All right, let's open up to a couple places. We'll start off in Matthew 24 and then we'll go to Ephesians chapter number two. I want to continue some of what we were teaching on Wednesday night. Ephesians chapter number two in Matthew 24. Matthew chapter 24. And tonight we're going to deal specifically with salvation and prophecy. I think it's important that we understand how the Lord lays out what we call soteriology and theology, which is the study of salvation. He lays it out in the prophetic timetable and shows some things in prophecy about the program for salvation. And we need to understand these things because when we rightly divide the word of truth, you come on a collision course with seemingly contradictory statements. And so you want to understand when you look in places that we're going to look at tonight that you understand what you're dealing with prophetically, dealing with Bible prophecy. Matthew chapter 24, and we'll compare it with Ephesians chapter number 2. Notice, if you will, in Matthew chapter 24, I think you know the context, the first few verses, Jesus Christ is telling them that In verse number four, he tells them, take heed that no man deceive you. And he goes on to talk about the end times. Notice in verse number three, they ask him, tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world? So you see that, that's the context they're asking about. So he goes through and he begins to tie some things in, going all the way back to Daniel's prophecy, and then he moves from Daniel's prophecy into some other things here in Matthew 24. The one verse I wanted you to see, though, is verse number 13. Matthew 24, 13, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And that actually is a proof text for Jehovah's Witness that teach you have to have works for salvation. And if actually you ever get into a one-on-one with Mormons, they'll use the same passage. And they'll say, see, you're not saved just by faith in Jesus Christ, you have to have works. And they'll use that very verse. Now come over to Ephesians chapter number two and notice the contrast. Keep your hand in Matthew. Ephesians chapter number two, this is certainly a church age epistle. For the body of Christ, Ephesians chapter 2, look in verse 8. Most of you probably have these verses memorized, Ephesians 2, 8. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So it's not a matter of enduring. As far as prophecy goes, let's go ahead and go to the book of Revelation. Those of you that have been in Sunday School, Revelation class, early on, Revelation chapter number 2, when we went through these, we tried to point them out. But notice in Revelation chapter 2, we have a message to seven churches that will be in the Tribulation. And these churches, as far as prophecy is concerned, they're giving warnings. And notice these warnings that we have, and you can see the flavor behind all of these verses as you look at them. Revelation chapter two, the first church is the church to Ephesus. Come down, if you will, to verse number seven. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. That ties into Matthew 24, you have to endure to the end, you have to overcome. Keep reading, you have the next church, the church of Smyrna. Notice the last part of the exhortation, verse number 11. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. The second death is defined for us in Revelation chapter 20. And the second death is going to the lake of fire. Revelation 20, 15, whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. So if you want to avoid the second death, you better overcome. Right now, your mind's probably thinking of backslidden Christians that are not in church tonight, and maybe they're on the bottle or maybe they're on drugs. If they die in the condition they're in, where do they go? Well, if you force Revelation 2 to be a church-age doctrine, then you've got to say they lost their salvation because they didn't overcome. I mean, how much worse can you get without being, I mean, how much worse can you get unless somebody commits murder as a Christian? I mean, here's somebody, they're not in church, they're not witnessing, they're not giving money to any ministry, they're not reading their Bible, they're not praying, and they're on drugs or alcohol, and they're shacked up with a man or a woman or both, and they're saved. Well, if you try to force Matthew 24 and Revelation 2, they're certainly not overcoming. They pretty much had a flat tire in that department. Now you see where some of your churches teach you can lose your salvation. This stuff's prophecy here. All right, look in Revelation chapter two. Come down again to verse, this is the angel of the church. He writes to Pergamos. Come to verse number 16. Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly. and will fight against them with a sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone. See that exhortation of overcoming? Look at Thyatira, verse 18, the church of Thyatira, right? And he goes through and he talks about some things, he warns them about being cast into the tribulation, verse number 22. And then he says in verse 25, but that which you have already, hold fast. That word fast, we get the word fasten from it. If you fasten something, you tie it up where it doesn't move. Hold fast. Hold fast till I come, and he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end. There's your cross reference, Matthew 24, 13. He that shall endure unto the end. Keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. I will give him, verse 28, the morning star, which we know from Revelation 22 is Jesus Christ. You want Jesus Christ? Well, you better endure to the end. Chapter three, Sardis. Revelation chapter number three, the angel of the church of Sardis. Look in verse 5, Well the inference is if you don't overcome He will blot your name out of the Book of Life. