“What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own but belong body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood; he has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.”
Anything worth doing requires both eagerness and perseverance. I have a friend who just finished the Iditarod Trail Invitational. This is an ultramarathon bike race in Alaska in late February which follows the trail of the famous dog sled race. This race is by invitation only and only and only the most serious bikers are invited. My friend has been working towards this for six years.
You need eagerness and perseverance to do a race like that. I have no eagerness to do a race like that. My friend has the eagerness, and he also has the perseverance. He built up his perseverance in cold weather by regularly sleeping outside in a tent this winter and last winter when it was below zero. He built up his perseverance for each challenge of the race by years of training.
Anything worth doing requires both eagerness and perseverance. Saving for retirement requires both. You must be eager to put money aside because whatever you want today will always seem more attractive than saving. You must persevere in saving because two years of saving isn’t enough.
Anything worth doing requires both eagerness and perseverance. Following Jesus requires both. I hope we can agree that following Jesus is worth it. If you follow Jesus, you will find life. If you follow Jesus, you will be changed. If you follow Jesus, you will know God and His love which is better than life.
Following Jesus requires eagerness. You must be willing to lose your life to find it. You must be willing to die to yourself to be changed. You must be willing to live for God’s glory and His goals rather than your own. You must not only be willing to do all that. You must be eager to do all that.
Following Jesus also requires perseverance. You must not only be willing to lose your life to find it on day one, but you must be willing to lose your life to find it on day ten thousand. Repentance cannot be a one-time event for you; it must become a way of life. You must be willing to persevere in the transformation project even when it hurts. You must maintain your eagerness for Christ even as time passes.
How can you do that? How can you maintain eagerness to follow Jesus over the long haul? How can you maintain your eagerness to follow Jesus when the way of the world, your own flesh, and the devil work to wear you down?
You can’t. You can’t maintain this willingness. You can’t maintain this eagerness. You can’t persevere in these. If you think that you can, I submit to you that you don’t know yourself as well as you think. You have an exalted view of your own willpower. You can’t maintain the eagerness that you need to persevere.
You need the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can make you wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Jesus. I can’t do that for myself. If I try to do it myself, I will wind up in legalism. I need the Spirit to persevere to glory and so do you.
The Spirit makes Jesus’ followers eager to follow and keep following. That is the claim of this sermon: The Spirit makes Jesus’ followers eager to follow and keep following.
We will study this in two points. First: ready and willing. Second: living for Jesus from now on. We are splitting this final clause from question and answer one into two parts. First, we will see how the Spirit makes you ready and willing to live for Jesus. Second, we will see how the Spirit gives you the perseverance necessary to keep on living for Jesus.
First: ready and willing. To understand any Christian’s willingness to live for God, we must understand humanity’s natural disposition towards God. By nature, we are all unwilling to live for God. Paul made that clear in Romans 8:7-8, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
We are all happy to submit to our own imaginations about God, but no one, by nature, is willing or able to submit to the God who actually exists. By nature, we want to be in charge of our own lives, and we will submit to God insofar as it lines up with our own goals; living for God on your terms is not living for God. None of us by nature are commandment people.
If you meet anyone who is genuinely willing to live for God by living God’s way, you know that a miracle has occurred. This miracle is the work of the Holy Spirit. God explained it through Ezekiel saying, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
Ezekiel’s assumptions are clear. Without the work of the Spirit, you would not be willing to follow God’s decrees or be careful to keep His laws. Without the work of the Spirit, you would have a heart of stone.
If the Spirit has given you a heart that wants to keep God’s commands for God’s glory rather than just for your own advantage, you have experienced a miracle. Jesus spoke with Nicodemus about this miracle. He said, ‘“truly I tell you, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no man can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”’ You can’t live the life that Jesus offers and requires without the Holy Spirit.
This truth is offensive to some because it says that in yourself you do not have what it takes to please God. If you are offended by this, consider that if any of us had what it takes to please God, He would have had no need to send His Son in the first place.
If you are a Christian, you know that the you who lived your life was insufficient for what God requires. You know that the you who ran your own life died on Christ’s cross. You know that the you who pleases God lives not by your own willpower but by the Spirit of God. That’s was Paul’s experience. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
You can only live the Christian life with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Galatians tried to do live Jesus’ way of life by their own willpower. Paul confronted them asking, “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” The same Spirit who gave you new life will give you what you need to keep living it. Don’t try to do it obey under your own power alone. That is legalism.
Legalism is not obeying commandments. Christ gave commandments. Legalism is trying to obey the commandments under your own power. Christianity is obeying the commandments with the help of the Holy Spirit. That is what Paul told the Philippians, “as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.”
There is a remarkable compatibility in those words. The Spirit will make you ready and willing to live for Jesus and you must be willing and ready to live for Jesus. You can’t do it by yourself but you aren’t a passive partner in this project either. Augustine summed it up well saying, “it is certain that it is we who will when we will, but it is He who makes us will what is good… it is certain that it is we who act when we act, but it is He who makes us act by supplying efficacious powers to our will.” It really is you who is willing and ready to live for Jesus, but you are only willing and ready to do so because the Holy Spirit is working in you.
If you are eager to follow Jesus, thank the Holy Spirit. If you are willing to lose your life to find life, thank the Holy Spirit. If the life you have found and are living is full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, praise the Holy Spirit. If you are on the outside of that life looking in, trust in Jesus rather than your own will power, repent of your sinful self-reliance, believe in Christ crucified and you will receive the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit will make you willing and ready to live for Jesus. The Spirit will also give you perseverance to keep living for Jesus. That is our second point: living for Jesus from now on.
