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May not true believers, by reason of their imperfections, and the many temptations and sins they are overtaken with, fall away from the state of grace?

A. True believers, by reason of the unchangeable love of God, and his decree and covenant to give them perseverance, their inseparable union with Christ, his continual intercession for them, and the Spirit and seed of God abiding in them, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

2 Samuel 23:5
5 “For does not my house stand so with God?
For he has made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and secure.
For will he not cause to prosper
all my help and my desire?

Jeremiah 31:3
3 the LORD appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Jeremiah 32:40
40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

Luke 22:32
32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

John 10:28
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

1 Corinthians 1:8–9
8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

2 Timothy 2:19
19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

Hebrews 7:25
25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 13:20–21
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 1:5
5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 John 2:27
27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

1 John 3:9
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

Welcome to the Refirned Standard. I'm Tony, let's get started. Question 79 of the Westminster Larger Catechism reads: May not true believers, by reason of their imperfections, and the many temptations and sins they are overtaken with, fall away from the state of grace? And the answer is: True believers, by reason of the unchangeable love of God, and his decree and covenant to give them perseverance, their inseparable union with Christ, his continual intercession for them, and the Spirit and seed of God abiding in them, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

So this question is one of those ones that again, we would do well to memorize because one of the challenges that every Christian faces is the challenge of assurance. And so this question is following on the heels of question 78, which basically said, even though we are sanctified in the whole man, that sin remains and we can never fully accomplish, even a single good work in the eyes of God. here indicates that, although that's true, a person who really is adopted and justified and sanctified and being sanctified cannot fall away and enumerate several significant reasons why. The first is that God's love for his people is unchangeable. So if you are a lacked if you are one of those whom God has chosen and is justified has adopted and made his own and is sanctified, then God's love for you will never change and so his purpose for you in Christ will never change. And that is an enormous source of assurance for the Christian.

Here it also says that his decree, which we know was made in eternity past, in attorney past, if you are a Christian, he decreed to grant you perseverance to ensure that the work he began in you will come to fruition and completion, and then also his covenant to give you perseverance. That's another grounding of of assurance which we have, by their inseparable union with Christ. So because we are adopted in Christ and made children of God because we are united with Christ, by faith which the Holy Spirit has given us, we are, we are able to be sure that we will never fall away from the grace that He has given us by Christ's continual intercession for us. So in the Gospel of john Christ, begins his high priestly prayer and he starts to pray for all those who would come to faith by the word of the apostles, which is you and his me. He says he is praying for us and his prayers are righteous and effective. And he always prays according to the word and the decree and the will of the Father. We know that his prayers will be answered and his prayer for us is that we would be united to him, that he is given us the Spirit of God and the seat of God, that that we we have the Holy Spirit who also intercedes on our behalf, dwelling within us, because of all these things because of these various blessings and graces, and things that God has granted to us because of his love for us is unchangeable love for us. We cannot totally or finally fall away from a state of grace. And here's why. Here's the ultimate summary of this, because God keeps us by His power, and in that power grants us faith and through that faith, we will be saved. We've been justified and we will be brought to final consummate salvation in the last day. Because of those realities, because this is entirely a work of God. Because from start to finish, our salvation is decreed, obtain, applied and executed by God, a God the Father, God, the son and God the Holy Spirit. Because of that fact, we can never totally or finally fall away. So that means there there is the reality of a partial falling away that we can, we can in our life we can we can have steps backwards, we can walk away from the faith in partial ways. We can fight fall away for a time so by saying that they cannot finally fall away what he means is all of those who have been justified even though we may experience a certain sense of leaving the faith, that stat that leaving the faith will never be final, it will never be complete. Because there's always that remnant there's always that part of us which God has begun to sanctify that will ultimately be brought to fruition, right because God has promised to complete the work he started in those whom He justified. So we have to look at this we have to understand everything we said before in the world so ludicrous that that justification is an act that adoptions an act. And that song sanctification is a work that increases and sometimes feels like it decreases. We have to take that and we have to remember that question 79 exists, that God because of his power because of his unchangeable love, will persevere will preserve us in the faith and give us perseverance until the end

Transcribed by https://otter.ai