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that out unless you are a Baptist that tries to make eternal security all through the Bible. I mentioned that a little bit Wednesday night. I don't look at the Bible through the Baptist lens, I look at it through the Bible-believing and Bible-student lens. In other words, I try to come to, and we all have preconceptions, that's just a plague of human nature, but you need to come to the Bible without preconceptions. If you come to the Bible with preconceptions and you're trying to find what you're looking for, God might let you find it. It might be the wrong thing. Um, so notice here that obviously verse number five, somebody has to overcome to not have their name blotted out of the book of life. Notice that thing about confessing his name before my father and before his angels, you should have a cross reference to Matthew chapter 10 and I'll just read it to you if I can find it real fast. Um, that's actually, um, referred to by the Lord. Yeah, Matthew chapter number 10, he says in verse 32, whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Consequently, a lot of martyrs, when they were being put to death, they literally thought that if they didn't confess Christ, if they denied Christ, they'd go to hell. That's one reason that they stuck by their guns. You read some of those testimonies, man, they'd have the wife and the kids in front of them and they'd start killing the wife and kids and try to get them to recant. They put a picture of a crucifix in front of them, try to get them to kiss the crucifix. And they watched their wife and kids be killed. A lot of times they take a, well, I'm not gonna go into all the gory details, but it's awful. But a lot of the martyrs, you know, they didn't have their doctrine completely straight, so they're taking this stuff and they don't, cross-reference 2nd Timothy chapter 2 Paul says if we deny him he will deny us but then you keep on reading down you're thinking well that means he's gonna deny us so you can't deny Christ then it says if we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself So obviously when you look at that whole passage and then you begin to run other references with Paul's epistles, Paul refers to a millennial reign of Christ, some things you can inherit in the kingdom of God, just like we taught in Sunday school this morning with the judgment seat of Christ, you can lose. You can't lose your salvation, but you sure can lose rewards. And you can lose part of that reigning with Christ. Now come back to Revelation, let's look at the rest of these. So that's the church of Sardis, now let's look at Philadelphia. Philadelphia, look in verse number 12, Revelation 3, 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name. What's the prerequisite? Verse 12, he that overcometh. And then we have the Laodicean Church, the last one of the seven. Notice in verse 18 he gives him counsel and then he tells him to repent and then look in verse 21 to him that overcometh will I grant descent with me in my throne even as I also overcame and sat down with my father in his throne. And so Jesus Christ overcame. What does that mean. Well eventually it meant that he took up his cross. And so when you consider discipleship and you think about this whole idea and you tie it back to the gospels, which is the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, remember I told you to stay in Matthew, I don't know, raise your hand if you stayed in Matthew 24. Hey. All right, let's go back there. I wanna show you this. I wonder how many times I tell you to stay someplace and we never go back to it. You're like, I'm not staying there. Look at Matthew 24, because this is why it all ties back into the Gospels. Matthew 24, look at verse 14. The Gospel of the Kingdom, you see that all through the Gospel of Matthew. That Gospel of the Kingdom concerns the King sitting on the throne, ruling and reigning. That is not the Gospel of the grace of God that Paul the Apostle preaches. You say, what's the gospel of the grace of God? Paul defines in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, this is the gospel that we preached unto you whereby you believe in your sage unless you believed in vain. I testify unto you that gospel which I preach, but he says, I'm trying to quote the whole thing exactly, but he says, this is the gospel that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. You do not find that preached by the 12 going out preaching the gospel of the kingdom. You never find Peter and James and John say, hey, the Messiah is going to die and he's going to be crucified and rise three days later. Now, Jesus told his disciples privately that and they didn't believe it. Matter of fact, they didn't even believe it after he rose from the dead. John did, and John went in and saw the napkin laying there. He believed, but all the other ones didn't. Until he finally showed up and said, hey, I'm here, stupid. So the idea to try to make salvation the same and the message's continuity all throughout the Bible is ridiculous, and it's even preposterous to try to make it the same Matthew, Mark, and Luke. If you've ever heard a Bible teacher say that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that's what they call the synoptic gospel. the reason they say the Synoptic Gospels is because they are similar. In other words Matthew, Mark, and Luke run by the same chord. You get to John there is a whole different