, eternal scale the Father and Son do the same for us

Only whereas our child might somehow get away from us

God's children can never get away from Him

The Son promises that our perseverance is protected by the all powerful grip of God
and the Son says that He prays for our perseverance

d) The Son's Prayer (John 17:11-12; Heb. 7:25)

Hebrews 7(25) tells us that Jesus' present heavenly ministry focuses on praying for His followers

But in Jesus’ last earthly prayer, at the Last Supper, how does He pray?

11  … Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me …

12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of
them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Jesus prayers were and are focused on the preservation of those truly saved

The Father preserves us, the Son preserves us and so also does the Spirit
through His ministry of

e) The Spirit's Permanent Sealing (Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30)

Paul says in Ephesians 1:

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

He mentions the Spirit's sealing again in chapter 4

The idea of a seal is somewhat foreign to us but very significant in the first century

In simplest terms it is like a brand that a cattleman would put on his cattle
It is a mark that identifies ownership as well as the character of the owner

In other words, the Spirit marks us as forevermore belonging to and reflecting Him

The Bible says that those genuinely saved will persevere, they will never lose their salvation
because of the Father's purpose and power, the Son's promise and prayer, and the Spirit's sealing

But besides the explicit statements of Scripture there are also some convincing

3) Theological Arguments for Perseverance

a) Salvation is God's work and perseverance depends on Him (Rom. 8:29-30; 1

Cor. 1:8; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:6; Jonah 2:9)

It was Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac who coined the phrase:
“God helps those who help themselves.”

But the Bible’s perspective is that God helps those who know they are absolutely helpless

If salvation were somehow the joint effort of human beings and God

If we had anything to contribute to being saved then salvation could be lost

because obviously none of us will ever achieve sinless perfection
But
since salvation is God's work from beginning to end Since it is solely a gift
we receive then it depends on Him and His will and His power not on us
Furthermore

b) Salvation is God's gift and God does not revoke His gifts (Rom. 11:29)

Romans 11:29 says that the "gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."

When I was in high school I turned in my two week notice to quit where I worked
But the owner told me that he had planned to pay my way to college while I continued to work for him

SO I didn’t quit but he never mentioned it again

God never treats His children that way

Furthermore

c) Eternal life is eternal (John 5:24; 1 John 5:12-13)

John 5 and other passages say:

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does
not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

We get eternal life when we believe in Jesus

BUT how can we already possess eternal life if it can be lost?

Eternal life that can be lost certainly doesn't sound too eternal

Another argument for perseverance is the fact that

d) Children cannot change their parentage (John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:14-17;

Gal. 3:23-26; 4:4-7; 1 John 3:1-2; Matt. 7:9-11; Luke 11:13)

There is nothing I could ever do to change the fact that Bill and Jeanne Anne Pharis
are my biological parents

Similarly there is nothing a child of God can do to change the fact that God is our spiritual father

Speaking of fathers, do you know what a father is?

 A man who carries photos in his wallet where his money used to be

Okay Hank you've listed nine arguments for God's preserving His children in salvation
but you haven't told us how to deal with people like my friend Mick or now Joshua Harris

People who sure seem to have been saved but who then seemingly walk away from the faith
or live lives that give little or no hint of being a Christian

Well there are

4) Three Possibilities Regarding "Backsliders"

Backsliders is not a Biblical term but it was a popular term in the past to try to refer
to such people without actually passing judgment on them by calling them apostates or whatever

In the case of someone like my friend Mick who seemed to truly be a Christian for five years but
has seemingly rejected the Christian faith for the last 35 years there are three possibilities

a) They were never truly saved (Matt. 7:15-23; 13:5-7,20-22; Heb. 6:4-6;12:14; Jas.
2:14-26; 1 John 2:3-6,19; 3:9)

The N.T. speaks in many places about what some call "false professors"
People who claim to be Christians but don’t live like Christians

Jesus describes such people in Matthew 7:

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

As Sam Storms says: “Who you are will eventually show up in how you live.

