back to indexTheo II Week 11
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Alright, by way of introduction, there was a time, I remember so distinctly because there 00:00:13.520 |
And it happened to be in an environment where I went to a Christian debate, somebody who 00:00:19.320 |
was extremely well versed, someone who had a lot of earthly accolades in terms of education, 00:00:25.360 |
he had a PhD, and he was debating a non-Christian. 00:00:29.560 |
And they had one of those Q&A times at the end of the debate, and there was this man 00:00:35.640 |
And his question was essentially this, "How in the world do angels fall?" 00:00:42.720 |
And his question was basically, "How does an angel who sees God, the power of God, decide 00:00:53.040 |
And then he followed up by saying, "If an angel who was in the presence of God thus 00:00:58.000 |
decided to rebel, what prevents me, if I become Christian, what prevents me from falling subsequently? 00:01:06.240 |
What prevents me from falling away from the faith, so to speak? 00:01:11.360 |
And is there any security, even if I go to heaven and become a glorified being, or maybe 00:01:16.240 |
even become an angel," he said, "that I would remain with God forever?" 00:01:21.000 |
And what was really interesting to me was that there was no answer. 00:01:24.760 |
And at the time, I was only in high school, I was a senior in high school. 00:01:36.280 |
And what I found really interesting about that is, does the Scripture have something 00:01:41.520 |
Maybe not about the angels, but at least for us. 00:01:44.560 |
At least for us, is there any kind of security? 00:01:48.120 |
Now the dilemma, the problem is this, is that on one end, you have this guy who is almost 00:01:53.640 |
like, "I don't want to get into something that's not going to last forever." 00:01:59.800 |
And he's essentially in a state of, again, both fear and being perplexed. 00:02:04.760 |
But then the dilemma is, you have people on the opposite spectrum of that. 00:02:09.000 |
Once saved, always saved, don't ever make me doubt my salvation. 00:02:15.960 |
And there are preachers who would say, "What the point of Christianity is, is that you 00:02:22.040 |
So therefore, right now, everyone, don't you dare, don't you dare doubt whether you are 00:02:29.320 |
You are saved, you're going to be saved, and you're always going to be saved. 00:02:33.320 |
It's not about what you do, it's absolutely nothing about what you do. 00:02:35.680 |
No matter how far you fall, you will never be lost. 00:02:41.280 |
So the dilemma is essentially, you have two extremes. 00:02:44.120 |
Where one, too much fear, the other, they don't care. 00:02:48.240 |
And so, how do we address this topic, biblically? 00:02:52.640 |
And so today we're going to be talking about the perseverance of the saints. 00:02:58.360 |
And I do want you guys to take note of the fact that, you know, in our theology class, 00:03:04.000 |
we're going to be talking about it in those terms. 00:03:07.160 |
Perseverance of the saints, as opposed to some well-known terms that people use, such 00:03:15.800 |
Or little, like, cliche phrases such as, "One saved, always saved." 00:03:21.640 |
Now, I want you to turn your Bibles to a very pivotal passage. 00:03:26.720 |
And that passage comes from Hebrews chapter 6. 00:03:30.040 |
We're essentially answering this question, "Do we have any security?" 00:03:37.160 |
And can a Christian essentially lose his salvation? 00:03:39.160 |
If he can, then I'm not sure if I want that kind of salvation, right? 00:03:43.600 |
If you turn your Bibles over to Hebrews chapter 6, we're going to a very pivotal passage. 00:03:49.000 |
And I'm going to start reading for us first from verse 1, and then we're going to go to 00:03:56.080 |
It says, "Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on 00:04:05.800 |
to maturity, not having again, laying again a foundation of repentance from dead words 00:04:11.240 |
and faith toward God, of instruction about washing and laying on of hands, and the resurrection 00:04:20.920 |
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly 00:04:25.040 |
gifts, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word 00:04:31.760 |
of the Lord, and the power of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible 00:04:36.680 |
to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify for themselves the Son of God, 00:04:44.400 |
For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it, and brings forth vegetation useful 00:04:48.760 |
to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. 00:04:53.640 |
But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless, and close to being cursed, and 00:05:00.680 |
But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany 00:05:09.080 |
So, sorry I've got a mad, like huge canker sore like right here, and every time I talk 00:05:18.480 |
