OK, so today is the 21st. Let's get started. Those whom God has accepted in the Beloved, that would be Jesus, and have effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit and given the precious faith of his elect can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace. But they will certainly persevere in that state to the end and be eternally saved. This is because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. And therefore he continues to beget and nourish in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the spirit which lead to immortality. And though many storms and floods arise and beat against the saints, yet these things shall never be able to sweep them off the foundation and rock which they are fastened upon by faith. Even though through unbelief and the temptation of sin, the sight and feeling of the light and love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured from them, yet god is still the same and they are sure to be kept by his power until their salvation is complete when they show enjoy the purchase possession which is theirs for they are engraved upon the palms of his hands and their names have been written in his book of life from all eternity point to this perseverance of the saints does not depend upon them that is on their own free will, if it rest upon the immutability of divine election, which flows from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father. It also rest upon the efficacy of the merit and intercessions of Jesus Christ. Anybody hear the counter to Roman Catholicism there? And upon the union which true saints have with him. It rests upon the oath of God and upon the abiding of his spirit. It depends upon the seed of God being within them and upon the very nature of the covenant of grace. All these factors give rise to the certainty and infallibility of the security and perseverance of the saints. The saints may, through the temptation of Satan and the world, because of their remaining sinful tendencies, prevail over them, and through their neglect of the means which God has provided to keep them, fall into grievous sin. They may continue in this state for some time, so that they incur God's displeasure That's a lot to talk about. But here's Let's boil it down to the very core belief here. If the church at Corinth was Christians, then salvation is not based upon your absolute perfect obedience in Christ. Because they were absolutely not. What did we just read? We read that salvation is of the Lord. We read the salvation and perseverance is a product and a byproduct of the work of God in our lives it is not our own. It says right here when they show enjoy the purchase possession of their fathers for they are engraved upon the palms of his hands and their names have been written in the book of life. from all eternity. I mean, what does that say? That says God's done the work, that God has done everything to save every believer. If it's based upon how good you are, I'm just going to tell you, there's not a Christian alive that when they take their merit their work their goodness before God and they say judge me based upon my own goodness that every single one of them does the same thing that job did member job had thirty chapters of I want God to judge me based upon my righteousness because I've been a good boy. I mean he complained and whined and pouted and moaned and groaned until he met God and he said I am a worm. I am no man. I am not even worthy to speak. He didn't have anything to say because even his very best was his filthy rags and you got to think about it in this context. This is not saying that every false convert, every false profession of faith, every liar, fake and phony in the world is a Christian. This is saying for those who are truly saved, yes, you can fall into grievous sin for a long time. And yes, there can be error in your life. And yes, there can be wrong in your life. But here's the point. Every single one of us fails and every one of us has sin in our lives that we need to fight. We need to battle against. But don't think that you're going to get anywhere with God and you're going to make any progress in the spiritual world and do any good for the kingdom of God by living in sin. You might justify it and do everything else but here's what the Bible tells us and here's what we believe is that because of the neglect of the means that God has given to us by his kindness and his grace the neglect of the word by the neglect of the gifts of the spirit by the neglect of holiness and pursuing after holiness because of the neglect of our own wicked hearts there's a lot of things that we just don't do we don't share the gospel we don't have a strong witness we don't have a faithful witness in the world and with our friends with the family with the community we we fail in so many ways and because of those things There's going to be hardship come. You know there's going to be hardship come when the Christian and Christian doesn't act like Christianity. So let's go and jump in point number one. Those whom God has accepted in the beloved and has effectually called and sanctified by his spirit and given the precious faith of his elect can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace. I believe that sounds to me like Ephesians. That sounds to me like Ephesians. But God has who has called