Preserving Grace - [John 3:14-16]

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Well, how fun is this for us to be able to spend this time together? Friday and Saturday was a joy and an out -of -body experience to be here with you and to go through these truths together in the
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Word of God. And the way it worked out, we spent two sessions on the atonement of Christ.
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And so, therefore, I still have one last message to bring. I was going to bring the extraordinary life of John Calvin and just give you an introduction and an overview to his amazing life.
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But instead, we still have the fifth doctrine of grace.
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And this one is so very important. We call it preserving grace.
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And so, that's what I want to talk to you this morning. And just to encourage everyone, I do see the clock.
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I now know where it is. And so, I will have us out in time because I want to hear myself preach in the next service.
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So, I'll have us finished in time. So, this truth of the eternal security of the believer and the perseverance of the saints, sometimes known as preserving grace, is really the truth that sweetens the other doctrines of grace.
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This is what makes unconditional election so precious. This is what makes definite atonement so sweet.
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This is what makes irresistible grace so majestic, is this truth.
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And without this truth of preserving grace, really, unconditional election, definite atonement, and irresistible grace, we would yawn at it.
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This is so important. And sometimes, when I go through these truths, when we come to this, sometimes the attitude is, well,
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I already know this one. Tell me something that I don't know. Well, I don't know that there is anything that I can tell you that you don't already know as it relates to this truth, except to tell you on the front end that this one is so precious, and it makes the others precious.
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, testified that it was this truth that proves to be the bait that drew him to Christ.
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Before he was saved, Spurgeon said he noticed others seemingly starting the
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Christian life, only to fall away from Christ back into a life of sin.
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And this discouraged him, and it paralyzed him, and it made him not want to give his life to Christ.
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Because he said, I don't want to be like these other hypocrites. I don't want to start this journey and then fall away.
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And so, it really became a ball and chain around his ankle. And Spurgeon said, whatever good resolutions
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I might make, the probabilities are that they will be good for nothing. When temptation assails me,
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I will be like those of whom it has been said, they see the devil's hook and yet cannot help nibbling at this bait.
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I will disgrace myself. So, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, as a teenager, held back from giving his life to Christ as he heard of the glorious doctrines of grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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But what God used in his life to push him over the edge into the arms of the
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Lord Jesus Christ was his understanding of preserving grace.
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As Spurgeon said, he found this doctrine to be irresistible. He said, when
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I heard it said that the Lord will keep his people right to the end,
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I must confess that the doctrine of the final preservation of the saints was a bait that my soul could not resist.
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I thought it was sort of life insurance, an insurance of my character, an insurance of my soul, an insurance of my eternal destiny.
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I knew I could not keep myself, but if Christ promised to keep me, then
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I should be safe forever. And I longed to pray to find
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Christ because I knew that if I found him, he would not give me a temporary salvation such as some preach, but eternal life which could never be lost."
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Did you hear that? That if you would give your life to Christ, he would give to you a life that would never end.
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He would keep you in the palm of his hand, secure throughout all of the ages to come.
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It would not be a temporary relationship that you would begin with him. What good is it to be chosen by the
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Father before the foundation of the world if in the end you die lost?
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What good is it to be redeemed by the Son of God upon the cross with your name written upon his heart if in the end you die lost?
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What good is it to be effectually called sovereignly regenerated, monergistically regenerated by the
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Spirit of God who raises the dead to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ if in the end you die lost?
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The biblical truth of election and predestination and redemption and regeneration are sweet and precious only if when you die in the end, you die saved.
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And so I want to walk through John's gospel one more time. I want you to see the bait.
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I want to dangle it before you. I want your eyes to enlarge.
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I want your breath to quicken. I want you to see this truth of preserving grace, that we are saved by grace and we are kept by grace throughout all of the ages to come.
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John chapter 3 verse 15 is the first text that I want to draw your attention to.
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And as you would be writing down an outline, write down these two words, eternal life.
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In verse 15, John writes, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life.
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All who believe upon Christ at that moment receive eternal life.