The simple but profound truth that Jesus taught in Matthew 7:16-20 is that Christians
produce moral and spiritual fruit that bears witness to the reality of what is on the inside.

In the absence of such fruit, we should be extremely cautious about telling people
that they are born-again children of God.

We should be rightly suspicious about their claim to conversion.

If their behavior doesn’t measure up to their beliefs, something’s terribly wrong.”

(Kept by Jesus, p. 45)

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells a parable about the different kinds of soil seed can be sown in

His point is that the gospel will be in some sense seem to be received into many human hearts
for a season, but never truly take root there

Such people will appear to be saved for awhile but ultimately as 1 John says
They leave the faith because they never truly believed it

1 Jn. 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have
continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
 Some "backsliders" were never actually saved, they were only false professors of faith
but others

b) They were saved and will be disciplined and restored by the Lord
(Heb. 12:5-6; 1 Cor. 5/2 Cor. 2:5-11)

Hebrews 12 says: 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,     and chastises every son
whom he receives.”

Parents who love their children discipline them and God, the Perfect Parent,
is certainly no different

If someone has truly become God's child then God will discipline them
and bring them back to a good relationship
However it is possible someone could truly be God's child and continue to resist His discipline
to the point that although

c) They were saved but could experience God's ultimate discipline and
have their life cut short by their sin (1 John 5:16; 1 Cor. 11:30; cf. Acts 5;
Num. 15:30; Deut. 32:48-52; Joshua 7:16-26)

1 John 5 speaks of sin that is unto death

This verse may or may not be saying that Christians can so persist in sin that it costs them their life

Jeremy Archer presented a good case for a different interpretation of this vs a couple of mons ago

But regardless of how we take this particular verse the Bible still includes examples
of believers whose lives were cut short because of their sin
A dramatic example of what I am talking about is the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5

If you remember the story they lied about their giving and God took their lives

You may remember what God says through Paul in 1 Cor. 11 regarding participating in the Lord’s S-

29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That
is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

Paul says that God took some of the Corinthian Christians to heaven as an act of discipline
for abusing the Lord's Supper

That should be serious warning to any of us just going through the motions of a religious ritual
or taking it while knowing that there is major sin in our lives that we need to deal with

These verses serve as a warning to us every time we take the Supper that we need to make sure
we are not in open rebellion against God before we presume to participate in the Supper

It is possible to be so rebellious against God that we are so destroying our lives, and so
betraying Jesus to those around us, that in love God might take us to heaven "prematurely"

John Piper puts it like this: “There’s no way to avoid the fact that we see that sometimes
God will take the physical life of his own children in order to preserve & protect their spiritual life. …

In other words, one way that God ‘sustains’ some of his people is by removing them from this life
before they have opportunity to persist in their sin to such an extent that they apostatize.”
(Quoted by Sam Storms in Kept by Jesus, p. 96)

When people profess to be Christians but then appear to abandon the faith
they may have never been truly saved

Or they are truly saved and God will restore them through His discipline
or if necessary send them prematurely as it were to heaven

But Hank you may still be thinking if all of this is so clear why does the majority of Christendom
believe that we can lose our salvation

Aren't there some passages for their viewpoint?

Well it is true that there are some passages that they claim teach that we can lose our salvation
and I have listed in your notes the two passages which most seem to argue for this

Unfortunately its simply too much to go through these passages in any detail this morning
but let me just mention three points about all such passages

5) What About "Problematic" Passages? (John 15:1-11; Heb. 6:4-6)

a) God never contradicts Himself so these passages must not be taken to teach the
opposite of the many clear passages that salvation cannot be lost

Any apparent contradiction in Scripture is only apparent

The problem is not God's Word but our limited understanding

There is always some way to reasonably put together seemingly contradictory passages
if we are willing to work at it hard enough