Okay, this passage is extremely pivotal because this is actually one of the main verses that 00:05:27.120 |
people in two separate camps return to in addressing the topic of whether it be they 00:05:33.000 |
address it as eternal security, or address it as perseverance of the saints. 00:05:37.960 |
And the two camps that exist are such as these. 00:05:40.920 |
Number one, we have a group called the Armenian Theologies, or Arminianism, and it's also 00:05:50.520 |
You will never find a church that's called Irvine Armenian Community Church, or rather 00:05:56.760 |
you would hear a church called Irvine Wesleyan Church or so forth, okay? 00:06:01.440 |
Reason being is because Arminian, when you say someone is Arminian, you're talking about 00:06:06.800 |
the camp of the school of theology, but when you talk about Wesleyan, you're talking about 00:06:15.160 |
A branch of a movement that essentially came out from that Arminian thinking. 00:06:19.480 |
Now, underneath your notes about the Arminian theology or Wesleyan, you can write a couple 00:06:27.800 |
Basically, Arminian theology is dedicated to the love of God and genuine relationship, 00:06:37.960 |
And you guys have heard this from me before, that they're dedicated to the love of God, 00:06:43.120 |
genuine relationship, and the free will of man, okay? 00:06:47.480 |
That being the case, basically in the love of God, God has made atonement available ready 00:06:55.200 |
And what He has done is given mankind free will and a choice whether to receive or to 00:07:05.040 |
The reason why He did that is because He wanted the genuine relationship, right? 00:07:11.880 |
Therefore, man has the choice whether to resist the call of God or to receive it. 00:07:20.280 |
That being the case, when you think about basically, if you work your way back from 00:07:24.520 |
the kind of theology of the salvation process that we've been studying, everything from 00:07:31.600 |
the reception and the conversion is according to the choice, then so is the calling. 00:07:37.160 |
The choice is conditional and then so is the election. 00:07:40.560 |
And if you shoot the other way to the future, guess what? 00:07:45.400 |
The eternity aspect of it, the future projection of our salvation is also conditional. 00:07:54.560 |
Therefore, for an Armenian theologian, you can lose your salvation. 00:08:02.480 |
And this passage is the passage that they turn to, to show us that you can. 00:08:07.240 |
And let me give you some biblical evidences that they project. 00:08:10.440 |
First, when you look at this passage, just from straight reading, it almost sounds like 00:08:17.320 |
It truly sounds like someone who's a believer. 00:08:18.880 |
And he says, "There is a case, there are those individuals," I'm reading in verse 4, "There 00:08:23.320 |
are these individuals who notice these key terms, that they have been enlightened." 00:08:31.240 |
"They have tasted the heavenly gifts and have been made partakers." 00:08:35.840 |
And so for you on your packet, I've highlighted the ones that they really emphasize, which 00:08:41.040 |
First, there's enlightened in verse 4, but furthermore, the partakers of the Holy Spirit. 00:08:47.120 |
They believe, if you're talking about, yeah, maybe some of these other terms, where you're 00:08:51.560 |
kind of enlightened, you can think of it as maybe you received a bunch of teaching, and 00:08:56.880 |
But man, how can you say that somebody who is a partaker of the Holy Spirit is thus not 00:09:02.640 |
Furthermore, there's another one that's really, that they pose as this kind of really shows, 00:09:08.520 |
this verse really shows, that the individual that is being referred to in this passage 00:09:14.220 |
And what they turn to is, if you look in verse 6, this is what it says, "And then have fallen 00:09:21.120 |
So they've come and experienced all this stuff, right? 00:09:23.120 |
And it says in verse 6, "And then they've fallen away. 00:09:26.440 |
It is impossible to renew them again to repentance." 00:09:31.880 |
So the idea is, how can you renew and do again something you haven't done before? 00:09:36.840 |
But obviously, if they have done it before, that is what we're talking about, right? 00:09:41.900 |
And what's really interesting is, in the Armenian theology, what you'll have is even within 00:09:49.360 |
Okay, so if we as a Christian can in our volition resist the Holy Spirit and then we lose our 00:09:57.760 |
According to this passage, if you really want to take this passage at face value, you'd 00:10:05.440 |
But in their mind, there are some people who would say, "No, you could." 00:10:10.520 |
You could basically, if it's saying you could be renewed into repentance, then you can. 00:10:17.440 |
But nonetheless, this is the kind of theology that they're projecting. 00:10:20.920 |
And this is the kind of, actually, theology that was pervasive in the kind of church that 00:10:25.840 |
