We began looking last week at the preservation or the perseverance
that God gives to His people. And we basically looked at several
passages of Scripture last week that teach us that whatever God starts, He finishes. As a matter of fact, we began
reading in Psalm 138, verse 8 last week. You don't have to turn
there, but I'll read it again. It says, The Lord will perfect
that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the work of thine
own hands. Of course, we know that the Lord
doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today,
forever. His purpose will stand. We find in, let's read a couple
more real quick just to kind of remind us. We read also in
Ecclesiastes chapter three and verse 14. Scripture says, I know
that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever, and nothing
can be put to it nor anything taken from it. And God doeth
it that men should fear before him. So we looked last week about
the preservation and the perseverance of the Lord's people. As I mentioned
last week, whenever the Bible talks about the perseverance
of the saints, the pressing on, the continuing on, the walking
on, the following along, all of these things that the admonitions
of Scripture compel us to keep going, keep at it, Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep looking
to Christ. Continue until the end. All these
things that we see throughout Scripture that are admonitions,
whenever you look at the other side of the coin, you find that
those admonitions while they are admonitions for us, the only
way those admonitions are kept is because of God's work in us
and on us. God's preservation of His people
causes their perseverance. So to persevere in the faith,
or to persevere in the belief and the trust and the looking
to Christ, all that is because God is working in you and preserving
you until the end, and He promises that what He has begun, He will
carry out. The Bible says that that which
He has began, He will carry out until the day of the Lord. That
is going to be God's work in us, keeping us, and it's not
our conditional response to commands that He's given to us. As I mentioned
last week, there's a whole group of people that believe there's
this timely eternal salvation, and then there's this conditional
time salvation that what was legal in eternity was all of
God, but what's on here is a synergistic work between God and His people,
and that we have to engage in the means of grace, and in engaging
in the means of grace, therefore we begin to grow, we begin to
do all these things and that is a conditional thing on our
part. We can either do it or not do it. If we don't do it,
we don't grow, we don't learn, we don't flourish, we don't,
you know, whatever. But if we do take hold of those
things and we apply those means and we do all those things, then
we're going to begin to grow again in some reformed circles,
they will say that we will progress in our sanctification, or we
will progress in our holiness towards God. But we see in Scripture that
it is God who does all these things. None is going to be lost
because God is the one who completes what He finishes. And brethren,
it's very important that we understand this. because all of salvation is of
the Lord. It's not just part of salvation
is of the Lord and some of it relies upon us. All of salvation
is of the Lord. The Lord made a covenant to do
this for His people. And if He ceases or He neglects
or He fails to do what He has covenanted to do, then our God
is no longer the God that the Bible has proclaimed we have
another God. We are worshipping some other
God. It's not the God of Scripture. If we have a God that has made
a covenant to keep His people, to uphold His people, to bring
His people to Him, to bring them from here to here, but yet He
loses any... He's not God. He's not this God
that we find in here. He's some other guy that we've
made up in our own mind. That we're purporting with a
false gospel. With false testimony. But the
God of Scripture has claimed that He will continue to do all
these things. He's given us all these promises.