The Christian must persevere. If you watch Pilgrim’s Progressin a couple Fridays, you will see that. That is a story of the necessity and the gift of perseverance. The man named Christian must make it to the Celestial City and he does make it to the celestial city because he is, in fact, a Christian.
Both of those propositions are necessary. Christians must persevere to enter the kingdom of God and those who are genuinely Christians will persevere to enter the kingdom of God.
Many in the church are confused on this matter. Some think that they are saved by Jesus’ righteousness, but they stay saved by their own righteousness. They think that that Jesus began the good work, but that they must bring it to completion. We’ve seen Paul’s word to them, “After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” These people think that perseverance is up to them.
Others in the church see no need for perseverance. They seem to think that having been baptized excuses unrepentant sin. They seem to think that having prayed for salvation at the age of twelve assures salvation no matter how they live today.
God has a different word for each group. To those who genuinely want to follow Jesus but fear that they will fall away, He says, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” If this is you, God focuses your attention on the Spirit’s work within you. Through Jude, He focuses you on, “Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy.”
The man who is born again will persevere because the Holy Spirit who gave him new birth will give him perseverance. The man who presumes upon God’s grace and sees no need to persevere in obedience receives a different word from God. He receives warnings. Hebrews 10:36-37, ‘You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”’
Revelation 2:21, “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
Hebrews 12:1-3, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Those passages don’t tell you that you should try to obey but if you don’t it doesn’t matter. Those passages tell you that perseverance is necessary.
To the man who wants to persevere in obedience but recognizes his own inability to do so, God says, ‘I began this good work in you and I will bring it to completion.’ To the man who thinks perseverance is unnecessary, God says, ‘you must persevere to enter the kingdom of God.’
He assures one and warns another. Don’t take the medicine that God has prepared for the other patient. Know your own heart. Take the medicine that God has prepared for you.
The Spirit doesn’t just make you ready and willing to live for Jesus on the first day of your salvation; he continues to do so. As the Catechism puts it, the Holy Spirit, makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. Perseverance is about living for him from now on.
How does the Spirit make you willing to live for Jesus from now on? Last week we studied how the Holy Spirit assures you of eternal life. Now we are studying how the Holy Spirit makes you willing to live for Jesus from now on. We only have time to look at four means that the Spirit uses.
First, the Holy Spirit gives you perseverance through the word. Psalm 119:9-12 “How can a young man stay on the path of purity? By living according to Your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. Praise be to You, Lord; teach me Your decrees.” Psalm 19:7-8, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.”
The Spirit, who gave you new life, feeds this new life with the word of God. As Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
A man who has no desire to hear God’s word is like a baby who has no desire to nurse. You would be concerned if your baby had no desire to nurse. Any pastor with the Spirit is concerned about the spiritual health of any man who has no desire to hear the word of God. Peter says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” If you have tasted and seen that God is good, you will want more of God. God meets you in His word.
The Spirit uses the word to remind you of God’s promises, to warn you against sin, to reveal Jesus in fresh ways, to motivate you when you are weary, and instruct you on so many aspects of life. All these activities give you perseverance to keep following Jesus.
The Spirit gives you perseverance through the word. The Spirit also gives you perseverance through prayer. We see the Spirit’s use of Paul’s prayers throughout his letters. Ephesians 3:16, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
The Spirit used that prayer to give the Ephesian Christians perseverance by fixing their hearts on Christ.
This morning, we will promise to pray for Hudson. Next week we will promise to pray for Luke and Ruth Bonnema. We promise to pray for these people, in part, because the Spirit works perseverance through prayer. I want Hudson to live a life worthy of the Lord and to please Him in every way. I want Hudson to be strengthened by God’s power for great endurance and patience. I can’t make that happen. He can’t make that happen. That’s why I pray. That’s why my wife will pray. That’s why the Bonnema’s will pray for the twins. That’s why we all promise to pray. Your prayers are one of the means that the Holy Spirit uses to give perseverance to His people.
You are certainly persevering because of the prayers of others. As Jesus told Simon Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.”
The Spirit gives perseverance through the word. The Spirit gives perseverance through prayer. The Spirit also gives perseverance through accountability. James 5:19-20, “My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”
The Spirit worked through Nathan’s warning to David. The Spirit worked through Paul’s warning to Peter. I dare say that the Spirit has worked through someone’s warning to you. Maybe it was in a sermon. Maybe it was in a conversation. We are all prone to wander. We all need to be called back. The Spirit works through these warnings to keep us persevering.
Receive warnings that way. It is not easy to confront someone in sin. It is impossible to do it perfectly. Rather than focusing on how the confrontation was done poorly, focus on what the Spirit is doing. Is the Spirit turning you from the error of your ways? Is He perhaps turning you from death? Is He enabling you to persevere?
The Spirit gives perseverance through the word. The Spirit gives perseverance through prayer. The Spirit gives perseverance through accountability. Fourth, and lastly for our purposes this morning, the Spirit gives perseverance through trials. James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Trials build perseverance. I have no idea what trials will enter Hudson’s life, but I can trust that when trials come, the Spirit can direct them to give that little boy perseverance. He will need that to walk with Jesus over the long haul. He will need that whether or not the culture turns explosively hostile to disciples of Jesus. The Spirit will use trials to prepare him for whatever lies ahead. Trials don’t destroy perseverance. Trials build perseverance.
My hope for that boy is only found in the work of God. That is my only reliable hope for myself. That is your only reliable hope for yourself. Don’t belong to yourself. Belong body and soul, in life and in death to Jesus. He died so that you could. He sent His Spirit so that you could keep belonging until glory. Amen.