I essentially got saved at and grew up as, as a youth group student. 00:10:29.640 |
Which is really interesting to think about, okay? 00:10:32.720 |
Why did I say it was really interesting to think about? 00:10:41.440 |
If you're a young student, you become saved and you're taught this theology, and then 00:10:46.560 |
when you come out of high school and you see basically like 80% of your friends who walked 00:10:50.400 |
with you in the faith fall away, basically experience that starts to confirm what you've 00:10:57.560 |
And so essentially with Armenian theology, they'll say, "Yes, it is seen in Scripture 00:11:01.620 |
right here, these people have been enlightened, they're partakers, and they've, in a sense, 00:11:11.080 |
And so that being the case, it's also confirmed our experience. 00:11:21.080 |
However, I think if you just take a moment to look at both the context and what these 00:11:30.080 |
terms refer to, you'd come to an entirely different conclusion. 00:11:34.440 |
The other camp in reference to this idea of perseverance of the saints or eternal security, 00:11:39.160 |
as opposed to external security, is the Calvinistic thinking, Calvinism. 00:11:44.240 |
Now I'm not going to delve into all that Calvinism is, but essentially Calvinism is dedicated 00:11:52.480 |
Now if you talk to an Armenian, they're going to say, "Of course we are dedicated to the 00:12:01.120 |
However, in their definition of the sovereignty of God, God has limited Himself. 00:12:05.440 |
In their definition of the sovereignty of God, there is an area where God volitionally 00:12:13.480 |
So don't ever accuse an Armenian, "Oh my gosh, you don't believe in the sovereignty of God." 00:12:17.720 |
Well, philosophically and logically, you can get them there. 00:12:22.520 |
However, when they espouse a theological system, that's not what they would say. 00:12:28.640 |
But basically, with Calvinism, it essentially says, "God is sovereign, and His will cannot 00:12:33.320 |
be frustrated, not even by the person whom He's having this relationship with." 00:12:38.600 |
So who God has called with His unconditional election, with His irresistible grace, God 00:12:53.640 |
So for an individual, they're either going to be saved or unsaved, boom, that's the dividing 00:13:00.680 |
That's the kind of way that Calvinistic theology will work. 00:13:03.960 |
And biblically speaking, now let's take a look at this passage. 00:13:07.960 |
So look down in Hebrews, and let's take a look at your passage. 00:13:11.680 |
First notice, and I think we referenced it in one of the Q&A of the previous session, 00:13:16.640 |
but you do have to take a note that he, the author, in context, is challenging a group 00:13:31.860 |
Some of them are getting swayed back to their previous life. 00:13:34.600 |
And there are people who are in danger of falling into disbelief. 00:13:38.080 |
So those individuals, he's giving a strong rebuke. 00:13:41.160 |
And so what he says is, "In the case of those," so now he's talking about a unique case 00:13:50.920 |
So what type of class or what type of people is he referring to? 00:13:55.200 |
Well, you look at these terms that the Arminius would look at and they'll say, "Okay, you've 00:14:01.160 |
You have tasted, you've been made a partaker. 00:14:04.160 |
And then you have seen the power of the come to the age." 00:14:06.560 |
Or you have been doing this and doing this, right? 00:14:10.280 |
Essentially these terms, I want you guys to read for homework. 00:14:16.360 |
But these terms are not exclusively Christian terms. 00:14:21.760 |
Meaning in other passages through Scripture, these terms are used in more broad and general 00:14:28.480 |
Where enlightened is not a sense of knowledge unto salvation. 00:14:32.160 |
But you can be enlightened as in, there's a light shining on you. 00:14:36.360 |
There's been knowledge given to you and preached at you. 00:14:42.600 |
And even the idea of a partaker, you know when the disciples, they do a lot of, a lot 00:14:48.280 |
of these disciples were average workers or even some people in official positions. 00:14:57.000 |
When some of them are talking, when the New Testament Gospels are talking about their 00:15:00.280 |
work as fishermen, their passage will say, "Oh, he was a partaker with them in fishing." 00:15:05.480 |
But it doesn't mean like he was a partaker as in the Spirit indwelt his heart and sealed 00:15:12.320 |
It doesn't mean like he was a partaker meaning he was doing the work. 00:15:16.000 |
So a lot of these terms are not exclusively Christian terms. 00:15:23.080 |
If someone is justified in the sight of God, that is an exclusively Christian term. 00:15:27.400 |
That is an act of God that we learn through our process of salvation. 00:15:32.320 |
What does it ever say of these individuals that they've been adopted by God as we've 00:15:39.000 |
There are exclusive Christian terms that aren't referenced here. 00:15:44.760 |
