Perseverance of the Saints

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:00
I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Ephesians.
00:08
We're going to be in chapter 1, the book of Ephesians chapter 1, and hold your place at verse 11.
00:23
We come now to the final message in our five or six part series on Reformed Theology, and we're finishing this morning the acrostic tulip.
00:35
You remember we have looked at the T, the U, the L, and the I.
00:41
This morning we'll be looking at the P.
00:43
The T stood for total depravity, the biblical doctrine that mankind is born into the bondage of sin and cannot be freed from this bond until God extends to him grace and changes his heart.
00:56
Unconditional election, God from eternity has immutably decided to draw certain people unto himself, not by any merit which is within them, but according to the counsel of his own will.
01:09
Limited atonement, Jesus Christ died a perpetuatory death on the cross to ensure the salvation of those whom God has chosen, or also called in the Bible the elect.
01:20
And finally, last week, irresistible grace.
01:23
God's call is an effectual call in that when he opens the heart to believe, a person responds freely and positively to the gospel.
01:34
Now this morning, we are going to turn our attention, as I said, to the most misused and misunderstood of the doctrines of grace.
01:45
I will go ahead and tell you right now, this is the one that even though the others are possibly more controversial, I would say this one is the most misused.
01:58
And as I said, misunderstood.
02:01
And what we're going to see is that while many people hold to this view or one similar to this, many people hold to it independently of the rest of the doctrines of grace.
02:15
And without the other four petals of the tulip, this doctrine does not stand.
02:22
It cannot stand on its own.
02:25
And we will see why that is in just a few moments.
02:29
We'll be looking at various texts this morning.
02:32
This is somewhat of a Bible study this morning, so we will be looking at quite a few texts, but we're going to begin in Ephesians.
02:38
So let's stand and look at Ephesians chapter 1, verses 11 through 14.
02:46
Speaking of Christ, it says, In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.
03:06
In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.
03:27
Father, as we seek to understand this text this morning, I pray, O Lord, first and foremost, as always, that You would keep me from error.
03:39
Give me an extra measure of Your grace this morning to explain clearly this important teaching, that no one would leave confused, and that You would open up hearts to believe the truth.
03:52
I pray that there would be an honesty with the text and a genuine desire to know and believe what it says.
04:00
I pray again, O Lord, that You would be glorified in everything we do today.
04:05
In Jesus' name we pray.
04:07
Amen.
04:23
Very early on in my Christian life, and even before I became a professing, biblical living Christian, I heard about a doctrine floating around that was called eternal security.
04:45
This was the teaching that once a person was genuinely saved, he could not then be unsaved, or maybe better to say, he could not then be lost.
05:01
His salvation was eternally secure in Christ, and that's where the term eternal security comes from.
05:08
Some people even go as far as to call it once saved, always saved.
05:16
And that's the more, I would say, the more derogatory way of describing it.
05:21
Typically when somebody calls it that, they'll either call it once saved, always saved, or OSAS.
05:25
I've heard it as O-S-A-S.
05:29
And typically when it's described that way, it's being described somewhat in a derogatory way.
05:37
And naturally, any doctrine like that, any doctrine which is so powerful as that one is, has the capacity to draw a lot of debate, and this one has.
05:52
There are those who support this teaching, and they argue that it is the result of God's sustaining grace.
05:59
They say, I believe in eternal security because God is too loving to save someone and then unsave them.
06:07
They believe that once a person has received God's grace by faith, that that grace that He gives them ensures that they will go to heaven.
06:15
They will never ever have any chance of being lost.
06:18
Some even go as far as to say that all a person must do to secure their salvation is to one time say a prayer, a sinner's prayer, that they believe in Jesus, that they repent of their sins.
06:28
And as long as they've said that prayer, no matter their life before or after, no matter, that's what salvation is, is simply saying a prayer.
06:35
And they cite scriptures to support this.
06:38
They go on to try to find different Bible verses to support that view, which is typically called once saved, always saved, or eternal security.
06:46
Now, there's the other side of that.
06:49
That's one side of the argument.
06:52
And then there's the opposite side of that.