And all these promises are yea and amen in Jesus Christ. All
the fulfillment of everything that has to do with the elect
of God's salvation is all governed, worked out, and continued on,
accomplished in the man Jesus Christ. If it isn't, there's
only one mediator between God and man, and that's the man Jesus
Christ. If there's any mediation of salvation, whether it's eternal
and legal, or whether it's timely and experiential, Jesus Christ
is the one that is mediating that on our behalf. And so, if
there is any persevering in the faith, if there is any continuance
in the walk of faith, it is because of the man Jesus Christ who has
worked in us, is working in us by His Spirit to continue to
look to Him, to continue to love Him because He has given us His
life. He has given us eternal life
and that eternal life is His own life and that life is the
life of Christ. And that's going to beget its
own kind that is going to continue and do the same things that He
did. He trusted in the Father. He loved the Father. He did everything
that the Father told Him to do. And that man, that inward man,
that new man that we are inwardly, that's how we are all the time. There is no sin in us. There
is no failing to keep the law of God in our mind. It is all
given to us by Jesus Christ, and we are the ones who are kept
looking unto Him, who is the author and the finisher of our
faith, and that is Jesus Christ working in us. Now, because God
finishes everything that He has promised to do, if we kind of
think about things a little bit, we'll see that if that be true,
then not one of God's people will ever be lost. Because God,
before the foundation of the world, foreknew and loved the
people. They were His. He gave them to
Christ. Christ was their representative
and surety. And that covenant that God made
to bring forth those people who God predestinated, fallen Adam
to be housed in this vessel of clay. God predestinated that
they be brought through this time period, this lifetime, and
be brought back to Him. And Christ is the one who is
the head of that. He is the one who is controlling that. He is
the one who is making sure that all things... As a matter of
fact, we looked at that passage last week and the passage just
slipped out of my head. that all things are ordered and
sure. You know what that passage is off the top of your head brother
I forgot where where was that? Jeremiah Jeremiah, the one that I think
about, that Jeremiah does say, I will make an everlasting covenant
that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will
put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me. So, none will be lost. If God is going to finish everything
He started, what He started in eternity is an elect group of people that
He chose before the foundation of the world, not based on anything
that they would ever do, but out of His own sheer pleasure,
chose a people for Himself, and that people is the same people
that will be returned to Him in the end, and not one will
be lost. I think we find that in several places in Scripture.
If you will, turn over to John chapter 6, if you haven't already,
in verse 39. Again, familiar verses to us
here. We seem to come to these verses quite frequently. John chapter 6, and if you would,
look at verse 39. It says, And this is the Father's
will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again, at the last
day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." Now, brethren, that is the promise of God, not only
to us, but that right there is the will of God. We see that
it is the will of God, and we know that God's will is not going
to be thwarted. God's will is not going to be
changed. We can't change the will of God. God's will is superior. He will do all of His pleasure. He's not going to be counseled
by anybody. He is who He is and He's not
going to change. So His will, here Christ says,
His will is that all that the Father giveth Him, He
should lose nothing. So that means, brethren, that
everybody that was given to Him from eternity past will be the
ones who will be with Him in eternity future. That everything
that happens in this lifetime, no matter what happens, no matter
how things are, no matter what goes on down here in this time
period, every elect seed of Christ, elect of God, will be gathered
to Him at the end. Now, if that's not preservation,
I don't know what is. We are preserved in Christ Jesus
because Jesus said here that all that the Father giveth me,
I should lose nothing. See, it's the responsibility
of the man Jesus Christ to make sure that everyone to whom the
Father loved and gave to Christ will return back to Him. In the very end, He's going to
return the Kingdom back to God. And it's going to be everyone.
As a matter of fact, if you remember Jesus in John 17, In verse 2 it says, Thou hast given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to,
here it is, as many as Thou hast given him. And this is life eternal
that they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus whom
Thou hast sent. Now we've just seen in John chapter
6 He says, and this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
which seeth the Son and believeth on Him, that's the same as knowing
Jesus Christ. Those who know Jesus Christ are
the ones who see and believe. And how is it that they see and
believe? It's because He has given them eternal life. He says, In verse 6, I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world, thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Here we see that they were gods. He was given. They were given
to the Son for His work of redemption, for His work of keeping and preserving. to bring forth the glory unto
God, that these people who have been held in these fallen vessels,
in these dead, sinful, fleshly, natural, unable to keep the commands
of God vessels, that God would redeem them and bring them back
to Himself. He says, excuse me, thine they
were, and thou gavest them me. And if you'll notice, he's not
just talking about the apostles or the disciples here that's
with him, because later in the verse, he says, I pray for them,
I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given
me. And then he also says, I pray not that thou should, or excuse
me, Verse 20, neither pray I for
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word, that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee, and they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. So here we see that these
people have been given to Christ by God for His caretaking. So the onus is upon Christ Jesus
to make sure that everyone that was given to Him, and all their
names are written down in a book, known unto God are all His people.
He knows every one of them. And they've been given to Christ.
