Alright, by way of introduction, there was a time, I remember so distinctly because there was this individual who was so disturbed. And it happened to be in an environment where I went to a Christian debate, somebody who was extremely well versed, someone who had a lot of earthly accolades in terms of education, he had a PhD, and he was debating a non-Christian.

And they had one of those Q&A times at the end of the debate, and there was this man who was so disturbed. And his question was essentially this, "How in the world do angels fall?" And his question was basically, "How does an angel who sees God, the power of God, decide either not to believe or to rebel?" And then he followed up by saying, "If an angel who was in the presence of God thus decided to rebel, what prevents me, if I become Christian, what prevents me from falling subsequently?

What prevents me from falling away from the faith, so to speak? What prevents me from losing my salvation? And is there any security, even if I go to heaven and become a glorified being, or maybe even become an angel," he said, "that I would remain with God forever?" And what was really interesting to me was that there was no answer.

And at the time, I was only in high school, I was a senior in high school. And so, it really perplexed everyone. And the guy was literally almost in tears. And what I found really interesting about that is, does the Scripture have something to answer for that? Maybe not about the angels, but at least for us.

At least for us, is there any kind of security? Now the dilemma, the problem is this, is that on one end, you have this guy who is almost like, "I don't want to get into something that's not going to last forever." Or he's doubting. If angels can fall, then what about us?

And he's essentially in a state of, again, both fear and being perplexed. But then the dilemma is, you have people on the opposite spectrum of that. Once saved, always saved, don't ever make me doubt my salvation. I'm gold, right? And there are preachers who would say, "What the point of Christianity is, is that you would have assurance.

So therefore, right now, everyone, don't you dare, don't you dare doubt whether you are truly saved. You are saved, you're going to be saved, and you're always going to be saved. No matter what you do. It's not about what you do, it's absolutely nothing about what you do. No matter how far you fall, you will never be lost.

You know, that kind of idea. So the dilemma is essentially, you have two extremes. Where one, too much fear, the other, they don't care. And so, how do we address this topic, biblically? And so today we're going to be talking about the perseverance of the saints. Okay? Perseverance of the saints.

And I do want you guys to take note of the fact that, you know, in our theology class, we're going to be talking about it in those terms. Perseverance of the saints, as opposed to some well-known terms that people use, such as eternal security. Okay? Eternal security. Or little, like, cliche phrases such as, "One saved, always saved." Now, I want you to turn your Bibles to a very pivotal passage.

A very pivotal passage. And that passage comes from Hebrews chapter 6. We're essentially answering this question, "Do we have any security?" And can a Christian essentially lose his salvation? If he can, then I'm not sure if I want that kind of salvation, right? If you turn your Bibles over to Hebrews chapter 6, we're going to a very pivotal passage.

And I'm going to start reading for us first from verse 1, and then we're going to go to verse 9. Okay. It says, "Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not having again, laying again a foundation of repentance from dead words and faith toward God, of instruction about washing and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

And this we will do if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gifts, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of the Lord, and the power of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame.

For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless, and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation. Though we are speaking in this way. Alright? So, sorry I've got a mad, like huge canker sore like right here, and every time I talk it's like, anyway, it's hurting me. Okay, this passage is extremely pivotal because this is actually one of the main verses that people in two separate camps return to in addressing the topic of whether it be they address it as eternal security, or address it as perseverance of the saints.

And the two camps that exist are such as these. Number one, we have a group called the Armenian Theologies, or Arminianism, and it's also generally termed Wesleyan, okay? You will never find a church that's called Irvine Armenian Community Church, or rather you would hear a church called Irvine Wesleyan Church or so forth, okay?

Reason being is because Arminian, when you say someone is Arminian, you're talking about the camp of the school of theology, but when you talk about Wesleyan, you're talking about a branch of a movement, okay? A branch of a movement that essentially came out from that Arminian thinking. Now, underneath your notes about the Arminian theology or Wesleyan, you can write a couple things, okay?

Basically, Arminian theology is dedicated to the love of God and genuine relationship, thus the free will of man, okay? And you guys have heard this from me before, that they're dedicated to the love of God, genuine relationship, and the free will of man, okay? That being the case, basically in the love of God, God has made atonement available ready for all, okay?

