So we're in the book of Philippians, the chapter number one. Let's hear the word of God now in our hearing. Beginning at verse number one, we read Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ. To all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace be on to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always, in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, insomuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. In this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere without offense to the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ. unto the glory and praise of God. Amen. And we'll finish our reading at the conclusion of the verse number 11. Can I begin this evening by just saying that human sentimentalism must never get in the way of divine scripture human sentimentalism must never get in the way of divine scripture especially when it comes to doctrine you see there are times whenever we meet doctrine teaching in the word of god that really goes against our human sentimentalism we just don't want to accept it because it really goes against the grain of what we think But brethren and sisters, whenever we come to Scripture, we must always remember that we are subjective, or we are to be submissive to the teaching of Holy Scripture. Whatever that doctrine would be, if it even goes against our human instinct, we are to believe the Scriptures. Those Scriptures are the Christians' only rule of faith, and of practice, what they believe and what they do. And over the last number of weeks and probably months now, we've been thinking about the various doctrines that are termed as the doctrines of Greece. We have thought about that doctrine of total depravity. Man is a fallen, sinful, depraved creature. Now, is that biblical? Is that biblical? Well we know it is biblical because we read in scripture that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We understand that from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head that man by nature is nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, that man is a heart a heart that is wholly and totally depraved the heart being deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and so we must come to therefore accept that man is totally depraved and then we think about the doctrine of unconditional election god has chosen a people to save? Is that biblical? Has God chosen a people out of this world? Well, we read in the book of Ephesians that we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ spoke about his people. He spoke about the elect. And so whether or not you want to believe that God has chosen a people, you must come to submit yourself to the fact, the reality, that there are a people whom God has chosen, chosen on to salvation, ordained, the Bible says, on to eternal life. Whether that goes against what you want to believe, it matters not. It is what is taught in Holy Scripture. We think about the doctrine of limited atonement or particular redemption, the teaching that Jesus Christ died for his people. Now, is that biblical? Did Jesus Christ die for all men? Did he die for all people? Well, if he died for all people and some are lost, that means that his work was an unsatisfactory work his work was not a work that was fulfilled if he died to save all people now you may say well preacher does it not say in the book of hebrews that jesus christ he tasted death for every man and of course it does say that hebrews chapter 2 in the verse number 9 But if that means that he died for every man exclusively, that means that every man has to be saved. But we know that that is not the case. And you also need to take that text of scripture within its context, because the very next verse, and I explained this before, the very next verse goes on to say that Christ, through his sufferings, is bringing many sons on to glory he's not bringing all men to glory but he's bringing many sons home to glory and you also need to remember in hebrews chapter 2 in the verse number 9 that the word man christ he tasted death for every man the word man is not in the original and so we could read it like this that jesus christ tasted death for the whole the whole the whole what the whole body of the elect. That's who I suggest. The church he died for, the whole church, the church that he purchased by his own blood. Christ died for his people. He came to save his people from their sin. And so it doesn't matter what we think, what human sentimentalism would tell us, we must remember to come to the teaching of scripture. Then we thought about irresistible grace the last week. God irresistibly draws sinners to himself. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Is that biblical? Well, I trust that what we thought about last week is, and we saw that it was and is biblical. Well, tonight we come to consider the final, the final letter in this acrostic tulip. And an acrostic, as I've mentioned on numerous occasions, that really highlights the difference between Calvinistic teaching and Arminian teaching. The letter P in this word tulip in the acrostic stands for the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Can a Christian fall from grace? Can a Christian fall from a state of grace? Well, according to Arminian teaching, They can. Arminianism teaches that those who believe and are truly saved can lose their salvation by them failing to keep up their faith. In other words, they can be saved and lost. Now admittedly, not all, and especially those at the beginning in the 17th century, not all Arminians agree on this point. There are some who hold that a believer is eternally secure in Christ. And once a sinner is regenerated by the Spirit of God, they can never be lost. And yet there are those