us and accepted us in the beloved can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace but they will certainly persevere in that state to the end and be eternally saved. This is because of the gifts and calling of God are without repentance and therefore he continues to be get and nourish them in the faith. Repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the spirit which lead to immortality. Sandy, you want to read John 10, 28, 29? There's a twofold promise there. What is it? They're mine and they're the father's. If they're mine and they're the father's, the only way they can take them away is if somebody is able to take out God. See, the promise is based upon God. Jesus Christ himself it wasn't somebody else making it up. It wasn't some you know somebody down through history just thought this up. Oh perseverance of the saints let's bring it up. No Jesus himself says and I give them eternal life. You have to ask the question about what salvation is. When you talk about eternal life. See the question comes right here. What does it mean to be saved. If your salvation means, well, at one point in time, I ask God to forgive me of my sins, to ask Jesus into my heart, I'm going to church, I even go on Wednesday. If that's your salvation, that's not Christianity. If your salvation is that God has saved me from his very wrath, from the judgment to come, and given me eternal life, by the work of Jesus Christ has changed my heart that salvation he's called me to repentance he's called me to faith that salvation you see what what does it mean here I give them eternal life that means forever life salvation is being saved from the wrath of God it's being saved unto eternal life so there is no salvation that's not eternal that's not an absolute forever thing And then Jesus adds to that and says, not only do I give them eternal life, but they'll never be, they shall never perish. They will never shall any man pluck them away from my hand. They're never going to die and they're never going to leave my protection. Does that sound a better way of saying that so everybody understands it? They're never going to die and they're never going to leave my protection. Then verse twenty nine says my father which gave them to me is greater than all. So Jesus is even predicating it upon the fact that nobody else that would ever try to take take you away from God away from Jesus can do it because Jesus has you and then he says Oh by the way and also my father has just has us all. Right. And no one is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. So you're being held by God the Son and God the Father at the same time. That's that's what this is passage you can't escape it from saying that you can't you can't make it say anything but that it has to say what it's saying and he is clear that he's saying the reason for your salvation is because I've given it to you because God the Father gave it to you and because it is eternally given to you not just given to you that you can take away yourself or somebody else can take it away. Actually had a pastor one time tell me in at the hospital We were I was talking to a family and their child was there. Well, they're 20 something year old kid was about to die and I was talking to him about eternal life and salvation and For some reason this pastor started one having discussion with me about the perseverance of the Saints He started he said he said look just because nobody can pluck you out of him out of God's hand doesn't mean you can't jump I said, how did you get that? And I took him to this passage. I said, show me that in this passage. If no one can take you out of the Father's hands, that includes yourself. You're part of the nobodies that can do this work of unsaving yourself. Okay, so we just want to start out with that to make sure that's clear. Philippians 1.6. Kristen, I mean, Gracie, you wanna do that? Very good job. So we're talking about perseverance, right? What do you see in this passage? Totally agree, I totally agree. Before that though, he started it. Be confident, Diane, you got it, be sure, be confident of this fact. This very thing, you can say this fact. Exactly. Jesus doesn't start where he doesn't finish. That would be an inconsistent God. OK that he which has begun a good work and you will perform until the day of Jesus Christ. The day of Jesus Christ I mean I've had I've had this argument people as we're talking about eschatology. Oh that that happened. You know Jesus showed up in this place or that place or it was it was a quiet coming and he showed up in the fourteen hundreds and one group says he came you know and around ninety A.D. and then it's all top secret what no no no no no when he comes there's not going to be doubt. OK first of all the first of all you know this secret rapture that that some dispensation was try to hold to the only reason that it would ever be secret is because the scripture tells us that that the whole world is going to believe the lie of Satan. OK. And that lies is going to be you know whatever that they want to identify why it is all the Christians are gone. OK. Maybe we maybe God got rid of them for us or Obama got rid of them for us or something. I don't know But Whatever that that may be The day of Jesus Christ is when he comes in victory He's going to come for his church. But he's going to