All of mankind. And what He has done is given mankind free will and a choice whether to receive or to resist. The reason why He did that is because He wanted the genuine relationship, right? He wanted the genuine relationship. Therefore, man has the choice whether to resist the call of God or to receive it.

That being the case, when you think about basically, if you work your way back from the kind of theology of the salvation process that we've been studying, everything from the reception and the conversion is according to the choice, then so is the calling. The choice is conditional and then so is the election.

The election is conditional. And if you shoot the other way to the future, guess what? The eternity aspect of it, the future projection of our salvation is also conditional. It's conditioned upon our perseverance. Therefore, for an Armenian theologian, you can lose your salvation. You can lose your salvation. And this passage is the passage that they turn to, to show us that you can.

And let me give you some biblical evidences that they project. First, when you look at this passage, just from straight reading, it almost sounds like that. It truly sounds like someone who's a believer. And he says, "There is a case, there are those individuals," I'm reading in verse 4, "There are these individuals who notice these key terms, that they have been enlightened." Interesting.

What types of people are enlightened? "They have tasted the heavenly gifts and have been made partakers." And so for you on your packet, I've highlighted the ones that they really emphasize, which are these terms. First, there's enlightened in verse 4, but furthermore, the partakers of the Holy Spirit. They believe, if you're talking about, yeah, maybe some of these other terms, where you're kind of enlightened, you can think of it as maybe you received a bunch of teaching, and now you've gained wisdom.

But man, how can you say that somebody who is a partaker of the Holy Spirit is thus not saved? Furthermore, there's another one that's really, that they pose as this kind of really shows, this verse really shows, that the individual that is being referred to in this passage is truly Christian.

And what they turn to is, if you look in verse 6, this is what it says, "And then have fallen away." So they've come and experienced all this stuff, right? And it says in verse 6, "And then they've fallen away. It is impossible to renew them again to repentance." So the idea is, how can you renew and do again something you haven't done before?

But obviously, if they have done it before, that is what we're talking about, right? And what's really interesting is, in the Armenian theology, what you'll have is even within that different opinions then. Okay, so if we as a Christian can in our volition resist the Holy Spirit and then we lose our salvation, can we pick it back up again?

According to this passage, if you really want to take this passage at face value, you'd almost have to say what? No, you can't. Because you can't, right? But in their mind, there are some people who would say, "No, you could." You could basically, if it's saying you could be renewed into repentance, then you can.

So you go basically back and forth. But nonetheless, this is the kind of theology that they're projecting. And this is the kind of, actually, theology that was pervasive in the kind of church that I essentially got saved at and grew up as, as a youth group student. Which is really interesting to think about, okay?

Why did I say it was really interesting to think about? Because experience confirmed it for me. Okay? Now think about this. If you're a young student, you become saved and you're taught this theology, and then when you come out of high school and you see basically like 80% of your friends who walked with you in the faith fall away, basically experience that starts to confirm what you've just been taught, right?

And so essentially with Armenian theology, they'll say, "Yes, it is seen in Scripture right here, these people have been enlightened, they're partakers, and they've, in a sense, by inference, they have once repented." And so that being the case, it's also confirmed our experience. That is Armenian theology. Okay? Any questions about that so far?

Alright. However, I think if you just take a moment to look at both the context and what these terms refer to, you'd come to an entirely different conclusion. The other camp in reference to this idea of perseverance of the saints or eternal security, as opposed to external security, is the Calvinistic thinking, Calvinism.

Okay? Now I'm not going to delve into all that Calvinism is, but essentially Calvinism is dedicated to the sovereignty of God. Now if you talk to an Armenian, they're going to say, "Of course we are dedicated to the sovereignty of God." They are. They really are. However, in their definition of the sovereignty of God, God has limited Himself.

In their definition of the sovereignty of God, there is an area where God volitionally will not touch, which is your free will. Does that make sense? So don't ever accuse an Armenian, "Oh my gosh, you don't believe in the sovereignty of God." Well, philosophically and logically, you can get them there.