But furthermore, if you look at this, when it says that it is impossible to renew them 00:15:52.200 |
again to repentance, the author is telling us essentially that if all of these blessings, 00:15:59.480 |
if all of these things that they're partaking and are experiencing, if they're rejecting 00:16:13.800 |
These people, in the case of these, they were like so close, they were so near, they were 00:16:19.280 |
in our church, they were fellowshipping, maybe they even went on missions with us, but does 00:16:29.460 |
And so the author actually intentionally makes these people sound like Christian, but he's 00:16:36.440 |
They've rejected everything about Christianity. 00:16:39.120 |
And so if you were to challenge these individuals, these people who are falling away, if you 00:16:43.280 |
were to challenge them with the Word of God and say, "Be aligned with the Word," they 00:16:47.200 |
"Pray in the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit empowers you." 00:16:53.000 |
"Be partakers of our ministry and labor with us and see the power of God." 00:16:58.920 |
And so that's partially why actually right now there is a great movement towards psychology 00:17:05.000 |
and what's called spiritual formation that has integrated Christian theology and secular 00:17:12.560 |
The reason why I think that's so dangerous is because a lot of that is conditioning. 00:17:18.080 |
A lot of that is, "Hey, remember a time when you were in the preliminary stages of your 00:17:25.840 |
You were really hungry for God and you were really thirsty after Him? 00:17:28.520 |
Why don't you go back and redo all that stuff? 00:17:31.560 |
If there was a hill or a mountain you prayed on, go back to that hill." 00:17:35.120 |
And it makes you do all this conditioning and repetition of actions. 00:17:39.000 |
But in my mind, what this passage is saying is if they rejected all that at one time, 00:17:45.800 |
now it's just going to harden them even more. 00:17:51.520 |
Part of it's saying when it says that you can't renew them again to repentance, it's 00:17:56.160 |
It's saying you can't bring them to this remorse over their sin. 00:18:07.080 |
You do a U-turn in your concept of your life and your sin or whether you're going to be 00:18:12.720 |
And so that being the case, this passage is not talking about Christians losing their 00:18:20.400 |
It's talking about those individuals who are so close, experiencing all that Christianity 00:18:24.960 |
has to offer, seeing all the power of God at work in the church and then saying, "Forget 00:18:31.000 |
This passage is saying there is nothing left for them. 00:18:35.680 |
Now, the point where I believe it's really emphatically clear that it's not Christian 00:18:42.560 |
In verse 7 through 9 it says, "For the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on 00:18:46.400 |
it brings forth vegetation, useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives 00:18:53.000 |
a blessing from God, but if it yields thorns and thistles, is worthless and close to being 00:19:01.760 |
He's using a very common agricultural analogy metaphor where everybody would understand 00:19:12.520 |
Does that sound like somebody who happened to have been adopted, redeemed in the grace 00:19:19.280 |
Verse 8 through 9 solidifies this truth that this is not talking about a Christian. 00:19:25.040 |
Because in verse 9 it says, "But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning 00:19:32.000 |
What he's saying essentially, I am comparing and contrasting. 00:19:35.440 |
I'm almost talking to you in this way like a non-Christian, but of you I am more convinced 00:19:42.600 |
that there are things that accompany salvation. 00:19:44.720 |
So by way of comparing and contrasting in relation to verse 4 where he brings up a case 00:19:49.520 |
scenario of these people, it's very clear that this passage is talking about individuals 00:19:57.440 |
This is not teaching us that one can lose their salvation. 00:20:01.000 |
I felt like I needed to go through this detailed explanation of this passage because this is 00:20:13.120 |
This passage has been a source of confusion for a lot of people. 00:20:15.720 |
It sounds like though, yes that was the point, it sounds like it. 00:20:20.840 |
It sounds like they're so close and there is your tragedy. 00:20:29.000 |
And so for us, we say that again, people do not lose their salvation, but rather if individuals 00:20:37.680 |
through your experience, through your life as a Christian, if you've been a Christian 00:20:41.480 |
for more than 5 years, you've probably seen people who fall away. 00:20:44.800 |
Not just leave Buran to another church, but they just leave. 00:20:48.240 |
And they just leave the church and they never come back. 00:20:52.640 |
Those individuals, biblically speaking, were never saved. 00:20:57.200 |