06:54
There are those who deny that view, and they teach that a person can be genuinely saved, and because of sin or apostasy, leaving the faith is the definition of that word, that they could lose the grace of salvation and become unsaved.
07:08
In fact, the Roman Catholic Church is very specific.
07:10
You can lose the grace of salvation as a teaching.
07:13
If you commit a mortal sin or venial sin, you can lose certain types of grace.
07:20
And they believe, not only Roman Catholics but others, believe that the doctrine of eternal security just gives too much license.
07:30
This is one of the arguments that they make.
07:31
They say, well, if you believe that you're eternally secure, then you believe you can become a Christian and just live how you want.
07:37
You can live carnal lives.
07:40
They believe that if the doctrine were true, then there would be no reason to live for Christ in this world, to seek sanctity at all.
07:49
Some of them even go as far as to say that a person loses their salvation every time they commit a sin.
07:55
I've heard this, that a person literally has to be resaved every time a person commits a conscious sin.
08:03
So not only on that side is there no eternal security, on that side there's no security at all.
08:08
It's like you go from one side which says there's eternal security, no chance of falling away.
08:13
On the other side, it's there's no security at all.
08:16
It's as if at any moment you could go from being saved to unsaved in the blink of an eye.
08:23
And of course, that side cites their favorite Bible verses as well.
08:28
So you have two sets of people who are arguing something.
08:34
Typically, the eternal security side, you have the Southern Baptists who are very staunch in their commitment to what they call eternal security.
08:44
On the other side, as I said, Roman Catholics.
08:47
But if you want to be Protestant, you would say maybe the Methodists would teach what we might call limited security or no security.
08:57
They teach that a person can fall away.
08:58
Pentecostals are very strong, that if you've sinned or apostatized, then you're totally removed from salvation.
09:07
You had it and now you lost it.
09:10
And the question often comes to me, well, which one is right? You've got one group over here, the eternal security group.
09:17
They say that you never can lose it.
09:19
And then the other side, they say you can lose it pretty much at the drop of a hat.
09:24
So the question becomes, which one is right? And my proposal for this sermon, as I often do, I when I'm when I'm preparing sermons, I often prepare them as if I were preparing a debate.
09:39
I sometimes argue with myself in the midst of the sermon.
09:42
But my proposal, my thesis for the message is they're both wrong.
09:48
How do you like that? Didn't expect that.
09:51
I think I think the Baptists have it wrong.
09:53
I think the Methodists have it wrong.
09:54
I think the Pentecostals have it wrong for the most part.
09:58
I think they're both in there.
09:59
I think they're in error because they both have a fundamental misunderstanding of this doctrine, which stems from the ignorance of its origins.
10:08
They don't know where this teaching even came from.
10:10
They don't even know why it's in their church.
10:12
They don't even know the foundation from whence it came.
10:15
And because of that, they have an ignorance of what it even teaches.
10:19
Am I being ugly? No, I'm telling the truth.
10:21
The doctrine of eternal security is the great grandchild of a true biblical doctrine called the perseverance of the saints.
10:29
The doctrine of eternal security is a devolution of the truth.
10:34
It's not an evolution.
10:36
It's not a gradual growth and change for the good.
10:38
It's a devolution.
10:39
It has devalued a very true and biblical doctrine called the perseverance of the saints.
10:46
So what we need to do to understand true biblical doctrine is to understand what this means when we say we believe in the perseverance of the saints.
10:56
Because eternal security is a degradation of that teaching.
11:00
It has degraded and degenerated over time.
11:04
What started as a beautiful biblical teaching about God's grace has become a crutch for people to live sinful lives after a supposed conversion experience.
11:16
You ever hear that? You understand what I'm saying? What started as a beautiful biblical doctrine has become a crutch for people to live sinful lives after a supposed conversion experience.
11:30
All right.
11:31
So let me explain the difference now between the perseverance of the saints, the true biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and eternal security.
11:39
It is a subtle difference, but beloved, it is an important and profound difference.
11:44
And I want you to understand it clearly.
11:47
Eternal security teaches that once a person believes in Jesus, that he cannot then be unsaved no matter what he does after the act.
11:55
That is, a person can believe in Jesus at some point, perhaps say a prayer or walking forward or being baptized.