However, when they espouse a theological system, that's not what they would say. But basically, with Calvinism, it essentially says, "God is sovereign, and His will cannot be frustrated, not even by the person whom He's having this relationship with." So who God has called with His unconditional election, with His irresistible grace, God is going to secure all the way to eternity.

No one will lose their salvation. Why? Because God is sovereign. Right? Because God is sovereign. So for an individual, they're either going to be saved or unsaved, boom, that's the dividing line. That's the kind of way that Calvinistic theology will work. And biblically speaking, now let's take a look at this passage.

Okay? So look down in Hebrews, and let's take a look at your passage. First notice, and I think we referenced it in one of the Q&A of the previous session, but you do have to take a note that he, the author, in context, is challenging a group of Christians who are nearly falling away.

It's a mixed batch of people. Some of them are getting swayed by the Jews. Some of them are getting swayed back to their previous life. And there are people who are in danger of falling into disbelief. So those individuals, he's giving a strong rebuke. And so what he says is, "In the case of those," so now he's talking about a unique case or a class of people.

Right? A class of people. So what type of class or what type of people is he referring to? Well, you look at these terms that the Arminius would look at and they'll say, "Okay, you've been enlightened. You have tasted, you've been made a partaker. And then you have seen the power of the come to the age." Or you have been doing this and doing this, right?

Essentially these terms, I want you guys to read for homework. There's a little article in the back. But these terms are not exclusively Christian terms. Meaning in other passages through Scripture, these terms are used in more broad and general senses. Whether it be enlightened. Where enlightened is not a sense of knowledge unto salvation.

But you can be enlightened as in, there's a light shining on you. There's been knowledge given to you and preached at you. And so you've gained facts. Right? And even the idea of a partaker, you know when the disciples, they do a lot of, a lot of these disciples were average workers or even some people in official positions.

And then some were fishermen. When some of them are talking, when the New Testament Gospels are talking about their work as fishermen, their passage will say, "Oh, he was a partaker with them in fishing." But it doesn't mean like he was a partaker as in the Spirit indwelt his heart and sealed him for salvation.

No. It doesn't mean like he was a partaker meaning he was doing the work. Okay? So a lot of these terms are not exclusively Christian terms. Such as justified. If someone is justified in the sight of God, that is an exclusively Christian term. That is an act of God that we learn through our process of salvation.

Adopted. What does it ever say of these individuals that they've been adopted by God as we've been learning so far? Atoned for. You see what I'm saying? There are exclusive Christian terms that aren't referenced here. But furthermore, if you look at this, when it says that it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, the author is telling us essentially that if all of these blessings, if all of these things that they're partaking and are experiencing, if they're rejecting this, what more can you do?

Right? So essentially that's the point. It almost, almost sounds Christian. But that's the point. These people, in the case of these, they were like so close, they were so near, they were in our church, they were fellowshipping, maybe they even went on missions with us, but does that mean they are saved?

Absolutely not. Alright? Absolutely not. And so the author actually intentionally makes these people sound like Christian, but he's making the point that they are not. They've rejected everything about Christianity. And so if you were to challenge these individuals, these people who are falling away, if you were to challenge them with the Word of God and say, "Be aligned with the Word," they would say, "Meh." "Pray in the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit empowers you." "Meh." Right?

"Be partakers of our ministry and labor with us and see the power of God." "Meh." You see what I'm saying? And so that's partially why actually right now there is a great movement towards psychology and what's called spiritual formation that has integrated Christian theology and secular psychology. The reason why I think that's so dangerous is because a lot of that is conditioning.

A lot of that is experience. A lot of that is, "Hey, remember a time when you were in the preliminary stages of your Christian life? You were really hungry for God and you were really thirsty after Him? Why don't you go back and redo all that stuff? If there was a hill or a mountain you prayed on, go back to that hill." And it makes you do all this conditioning and repetition of actions.

But in my mind, what this passage is saying is if they rejected all that at one time, now it's just going to harden them even more. You see what it's saying? Part of it's saying when it says that you can't renew them again to repentance, it's not repentance into salvation.