And Christ knows them. He says that I know my sheep,
and my sheep know me. I call them by name. He not only
knows them, but He knows them by name. Why? Because he's the one that
wrote them down in the book. He's the one who has loved them
with an everlasting love. He's the one who has chosen them
before the foundation of the world to shed forth his grace
and his mercy and his kindness and his generosity and his riches
upon. And because He knows them, because
He loves them, and because He has promised to keep them, not
one is going to be lost. Now brethren, I tell you what,
that gives me a lot of hope, a lot of assurance, that if I
be His, there is no way that I can be lost. That also tells
me that all those who are scattered that are the elect across the
face of the earth who are alive now and are alive to come and
have been alive in the past, that everyone who is given to
Christ, loved of the Father, before the foundation of the
world, not one is going to be lost. The poor person who is
in the middle of somewhere, in the middle of nowhere, in the
middle of no gospel area is not going to die and go to hell who
could have been saved if we would have just got to them. No, not
one will be lost. See, the missionary endeavors
of this world is not what is saving people. Christ has saved
His people and He is making sure that every one of His lost sheep
will be returned to the fold Everyone for whom God has given
Him will come to know Him, will come to believe on Him. That
does away with this whole entire conditional time of salvation,
that there are some who are elect that may not ever come to know
their salvation and will be in heaven, but may have never even
known that they were saved, may have never heard of Jesus. No,
they will have heard, they will have known, they will have believed,
they will have been given faith upon Him. Listen, brethren, I
have all the more confidence in God's Word and what Jesus
has said than what some theologian tries to reason out. Well, how
could they have heard if nobody's been sent to them? It's because
your perception of what that verse is is incorrect. There
has been somebody sent to them. There has been a preacher preached
to them. There has been somebody with
glad tidings and beautiful feet brought to them. It is the Holy
Spirit of God who is the teacher that will teach them and they
shall all be taught of God and they shall all know Me. Why?
Because I will teach them. See, the efforts of man is not
what is building the Kingdom of God. Christ is building His
Kingdom. Christ is the one who is in charge
of that. Christ is the one who is doing
all the work. Christ has done the labor of
salvation. He is doing the labor of our
experience of that salvation. He is bearing the labor. Come
unto Me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden. I will give
you rest. How can you have rest if you're
the one that has to keep and keep and keep and keep doing
it? You come and rest. Why? Because there's somebody
that is working on your behalf. Well, we still have to believe.
Yes, it's the work of God that you believe. Even that. That
continuance in belief is the work of God. It has been wrought
of God that you believe, that you repent, that you continue
in the faith. That's all of God. Brethren,
from the first to the last, Jesus said that this is the will of
Him that sent me, that I should lose nothing. While you're there
in John, turn to chapter 10. and was quoting this verse. I
guess it's because it was on my mind. John chapter 10, and
look at verse 27. Jesus said, My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me. It doesn't say some
of them follow me. It says they follow me. My sheep
hear my voice. It doesn't say some of the sheep
hear my voice. It doesn't say only the sheep that the missionaries
got to heard my voice. It said my sheep hear my voice.
Why? Because the shepherd is the one
who's calling them. The shepherd is the one who,
as I just said, is coming with the glad tidings. No, that doesn't negate the gospel
preachers that the Lord has called. Again, the perspective is that
the Gospel preachers are there for the encouragement and the
edification of the people of God. He's not there to get anybody
saved. It's not my responsibility as
a preacher to get anybody saved. And boy, I tell you what, when
the Lord taught me that, what a weight came off my shoulders
and what a clarity of mind came whenever I wasn't so frustrated,
whenever I didn't see results. I don't have to worry about that.
