Soteriology: The Believer's Security

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While he's passing out the handouts, I want to invite you to turn in your Bible to Romans chapter 8.
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Before I begin the lesson, I want to, since you have your handout this week, I want to take a moment to just briefly look over what we have seen so far.
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We are in a study of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation is what that means.
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And so far in the doctrine of salvation, we have looked at eight headings.
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The first week we asked the question, saved from what? What does it mean to be saved and from what are we saved? And the Bible says we are saved from the wrath of God.
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That is what we are saved from.
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The second week we looked at the definition of atonement.
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Atonement means to bring two warring parties together.
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It literally means at-one-ment, it is where the word comes from.
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It is a word of reconciliation, that is often how it is translated, if it is not translated as atonement.
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We looked at the extent of the atonement.
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Who is the atonement made for? For whom did Christ die? That was the third week.
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Then we looked at the subject of grace.
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We looked at common grace and special grace.
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We looked at the subject of faith.
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We looked at justification as by faith alone.
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We looked at regeneration and faith.
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That regeneration is the cause of faith, not the result.
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And that faith and repentance are both gifts from God.
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We looked at adoption and union with Christ.
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And then last week we looked at the golden chain of redemption.
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And the reason why I really wanted to point that out is because this week is really last week part two.
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Because if you were not here last week, what we learned is that there is a chain of actions that the Bible says God does in the act of saving the individual.
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And we're going to read about that chain in Romans 8, beginning at verse 28.
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But last week we ended at verse 30.
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Tonight we're going to go all the way to verse 39.
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Because after the golden chain of redemption, we find the great promise of God's unrelenting security, that God will not lose even one for whom Christ died.
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That's the blessing of the golden chain, is that God has done all of this to save us.
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And since he has done all of this to save us, he will not fail to save us.
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So let's read the text, beginning at verse 28.
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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
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For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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And those whom he predestined, he also called.
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This is the golden chain.
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Those whom he predestined, he also called.
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Those whom he called, he also justified.
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Those whom he justified, he also glorified.
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What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
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Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.
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More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.
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We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
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No.
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And all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
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For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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May God add his blessing to the reading of his holy word.
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One of the most divisive subjects that you can ever discuss is the question of whether or not you can lose your salvation.
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In as many years as it's been since I began preaching and even the years prior to that, any time someone would hear that I went to a Baptist seminary, if the person that I was talking to was not Baptist, the thing that they would always say, oh, Baptists, you believe in once saved always saved.
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That's like the marking post of Baptist theology.
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Not grace and salvation, not faith alone or any of those things which mark Protestantism.
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No, you're a Baptist and you believe in once saved always saved.
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So tonight we're going to answer that question.
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Tonight we're going to answer the question of can you lose your salvation.
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And some of you have heard me teach on this in the past and so some of you may say, oh, I've heard all this.
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And that may be so.
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You may have heard some of the things I'm going to say tonight.
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But I want to ask you a question.
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One, are you confident in the answer to that question? And two, why? Because I tell you what, I've heard a lot of Baptists who say they believe in once saved always saved and they couldn't defend it for nothing.
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I remember sitting on a board where a pastor was being, or they were about to ordain a pastor and I was on the board of men who were being asked to question this man who was going to become a pastor.
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I was his invited guest.
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He wished afterwards that he hadn't have invited me.
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Not because I'm a jerk, which you may have a different opinion, but that's not why, but because I asked him two questions that he couldn't answer.
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But he should be able to answer them.
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The first question I asked was, please, if you had a person come to your church and they didn't understand the Trinity, can you explain the Trinity? Crickets.
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And the guy beside me got mad.
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Why would you ask him such a hard question? I said, because he's not applying for a job as a tire salesman.
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He's not applying for a job as a gas pump attendant.
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He's applying.
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He wants to be a man of God to preach the word of God.
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The man of God ought to be able to explain the Trinity.
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I didn't say it quite like that, but that was my answer.
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Went around the room again.
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And I was asked, go ahead and ask another question.
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Everybody got two questions.
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And my second question, I said, if somebody came to your church and had a Pentecostal background, they've been raised their whole life being taught that they could lose their salvation, how would you show them from Holy Scripture that salvation is secure in Christ? Again, his face was very surprised because he was not ready to answer that question.
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And from the end of the table, a man, again, somebody else jumped in to argue.
