Perseverance of the Saints (Part 2)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle

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Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her king.

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Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

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This is Mike Abendroth. It's Tuesday. We have a theme here, and that theme is always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

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And Tuesdays follow Mondays, obviously. Mondays we have preaching from Bethlehem Bible Church, and then

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Tuesdays we have Pastor Steve in the studio as we talk about issues in the local church and doctrine, and we try to talk about things in maybe a salty way and a, how would you say that,

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Steve? Infectious, because we have an infectious laughter going on. That's right. I don't mind laughing.

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I don't mind even singing. People, you probably mind it, but I don't mind it. It sounds fine to me.

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We're in the series about doctrines of grace, and we've worked our way up to total depravity?

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No. Unconditional election? No. Limited atonement? Irresistible grace? No. We're to the final letter, P, for perseverance of the saints, and this is part two.

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What did we learn last week? I don't know. That was five minutes ago for us. We believe that the

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Bible teaches clearly, demonstrably, that when God saves someone, he saves them all the way to the end, and if God knows someone ahead of time, and he has predestined them, and he has called them, he will, in fact, glorify them.

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The sovereignty of God will make sure that not one person that the Father has chosen will somehow not go to heaven.

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Every person that Jesus died for will go to heaven. Every person that the Spirit of God regenerates will go to heaven.

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Now, people sin on earth. Some people say, well, I don't believe anymore, but we don't create a category for them that's not in the

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Bible. The Bible has a category for them, false disciples, those that have temporary faith, those like in Luke chapter eight, receive the word with joy, and then when trials come, they fall away, and so Christians, although they struggle with sin, remain steadfastly believing all the way until the end, and if you don't have a good book on this, of course, read

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Galatians, of course, read Romans, but there's a great little book called The Five Points of Calvinism by Daniel Steele and Kurt Thomas.

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The newer one has Lance Quinn as well, with an excellent section here from definitions to a lot of Bible verses, and here on page 57,

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Steele and Thomas say that these believers are kept by God's power through faith and nothing can separate them from his love.

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They have been sealed with the Holy Spirit who has been given as the guarantee of their salvation, and they are thus assured of eternal inheritance, and Steve, what

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I like about this is that it has the verses listed. Do you know, have you ever read a book and you see the verses in parentheses, but it's just the reference and no words?

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I don't usually look those up anymore, but here, they're listed out, Isaiah 43,

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Isaiah 54, Jeremiah 32, Matthew 18, John three, John five, John six, all the verses listed out that show with clarity that if you have eternal life, you have passed from death until life.

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And not just a listing of the verses like you just said, but the actual text, so you can just read it all. And can

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I just give a little testimonial, not a testifonial. When I got saved, and my wife was coming from a very

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Arminian charismatic background, and I said, would you please read this book by? Steele and Thomas.

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Steele and Thomas. And she said yes, and she read through it, and she goes, I mean, she had nothing like this where she was from, and she just goes,

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I read it, and I couldn't argue with it because it was all out of the Bible, and I knew it was true. And I'm going, perfect.

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That is absolutely perfect. I mean, I love this book, if only because it made my wife understand the doctrines of grace.

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All right, I'm going to ask you a question, Steve, regarding Perseverance of Saints, and you tell me if you believe this or you deny it.

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Hmm. Those who believe and are truly saved can lose their salvation by failing to keep up their faith.

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See, I already knew I didn't believe it as she said, can lose their salvation. I was like, I wanted to just stop you, you know, leap across the room.

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Well, that wouldn't have been much of a leap. Yeah, I mean, absolutely false. Can I just, I just,

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I want to read one scripture, and then you can go on. Okay, before you do, let me just give you a little overview.

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According to the Arminian, salvation is accomplished through the combined efforts of God, who takes the initiative, and man, who must respond.

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Man's response being the determining factor. God has provided salvation for everyone, but his provision becomes effective only for those who, of their own free will, choose to cooperate with him and accept his offer of grace.

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At the crucial point, man's will plays a decisive role. Thus man, not God, determines who will be the recipients of the gift of salvation.

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That's really what they teach. Yeah, and you know what, while you were saying that, I had a picture in my head of a crossing guard.

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Bear with me. God being the crossing guard, and he stopped traffic in both directions, and you're at the corner, and he's got the little crosswalk all cleared for you, and he's waving you across, and you're on the side of, you know, going to hell, and he wants you to get on the side going to heaven, and he's waving across.

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He's made every provision for you, stopped all the traffic, so there's no danger, but you have to walk across there.

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Well, the problem is, is that you're not a young child waiting for the crossing guard. You're a dead corpse, and that crossing guard can stand there for all eternity, and you're not moving.

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That's so true. I think what happened, Steve, is they say to themselves, people that believe this doctrine,

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I have to believe this doctrine because I need some place in my mind to put people who are now apostates, who are fallen away, who are backslidden.