from the Arminian School of Theology who teach that a person can be saved and lost. Calvinism, on the other hand, teaches that all that are chosen in Christ and all that are redeemed by Christ and given faith by the Spirit of God are eternally and everlastingly saved. Such people are kept by the power of God. And thus they persevere on to the end. Now we need to consider which of the two schools of thought, which of the two schools of teaching is correct in light of Holy Scripture. For the both can't be true. Either a person can be saved and lost, or a person is saved and that for all of eternity. So which is it? I trust by the end of this message that you'll come to conclude that it is the latter. That whenever God saves a person, genuinely saves a person, that person is saved eternally and everlastingly. Now what does this doctrine of perseverance actually mean? Well, let me quote J.C. Ryan's answer to that question. He said, when I speak of the doctrine of perseverance, I mean that true believers, real, genuine Christians shall persevere, continue to the end of their lives. They shall never perish. They shall never be lost. They shall never be cast away. Once in Christ, they shall always be in Christ. He went on to say, every soul who has once justified and washed in Christ's blood shall at length be found at Christ's right hand in the day of judgment. Now when the term perseverance of the saints is a reasonable term to use, it can suggest that a saint has some part to play in their perseverance it indicates that they are doing something in order to be kept in other words they're persevering on to the end a much better term could be used that really does away with that misconception is the term preservation of the saint not perseverance of the saint but Preservation of the saint just a little different word because really that word Preservation really reminds us that it is God who is keeping the Christian that there is an outside entity Who is preserving? the believer you see the Christian isn't to be looked upon as someone who is hanging on to Christ for their dear life thinking that at any moment they might lose their grip, their hold on Christ, and that somehow they could be eternally lost. The Christian is not to be looked upon like that. The Christian is one who is being kept and one who is being upheld by God himself. There's an old saying in the Reformed theology that goes something like this, If you have it, that is, if you have genuine faith and are in the state of saving grace, you will never lose it. If you lose it, you never had it. If you lose it, you never had it. And thus it beholds us all to make sure that we are in the faith. We're exhorted to do that by Peter in 2 Peter 1, verse 10, to make our calling, and election sure now we all know from the record of scripture and sadly from our own personal experience that a christian can fall they can sin they can lapse into a state of backsliding i'm not saying that that cannot happen however Though the Christian fails and falls, that fall will never be total, that fall will never be final in its essence. The genuine Christian cannot, and I'm using the word as it ought to be used, the Christian cannot apostatize from the truth. You see, apostasy is an entire falling away to a state where they can never be recovered. That's what apostasy is. To a position where a person falls away from the truth so that they can never ever recover from that state but a genuine christian cannot apostatize from the truth and the reason why they cannot fall away entirely and totally is because they are being kept by the power of god now the west minister of faith is a rich source of theological truth and it's worth the reading worth the reading Chapter 17 deals with this matter of the perseverance of the saints. I want to read that initial statement, the first point of that chapter, what the confession has to say about the matter. This is what the Westminster divines wrote. They wrote, they, whom God hath accepted in his beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, in other words, those that are saved, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved. You see, the Westminster divines, they were really setting forth in the chapter the biblical teaching that God's people are being kept by God and such people will persevere to the very end. Now, beloved, the assurance that we will be kept by God, that we will persevere to the end, is sourced in three great realities. And I want to present those realities to you in this message, simply entitled, The Perseverance of the Saints. I, as a Christian, can be assured of my preservation because God's Word assures me that He will preserve me. I, as a Christian, can be assured of my preservation because God's Word assures me that He will preserve me. Directed by the Spirit of God, Moses, many years ago, wrote words in Numbers 23, verse 19. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? The words of Moses remind us that every promise that God makes, he keeps. And that includes those promises relating to the keeping, to the preservation of his people, his church, his sheep, his elect. Now let me point you in the direction of some of those promises. They're worth noting, at least in your mind, maybe in a little sheet of paper, maybe underline them as I give them to you. And I really want to group these Bible references using a common term that is employed by the inspired pen man in each of the verses. You'll get to understand what I mean by that statement. And so I want you to consider, first of all, verses that employ the terms kept or keep. kept or keep. The Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter 17 and the verse 12, you can turn if you desire to do so because I want you to show