He got all burned out and he came in here, didn't he? I think he bust out one of those DC Talk songs about being left behind. DC Talk. He's gonna have to come back again. He just doesn't want to go. I think two of the three of that DC Talk don't even go to church anymore. Don't even profess Christianity anymore. Really? Only Toby Max still does. Michael doesn't. What's his last name? I think that's the one that he was singing for his voices. Yeah, one of them. One of them left face altogether. I thought both of them did. I might be wrong though. I had a friend at the time when he was at the height of his popularity. He was the road manager for new song. And he was telling me how he said, you know, Toby Mac doesn't want people know how old he is. Because he was like, yeah, I mean, he's probably in his 60s now, because he was a little older than me. But when he was doing all that music 20 years ago, You know, everybody thought he was like 20. They thought he was 20 years old. And so that's why he always had the big clothes on and hats and never could see his face. He wanted people to think he was young. That's funny. And that's just what the manager told me. You know, he's a killer hit with these 18, 19, 20-year-old kids. And if they found out he was nearly 50, they'd be like. Toby Mac. No, Toby Keith. We're talking about spiritual things. That's where my brain went. You said Toby and that's where my brain went. I remember at first I was like, Toby Mack? Never seen nothing about cowboys. I was like, that's Toby Keyes. Toby Keyes. I love Toby Keith. He's been really sick. Stomach cancer. Yeah, he's lost a ton of weight. He's not doing well. I don't think he's even touring right now. You have to catch it super early and surgery has to get it all gone. That's the problem. They're usually not caught early and it's metastasized. You can, but you're going to end up with ileostomy. Yeah. The problem too is it's so close to all the stuff. You end up with liver and pancreas. It's usually liver. Yeah. Almost always. For sure. All right. What can we pray about? We jump into a new chapter tonight. Susan's dad. Yes. Has he had the surgery yet? He had today. He just came out before I got here and everything went well. Good. Randy goes to Virginia the 1st of October just to meet with the transplant team. He won't stay up there because he's got to have vocal cord surgery before transplant. Oh yeah. And then Vaughn Haynes has the sinus cancer. Who is Vaughn Haynes? I know Vaughn Haynes. Vaughn and Rhonda? Okay, they live right below you, don't they? Yeah, I painted for them before. Okay. Well, I just saw him not too long ago. That must have been recently. Well, I don't know you, I guess. I haven't known him long. Well, on his birthday, he had just come home from the hospital. I bet he's going to Wellstar, I think. Keep praying for the Bodney family that lost a young man this last week. What name was that? Bodney. She actually, they lived down in Peachtree City, but John and I went to school with the mom, Kim. She was Kim Codner, which if you know Stacey's Dance, Stacey Codner, Stacey's Dance. This is her sister Kim, her son. You said Tom? Tom, mm-hmm. And it's Bethany and her brother. She has two brothers. Please pray for Jacob. What was the lady's name who was just here and left? Jacob. What was the lady's name? Jackie? Jackie. They just needed some help. You're trying to help him, but I think they left. Yeah, but they left before we could. So. Well, he didn't come in because he didn't have a shower. So you read the notes that my son Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Caleb. So so Caleb is talking to his wife and he sent me some screenshots and. Can I just read? So if you don't know Caleb, he's been quite. Yeah. Yeah, they kind of went through a lot of difficulties and now they're kind of back up. Yeah, so they've moved away, they got away from people. She's asking some questions about like movies and TVs and things like that. I guess they've been having some conversation and he says, it's not something that you're really able to control. The only way you can find is by studying the scripture and reading the Bible. As you dive more into the world, these worldly things such as a car for me, would become less important and you won't rely on these types of things for happiness. A few weeks ago, I was mad about the car I'm driving and wanted a little, fast, loud, manual car. That's his kind of thing. But after shifting my perspective, I was, instead of being angry and ungrateful, I prayed and thanked the Lord that I have two vehicles that can get us to and from work, start up when we turn the key, and doesn't leave me stranded. I give thanks that I'm able to wake up and have the opportunity to go to work and provide for my wife and kids. And then he talks about another friend of his, and he says, basically, if your circumstances change your happiness, then you're not finding joy in Christ. You're finding joy in the world, which even after you're saved, you struggle with those things, and they still affect you, but you have a conviction of the sins. You're physically unable to live without sinning, but every little battle of sin that you do win was won by the Holy Spirit in you. These are not things, I mean, Caleb went to church with us. He's aware of what Reformed theology is, but that kind of conversation with his wife is not something that he does. Yeah, with his mother. So it's just, I'm seeing something there that is God's influence. All right, yeah. Michael's leaving out. 7 o'clock, Saturday night. I hope I'll walk around while I'm sleeping so the people beside me can give me some more room. Yeah, you will. This is nowhere real loud. Oh, we probably will. Everybody's gone. How long was the clock? 