And the way to put together the passages that seem to say that we can lose our salvation
and the passages that clearly say we cannot lose our salvation is to recognize

b) They prove that the Bible teaches perseverance rather than eternal security

Neither the eternal security view nor the lose your salvation view adequately deal with all of Scripture

whereas the perseverance view explains how the Bible can in some places
sound like salvation can be lost and in other places clearly affirm that salvation cannot be lost

The Eternal Security view fails to take the warning passages in Hebrews and the warnings
about false professors seriously but these passages

c) They serve to warn us that it is possible that if we persist in sin that we could be
"false professors" rather than true possessors of salvation (Matt. 7:21-22;
Acts 8:9-24; 1 Cor. 13:5; 2 Tim. 4:10; 1 John 2:19)
 As Sam Storms says: “The warnings are designed to awaken and empower and motivate
Christians to escape the threatened consequences.

The Lord uses such warnings as the means by which He prompts his people not to apostatize.
None of God’s elect will fail to heed the warning, and thus all will persevere.” (Kept by Jesus, p. 104)

Again the perseverance view is the Biblical balance between eternal security and losing salvation but let
me conclude by spelling out some of

6) The Importance of Perseverance

a) Rejecting perseverance:

1. Produces an insecure relationship with God and an inability to trust Him

How can we love and trust someone if we're not sure if they love us?

How can we love and trust God if we live in constant fear of doing something
that will cause God to kick us out of His family?

A "loves me, loves me not" relationship with God will never go anywhere

Rejecting perseverance also

2. Suggests that Jesus' work on the cross was insufficient and must be
supplemented by our good works

If we can lose our salvation then in a sense we have to keep working to keep our salvation
We may be initially saved by grace but we can only keep our salvation by works

Talk about pressure!

But pointless pressure because none of us will ever be good enough to keep ourselves saved

We are responsible to trust and obey God but our salvation does not depend
on our continuing to trust and obey

Our salvation depends on God continuing to make us more faithful and obedient

Another problem is that to reject perseverance is to

3. Arrogantly claims the ability to be able to overcome God's work of salvation

Phil. 1:6 again says that it is God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion … but if
we reject perseverance we are saying that its up to us to complete the work God began

Its saying God is not adequate to keep us saved but we are!

If we believe that we can lose our salvation there will negative consequences in our lives
However if we accept perseverance we will first of all be overwhelmed by God's grace

b) Accepting perseverance:
 1. Overwhelms us with God's grace (cf. Eph. 2:8; Jonah 2:9)

We will wake up and realize that God not only saved us but God will keep us saved

God loves us so much that He not only gave us a ticket to heaven

but the gift of a changed life

He does not just give birth to us and leave us on our own

He adopts us into His family and cares for every detail of our life for the rest of eternity

When we come to understand and appreciate God's preservation of our salvation

we are overwhelmed by how gracious He has been to us and this

2. Increases our assurance of salvation (cf. John 5:24; Phil. 1:6)

Some pedals no longer say "He loves me not."

Every pedal says: "He loves me!"

"I am His and He is mine forever!"

There is nothing I could ever do and nothing anyone else could ever do to change our relationship
Theoretically the only Person Who could ever undo our relationship is God and He never will

Thus the more we fully feel how gracious God has been to us and how sure our salvation is
the more motivated we will be

3. Motivates us to demonstrate our love for Him through faith and obedience

Long term who will motivate us more?

Someone who doesn't really seem to care about us but only our performance?
Someone who looks over our shoulder and finds something wrong with everything we do?

If we have a boss or parent like that either we will be totally enslaved to miserably trying to please them or we
will just give up and walk away from them

But if we have a boss or parent who truly loves us and is always encouraging us
and praising us for the things we get right, how do we feel toward them?

We love to please them

It is joy to serve them … because we know that they love us

One of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books tells the following story:

On December 7, 1988 an earthquake devastated northwestern Armenia

killing more than 25,000 people

In one of the villages as soon as the dust settled parents rushed to the school
only to find it flattened and having no sign of life

But one of the father's immediately remembered the promise he had always made to his son:
 "No matter what happens, I will always be there for you."