12:02
He can go through his whole life never acting on that faith.
12:07
And God will be then obligated to allow him into heaven because of that one moment where he said that prayer or where he got baptized or whatever.
12:16
I hear this described at a lot of funerals, and I'm sure some of you have heard this as well.
12:22
Well, we know he was a liar, a thief, a scoundrel, an adulterer.
12:27
But hey, he went forward when he was five years old and he said a prayer, so we know he's in heaven.
12:35
Some of you are getting very uncomfortable because you've been at funerals and you've heard those very words.
12:42
Beloved, you may think that's hyperbole.
12:45
I've sat in sermons.
12:46
Many of you have too.
12:50
But I assure you there are people who believe that way.
12:53
I've heard it taught that way.
12:54
In fact, I heard one night I was on the radio, almost wrecked the car.
12:57
I was driving in my car and this pastor said something on the radio, almost got in a wreck.
13:02
Because I was flabbergasted at what he would have the audacity to say from the pulpit and then put it on the radio.
13:08
I've said things from the pulpit that later I decided not to publish because I made a mistake.
13:13
But this guy put it on the radio.
13:16
And what he said was this.
13:19
He said, you need to come to Jesus.
13:21
You need to accept Jesus.
13:22
You need to receive Jesus.
13:24
Because hey, even if you don't like him, you've still got him.
13:29
Because eternal security says even if all you have to do is say this one prayer, this one time, and you'll have him forever.
13:38
Beloved, that is a degradation of biblical theology.
13:43
It's not even at all true in accordance with biblical theology.
13:49
But yet, it's what passes today as biblical theology.
13:55
And it is not biblical theology.
13:58
I'm sorry.
13:59
The perseverance of the saints.
14:03
The doctrine which was taught by the reformers, which is clearly taught in scripture, says this.
14:11
That God's elect, which we have defined over the last four weeks, we know what that means.
14:16
Those whom God has chosen will persevere in the faith because God has chosen them for salvation.
14:24
And will ensure that they not ultimately fall away.
14:29
You want to hear it again just so you understand the difference? Eternal security says that once a person believes in Jesus, they cannot be unsaved no matter what happens after the fact.
14:42
The perseverance of the saints says that God's elect will continue to believe.
14:48
They will continue to persevere because God has chosen them for salvation and will ensure that they not fall away.
14:57
Do you understand the difference, brethren? One is saying it doesn't matter what happens afterwards.
15:03
The other is saying God has ensured what will happen afterwards.
15:07
That the faith will persevere.
15:10
And it is a different doctrine.
15:12
It is two entirely different things.
15:14
If people say eternal security is the first thing to say, no it is not.
15:20
It is not.
15:21
Perseverance of the saints does not say a person cannot fall away.
15:24
Perseverance of the saints says that if God has chosen to draw a person to faith, He will also grant them the grace to continue in that faith.
15:33
And they will not fall away.
15:37
There is a huge, huge difference.
15:41
If a person abandons their faith, it is proof positive that they were never truly in grace to begin with.
15:50
Where does the Bible say on this? 1 John 2-19 They went out from among us, but they were not of us.
16:00
For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
16:05
But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
16:13
The going out demonstrates that they are not of us.
16:19
How about Matthew 7? Verse 21 Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
16:31
On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
16:42
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
16:44
I always go to this verse for my friends who say you can lose your salvation.
16:47
I say if you lost it, you never had it because Jesus said he never knew you.
16:52
If you believe somebody has lost it, I believe they never had it.
16:56
It's as simple as that.
17:00
I'm not saying a person can't come and say a prayer and act like a Christian for a couple of months and then go out and become crazy and that that person is saved.
17:07
No, what I'm saying is they never had a changed heart and a changed life.
17:11
They simply had a changed routine for about a month or two.
17:15
Sometimes it's a couple of years.
17:18
But beloved, there's a lot of things that can change our routine that don't change our hearts.
17:24
And that's what happens with a lot of people who, quote unquote, become Christians is they change their Sunday routine for a while.
17:31
And that's about it.
17:34
Dan Barker is one of the greatest examples I can use.
17:36
Dan Barker leads one of the one of the biggest atheistic associations in America.