Now, could it be, could it be that they're backsliding and God's going to discipline 00:21:03.840 |
But if you see an individual who has rejected the faith and denounced the faith, they were 00:21:10.440 |
And the scripture is absolutely clear about that. 00:21:12.080 |
If you look in 1 John chapter 1 it says, "They left us because they were never of us." 00:21:21.320 |
Now, that's really experientially, that could be confusing. 00:21:25.400 |
Because I have had both praise leaders, my disciples, the guy used to give me a ride 00:21:33.000 |
I have people like that who are close to me fall away from the faith. 00:21:40.000 |
And we need to do it also with great sensitivity. 00:21:43.280 |
However, that's the kind of truth that the scripture reveals to us. 00:21:52.040 |
Biblically, the way that scripture presents to us our idea of eternal security is mentioned 00:21:58.740 |
into the idea of perseverance for the saints. 00:22:03.080 |
And when we say perseverance of the saints, a good way to think about it is this phrase, 00:22:09.760 |
Because that joins together dual aspects of the biblical teaching of your security. 00:22:14.840 |
Which is, yes, there's an aspect of an assurance that you are once and for all saved. 00:22:21.240 |
And then there is an aspect of you need to be forever persevering. 00:22:31.080 |
Let's tackle the first aspect of it, your assurance. 00:22:34.440 |
It is very, very clear through a multitude of verses through the scripture that you in 00:22:41.480 |
your life right now, if you are born again, you should have an absolute confidence and 00:22:48.440 |
assurance that you will be with God in heaven. 00:23:05.040 |
It's not something that we're, in the balance and scheme of things, where you could have 00:23:12.480 |
What's to save me from let's say 10 years down the line? 00:23:15.640 |
If I get distracted and I see some of my older brothers and sisters falling away? 00:23:21.320 |
What I'm saying is there is, oh no, there is objective truth. 00:23:26.080 |
There is objective truth to the idea that you should have eternal security. 00:23:30.080 |
Or you should have an assurance of your salvation. 00:23:34.080 |
And we're not going to tackle every single verse, but I want to highlight to you several. 00:23:38.080 |
Number one, if you look down it says, "Passages to teach assurance of salvation." 00:23:43.080 |
It says this in John chapter 6, verse 38 through 40. 00:23:47.080 |
"I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." 00:23:52.080 |
And this is the will of Him who sent me, "that I should lose nothing of all that He has given 00:23:59.080 |
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should 00:24:04.080 |
have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on that last day." 00:24:10.080 |
Notice, the emphasis in this verse is this direct result, to those who believe they will 00:24:20.080 |
Basically, I notice how at the very end of it says, "that everyone who sees the Son and 00:24:27.080 |
And it's all the more emphatic when Christ says, "I am going to lose nothing." 00:24:37.080 |
Another passage that says the exact same thing when Christ essentially explains His role 00:24:43.080 |
in this, and He says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 00:24:48.080 |
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of 00:24:55.080 |
My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them 00:25:03.080 |
And so what you realize here is, if your perspective, just like that individual who was at the debate, 00:25:10.080 |
because he was not open to the sight of God, because he did not see the glory of Christ, 00:25:15.080 |
he was in a state of fear, and that is understandable. 00:25:20.080 |
But that should not be the case for a Christian. 00:25:24.080 |
Because his perspective now includes the power of God. 00:25:27.080 |
His perspective now includes the role of Christ. 00:25:31.080 |
His sovereign hand holding every single one who is His. 00:25:36.080 |
And so, I want to highlight to you that the most powerful and forceful phrase in this 00:25:44.080 |
In that passage, John chapter 10 verse 27-29, notice how it says right there, right in the 00:25:50.080 |
middle, it says, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish." 00:25:56.080 |
That little phrase in the Greek has like, highlight, exclamation points, brackets, and 00:26:05.080 |
It's the most emphatic little phrase in that entire paragraph. 00:26:08.080 |
The reason why I say that is because, do you remember in Romans, when Apostle Paul says, 00:26:16.080 |
And you guys probably heard this in all the sermons that you guys heard about through 00:26:19.080 |
Romans, where they say, and the Greeks is, "Oumee!" 00:26:22.080 |
And it basically comes off saying, "No, not, never, ever, period!" 00:26:32.080 |
"Oumee!" that you should never, ever, forever perish. 00:26:40.080 |
And so I want to highlight for us, this is the truth that Scripture teaches us. 00:26:50.080 |