I don't have to worry about whether or not what I'm saying, what
I'm doing, what I'm not doing is causing anybody to get to
heaven or to be cast into hell. What I'm saying, what I'm doing
isn't causing anybody to not be taught, to not grow in the
grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. All y'all here today,
you have a Savior, you have a Shepherd that is teaching you and I hope
you're glad that it isn't up to this guy that can't speak,
that can't articulate, that can't do anything. Your hope is in
a better shepherd. Your hope is in Christ. And He
will lead you. He says, I know them. They follow me. Look at verse
28. He says, and I give unto them.
Who's the them? All His sheep. eternal life,
and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hands. I and my Father are one." So
here again we see that none will be lost. All that has been given
to Him, He will keep. He will not lose. He will call
them. They know Him. They will follow Him. They cannot
be plucked out of His hand. Despite what anybody says. No matter how much you sin, and
I'm not encouraging anybody to go and sin, but no matter how
much we sin, if you think about it, brethren, no matter how much
we sin, and we sin a lot, No matter how much we sin, Christ
has paid for every one of those sins. Every sin that will ever
be committed by me in the future, Christ has already died for that
sin. So that sin, whatever it may be, in the future. And again,
I'm not encouraging anybody and just saying just sin as you will
and it doesn't matter and that it shouldn't break our heart
and that we're not sorrowful over our sin. We are. But what
I'm saying is the principle of the fact is that every sin that
I will ever commit until the day that I die or that Christ
comes back for us, every sin Christ has died for and has no
bearing at all on my acceptance with God. It has no bearing on
Christ's work in me, in preservation. It has no bearing on whether
or not I'm being taught of God. That every sin that I will ever
commit has been covered by the blood, has been tossed into the
sea, has been forgotten as far as the East is from the West,
removed. So the sin is not the issue. The issue is our dependence upon
God to give it. That's our hope. And He has promised
that He would. He has promised to keep us. See,
my sin isn't going to cause me to be thrown out. It's not going
to cause God's back to turn on me. I used to preach that all
the time. You've got to stay in right fellowship. Boy, I've
got to stay right with God. If I don't stay right with God,
God turns His back on me and He won't turn His back back around.
until I get back right with God. But what does that mean, to get
right with God? I used to say that all the time.
That guy's just not right with God. He needs to get right with
God. How can a man get right with
God? Some things to think about. How
can a man get right with God when everything that we do in
the flesh is sinful? When everything that we do is
not pleasing to God? We cannot get right with God.
We have been made right with God by the work of Jesus Christ
alone. His righteousness has been laid
to our account, so any rightness before God that God sees has
nothing to do with this fleshly man. It has everything to do
with our Redeemer, who by His blood secured all righteousness
for us. That's why none can be lost.
Because the keeping or the losing has nothing to do with anything
that we do. That's why preservation controls
perseverance. Because we cannot be lost. He said that none will be lost. Look over at Romans chapter 8. To us, a lot of these verses
are so common, I know. But brethren, to many people,
these verses are ones that people just skip over. I mean, a lot of these verses
we've read this morning are ones that people just skip over. It's
kind of a side note. Sometimes I'll go, whenever I
go on a sermon audio, some website that might have people's sermons
on there. Sometimes I often go and I kind of look down the list
of everything that has all their sermons that they've preached
and all that. I'll look down, especially if they preach verse
by verse, expositionally, I'll go down and I'll go to all those
places like Romans 9 and all the places John 6 and John 10
and all these places that are very explicit doctrines of grace,
predestination, election of things, And I'll look, and you can see
a lot of times those preachers, whenever they're preaching, they'll
be going right along. And I mean, they're hitting every
verse and every chapter, then all of a sudden, there's a big
gap, and it just jumps right over these verses. Now that tells
me either they don't believe these verses, they don't want
to deal with these verses, or they're hiding the fact that
these verses are there, And if they preach on these things,
they might lose people. So they just don't do it. Romans chapter 8, verse 28, it
says, And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called. Now you look in a
lot of modern translations of the Bible and you will see it
says to them who are called. But the word the, be called,
is the definite article there, and it's in the Greek. But in
a lot of modern translations, they don't put it there. They
just omit it. They just say, to those who are
called. And that's where a lot of people
have gotten, and you might think, well that's just semantics, it
doesn't matter, it still means the same thing. Oh no, no, no.
That means all the difference in what this verse is saying.
Because whenever I was an Arminian preacher, I used to preach this
verse out of the NIV, out of the ESV, out of the NASB, and
all these other translations that omit the definite article
V, to those who are called. And in the mentality, mindset,
and doctrine of the Arminian, all people are called. Everyone
is called. And so to them, all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. So the only way that something
good is going to happen to you is if you continue to love God. Then the good will be to you.
Because everybody is called. Therefore the only ones who are
getting the good are the ones who love God. But that's not
what this verse is saying. It is saying that all things
work together for good to them that love God. And he qualifies
who are the ones that love God to them who are the called. It is a definite group of people
signified by the definite article the. The called is a specific
group of people. Those who have been called By
God, from the foundation of the world in 2 Timothy 1, 9 and 10,
we have been saved and called with an everlasting salvation
before the foundation of the world. Who has saved us and called
us. Called who? Those who are in
Christ Jesus. Those who were given to Him by
the Father. Those who were loved with an everlasting love. Those
who were Thine and now they are His. those who have been given
to Christ, who have been chosen in Him, those who have been His
sheep from all eternity, His seed, His generation, His children. You put the name on it, His brethren.