emphasis. John focuses on believing on Jesus and he says, And so you have a lot of church age emphasis in the gospel of John because of that. So it doesn't match up. But when you look at the gospel accounts and Jesus says all this stuff about, look, you better take up your cross and follow me. If you don't lose your life, you're not gonna have it. Christ overcame by enduring to the end and Jesus Christ lost his life. Now what in the world does that match in prophecy? Well, if you keep reading the book of Revelation and you read some of the other prophecies from Matthew 24 and Daniel, you find out that there's going to be great persecution take place by the Antichrist to those Jews in the Tribulation. And those Jewish believers are going to have to endure to the end. And so we want to understand the salvation here as far as prophecy is concerned because if you don't, then you're gonna get into all kind of trouble. Let's think about two Old Testament characters, this'll be a good way to think about it. You read your Bible and you go through there and there's all these types, and you come to a fella named Enoch, and we've preached about Enoch before, the long walk, you know. And here's Enoch, he walked with God, and he's actually taken up, he's translated, that he should not see death. He's here one minute, he's gone the next. And the Bible says he was not, for God took him. So he's a great type picture of somebody that's been snatched away. They just couldn't find him. He was gone. And he goes before the flood ever comes. Now there's another guy named Noah. And here's Noah, he goes through the flood. He's in an ark of safety and he goes through, he endures through it and he comes out on the other side of it. So you have two pictures there. You have a picture of somebody that's taken up and spared death before judgment falls on the earth. Then you have another picture of somebody that goes through the judgment and comes out on the other side to go into the, to repopulate and have a family and move on. And so you have a tight picture of the rapture of the church before the tribulation takes place. The tribulation's called in Luke's gospel of great distress in the land. And it is a great distress. Man, you're gonna have cataclysmic geological disturbance, not just because of the earth, but because of things taking place in the heavens. I mean, you think about what the moon does as far as the earth, you know, controls the tides and all those things. The Lord starts shaking up the heavens, it's going to do extreme damage to the earth. And the period of the tribulation is a geologic disturbance. He's going to shake the heavens and the earth. And there's some people that actually make it through that thing and they come out on the other side and they go into the millennial kingdom in flesh and blood bodies and they populate the earth. And so there's two type pictures, Noah and you have Enoch. Enoch's a type picture of someone that's taken out before. And of course, Noah's a type of someone that goes through the wrath, and that is going through the judgment. Now come over to the book of Thessalonians real quick. I'm not gonna teach a whole thing on the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, but look at 1 Thessalonians 5. This would be one of the proof texts that you could use for a pre-tribulation rapture simply because the wrath of God is not delegated only to the second advent. When you read the book of Revelation, specifically chapter 16, I believe the wrath of God is not delegated only to the second advent. It's actually the parts of the tribulation as well. So 1 Thessalonians 5 is a great proof text for the church not going through the tribulation. Look in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we already have salvation if you're saved, but there's a part of you that doesn't have that salvation. Turn back to the left and go to Romans chapter 8. And this has to do with the redemption of your body. To me that's one proof that 1 Thessalonians 5 and 9 is referring to the rapture, not just being saved from hell. We can say the wrath of God is judgment in hell, but specifically the wrath of God is a judgment that takes place on the earth. Look in Romans chapter 8. In other words, we're not appointed to wrath, but we're appointed to obtain salvation. So there's part of our salvation we haven't gotten yet. So if you have three parts and two parts of you saved, what does that make you? Two-thirds saved? Is that how it works? I'm not good with looking at Brother Jeff because he's the... Two-thirds? Okay. So I'm two-thirds saved. 66.66. That's a bad number. The body hadn't been redeemed yet. When you got saved, you got a new nature. The Holy Spirit was put inside of you and your spirit was born again. And it's the part of you that was born again as a spirit. That's why Jesus said that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of spirit is spirit. So your spirit was given life. It was regenerated, born again, and your soul is the real you. Your soul is saved and safe. You have the new, the Holy Spirit inside of you. Your spirit's been born again, but this flesh is not saved yet. Look in Romans chapter number eight. This ties in with the rewards. I talked about overcoming and not denying Christ and suffering. And as far as a Christian goes, it has to do with rewards. Notice in verse number 17. If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer that we may be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. But the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage corruption to the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth, why did he yet hope for? So there's a part