From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I am going to read to you the words that are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Romans in chapter 11, reading from verse 16 to verse 22. Verse 16 to verse 22 in the 11th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. "For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."

Now, we've been engaged for two or three Friday evenings in examining in particular the verses 18 to 22. But I read from the beginning of verse 16 in order that we might have the full statement in our minds as we come to consider the particular aspect of this statement that I'm anxious to put before you this evening. I've suggested that the best way of dividing this statement from the beginning of verse 18 to the end of verse 22 is first of all and foremost, of course, to deal with pure matters of exposition, which we've done. Then secondly, I said we must extract the teaching or the doctrine. And well, to the best of our ability, we've also done that.

Then I suggested that the third heading would be this: the problem raised by this statement. And having dealt with it, we hope to go on to consider the general application of this teaching to the situation in which we find ourselves as members of the Christian church in this extraordinary age in which we live. But what's before us tonight particularly is this question of the problem which is raised by this statement. Now, you notice the way in which I'm putting it. I am not saying that the Apostle himself raises a problem. But I am saying that what the Apostle says raises a problem in the minds of all students of the scriptures, and in the case of some people particularly so.

Now, the problem that is raised is raised, of course, by the actual statement of historical fact which the Apostle makes. It is a sheer fact of history that the Jews, speaking generally, were not in the Christian church. These people of God of whom we read so much in the Old Testament and who were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah are not in the Christian church speaking generally. They're outside. Indeed, he makes the specific statement that they have been broken off, and we've been considering that. So, that in itself raises a problem. How does it come to pass that the people of God themselves, as it were, are excluded, cut off, and are in this condition which is described in extenso by the Apostle in this particular chapter?

But over and above the raising of the problem by the actual events with which they were confronted, the problem is raised in an acute form by the explicit statement which we have in verse 22. Where the Apostle says, "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God." Now, that is what we were considering, you remember, last Friday night under teaching. But here's the problem: "on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." Now, there is where the problem, I say, is raised for us in an explicit manner. It's implicit in the history; here it is explicitly stated and put before us.

Very well then, what is the problem? We can describe it as being a kind of double problem, but essentially, of course, it's only one. But it comes before us here in a double manner. First of all, is not the Apostle suggesting in this paragraph that it is our faith and belief after all that saves us? Now, he appears to be saying that, doesn't he? He says, "Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith." There the suggestion seems to be that after all, the thing that really counts and matters is our faith. They're out because they didn't believe; we're in because we do believe. He seems therefore to be suggesting that our faith and belief are a kind of work, and that this is the thing that determines whether we are saved or not.

And secondly, is he not suggesting also in this teaching that it is our faith that also keeps us in salvation? Or if you prefer it, is he not teaching that we can fall from grace and that there is no such doctrine as the doctrine of the final preservation of the saints? These are his words. He says, "toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." If you don't continue in His goodness, you shall be cut off. So, if you're not cut off, it's because you have continued in His goodness. And to continue in His goodness means this: that you recognize it, that you believe it, that you have faith in it. But he seems to be saying that what really determines our continuance and persistence in the faith and our final perseverance and preservation is our own continuing, our act of belief, our act of faith.

Now, there is the problem which I say can be divided up like that way into two aspects. What is it that brings us in? What is it that keeps us in? And the Apostle seems to be suggesting on the surface that it is our faith in both instances. And then, of course, the problem that is posed to us is this: is the Apostle therefore not here contradicting blankly what he himself has taught so plainly and so clearly in other parts of this Epistle? Isn't it indeed the whole object of the Epistle to establish the doctrine of justification by faith only? How can that be reconciled with what he says here? Or how can we reconcile what he has told us so clearly and plainly on the matters of assurance and perseverance with this extraordinary statement here in this 22nd verse, which is only stating, as I say, explicitly what we know to be true in the case of the children of Israel, speaking generally of them as a nation as an actual fact? So, the question that is before us is this: is this statement not a sheer contradiction of what the Apostle has been teaching about election, about assurance, and about perseverance—the final perseverance and the safety eternally of the saints?

Now, this, of course, is the problem that is raised, and you will find you just have to read a number of commentaries by different people belonging to different schools to see at once that they're divided into two groups. And there are many who have been perplexed and troubled by this. Some because they're pleased to find a contradiction in the Apostle, as they think, and that supports their view that he was no more divinely inspired than any man today may be inspired, and that after all, it's only his opinion. They find in it what they think a great argument against the whole doctrine of inspiration. Then there are the party men who use it just to show that they're right after all. But I'm really not concerned about either of those groups. I'm concerned about those who find in this a genuine difficulty and perplexity. And it is in order to help them that we now shall proceed.