10 hours. But we didn't book, they didn't book it to the last minute because it would take forever to make decisions on things. So by the time they booked it, we were in the middle seats. I flew first class once because we were on Buddy Pass and they bumped us up. You start looking at everybody in the back like they're lesser. Just instantly. They start giving you food, and you're like, yeah. I didn't want to tell anybody, I only paid $50 for the buddy pass, you know. On the way back, we had to get back to the bank. He serves you right. You got a little pride at the end of the run. That's right. That's right. Alright, let's pray and we'll jump in this thing. You didn't miss anything, Luke. A couple of song singer stuff we were talking about. We might have it recorded if you want to hear it. Put that on sermon audio. I forgot about that. Got a little busy. Why don't we turn it off and then we'll start fresh. You got to make sure you quit hanging out with Karen. All right, well, let's pray. And we're gonna be in chapter 17. Father, we're so grateful for your grace toward us and the way you love us through Christ and the forgiveness of our sin that we have in him. And we just rejoice at that, that our sins will never be remembered against us. And we're so thankful and just pray that you would help us as we think about your word and your will for your church. We look into our confession and try to learn more about exactly what we believe on these doctrines and talk through these things. We pray that in the process, we learn more about you and we just see you in all of your holiness and your beauty. And bless all of our families, our homes. We thank you for the way you provide for us and you've been so good to us. And we are thankful for that. We do lift up to you the names that have been mentioned. We thank you that Susan's dad got through surgery and all that went well. We pray for his healing, that you will continue to take care of him. Bless Randy and all the upcoming. procedures, tests, everything that he's got to go through. I pray that you would just work all that out for your glory and for his healing. I pray for Von Haynes and his family and ask that you would heal him and just bless all the doctors that will be caring for him. Just give them wisdom to do what they do and continue to pray for Kim, Bobby and her family and their loss. I know that they're devastated and I pray your blessing of comfort and peace in them. And we lift Anita up to you and continue to ask that you bless all her family around her and her as well. And we thank you for Jacob and we just pray your blessing on him that you I would reach him with the gospel and give him ears to hear it. Lord, just bless Karen and Brian as well as I try to figure out how to best care for them and trust you in doing what you do. And pray for Jackie that was just here with us and her family that was with her and just pray that you would take care of them. bring them out of the situation that they're in and give us opportunity to help them in whatever way we can. And we pray for Caleb. Thank you for the good news that we've heard from him and what seems to be a great work of God in his life. And I pray for him and his wife and family that you would just supernaturally bring them to yourself. Just rescue them and like you've done so many of us and we pray for Michael on his trip That's coming up that you will protect him but also bless his family as he's away and just give them a piece knowing that that he's taken care of and Again, we thank you for Jesus For all that he is and for who he is for what he's done We put our trust in him and we pray for more faith in Jesus name. Amen All right We are in a great, great section talking about the perseverance of the saints. This is the P in TULIP, if any of y'all remember that, acrostic. Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, or particular atonement, irresistible grace, and then there's this, perseverance of the saints. Extremely important, and just like all of the doctrines of grace, They're so connected with every other doctrine, you can't separate one out. As my friend used to say, it's like table legs. If you move one of the legs, it's at least gonna be wobbly, and eventually it'll fall. So all these doctrines fit together, and they go together, and they're connected, of course, in Christ. Anyways, the perseverance of the saints, we'll see what it means. We try to talk about it a lot, but I think we got into this last week for some reason. It's different. Most of us in the Baptist Church are familiar with once saved, always saved. But really, this is the biblical doctrine. Because once saved, always saved seemed to be a way that people said, well, it doesn't really matter about the sin of my life and things I've done because I'm saved, so that doesn't matter. God's gonna save me no matter what. And that's not a biblical way to look at what God has done for us in the safety and security we have in Christ. This is a better way to see it. And we'll see as we read through this what persevering means. Because it doesn't mean that we won't sin. And in a way, it is true, even though we sin, and yet, though we sin, we cannot be separated from the love of God and Christ Jesus. But, the doctrine of perseverance doesn't teach us, que sera, sera, don't worry about it. you're going to sin no matter what. But it does teach us, as all the other doctrines do, to continue to look to Christ. When you fail, look to Christ. When you fail, look to Christ. Because, as John said, I write to you that you sin not. But when you sin, you have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ. And so I think that's the proper way to see this. And as usual, the framers of this confession just word it so wonderfully well. And they have such a grip on the