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I spent much of my early Christian years thinking, if I could just die saved, if I could just hold out faithful to the end, then one day when
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I die, if I could be saved, I would then go to heaven and then
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God would give to me eternal life. If I could just make it to heaven and the door be closed behind me and the door be locked, in heaven,
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God would give to me eternal life and I would live forever with him. But when
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I saw this verse and other verses like it, that the gift of eternal life is given not in heaven.
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Listen, there's no security in being in the place of heaven.
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Do you know that? There have been plenty who have fallen out of heaven. Lucifer, the son of the morning was cast out of heaven.
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A third of the demons were cast out of heaven. There's no security in a place.
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The only security that we have is in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. You're more safe on the earth in Christ than you are in heaven without Christ.
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And so in verse 15, so that whoever believes in him, whoever believes will in him have eternal life.
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Several things for you to note. First of all, the verb tense, present tense, now, before entering into heaven.
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Right now, have eternal life. This is the first mention in John's gospel of eternal life.
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It will be repeated 17 times in John's gospel.
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Now, what is eternal life? When we think of eternal life, we normally think of the duration of life, that it is a life that will last throughout eternity.
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And that is true, but that is only the secondary emphasis of eternal life.
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The primary emphasis of eternal life is quality of life that we receive when we receive
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Christ. Literally, eternal life means life of the eternities or life of the age to come.
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You see, salvation is not just getting man out of hell and into heaven, it is getting
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God out of heaven and into man. We receive eternal life, we receive
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Christ, and God puts a new kind of life in us. We were dead in trespasses and sins, and now we receive eternal life.
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It is a life unlike anything this world has to offer. It is nothing less than the eternal life of the eternal
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God. Eternal life is a totally new quality of life.
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It is eternity. It is the eternal God. It is eternal
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Christ coming to live inside of me, and it is a quality unlike anything this world has to offer.
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I had a tremendous time yesterday after we met here together. I was kindly taken to downtown
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Boston, and there I went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. There was a traveling exhibit from the
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Renaissance, from Venice, and the top three painters from the 15th and 16th century from Venice, which was really the explosion, that in Florence, of the
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Renaissance. Of course, you know that. And I walked through room after room after room of these extraordinary mural paintings and portraits and self -portraits, and I was just mesmerized.
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And there was a certain elevation of lifting of the soul in a temporal sense.
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After that, I went down into the room that houses the Copley paintings of Paul Revere and John Quincy Adams and countless other famous patriots from here in the
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Boston area. And I just stood there mesmerized, staring at these portraits and looking at them from all different angles and seeing the oil on the canvas, and it was amazing.
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I walked around downtown Boston and just looked at the sites and listened to the sounds and saw the architecture and went into certain stores and just observed the best this world has to offer.
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And I don't want to tell you, I enjoyed it. God has given to us all things richly to enjoy.
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I'm not one of these isolationist Christians who wants to go buy a ranch and just start a
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Christian commune. I want to go into the world. I want to reach people for Christ.
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And there are things that God has put upon this planet that He intends for us to richly enjoy.
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I want to be a more interesting person as I preach the gospel. But it is nothing like the quality of life, of eternal life, of having the life of the ages to come already deposited down into my heart and soul.
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And with this, I know God. With this, I have supernatural joy and peace.
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Supernatural happiness and all of the attendant virtues that come with the life of the ages to come.
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Listen, heaven has already come. God Himself has already come and He has deposited down within our soul.
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And it is apples and oranges. It is unlike anything this world has to offer. And it is a life that once we experience it, once we taste it, once we receive it, it shall never end.
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In fact, it's like John 2 when Jesus turned water into wine and they took the wine to the headmaster and he said, what?
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Most people give the best at the first. And the implication is after people get drunk, they don't care what they drink and they bring out the cheap stuff at the end.
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But you have given the very best. You've saved the best for the end.
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The whole thing is a picture of what Jesus will teach in the next chapter, the new birth, how
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He transforms our lives and brings a quality of life to us that is the very best.
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And the best is still yet to come. And so, this is the first heading, eternal life.
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If you could be saved and lose your salvation 10 years after you began to walk with the
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Lord, you would not have received eternal life, you would have 10 -year life.
