Well, let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would be with us tonight by your power of your Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is the great illuminator of truth, as Jesus said, he would guide us into all truth. So, open our eyes to behold wondrous things from your precious word, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen. We are in John chapter 15, looking at Verses one through eight, I've been looking at that passage for several weeks. And I want us to understand that this is, all of the word of God is important, of course, but it's important that we get, understand accurately what Jesus, his metaphor here in John 15. And it is so profound that to get it wrong, and I'm gonna mention that at the tail end of the message, I'm gonna show you the consequences theologically if you get John 15 misinterpreted. Now we've understood that chapters 13 through 17 of John's gospel account has to deal with Jesus's upper room discourse. He has instituted the Lord's Supper. We've got to understand that in instituting the Lord's Supper, he mentioned that there would be, that he was going away, he would be betrayed, but he would send a comforter, the Holy Spirit. Now, as I already said, John 15, 1 through 8 is fundamental in Jesus talking about the role of him as the vine and the branches. Of course, here in Jesus' metaphor, he says, I'm the vine and the branches are the disciples. And Jesus says that it is imperative that the branches abide in the vine. If they don't abide in the vine, they are fruitless. They are dead and Jesus says, what do you do with a dead branch? You take it and cast it away and you burn it up. So he said those who don't abide, meaning those who are fruitless, those are the ones that are removed. And in verse eight of John 15, Jesus is very straightforward when he says, There in verse eight, he says, by this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. In other words, you demonstrate that you really belong to me if you're bearing fruit. Here's the thing. Jesus in his parable, if you recall, in the parable of the sower and the seed, said that the only soil that was the genuine Christian, as Jess brought that out so well, and when he preached on that parable, is the last soil where the seed finds root and it grows up, has some depth to it in its roots, and bears fruit. It's the only soil where the seed bore fruit. So here's the thing. It's not necessarily the quantity of the fruit that we have, because Jesus said, there are some that's gonna bear 30 fold, some 60 fold, some 90 fold. But the point is this, it's gonna bear some fruit. It will bear some fruit. If it's not bearing fruit, then he says, you're not part of the vine. You're not abiding in the vine. So we can say this, fruitless Christians do not exist. That is, there is a difference between a professing Christian and a possessing Christian. One uses the mouth to claim they know the Lord, and the other actually possesses Jesus Christ as Lord. Now Jesus, We have shared this passage before. Jesus made that very clear in Matthew 7, verses 15 through 23, where he said, not everyone who calls to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father. You gotta do the will of the Father. You can't just say it. You can't just perform amazing works, like casting out demons, healing people. That doesn't cut it either. Jesus says, on that day, he says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawless ones. Notice he said lawless ones, meaning disobedient ones. Fruitless ones, in other words. Now, some of you probably went to public school as a kid. Some of you that were homeschooled, but you probably didn't do this. You remember show-and-tell? When you're a kid, you could bring some show-and-tell. Well, I'm going to have a show-and-tell right now. So I've got this flower, and you may not see it that well right here. It's not doing too well at the moment. Now why do you think it's not doing too well? What do you think I did? Yeah, I took it off of a blooming bush Friday. On Friday, it was a lot in good shape. Now there's a reason why I did that. Because yesterday, my wife and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. So I thought, well, you know, I wrote her a letter of what she meant to me for the past 45 years. And on Saturday, it was a lot better shape. But it was still taking a toll, just one day. So I had to tell my wife, I said, there is a disclaimer. I don't want you to get the impression that my love for you the last 45 years is like a wilted flower. So nonetheless, she appreciated the flower and the letter. Today's, and this thing is in bad shape because it's not attached to the vine anymore. That's why it's not receiving sustenance. And the minute I picked it, it really started the process of it dying for all practical purposes. And so Jesus says, and there's a reason why I've used this portion of scripture to teach what our Westminster Confession of Faith calls the distinction between the visible and the invisible church. Several weeks ago, I've mentioned that to you. We looked at places in the confession of faith, chapter 25 on the nature of the church and some of the larger catechism questions about that. And here's, let me just briefly say what our confession says in line with what the scripture teaches. Okay, the confession is subordinate to the word of God, but we believe it accurately reflects the teaching of scripture. So how did the confession define the visible church? All who profess Christ together with their children. That's the visible church. The invisible church are all those who are elect and at some point, during their life, they will repent of their sins and believe genuinely, they