you that this is biblical, what we're saying. Jesus Christ here in his high priestly prayer, this is what he says, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept and none, none of them is lost. None lost. Now the Arminian says that you can be lost. That if you fall from a state of grace and you die in that fallen state of grace, you will be eternally lost. That's what the Arminian teaches. But Jesus Christ said, those given to him who give them him. Who gave them to him the father gave them to him? John 6 37 all that the father giveth me shall come to me a given people Those given to christ. He says I have kept them and I have lost none But the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled and so we have this the word of christ himself Christ is keeping his people and his keeping of his people Guarantees that none of them will be lost To say that some will be lost is to say that Christ has failed in His objective. Now, would you dare say that about God? I wouldn't dare say it. And then Paul, he's another inspired pain man, and now Paul, he writes in 2 Timothy 2 verse 12, these are familiar words. For the witch cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded, we sung it, I am persuaded that He, He is able, He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. Now, what have we committed unto our God? Well, we're told what we've committed unto God. We have committed unto our faithful Creator the keeping of our soul. And having committed the keeping of our souls to Christ, we then must come to the settled conclusion from the words of 2 Timothy 2 verse 12. Notice that I'm not keeping it, but rather that he is keeping it and that he is able to keep it. He's able to keep it. Child of God, you're not keeping. yourself in a state of grace. God is keeping you there. God is keeping you there. And then Peter, he's another one who writes something about this. 1 Peter and the chapter number 2. No, 1 Peter in the chapter number 1. In the verses 3 through to 5, blessed be the God and Father for Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy have begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God. through faith onto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Now you know what that word kept is. It is the word garrisoned. It comes from a fortress. That's the picture. We're garrisoned. We're fortified by the power of God. It's like a military watch over us. That's the thought behind we're being kept. His eyes upon us. The idea of the word is that there's a faithful guardianship that is being exercised over the saints of God to save them from danger, just like a castle or a garrison was watched by an approaching enemy, by a watchman, by soldiers, weakening all of ourselves, surrounded by dangers and temptations, The only reason why we persevere in our Christian lives, we continue in our Christian lives, is because God, moment by moment, is exercising and exerting His power to keep us. We're being kept by the power of God. Now, God is keeping this world in its place within this universe. And the very same power that's doing that is the very same power that's keeping you. Is that not a wonderful thought? That's a glorious thought, that the power that's holding the stars in place and the planets in place and this entire universe together is the very same power that is keeping us in a state of grace. And then Jude, he wrote something as well. Jude there in his epistle, Jude 1 verse 24, now on to him. that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. He is able to keep us from falling. Thank God for that. And so you have the Son of God, you have Paul, you have Peter, you have Jude, all indicating that the Christian is being kept by God. It's not the believer keeping themselves, it's that God, God, He who is possessed with infinite power, God Almighty, is keeping us. He's keeping us day by day. We are passive in our keeping. God is active. And how grateful we ought to be for that, brethren and sisters, because if left to ourselves, if left to ourselves, for a single moment, we would fall immediately. We'd fall immediately. And so we think of those words kept and keep. Then we think about the term never. Never. We like the word never. The free Presbyterians like the word never. Well, if words mean anything and words mean everything, the word never suggests that it's beyond all possibility for something to happen. If you say never, It means, it should mean, that all possibility for something to happen is gone. Listen to these words, what Jesus Christ said himself. I take the words of Christ, John 10, 28, Now either Jesus Christ was speaking the truth or he wasn't. And I'm certainly not going to call Jesus Christ a liar. He said that I would never perish. And I'm going to take him at his word. That's enough. If it was the only tax, it would have been enough to hang my soul upon the words of the eternal Son of God. He said, I will never perish. Having been gifted eternal life, He said, I will never perish. Never, never. It is beyond all possibility. All possibility. Listen to these words in Hebrews 13, verse 5. They're familiar verses. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He's never going to forsake us. He's never going to leave us. Now you'll know, many of you will know, the original Greek here is more emphatic than we have it here in our English version. There are no less than five negatives in this short sentence. The literal translation of the verse could read something like this from the original. No, I will not leave thee. No, neither will I not utterly forsake thee. That's how you could read it. No, I will not leave thee. No, neither will I not utterly forsake thee. Five times God says no. It's impossible. He cannot leave us. He cannot forsake us. 2 Peter 1 verse 10, That's what he said. What he meant by that is that the Christian will never fall entirely, completely, fall away. In other words, they will make, as it were, spiritual shipwreck to the point that they will never return to Christ. It is an utter impossibility. They will never fall away entirely, completely, wholly. They'll stumble and fall. A just man falleth seven times, but riseth again. Of course, but this fall means of an absolute fall, an entire falling away. And so you have the words, the text with the word never. And then you have terms, the terms eternal and everlasting. When God works redemptively, his work is eternal. and it's everlasting in its duration. Hebrews 9, 12, neither by the blood of bulls or goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. You know, brethren, sisters, our redemption, it's not temporary. Our redemption is eternal. It is an eternal redemption. 1 John 5 verse 11, and this is a record that God has given on to us. What has he given to us? He's given on to us eternal life, and this life is in the Son. John 3 verse 36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. John 5 24, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation. but is passed from death on to life. The Christian is not gifted with temporal life, but rather he is gifted, she is gifted with eternal, everlasting life, and such life is their present possession. They are possessed with eternal, everlasting life, not temporary. It isn't given to us and then taken from us. but eternal life, we have eternal everlasting life. And then you have verses in scripture that simply present the reality of eternal security. I think of verses like the one that we read in Philippians in the chapter one and the verse number six where Paul writes, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now you think about all the works of God. You think about the work of creation. Did God stop halfway? Did he leave off the work nine-tenths with it done? No, he completed the work of creation. With regard to the work of redemption, is there some part of redemption's work that still needs to be done? with regard to the saving of the soul. No, Christ's cry, it is finished. And in providence and preservation, these are the works of God. And the judgment, the works of judgment, all of these works, thank God, will be found in their entirety. And so when it comes to our salvation, the work that he began, when He first convicted us of our sin, when He first brought grace within the soul of ours, thank God that work that He begun that day, that night, whenever it was, you came and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that work will continue until the day of Jesus Christ, the day of His return. What He begins, He completes. What He starts, He ends, He finishes. It's a good work. And thank God that work will be completed. Romans 8 verse 30. Now do you think Jesus Christ and God is going to leave a man or woman in a state of limbo? Having called them, having justified them, do you think he's going to leave us in a state whereby we're never glorified? No, this golden chain It comes together, every part of it, the links come together. And thank God, those that he's predestinated and called and justified, he will also glorify. Romans 8, 38 and 39, for I am persuaded 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. What a wonderful thought. Nothing will separate us from the love of God. Nothing. I could spend the rest of this evening just quoting verses, but I'll not do that. Time's moving on. I must move on. But on the authority of scriptural statements, because that's, brethren and sisters, where our faith stands. Our faith stands on the Word of God. On the authority of scriptural statements, we can be confident that God will preserve His people and thus His people will in turn persevere on to the end. Secondly, as a child of God, I can be assured of my preservation because God's work assures me that He will preserve me. God's work assures me. that he will preserve me. No, brethren and sisters, it is the work of the triune Godhead to preserve the child of God. Without doubt, one person in the Godhead would have been more than adequate to perform such a task for us. But God has purposed it that every person in the Trinity is engaged in keeping me from falling. Now there's a triple lock if you wanted one. There's a good triple lock. Let me explain. My preservation as a Christian is the work of God the Father. Jesus said in John 10 verse 29, my Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Christ said in the previous verse that none is able to pluck them from His hand. And then He adds this layer of protection. He goes on to say that no one, no man, is able to pluck them, those given to the Son, by Him in the covenant of redemption. None of them is able to pluck them out of the Father's hand. God the Father is said to hold the believer in his hand. And let me ask you this question, will he drop them? Will God the Father drop his children? Will they fall out of his omnipotent hand? I think not. And then in Deuteronomy chapter 32, 33 verse 27, we read that the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath the everlasting arms. Now again we ask the question, will the everlasting arms of our God, those arms that uphold us tonight, will they ever grow tired so that we fall out of them? Of course they won't. God the Father We'll see to it that we are safely brought and guided through this world and brought home to glory. We're in the Father's hand. He's keeping us in his hand and he's keeping us in his everlasting arms. That's where you are, child of God. You think of that when a child is afraid, what do they do? They run to their father's arms. Why? Because