That's who is being talked about. All things work together to them
that love God, to them who are of Thee called according to His
purpose. He's talking about the elect
of God here. And He says here, for whom and who does whom refer
back to the call. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Those whom God
called, whom He knew before the foundation of the world, He predestinated
to be conformed to the image of His Son. Listen, we are not
in the image of His Son right now. Right now, the child of
grace is housed in the image of Adam. The other man. The other Adam. But at the resurrection, this
mortal will put on immortality and we shall be as he is. We
shall be conformed to the image of Christ. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Now, brethren, none will be lost. Every one of the called is going
to be conformed to the image of God, Christ, and they will
be glorified. God finishes what He starts. And none is going to miss out
on it. None of us will miss out on it. While you're there, look
at verse 35. He says, Who shall separate us
again? I circled, whenever I was looking
through this, I kind of went down and I circled all these
words here, starting from, actually, if you want to go back to the
beginning of chapter 8, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. That's the subject of the matter
here. Those who are in Christ Jesus. But if you look down all
through chapter 8, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God. The Spirit itself, bear witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. Verse 16. Verse
19, for the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the
manifestation of the sons of God. Now brethren, I'm hoping
to preach on this one day because I'm told that the creature here
is talking about everything outside of us. The cow, the horse, the
dog, the cat, the creation out there. Brethren, I think this
right here is talking about the child of grace. I think I can show that through
Scripture. The Lord will allow me one day
to preach on that. But it says, for the manifestation
of the sons of God, verse 23, not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Verse 27, and
he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints. And then in verse
28, he says that we are the call So whenever we hit verse 29 and
work our way down, we see for whom the call, the brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate
the call. Them the call He also called. Whom He called, them. He also
justified. And whom He justified them, He
also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? People use that just in general
terms. If God be for us, who can be against us? There's another side to that
coin. If God be against you, who can help you? If God be against you, who could
help you? But here he's talking about the
elect of God, the call. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's? Here's the subject matter again.
He makes it in bold, clear letters, God's elect. See, if Christ died for us, and
that's what's going to be the argument here, if Christ died
for us, then we are the ones who is in view here. There's
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
That because of what He has done in death, in burial, in resurrection,
in the obedience that He did to the Father, Every bit of that
is what brought to the point for every one of us to receive
what is being received in this. It is God that justifies it. Who is He that condemned it?
It is Christ that died, yea, brethren, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who make an intercession
for who? Us. Who's us? The elect. Be called. So here again, brethren, God's elect nobody can bring
any charge against. If nobody can bring any charge
against us, then that means nobody's going to be lost, nobody's going
to be cast out, nobody's going to be turned... God's going to
turn their back on them because nobody can bring a charge against
us. Now, Satan can accuse us all day long, but those accusations
don't stand with God. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. But Christ has defeated Satan.
Christ has purged us of sin. Christ has given us a clean slate. He has given us His righteousness.
And there is no way that any charge can be held against God's
elect. So if there's no charge, there
is no dismissal. There is no losing salvation. There is no turning the back
upon His people. He goes on to say, Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again. Who is even
at the right hand of God who maketh intercession for us? That's a lifelong intercession.