English language. And this is not even in the original because this is the one that we read is an updated modern modernized version but it's still it's still beautiful. So let's read through it and then we'll try to talk a little bit about it. So it says those that God has accepted in the beloved that he is effectually called that he is sanctified by his spirit and given the precious faith of his elect can neither totally nor finally fall from a state of grace. So that right there is a lot in and of itself. And it is interesting, in all the confessions that we talk about, like the First Lenten Confession, the Savoy Confession that we've mentioned before, and the Westminster, they all have pretty much the same wording here at the beginning, and Beloved is always capitalized. those God has accepted in some people pronounce it beloved some people pronounce it beloved but that is because the beloved is Christ what God has accepted his people in is Christ and he has accepted us um Not because of his works, even though his works matter. Not even because of his blood, but because it's his son. It is Christ, that's right. So we are accepted in the blood. That's the only way we're accepted. We're not accepted because we put our faith in Christ. We're not accepted because we've repented. We're accepted because God accepts Christ. And in Christ, He has called us. And not only called us, but as it says here, He has effectually called us. And we talked about this before too, right? The effectual calling of God. There's a general call of the gospel where we do all the time. We preach the gospel, general call. Everybody can hear the general call. but only the elect of God hear the effectual call because it is effectual. It does something. Specifically, it brings you from death to life. That's something the preacher can't do. I can call you to faith in Christ, but only God can effectually call you to Christ. Only God can awaken you from the dead and put life, breathe life into your soul and put your bones back together and as Ezekiel said, points out that only God can do that. And that is the effectual call. We talked about that before. And then it says, and also, of course, He has sanctified us by His Spirit. We just finished talking about good works and sanctification. I want to say, was there a whole, have we already covered the whole chapter about sanctification? Or is that still coming up? I think we did, yeah, chapter 13 with sanctification. So we talked about that already. Sanctified by his spirit. We talked about how that's where the good works come from. If we do good works, they're of God, they're from him. And then he's given us the precious faith of his elect. That means there's only one faith that God has promised to his elect and he gives it to us. And so, That foundation is pretty solid to go on and make this statement. So if we are accepted in the beloved and effectually called and sanctified by the spirit and given the faith that God gives only to his elect, then we can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace. So there is no way to fall in the sense that we're no longer saved, right? There's just no way. And I know I say this a lot, if you understand The order of salvation, the order salutis that we talk about, if you understand that at all, there's no way you can get this one wrong. If you believe, if you can understand at all how justification happens, there's no way you can believe you can lose your salvation. I just don't see how. Anytime I've had this conversation before, I used to live next door to a Pentecostal pastor's church. It's not Pentecostal, what is it? Well, it was similar, it's Church of God. Anyways, he started this conversation with me. He said, well, I mean, we believe you can lose it, but y'all don't, but the main thing is we believe the same about how you get it. And I said, well, we really don't. Because if we did, then we would agree on this. Because you think you did something to get it, so you can do something to lose it. If you understand that before the foundation of the world, God chose you in Christ to be elected, and he chose you and accepted you in the blood, and that your name was written before the foundation of the world in the book of life, How on earth are you gonna get rid of that? There's nothing that we as earthly temporal beings can do to undo what God has done in all eternity. And so really, I just believe if you can get, if you understand total depravity, unconditional election, and particular atonement, then irresistible grace makes sense and perseverance is the only logical conclusion. Does that make sense? There's just no way that we can undo what has been done before we even got here. And at a point in time, God did effectually call you from death to life. But that's because he had decreed that to happen and it was going to happen. And there's no way it'll unhappen. Right? I mean, to me, that's just exciting. I don't know how else I wouldn't want to look at salvation any other way. Because No wonder I can never totally or finally fall from the state of grace. Because I didn't do anything to get to grace or else it wouldn't be grace, right? The Bible says that. If it works, then it's no longer of grace. So it has nothing to do with me. But, and I like that it says, can either totally or finally. So it didn't say you can't fall at all, because it's gonna go on and talk about that. We are gonna sin and fall. But you won't fall totally. and you certainly won't fall fine on them. And to me, again, this doctrine of perseverance is the one that you can say, if we say something like, well, time will tell. Is this person a Christian? I don't know. Are any of y'all believers? I don't know. I see what I think to be fruit. Yeah, I hope you look at me and say, it seems