Jesus is always our hope, when everything seems so bleak and hopeless. Yes, we are called to be diligent and hard-working in our service of Jesus Christ. But our faith always is not in our own faithfulness, but deep-down in our faithful Savior, the Mediator of the Covenant, through whom all God’s good blessings come.

What about those Five Points, the Five Bad Points of the Remonstrant Arminians which we turned around and made into the Five Good Points of Calvinism? What good are they now, except for promoting Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa and Holland, Michigan? (Pella is better, especially the Dutch bakeries.) (Ed. Note – Hollanders, the Michigan variety, will get equal time!)

Well, TULIp is mostly about how people come to Christ. The bondage of sin is so deep and comprehensive. But the Lord saves us, just out of his great mercy and love, not because of our potential for loving him back. The Holy Spirit is powerful and victorious in breaking our treason and the power of Satan. And all of that comes from what our Lord Jesus did for us on the Cross. That’s TULI.

But what about P? That’s different. Perseverance is not about how God begins with us, but about how we go on with him. How does that seem to you? Do the saints really persevere? What are you hearing?

Your grieving friends have that grown-up daughter, who used to sing “Jesus Loves ME This I Know,” off-key with passion. In high school she took on the lit teacher, when he tried to make the Book of Job into Semitic existentialism. Then something changed, and for her Jesus isn’t real any more.

Is that what happened with those missing twenty-year-olds in your church? Where did they all go? Your church is aging, isn’t it, and is just about to become a fond memory.

Europe will always have its attractive side, until you go into those beautiful old churches, the ones no one else goes into any more. Two percent there on Sunday, that’s it. Where’s that Perseverance now?

What does the Bible say? Does it really talk about people staying the course?

What does the Old Testament say? Creation, Fall, Redemption, we all know that. But that gets you only as far as Genesis 3:15, God’s word to the serpent, that the time will come when Eve’s offspring will crush his head. That miserable Fall is not the end of the story since God has a Plan, and we got there in just three chapters.

So what’s the rest of the OT about? Why does God think we need it? It feels like just one big Johnny-one-note. God saves his people; he tells them why, that they might love him; they worship idols; God sends them away from him into exile; God pursues them; they repent; he brings them back; he tells them why; they worship idols again etc. etc. etc. I can’t always tell which apostasy and exile is which, and I’m truly not sure I care.

Except it is surprising how God doesn’t just quit. Sometimes he says he will but he doesn’t. What if you cheated on your wife, asked for her forgiveness and she took you back? Wouldn’t that be just astounding? But what if you cheated on her again? I’d say, it’s time she dumped you forever. But what if she did take you back again? And again? Is that what the OT is about: God is patient; he is over-the-top kind, his Mercy Endures Forever?

Look at what Amos says: God’s judgment is coming, against all the nations who have rebelled against him, but especially against his own people, who have trifled with him even in their worship. Hear that dismal refrain, God did this, “but yet you did not repent.” They have betrayed God’s holiness and righteousness again and again, and now he’s going to put an end to them and their phony faith. God’s own people will be annihilated.

But then comes the surprising ending. God will shake his people through his sieve, and many will fall out. But not all! God makes his promise: “I will plant Israel in their own land, and never again will they be uprooted.”

It doesn’t sound at all like it’s Israel that perseveres, but instead only God himself. Can that be it?

Think about Jesus teaching away, and then Peter always interrupting: that’s so interesting Jesus, what you say about your kingdom. But what I’d really like to know is: I’m the one who’s going to be Number One, right?

Jesus has had enough of that kind of talk, and says it loud and clear: “how long do I have to put up with this foolish and perverse generation?” His patience is running out. So what does he do now? He tells them another story. He calls them to get it this time.

Peter perseveres in only one thing: he keeps on talking big. At the end, just before the Cross, he brags again: whatever others may do, Jesus, you can count on me. I’ll never deny you.

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” That’s what Jesus tells him (Luke 22:31-32).

Peter changed his mind about following Jesus to the end, what he’d bragged he’d do, when the servant girl asked him if he was with Jesus, and he said “No.” Three times he said “No.” While Jesus was inside facing the lies against him, Peter was keeping warm outside at the fire.

But the Father heard the prayers of his Beloved Son. He always does. Peter did turn back and repent. He, the great apostate, did go on to strengthen his brothers. At that breakfast fish-fry at the Sea of Galilee, Peter is the one who couldn’t wait for the boat to get ashore, but jumped in the water to get to Jesus first. Is that typical impetuous Peter, or is that the Father hearing his Son’s prayers?

Then Jesus asked Peter, three times: do you love me? Peter answered “Yes” three times. Is that Peter bragging again, or are those prayers of Jesus being heard?

That was then, this is now. But Paul tells us that that the Lord “will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance” (2 Thes. 3: 3-5). That sharpens

1 Thes. 5:4: “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

Yes, believers are falling away all around us, especially those in their 20s. The West is undeniably post-Christian. The gospel is alive and well in the Southern Hemisphere, but what about here?

Is Jesus still interceding for us? Is it true of him, that the effectual fervent prayers of the righteous avail much? Is he the Righteous One, the Beloved Son of the Father, or not?

Jesus is always our hope, when everything seems so bleak and hopeless. Yes, we are called to be diligent and hard-working in our service of Jesus Christ. We must encourage each other, that we not falter or stumble deeper into apathy and unbelief. But our faith always is not in our own faithfulness, but deep-down in our faithful Savior, the Mediator of the Covenant, through whom all God’s good blessings come.

Right now, where we need especially to be faithful, is in our whole-hearted trust in our Savior. We are like Peter, and unbelief in him is where we need to repent. By God’s grace, we cry out, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” Jesus will surely hear us and claim his righteousness for us. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Then Jesus will surely pour out his Spirit, and Revival will come.
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D. Clair Davis is a Teaching Elder in the PCA and was Professor of Church History at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. He now teaches at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, Texas.