they know that whatever danger there is, they have at least this confidence that my father will protect me from whatever is endangering me. Now whether or not he's able to do that is a different matter. But brethren and sisters, whenever we run into the arms of our loving Heavenly Father, we can be assured that whatever enemy, whatever temptation comes against us, thank God, He will keep us safe from its danger. He is Almighty God. It's not only the work of the Father, it's the work of the Son. Can I say that our union with Jesus Christ is an indissoluble Unbreakable, indestructible union. Whenever you become a Christian, you are joined to Christ. You're joined to Him. You are brought into union with Jesus Christ. Like the vine and the branch, we are united to Christ. And as we are united, we become what? We become part of His body. We become members of His body. He is the head, and we are the members of His body. Now, let me ask you this question. On the final day, will Jesus Christ have a dismembered body? Will there be a hand missing? Will there be a foot missing? Will there be some part of His body missing? No, never. He will present on to His Father His bride, a glorious bride, a full body, an entire body, every member of it present, not one lost, not one having been brought into a state of grace and now lost because they didn't keep themselves in that state of grace. What a fallacy. I am united to Christ. And because the head is in heaven, so the body will get to heaven. The anchor is within the veil, and being united to the anchor, Christ is the anchor, the sure and steadfast anchor, I being united to him by the great chain of faith, I'm being drawn into the heavenly harbor. Thank God every member of the body will be present. One preacher said Christ will not let his people be sundered from him any more than a head will willingly be cut off from its body or a husband from his wife. And so our union with Jesus Christ eternally secures us. But let me think about something else. Christ's intercession secures us. Do you remember? Do you remember when Christ warned Peter that he would deny him? The Savior said to Peter on that night, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but, and beloved, that but is vital. He says, but Peter, I have prayed for thee. And what's he praying? That thy faith feel not, and when thou art converted, Strengthen thy brethren. Christ's praying for Peter was the very thing that meant that Peter's faith did not fail him, even though he failed the Lord and his denial. And tonight, Christ is praying for his people. He's praying that we might be kept in this evil world. Read John 17. You get a taster of what he's praying for in heaven, that we might be kept in this world. According to John 17, 24, he prays that we'll be with him. Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. Let me ask you, will Christ's prayer be left unanswered? Will the father say no to his son's prayers? Of course he won't. What the son prays for, the father grants. And so we will be with him. He's praying that we will be with him. Do you think he's going to feel in that praying? Oh, the foolishness of it. The folly of it. To think that I could be lost and Christ is praying presently that I'll be with him. Christ's intercession guarantees our future glory. And then think about the purpose of Christ in redemption. What did he purpose to do in redemption? Well, I've already quoted the verse, Hebrews 2 verse 10, through sufferings. What did the Son of God purpose? Here we have, He's bringing many sons to dwell. That was the purpose of His sufferings. Did the Son of God purpose through His sufferings to bring His sons halfway to glory? Three quarters of the way to glory. Is that what He's going to do? Is He going to bring us nine tenths of the way to glory? No, He's going to bring us to glory. Hallelujah, He's bringing us to glory, on to glory, right through to glory. That's what His purpose to do. In His redemption, that was His purpose, that was His plan, and it's a task that He will undoubtedly perform. Jesus Christ, brethren and sisters, let me assure you of this, Jesus Christ is not going to lose or misplace any of His children as they make their way to glory. He's not going to misplace them or to lose any. All those whom he died for will be gathered onto him. And therefore, my confidence in my preservation is not in my ability to persevere. Can I get through another day? Can I get through another week? It's not my confidence is in based on that. My confidence rests in the power of Christ in His work that He did for me on the cross, and in His praying ministry, and in my union with Him. There is my confidence. And then it is the work of God, the Holy Spirit. Whenever a Christian is saved, they are said to be sealed by the Spirit of God. Those who believe in Christ, according to Ephesians 1, verse 13, are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now, we spoke about the sealing of the Holy Spirit before. The sealing was done for one of three reasons. It was sealed to authenticate or to certify the object. It was done to indicate ownership. And it was done to secure that particular object. In order to guarantee the safety of an item against theft, a seal was placed upon it. Whatever was sealed was then deemed to be secure. You read about it, do you not? Whenever you open medicine, if the seal has been broken, do not take. Why? Because someone is tampered with it. The seal, the seal placed upon that piece of medicine is to secure it. And so we are sealed. And the sealing that is ours isn't some kind of mark on us, as it were, Christian, but rather the seal is the spirit of God living in us. That's the seal. He is sealing us. We are sealed by the Spirit and thus we are guarded