will believe, not maybe, they will believe and will, not maybe, inherit eternal life. Now, John 637, I want you to turn over to John 637. We've already looked at that before, but remember, in John 637, It says, all that the Father gives me shall come to me and the one who comes to me, I will certainly and certainly not cast out. Just keep in mind, what did Jesus say about the branches that don't abide in him? They get cast away is what happens. He says, those who come to me, I don't cast away. And the ones who come to me are the ones that the Father gave me. If you look at verse 39 of John six, and this is the will of him who sent me that of all that he has given me, I lose nothing. but raise it up on the last day. Who does he not lose? All those who the father gave to him, that's who he doesn't lose. And then in verse 44 of John six, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. Is there a possibility that he won't? Well, no, he will raise up guaranteed On the last day, which is the day of resurrection, the day Christ comes back again to bring all of history to a culmination. And so what we see, he will not cast out those. Now what did Jesus say in John 15, seven? He says, what does he do to the fruitless branches again? He says, he casts them out and they are burned. It was last week we took a look at what does it mean they're burned? Well, all those passages means they are eternally destroyed in hell. Well, the fire is never quenched, as Jesus says. So now, John 6, 37 is a great passage on what we call in the Reformed faith effectual calling, or powerful calling, that's what the effectual means, powerful calling. Now, I do want you to get in the back of your Trinity Hymnal, turn to the Westminster Confession, chapter 10 of the Confession, and sections two through four. All right, are you there? All right, section two. This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit. He is thereby enabled to answer this call and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it. elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by grace through the spirit. I want to emphasize those who are regenerated. Who works when and where and how he pleases, so also are all other elect persons who are incapable, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the word, may have some common operations of the spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved, much less can men not professing the Christian religion be saved in any other way whatsoever, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, the law of the religion they do profess, and to assert and maintain that they may, and very pernicious, and to be detested. Now I mentioned that only those who are in the invisible church, the elect, only they are the ones saved. It's possible to be within the visible church and not have saving faith. I mean, that's what Jesus said. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord's gonna enter. They were in the church, but they didn't have saving faith because they really truly did not trust in him as Lord and Savior. So we need to understand that the elect are those chosen before the foundation of the world and given to Jesus by the Father where the Holy Spirit draws them to Jesus to exercise saving faith and who will persevere to the end and are raised up in the last day. Notice Jesus says, if the Father gives them to me, and the Spirit draws them to me, I will raise them up on the last day. Not maybe, I will raise them up. In other words, they will persevere. They're not gonna apostatize. Now in properly understanding Jesus' metaphor in John 15, the context is important. Not only the immediate verses around it, but all of Scripture. Now, let me draw your attention, turn to John 13. Let's turn back a chapter or so and look at verses 10 and 11. John 13, 10 and 11. This is at the Lord's Supper now. Jesus says, he who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew the one who was betraying him. For this reason he said, not all of you are clean. Now who is he talking about? Judas Iscariot, of course. The one who was going to betray Jesus. He's not clean. The other 11, they are clean, but not Judas. And so, we pointed out when we were in John 13, Jesus washed Judas's feet. He was there during the foot washing part of that night. And Judas ate the meal with everyone else as well. So he was part of that special privilege that Jesus did to the disciples as a whole, but he was going to betray Jesus. And so Judas eventually, of course, will leave and will go out and then officially turn Jesus over to the Sanhedrin and show them where Jesus is and will lead the arresting party to Christ. Now it's important for us to understand that Judas, as I said, was among the 12 Judas was with Jesus for three years. Jesus was one who went out and preached with the others. Judas was one who went out and may have healed others. You say, well, how could that be? What did Jesus say in Matthew 7? Just because you say you healed someone doesn't mean I really knew you. Now, how that works out, I don't know, but that's what the scripture says nonetheless. He was outwardly a friend of Jesus. For remember in John 13, 18, look what Jesus said in John 13, 18. If you turn back there, he says, I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen, but it is that the scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. And Jesus was quoting Psalm 41.9 as a fulfillment of prophecy where a close friend would betray the Messiah. Here's what Psalm 41.9 says. It says, yea, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Jesus says, that was fulfilled when Judas ate the meal and then went out and betrayed me. It is vital that we understand that