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If you would be a Christian for only five years, then you would have only received five -year life.
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But what is settled for eternity cannot be undone in time.
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And He has given to us eternal life. Both quality and duration of life is implied in that term.
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Now, second text, John 3 .16, you can write at the top of that, never perish.
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Please note in John 3 .16, for God so loved the world that He gave
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His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
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Do you see that? The moment you believe in Jesus Christ, you have crossed the line, you have entered through the narrow gate, you have entered into the kingdom of God.
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And once you put one foot into the kingdom of God from that point on, the Bible says you will never perish.
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Previous to that, you were in a state of condemnation. Previous to that, you were under the wrath of God. Even the elect of God are under the wrath of God before they come to faith in Christ.
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But this says, as soon as we believe upon Christ, we will never perish.
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We could say, what part of never do you not understand? What part of not do you not understand? We will not perish, never perish.
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And that is to say we will never suffer eternal damnation in the flames of hell.
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And the word perish here has nothing to do with annihilation. There are some Christians today, they cannot stand the thought of eternal hell, and so they're air conditioning hell.
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And they're letting people out of hell and saying a merciful God would never send people to hell forever.
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And so they come to a text like this and says, well, they will not perish. And ultimately, no one will perish.
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Well, this has nothing to do with annihilation. Perishing here indicates divine condemnation. And that is complete and everlasting.
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To perish means to be banished from the grace and the mercy and the love of God and to dwell forever under the wrath of God.
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This says the very opposite. It says we shall not perish.
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No believer in Jesus Christ will ever suffer condemnation, will ever perish.
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I must quicken. John 4, verse 14, our third text. For this heading, write down, never thirst.
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All who drink of the salvation that Christ offers will never thirst again, not in this life nor in the life to come.
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They taste of a drink that satisfies forever.
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Spurgeon has a great sermon entitled, The Sip That Satisfies Forever.
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One drink, one sip of this supernatural water and you will never ever in a million years ever thirst again.
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You will be entirely and completely satisfied throughout all of the ages to come.
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Look at John 14, verse 13 and 14. Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, referring to the physical water coming out of the well there.
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But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, forever satisfied in His grace.
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This satisfaction never ends and this implies that the believer remains forever in a state of grace because I promise you they are not satisfied in hell.
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They are crying out, oh, just for a drop of water on the tip of my tongue, just once every trillion years would be some relief.
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A .W. Pink says, never thirst argues the eternal salvation of the recipient.
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Were it possible for a believer to forfeit salvation through unworthiness, this verse would not be true.
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For every lost soul will thirst forever in hell.
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Close quote. This says, when we come to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, John 7, verse 37, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, and out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.
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When we come to Christ and we drink deeply from the wells of salvation, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, one sip and we are forever satisfied.
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Are you not forever satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ? Has He not filled you up to overflowing?
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Are you not completely content in Him that the waters of this world are empty wells, but having drunk of Christ, you are satisfied and filled with Him?
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Number four, John 5, verse 24, write down these two words, never condemned.
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John 5, verse 24, and we're building the case for preserving grace.
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Truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears my word and believes
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Him who sent me has, present tense, eternal life, everlasting life, never -ending life, the life of the ages to come, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
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The one who hears the word of God and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will never come into judgment with Almighty God.
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We have settled out of court. Our great advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, has taken our case, and He has never lost a case.
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And He, by His own shed blood and by His perfect righteousness, has given us now, by imputation, a standing of full acceptance before God.
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Romans 1, verse 8, there is no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus.
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John 3, verse 18, he who believes in Him is not judged. Romans 8, 33, who shall bring a charge against God's elect?
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God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Listen, this is a finished transaction with God the moment one believes.
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It is an irrevocable pardon that we have received. There is no reversal.
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There is no going back into a state of condemnation. So we are forever preserved by God's grace because of the perfect righteousness of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And Archibald Alexander, the founder of Princeton Seminary, lay on his deathbed his last words.
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Or I guess it was Machen's last words, excuse me. I thank God for the perfect active obedience of Jesus Christ.
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That will be your comfort on your deathbed. Should Christ tarry, every one of us will be on a deathbed.
