Well, last week, as I mentioned, we began to look at the doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints and talked about how the Arminian position is uncertainty of perseverance, and we are here to assert our certainty of the perseverance of the saints. And so we began to look at that last week, began to look at several scriptures and truths concerning that, about perseverance, and we're going to be continuing that today. And I want to start this morning with a table discussion. We're going to be using these lists of verses over here for this table discussion. And this is what I want you to do during this table discussion. I want you, whatever your table is, in a manual, you're going to need to get somewhere with more than just yourself for this, so that you can discuss it with other people. But I want you to read whichever Scriptures that you get here for your table, and I want you to consider the picture, the illustration, the doctrine, the concept, maybe even a phrase that's within these verses that really highlights the necessity of perseverance of the saints or eternal security. We can also talk about the testimony of Scripture that salvation once given is not something that will be lost. And I want us to see from these different concepts and pictures that you've looked at here, And I realize I'm kind of throwing this on you here, so it's okay if we kind of have to work through it, all right? But I want to do that. So let's start with table one. What did y'all see in your verses? We really saw in like verses 3 to 5 that the inheritance that is for us is reserved in heaven for us. Okay? And the people that it is reserved for are those who are protected by the power of God. through faith for salvation that will be revealed at the last time. So it really highlights God's sovereign hand of carrying you through this life into the next. And who is it particularly that, who are the ones in both of these sets of verses are going to be the ones that are protected? Those who have been born again. Those who have been born again. Yes, those who have been born again. What is that? Those who have been born again, that's a huge concept for us to grasp in this reality of eternal security. That's what we call regeneration. So this concept of being born from above by the Spirit of God, So we're saying that we undo that, that we are unborn again, and then maybe reborn again at some point in the future. It doesn't make sense. Once you are born again of the Spirit of God as a child of God, That's it. You are born into the family of God. You have an inheritance that is reserved for you in heaven that cannot be taken away. It's reserved. So just a beautiful picture there for us to grasp on to concerning that. Alright, table 2. What about you guys? What did y'all see in your verses? Two primary things. One is the adoption of sons that God chose us. And so we can trust in that that He's not just like, I don't want you anymore. And the other thing is being Spirit-led and having the Spirit of God indwelled in you that He will see you through to the end because of that. Very good. Anybody else at the table, anything to add to that? So the concept of adoption and the indwelling of the Spirit of God within His children. Beautiful picture. And again, I say these are pictures because we just notice the two pictures we have side by side. We have the picture of being born again, being born into the family of God, and then we have this picture of adopted into the family of God. And so we are brought from somewhere else into the family of God. but it's by the amazing power of the Holy Spirit's work within our lives regenerating us. Table 3, what do you all have on your verses? The picture of marriage and the church submitting to Christ as He sanctifies her and presents the church to Himself in splendor in verse 27. Yeah, exactly. So marriage, right? This is one of my favorites. I really, really love this picture. I think it's beautiful. I think it's significant. I think it's important. When God brought Adam and Eve together from the very beginning, I think this is so significant. We see it here in Ephesians 5. God did that knowing. This is before sin came into the world, mind you. So this just tells you of the sovereignty of God in all things. He knows the end from the beginning. He intended for Adam and Eve coming together to be a picture of Christ in the church. It's a beautiful thing. And what's significant about marriage? What's the significant thing about marriage? What's the significant picture? Steve, you're at that table. Well, I was going to say that it's permanent. Why is it permanent? because it's a picture of Christ in the church. They're united, right? Yeah. The two become one flesh. Amen. Right? The two become one flesh. So if we are the bride of Christ when we are saved and we are united to Christ as a bride is to her husband, they come together in union, that's not something that can be separated. That's not going to be separated. That is permanent, as Steve said. It's permanent. It can't be separated. So, another beautiful picture. Table 4. I think that's you guys up here in the front. We looked at printouts and saw a lot of references about the human body being made of many parts, Jews, Gentiles, eyes, arms, all these things. But Diane pointed out that God builds the body. And if God built the body, he's going to build it to be permanent, to have longevity. Yes. Exactly. You have this picture of the body of the cross. God is the one placing the members of the body there. And so, if perseverance of the saints of eternal security isn't right, then you have members of the body being placed in, and then they're taken back out, and then they're placed back in again, and they're taken back out. It doesn't make sense. It completely goes against the nature of the picture that we're being shown about the body of the cross. So, yes. Very good. Table 5. Yeah, our verse focused a lot on circumcision. Things that came out in the conversation were, much like circumcision is a physically permanent thing, what Christ does is a permanent thing. And where does it happen? the permanence of it at the cross. Okay, but where does it happen? In our heart. There you go. And that was another thing, our heart is circumcised, which also touches on Hebrews. But also, not only is the circumcision permanent, you can't undo it. So even if you sin in life, it's not like, oh, you're not part of the family. No, you're still in, you still seek forgiveness. It's an eternal thing. I was trying to think if there's anything else that popped for us. And there's nothing we can do. It's all in Christ. Christ is the only one. We just bring our sinfulness. Christ does all the work. Right. Yeah, so we go from being circumcised of heart to being uncircumcised of heart. Like you said, external circumcision is something that's permanent. God's circumcision of our heart is something that's permanent. And of course, we can