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I saw him pray the prayer, there seemed to be initial fruit, initial enthusiasm, and then now, where are they?

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Or maybe, Steve, do you think it's because they'll say, maybe they've committed the sin that you shouldn't pray for in 1

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John 5, or maybe they've committed the unpardonable sin? Yeah, we recently talked about the unpardonable sin in a different kind of way, but I mean, think about it.

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If you commit the unpardonable sin, what is it to attribute the things of God, the works of God to Satan?

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To look at the miracles of Christ as they did, and to attribute those things that were done by the power of the

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Holy Spirit, and say, he's of Satan. I don't even know if you can commit that sin today.

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I would seriously doubt it. I don't know how you possibly could. Well, since Jesus isn't on the earth doing miracles, you can't say, look at Jesus, he's doing miracles, but he's doing miracles by Satan's power.

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It's probably kind of hard to do that. Yeah, I don't think you could. Back to topic, how about this, Steve? Do you think that if an

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Arminian would preach a better gospel, that is to say, a more biblical gospel away from the easy believism, that we would have fewer false converts to somehow try to put within our scheme of, were they saved, were they not saved, did they fall away?

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That is to say, if we'd preach a better gospel, a Jesus's gospel, then people would not accept something like that unless they were really

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Christians, then we would have to not worry so much about putting them in a weird category. Yes, that's exactly right, and I think it goes back to what

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Jesus said in Luke 9. He said, I'm not gonna make it easy for you people.

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I want you to consider, I mean, this is the Steve paraphrase, but he said, consider the cost. Listen, he says, and he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, refuse to know himself, and take up his cross daily, a cross being a symbol of shame, the most shameful thing there was, and follow me.

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For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

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For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? And he goes on and on and on, but I mean, the main thing is he wants people, and he did this in other places.

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He talked about the price of discipleship. If you, you would not say you wanted to be a disciple without counting the cost, and he likens it to a tower.

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You know, would you build for yourself some big fortress without having the money properly set aside, properly calculated on how much it was gonna cost to build it?

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No, because you'd get about a third of the way through, halfway through, three quarters through, and then not be able to complete it, and you would be a fool.

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And he says, likewise, there's a high cost to following me. Are you ready to pay it?

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And if people preached a gospel like that, and they said, this is the bar, it is so high, you have to be willing to give everything up for the

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Lord Jesus Christ, then our churches would not be filled with people who are not actually

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Christians. So true. I'd like to know, as we said last week, when does eternal life start?

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When Jesus said, and I will give them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.

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I think that starts at belief. When Romans chapter eight, verse one states, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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What, until they sin, some of the sins in Romans chapter 14 through 12 through 16, we are never going to be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus, because it would damage the

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Godhead more than it would us. It would make God a liar, it would make God not powerful enough to do what he says, he could not keep his word.

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And when we think about the Godhead, I think he's going to accomplish everything perfectly.

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Well, I'm not going to read John 17, you alluded to it last time, but I mean, think about it ultimately, and I would challenge any listener on nocompromiseradio .com

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to read John 17. And to think about this, if what Christ says is true, that the ones that the

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Father has given to him, he's going to return to the Father. If that is true and that he's not going to lose a single one, then what does that say about eternal security?

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That sounds pretty secure to me. The Father chooses and he draws and the Spirit draws and all these things are done on our behalf.

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And then the Lord Jesus Christ says, he's going to return every single one. I think that means every single one.

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Yeah, but I got a friend and he used to believe, he don't believe no more. Well, and you know, John 10,

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I know we've referred to it, it's a little shorter. And so let me just turn there. But he says this in John 10, 27, he says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

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I give them eternal life and they will, listen, never perish and listen, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

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My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the

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Father's hand. What does that mean? Does that mean you yourself are able to snatch them, snatch yourself out of the

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Father's hands? I think no one is pretty inclusive. Well, especially when you look at Romans 8 and say that no created thing, and I think you are a created thing.

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Yes. If you believe that it's your faith that you came up with caused your salvation, then

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I see how you stumble with this problem, that you can lose your salvation. But if faith is a gift that you must exercise, but if faith is a gift, then you realize

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God has done everything. Salvation is from the Lord. From start to finish, God has saved you, and there should end the story.

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But there is a passage that's probably the passage that people go to out of all the passages in the

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Bible that somehow speak to the opposite doctrine. And of course, when you look at doctrines that are difficult, you always have to examine the least known in light of the best known.

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That is to say, if 900 verses say that you can't lose your salvation and one seems to teach that, we say to ourselves, in God's mind, there is no antinomy, there is no kind of problem, it all works out.

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But it's our understanding that's flawed, so we better make sure to interpret the one in light of the many, not the many in light of the one.