of what we're saved, we haven't got it yet. So part of us is not saved, we're looking forward to getting that. So he's not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. And that's gonna be the rapture of the church, and you're not going in the tribulation. You're gonna be taken before the tribulation. Now, the reason I point that out is because that's one proof, obviously, for the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, but to me, the strongest proof texts, plural, for the pre-tribulation rapture of the church are these many proof texts that deal with salvation and prophecy. Because once you see that salvation is different in the future, after the rapture of the church, than it is now, you could not let the church just scoot on into the tribulation. Because if all of a sudden, let's say in the year 2025, all of a sudden there's gonna be a time warp and we're gonna be back in the Old Testament days. We would have a problem. Because we're Gentiles and we would have to convert and try to be Jews and be favorable toward the Jews and be like the Queen of Sheba and come to Jerusalem and pay respect. Everything would change. And like I gave you Wednesday night, people in the Old Testament could lose the Holy Spirit. Two examples of that, Samson and Saul. Both of them, the Bible says, the Spirit of the Lord departed from them. And the third example was David in Psalm 51, after he committed murder and adultery, two sins there was no sacrifice for. In the Old Testament, if a man committed murder or adultery, according to the law, they were to be put to death. No sacrifice. David prayed in Psalm 51, he says, I pray, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Because he knew he was in danger of losing that. That's not New Testament church age. Paul says you're sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. We just read about the adoption of, the redemption of our body. So until that redemption, we're sealed. Some of you ladies do the canon, you know, and you put that stuff on there and you heat it up and you heat it until you hear it click, right? It goes, then you know it's sealed. That thing's, it's good. You get a certified letter, that thing's sealed up, and then you gotta sign for it until you do the seal. I guess the old time things back in the day with the king's signet and seal, they would have the wax seal, and the wax seal goes on, and that seal's not to be broken until the person opens the letter. The thing's sealed up. All kind of things we can talk about as far as a seal goes, but the seal preserves what's inside of it. And you're sealed until the day of redemption. And when the day of redemption takes place, the rapture of the church, then you'll go up and then the tribulation unfolds and the salvation prerequisites during the tribulation are different than they are now. I'm glad I've been born in the church age. Because here's the salvation prerequisites now. Look and live. That's it. So what are you talking about? I'm actually using an Old Testament type number chapter 21. When Moses made that break, when they all got bit by the serpents, the Lord says, you got to get these people healed up. So take a brazen serpent, get brass and make an image of this serpent that's killing all these people. Put it on a pole, hold it up real high. And wherever these people are in the camp, they're laying there dying. You know, they're on their last breath. If they can get over there and they can just look at it, then they'll be healed. So I never heard of that before. Have you ever read John chapter 3? That's the whole reason John 3 16 is in the Bible Appreciate it brother Jeff When you read that thing he says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness So must the Son of Man be lifted up Jesus is the serpent on the pole. So what's the serpent represent? Go all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 And Jesus hangs on the cross, he hath, God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So he says in John chapter three, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must a son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So on and so forth. So that whole illustration is that Jesus Christ is the serpent on the pole. And all you have to do is believe on it. Paul said in Acts 16, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The atonement for your sins has already been taken care of. You simply have to believe. And that's the greatest age in the world to be in. Because the works already be done, you don't have to endure to the end. God will save you, no strings attached. He doesn't save you and say, okay, now I'm going to keep you saved if you'll come to church every day the rest of your life, or every Sunday the rest of your life, 52 weeks a year. And if you go on vacation, you make sure you find a church to attend. Make sure you are in Sunday school every time. I'll save you if you'll do that. I'll tell you what, I'll save you if you'll give so much money to missions the rest of your life. He doesn't do that. He says, I'll save you if you'll come to me. There are no strings attached. It's by grace through faith that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works. He already did the work. And this is the greatest age in the world for people to be saved, for people to turn down the gospel in this day and age is ridiculous. It's like, here's a free gift, no strings attached. Here's a million dollars, pay for all your bills. Okay, well, I just really, I want to pay my own way. Okay, well, you're in such debt, you're never going to be able to dig out of it. It's kind of like if all of a sudden you open up your bank account, and