Hopefully we'll get to that here in a minute. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? See, that's the key verse right
there. Who is going to separate us from
the love of Christ if all this other stuff is true? Christ isn't
going to cease to love us. For us to lose our salvation
would mean that Christ would have to then hate us. Because
everyone that He loved, the Bible says, for God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Those
that He did not love, those that He hated with an everlasting
hatred, He has hated them. That's the only way that you
can get back into that state is to go from being loved to
hated. And God says and promised that He
has loved us with an everlasting love. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for
thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loves us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. So here again, it is in Christ
Jesus. It started with being in Christ
Jesus. There's no condemnation in Christ Jesus. This chapter
ends with the love of God being in Christ Jesus. And if we are
in Christ Jesus, we already learned in John chapter 10, that nobody
can pluck us out of His hands. I hope this gives comfort and
assurance to the people of God that if they be His, that there
is no way that God can see them ever any other way except in
Christ. That there is no way that God
could ever consider casting you off or casting you away. I know
Paul said, but listen, that's Paul from a human mind and the
emotion and the experiential things that we go through in
this flesh. I know Paul said that he hopes
that he not be a castaway. But he knows that there's not
any way that that could happen. Paul even said, man, I wished
that I could be condemned, that all my kindred could be saved. Does that mean that there's a
possibility that could ever happen? Absolutely no. Paul was just
expressing his thoughts in his fleshly mind on these very things. Oh, if I could only do this,
But see, that's not how salvation and righteousness works. Paul
couldn't give himself for his own people because Paul himself
was a sinner like the rest of the people were. He was an unbeliever
just like every one of them until God gave him belief. Paul was
a false religionist just like everybody else is until God gives
us true religion and belief. Look with me if you're going
back into Hebrews. chapter 7. Again, looking at this part of
the perseverance of the saints, the preservation of the saints,
and how none will be lost. You know, we just looked in Romans
28, it says, who shall separate us from the love of God? If we are in the love of God,
See, to separate us from the love of God would mean that we
were in the love of God, right? Which means, if you think about
it, that we were first separated into the love of God. To be in the love of God means
that we were separated unto the love of God. God brought us to
Himself to love. So we were separated or called
out, called unto His love that He had for us. So we have been
separated in that sense in the fact that we have been elected
to be loved. That's a separation. And then
the question is asked is who can separate us from that? Now if you think about something,
the word separate is another term used for sanctified. Whenever we talk about sanctification,
the word sanctification means to be set apart or to be separated. We were separated in the love
of God before the foundation of the world. That's our sanctification.
But we were sanctified in Christ Jesus. We were set apart in that
love in Christ. In Hebrews chapter 7, look with
me if you would. In verse 25, it says, Wherefore,
he is able also to save them to the othermost. Save them who? Talking about the people of God.
Talking about the elect. Those who are part of the covenant
here. The one whom the high priest, Christ, has been interceding
for. Wherefore, He is able also to
save them to the uttermost, or that word uttermost there means
forever. He is able to save them forever that come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for them. So the fact that Jesus is ever
living to intercede for His people means that there is nothing that
can separate us from God. That the separation that we have
experienced in His love, the sanctification that God has made
of us as the elect of God for His purpose of loving everlastingly,
that cannot be stopped, it cannot be changed, it cannot be revoked
because Christ ever liveth to intercede on our behalf in this
covenant. Anytime anybody would bring the
charge of God's elect, who is the one who stands to intercede?
I don't have to intercede for myself. I don't have to come
and give account for myself. The Bible says that That's the
end that all will stand before God and will give an account
for themselves before God. But brethren, the elect of God
have already been given an account. Christ has given the account
on our behalf. And whenever we stand before
God, our intermediator, our mediator, our intercessor will give the
account for us. We have an advocate. See, those
who are outside of Christ, they don't have an advocate. And they
have to advocate for themselves. And therefore, in that advocation
of themselves, the only thing they have to advocate is their
own works, because they don't have works of God given to them.
They don't have the works of Christ given on their behalf. The only thing that they can
come forth and they can say, Lord, Lord, did we not do this?
And did we not do that? And did we not do this? And He
will say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never
was the worker who knew you. See, God knows His sheep. God
knows His elect. God knows the ones that He has
called and separated. God knows the one that He has
set His love upon. And God knows the one who is
being interceded for by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That intercession
of righteousness on our behalf God knows that, but He doesn't
know them, and He doesn't know their works, and He doesn't know
everything that they are putting forth as a righteousness. He
doesn't know that in a way of receiving that as payment, receiving
that as what will clear their name. Therefore, their works
will stand for them. They will be judged for what
they have done, and they will be found wanting, and they will
receive their just reward. The child of grace has an advocate.
An advocate is one who stands in your place and speaks for
you. Larry was an advocate at one time. He was a social worker. He was a social worker. He was
an advocate. He spoke on behalf of children mostly, right? Children. He was an advocate for them.