God forbid, let me say once more, that we should approach this doctrine, this matter here, in any kind of party, prejudiced, sectarian spirit. We should have one desire only, and that is to understand the teaching of the scriptures that we may glorify God and in order that our souls may be established in the faith and strengthened. We are not here simply to support a cause or a party; we are here to worship God and to glorify His name and to try to arrive at an understanding of His teaching. Very well, how do you approach a problem like this? We've had to do it before, actually, in earlier parts of this same Epistle. But as the Apostle puts raises it again like this indirectly—he doesn't raise it, as I say, but the statement raises it in the minds of men and women—as it's raised for us, how do we approach it?

Well now, I suggest this kind of method. And let me say that this kind of method applies not only with this particular problem, but with any such problem or any similar problem. Nothing is so important as that we should know how to face problems. And the method seems to me to be more or less always the same. Well, how do we do it here? Well, the first thing I would suggest is this: start with your facts. And there they are, perfectly plain and clear before you. This is a tremendous fact in the story of the children of Israel, the Jew. Now, the Apostle has put that before us; there's no difficulty about that. This is a sheer fact, and it's a fact of history. It's no use arguing about that; you just accept that; you've got to face it. And there it is.

Very well, what's the next step? Well, I believe the next step is this: that we must see that the statement is not only made here, but made elsewhere, the statement concerning the same facts. Now, let's have a look at the way in which our Lord has stated the same kind of thing. Let me just pick out one or two. Take for instance what you get in Matthew 8 and in verse 12—or take verse 11 with it. Matthew 8:11 and 12. Our Lord says, "I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." You notice the emphasis is that these people are going to come from all parts of the world. They're going to come from the east and the west, all round as it were, but the children of the kingdom are going to be cast into outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then there's a similar statement in Mark 13:13, which doesn't deal so directly with that, but—well, perhaps in order to keep it clear in your minds, let me give you the parallel in Luke first. Take Luke 13:28. Luke 13:28. Where our Lord again is dealing with this same point. He says, "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last." Same thing.

But then in Mark 13:13, our Lord makes a statement more on the question of perseverance. "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Very well. Now then, there we have seen the actual history, and we've seen that our Lord prophesied this very thing that happened to the Jews. The thing that the Apostle Paul is bemoaning and regretting is a thing that has already been dealt with by our Lord Himself.

But then having started in that way with the actual facts, the next step it seems to me is to find similar statements in the scripture which seem to be teaching the same thing as this 22nd verse in the 11th chapter of Romans seems to be teaching. And here, of course, you have these great passages. I read two of them at the beginning. That whole statement in John 15, and particularly the sixth verse: "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." And again in 1 Corinthians 10, what the Apostle is doing there is to remind the Corinthian Christians of how those children of Israel were God's people and they'd all been baptized into Moses and they'd all passed under the same cloud and passed through the same Red Sea, but they didn't all arrive in the land of Canaan. Numbers of them because they'd fallen into sin of various types had perished in the wilderness. And the Apostle says all these things are written for our ensamples upon whom the ends of the world have come. Now, there you see he's invoking this history and applying it to them in exactly the same way as he does here in this passage that we're looking at now.

But then you get the same thing, of course, in certain well-known statements in the Epistle to the Hebrews. For instance, you get this in Hebrews 3:19, where we are told, "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." He's again referring back to the history of those children of Israel. "With whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."

Then the next chapter takes it up. "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." So you see, the emphasis seems to be upon the fact that it is our faith that matters. The gospel can be preached, but if we don't exercise this faith, well then, it is of no value to us.

And then, of course, with regard to the question of perseverance, everybody's familiar with the famous passage at the beginning of the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Oh, how many souls have been tormented by this. "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." And the parallel statement which is found in the 10th chapter. Well now, there is your evidence. There, at any rate, is the main evidence: facts, explicit teaching.

And the question before us is, how can all this be reconciled with that other teaching which has already been put before us so plainly and so clearly? Well, I suggest to you that this is the method of procedure. We lay down first of all a general rule, a general principle of interpretation, which is this: never base a doctrine on an isolated passage. Now, I think you'll all agree with that; you're to compare scripture with scripture. The scripture is a whole. So, you start by just saying that: here I come across something, I mustn't base my whole doctrine on this matter on an isolated statement. Always take the whole of scripture—scripture with scripture.