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But the good news is, when you think through Hebrews 6, it goes with the many that teach perseverance of the saints, because there's no way

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Romans 6 does the opposite of what Romans 2, 3, and 4 teach, and 7, 8, 9, 10 teach.

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So Steve, tell us why people go to Romans, Hebrews 6 rather, and say that you can lose your salvation.

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Well, let me read the verse here. Let me see how much I need to read.

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I'll just start at verse one of chapter six. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying out of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

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Verse three, and this we will do if God permits. Verse four, and here's the key, for it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the

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Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the son of God to their own harm, and holding him up to contempt.

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And they say, well, there you go. If someone was within the walls of Christ, you know, the church, and had the, they were within the kind of the community of Christ and within the church, and then they walk away, scripture says it is impossible.

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You know, they can't be restored. By the way, whenever I think about that, Steve, if you've sinned one sin and that's happened, it's impossible.

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So if you've ever believed and you've ever struggled and you've ever had a moment of doubt or anything else walked away, don't ever try to, if that's the way you interpret that verse, don't ever try to re -evangelize someone because they'll never make it.

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It's impossible to restore a sinning brother. It's just impossible.

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Domino sanctus spiritu. I mean, I have no idea what you're saying. In peace, let us pray to the

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Lord. Lord, have mercy. Oh, say peace, may he defend us, oh God, by thy grace.

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Okay, here's the issue. Study Romans chapter six, ask yourself the question, why is

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Romans? Hebrews. Yeah, I don't know why I keep doing that. Hebrews chapter six. Because you believe Paul wrote Hebrews.

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Well, that's actually true. On some days I do. Hebrews chapter six, if you understand

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Hebrews as a book and then understand the warning passages, understand what's going on with the people there who were the

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Hebrews and how they were struggling with this faith that had no visible object, that is to say, no temple, no temple worship, no altars, no sacrifices.

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And now they have this person, Christ Jesus, and that's all they have. He goes on to list this whole litany of things about washings, verse two, laying on of hands, there is a resurrection of the dead, there's eternal judgment and all these kind of things.

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But what he says in verse nine, Steve, I think is the crucial verse that turns the tide of Hebrews chapter six to make you understand that what he says about washings and everything else and turning back and impossible to renew then begin to repentance.

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All those things are less than saving faith, are less than a faith that was originally a faith in Christ Jesus.

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Verse nine, but, there's the contrast, beloved. Now we're talking to you. Remember, there's different people he's talking to in the book of Hebrews.

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Some believers, some unbelievers, some Jews, some Jews who believe, but beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation.

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In other words, all these things that people talk about in verses one to eight that you can do and then lose your salvation, cannot be true because verse nine says they have nothing to do with salvation.

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They're just show, pomp and circumstance. And you can get so close and come so close and if you come this close, there's no one else

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I can offer you except Jesus Christ. And for you, real Christian, these things accompany salvation.

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I agree. Okay, all right, let's close in prayer. People say, well, what about being enlightened?

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Well, what about tasting? There's different ways you can work through that. You can taste and not swallow.

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You can partake of the Holy Spirit without having him indwell you. You can have an unbelieving spouse and that spouse has a spillover from the benefits that God has given you, the believing spouse.

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And so what you have to do is go here and say, would these people fall away, verse six of Hebrews six, it's impossible to renew them again.

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If that's the case of a believer than an unbeliever, he can never be saved again. But if it's a case of a

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Hebrew who's come so close, he's seen everything, he understands what the gospel is, he's been given

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Christ, there's no one else to give that person. I have nothing else to offer you. And if you turn that down, it's impossible for you to be saved because there's nothing else salvificly to offer you because you again crucify to yourselves the son of God and put him to open shame.

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Well, I'm just gonna say, keep preaching. All right, I like to preach. It's really a question of self -hardening.

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People are in the community, they hear the word, they have all the benefits of being in the community, they have service given to them and all these things.

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And for some of them, they give the very appearance of being Christians, but in the end, they aren't.

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And this is not a passage that shows that you can lose your salvation. As you pointed out there in verse nine,

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I mean, that makes it very plain. There are things that accompany salvation and they are not the things that he was talking about earlier.

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And I just don't think it could be any more plain. As you say, on many occasions, people throw out their little pet verse, whether it's

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John 1, 12, John 3, 16, or whatever else. And I love those verses.

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I love Hebrews 6, 4, but we need to keep reading. We need to understand those things in context, not just pull a little scripture out and go, okay, there it is right there.

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You can lose your salvation. Only if you believe that it's your actions that can do that, and that's not what that passage is teaching.

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Let's try to get rid of some of the misunderstandings that are commonly applied to this doctrine of perseverance of the saints.