come back in victory and he's going to come. He's going to step foot on this earth and wipe Satan and the Antichrist out. He's going to establish his kingdom upon earth and he's going to stand up and begin the stages of millennial kingdom up until. Up until. The eternal state. You call it some people call it the golden age of Christianity and and well there's truth to that and it definitely is one when Jesus Christ steps up and rules and reigns on this earth there's definitely truth in that but but listen to this this is Philippians one six written about if I remember my timeline correctly it was written about seventy four seventy five eighty I believe that's about when it was written. You might find it on your ESB notes or your MacArthur notes, a different timeline, and I'm just trying to shoot it from memory. But I believe Philippians and Timothy was written about the same time, and John was written at a later date. But anyway, think about Philippians. It was written in the 70-something AD. But it's talking about you. Listen to it. Be confident of this very thing that he that began a good work in you. He hasn't stopped. Jesus Christ began a good work in you before the foundation of the world in his own heart and his own mind as he predestined his son to be your savior upon the cross the Bible says that that he he paid the debt and he blotted out the transgression upon the cross that he he took the the the the debt sheet that you owe and he he paid for it all okay there's no more debt but then it was applied to you Be confident of this very thing, that he which began a good work in you, while he's done all of these things, it was done in you at the time when God saved you. So not only were you elect and called and chosen, but then you were at one day washed. I mean, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11 says, but you were washed and you were sanctified and you were justified. But you were washed you were justified you're sanctified in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and and these passages tell us that it was Jesus Christ that did it and that he performed it. But he's going to continue to perform it until the day of Jesus shows up. So what this is talking about is not just you but every you that is in Christ. Amen. Think about this. When it's talking about you. Your name is there. But you is also every person in Christ. So when it says. He began a good work and you. He's talking about his bride. The bride of Christ. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about you individually, but he has to be talking about you corporately to be talking about you at all. Otherwise, he's only talking about the Philippians. That's all you could be talking about is he either talking about the Philippians or he's talking about you every member of the bride of Christ all throughout the generations all throughout history. That's why it's so important to consider these things. He began a good work and he's going to complete it. Talk about the perseverance of the saints. That's actually expounding it because he's saying that from the Philippians to every single believer All the way down to the time of Jesus Christ. You. He started a good work. And he's going to finish. That's pretty big. Second Timothy 219. Daniel. There are many multitudes of passages that destroy Arminianism. But for anybody that can look at that and not say wait a minute we've got a problem with Arminian theology. It's because you want to be blind. You don't want to see it Listen what it says Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure in other words his absolute foundational principle found in Jesus Christ Okay, you can't say anything else was you because Jesus Christ is the foundation now having this seal that the Lord knows them or his who are his there are people that want to take away this idea of the sovereignty of God and so what they'll say is well he doesn't know who's going to be saved he just knows all those that he sees died for everybody and they can potentially be saved he doesn't know but when they come to him they can come to him and be saved and he truly loves all of them all equally all the same And they could fall away, but he doesn't know. He doesn't really know the future to that extent. And so when he collects all the people from the four winds, that's when he's going to know perfectly. Is that what that says? So I read that again and tell me what that says. There's right in the center, the Lord knoweth them that are his. Well, does he or doesn't he? Is he just a really good guesser or does he know who are his if he knows then he's always known in fact it has to be that not only has he always known but he predestined them to be his. If he's predestined them to be his. Then how can they not be. How could they not be his how could they walk away how could they. You know turn away from the faith. Those are issues that I see in this. Let every man, everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So what is it that you should be doing if you're his, if God knows you, if you're a child of the Most High God? Anybody? Depart from iniquity. Sin. You say you're a Christian, and yet everybody sees you act like you're not? That's not good. Brandon you got I mean sorry why you've got first John 219 John says Don't trouble yourselves About all those people