like he's a believer. But you know what? We'll know because of perseverance. Now, I think God identifies with our spirit. He makes known to us and gives us assurance. But my hope is this, that no matter how many times I mess up and fall short, fail to do the things I should and do the things I shouldn't, I will be finally saved because of the doctrine of perseverance. And to me, that's beautiful and wonderful. Does anybody want to say anything about that first sentence before I keep reading? Add any comments? Does anybody want to disagree? Y'all probably wouldn't be here if you disagreed with that. uh all right it says they will certainly persevere in grace to the end and be eternally saved because again the gifts and callings of god are irrevocable irrevocable irrevocable i don't know people say that differently too i say it differently every time i say it i don't know what the right way to say it is irrevocable it cannot be revoked and that's uh romans chapter 11 i think that's is that not in the list down there That's Romans chapter 11 when he's talking about Israel. Did God have no purpose with Israel? Of course he did. But what does he say? They're disobeying the gospel for your benefit, but they will be saved. God will save Israel, not necessarily the nation of Israel, but he will save his people because that's his purpose. And the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. He doesn't change his mind. Which I think the whole purpose of Israel anyway was to show God's purpose in election. He elects who he wants to and don't elect who he don't want to. And he chose Israel for whatever reason. There's nothing particular about Israel. He even says that. I didn't choose you because you have more horses and bigger armies. I chose you because I chose you. And it's true about us. We can't look and say, well, what reason did you choose me? I chose you because I chose you. And that's another thing, you know, people will hear that doctrine and say, well, you must think you're special. No, I really don't. I mean, now I am, but it wasn't because I did something before. I have no way to say God chose me because all I know is he chose me, that is why, because he chose me. And that's the same for everybody. So. Is that the same for Israel? I think it is the same for Israel, yeah. I mean, they have nothing to boast about. He chose them because he chose them. And again, I think he chose them to just give us a picture of, what does election look like this? The whole world full of peoples, and he chose this one to bring his law for the angels to, whatever it says, the angels come and gave him the law. But I know there's a lot of, there can be disagreement about that part of it, but it is, true that there was no reason he chose Israel other than he just did. And therefore he still brings about and nourishes in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the spirit that lead to immortality. And so there's so many great verses that you could think of to support that one sentence right there. In John chapter 10, Jesus said, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one will ever snatch them out of my hand. There's just so much. What else? He said, I've never lost one because my father's given them to me. He who began a good work and you will be faithful to complete it. There's just so many Bible verses that speak to this. God began the good work, he will complete it. And then here comes the part to describe never finally or totally falling from a state of grace. Even though many storms and floods arise and beat against them, that is the elect, the people of God, even though storms arise and beat against them, yet these things will never be able to move the elect from the foundation and rock to which they are anchored by faith. The felt sight of the light and love of God may be clouded and obscured from them for a time through their unbelief and their temptations of Satan. Yet God is still the same. They will certainly be kept by the power of God for salvation where they will enjoy their purchased possession. For they are engraved on the palms of his hands and their names have been written in the book of life from all eternity. I mean, that right there is just like a massive sermon in about four sentences. And it's the source of our hope, right? Because, I mean, that's where we live, is it not? In the storms, in the floods that beat against us, the things of the world, the things of Satan, the battles that we can't even see, these spiritual realms of battles that we don't even know anything about. times of unbelief, times of temptations, times we fail in temptation, all those things clouding and obscuring from us the love of God and the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we cannot finally or totally fall because God will come get his people. He just will. He will always come get his people. That's a good word right there. It's a great word. It's written so wonderfully. He never can go against his word either. 