And though the prospects looked utterly hopeless he began feverishly removing rubble

Initially a few helped him but most only sobbed and said there was no hope

But he refused to give up

He dug for 8 hours … 12 hours … 24 hours … 36 hours he labored

Many begged him to quit but he would not stop

After 38 hours of back breaking labor he finally heard voices

"Armand, Armand," he called out

And his son responded: "Dad! I'm here. I told the other kids not to worry.
I told them that if you were alive you would come for me."

And the father rescued not only his son but several other children

Now if a finite human father will work that hard to save his child
how much more will our infinite heavenly Father work to preserve His children

Again Phil. 1:6: “He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it” (NIV)

Or again Romans 8 lists every conceivable threat to God’s love for us

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to
come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Or as Sam Storms paraphrases or expands this:

“Nothing that life might throw your way can cut you off from his affection.

Neither tragedy nor triumph, neither success or failure - nothing you encounter or experience
during your earthly sojourn has the power to undermine God’s commitment
or overthrow his purpose in bringing you safely into his eternal kingdom.

Neither the holy angels who do God’s bidding nor the demonic rulers who oppose his will
have the power to threaten your security in Christ.

No spiritual power, whether good or evil, can separate you from God’s love in Christ.

Neither can things present nor things to come.

Nothing now, nothing new, nor anything that may come your way in the future can terminate
your relationship with Christ.

No powers. No supernatural force, no miraculous event,

nothing - no matter how strong it may seem - can separate you from Christ.

Neither can height nor depth. Nothing above, nothing below,

whether from heaven or hell, can disrupt there relationship you have with God.

Nor can anything else in all creation.

 This final phrase is designed to close down any possible loopholes.

No being, no thing, no event, nothing that is or ever will be, not even yourself …

But what about God himself? …

The whole point of Paul’s argument in Romans 8 is to reassure you that God is on your side
and eternally for you.” (Kept by Jesus pp. 84-85)

Let me highly recommend to you Sam Storms book Kept by Jesus

which is based on 11 sermons that you can get via podcast if you prefer

He goes through almost every passage in the N.T. related to this issue
and you will also find little jewels like the last 3 statements in your notes

Those who God chooses, He changes.

Whatever God requires, He provides.
Whatever God starts, He finishes.

Hopefully this morning you have seen again that salvation is a gift of God

God the Father planned salvation before time began

God the Son provided salvation by dying on the cross for our sin and
God the Spirit personalizes salvation by convicting us of our sin and moving us to believe

Once we believe we proclaim our faith and new identity to the church and the world thru baptism
Baptism is the initiatory sign that we now belong to Jesus and are part of His body the Church

The Lord’s Supper is the regular sign that believe in Jesus and are part of His family

We practice it every week to remind ourselves of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sin
and to celebrate all that He has and is doing for us

But as we alluded to in the sermon it is possible to participate in the Supper in an unworthy manner

What does it mean to participate in an unworthy manner?

Two quotes:

“To take the Lord’s Supper unworthily is to take it without regard to its true worth.

To do it unworthily is to come complacently, to come light-heartedly,

to come without a care about your own sin and your shame.

But to be burdened with your own sin, even to be weighed down

with a sense of your guilt and utter worthiness - that is to take the Lord’s Supper worthily.”
(Ernest Kevan quoted by Sam Storms, Kept by Jesus, p. 93)

Or as Sam Storms puts it: “To partake in an unworthy manner is to do so without giving full
consideration to the nature of the Supper …
It is to partake with motives incompatible with the intent of Christ when He instituted the Sacrament.

It is to come to the Table with thoughts other than of his person and work.

It is to come thinking of tomorrow’s worries rather than Christ’s return.

It is to come remembering yesterday’s disappointments rather than Christ’s death.

It is to partake in either ignorant of or conscious disregard for

the instruction found in 1 Cor. 11:23-26.