that have turned and walked away from Christ. I Actually had an accusation made this week Well, you think you're the only ones that are saved because you call out those that are false converts and heretics and false teachers and you tell them that You tell the world that, you know, about these heretics. And so everybody says you think you're the only ones that are being saved. They went out from us, but they were not of us. Here's the question. Beth Moore teaches an absolutely aberrant gospel. She's a prophetess. Hearing visions from God, seeing visions from God, hearing the Word of God come down, teaching a completely different gospel now. Jesus' culture is teaching that you can just chant your way into heaven. Mother Teresa, as long as you believe in God, it doesn't matter what religion you are, just keep going on that path to God and you're going to have eternal life. I am not here to change your understanding about who God is. The Pope, everything he says. We could go down the list of false teacher after false teacher after false teacher. And then we have not only that but so many people that come in and make a false profession of faith and they actually don't come to God in repentance they've never evaluated themselves in sinfulness. They've never looked at themselves in the way in the light of the word of God they've never thought of themselves as if they ever were going to stand before a holy God and give a judgment before for their lives. And yet they profess Christ, they live like the world, they act like the world, they love all the things in the world, and when anybody calls them out, they huff, puff, shout, pout, whine, and grab, and they want nothing to do with any kind of correction or rebuke. Is that a Christian? Is that what the Bible says a Christian is or does? See, this passage here tells us that there's a way to identify those who are true believers. They stay in the faith. They don't rebel against it. They don't walk away. Paul says, what is it, Tychicus, I believe it was? No, it wasn't Tychicus. Paul talks about several different people that started out strong in the faith, and one in particular, he talks about the fact that he loved this present world. I'm sorry, I can't remember his name. It might have been Tychicus, but I don't think it was. I don't want to falsely label a brother when it wasn't. But the thing that he says he started out in the way and in the faith and he loved this present world and he fell away from Jesus Christ. Another man claimed to be a brother in Christ and brought him much hardship and pain because of his ministry because of his preaching and teaching many times. so-called believers attacked Paul because of his Christianity because he dared to speak the truth and they actually told him that he was unloving for telling the truth this passage tells us that there is an evidence there is evidence of those that are in Christ and the evidence is that they are going to stay in Christ when the truth is given they don't rebel against it they repent for their sin they rejoice in truth They want to hear truth. They love the truth. But they went out that it might be made known clear. Absolutely like a mirror shining in the daylight sun. It is manifested that they were not all of us. Well, what about so-and-so? He fell from the face. See, that disproves perseverance. No, it doesn't. It disproves his profession of faith. What about so-and-so? They were the greatest Christians ever, and then they walked away. No, they weren't. They were false converts. You know, there's only one place in the Scripture that I believe I can find that talks about backsliding, and it is not in the context of losing your salvation. It's in the context of falling away from faithful walking in Christ. their foot shall slide. It's talking about those that are not of God, are not of Christ, if you will, it's Old Testament, but those that are not of God, they are not following the ways of God, and they fall away, their feet slide, and they can slide at any moment into destruction. The next point is, and though many storms and floods arise and beat against the saints, Yet these things shall never be able to sweep them off the foundation and rock which they were fastened upon by faith. Even though through unbelief, I'm sorry, yeah, through unbelief and the temptation of Satan, the sight and feeling of the love or the light and love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured from them. Somebody wanna read, Kristen, Psalm 89. 31 to 32 Okay, Gary you won't do that first Corinthians 11 32 Scripture tells us that if we're his children Then we should expect to be punished But if we don't get punished because of our sin and iniquities because we're not his we are the Bible actually use the terms bastards We are illegitimate we are not of Christ we are We are false. We are not actually legitimate children of God. We are false. But if we are children of God, we are going to sin and then we are going to be chastened and corrected. You know, sin is unbelief. Sin is a failing of temptation. It's a distancing yourself from God. It's refusing to adhere to the Word and the truth of God. The passage tells us, or this section here says, even though through unbelief and the temptations of Satan, Everybody in this room would say, but wait a minute, I'm not an unbeliever. But yes, when