the prime example of Jesus's metaphor of a branch not abiding in the vine, of a branch that is fruitless, of a branch that is removed, and a branch that is cast in the fire is none other than Judas Iscariot. He is the prime example of what Jesus is talking about. And that's who he had in mind when he gave that metaphor. Judas was part of the visible church. Judas was in the covenant, but Judas was not of the covenant, and Judas will be cast out and will eternally perish in his sins. Now remember, in John six, Jesus talked about to the Jews who were following him, he says, now you've got to eat of my flesh and drink of my blood. or you have no part of me, and it says that many were offended by that, thinking of it in a crass physical way, when Jesus meant, in the context, it's clear, to eat his flesh and drink his blood means to believe in him. Just read John 6, that section, and it's very clear that's what he meant by that. So he got a whole group of disciples, not the 11, but a whole group, remember a disciple is simply a follower. And there were many who followed Jesus, were called disciples, and they left him never to follow him again. And that's when Jesus says to the 11, he says, are you going to leave also? Peter says, well, who do we go? You got the words of eternal life. And then he says, Jesus says, I chose all of you, but one of you is a devil. And John 6, 70 says, it referred to Judas Iscariot specifically, that he was the devil. So Jesus always knew that Judas was a devil. He always knew he would be the betrayer and let him come along for three years as a close friend. So it is clear that Judas was not one of the elect. Why was he not one of the elect? Because he proved himself to be a reprobate. He proved himself of being someone who did not bear fruit. He showed himself to be that branch that did not abide in the vine. and he eventually revealed himself, his true nature. Now, Judas will go out, you know, after he betrayed Jesus and Judas saw the proceedings of Jesus being condemned and he was so upset, Matthew 27 records it, that he realizes by his own words, I have betrayed innocent blood. Got so upset that he went and he took the 30 pieces of silver that the Sanhedrin paid him to betray Jesus. In other words, to tell them where Jesus was. He takes them and throws that money back into the Sanhedrin and says, I have betrayed innocent blood. And their response was, so what is that to us? Now, because it was blood money, meaning it was money secured, well, I'll put it in crass terms. It was money for a hit job. That's what it was, to go out and take care of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. And he says, well, it would not be proper for us to take that money, because it's blood money, as if, oh, wow, you're not going to take that, but you're the ones that incited Judas. And so they took the money and bought a field called the potter's field, and where after Judas hanged himself, that's where he was buried. Amazing how prophecy is fulfilled to the finest detail. And yet men are responsible for their own actions. You know, with regard to Judas being a reprobate, I want you to turn over to Acts chapter one. Look at Acts chapter one, verses 16 through 18. And it says, brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was counted among us. That means he was part of the visible church is what that means. He was counted among us and received his portion in this ministry. He was involved in our ministry even. Now this man acquired a field with a piece of the wickedness and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And then look at verse 25, Acts 1. It says, Well, we gotta back up to verse 24. And they prayed and said, thou Lord who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen. They were choosing a replacement for Judas. To occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. What does that mean? Well, he went to hell is what that meant, his own place. And that's what Jesus says. What do you do to the branch that doesn't abide in me? Instead, you cut it off and you burn it up, is what you do with it. Now, I say all of this to you so you can see how some have twisted the scripture to teach false doctrine. Some of which is what we call in scripture, there are two types of heresy in the scripture, by the way. The word heresy in itself means a schism. Sometimes the word, the Greek word heresis is translated as schism, like in 1 Corinthians. Other places, like in 1st or 2nd Peter 3, Peter refers to damnable heresies, meaning a heresy is a false teaching. It is a false doctrine. Well, not all false doctrine will destroy your soul in hell, but there is some that will. You get it wrong on the fundamentals of the faith, like the nature of the Trinity, or the nature of how are you saved. Is it by words or is it by grace through faith? Some have twisted the scriptures and have led to serious, serious errors. And I'm referring to the federal vision. controversy. That began in 2002. Some of you are quite aware of this. It started in the reformed community of all places. And let me just say this before I further develop just how the federal vision has corrupted John 15. Because that's where They are a major part of where they went astray, and all the things have just fallen like a domino effect of one false teaching after another. When Paul met with the elders at Miletus on his way back to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey, he says there will come a time, and I'll just quote the passage, Acts, 20, 29, 30, here's what Paul said in his farewell address to the elders of Ephesus. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Among the eldership, there will be some that will come and will be wolves in sheep's clothing to draw away disciples after themselves. In 2002, there was a pastor's conference held in Monroe, Louisiana at Steve Wilkins Church, Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church. And after that conference, several in our presbytery at the time, Henry Johnson, for one, came to Joe, said, you need to hear these tapes, because there's some very disturbing things. So we listened to the tapes, and we had the tapes transcribed word by word. And that was very revealing. Once we did that, we could see exactly what they were saying. Within a year, what happened was, What they were teaching, the Federal Vision guys, there was called the Monroe Four, Steve Wilkins, Steve Schlissel, Doug Wilson, and John Barrack from Alberta, Canada, who was a fill-in because Norman Shepard was supposed to be the basic preacher there, but his wife was sick and he couldn't come. So Barak replaced him, had the same theological view. They were called the Monroe Four. They began teaching what they called the objectivity of the covenant. And they defined faith as the obedience of faith. Now the way they did this, the way they define that as the obedience of faith is not what I read in Romans 1 and in Romans 16. Paul says, we have preached to you leading to the obedience of faith to the Gentiles. The context is very clear in Romans that what that means is that we preach the gospel And those who hear are to be obedient to the gospel command to repent and believe. That's the meaning of the text. But that's not what the Federal Vision guys say. What they did, they said that the obedience of faith was faithful obedience to the law of God. Now there was a worldview conference that we sent a lot of our young people to every year up at Hampton Roads, Virginia for years, which Steve Wilkins was always one of the preachers there. And in 2002, he began, we'd already listened to the tapes, He was defining faith as faithful obedience. And Henry Johnson challenged him saying, Steve, you cannot define saving faith as obedience in its essence. Yeah, it works itself out, but you're saying the very essence is obedience. You can't say that, Steve. That's not the gospel. So what they began to do, these men, the Federal Vision, they were denying the distinction that our confession is very straightforward on, the invisible, invisible church. They said, and I'm gonna read it to what they said exactly, they deny that. So they're taking exception to the confession on multiple levels right here. Well, here's what happens. The minute you deny this idea of the visible and invisible church, and I already defined that. Remember, the visible church is everybody that shows up and we see them, but we don't know who is the elect of God. We don't know who actually possesses Christ. The Holy Spirit does. Now, we may have a good idea that so-and-so is a believer, But we don't know their heart. The Holy Spirit knows their heart. But you've got the visible church. But the scripture is very clear, and our confession is very clear, that the invisible church consists only of the elect, only of the elect, who God will bring to saving faith at some point. Now here's what happens when you fail to make the distinction between the visible and invisible church. Here are the serious consequences theologically. You are brought to affirm what we call baptismal regeneration. Now I'm not talking about the baptism of the spirit that Jesus talked about in John 3, where it says, unless you are born of water and of the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God, Nicodemus. We're not talking about that regeneration, that work of the Holy Spirit. By baptismal regeneration, we're talking about the view that when you see an infant baptized in the church, or you see an adult baptized in the church, that person is automatically regenerated and in the kingdom of God and is a genuine Christian by virtue of the fact they got baptized. Now that's when you deny the visible and the invisible, that's where you end up. That's where they went. Now this means, and what they mean is that physical baptism puts a person into saving union with Christ. And you know what they call that? They call that, the federal vision guys, call that initial justification. They teach, in their writings, two types of justification. An initial justification that you get when you are water baptized, and a final justification that is not declared until the final day of judgment, once you have proved yourself to be faithful and you make it to the end, you persevere the end and do not apostatize, then you get final justification. Now brethren, you can search the scriptures and you will not find two types of justification. Our confession of faith does not teach two kinds of justification, only one justification. And that is when you and I, by faith, believe in Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Savior, then the righteousness of Christ is imputed and credited to us as if we did it ourselves, and we are declared innocent. That is justification. There is no such thing as an initial and a final justification. And the only reason that they have to say that theologically is because they're forced into that position because they have denied that distinction between the visible and invisible. See what terrible damage is done by not understanding John 15 accurately? When we were still in the RPCUS in 2002, we issued what was called a call to repentance. a call to repentance to the Monroe Four saying, look, we've read everything in your conference, we've seen your writings, and you need to repent and recant of some serious theological errors. And we issued and sent out to the Reformed world what was