really start to really connect that picture particularly to the whole concept of the covenants, the Old Covenant versus the New Covenant. Circumcision of the heart is this permanence of the New Covenant. So, just again, a beautiful picture. Once God circumcises our hearts, it can't become uncircumcised again at some point in the future. So, very good. Table 6. I think that's you guys up here. Yeah, I think we talked about verse 14 summing it up. It's a single offering. He is perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified. So you don't have to have continual offerings because you have sinned. It happened one time. and it's made us perfect. Perfect. That word perfect is so significant, right? And that's something we have trouble with, but what we have to understand is that perfection is not based on us. It was never based on us. It was always based on Christ. So the only way that we can lose our salvation is if Christ's perfection somehow gets sullied, which we know is not possible. So, again, yes, the salvation is something that's permanent. Very good. All right. Table 7. It was hard to... the verses just speak so clearly for us. So, out of John 5, those who hear the voice of the Son of God will live. Let me back up. When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. And then I'm going to jump over to our next passage. It's the will of God that Jesus should lose nothing. All that he has given him will be raised up on the last day. And then the very last part says, I will raise him up on the last day. So there's, it's pretty clear and there's very little gray. Yeah. So, so this one's a little bit, you're absolutely right. The wording that I want you to look at here, and this is a little bit subtle, I guess, but there's this phrase in there that says, eternal life. He who believes in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day. I actually found a quote from Charles Spurgeon on this. This is what he said. If anybody said that he had eternal life and lost it, he would be flatly contradicting himself. If the life that Christ gives us when we are born again can die, it is not eternal life, or else words have ceased to have any meaning. I love that. I thought that was great. Joe actually mentioned that last week. So that same idea. But yeah, I love that. Again, he gives us eternal life. If we are given eternal life, can you lose eternal life? That doesn't seem to make sense. And it doesn't make sense. All right, table eight. I'm sure this has been pointed out before, that they tried to stand on the grounds of their own works as a means of justification for their lawlessness. And the Lord said, well, you're standing on your works as a means of justification. I never really knew you because you didn't do those works in my name, you did them in your name. Yeah, absolutely. And you said the significant phrase there, I never knew you. Right? Not, I knew you at some point, and then I stopped knowing you. He says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So again, I never knew you. Even though you were doing all these things, I never knew you. You were never one of my children. So yeah. All right, table nine. We talked a lot about our verses were a lot about like you've been crucified with Christ and our life is now hidden in Him and just this concept of death is once for all and then life is in Him completely and we're to bear fruit for Him and yeah, just that it's with Him, it's hidden with Him. He's the one that's governing our life and helping us to bear fruit and yeah, there's purpose and intent there. Yeah, so death is once for all, right? So here's what I love in these verses, is it actually talks about our death in Christ. our old man dying in Christ, okay? And again, we are then united with Him, our new life is in Christ, and so our old man has died when we are saved. So to say that you could then lose that would mean that your old man would have to come back to life again. Your old man comes back to life, and then your old man dies again, and then your old man comes back to life if you're in some of these places to where you can continually gain salvation, lose it, get it back, and lose it again. Your old man is dying and resurrecting. Frankenstein's coming back to life, you know, all the time. But as was said over here, death is something that happens once. And so our old man dies and our new lives are encrossed forever. So yeah, I hope that's helpful. I hope as we go through and we see all of these different concepts that they're not just things that we kind of see and we think, oh, you know, that's neat. There is great significance in these pictures, these illustrations, these teachings from Scripture that apply to our eternal security in Christ. So, any other comments or questions on any of that before we move on? All right. Okay, very good. Last week I also mentioned what's implicated by perseverance in the Perseverance of the Saints and the implication there is that we go through trials, we go through difficulties and we talked about that some and I do just want to spend a little bit more time on that this morning. Because, again, the question might be, well, why? Why is that necessary for us to do that? Why do we get to persevere, as we talked about last week? And there's a few verses that I want us to go to, because I want us to really get this idea in our minds, too. Why is perseverance necessary? So, let's go to Romans 8.17 first. Laurel, would you read that for us when you get there? Romans 8.17. And then, Matt Harber, would you get Philippians 3.10? Hmm. Provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Alright? Philippians... Matt Harber, Philippians 3.10? "...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death." May share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. And then the last one we're going to look at is 1 Peter 2, 20 and 21. Let's see. Zeke, would you read that for us when you get there? 1 Peter 2, 20 and 21. Yep. For what credit is better, if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this harm is favored with God. For if you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, believing you an example So we are called to, and you see the words there, endure. That's persevere. We are called to endure, to suffer, so that we can actually be like Christ. It's a part of our being like Christ. Our being conformed to the image of Christ in this life is to persevere, to go through trials, to go through difficulties. and to endure those things, to persevere through those things. And so, it's a part of our becoming like Christ is to do that. And actually, the last place I want to go... Well, still not the last place I want to go, but go to Hebrews chapter 12. And I want us to look at verse 11 to start. It says there, Hebrews 12, 11, For the moment, all discipline, or training, if you go back up to verse 7, it says, it is for discipline that you have to endure, that you have to persevere. So this is training. For the moment, all discipline, training seems painful rather than pleasant. But look at this, "...but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." So, what we have to do is look beyond the present difficulties, beyond the present pain, to what comes after it. And again, in doing that, we are imitating Christ. Because if you go back up to verse 2 of this chapter, when we are being exhorted to run with endurance, at the end of verse 1, "...