you sin, it's the sin of unbelief. You haven't believed God, you haven't fought against sin, and you've given yourself over to sin and temptation. You've given yourself over to some wickedness. it goes on and says this yet God is still the same and they are sure to be kept by his power until their salvation is complete when they show enjoy the purchase possession which is theirs for they are engraved upon the palms of his hands and their names have been written in the book of life from all eternity now. Sandy you want to. Malachi three six. To me that's kind of a weak passage I'm OK with it because you have to understand that God is saying the reason that you sons of Jacob who are sinners and failed to do my commandments the reason you're not consumed is because I'm the Lord. I mean the perseverance of the saints the reason you're not going to be destroyed and condemned and cast into the lake of fire forever the reason you're not going to experience the judgment of God for all eternity is because I'm the Lord because I have Spoken and I'm not going to change it But I wanted to add in some passage. I think we're just a little bit stronger than that Another reason is it's Philippians 4 3 Diane. You won't get that We we read this a minute ago not only is Your name engraved upon the palms and Lord's hands But your name is also written down in the Lamb's Book of Life or the in the book of life Philippians 4 3 says that we're to help these true faithful companions were to help these brothers and sisters in Christ because their names are written in the book of life. Romans 3 13 8 says. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, the beast, the dragon, Satan, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This is the Lamb's book of life. Before the foundation of the world your name was written down in this book This book is talking about the Lamb of God had written down the names of all that he would save How do you know you're going to have eternal life because Jesus Christ said so That's pretty good at reason when you think that's a pretty good assurance So my faith is not resting in me. It's resting is well God said so Now there'll be people say, wait a minute, how do you know that applies to you? Because God said I would persevere in the faith. I sin and I do do things I shouldn't do from time to time. I do sin, I do commit some pretty rough sins from time to time, but God always drives me to repentance. God causes me to want to be reconciled with other men and with himself and I want to repent and I begin to hate sin more and more. I hate sin more and more. That doesn't mean that I don't sin, but when I do sin, I can't stand it. I noticed that before I became a Christian, and maybe you guys can identify with this, before I became a Christian, I sinned and it didn't bother me. It didn't bother me. Cussing, drinking, partying, everything. Lying, slander, backtalk. gossip. That didn't bother me. I didn't have a God saying, you know, hey, wait a minute, you're in Christ because I wasn't in Christ. I didn't at no point in time before I was a Christian, did I have God telling me, hey, man, you're a Christian. Did the Holy Spirit impress upon me? Did I have this this conscience that that was driven towards holiness? Agreed? What do you think? It's only when I got saved is when all the, after God saved me, I hope this is your case, after God saved me, I try not to think about stuff and it shows up. I lie, I thought a bad thought. I never have had this point in my life where I wasn't thinking about somebody. You dirty, no good piece of junk. I can't stand you. I'm sitting there thinking in my mind every bad thing about this person. And the Holy Spirit says, we got a problem. Let's have a talk. But wait a minute. I was just thinking this. I mean, hold on. I'm just thinking about this. I didn't actually do it. The Bible tells us that God judges the thoughts and the words and the actions, the deeds, but the thoughts of our hearts. He probes into our hearts and guys, he does that at the day of judgment for the unbeliever. For the believer, Jacob doesn't get to get by with one single sin the rest of his time that he is, you know, Israel. Jesus God beats him to death all of his life and doesn't let him get by with sin He gets frustrated and all these things and he's a liar galore. I mean he's a professional liar and He has to actually end up saying Who he actually is before the Lord let him go and the Lord punishes him And we would say That is harsh And God would say, but I saved your soul. You're mine. You are my purchase possession. I engrave engraved you on my hands. Your name was written down on my hands. Your name was written down in my book, and I purpose to save you from all eternity past. That was my goal, and then I created you. My goal was to save you for myself, and then I created you. That's that supralapsarian thing coming in. But I created you, and my purpose was to make sure that I created you to save you. To glorify my own name, but for your good. And by the way, since I'm glorifying my own name, and it's for your good, you best believe you're going to be punished, son. You best believe you're going to be punished, because guess what? I'm not a derelict dad. I do my job. And I don't care who labels a charge against me for a child abuse. I'm going to do my job. And