Then secondly, you can lay it down as a general principle that the scripture does not contradict itself. The scripture is the word of God, not words of men, the word of God. The Old Testament: holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. All scripture is given by inspiration of God; it's all God-breathed. He breathes it in, all of it. And we have the statements with regard to the New Testament; we have the testimony of Peter with regard to the writings of the Apostle Paul puts them with the other scriptures, and so on. Very well then, because it is the word of God, it cannot contradict itself. There is always this agreement in the scripture; there are never any contradictions. You lay that down, I say again, as a fundamental postulate.

Very well, having said that in a general way, we go on now to make certain further statements. We have in the scripture certain unmistakable statements—clear, explicit, about which there is no difficulty at all—concerning these essential points which we are considering. Now, here again I'd like to put that in the form of a principle. Whenever you find yourself confronted by a difficulty in the scripture, something about which you're not quite clear, something about which you haven't exact knowledge, the principle now is: always move from the known to the unknown. If you have a difficulty, well, start with something about which you're certain, and approach your difficulty from a certain, established position. I've often said that and I've given you various illustrations. It's what I've sometimes compared with taking a run if you want to jump over a hurdle. Go back; don't stand too close to your problem. If it's difficult, go back. Go back to certain general positions; go back to certain starting points. And then starting there with assurance, you come forward and you'll find you're able to overcome this obstacle; you're able to jump over your hurdle. Now, that I say means this: that you start with certain unmistakable teaching. And here it is, especially with regard to the doctrine of election and the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints.

Now, the moment you do that, you see, you find that this very chapter in which your difficulty arises in and of itself has something to say which helps you. You remember how the Apostle began the whole chapter? And I'm taking particularly the second verse. He says, "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew." That's the great principle: His people whom He foreknew. And then in verse 5, we saw it, "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." The apostasy of the Jewish nation was not total. The Apostle reminds them that he was a believer and there were others in with him. And this he describes as an election, as a remnant. Yes, but a remnant according to the election of grace.

Well, very well, and then we've gone on and have seen how as he goes forward, the Apostle is still continuing this same idea. This is the sole explanation: "What then?" he says in verse 7. "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it." And it's obtained it because it is the election. The rest were blinded and so on. So that our own chapter in and of itself helps us if we ask ourselves now then, what is the basic principles taught in the chapter? And at once you're reminded that it is this great doctrine of election. And that, of course, then reminds you that the Apostle has been expounding that in detail and at length, especially in the ninth chapter, where we worked it out in detail, where he puts it, of course, so clearly, particularly in the 11th verse of that ninth chapter. "The children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth." Now, the Apostle has gone out of his way to show that the only manner in which you can understand the history of the Jews and the whole other way of salvation is to see that it is according to the election of grace. There's no other explanation. And he's given us positive and negative arguments; he's put it in such a clear manner that when an objector comes forward, he says to him, "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" and so on.

Now, there is this clear, explicit statement with regard to this doctrine of election—that that is the only way of understanding why some are saved and some are not saved, the only way of understanding why anybody's saved. For it is clear that were it not for God's election, that there would be nobody saved at all. For we're all dead in trespasses and sins; we're all men of the natural mind, which is enmity against God; we're all natural men to whom the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness; we cannot understand them, it's impossible. Very well, we need to be quickened. It is the only explanation of how any single soul has ever been saved.

Here it is; it is plain and it is clear. And it's exactly the same, of course, with the doctrine of assurance and the final perseverance of the saints. We saw in dealing with the end of chapter 8 that glorious statement, that tremendous statement at the end of a glorious chapter. The Apostle at verse 28 starts this great statement: "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Then he puts it in those words, "Whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things?" There's only one thing to say: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" And out he works his arguments; he brings the objections; we worked through the four of them; he comes to a final conclusion: "I am persuaded." It's the only conclusion a man can come to. "That neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now, that's what I call explicit, clear, unmistakable teaching. Nothing could be clearer.

Very well, we remind ourselves of all that, and at the same time, we remind ourselves of other statements, none stronger than that made by our blessed Lord Himself, as it's recorded in the 10th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, verses 28 and 29. "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." And if you like, there's another one in the 17th chapter of that self-same Gospel where in the high-priestly prayer, the same truth comes out so plainly and so clearly. Our Lord just indicating that He's doing this for those who've been given to Him and none of them shall perish except the son of perdition that the scriptures might be fulfilled.