now you are responsible for the national debt. Have you ever seen those little things, those tickers that show you the national debt? And you can watch it just go tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick And so when you begin to think about that, that's the debt of sin, there's no way you can pay it off. You simply have to let somebody pay it for you. And Jesus paid the price. Now, that's salvation in this age, but that is not salvation all through the Bible. I gave you some stuff Wednesday night on the Old Testament Law and showed you some things from Ezekiel chapter number 18, and Deuteronomy 6 that last verse there, and Galatians and some other things. That Old Testament Law was in place and the Law couldn't save anybody, but the Law showed them that they were sinful. Back during the Old Testament God looked on a man whether he was righteous or whether he was wicked. And a man is judged accordingly. I'll give you a good case in point. Matthew 19, they're still under the Old Testament law. In Matthew 19, the young rich ruler comes to Christ and he says, what must I do to have your eternal life? And Jesus says, I'm going to die for you and I'm going to rise from the dead. If you'll just believe that you'll be saved. That is not what Jesus tells it. Jesus says, keep the commandments. You want to be saved? You want to have eternal life? Keep the commandments. That's not what, if somebody asked me, that's not what I'm gonna tell them. I'm gonna tell them what Paul said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now you say, well that seems like a contradiction. It does if you try to put it in the same deal. That's like if I say, okay, then you need to push the red button. Well the place I work, if I push the red button, that means the alarm's gonna go off and everybody's gonna, all the police and everybody's gonna come. Oh, well, I meant at so-and-so's factory, if you push the red button, it makes the cookies. Well, it doesn't make the cookies at my place. You see what I mean? It's like if you go out there and you open my mailbox, and you start getting my mail out, and you say, oh, yeah, I like, oh, yeah, I like. That's a federal offense, by the way, to read somebody else's mail. But we think we can just go tramping through the Bible, you know, because you stayed at a Holiday Inn, and now you can just, you're an expert on the Bible, and you go through there. I know that's an old joke. See, I don't get up with all the new commercials. I need to find a new commercial to make fun of. And now you're an expert, and you just go through there and grab any verse out of the Bible and apply it to yourself. Let's go ahead and take a sample, and then we'll wrap it up. Let's go ahead and go to the book of James. We get James chapter 2 and Romans chapter 4. Here's a great place, people get all messed up. They've been getting messed up for years. Martin Luther called the epistle of James a right strawy epistle. Strawy, meaning he would like to use it as, you know, to set his stove on fire with. He'd like to burn the thing because he didn't understand it. If you know anything about Martin Luther, you know that he got a hold of the truth that is a church age truth that you're saved by faith. Now Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk before he was converted. What that simply meant was that he was of the Augustinian order of the monks. And if you know anything about Augustine, Augustine believed in predestination. theories like what we talk about when we refer to Calvinism. Of course, Calvin came a whole lot later than Augustine. Calvin's in the 1500s, Augustine's in 300-something. But Augustine espoused the idea that God predetermined and chose someone to be saved from the foundation of the world. So this idea that Martin Luther kind of adopts from Rome, by the way, bleeds over into Protestantism. So Martin Luther makes the statement, I guess he might have made it, kind of the swan song of the Reformation. Salvation is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. And I've heard I've heard all kinds of people quote that and it sounds so great. It's kind of like these little cliches. God loves the sinner and hates the sin. They're great, sound great, but it didn't have an ounce of truth in it whatsoever. Salvation is by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. What they're telling you is if you don't have works to back it up, you never were saved. So the guy that I mentioned that he's not in church tonight and he's on drugs and he got saved about 10 years ago when he was 20 years old, just making up some character, because there are people like that. They're not in church anymore, now they're on drugs, they're doing whatever. Well, they just never were saved to begin with, because if they really were saved, if they were truly saved, then they would have endured until the end. They would have overcome. Well, if you're truly saved, I doubt you would gossip. Because gossip's in the same list of homosexuality in Romans chapter 1. You see, this thing, if you run the logic out, it gets you to a cliff to where you can't go anywhere. And then it just becomes the little sins that you want to preach about. When I got saved, I never smoked another cigarette. Bless God, since I've been saved, I never missed a Wednesday night service. And when I go out of town, I go to church. Yeah, but you hadn't read your Bible but once in 55 years of preaching. You can't preach your way out of a wet paper sack. What does that mean? Don't get me off on these guys, because I'm telling you, what happens is it becomes this religion thing, and the little sins that you set up here in the forefront, that