17:41
And Dan Barker was on par.
17:43
He was in line to be the next big evangelist of his day back in the 70s.
17:50
I believe he was with Catherine Kuhlman, but I don't know for certain.
17:54
I may be wrong on that, but Catherine Kuhlman was a huge revivalist and he was in line.
18:00
He was he was being mentored and then he left never to return.
18:05
And to this day, repudiates anything he ever said he believed and now teaches people that.
18:12
Everything he said was wrong, everything he said was false.
18:15
He is now teaching people that atheism is a way to live and he runs a society of atheists.
18:22
Beloved, can I ask you if eternal security is true according to how it is taught in most churches? Dan Barker saved and on his way to heaven.
18:36
That should challenge you.
18:39
If that is the view you hope.
18:43
Perseverance of the saints.
18:44
Again, they will persevere because God has chosen them and graced them to persevere.
18:55
Now we go to a question again.
18:57
I often prepare my sermons as debates.
18:59
I know the questions that would I would ask.
19:02
So I'll ask it and then answer it.
19:04
Question.
19:05
What about people who have proclaimed Christ seem to have really lived for Christ and then had a very stark falling away? What about them? I'm not talking about somebody who was just here for a month and, you know, change the routine for a couple of weeks.
19:23
I'm talking about somebody that I witnessed with my own eyes living for Christ and yet then departed from the faith.
19:30
What do you have to say about those, Dr.
19:32
Foskey? I readily admit every situation and every person is different, but I want to show a pattern from Scripture.
19:44
Again, my opinion would matter not.
19:47
I'll show you a pattern which we find in Scripture.
19:53
The Scripture shows us there were legitimate elect believers who had times where their faith failed real bad.
20:06
In fact, the one I would use as an example, the one I think is probably the best example in Scripture, is Simon Peter.
20:13
If any of the apostles made a clear statement of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it was the apostle Peter.
20:19
We read it earlier this morning in Matthew 16.
20:23
Matthew 16, Jesus said, Who does the world say that I am? Some say you're John the Baptist.
20:27
Some say you're a prophet.
20:29
Some say you're this.
20:29
Some say you're that.
20:30
Well, who do you say that I am? And Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
20:36
And what did Jesus say to him? He said to him, Flesh and blood has not shown this to you, but my Father in heaven has revealed this to you.
20:45
Jesus actually said of Peter that God had revealed to his heart who Jesus was.
20:52
And Peter believed it and he even said, You are now the rock.
20:57
Peter Petros means stone.
21:00
You are now a rock.
21:03
And he goes on to say, Upon this rock, not speaking of Peter himself, but his confession.
21:07
This rock of confession will now be that upon which I build my church.
21:12
The confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
21:15
This is why when people come forward in church, I ask them, Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? I ask them to simply affirm what Peter has said.
21:26
If you ever wonder why I ask that question, I want them to reaffirm this confession of Peter.
21:32
That this is the rock upon which the church is built.
21:35
And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
21:38
He is a man of faith.
21:40
God has opened his heart to the truth.
21:43
But yet, even after this amazing confession, Peter fell and Peter fell hard.
21:51
I mean, hard.
21:55
He denied Jesus Christ three times.
22:00
Matthew 26, same book.
22:02
Matthew 26, verse 69.
22:04
Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came up to him and said, You all, sir, were with Jesus, the Galilean.
22:11
But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you mean.
22:16
And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him and she said to the bystanders, This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.
22:23
And again, he denied it with an oath.
22:25
I do not know the man.
22:28
After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, Certainly you two are one of them, for your accent betrays you.
22:35
Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man.
22:43
Immediately the rooster crowed and Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.
22:49
And he went out and wept bitterly.
22:51
Yet, even after a most heinous failure, even after a threefold denial of his Lord and Savior, Peter was not abandoned by God.
23:13
Peter was numbered among the elect.
23:15
He had been chosen by God.
23:17
And as such, Christ, after the resurrection, restored the faith of Peter.
23:22
And how did Christ restore his faith? He said, Do you love me? Yes, I love you, Lord.
23:29
Do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
23:33
Do you love me? And Peter wept.
23:39
Why? He denied him three times.