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They're gasping for our last breath. And it will be then that we will treasure the perfect righteousness of Christ as we never have in our life.
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We will never be condemned. Now, there's a fifth text.
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Come to John 6, verse 39. And right at the top of this heading, never lost.
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Not only never perish and never thirst and never condemned, but never lost.
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John 6, beginning in verse 39, we have worn this passage out.
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This is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He has given me, we understand who that is, that's you and me.
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I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
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That is to say, without any exception, we will never be lost in the end.
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We will never be separated from Christ in the end. We will never be lost on the final day.
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And He will raise us up in the final resurrection. At the end of the age, all of us will be kept and guarded to the end.
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The great Geneva Reformer, John Calvin, writes at this point, Christ is not the guardian of our salvation for just one day or even for a few days, but He will care for our salvation to the end.
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He will accompany us, as it were, from the start to the finish of our journey.
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And so, he mentions here the final resurrection, close quote.
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Look at verse 40, John 6. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone, no exceptions, everyone who beholds the
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Son and believes in Him will have eternal life.
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And I myself, it's emphatic, I and no one else, will raise
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Him up on the last day. And what is implied here is to be raised up in a state of grace, to be received by the
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Father into the portals of heaven throughout all of the ages to come. Paul put it this way,
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He who has begun a good work in you shall perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
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Philippians 1 verse 6. Look at verse 44 while you're in the neighborhood. No one can come to me unless the
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Father who sent me draws him. We understand this is the effectual, irresistible, sovereign call and drawing of the
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Holy Spirit to faith in Jesus Christ. Look at the back end. The beginning of verse 44 talks about our entrance into the kingdom.
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Look at the back end. And I will raise Him up on the last day and it is a resurrection unto life.
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What this is saying, from eternity past to eternity future, all of the elect are held secure forever.
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Romans 8, 29 and 30 says, Those whom He foreknew, He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son in whom
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He predestined, these He called. In whom He called, these He justified.
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In whom He justified, these He glorified. Listen, no one is picked up along the way.
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There are no dropouts along the way. The group that He begins with in eternity past is the group that He ends up with in eternity future.
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We understand this, the five golden links of salvation in Romans chapter 8.
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That's what Christ Himself has already taught here. From the beginning with these given ones all the way to the final last day, when
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He raises them up, all of His sheep shall be safely transported home.
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Look at verse 54 again as long as we're here. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood.
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And what a wonderful picture this is of saving faith. There must be the personal appropriation of Christ to my life.
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I must receive Him internally. It can't be an external association with Christ, but I must personally receive
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Him into my life like someone would eat something or drink something.
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I must receive the person and work of Christ by faith into my life.
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And at the end of verse 54, and I will raise Him. Who's the Him? The one who eats of my flesh and drinks of my blood.
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I will raise Him up on the last day to live with God and remain with Him forever, never lost.
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Hey, listen, you can enjoy your salvation. Picture two people on a ship crossing the
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Atlantic going through a storm. There's one person on board who was just panicked, paralyzed, traumatized, fearful that this ship is going down at any moment.
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Can't eat, can't sleep, can't enjoy anything. Clinging to the inside of the bedroom that they have, afraid to come out of their cabin, sleeping with a life vest on, and then picture someone else who knows this ship has gone through far worse storms than this.
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He knows this ship has a structure to it that is able to safely transport all who are on board to the designated point, port to which it is headed.
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This person is able to exhale. This person is able to come out of their cabin. This person is able to go to the dining room.
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This person is able to eat and to enjoy the journey. It is this truth of the eternal security of the believer that allows us to enjoy the
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Christian life. It allows us to know that we will never be lost, we will never perish, and that the good ship of grace has never taken on any water.
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It is plowing ahead according to the foreordination of God, and all who are on board will be safely brought to the port of heaven above.
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There's a sixth heading that I want to give to you. John 6, verse 51, and it is, live forever.
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In John 6, 51, Jesus is the speaker, as you know,
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I am the living bread. You talk about a quality of bread, a quality of which this world knows nothing of, supernatural bread that satisfies forever.