In Christ, in the power of God, there is guaranteed, yes, the reason why we are not going to fall 00:26:55.080 |
like the angels is because, we're not angels. 00:26:59.080 |
It's because God sent His protection, always guarding us. 00:27:07.080 |
And so if you go forward, there's all these other verses, jump down to the passages from 00:27:13.080 |
We're going to go to that passage in Romans chapter 8, 30, just because we've been working 00:27:18.080 |
through this idea of the process of salvation. 00:27:21.080 |
And in that golden chain of salvation, it says, "And to those whom he predestined, he 00:27:27.080 |
called, and to these whom he called, he justified, and these whom he justified, he also glorified." 00:27:34.080 |
I want to make this point, because I think it's so amazing. 00:27:39.080 |
Every single one of those words, is in the past tense. 00:27:43.080 |
If you're not a grammar nerd, if you aren't an English major, and you don't get excited 00:27:47.080 |
about grammar, this is a moment when you should. 00:27:53.080 |
Because He's talking about your glorification, He's talking about your end, in the past tense. 00:27:58.080 |
It's so sure, it's so guaranteed, He's talking about it in the past tense. 00:28:04.080 |
And so that is our God's promise to us, that anyone who is in God, anyone who has genuinely 00:28:09.080 |
been elected, who has been called, regenerated, and who has been adopted and secured in Christ, 00:28:16.080 |
is going to experience life eternal with Heavenly Father. 00:28:23.080 |
And so, it comes to this very last verse, verse, go to the very bottom, not the very 00:28:30.080 |
bottom, but 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 through 5. 00:28:34.080 |
Underneath passages from the epistles, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 through 5. 00:28:39.080 |
And it says, "Blessed be the God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to 00:28:43.080 |
His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection 00:28:48.080 |
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will 00:28:53.080 |
not fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through 00:29:00.080 |
faith for our salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time." 00:29:04.080 |
So here you have what we've been talking about, this dual aspect. 00:29:08.080 |
And when I say dual aspect, it's this idea that the power of God, all that was promised 00:29:14.080 |
to you, the entire inheritance is guarded, is protected. 00:29:18.080 |
But notice how He says, it's through the faith that this salvation God has ordained 00:29:28.080 |
So we come to the second point which is, once saved, always persevering. 00:29:39.080 |
Because at face value, at face value, some of these verses make it sound so conditional. 00:29:46.080 |
Some of these verses make it sound so dependent upon your performance. 00:29:51.080 |
But let's read some of these truths that come from Scripture. 00:29:54.080 |
In John chapter 8 verse 31 through 32 it says, "So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had 00:29:59.080 |
believed Him, 'If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine, and 00:30:05.080 |
you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.'" 00:30:16.080 |
Here's another passage, "He who endures to the end will be saved." 00:30:25.080 |
I'm going to read another one, Colossians chapter 1 verse 22 to 23, "Yet He has now 00:30:32.080 |
reconciled you and His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him 00:30:39.080 |
If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not move away 00:30:45.080 |
from the hope of the Gospel that you have heard." 00:30:49.080 |
So, in this we have essentially this perspective of this doctrine of perseverance of the saints. 00:31:01.080 |
When God secures, He's going to secure in a way that looks like perseverance. 00:31:10.080 |
God is guaranteeing, God is solidifying and securing, but it looks like perseverance. 00:31:17.080 |
He's going to cause every single individual who is genuine is to persevere to the very end. 00:31:23.080 |
And the perseverance to the very end is going to be one of the genuine marks of a Christian. 00:31:38.080 |
I know it was a lot and I'm kind of talking fast because it was a lot of material. 00:31:44.080 |
About Hebrews 6, why we believe that no genuine Christian can lose their salvation. 00:31:55.080 |
Let's cause our thoughts to think about how does this really spiritually affect us. 00:32:09.080 |
The objective truth of our guaranteed inheritance. 00:32:15.080 |
The objective truth that when we are saved, we're going to experience eternity with God. 00:32:22.080 |
I actually don't have a problem saying eternal security. 00:32:25.080 |
Although I've been kind of fumbling and avoiding that phrase throughout the whole Bible study. 00:32:30.080 |