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And he said, I'll tell you what, my pastor said that if it's been birthed, it can't be unbirthed.
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What do you think of that? And I said, well, sir, something that's birthed can die.
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That's not a good answer.
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And I didn't ask you.
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You should not give sentimental platitudes when somebody asks you an answer from the word of God.
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You should be able to go to the word of God and answer from the word of God.
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And if there's anything that we ought to know, it's the answer to the question of how we are saved and whether or not our salvation is secure, especially if you're a pastor.
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But it doesn't end with us.
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All of us should be able to answer this.
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So if somebody asked you, do you believe that salvation is secure in Christ? Could you answer? Well, hopefully after the end of tonight, you will be.
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I'm the worst about ruining my 30, 45 minutes I get.
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So if I can do it all now, if not, we'll do it again next week.
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But this is a good enough question.
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This is an important enough question.
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I don't mind spending some extra time on it.
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The question of eternal security is one that should not be taken lightly.
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Within the circles that defend it, it is defended ferociously.
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And for those who oppose it, it is opposed viciously.
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And often neither side uses Scripture, but they use all kinds of other reasoning.
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They, well, of course a man can lose his salvation, don't you know Brother Bill? Brother Bill started out in Christ and then he totally, he left his wife and he repudiated Jesus and now he's a practicing Muslim.
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Don't you know somebody, Brother Bill was saved and now he's unsaved, don't you know? And it's almost always some type of anecdotal evidence.
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And what do we do with Brother Bill? If you believe in eternal security, how do you answer the question of someone who is zealous for the Lord, who's coming to church, who abandons his wife, who abandons his children, who abandons the cross and runs headlong into heresy? How do you answer that? Well, I didn't hear what you said.
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Yeah, well, that's very good and you're two steps ahead.
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You're a smart man.
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The parable of the sower does answer a lot, doesn't it? They fell, they withered because they had no root.
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Remember that very important parable.
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I think that parable does tell us a lot.
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So, I think the default position of most people is that you can lose your salvation.
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In fact, I had that view when I first got saved because I didn't understand theology.
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I knew I believed in Jesus.
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I knew that I wanted to be saved and I knew I had called out to him for forgiveness and repentance.
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I knew very little and I would watch Christian TV.
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That is the worst thing you can do.
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But it's what I did.
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And I remember a very good friend of mine, I actually interviewed him on Coffee with a Calvinist.
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His name is Richard Roden and he actually helped me understand he was a Baptist.
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But he was a solid, biblically thinking Baptist.
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And he and I had an opportunity where we were in a bread truck for like eight hours one day.
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And he took me through why he believed from the scripture in the security of the believer.
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And that changed my whole view and helped me and helped me understand and helped me come around.
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So I thank him to this day.
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We're still good friends.
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But as I say, people who don't believe in eternal security, that's the default position.
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Most people, unless you're brought up Baptist, most people that are Methodist, Wesleyans, others, most people at least have some idea of the ability to lose your salvation.
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And within the discussion, there are three positions, the three divergent positions.
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And I've listed them on your handout.
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The three divergent positions are as follows.
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Number one, salvation can be lost and most people have gained it and lost it at some point.
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To give you an example, I was at dinner one night with a Pentecostal minister.
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Sweet man, love him, and I believe he loves the Lord.
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This is an issue I think somebody can be wrong about, just so you know.
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I don't think that you have to have perfect theology to be saved, right? But I do think it's important.
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But I remember sitting with him.
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We just happened to be sitting side by side in a Wendy's.
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We didn't go together.
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We just happened to meet up there.
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We saw each other and so we ended up sort of sidling up to each other and talking.
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And while he was talking to me, he was telling me a story about his son.
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And his son had departed from the church for whatever reason.
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I don't want to get into that.
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But he was like, well, you know, I pray that he'll come back to the church and get right with God.
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Now, I know what I would mean if I said something like that.
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But I wondered what he meant.
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And I didn't ask him.
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I didn't probe.
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It was obviously a sensitive subject.
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When we talk about our kids, it's a very sensitive subject.
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So I'm not going to probe him at dinner, especially with our families there and everything.
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He was asking me to pray for his son.
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I thank him.
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And I gladly do.
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But as I thought about it, I wonder if he thinks his son was saved and now is lost.
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And he's waiting for him to come back to the church to get saved again.