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One bite of this bread and you'll never go looking for any other bread to eat again.
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I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. He compares himself to the manna that came down to Israel in the wilderness in their 40 years of wandering, yet he is a different kind of bread.
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He's not natural bread in the sense that one eats of it and temporally has their physical needs met, but he is supernatural divine bread coming down out of heaven.
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And he says in verse 51, if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
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Now, let me tell you, we're all going to live someplace forever. But when he says, live forever, he is speaking of eternal life, supernatural life, that we will live in the presence of God forever, not mere existence, but life and life to the fullest, the knowledge of God.
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This is our experience forever. We will never be severed from Christ, never removed from his grip, forever saved.
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Number seven, John 10, 27, forever secure. Not only live forever, but forever secure.
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John 10, verse 27, this is a slam -dunk text right here. If we just had one text, this one has yellow highlighter all over it.
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This one is underscored. John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.
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And I give, what kind of life to them? Eternal life. And what will be of their state?
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And they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
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Jesus asserts here the absolute security of every one of his sheep, and he himself promises to preserve them.
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One, he gives them eternal life. Two, he says they'll never perish. Three, he says no one will snatch them out of his hand.
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And then four, he goes on to say in the next verse that the Father also holds them in his right hand.
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We are doubly secure in Christ and in the
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Father. Verse 29 goes on to say this, my Father has given them to me as greater than all, and no one shall pluck them out of his hand.
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Understand this, eternal security is not a matter of me holding on to God. It is a matter of him holding on to me.
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Noah fell many times in the ark, but he never once fell out of the ark. Psalm 37, 23, the steps of a righteous man are established by the
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Lord, and he delights in his way. Though he falls, he shall not be hurled headlong because the
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Lord is the one who holds his hand. I have been young and now I'm old, yet I've not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
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Listen, even when you trip and fall, the Savior holds you in his right hand.
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And though you may begin to go down, he will not let you go all the way down, for he will never relinquish his grip on you.
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He is the good shepherd. I told you yesterday, I am the good shepherd. If he were to lose one of us, he's not a good shepherd.
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He's a bad shepherd. He's a bumbling shepherd. But he is a good shepherd, excellent shepherd, noble shepherd.
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He starts with 100 sheep and he ends up with 100 sheep. Number eight,
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John 11, 26, never die. John 11, 25,
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I am the resurrection and the life speaks to his power to raise the dead, whether spiritually or physically.
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He alone is the possessor and the giver of all life. Says, he who believes in me will live even if he dies.
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And it speaks of dying on the last day. And what Jesus is saying, the moment you die, you will never be any more alive than in the moment of your death because you will go immediately into the presence of God.
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To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5. You will graduate to glory.
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And even if you die, you will live forever with God, with Christ.
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Verse 26, and everyone who lives and believes. There's the order of regeneration and faith.
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And everyone who lives and believes in me will never.
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Speaks of the second death. The first death we will all experience if Christ should tarry.
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The first death is the separation of the body from the soul. But the second death we will never taste.
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It is the separation of the soul from God. We will live forever and though we die, we will never die.
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Number nine, I can't believe how good I'm doing on time. This really is an out -of -body experience.
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My wife must have really intensified her prayers for me on this trip. John 14, 16, never abandoned.
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John 14, 16, Jesus said in the upper room the night before he was crucified to the disciples,
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I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper. We understand this is another of exactly the same kind.
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It speaks of the paraclete, the Holy Spirit of God, who is co -equal and co -eternal with the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Another helper, note that he may be with you for how long?
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Forever. Verse 17, he abides with you and will be in you.
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This is to say he will never leave us. He will never forsake us. He will never move out. He will never desert us.
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He will never abandon us, which is another way of saying that we are kept by the grace of God, and when the
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Holy Spirit moves in, he's never moving out. You say, well, what about when
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I sin? Good question. The Holy Spirit will convict you. The Holy Spirit will make certain you will not enjoy your sin, and if need be, the
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Holy Spirit will take you to the woodshed and with love discipline us, but he will never move out.
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There's a final text that I want you to see, John 17, verse 12, kept forever.