It's saying you can't bring them to this remorse over their sin. You can't bring them to change their mind. They've been hardened. Right? Because repentance is a change of mind. You think about it differently. You do a U-turn in your concept of your life and your sin or whether you're going to be approaching God.

And so that being the case, this passage is not talking about Christians losing their salvation. It's talking about those individuals who are so close, experiencing all that Christianity has to offer, seeing all the power of God at work in the church and then saying, "Forget it." This passage is saying there is nothing left for them.

They're not Christian. Now, the point where I believe it's really emphatically clear that it's not Christian is actually verse 7 through 9. Look at this. In verse 7 through 9 it says, "For the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it brings forth vegetation, useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God, but if it yields thorns and thistles, is worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burned." He's using a very common agricultural analogy metaphor where everybody would understand this chaff, this useless stuff being burned.

Does that sound like somebody who happened to have been adopted, redeemed in the grace of God? Absolutely not. Verse 8 through 9 solidifies this truth that this is not talking about a Christian. Why? Because in verse 9 it says, "But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation." What he's saying essentially, I am comparing and contrasting.

I'm almost talking to you in this way like a non-Christian, but of you I am more convinced that there are things that accompany salvation. So by way of comparing and contrasting in relation to verse 4 where he brings up a case scenario of these people, it's very clear that this passage is talking about individuals who are never Christian.

This is not teaching us that one can lose their salvation. I felt like I needed to go through this detailed explanation of this passage because this is a key go-to passage for the other Catholic. This passage has been a source of confusion for a lot of people. It sounds like though, yes that was the point, it sounds like it.

It sounds like they're so close and there is your tragedy. So close and yet so far. Okay? And so for us, we say that again, people do not lose their salvation, but rather if individuals through your experience, through your life as a Christian, if you've been a Christian for more than 5 years, you've probably seen people who fall away.

Not just leave Buran to another church, but they just leave. And they just leave the church and they never come back. Those individuals, biblically speaking, were never saved. Were never saved. Now, could it be, could it be that they're backsliding and God's going to discipline them and draw them back?

Sure. But if you see an individual who has rejected the faith and denounced the faith, they were never Christian to begin with. And the scripture is absolutely clear about that. If you look in 1 John chapter 1 it says, "They left us because they were never of us." Okay?

They left us because they were never of us. Now, that's really experientially, that could be confusing. Because I have had both praise leaders, my disciples, the guy used to give me a ride every week to church. I have people like that who are close to me fall away from the faith.

And explaining that biblically is difficult. And we need to do it also with great sensitivity. Right? However, that's the kind of truth that the scripture reveals to us. Now, moving to a different topic. We want to talk about this then. Biblically, the way that scripture presents to us our idea of eternal security is mentioned into the idea of perseverance for the saints.

Okay? And when we say perseverance of the saints, a good way to think about it is this phrase, "Once saved, always persevering." Because that joins together dual aspects of the biblical teaching of your security. Which is, yes, there's an aspect of an assurance that you are once and for all saved.

And then there is an aspect of you need to be forever persevering. Right? You need to be persevering. And so it brings those two things together. Let's tackle the first aspect of it, your assurance. It is very, very clear through a multitude of verses through the scripture that you in your life right now, if you are born again, you should have an absolute confidence and assurance that you will be with God in heaven.

Right? That you are saved. And that you are going to be saved. And you will be forever saved. All through eternity. That kind of assurance we should have today. It's not something that we're, in the balance and scheme of things, where you could have fear that, "Oh no, what happens if this?

What's to save me from let's say 10 years down the line? If I get really busy? If I get distracted and I see some of my older brothers and sisters falling away? Is that going to be me?" What I'm saying is there is, oh no, there is objective truth.

There is objective truth to the idea that you should have eternal security. Or you should have an assurance of your salvation. Okay? And we're not going to tackle every single verse, but I want to highlight to you several. Number one, if you look down it says, "Passages to teach assurance of salvation." It says this in John chapter 6, verse 38 through 40.

"I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." And this is the will of Him who sent me, "that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up in the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on that last day." Notice, the emphasis in this verse is this direct result, to those who believe they will have eternal life.