And you remember how in the Apostle Peter in his first Epistle—I'm only giving you a few of the many, many quotations that I could give you, but take this from the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:5. He says, "We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." We are called, you see, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, which is reserved in heaven for you, by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Very well now, there you see we've got these perfectly clear statements. There's no difficulty about them; they're explicit statements from our Lord and from the Apostles.

Very well, we move on to our next step. And our next step, it seems to me, is this: that the whole teaching of the Bible is to this effect, and none putting it more clearly than this very verse that we're considering in Romans 11. That if our ultimate salvation, our ultimate arrival in glory, depended on our faithfulness, well then, certain things follow inevitably. And here they are. If that were so, the credit would ultimately have to be given to us. If it is our faith and our persistence that eventually brings us into the glory everlasting, it is no longer the goodness of God that does it; it is us. Oh, you may say the goodness of God gave you a chance or a start, but after all, the thing that decides whether a man arrives in heaven or not is what he does. So, it puts it back ultimately to man, and the credit and the glory to that extent must go to man.

But there is no need even to say that. Is not this perfectly plain and clear? That if our persistence and perseverance were to depend upon us and our efforts, is it not abundantly clear that not one of us would ever arrive in heaven, that none would ever be glorified? Is there anyone here who'd like to claim that he or she is in a given position as a Christian this moment because of what you've done? The moment you examine it from the standpoint of experience, we all must recognize it at once: we all fail, we all go astray, we all fall into sin. And none of us would have any hope of arriving at glory if it depended upon us. I mean this even of those who are regenerate, even of those of us who are born again, even of those of us who have the gift of faith. If it were left to us, we should all fail and falter. Nothing is clearer.

But it seems to me always that the most powerful argument of all is this: if this ultimate arrival at glory depended upon us, I say the matter would, be put at its very lowest, be a very precarious matter. Actually, as I've said, nobody'd arrive there. But putting it at its very highest and best, it would be a most precarious matter. And you see what is involved in that is this: it would mean the ultimate triumph of the devil. And our Lord came into this world in order to make the success of God's way of salvation certain and sure. There can be no failure.

God made the first man Adam perfect and set him in paradise. He fell; the devil triumphed. Is it conceivable that God would send His own Son into this world and in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a man, is it conceivable that God would send Him into the world on an errand which could fail? No, no, the whole glory of the plan and purpose of salvation in Christ Jesus is this: is that it cannot fail. That's why the Son of God has come; that is why you didn't have another Adam created. That's why you have the man from heaven, the second man, this second Adam if you like, the last Adam. He's the man from heaven; He's the Lord from heaven. And that is so for this one reason: that it cannot fail, it must not fail, it will not fail, it cannot fail. It is certain; it is absolutely sure.

In other words, in order that it may be certain and sure and that it cannot fail, it is not dependent upon us at any point, otherwise it would fail. It is dependent upon Him; it is the election of grace. Now, the Apostle has already told us all this in the fourth chapter of this Epistle to the Romans and particularly in verse 16 of that chapter. Romans 4:16, listen. "Therefore," he says, winding up his great argument on justification by faith only, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed." That's the point. That's why it is of faith, that it might be of grace. To the end, this is the object, that the promise might be sure to all the seed. Not one will fall; not one will be left behind. All the elect shall be saved. It is one of the greatest and most glorious statements of the final perseverance of the saints. But as I say, the whole doctrine of salvation makes this an absolute necessity; otherwise the devil would still be the victor and God would have failed even in His own Son. No, no, our salvation does not depend upon us at any point; it is entirely in Him and of Him.

Very well then, there are some of these arguments that we draw out. Very well, says somebody, you've stated all that before; you've worked it out as the Apostle puts it. But still, I'm in this difficulty: how are you going to reconcile all that with what you've got before you there in this 11th chapter and especially in this explicit form in verse 22? And what about the similar parallel statements? I suggest to you that the answers can be put in some such form as this. And here, it seems to me, is a most important and helpful matter for us. We've seen many great truths brought out in this 11th chapter. Here, I think in many ways, is perhaps one of the most helpful and valuable, speaking purely now from the practical matter of understanding the doctrine and reconciling these things in our minds.