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I don't know that that's what he thought because, again, he didn't say that.
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But I know that that's the language people often use.
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Well, he needs to get right with the Lord, i.e.
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he needs to get saved again.
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Isn't that the attitude a lot of people have? I'm going to get, I got saved when I was 13, 17, 18, whatever.
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And then temptation hit when I was 22, 25.
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And I lived a few years unsaved.
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And now I need to come back and get right with the Lord so I can get saved again.
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And in that sense, salvation is like a yo-yo.
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You're up, you're down.
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And some people, they're walking the dog.
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Man, the yo-yo's down.
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And it's down for a while.
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But they're saying, okay, we're down, we're unsaved.
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At some point, God's going to come right back up and you'll be saved again.
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What's interesting, in some of those churches, there's multiple baptisms.
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Because they'll get baptized when they get saved.
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And then they'll go through this time of what they call falling away, which means be unsaved.
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And when they come back, they'll get saved again and get baptized again.
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Now, I believe in re-baptism for a person who was not saved prior.
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So I do want to say that.
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But the issue for this is it's a...
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I've known people, literally people who've been baptized 6, 7, 8, 10 times.
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Because they feel like they've lost it and they've gained it.
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They've lost it and they've gained it.
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And again, I remember there was another man I had a long conversation with.
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And I asked him, I have a lot of stories about this.
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I promise we're going to get to the text.
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But I remember in the conversation, the guy said, he said, you have to be able to lose your salvation.
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It doesn't make sense that salvation is eternally secure.
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You have to be able to lose it.
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And I said, well, what do you have to do to lose it? And he says, well, you have to be sinning.
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And I said, so you're not sinning.
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You're perfect right now.
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Well, I'm doing good today.
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That was the words he used.
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I'm doing good today.
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And I said, so tomorrow you could not be doing good.
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And you would be lost.
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And he said, yep.
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So not only is it now an idea of a yo-yo up and down, but it's also the idea that I'm the one controlling the yo-yo.
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I'm the one making myself good enough and not good enough.
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This is a dangerous, dangerous view.
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But that's the first view.
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Salvation can be lost.
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And some people have lost it multiple times.
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The next is that salvation cannot be lost, no matter even if the person denies their faith and repudiates Jesus.
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This is the hyper version of what I call OSAS, or once saved, always saved.
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You know, O-S-A-S, once saved, always saved.
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And the hyper expression of this is explained, I think, best in someone who would say at, let's say, a funeral for a man who was, I don't know, young.
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And during the funeral, they say, you know, hey, little Johnny was saved when he was eight years old.
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But his life never changed.
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He was, you know, he didn't have any desire for Christ.
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There was no fruit in his life.
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But we know he got saved.
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He came forward.
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He was baptized at eight years old.
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Therefore, we have every reason to believe that little Johnny's in heaven now that he's 25 and has lived the last 17 years of his life with no fruit to speak of, no indication of a changed life.
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I think that's dangerous, too, right? I think that's saying that when you come to Christ or when Christ saves you and he brings you to himself, that there's no change.
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And that's, I think, a dangerous road to go down as well.
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And I say, that's what I call hyper, hyper one-saved-always-saved view.
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Not very catchy.
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It's not gonna roll off the tongue.
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But it's the hyper view of that.
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You've got the, certainly you can lose it.
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And then you've got the people that you could never, ever lose it.
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And then the third view is a person is truly, a person who is truly saved will not fall away.
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And those who do fall away demonstrate that their faith was not genuine.
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That's the third view.
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And in case you don't know this, because I think most of you do, that would be the view that I would hold to.
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And the reason why I hold to the third view as opposed to the first two is because I do recognize that the Bible talks about the subject of apostasy.
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And the word apostasy literally means to depart the faith.
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It means to fall away from the faith.
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The Greek word apostasia, it's in the Greek New Testament, and it literally means a defiance of an established system of authority, a rebellion, an abandonment, or a breach of faith.
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So now we go back to Bill.
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Bill departs the faith, leaves his wife, repudiates Jesus, and he runs headlong into Islam and he becomes a follower of Muhammad.
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How are we to respond to that? Bill's still saved.
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Wow, he's not doing it great, but he's still saved.
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You know, that would be one response.
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The other response would be, Bill was saved, but now he's lost.
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God just couldn't keep him in the palm of his hand.
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That's what you're saying.