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And these are coming right out of Boyce and Ryken's book, The Doctrines of Grace. And so I have the book, this is my show, and now

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I get to ask Steve about these misunderstandings. But Steve, you'll get them, they're easy. Okay. Misunderstanding one, perseverance does not mean that Christians are exempted from all spiritual danger just because they're

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Christians. Absolutely not. I mean, we're still tempted. Yeah, it doesn't mean that you won't sin.

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It doesn't mean that you won't feel the allure of sin. It just means that you have the capacity now to refuse to sin, to not sin.

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You know, you have the Holy Spirit in you. You can overcome temptation. You just have to do the right thing. Great.

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Boyce and Ryken say, it is because we really do face these spiritual dangers that the doctrine of perseverance is so important.

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Well, I like that. All right, number two, perseverance does not mean that Christians are always kept from falling into sin just because they're

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Christians. Well, I think I said that, yeah. I think so. I agree with that. There's still sin. You know, Noah got drunk.

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Peter denied. What it does mean though is, you know, even if you stumble, even if there's a pattern of stumbling in your life, ultimately, you know, think of it as a plane.

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The plane might lose a little altitude, but it's not gonna crash into the ground. And that's kind of the idea here.

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You, as a believer, you might be higher or lower, but you're not gonna ultimately crash and lose your salvation.

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Right on. Number three, perseverance does not mean that those who merely profess Christ without actually being born again are secure.

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Yeah, I mean, what could be more plain than even the Lord's teaching in Matthew 7? Many are gonna say on the day of judgment, did we not do this in your name?

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Did we not do that in your name? Of course, my favorite is casting out demons. You know, hey, we cast out demons in your name.

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You know, and he's gonna say, he's gonna say, depart from me. Why? Because they were never of him.

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Steve, I know you like preaching through 1 Peter, and here you have these Christians that were suffering. They were scattered all throughout parts of Asia Minor, Turkey.

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Cappadocia, Bithynia. That's right. They were strangers in the world. And what does Peter say right from the get -go to try to encourage them to say, do you know, no matter what happens, even though you may lose your life, you are going to be kept by God.

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By his power. It talks about in the first chapter of 1 Peter, it's by his power that you are kept.

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Let me see if I can. And as you're looking it up, whether they suffer, whether they're killed for the faith, there's a glory that's coming.

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There's a future glory. And even at the end of the book of 1 Peter, the God of all grace will make you perfect, establish you, and settle you.

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But at the beginning, I see you got the verse now. Well, I mean, just think about, tell me this isn't encouraging to people who are actually being persecuted unto death for the faith potentially.

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Listen to this. Verse three of chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy.

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He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

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Listen. Verse four, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.

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He doesn't mean you're being guarded during this lifetime, being protected in this lifetime. No, you're being guarded.

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Your eternal security, your eternal inheritance in heaven is being guarded.

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Your passageway, as it were, is being guarded. You're on your way to heaven. It's just a question of when, not a question of whether.

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Excellent. What about if somebody says, but you've got to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and maybe that means you should be scared to loosen your salvation?

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No. No, you need to work out your salvation. That's referring to sanctification.

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You are saved. Well, what are the implications for your life? And in light of those implications, how you ought to be in fear and trembling in terms of the responsibility that you've been given to live a holy life.

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And we need to, with all diligence, with all efforts, live out what we know to be true every moment of every day.

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What about some angels? They were, before time began, angels, so I guess not before time began, at least time for the angels, angels fell.

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They were perfect and they fell. So what about now we're glorified and we could fall? Well. I always give

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Steve that question, like with one minute to go. Yeah, well, yeah, angels, fun. Angels had the ability, right?

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They had the ability, obviously, to choose not to follow. But here's the interesting thing about angels is they had no effect of the fall, none.

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So they didn't have any depravity, there was no compulsion. But it was a conditional kind of perfection, right?

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Right. Just like with Adam. And so to me, when I answer that, Steve, and I'm interrupting you because we're about out of time, I think about the decree of God.

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And the decree of God decreed that these one third of the angels would fall. Yes, because they were unelected angels.

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That's right, and God decreed that Adam would fall. And God has decreed that all those that believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, that the Lord has died for, that the Lord has drawn, and that the Lord is drawing, and that the

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Lord has redeemed, or will redeem, all those he has decreed, he will never cast out. Preach it.

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So this is No Compromise Radio Ministry. That was a fast 24 minutes and 30 seconds, don't you think? It went much faster than I would have anticipated.

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What we're gonna do is we're gonna start up a series on the five solos of the Reformation. And so Subway Sandwiches is not the only group that can go fives.

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Five dollar foot longs, we've got the five tulips. Only five solos? And five solos.

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No solo, solo homeschool, and solo bootstraps? Got it. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE its staff or management.