What is it? Well, here it is: that all these passages which seem to be putting it on us, putting the onus on us, and suspending our ultimate glorification upon us and our faithfulness and persistence, all these passages are invariably addressed only to the visible church, only to the sphere of profession. Now, let me expound that. What is the whole central argument of this chapter? Isn't it this? We've seen it so often; let me bring it back to your minds. The leading theme of this chapter is after all the two Israels. Now, we've had to deal with that in expounding the teaching concerning the olive tree and so on. That's the point that has stood out, isn't it? That there is an external Israel, there is a kind of inner Israel. Our controlling text after all is still Romans 9:6. "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." There are two Israels. There is an external, there is a physical Israel; there is a spiritual Israel. There is an inner Israel. It's all this old difference after all between these two sons of Abraham and the two sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau. It's just that. It's Israel after the flesh; it is Israel after the Spirit.

Now, that's still the big, broad distinction which the Apostle is holding in his mind. And what he is dealing with in this chapter, as we've seen so many times, is external Israel, Israel in general as a nation. He's not talking primarily about the elect; he's talking about those who stumble temporarily and who, he is telling us and will tell us yet more explicitly, are going to be brought back at some future point. That's what he's dealing with. He is dealing in this chapter with Israel in general. Yes, but don't forget this: at this point, he is dealing with the Gentiles in general. He's not dealing here with the elect Gentiles; he's dealing with the Gentiles in general. That's the theme. He says to these Gentiles who have come in in general into the church and who are constituting the majority of the church, he says Israel in general is out, you Gentiles in general are in. Don't make the mistake that they made. That's precisely the argument.

So, this passage is not really dealing with what may or may not happen to the elect. It is dealing specifically and only intends to deal with the general position of those who are in the Christian church: here, Gentiles in general. You're in now; be careful. Israel was in in the same way as you are in, but she's now out like that. That's got nothing to do with the elect. Though Israel in general is out, the elect, the remnant according to the election of grace, is in. Paul was in, and there were others in with him as the elect. The elect have not been cut out. It's the general, those who belong to the general, who were cut out. Those natural branches, as it were, because at first it was the natural people of Israel, the natural descendants. They were all, as it were, in this tree. It is those who are out. We're never told anywhere that the elect are taken out.

These remarks, in other words, apply as I say only to the visible church. They apply only in general to the nation of Israel and to the Gentiles speaking generally. Well now, it's exactly the same; it's the only explanation of those other passages that I quoted you. The one for instance in Matthew 8 where we saw that our Lord issued that warning, you remember, to His listeners at that time. Matthew 8:12: "But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness." Now, that simply means Israel after the flesh. That's not the elect; it's only true of them. It's not the true spiritual seed of Abraham. His whole argument is that they are always in, but it's these others. And it's the same with Luke 13:28 and so on. There is no statement anywhere in the scripture that the elect can fall or that the elect will ever be cut out. No, the whole argument here must be thought of in terms of these general positions as regards Jews and Gentiles.

Very well, what about the passages in Mark 13:13 and Hebrews 6 and 10 and so on? Well, this needn't detain us. They only deal again with the realm of profession. They deal with people who appear to be Christians. There have always been people like that in the church; there still are. They appear to be Christians. They may later give evidence that they've never been Christian at all. People who may come forward as the result of an appeal, sign a form, join a church; they may use the right language, you may think they're perfect Christians. You find later that they're not, and the fact is they never have been; they've never been regenerate. We mustn't go into this tonight; we've done so before and we hope to do so again. But all that is in the realm of profession. There's not a word said in Hebrews 6 that those people were truly regenerate and born again. You can have wonderful experiences and still not be born again. You can have wonderful experiences and still you may have no life within you. And that is surely the explanation of the passage in Hebrews 6 and the parallel in Hebrews 10.

What about John 15? Well, I think you may recall many of you that in doing Romans 9, we dealt with that fairly extensively. Let me just remind you of my final conclusion about it, which was this: that John 15 really deals with the realm of service. "He is cast out as a branch." It's fruitfulness; that's a parable on fruitfulness and on service. Take the whole context of John 15 and you'll find that it is the context of service. It doesn't deal with the question of salvation, but it does very definitely deal with service. And what He's teaching is this: that a man, though he is a Christian, who loses this living contact with his Lord will be useless from the standpoint of service. And how often, alas, has that been demonstrated in the lives of many individuals and also of groups of churches. I hope to deal with that later.