you're going to get right. Now you can take that to mean that your dad is calling you down or your Heavenly Father is calling you down. One of them is true and probably both. But I'm going to tell you something. God's not a derelict God. When He says that you're His, you ain't getting by with sin. And if you get by with sin and it doesn't bother you, it's because you're not his. If you can sit there and not care, it's because you're not his. You don't want to take it to heart and think about it. Can you sit by and listen to what we're talking about and just absolutely not care and be so busy about every other thing in your life, including being on the phone on Facebook or on social media or talking to your friends on Facebook? Doing whatever else and not paying attention to something that you need to hear. Because guys. Everything else in the world is not as anywhere close to important as this. Are you of Christ? Is your name written down in the Lamb's Book of Life? Pretty heavy today. Yeah, this is a heavy subject. Because if you're not his, you're going to go to hell for eternity. But Jesus Christ said to repent and believe the gospel. He says, all who will come to him in repentance will be saved. But there is evidence. There is evidence that God has saved you, you're going to stay in Christ. Yeah, you're going to sin. And yes, you're going to fail. But when you fail, and when you sin, you hate it, you don't want to be a part of it. And you want to be right with God and your fellow man. So we're definitely not getting any farther than that. We made it through point one. But we're definitely not getting any farther than that. It's gonna be a few weeks, I'm gonna guess. This is pretty deep, pretty heavy subject. But it's necessary. You're gonna stand before God either in Christ or on your own. Don't act like you're a Christian when you're not. Because you're only fooling yourself. OK, because God knows you. If you're his, be his. If not, quit playing the game. Because you're going to fail eventually. Quit acting like you are. I mean, you're going to fail eventually. Everybody else knows around you knows you're a hypocrite. There you know you're not even living the life. What's worse is is they may be looking at you going. Oh, that's a Christian. I am too then. And they're not saying. If you're a Christian. then live by the fruits of the Spirit. Live out what Christ says. Live out what God says about pursuing holiness and pursuing Christ and living a holy life and seeking those things. I do want to close out by saying this one thing. I have been accused of making Christianity too hard. But I want to say something to you. Christianity is easy. All you have to do is humble yourself before a holy God and repent of all the sin that you've ever committed and believe in Jesus Christ. The problem is nobody on earth will do that except by the power of the Holy Spirit. Living out the Christian life is impossible without God the Holy Spirit. What I'm calling everybody to is the absolute highest standard. Gary and I have talked about this. When I preach I don't preach to the lowest common denominator in the room. I'm not wanting everybody to be kumbaya, let's get along with sin, and it's okay, it's not that big of a deal. I'm calling you to the highest standard, and you need to reach for that. Don't try to stay at the lowest bar. Try to reach the highest standard of Christianity. You might not make that highest standard, but at least you tried. Everybody can go for mediocre. Everybody can go for low bar. Go for the hardest to highest standards. And by the way, I don't meet all the standards Either. I'm calling for what God calls for. These are God's standards. This is God's decrees, God's word. This is what God says. And I'm not called to say, let's lessen that and let's make it lighter. It's supposed to be heavy. Conviction doesn't come from light preaching. Conviction doesn't come from light teaching. It comes from the heavy truth of the Word of God. If you don't like it, it's because there's something wrong with your heart. And you need to have it exposed. Okay? It's not because I'm trying to be mean. It's because I love you and I want you to know it. Okay? Next week, we're going to talk about the perseverance of the saints again. Surprise, surprise. Point number two. And the question is, the perseverance of the saints does not depend upon them. Or that's the statement, shall I say. It's not based upon man's own free will. It's not based upon any will, any action, any work of our own. It's based upon the God of the universe who gave us salvation in Christ. OK. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father Lord, I just want to come before you and I thank you so much for our time together. And Lord, I know this was deep and I know it was heavy. I know it was hard hitting and I know it was. It was it was a lot. It was. It was convicting even for me, but thank you for that. Lord, I want to thank you for that because we need heavy. We need hard. We need truth. Lord, not everyone that names the name of Christ is going to inherit the kingdom of God. And our prayer is, Lord, that everyone that hears this message will examine themselves and feel the weight and responsibility of what it means to be a true believer in Christ. Glorify yourself this day, Jesus. In your name we pray, Lord. Amen.