23:43
And he asked him three times, Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Peter experienced restoration.
23:52
Beloved, just because a person falls into sin does not mean that they're not numbered among the elect.
23:57
Just because a person deals with a heinous sin, I think denying Christ three times kind of ranks up there.
24:04
It's a heinous sin.
24:05
But yet, he was restored by Christ.
24:11
Can the elect have times of sinful and times of falling away? Well, this proves yes.
24:20
But I tell you about another man.
24:23
Another man in Scripture, another man in the same group.
24:28
Whose name was Judas Iscariot.
24:31
Judas also demonstrated a fidelity to Jesus.
24:34
He followed him for three years.
24:37
Yet, there was no restoration in Judas.
24:44
One might argue that Judas was remorseful.
24:48
Which is demonstrated in the fact that he threw back the pieces of silver to the Pharisees.
24:53
And afterwards, he went out and hung himself.
24:55
Yes, there was remorse.
24:57
There was guilt.
24:58
But remorse is not repentance.
25:01
And guilt is not sanctity.
25:08
Neither is it restoration.
25:12
Judas died having given only lip service to Christ.
25:16
This is why Jesus said, Have I not chosen twelve of you, but one of you is a devil? Judas was a man who gave lip service to Christ.
25:33
But did not have a changed heart.
25:37
So, understanding these two distinctions in Scripture.
25:41
The genuine and the false convert.
25:42
The one who is numbered among the elect.
25:45
Who has a time of failure and yet is restored.
25:48
And the one who falls and never is restored.
25:51
What is the difference? The difference is one persevered and one did not.
25:57
Again, coming back to the doctrine.
26:00
The perseverance of the saints.
26:02
The false convert falls away, never to return.
26:07
They go the way of Dan Barker and others.
26:11
This is why the doctrine is called the perseverance of the saints.
26:14
God causes a person who, though they may fall for a time, to not be utterly lost.
26:20
They are God's elect.
26:21
And even though they fail, it is not an ultimate failure.
26:25
By the way, this makes sense of verses which eternal security people have a hard time understanding.
26:31
Verses like Matthew 24, 13.
26:33
He who endures to the end shall be saved.
26:35
People have difficulty with that with eternal security.
26:38
Because it doesn't seem to jive with what they believe.
26:41
Verses like, the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments.
26:44
And I will never blot his name out of the book of life.
26:47
I will confess his name before my Father and before the angels.
26:50
Revelation 3, 5 says, the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white.
26:54
Who is the one who conquers? The one who perseveres in his faith.
26:57
Who is the one who perseveres in his faith? The one God has chosen and graced with perseverance.
27:04
And also that verse says their names are already written in the book of life.
27:09
And God will not blot their names out.
27:13
Ultimately, God keeps those whom he has chosen forever.
27:17
He keeps them from totally and finally falling away.
27:20
This is a function of his grace and election.
27:23
He doesn't just choose us.
27:25
He sustains us.
27:28
This is why, going back to our opening text, I didn't just read it and depart from it.
27:33
I wanted to set the stage so we can actually look at it and understand it.
27:36
Go back to Ephesians 1, verse 11.
27:41
The Bible speaks in this passage of our inheritance as being something we have already obtained.
27:47
But yet we are still taking possession of it in the future.
27:51
Why have we already obtained it? Because we are numbered among the elect.
27:55
Why have we yet to obtain it? Because we're persevering towards that goal.
28:00
Read it with me.
28:01
It says, In him we have obtained an inheritance.
28:04
Past tense.
28:05
It's already happened.
28:07
Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his will.
28:11
This is already done.
28:12
It was done before the foundation of the world.
28:14
So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
28:18
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession.
28:31
Future tense of it.
28:33
To the praise of his glory.
28:34
We have possession in the sense that God has already chosen us.
28:37
He's already elected us.
28:38
That has already happened.
28:39
In God's mind it's a done deal.
28:42
And we have now been given the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee that we will have it.
28:47
And in the future we will take possession of it because we will persevere.
28:51
You see, this is why later in Ephesians chapter 4 in verse 30 it says, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption.
29:03
That seal which was given to you by the Holy Spirit, that Holy Spirit within you, is the seal of God on you.