2 Timothy 2, God's firm foundation stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who knows who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. So many other places. I was looking at these other verses here. Because I was thinking there was a verse that said something about what you just said, Melissa, about Mar in his name. I can't remember the verse. I read it earlier. All right. Y'all don't want to say anything about this? That's good stuff right there. It's too good to even comment on much, isn't it? I mean, that's our hope. That is the whole hope of the Christian faith. If they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgressions with a rod and their iniquity with stripes. Of course, we know that's Christ. Yeah, that's right. He did do that. By His stripes we've been healed. So it's not that our sin hasn't been punished, because it has. It's been paid for, punished well, completely. Which is why, again, we sing about this Sunday. This is why we cannot be brought back under judgment. What does that song say? It says it so wonderfully well. Basically, I can't be punished. My sin can't be punished twice. Once at my surety's hand and then again at mine. I don't know if y'all noticed that one little phrase in that song, Sunday. But that's what it's meaning here. It's already been paid. I can't be brought back up. You know, it's better than, it's better than our justice system double jeopardy clause. It's way better than that. I can't be brought back under trial because crisis paid my debt. So I have no more debt. And there's not even this idea that what about the stuff you hadn't confessed yet? Glory, hallelujah. I mean, all of it's paid for. Yeah. I mean, because I don't know about you, but most of the time I sin and I know it, but I can't forget stuff. You know what I mean? I'm thankful I'm not gonna be brought under judgment for the stuff I forgot. What about that little thought you had and you didn't confess it? And there's people that believe that. I mean, in fact, the Catholic Church teaches that. That's why you have to continually go to confession. And you have to keep confessing the things that you don't even know about. Which there's nothing wrong with confessing to God and talking to God and begging for... I don't know that we have to beg for forgiveness, though. I mean, I kind of shared this with you a few weeks ago. I've got to a place where in my prayer life, I don't ask God to forgive me. I thank him that I have forgiveness. I think that's a more proper biblical stand. Why am I asking him to do something he's already said he's done? The confession, I think, is more about us recognizing the sin in our lives than it is asking forgiveness from it. Well, like we talked about, the word repentance does not mean turn. It means to agree with God. And if you agree with God, that's real repentance. I agree that this is sin, and I've sinned against God. And then he gives us a repentance that we can't make up. That comes only from him. But I do think that, I don't know, I still catch myself. Well, I think in comparison to the world, though, there are a lot of people, you know, when you talk about these things, they say, well, I'm not a bad person. God wouldn't, you know, they don't see their sin. The ability to see it and confess it is a gift from God, and that's where the confession comes in. Thank you. I think I saw Michael was having a conversation with somebody about the Ten Commandments, and people think they've kept the Ten Commandments. Yeah, right. Well, just keep the Ten Commandments, okay? Yeah, do that. How have you done it, though? It's great until you go to see what Jesus said about it, and then you start realizing, Yeah, and if you've ever broken it, you're a lawbreaker. It's not like you get another chance. And so again, that's, I mean, that's the beauty of the Christian faith. And we've talked about this a lot. All of us were raised in a kind of condition where I think we, we did believe that, you know, I gotta confess everything. I don't want to die without confessing. And I don't want God to be angry with me. And I think that, I think again that's the Jesus saying, coming to me are you who labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Come take my yoke upon you. And you find out that we're supposed to rest in Him and trust Him. We're not supposed to like sin, and we're not going to because we're His. And even that one passage I read, I let whoever names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. I mean, that was even Jesus to the woman called adultery. I don't condemn you either. He didn't say, now go do what you want to. Go and sin no more. I mean, that's the call to the... Christian to the church, go and sin no more. But it's also the call, again, but when you sin, you have an advocate with the Father. And it's that learning to put, okay, obviously, Lord, my faith has been slack today. I have, you know, I've experienced some unbelief because I've sinned. Because if I don't believe you, and my faith wavers, then I sin. Because right, I mean, in the garden, if they would have believed God, they wouldn't have fallen. But they chose to not believe God. So there are times in our life, and I really believe that all sin is rooted in unbelief, because there's somewhere we chose not to believe God, and that he had what's best for us, and we chose for ourselves. And so we fall and we sin. But those are the times that we, I think that we're taught to run back to him and yeah, cry Abba Father, but not, oh God, I don't know how you can ever forgive me for what I've done. there's a cross with the Savior that died on it. Thankfully, he's off of it, and he's risen again at the right hand of the Father. That's how I can forgive you, you know? And I have forgiven you. Anyways. Somebody said, and I don't know if it's attributed to Spurgeon or Martin Luther or somebody, anyway, said that when we look at ourselves and our sin, we can't understand how God can forgive us. But then when we look at Christ and all he is, then you can't understand how anybody can be lost. So, you know, it's all a matter of where your focus is. Yeah, that's good. Well, good. You want to move to the next section? We could talk about that first chapter. First of all, number one, forever. It says in two, the perseverance of the saints does not depend on their own free will, but on the unchangeableness of the decree of election. So again, just like our justification, our perseverance doesn't depend on our ability to keep it. Our will, it depends on God's will. And in God's will, he