called the call to repentance. We just dropped a bombshell on the Reformed world when we did that. I mean, theologically. We, Chalcedon and the RPCUS took immense, initially took immense heat. You guys have overreacted. These are your friends. Several of these guys were personal friends of several of us. You guys have overreacted. And by the way, right after we issued that call to repentance, some of our youth at Cal Sedan, my youngest son was part of that group that went there, immediately after we did that, and our youth were basically shunned or ridiculed by the other youth for the fact they were simply members from Cal Sedan. Oh, your church, do you know what you did? You know what your church and your denomination has said about these men who come every year? I was off in Texas at the time, but Zimmy Fleck will tell you, Calcedon lost 50% of its congregation because they thought we overreacted, our denomination. Within a year, however, in 2003, there was a symposium in Florida where all the federal vision guys met with some of the other, well, for lack of a better word, bigwigs in the PCA and other parts, people whom others respected in the reformed world. They met, and after that symposium, I remember Joe saying, he got a call and said, well, you guys were right after all. We agree with you. You were the first to have seen it. These guys are out in left field and we now see it. And that's what led to me to publish in 2005 the book, Danger in the Camp, which was the first real detailed analysis of this controversy. And I remember, I've titled that book, Danger in the Camp, colon, subtitle, An Analysis and Refutation of the Heresies of the Federal Vision. I want you to know, I spent, now I didn't wait a year to write the book, but I spent a year thinking about the title. Because the minute I put the word heresy on the title, I knew I was putting my head out on the chopping block as fair game to have called these guys heretics. But I was convinced I was right. They were. And the reformed world since then has agreed that they are heretics. I have a chapter called Modern Judaizers. Now why? Well, who were the Judaizers, by the way? The Judaizers were those Jews who said, believing in Jesus is good, but you have to believe in the law of Moses as well in order to be saved. It was that group that Paul had great dissension with in Antioch of Syria, which precipitated the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 to settle the issue. Now, I wanna show you just because they went astray, they went astray predominantly with John 15, our text. I wanna read to you what Steve Wilkins has said about this portion of scripture. Now, I do want you to, I am me quoting from him, but I want you to listen carefully and to catch what he's saying. There was, in 2003, the Christian Renewal Magazine interviewed the Monroe Four, and one of them asked Steve Wilkins this question. Can we be in the church, but not united to Christ? Here is his answer, verbatim. That's a distinction the Bible doesn't make. I see what they're trying to preserve, but the distinction is not biblical. The visible historic church is the body of Christ, and thus to be joined to it by baptism is to be united to Christ by baptism God offers and gives Christ to us. Wilkins continues. Paul says that at baptism you are clothed with Christ, Jesus. For as many as of you are baptized in Christ have put on Christ, union with Christ is real, vital, blessed union. The clothes make the man. With our union with Christ, we have all spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings. Union with Christ is union with the church, his body. being united to the elect one, who's Jesus, all who are baptized may truthfully be addressed as, quote, the elect of God. So if you're baptized, you are, quote, the elect of God. That's Wilkins' statement. Thus, if you were to ask Paul, do you know who the elect are? He might have replied, of course, the elect are all who are in Christ, meaning all who are baptized. The elect are those who are faithful in Christ Jesus. If they later reject the Savior, they are no longer elect. They are cut off from the elect one and thus lose their elect standing. But their falling away doesn't negate the reality of their standing prior to their apostasy. They were really and truly the elect of God because of their relationship with Christ, and why was that? Because they were baptized. The apostate thus forsakes the grace of God, I'm still talking about Wilkins, that was given to him by virtue of his union with Christ. It is not accurate to say that they were only appeared to have these things, but did but did not actually have them, if that were so, there would be nothing to forsake. And apostasy is bled of its horror and severity. That which makes apostasy so horrendous is that these blessings actually belonged to the apostates. Though they only had them temporarily, they had them no less truly. The apostate doesn't forfeit apparent blessings that were never his in reality, but real blessings that were in the covenant with God. Steve Wilkins says, this seems to be the point of John 15 verses one through eight. Jesus here declares that he is the vine and his heirs are branches united to him. He then exhorts them to continue abiding in him so that they might bear fruit. If they refuse to abide in him, they will be fruitless and incur the wrath of divine husbandmen, and finally will be cast into the fire. Hence then we have those who are joined to Christ in a vital union, a union that could and should be fruitful, and yet who end up being cursed and condemned. Brethren, that is not what Luke 8, 15 says. When Jesus in the parable of the sower and the seed, let me just