29:10
He is the promissory note that that which God has begun, he will sustain.
29:15
This is why it says in the Bible that he who began a good work in you will continue it until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.
29:23
This is how God works.
29:26
He chooses us.
29:28
He saves us.
29:29
And he sustains us so that we persevere.
29:34
Some people have chosen to call it the preservation of the saints because they want people to understand it's God's work and not ours.
29:42
And I agree with that.
29:43
But yet I still want you to understand why the reformers chose to call it the perseverance of the saints.
29:49
They call it that because it is God who is causing us to persevere.
29:55
Now, if you are a genuine believer, you will persevere because God will never let you stray so far that you will be unable to return.
30:05
However, and listen close, if your faith is not genuine and it is simply lip service to a man named Jesus, you will not see eternal life.
30:23
Some may ask, how can I be confident then that my faith is genuine? How can I know that I have faith? Well, the Bible tells us to evaluate ourselves in the light of the word.
30:38
Evaluate ourselves in the light of the word.
30:40
Some people say, once you believe in Jesus, you should never doubt your conversion.
30:44
You should never doubt.
30:45
I've heard people say, write it down.
30:46
Write the date down.
30:47
That way, if you ever have any doubt, just go back to that date and look at that date.
30:50
Beloved, the Bible says no such thing.
30:52
The Bible says, make your calling and election certain.
30:57
Do your best to make your calling and election certain.
31:00
Ask yourself the question, why do we take communion on a regular basis? Because communion is a time of self-evaluation.
31:10
But what do I evaluate? What do I ask myself? How do I ask? What do I ask? What is the first commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
31:25
Ask yourself, is my life marked by a love for God? What is the second commandment? Love your neighbor as yourself.
31:39
Is my life marked by a love for others? Third, I would ask myself, do I truly love the brethren? First John 3, 14, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.
31:57
Whoever does not love abides in death.
32:02
That's an important verse.
32:04
We know we have passed from life.
32:06
People say, oh, I love Christ, but I hate the church.
32:10
You hate his bride? If somebody said, Keith, I love you, but I hate Jennifer.
32:15
Guess what? We ain't friends.
32:18
That's simple.
32:24
Finally, do you have a genuine hatred for sin? Jesus said the ones who came to him, but yet never knew him, were the ones who never departed from lawlessness.
32:39
I know what you're thinking.
32:40
Brother, I'm not perfect.
32:41
And you're not.
32:44
As a believer, you will battle sin.
32:45
I will battle sin.
32:47
Yet, you should recognize a change in your life.
32:52
Where you went from being a lover of the world to a lover of God.
32:58
Where you went from being a lover of self to a lover of others.
33:04
Where you went from being a lover of sin to a lover of righteousness.
33:12
If you don't see this, no matter how many words of prayer you pray, no matter how many times you've gotten wet, you can be confident you have not passed from death to life.
33:23
But if you see the love of God in yourself, the fidelity to him, to his word and to his people, to his commandments, be confident he is the one who made that change in you.
33:36
And that change is genuine.
33:39
And it is a change that will last.
33:43
The Bible says, and this sums up Reformed theology best of all, the Bible says salvation is of the Lord.
33:51
From beginning to end, from A to B, from the Alpha and to the Omega, salvation is of the Lord.
34:01
It begins with God.
34:03
It is sustained by God.
34:05
And it ends with God.
34:08
To him be all the glory.
34:13
Amen.
34:14
Let's pray.
34:19
Father, I thank you for your sustaining grace.
34:24
And I do pray, Lord, that this has been an opportune moment for everyone under the sound of my voice to examine their heart to see if they are truly in the faith.
34:38
And I pray, Lord, for those, anyone in the room who is not in the faith, that you would convict their heart, that you would convert them.
34:44
And we know, Lord, that there is nothing we can do to change them except pray and seek you.
34:50
For you are the Lord who changes hearts.
34:54
Father, we do pray that you use this time to move on people.
35:01
Show them your wonderful grace.
35:06
We thank you for it and praise you in Jesus' name.
35:10
Amen.
35:13
Beloved, stand with us now as we sing.
35:15
And if you have a need for prayer, please come.