from all who would attempt to take us from God, the one who has purchased us to be his own. God has put his mark upon us. This child is mine. I am sealing my child until the day, until the day of my return. And then I will claim all whom I have sealed. Beloved, the triune Godhead is engaged in seeing to it. that all who truly believe in Christ will find themselves enduring to the end. How encouraging, how reassuring, how comforting, how heartening it is, even for those of us who doubt that, will I ever make it safely to heaven? Child of God, you'll make it to heaven because Christ will take you there. The Father will bring you there. The Spirit will bring you there. God is involved in my preservation, and therefore my doubts should be dissolved. Final and brief thought. God's covenant assures me that he will preserve me. The agreement made between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from all eternity is intimately connected with the covenant mercies of our God. And in that covenant, God promised to do many things. He promised that he would save his people. And not only did he promise that he would save his people, but that he would keep his people. True believers can be assured that they'll be in heaven because they already have the Lord as their covenant God. Christ, as the mediator of the covenant, cannot fail. He engaged to save his people. He engaged to take care of his people. He engaged to take his people safely to heaven. And in those tasks, he will succeed because if he doesn't succeed, then the covenant falls. He has made engagements in the covenant. And part of those terms is to bring all for whom he died to glory. And if he feels on that, The whole covenant of redemption falls. But that can never happen. That can never happen. Being able to save to the uttermost, God does save to the uttermost all that come on to God by him. Remember what that word uttermost meant? Preached on it many years ago, months ago. It means he saves to the very end, to the very end, to its completion. The very end. One preacher said, the elect are completely safe and secure because they have all been given by the Father to the Son in the covenant of redemption, and because the Son has done everything that he said he would do, so in this covenant on their behalf. Added to it, the covenant is an everlasting covenant. And thus what was agreed upon by the Godhead in the covenant everlastingly stands. It cannot be revoked. It cannot be rescinded. It cannot be changed. Jeremiah 32, my final text. Jeremiah 32 in the verse number 40. 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." Notice that God says he'll not depart from them, and they in turn will not depart from him. Brethren and sisters, our safe arrival to heaven is certain because God is covenant to bring many sons to glory. A promise that cannot be broken. The enduring nature of the covenant ensures and guarantees my preservation. Let me say this as I close. This doctrine must never be taken as a license to sin. Some Christian might say, well, because I'm eternally secure, And because I can never be lost, I can just live my life whatever way I want. Such thinking is wrong. Such thinking is unbiblical. Anyone who claims to be a Christian and purposely uses God's grace in order to sin is demonstrating that they are not regenerate. Because all who act in such a manner contradict the gospel. To use eternal security as a license to sin would deny who we are in Christ Jesus. We are His people. We are people of holiness, people who obey His law, keep His commandments because we love Him. We do not take this doctrine as a license to sin. The plain and repeated teaching of Scripture is that anyone who has been accepted in the beloved Son, those who have been effectually called on to salvation and sanctified by the Spirit of God, can neither totally or finally fall away from the state of grace. but they will certainly persevere therein until the end. Remember, child of God, it's not your hold of Christ and on Christ that secures you, but rather it's Christ's hold on you that is the reason why you will persevere on to the end. There's a verse In Holy Scripture that goes like this, the righteous shall hold on his way. Why? Because it's the Lord who keeps them on that way. That's why they hold on the way, the way to heaven, the way to home. The righteous shall hold on his way. And so don't you be fretting, child of God, Though the road to heaven be rough and testing at times, you'll be brought safely to your journey's end by the God who purposed to crown your redemption in such a way, because, brethren and sisters, your glorification is the crowning act of his redemption. Full redemption, that full salvation, to use it in its broadest terms, ends in my glorification and that only can but take place when I find myself safely home. He will keep us. We are persuaded of that. May we come to a greater persuasion of it even as a result of this particular message tonight for Christ's sake. Amen and amen. Let's stand for a brief word of prayer together. Let's pray. Our loving Father, we come and thank thee for the help given and the teaching of thy holy and precious word. Rejoice, Lord, that we who are thine, truly thine, will be kept by God and rejoice that we'll find ourselves in heaven itself, walking the streets of gold, beholding the lamb who for sinners was slain. Lord, we pray that thou would encourage thy people and may these great realities be anchors for them, the word of God, the work of God, the covenant of God. May these very matters and realities, may they engender confidence, assurance in the hearts of all that we will be brought safely to that better land. And so prayer and encourage our souls, we pray this in Jesus' precious name, amen.