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John 17, verse 12, this is number 10.
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Jesus, in his great high priestly prayer, says, said, while I was with them,
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I was keeping them in your name. Jesus was personally guarding them against apostasy.
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Jesus was personally securing them and constantly keeping them.
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He said, these which you have given me, verse 12, I guarded them and not one of them perished, not a single one, but the son of perdition, that's
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Judas, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. He was not one of these given ones.
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He was chosen for service, but never chosen for salvation. Jesus, as he prays here, acknowledges before the
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Father that all whom you have given me, I have guarded them, I have kept them,
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I have preserved them. And then he says in verse 24, Father, I desire that they also, and he opens this up to include all who would ever believe down through the centuries, through their gospel witness, through the inspired books of the
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New Testament, that they would write all of the elect of God. This verse 24 includes you and me.
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Our names are written in this verse. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, will be with me where I am.
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That is a clear reference to heaven where Jesus is headed in his ascension to the right hand of God the
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Father. And Jesus is praying, I want all of these elect, I want all of these given ones to be with me in heaven so that they may see my glory which you have given me.
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Listen, all of Jesus' prayers are answered. Father, I thank you that you do always hear me,
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John 11. The Savior has prayed for us and the
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Savior's prayers are always answered with the Father. For he prays in perfect agreement with the eternal decree of God.
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He has prayed that we will all behold his glory in heaven. I want to assure you on the authority of the word of God and on the authority of the risen
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Christ, that if you are a believer in him, you will stand before the throne of God in a state of grace to behold his glory throughout eternity.
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This is the greatest blessing of all. It is the beatific vision, the blessed vision.
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We shall behold the face of Christ. We shall be made like him and we shall see him as he is.
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1 John 3 verse 2, for when he appears, we shall be made like him or we shall see him as he is.
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We must first be made like him and then we are able to see him as he is.
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For in our natural state, were we to behold him in the fullness of his glory, we would burn up like a cinder.
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It would be easier to walk barefoot on the surface of the sun than to walk into the presence of the glorified sun in heaven, in our natural state.
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And so as we pass into glory, we will be given a glorified body so that we can draw near and behold him and all of us, all of his given ones will stand there.
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And the greatest vision to see the glorified Christ.
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This is preserving grace. For someone to think that they could lose their salvation is to read their
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Bible upside down backwards. For someone to read their
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Bible correctly, right side up, left to right, is to clearly see the teaching of Scripture.
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We have seen it in John's gospel, that we have eternal life, we shall never perish, we shall never die, we shall never hunger, we shall never thirst, we shall never be lost, we shall be forever kept secure and stand in the presence of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Is that not such a bait that it would draw you to him and to have your faith and your trust in him?
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You should find yourself here today without Christ and there are many young people here today, no doubt, without Christ.
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There are teenagers here today without Christ. How could you not give yourself to Christ, knowing that if you would believe upon him, he would save you forever?
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Perhaps you're even an adult here today and you have not yet believed upon Christ.
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I want you to know today the gates of paradise are swung open and the
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Savior stands ready to receive you if you will believe upon him.
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Commit your life to Christ, trust in him, turn your back on the world, repent of your sin, surrender your life to Christ, commit yourself to him.
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Entrust yourself to him, deny yourself, die to self, that you might live forever.
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He who humbles himself will be exalted, he who dies will live forever.
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You try to keep your life, you'll lose it, but if you will lose your life to him, you will keep it forever.
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For what will it profit a man that gains the whole world, yet lose his own soul?
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Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Hang on to this world is like painting the
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Titanic. This world is going down fast. Even the things that we enjoy, the art museum is going to go up in flames.
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There's only two things going out of this world, the word of God and the souls of men. The best thing you could ever do is to commit your life to what the word of God says concerning Christ and you will live forever.
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It is 5 till 10. Let us pray. Father, thank you, we praise you, we glorify you that you do not take back what you give.
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That salvation is a finished transaction with eternal reality.
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Thank you for preserving us in Christ by your grace.
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And we know that all on board will be transported into glory.
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We praise you for this, we long for the day, for this prayer to be realized in our lives, to behold you face to face.