determined within the covenant of redemption, before the creation of anything, God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, and God the Son, decreed that His people, He would save His people from their sins, and they would finally and fully be saved, and nothing would ever tear them from Him. So it's based on God's own free will, not on anything to do with our will. Thank the Lord. Because there again, the Bible don't have good things to say about our will. I mean, it just doesn't. and it clearly tells us that our wills are not involved in salvation. I mean, John chapter 1 is very clear. It is not according to the will of the flesh, not according to the will of man, but according to the will of God. Our wills do not play a part, except for that God changed us and made our wills willingly trust Christ. So that's why this is brought up, I think. And here's the thing, you don't have to hold on to God. What's that old saying? I think this was Spurgeon. Your hope is not in holding on to God, but his hold of you. And so, and what was it I heard? I think it was Spurgeon again that said, nobody could have grabbed onto the outside of the ark and survived. The only hope was to be inside the ark, shut up, by the love of God. And the same is true when it comes to salvation. You ain't gonna hold on to nothing. And you're not gonna make anything happen. Our hope is in God's free, unchangeable will in the decree of election. And that way, no man, no power, as Romans 8 says, there's no power in heaven or earth that can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. Because it flows from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father. And it's based on the efficacy and merit of... The efficacy is based on the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ in union with Him. Remember Hebrews? He ever lives to make intercession for us? Hey, we will be saved again, not because of our hold on Him, but because of His hold on us and His intercession for us. He is always going between us and the Father. God's wrath will not fall on us because it has to go through Christ and it already has. It's also based on the oath of God. That's the verse I was looking for, where is that? That's Hebrews also. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. So God's, God made an oath to himself. So like somebody said earlier, the character of God would be marred. God made a promise and an oath that He would save His people, and He will save them. And there was nothing that can undo that. Also, the abiding of His Spirit, the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace. Yes, the nature of the covenant of grace. Again, it can't be undone. And the certainty and the infallibility of their perseverance is based on all these things. covenant of grace as put forth by the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament, I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me. It's just amazing when you actually read the Bible, you see that it's God that does everything. How we've taken the gospel and turned it to where it's about us instead of about God, it's very discouraging and it's very sad. And that we've made people think that the Bible is all about them. My goodness, if you listen to somebody like Stephen Furtick, who's a very popular preacher, every passage in the Bible is about him, and therefore about you. And sometimes you just wonder, like, dude, do you realize there's this guy named Jesus? I mean, that's who the Bible's about. It's not about you. But, anybody want to say anything else right there? We may get all the way through this, number 30. All right, and here again, this is some more good news. They may, that's us, the people of God, they may fall into grievous sins. and continue in them for a time. And I think this does well for all of us, because we've all been here before where we said, well, I don't care. If you're saved, you don't do that. If you're saved, you can't make that mistake. And I would say that if that's the tenor of your life and you're never doing anything but sinning, that's problematic. But I like that it points out the people of God even may fall into grievous sins and continue in them for a time. Which is why we don't give up on people, right? We don't just write them off and say, well, they must be like the people John talked about. They went out from us because they never were of us and they'd been of us, they wouldn't have left. Well, the apostle can make that declaration, but we need to be careful about making that declaration until they're gone forever, because we don't know. But he says they can even continue in these grievous sins for a time due to the temptation of Satan in the world and the strength of corruption remaining in them, that flesh that we still have, and the neglect of means of their preservation. In doing so, they incur God's displeasure and grieve His Holy Spirit. Their graces and comforts become impaired. Their hearts are hardened and their conscience is wounded. They hurt and scandalize others and bring temporary judgments on themselves. Nevertheless, they will renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end." I mean, again, that's just amazing. That really is amazing grace right there. now that's not a that's not a license to go live however you want to that's not a license to sin and i don't think these men i mean these men were like puritans all right uh they you know you didn't even tilt your eyes in the wrong i mean these dudes were serious about living holy lives But they also recognized the human flesh and the temptation of the world and our desire to be of the world and sometimes falling into these sins. I think they understood this, that that can happen to the people of God, but they will renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end. I