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Or we could say, as legitimate as Bill's faith seemed at the time, Bill was never truly saved.
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I mean, that's the three options, right? Either he was saved and he lost it, or he's still saved, even though he's rejected Christ and now following Islam, or we could say he was never saved.
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I've given you this example before.
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Some of you have heard this name.
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I probably mentioned this guy's name more than anybody else, the name Dan Barker.
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Daniel William, excuse me, Daniel Edwin Barker is an American atheist activist who served as a Christian preacher and musician for 19 years.
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He left Christianity in 1984, and he now leads the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is one of the largest atheistic associations in the United States.
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He was next in line to Kathryn Kuhlman, who was, prior to Benny Hinn, one of the largest and leading faith healers in the United States.
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So here's the one thing we know right off the bat.
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He had really, really bad theology when he was a Christian.
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If we want to say he was ever a Christian, I don't believe he was, but when he claimed to be a Christian, he had really bad theology.
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And you know what that reminds us? Theology matters.
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I'm serious.
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Theology matters, because he was fed, for 19 years or better, a bad view of Christ, and now he hates the Scriptures, and he hates Jesus, and he hates God.
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I wonder why.
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He was taught the wrong God for 20 years.
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He proclaimed a false God of health and wealth for 20 years.
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Somebody says, well, he was saved.
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He'll say that.
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He'll say, I'm proof that you can lose your salvation, because I was saved.
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And I say, no, no, uh-uh, that dog won't hunt, because you don't get to proclaim that you were saved.
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You can say it all you want.
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Don't make it so.
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I can say, I'm a 7-foot-tall basketball player.
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Don't make it true.
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Say whatever.
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And I know today you can.
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You can say whatever you want.
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People are nuts, and they believe all kinds of stuff today.
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But the point is, him saying he was saved, don't make it so.
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So what are we to make of situations like Barker's and many others? Well, first we need to consider what salvation is.
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According to Romans 5, one salvation is peace with God.
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According to John 3, salvation is regeneration of the soul.
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What is salvation? Salvation is God having saved us, not us having saved ourselves.
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And we also need to consider what the Bible warns us of.
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It says if there is a vine that is in the, if there is a vine that is, or a branch that is on the vine that is not bearing fruit, then that branch is not really part of the vine.
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It needs to be cut off and thrown into the fire.
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It also says in Hebrews 6 that there are those who if they fall away, they cannot be restored unto repentance.
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Which is an interesting verse, by the way, for those who believe you can lose your salvation.
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Because if that's true, and that's what Hebrews 6 really means, what it also says is it says you cannot be restored unto repentance.
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So it means if you lose it, you'll never get it back.
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That's not what that means, by the way, but that's an important, if you interpret it that way, that's how you have to take it.
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So as I said, I want us to look now at Romans 8.
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And I want us to look first at the golden chain, because we looked at this last week.
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It says, Whom he foreknew, he also predestined.
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Whom he predestined, he called.
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Whom he called, he justified.
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And whom he justified, he glorified.
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That is the golden chain of redemption.
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And every one of those is a verb, and every one of those is something God does.
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God foreknows, God predestines, God calls, God glorifies, God justifies, and God glorifies.
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That is a golden chain, and here's the beauty of it, it's an unbreakable chain.
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It is an unbreakable chain.
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And here's the thing, what they want to do, who would say you can lose your salvation, is they want to break the chain right here.
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Between justified and glorified.
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Because justified is God declaring you righteous, and glorified is God glorifying you in heaven, taking away all remnant of sin, and you become sinless with God in heaven.
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As the Bible says, when we see him as he is, that is Christ, we will be like he is, that is glorified.
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That's what that means.
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And so those who say you can lose your salvation, they want to cut a line between justified and glorified, and say yeah, God can foreknow you, meaning he chose you, he can predestine you, meaning he set aside your ending, he can call you to salvation, and he can justify you, but somewhere along that chain, you can mess it all up.
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Somewhere in that situation, you can thwart the plan of God.
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Now, that's what we have to accept.
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If you want to accept that you can lose your salvation.
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The golden chain is no longer a golden chain.
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It's missing a link.
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The link here has been damaged.
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And so people say, oh well, that doesn't prove it.
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How can you get away from this? And by the way, this is the passage I take people to.