Very well then, what is the object of the Apostle writing like this? I summarize my answer. He does so to warn the elect and to keep them from the subtlety of the devil, from presumption, from carelessness, and above all, from pride. "Boast not against the branches." Or if you prefer it in another form, as has so often been put, these passages are the ways in which God actually secures the perseverance of His saints and people. Now, there's a wonderful statement of this in one verse in the 32nd chapter of the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. Let me read it to you. Jeremiah 32:40, listen. "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Now, this is a statement not about the children of Israel externally or in general; this is the elect. "I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." And that's what the Apostle is doing here; he's putting the fear of God into these Gentiles—the elect amongst the Gentiles—lest they might ever depart. It is God's way of securing the perseverance of His chosen people.

I'm not going to use the argument of the "if." It's not present actually in Hebrews 6, but it is present here, and you can use it if you like. He's taking a supposed position: if you do this, this is what will happen. I don't need to use that argument. In fact, I don't like it and it's unnecessary that I should use it. And yet, if you want to use it, I'm not disposed to say that you shouldn't use it at all. But it does seem to me to be unnecessary as an argument.

So, I end with this, and about this there is no question whatsoever: the only people who are ever frightened by a statement such as this are true Christian people, nobody else. The whole trouble with these others who think they're Christians—temporary believers, temporary professors, call them what you like—the trouble with them is that they're always self-satisfied. They're perfectly happy, nothing ever disturbs them at all. And they can read through the warnings of the scripture; nothing troubles them. Everything is all right. Show me a man who's disturbed and somewhat alarmed by these statements and I will show you a Christian. Or let me put it as I often have to put it in my vestry and as every minister often has to put it: when a man comes to me and tells me that he thinks he's guilty of the blasphemy or the sin against the Holy Ghost, I always tell such a person, "Well, if there's one man in the world of whom I'm absolutely certain is not guilty of that, it's you." If you're worried that you're guilty of that sin against the Holy Ghost, you're giving me proof that you're not guilty of it. The characteristic of the people who are guilty of that is that they're perfectly satisfied. They dismiss Christ, they ridicule His death upon the cross and the blood, they don't need Him, they're all right as they are. That's what Hebrews 6 deals with. That's what 1 John 5 deals with. That's what our Lord had in mind. It was to the Pharisees He uttered those words about that sin that is never forgiven, either in this world or in the next, that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. That was the essential sin of the Pharisees; they were charging Him with being Beelzebub and doing His miracles in the power of Beelzebub. They didn't see their need of Him. That's the spirit of the people who are under condemnation. But a man who is frightened and terrified and alarmed by these warnings and who's afraid that he has already fallen off or has already been cut off and is troubled because of it, that man is giving proof that he's very much in the olive tree and that he is in no danger at all.

In other words, experience demonstrates the truth of the contention: that it is through passages similar to this that God ensures and secures the perseverance of His own people. It is only to His own people He says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." He doesn't say that to an unbeliever; He only says that to His own people. And they're the only people who listen to it, and they're the only people who know anything, as we saw last Friday night, about fear and trembling. One of the best tests of assurance is that we know something about fear and trembling. "Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." This is God's way then of securing the final perseverance and the ultimate glorification of His people.

Very well, hurriedly and inadequately, we have tried to look at this problem that arises in the minds of men and women as they read this all-important statement in the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, verses 18 to 22. God willing, we shall go on to our general application of this teaching next Friday evening.

O Lord our God, we do indeed come to Thee again and we thank Thee more than ever that we are what we are by Thy grace and know that what we ever shall be shall be by Thy grace, that our hope of glory lies only in this, that we belong to this election of grace, that we have been called out of darkness into Thy marvelous light, that Thou hast set Thy heart upon us. Lord, we do not understand it. We thank Thee we don't even desire to understand it; we rejoice in it. We know that it is the only explanation of us. We know it is our only hope. We thank Thee for it; we bless and praise Thy great and holy name because of it. O Lord, we pray Thee to write this truth so deeply upon our minds and our hearts that we shall never be guilty of any tendency to boast either in ourselves or to boast against anybody else. But ever taking heed and in a spirit of reverence and godly fear, in fear and trembling we may work out our own salvation knowing that it is Thou who dost work in us both to will and to do and entirely because of Thine own good pleasure. O God, receive our unworthy praise and worship and adoration.

And now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, abide and continue with us now this night, throughout the remainder of this our short and uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, and until we arrive in the glory everlasting. Amen.