He stood and He spoke on their behalf. An attorney is an advocate. He stands and speaks on your
behalf. Christ is our advocate. And He
stands as our righteousness. He stands in our behalf. And
He says He ever lives to intercede. So if He is ever living to intercede,
how can anybody lose that intercession? Christ would have to decide to
quit interceding. Christ would have to decide to
quit being your advocate. And He said, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. Let's look at one more passage
of Scripture. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. I remember we just talked about
being sanctified or being separated. And in that separation, we are
a people who have an advocate or an intercessor, one who is
interceding on our behalf. In Hebrews 10 and verse 14, he says, excuse me, verse 14,
for by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Already sanctified. So He is
perfected. If you've been made perfect,
what do you lack? If you have been sanctified,
who can unsanctify you? It says that we are already sanctified
or set apart, separated. We already are. That's the people
that we are. We are a sanctified people. We
are desanctified. So Christ is the one who sanctifies
us. Do you sanctify yourself? I hear a lot of sovereign grace
reform people out there saying that our sanctification is a
progressive one. Sounds like to me it was a finished
one. Sanctification was a thing that was already taken care of
before I ever came to know about it. Sanctification was something
that I am included in Not something that I attained to be. I said one more verse, but that
got me to thinking about another verse. 1 Peter, 2 Peter. 1 Peter, 1 Peter
chapter 2. Look at verse 9. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you, separated
you, sanctified you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Brethren, our perseverance and
our preservation is all because of Christ. And
when God starts, He finishes. And not one person will ever
be lost in any of that. Alright, anybody have anything
that you'd like to add? Comments? It really truly is, even though
I grew up believing once saved, always saved. Still, in the back of my mind,
while I believe that you could lose your salvation, we always
had this thought that you could always walk away. God might not
walk away from you, but you can walk away from Him. And whenever
you walk away, He turns His back on you. And He doesn't hear your
prayer until that prayer of asking for forgiveness, you know. and
everything. Scriptures don't teach that anywhere,
brother. There's misconceptions about
a lot of verses that seem to maybe point that way, but whenever
you take the rest of Scripture, that would contradict many other
Scriptures. But what amazing comfort, solace,
peace that we can have if we just continue to ponder the promises
of God in our perseverance and our preservation. All right,
everybody got anything? Okay. Lord, we thank you for
the day. We thank you for your grace.
We thank you for your mercy. We thank you, Father, for the
perseverance that you have given your people, the preservation
that is in Christ Jesus, Father, the promises that You
have made, we know they cannot be broken. But Lord, we know
in our flesh a lot of times those things can be forgotten. They
can be overlooked. They can even be doubted and
not believed. But Father, we know that You
are true and You cannot lie. So we pray that You would continue
to give us a steadfast hope in the work of Christ and in Him
alone. Lord, may You give us joy in
these things, to know that we have been saved with an everlasting
salvation. And that salvation doesn't just
harbor on the legal side of things in the eternal, but that it stretches
through all the experiential things that we go through as
you bring us through this lifetime. So Father, we're so grateful
for all that you've done for us and all that you are doing
in us and with us. We thank you for this word that
you've given as testimony of what you are doing. Father, Lord,
we just pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to keep us in
this faith, would continue to teach us, to grow us in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I thank
you for these brethren that you've gathered today again. I thank
you, Lord, for the way that you teach each one of them and the
encouragement that we have one to the other as we hear each
other. they've done in their life and
they've struggled with things, Lord, and how you have brought
them through and have you given them confidence in your son,
how you've given them hope, Father, how their testimony edifies the
church. And so, Father, we're grateful
for the meeting that we have each week. I pray, Lord, that
you'll keep them safe this week, that you'll guide them, that
you'll be with them, and Lord, we just thank you again Everything
that was said today was of the truth. Father, I surely know
that anything that is not of the truth came from my fleshly
wisdom. And so, Lord, I pray that you
will continue to help all of us, Lord, as we speak about you,
that we speak the truth that's in Christ Jesus. Lord, I just
thank you again that you've given us the opportunity to be able
to meet and the freedom that we have in this country. We do
pray, Lord, for our leaders. We pray for our people that you
have set up as our governors and as our presidents and all
those that govern over us. Lord, we pray for them that you
would give us good leaders, that you'd give us men who respect
and would even honor the word of God. But Lord, we just pray
that you would help us through all these times to stay faithful
to you. And that we would look to you as our only hope. In Christ's
name we pray, amen.