mean, it happens all through the scriptures, the people that we look at. Yeah. Right. He chose that and he wouldn't leave there. And Abraham lied about his wife and all kinds of things and David and Bathsheba and the list goes on and on. But I love that. I mean, that last that last sentence, nevertheless, if they belong to God, they will renew their repentance. and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end, because God will give them repentance. And so, to me, that gives us a lot of hope. I think that gives us hope for people that we know, that we think might be gone too far. But we don't know. But what we do know, and this is why it's so important, I think, to be around the gospel and to hear the preaching of the gospel. Even the church, the people of God. Because a lot of people say, well, I mean, say people don't need to hear the gospel. Yes, they do, because the gospel is what renews our repentance and our faith. We tend to think that the gospel is just that which saves, but it's also that which preserves. It's that which encourages us and spurs us on to live the faith that's ours. And when we hear that gospel, if we're the people of God, we recognize, I don't think it's we need to be saved again, but it's, wow, that's who I am. That's my Savior. I'm in Christ. Why am I dragging myself back to the world again? He's lifted me out of that. He's brought me out of the mire, as David said, put my feet back on solid ground. Why do I go back and jump in the mud again? And so, anyway, just good, good stuff. And I think that's a more proper way and a more encouraging way than to think about, oh, you gotta be safe again. You messed up, now you gotta go back and get saved again. Yeah. Yeah. But see, if you preach the gospel, you don't have to preach those kind of things. And I think some people will hear it and recognize it for what it is. And God will use it to bring him back to himself. We've become so decision-oriented that we've got to figure out a way to get people to make decisions and do stuff so we can see it and we can write it down and we can report it. But you know, just the everyday stuff that we live in and coming together like this and hearing the gospel again, hearing the good news of Christ, renewing that we're renewed by that. And we're given a new vigor to follow him and to trust him more. And I can't report that on Facebook, you know, man. But we know it. It's the people of God. We know when it happens, and it's a glorious thing. And I think that's why we gather. We gather to exhort one another and encourage one another and bear one another's burdens. And through that, God gives us worship of him because he's the only one that, it's because of him that we can do those things, right? And it causes us to worship him. And you know, I love that. I brought it up to y'all. I get confused if it was last week or the week before. But when I heard that guy say he had lost his son, he said, I came to church just because I knew I needed to come to church. But he said, I couldn't even sing because I was so hurt. But he said, as I listened to the church sing, y'all were bearing me up. Y'all were singing for me. I couldn't even sing, but the church was singing. And so therefore, I was singing, even though words couldn't come out of my mouth. And to me, that's a picture of the New Testament calling us to exhort one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And we sing and we worship. And worship is supernatural and it's something that God does when His people come together. You can't generate it. You know, I can't scream at y'all and say, all right, now worship. I can't make that happen. I can't scream that, but I can't make worship happen. And I can't say, close your eyes and lift up your hands and let's worship. None of that stuff brings worship. It's a supernatural act that God blesses his people with when they gather under the preaching of the gospel and the singing of the gospel. So, all right, anyways. And I think that's part of persevering. I mean, it's the joy that He gives us when we come together and we meet and we do the things that we've been called to do. We take the supper together and we're renewed again because we receive that grace even. That's why we do it often. Because, I mean, I don't want to do that once every three or four months. I want to do it often. It's just like preaching. Why would we neglect? We wouldn't neglect the preaching of the Word. We don't need to neglect the grace of the supper either. So, anybody want to say anything? Have we ever made it through one whole chapter and we're not? Well, that's wonderful. Y'all are getting better listening. After we pray, I think Nicole's gonna sing again. And then let me know what you Be specific though. Don't just call out first names. Don't call out first names. All right, well let's uh, let me pray and then then we can hang out or whatever. Father we love you and we thank you so much for this beautiful doctrine of perseverance and I pray that you could keep it before us and continually remind us of this. What a beautiful thing it is that We can never fall from grace, totally, and certainly not completely. And maybe some of us even right now are in a time of despair, a time of coldness and darkness, where the light of Christ has become dim. I pray that you would renew our repentance. and renew our faith and give us a new fresh just understanding of the beauty of the cross and what happened there and how all of the handwriting of the ordinances that were against us were nailed to His cross and there's nothing left. There's nobody left to condemn and nothing left to condemn. And so help us live that way in the joy of who Christ our Lord is and we pray this in His name. Amen. Sean, will you please...