you say, well, these are sins of true signs of Christianity. Man, there are a lot of Mormons that live a lot cleaner than some Baptists. There's people in the prison living a lot cleaner than some Christians. Amen. So you want to make sure you get this. Let's look and I'll give you the verses here, Romans chapter number four and James chapter number two. So what you'll hear, and I mentioned that to say, is it's the background that I gave you last time with how people view things and what they'll do is they'll try to force eternal security all through the Bible. Eternal security is a church age doctrine. In other words, once you trust Christ, you are not only saved, but you're safe, you're in Christ. For you to lose your salvation, you would have to get out of Christ and back into Adam. Do you get that? When you're saved, you're put into the body of Christ. So if you lose your salvation, you have to get out of Christ. And then if you get your salvation back, you have to be put back into Christ. And here's my question to those who say you can lose your salvation. Well, if you lost your salvation, and you're lost, and you got saved again, why don't you have to repeat everything as a new Christian and get baptized again? which baptism is simply a sign to show that now the old life's dead and buried, now you have a new life in Christ. And so it's definitely a circular argument that keeps going round and round the merry-go-round. So what happens is people say, well, they try to force eternal security all through the Bible, so then when you come to these verses, he that overcometh, you have to say, well, if the person's really saved, then they are going to overcome. And so if a person of the tribulation is really saved, then they're not going to take the mark of the beast. You know what you said when you say that. You're saying, in effect, everybody who can't make it back to church and everybody who doesn't pass out gospel trucks and everybody who doesn't give at least 20%, because, I mean, that's about what an Old Testament person gave when you consider the other thing, and everybody who doesn't do the spiritual things you're supposed to do, you're saying they probably aren't saved at all. Because you mean to tell me that in this church age, salvation by grace through faith, people can't even halfway live for God, you think they're gonna not take the mark of the beast when they get in the tribulation? When they can't get food? I don't know if you followed my line of reasoning there or not. Did I just lose everybody? People are blinking like owls. And so what happens is, it's called resting the scriptures to their own destruction. It's twisting and twisting and twisting. In other words, you see this with cult mentality. And you see it with hyper-dispensationalism. I'll talk about it a little bit Sunday morning when we deal with the bride of Christ some more. I'm gonna give you some stuff there. What happens is that you see a certain thing a certain way. Man, eternal salvation. I'm saved, I can't lose my salvation. I'm in Christ, I'm on my way to heaven. So now every time you read the Bible, everything you see is that way. and you try to force everything that way, you're literally going to have to force it. And you're gonna say, well, I know the Bible says this, but it means, when people start talking that way, that's a red flag. When somebody says, yeah, I know that's what it says, but it means, no, it says what it says, and it means what it says. You better watch that little sleight of hand. When somebody's always telling you what it means, And you just got to see what it says for what it says. And if what it says goes against what you think, then what you think is wrong. You say, well, I don't understand it. OK, well, don't change the Bible. Just keep not on understanding it. There's plenty of things I don't understand in the Bible. And I believe them. I just don't understand them. I don't know how it works out. But I believe it. You ever read over there in Genesis? He makes the heaven and earth, and then the sun shows up four days later. You ever read that? He makes the sun on the fourth day. The earth comes before the sun. How do you figure that out? I believe it. And it's not just there but hidden like Scofield says. The thing's created on the fourth day. After Genesis 1-2. That's what throws me for a loop. Anyway, we'll talk about that later. It's a whole other discussion. There's plenty of things in here that have me stumped. But I believe them. Well, people don't like that, man. They get their own little ideology, and they're going to force the Bible, and they're going to twist the Bible to say what they want it to say. So let me show you the difference here. Look in James chapter number 2 and look in Romans chapter number 4. We'll probably just introduce this and let it go and pick it up again Wednesday night. But look in James chapter number 2. I just want you to see the difference here so you can you can kind of grasp it. Notice in James chapter number two, come down to verse number 14. What doth it profit my brethren though a man say that he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him? brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled. Notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, I will show thee my faith by my works. That's where the whole idea comes that salvation is by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. In other words you've got to have it to back it up to prove it. Verse 19, thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. Now, we will concede a difference in heart belief and head belief. People say, well, how far is hell? Well, it's