Right? Basically, I notice how at the very end of it says, "that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life." And it's all the more emphatic when Christ says, "I am going to lose nothing." Not a single person. Right? Not a single person. Another passage that says the exact same thing when Christ essentially explains His role in this, and He says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand." Right? And so what you realize here is, if your perspective, just like that individual who was at the debate, because he was not open to the sight of God, because he did not see the glory of Christ, he was in a state of fear, and that is understandable.

But that should not be the case for a Christian. Why? Because his perspective now includes the power of God. His perspective now includes the role of Christ. His sovereign hand holding every single one who is His. And so, I want to highlight to you that the most powerful and forceful phrase in this entire paragraph is this.

In that passage, John chapter 10 verse 27-29, notice how it says right there, right in the middle, it says, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish." Right? That little phrase in the Greek has like, highlight, exclamation points, brackets, and like, "Nyaaah!" coming out of it. Okay?

It's the most emphatic little phrase in that entire paragraph. The reason why I say that is because, do you remember in Romans, when Apostle Paul says, "Shall we sin?" So that grace bond of bile. And you guys probably heard this in all the sermons that you guys heard about through Romans, where they say, and the Greeks is, "Oumee!" And it basically comes off saying, "No, not, never, ever, period!" Right?

That's how it reads in this passage. "Oumee!" that you should never, ever, forever perish. So it's an emphatic phrase. And so I want to highlight for us, this is the truth that Scripture teaches us. That he who believes, is secure. That he who believes, has assurance. In Christ, in the power of God, there is guaranteed, yes, the reason why we are not going to fall like the angels is because, we're not angels.

It's because God sent His protection, always guarding us. God has His hand on us. That's the security that we have. And so if you go forward, there's all these other verses, jump down to the passages from the epistles. We're going to go to that passage in Romans chapter 8, 30, just because we've been working through this idea of the process of salvation.

And in that golden chain of salvation, it says, "And to those whom he predestined, he called, and to these whom he called, he justified, and these whom he justified, he also glorified." I want to make this point, because I think it's so amazing. Every single one of those words, is in the past tense.

If you're not a grammar nerd, if you aren't an English major, and you don't get excited about grammar, this is a moment when you should. You ought to. Why? Because He's talking about your glorification, He's talking about your end, in the past tense. It's so sure, it's so guaranteed, He's talking about it in the past tense.

And so that is our God's promise to us, that anyone who is in God, anyone who has genuinely been elected, who has been called, regenerated, and who has been adopted and secured in Christ, is going to experience life eternal with Heavenly Father. Life eternal with our Heavenly Father. And so, it comes to this very last verse, verse, go to the very bottom, not the very bottom, but 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 through 5.

Underneath passages from the epistles, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 through 5. And it says, "Blessed be the God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for our salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time." So here you have what we've been talking about, this dual aspect.

And when I say dual aspect, it's this idea that the power of God, all that was promised to you, the entire inheritance is guarded, is protected. But notice how He says, it's through the faith that this salvation God has ordained to be through your persevering faith. So we come to the second point which is, once saved, always persevering.

Okay, always persevering. And this part is interesting. Because at face value, at face value, some of these verses make it sound so conditional. Some of these verses make it sound so dependent upon your performance. But let's read some of these truths that come from Scripture. In John chapter 8 verse 31 through 32 it says, "So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, 'If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.'" There's this big conditional "if", right?

"If", "if you continue". Here's another passage, "He who endures to the end will be saved." Right? "He who endures to the end will be saved." I'm going to read another one, Colossians chapter 1 verse 22 to 23, "Yet He has now reconciled you and His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him wholly unblameless and beyond reproach.

If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not move away from the hope of the Gospel that you have heard." So, in this we have essentially this perspective of this doctrine of perseverance of the saints. Essentially, you can think of it like this. When God secures, He's going to secure in a way that looks like perseverance.

Does that make sense? God is guaranteeing, God is solidifying and securing, but it looks like perseverance. He's going to cause every single individual who is genuine is to persevere to the very end. And the perseverance to the very end is going to be one of the genuine marks of a Christian.