remind you what Jesus said in that parable. He said, on that soil, and the seed and the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance. Bear fruit, the branch, the disciple, Jesus says, is the branch that actually bears fruit. Now, what we see here, I'm quoting Wilkins further, he says, often this passage is interpreted along these lines. Now watch what he says. There are two kinds of branches. Some branches are not really in Christ in a saving way, but only in an external sense, whatever fruit they bear is not genuine and they will eventually be destroyed. By the way, that is not what John 15 says. That is not what it says. John 15 says, Jesus says, The branches that are cut off never, never bore fruit, ever. Not that they once did, they never had it. So he's wrong in giving us the impression that's what John 15 says and that is not what John 15 said. So he says, other branches are truly joined to Christ inwardly and savingly and they bear more and more fruit and are cultivated by the Father. Norman, as Norman Shepard says, if this distinction is in the text, it is difficult to see what the point of the warning is. The outward external branches cannot profit from it because they cannot in any case bear genuine fruit. They are not related to Christ inwardly and draw no life from him. The inward branches do not need the warning. Now this is Shepard saying this. Because they are vitalized by Christ and therefore they cannot help but bear good fruit. Wilkins continues, the Calvinist embraces the implausible interpretation because he understandably does not want to deny election, effectual calling, or the perseverance of the saints. The exegetical problems one must embrace with this position, however, are nearly insurmountable. I just want you to know, the interpretation that I've given you, the interpretation that the Bible sets forth, the interpretation that the Westminster Confession, he says exegetically, it's insurmountable to try to maintain that position. That's what he just said. He goes on to say, If the branches are truly not joined to the vine, how can they be held accountable for their lack of fruit? This distinction of external and internal seems to be invented and not in the text. Now, let me just, I talked to you, we're gonna bring this to a head here. Remember I said they believe in an initial justification? And that at your water baptism? What is it that, here's what they say, this is what everybody gets, even infants who are baptized. Here's what they get at their water baptism. Quote from Wilkins. Talking about the person who is apostatized. who's given up the faith. He says, he has forfeited life, forgiveness, and salvation, had real communion with Christ, had the Spirit's work within them, had been sanctified by the blood of Christ, had been made partakers of the heavenly city, had been sprinkled by the blood of Jesus, had been cleansed from their former sins, were bought by the Lord, escaped the pollutions of the world, and had adoption. But they lost it all. if they did not persevere to the end. The Reformed faith has always taught perseverance, but it's the elect who persevered. You cannot say that the apostate was ever an elect. The Bible doesn't say that. Our confessional documents do not say that. Emphatically, they say the opposite. John Barak, he was one of the Monroe Four Speakers, he said about baptism, people will say covenant election that Israel enjoyed, that certainly didn't mean that everybody in Israel was going to be saved automatically. By the way, what's that word automatically? That's a bit of a weasel word. Meaning, I think it's okay to say they're automatically saved unless they prove themselves to have forfeited everything that they had. He says, and God in the gospel through baptism promises and unites us to Christ in every respect. He says in your baptism you have redemption, righteousness, justification, sanctification, the Holy Spirit, glorification, and election. The whole package of salvation, you could say, is found in Christ. But then he says, if you say you don't need a special dramatic revivalistic conversion to let you know that you're elect, You had this special experience that God gives you. It was called baptism. That's the special experience that lets you know that you are one of God's chosen people, the elect. Brethren, that's what happens if you go astray on John 15. Because that was a major passage that Wilkins used and Baruch and Wilson, all the others used John 15 as the proof. Oh, they were really truly united. No, no, they weren't. That's the point, Jesus says they weren't. Because they didn't bear fruit. Not that they bore fruit and then they decided not to bear fruit. No, Jesus says they never bore fruit. That's why it died, it's a worthless branch. You see, this is not, let me just end with this. This is not theologically straining at a gnat. These are issues that if you get them wrong, they can jeopardize your soul. And if you believe, if a person believes that by covenant faithfulness is what's gonna make it at the end, you've just become a modern Judaizer and made works the basis of your salvation. And that is what the scripture condemns. And Paul says, then you are under the curse of God, if that's what you believe. These men have ended up denying all the major tenets of the Reformed faith. That's why we took them on. And that's why we were willing to take the heat that we did, because as shepherds of the flock, what is one of the main duties of a shepherd? Protect the sheep from the wolves, from the predators. So, you gotta get your exegesis right. Let's pray. Lord, help us, help us to understand the scriptures. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.