only 18 inches away, or however it is from your head to your heart. We concede the fact that some people believe in a general idea of God, but they never trusted Jesus as their Savior. We're not doubting that at all. That's kind of like saying, yeah, I believe so-and-so is a good doctor. Okay, well, you gotta have surgery. You're willing to sign on the paper? Oh, let me think about this here. You really believe this guy's a good doctor? You're willing to be knocked out and be put on the table and he's gonna be cutting on you? You find out if you... So there's a difference in this general, okay, yeah, I believe in God, and putting your trust in Jesus Christ. We concede that. We're not arguing that at all. We're not saying just because somebody says they believe in God, they're saved. But keep reading the text here. verse 20, But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and then sent them out another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Now go to Romans chapter four and notice the comparison here. Romans chapter number four. We have several comparisons but we will just deal with Abraham here. Romans chapter four verse nine. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision. Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. He and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be a father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only but also who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs faith is made void and the promise made of none effect. because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. To the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all." it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before whom he believed, even God who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against Tope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be." So he is explaining about Abraham and he says, look he was justified, he was given righteousness before he was circumcised. Circumcision was a sign that God gave to Abraham and his descendants and they all had to circumcise their boys and And that goes all the way through and is actually part of the law eventually when Moses comes around a little bit later on. But that is the sign that goes. And he's saying, look, this thing that we're talking about is Abraham before he was circumcised. Now go back to chapter four, verse number one. I should have started off there, but I didn't. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, is pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he have whereof to glory, but not before God. For what sayeth the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now the hymn that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. So he's saying, look, Abraham was justified by faith, not by works. You see verse number two? If Abraham were justified by works, he have whereof to glory. And so you want to understand that Abraham is said to be justified not by works in Romans 4, but in James 2 he is said to be justified by works. So this is what I'm going to leave you with and we'll stop, we'll pick it back up on Wednesday night. The way to reconcile James 2 and Romans 4 is not to rest the scriptures and to try to interpret the scriptures. It's simply to believe both of them. And the best way to reconcile it is to look at James in its prophetic context. Go back to James again real quick and look in chapter one, verse number one. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greeting. Notice who this is addressed to. The 12 tribes scattered abroad. Now that should have some weight. You should think, okay, who's this talking to? Now as far as prophecy goes go to chapter 5, look at this emphasis here not just in the first few verses but come down to verse 7, The early and latter rain has to do with a literal blessing that comes at the end of the Tribulation, rain. comes after a three and a half year drought, and that's a Jewish thing you read about it in the book of Joel. Notice this precious fruit of the earth that has to do with Revelation 14, the reaping that takes place at the end of the Tribulation. Verse 8, be ye also patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh. And so that's just a few hints there what we are dealing with in the book of James and we'll get into it later. We'll have to stop for tonight, but we'll get into it more next time. What we're going to talk about next time are the transition, what we call the transition epistles. We'll talk about James. We'll talk about Hebrews. We'll talk about 1st and 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. We call those transition epistles because there's a transition moving from the church age over to the tribulation. And so you want to see that transition. And that's why it's so important to rightly divide the word of truth. If you don't rightly divide the word of truth, the danger is you begin to take all of these verses that are dealing with somebody else and you start trying to apply them to yourself. And then especially when you deal with salvation, you get yourself in a mess. Because then you're thinking, man, I've got to overcome. I've got to endure to the end. And the next thing you know, you're sideways. So then you if you believe in eternal salvation, then you're going to have to twist the scripture and say, well, this is just dealing with, you know, your your works before men and your works before God and all those kind of things. There's all kind of ways that people try to backpedal around it. And I'll I'll get into it more next week in James chapter number two and show you some of those things. All right. Let's all stand to be dismissed.