Preservation

The Security of the Believer

The door of Christian assurance and perseverance turns on the hinge of preservation. Preservation rises up out of a text like John 10:27-29, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.”

Can you get anymore industrial strength of seat-belt security than the powerful and preserving work of the hands of the Son and the Father? Sit and spin, Christian. God holds fast His children where they will never perish. Never. In the 1970s Deep Purple sung of a threat:

Frank Zappa and the Mothers

Were at the best place around

    But some stupid with a flare gun

 Burned the place to the ground

But, uh-uh—the threat of a raging fire will the never happen to the “gambling house” of the Christian. No raging fire around the Lake Geneva of the life of the one who rests in God’s promises. Texts like John 10, conveyed by Calvin and Calvin’s Calvinism, teach security and comfort. No burning, no perishing of the Christian. Preservation.

The Christian’s perseverance turns on the hinge of preservation.

G. Mark Sumpter