I don't have a problem with it because it's objectively true. 00:32:39.080 |
And His sovereignty is never going to be thwarted it says. 00:32:42.080 |
And so if He has you in His hand, no one is going to overcome. 00:32:48.080 |
So we as Christians should never shy away from saying that. 00:32:51.080 |
Anyone who is truly born in Christ is never going to lose their salvation. 00:33:00.080 |
With assurance and with confidence declaring I am God. 00:33:07.080 |
That's what we should be doing as Christians. 00:33:09.080 |
But the disconnect is, it's a completely different question from asking is this true? 00:33:28.080 |
If this is true of you, then the whole gamut of promises and all that God has said is so true. 00:33:36.080 |
And it should warm your heart and it should encourage you and it should make you persevere. 00:33:43.080 |
And the reason why the scriptures talk like that is because just think about a Paul scenario. 00:33:59.080 |
And furthermore, what he's doing is really all he's doing is observing the external fruits. 00:34:04.080 |
But we said earlier someone could be enlightened so they could talk like a Christian. 00:34:08.080 |
And haven't you seen those people who talk like a Christian? 00:34:13.080 |
They can answer you back and forth, front and back, and they can tell you all the theological terms. 00:34:24.080 |
And then there are people who have done Christian works. 00:34:28.080 |
And then so every time the young guy comes to me and says, "Oh, I like this girl." 00:34:34.080 |
But you need to tell me more because people can serve, but they can be bitter. 00:34:38.080 |
They can be outright rude and mean and angry. 00:34:47.080 |
And I've actually gone on missions with people who've fallen away from faith. 00:34:51.080 |
So the fact of the matter is, Apostle Paul is always talking in diff conditions because he can't see. 00:34:59.080 |
Who is the only one who can examine their own heart? 00:35:04.080 |
So by way of application, the objective truth is solid. 00:35:10.080 |
It just behooves us to ask, "Is this true of me?" 00:35:14.080 |
And even if you're at a strong church, even if you have godly parents, even if you have godly friends, 00:35:22.080 |
Is there, in my heart, a wicked, evil pattern of disbelief? 00:35:30.080 |
This has been, how do you say, as a Christian, a thoroughly sanctified process in my life. 00:35:39.080 |
Because every single person has a private persona and they have a public persona. 00:35:45.080 |
And to tell you very truthfully, as a pastor, I am so tempted to always perform a very public persona. 00:35:54.080 |
So you find, I find this existing in all kinds of environments and contexts. 00:36:01.080 |
Even amongst the criminals who are like, there's a guy who in a fit of rage murdered people in a shooting 00:36:07.080 |
and then the police go interview their neighbors and they're like, "Gah, I thought he was normal." 00:36:12.080 |
But in the deep recesses of his private life, it was so dark and it was dark for way too long. 00:36:29.080 |
The reason why I bring that up is because that private persona, nobody knows but you. 00:36:36.080 |
And so you need to examine, in my private life, do I believe? 00:36:42.080 |
Do I understand God saved me not from loneliness? 00:36:45.080 |
God saved me not from, you know, kind of pointless living? 00:36:53.080 |
I feel the remorse of not knowing my God, but thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ who brought me to my creator. 00:37:03.080 |
There is a subjective aspect of Christianity where it has to be your private persona that has now been realized 00:37:10.080 |
and it becomes now joined together and it's just one person. 00:37:17.080 |
And the Christian individual is always fighting not to put on a front, not to be a hypocrite, 00:37:25.080 |
My application of today's passage, when we think about, you know, our experiences, right? 00:37:32.080 |
Our experiences in our Christian walk, that really has a strong application for us. 00:37:37.080 |
In our persevering, are we examining the private life? 00:37:44.080 |
The desires, longings, imagination and fantasies of your mind that only which you and God knows. 00:37:51.080 |
That's what we need to tackle, that's what we need to examine daily. 00:37:58.080 |
Now, another application of this is truly what do we say of others? 00:38:07.080 |
When you see people and you examine their fruits, 00:38:17.080 |
or not simply, I think there was a time when, 00:38:21.080 |
I don't want to bring up specific names, but this is the best example I have in my mind. 00:38:27.080 |
There was a time when, you know, when a church like ours tries to strive for biblical living, 00:38:35.080 |
tries to strive for more godliness in your life. 00:38:39.080 |
What ends up happening is, the people who are less mature start making standards that are either unbiblical, 00:38:45.080 |
or they try to push for standards that are unrealistic. 00:38:50.080 |