That's the way we need to see it. That's the way we need to see it. Any questions now about the two? One saved, always persevering. I know it was a lot and I'm kind of talking fast because it was a lot of material. But any questions? About Hebrews 6, why we believe that no genuine Christian can lose their salvation.

Okay? Now let's make some application for us. Let's cause our thoughts to think about how does this really spiritually affect us. So here's the thing though. The disconnect. The disconnect in Christian circles is this. The objective truth of our guaranteed inheritance. The objective truth that when we are saved, we're going to experience eternity with God.

That is so true. I actually don't have a problem saying eternal security. Although I've been kind of fumbling and avoiding that phrase throughout the whole Bible study. I don't have a problem with it because it's objectively true. Right? God is going to secure us. God is never going to fail.

And His sovereignty is never going to be thwarted it says. And so if He has you in His hand, no one is going to overcome. That's just the objective truth. So we as Christians should never shy away from saying that. Anyone who is truly born in Christ is never going to lose their salvation.

Right? Should never. And you should know, right? With assurance and with confidence declaring I am God. We should. That's what we should be doing as Christians. But the disconnect is, it's a completely different question from asking is this true? Yes it is. Eternal security. But then asking is this true of you?

Right? Is this true of you? And that's where it's so hard. That's where the if comes. If this is true of you, then the whole gamut of promises and all that God has said is so true. And it should warm your heart and it should encourage you and it should make you persevere.

Right? But that's just this huge if. And the reason why the scriptures talk like that is because just think about a Paul scenario. He goes from church to church. Sometimes he's there for three months. Sometimes he just visits for a day. Sometimes he doesn't even ever go. He's just writing a letter.

How is he to know is this true of you? And furthermore, what he's doing is really all he's doing is observing the external fruits. But we said earlier someone could be enlightened so they could talk like a Christian. And haven't you seen those people who talk like a Christian?

They know all the Christian terminology. They can answer you back and forth, front and back, and they can tell you all the theological terms. And then they fall away. It's happened before. I've seen it. Right? And then there are people who have done Christian works. And then so every time the young guy comes to me and says, "Oh, I like this girl." I was like, "Why?" "Because she's so serving." And I'm like, "That's great.

But you need to tell me more because people can serve, but they can be bitter. They can be outright rude and mean and angry. They can even outright be not Christian. Tell me more." Right? There are plenty of people who serve. And I've actually gone on missions with people who've fallen away from faith.

So the fact of the matter is, Apostle Paul is always talking in diff conditions because he can't see. Who is the only one who can examine their own heart? And that's you. So by way of application, the objective truth is solid. It just behooves us to ask, "Is this true of me?" And even if you're at a strong church, even if you have godly parents, even if you have godly friends, you still need to examine your own heart.

Is there, in my heart, a wicked, evil pattern of disbelief? And I'll tell you something. This has been, how do you say, as a Christian, a thoroughly sanctified process in my life. Why? Because every single person has a private persona and they have a public persona. And to tell you very truthfully, as a pastor, I am so tempted to always perform a very public persona.

You know what I'm getting at, right? So you find, I find this existing in all kinds of environments and contexts. Even amongst the criminals who are like, there's a guy who in a fit of rage murdered people in a shooting and then the police go interview their neighbors and they're like, "Gah, I thought he was normal." You know?

But in the deep recesses of his private life, it was so dark and it was dark for way too long. And it came out in his rage. And it could be true of Christian servants. It could be true of teachers. It could be true of parents. It could be true of so many people.

The reason why I bring that up is because that private persona, nobody knows but you. And so you need to examine, in my private life, do I believe? Do I have a desire for God? Do I understand God saved me not from loneliness? God saved me not from, you know, kind of pointless living?

So He gave me a brand new purpose? No, God saved me from my sins. I feel the remorse of not knowing my God, but thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ who brought me to my creator. Forgave me of my sins. There is a subjective aspect of Christianity where it has to be your private persona that has now been realized and it becomes now joined together and it's just one person.