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People say, why do you believe in eternal security? A lot of people go to John, where John says, I am in my father's hand, my father and I are one, and no one can snatch him out of my hand.
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That's a great verse, and don't think that I'm repudiating.
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I love that verse.
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But that's not where I go.
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Because they're asking, they're making a theological argument, they want a theological answer, and the theological answer is this.
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If God is the one who foreknows, God is the one who predestines, God is the one who calls, God is the one who justifies, and God is the one who glorifies, and it says, whom he foreknew, he also.
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Whom he predestined, he also.
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Whom he called, he also.
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Whom he justified, he also.
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There is no one who gets justified who doesn't get glorified.
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Show me in the scripture where there's anyone who is called just, who is later called unjust.
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Show me where someone can be declared righteous, and that legal declaration from God can be rescinded.
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You understand that's what justification is.
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It is a legal declaration from God.
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He has declared you righteous.
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It's not just that he will declare you righteous, having been justified by faith.
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Romans 5.1, that literally means having been declared righteous.
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If God has declared you righteous, and this is the chain of action, at what point can you come in and say, nope, I'm gonna stop what God has started.
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And by the way, if this is so, if you can stop the train here, then that means this one was a mistake.
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Because this one looks forward to this one.
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By the way, I'm pointing to predestination for those who can't maybe see.
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You see, predestination, the word predestination is the Greek word prohorizo, and it's where we get our word horizon.
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Horizo, if you look out at the horizon, what is that? It's the furthest point you can see.
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So the furthest point you can see is the end or the destination.
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Prohorizo, God has determined the destination from the beginning.
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Therefore, who are you, O man, that you could thwart the plan of God that he has set in motion? He who began a good work in you will complete it in the day of Christ Jesus.
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Who are you to say that you have the power to thwart the plan of God to save you? That's a very important question.
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Now, because of time, I'm not gonna go into, you'll notice at the bottom of your thing, there are six things to consider from Romans 8, beginning at verse 31.
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I wanna look at those next week, because there's so much to look at there.
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I don't wanna, I don't wanna, because if I tried to do it in the next five minutes, I wouldn't do it justice.
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And so next week, we're gonna look at the six things to consider from Romans 8, 30 to 39.
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But I want you to think of this.
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While we have this whole week to think about these things, I want you to think, why would Paul put what he puts between verses 30 and 39 right after he puts the golden chain? Why would Paul go on to say, who can separate us from the love of God? Who can bring a charge against God's elect? What can separate us? Why would Paul go into that if that is not the result of this? You see, our security is the subject of verses 31 to 39.
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And our security is based on the golden chain of redemption that was started and will be completed by God Himself.
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Verses 31 to 39 are the result of verses 28 to 30.
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And so next week, we'll look at that.
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But as we close this week, let's look at one last verse.
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Go to Matthew chapter 7, and we'll read this, and then we'll close.
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Matthew 7, and go to verse 21.
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Now, most of us are familiar with this passage.
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This is part of the great Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached.
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And Jesus is talking about false teachers.
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We see that in verse 15.
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He says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
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That's the context leading into verse 21 where he says, 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.
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So right there, it tells us something.
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It tells us there's people who say, Lord, Lord, but aren't saved.
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So that tells us right there that there are people who proclaim the name of Christ who are not legitimate.
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Remember Bill? Bill's my pick-on guy tonight.
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We don't have a Bill in this church, I don't think, so I can use Bill as an example.
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But going forward, it says, On that day, that is the day of judgment, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you.
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Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
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Now, with that on your mind, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the second person of the Trinity, God and man, he says, I never knew you.
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Go back to Romans, in your mind, Romans 8.
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For whom he foreknew.
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The person who names the name of the Lord and abandons the faith or goes into heresy demonstrates, not that they don't know God, but that God does not know them.
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And there was never a relationship formed by genuine faith and repentance.
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So that's my argument for tonight.
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Next week, we'll look at the blessing of security.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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May it be that your word would be the the thing that inspires in us zeal.
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As Brother Andy talked about, zeal.
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May we be zealous for the truth.
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May we be desirous to share the truth.
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And may we not be argumentative, Lord, but may we stand on the truth.
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And Lord, when someone has a disagreement, may we fear not to point them to the word of God and say, thus sayeth the Lord.
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When it comes to security, Lord, may we find our security not in what we have done, but may we find our security in Christ alone.
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And it's in his name we pray.
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Amen.