They either neglect God's standard or they neglect the people. 00:38:53.080 |
That's the kind of problem and dilemma that people fall into when you have a group of people who are trying to push, 00:39:04.080 |
I think one of the errors that I saw was in trying to ask people, 00:39:09.080 |
"Are you genuinely saved? Are you that individual who's been examining your heart?" 00:39:13.080 |
You could fall into the danger of setting an arbitrary standard of godliness, 00:39:18.080 |
and just really expecting people to live up to that, 00:39:20.080 |
and then determining you're not a Christian or you're not genuine. 00:39:25.080 |
But what really should mark a genuine Christian, what you should be looking for, 00:39:32.080 |
It should be, "Is your heart showing a pattern of perseverance?" 00:39:37.080 |
This idea of, "The Christian will persevere," then says, 00:39:40.080 |
"Even if somebody is really immature, even if someone you're kind of like, 'Gosh!'" 00:39:45.080 |
You know, you're not thinking straight or whatnot, 00:39:47.080 |
but if they show a pattern of growth, if they show over longevity a pattern of desire, 00:39:53.080 |
if they show this sense of like, "Yeah, I'm not going to quit, even though I've fallen and all, 00:39:57.080 |
like, I can't quit because of my God," that's what you want to see, isn't it? 00:40:02.080 |
When we're talking about this idea of perseverance of the saints, that's what you want to see. 00:40:06.080 |
So whether an individual started off as they've been living pagan lives for like the past 30 years, 00:40:11.080 |
and you expect them to be up here, that's just unrealistic. 00:40:17.080 |
But what you need to be examining is the heart of perseverance. 00:40:22.080 |
However, we see a guy who's been Christian for 30 years. 00:40:26.080 |
They've been living their lives in the church, and they kind of have this like, 00:40:29.080 |
"Eh, this is what I'm going to be. I don't need to really grow." 00:40:35.080 |
You've already seen then stains of this disbelief. Why? 00:40:38.080 |
Because they're not growing. They're not persevering. 00:40:40.080 |
They're not being changed from one aspect and one increment of glory to another. 00:40:46.080 |
They're not being transformed into the likeness of Christ, which is the purpose of our God in salvation. 00:40:52.080 |
And so, again, when you address people, if they haven't met your standard of speech, theology, or sanctified living, don't judge them. 00:41:02.080 |
You need to see their heart condition and whether they're growing or not. 00:41:05.080 |
Whether they have a hunger for the Lord. Does that make sense? 00:41:09.080 |
Yes. I definitely don't want our church by saying, "Yeah, we're Bereans. We want to have right theology and live right." 00:41:16.080 |
And then all of a sudden to like bash people because they haven't lived up to our standard. 00:41:21.080 |
Rather, everyone should be given this heart motivation and the condition of their spiritual life when they're hungry for the Lord. 00:41:32.080 |
Alright, any questions? Any questions about perseverance of the saints? 00:41:38.080 |
Okay, let me pray. You guys can go into your small groups. 00:41:43.080 |
Father God, we want to thank you for your grace. 00:41:48.080 |
Lord, there have been plenty of times in my life, and I'm sure as we pray together now, in the lives of all the congregation members here, 00:41:57.080 |
where we have either lack of motivation, inspiration, or just a strength. 00:42:02.080 |
We've all experienced extended period of time, perhaps, where we feel dry. 00:42:07.080 |
But we are thankful, Father Lord, that God, for those of us who have been truly saved and redeemed, 00:42:13.080 |
though we might experience times of dryness or experience times where we feel distant from you, 00:42:19.080 |
God, because of your great love, because of your faithfulness, because of your strength and your sovereignty, 00:42:28.080 |
And I pray, Father God, that that truth would not cause any increment of laziness or apathy, 00:42:35.080 |
but rather it would motivate us all the more to pursue after you. 00:42:38.080 |
To see your love and faithfulness, God. Let it inspire us to strive after you with everything that we have. 00:42:44.080 |
Father God, I pray that if any single person in here has any doubts of their salvation, 00:42:50.080 |
is not sure whether certain things are true for them, 00:42:53.080 |
I pray that you give them insight. I pray that you give them great spiritual discernment to examine whether they truly do believe. 00:43:02.080 |
And I pray, Father God, that no one here will come to a point where that tragic event, 00:43:08.080 |
God, where God would say, "You were so close, but I still don't know you." 00:43:12.080 |
But I pray, Father God, that all of us would be able to enter into your presence with great confidence in our Lord Jesus.