Right? That's what needs to happen. And the Christian individual is always fighting not to put on a front, not to be a hypocrite, but always be genuine and sincere. My application of today's passage, when we think about, you know, our experiences, right? Our experiences in our Christian walk, that really has a strong application for us.

In our persevering, are we examining the private life? Are we examining our private thoughts? The desires, longings, imagination and fantasies of your mind that only which you and God knows. That's what we need to tackle, that's what we need to examine daily. Right? That's what we need to examine daily.

Now, another application of this is truly what do we say of others? Right? When you see people and you examine their fruits, encourage people and challenge people, not simply to perform X, Y and Z, or not simply, I think there was a time when, I don't want to bring up specific names, but this is the best example I have in my mind.

There was a time when, you know, when a church like ours tries to strive for biblical living, tries to strive for more godliness in your life. What ends up happening is, the people who are less mature start making standards that are either unbiblical, or they try to push for standards that are unrealistic.

You know what I mean? They either neglect God's standard or they neglect the people. That's the kind of problem and dilemma that people fall into when you have a group of people who are trying to push, trying to push towards godliness. Right? Okay. I think one of the errors that I saw was in trying to ask people, "Are you genuinely saved?

Are you that individual who's been examining your heart?" You could fall into the danger of setting an arbitrary standard of godliness, and just really expecting people to live up to that, and then determining you're not a Christian or you're not genuine. But what really should mark a genuine Christian, what you should be looking for, is not, "Have you met my standard?" It should be, "Is your heart showing a pattern of perseverance?" This idea of, "The Christian will persevere," then says, "Even if somebody is really immature, even if someone you're kind of like, 'Gosh!'" You know, you're not thinking straight or whatnot, but if they show a pattern of growth, if they show over longevity a pattern of desire, if they show this sense of like, "Yeah, I'm not going to quit, even though I've fallen and all, like, I can't quit because of my God," that's what you want to see, isn't it?

When we're talking about this idea of perseverance of the saints, that's what you want to see. So whether an individual started off as they've been living pagan lives for like the past 30 years, and you expect them to be up here, that's just unrealistic. You're not really thinking about the person.

But what you need to be examining is the heart of perseverance. However, we see a guy who's been Christian for 30 years. They've been living their lives in the church, and they kind of have this like, "Eh, this is what I'm going to be. I don't need to really grow." You've already seen then elements.

You've already seen then stains of this disbelief. Why? Because they're not growing. They're not persevering. They're not being changed from one aspect and one increment of glory to another. They're not being transformed into the likeness of Christ, which is the purpose of our God in salvation. And so, again, when you address people, if they haven't met your standard of speech, theology, or sanctified living, don't judge them.

You need to see their heart condition and whether they're growing or not. Whether they have a hunger for the Lord. Does that make sense? Yes. I definitely don't want our church by saying, "Yeah, we're Bereans. We want to have right theology and live right." And then all of a sudden to like bash people because they haven't lived up to our standard.

Rather, everyone should be given this heart motivation and the condition of their spiritual life when they're hungry for the Lord. That's key. Amen? Alright, any questions? Any questions about perseverance of the saints? Okay, let me pray. You guys can go into your small groups. Father God, we want to thank you for your grace.

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, where we have either lack of motivation, inspiration, or just a strength. We've all experienced extended period of time, perhaps, where we feel dry.

But we are thankful, Father Lord, that God, for those of us who have been truly saved and redeemed, though we might experience times of dryness or experience times where we feel distant from you, God, because of your great love, because of your faithfulness, because of your strength and your sovereignty, we will never be lost.

And I pray, Father God, that that truth would not cause any increment of laziness or apathy, but rather it would motivate us all the more to pursue after you. To see your love and faithfulness, God. Let it inspire us to strive after you with everything that we have. Father God, I pray that if any single person in here has any doubts of their salvation, is not sure whether certain things are true for them, I pray that you give them insight.

I pray that you give them great spiritual discernment to examine whether they truly do believe. And I pray, Father God, that no one here will come to a point where that tragic event, God, where God would say, "You were so close, but I still don't know you." But I pray, Father God, that all of us would be able to enter into your presence with great confidence in our Lord Jesus.

And it's in his name we pray. Amen.