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." So, Jesus endured the cross. He went through suffering and He It says, for the joy that was set before Him, He was able to look beyond the cross to see the end result of the sufferings and things that He was going to have to go through for the benefit that was beyond the cross, which was His resurrection and also our resurrection with Him. Again, for us to persevere in this life, to go through trials and sufferings and to be able to see beyond those things, to see the end result, the peaceful fruit of righteousness and the ultimate joy of being with Him, that should help us to persevere. to the end in this life. And again, it's a privilege to be able to do that. This is actually the last one on this. 1 Peter 1, verses 6-9. 1 Peter 1, verses 6-9. Nathan, would you read that for us? Nathan Hamm. 1 Peter 1, verses 6-9. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith and salvation of your souls." Focus in on the end of verse 7, that these trials, the tested genuineness of your faith, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, there's a little bit maybe of a question here of who this praise, glory, and honor goes to at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Is it going to us? Is it going to Christ? Is it going to God? I think there might be an aspect of both that that happens, but certainly, Our trials, our difficulties makes our time when we get to heaven much more glorious. It is much more glorious than it would otherwise be because of the current trials and the struggles and difficulties that we go through. It makes that just this glorious, beautiful time of going to be with the Lord and giving Him praise and honor and glory for His salvation that He has given to us in Jesus Christ. And we get to bring Him honor and glory through our lives here and now. So I just think that's important. You think about the trials and the struggles that we as believers can go through, and we persevere through those. We maintain our faith in God. And the world doesn't understand that. They can't grasp Why would you continue to... I think of Job. Think of Job. Why would you continue to trust in God in the midst of your great trials? And so it brings honor and glory to God. Of course, the only reason that we do that is because of what He has done in us, in our lives, making us one of His children, changing us, regenerating us, putting a new heart and a new life within us. Our old man dying. Yes, Robert. having the ability to put your faith in God's faithfulness because you've just experienced it. Yeah, yeah. And we're also able to comfort others with the comfort with which we have been comforted as well, so very important. Alright, to finish up here, to kind of wrap up, I want to I want to just give a little bit of time to why eternal security might be something that would not be held to. Why would people not hold to eternal security? And the first reason I have here is fallen humanistic thinking that creates a small view of God and a high view of man. So we create this small view of God that God is small and therefore He is not powerful to save, and His will is not the one that is determinative, but man's will is determinative. Man's will is the one that matters, and so you begin to go down this road of of that kind of thinking to where God is not determinative. And truthfully, we've talked about Arminianism and just kind of their uncertainty of perseverance. But the reality is, once you start down that road, the logical end of that to where man has to be the one who makes the ultimate determination. God does a little something. He kind of seeds the ground for you a little bit, but at the end of the day, you're the one who makes the decision. Of course, the problem with that is when you start redefining, say, foreknowledge just simply to mean that God looked down the corridors of time and He saw who would choose Him, And therefore, those are the ones that God calls the elect, those who would choose Him. Well, the problem with that is, if you already have a problem with things being set, is that with that mindset, you know what? Things are still set. Because God has looked down, He has seen who all is going to believe, He has declared them to be the elect, and that's set. And therefore, still nothing unthought of is going to occur. And so for some people, that's still not good enough. And so then you end up in what's called open theism, to where God doesn't even know the future. God doesn't know what's going to happen next. He might have some good guesses of what's going to happen, but he doesn't really know what's going to happen next. And the reason that becomes necessary is because, again, Man's free will has to be the ultimate determining factor. God can't have really any part in our salvation. It has to be based on men. And so, again, a small view of God. An elevated view of man is one big reason why you can end up in a camp to where you don't believe in eternal security. Secondly, it's something that we kind of already talked about last week, but I want to talk about again just for a minute here. It's just our ongoing struggles with sin. You know, we have these ongoing struggles with sin as believers, and we think, well, I can't really be saved. I wouldn't be struggling with these sins if I was truly saved. I wouldn't continue with these struggles. And I don't have the amount of time that I wanted to give to this, but Romans 7, which is a chapter that I've kind of gone back and forth on My view of that, whether Paul there is speaking of his pre-conversion experience or his post-conversion experience, but at least at this point, I have landed on that he is talking about his life after becoming, at least largely, he's talking about his life after becoming a Christian. and just the difficulty that's involved in that. Because he's in the midst of talking about salvation and the believers' ongoing life in Christ and sanctification. And the verse that I want us to focus on just here is verse 24. of chapter 7, where Paul says, "...wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" You know, that might be where some of us are sometimes. "...wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" And what Paul is giving, what he is helping us understand there is that though his His inner man has been renewed. Though He has been born again, He still has this body of flesh that has this desire and this tendency still towards sin that wants to pull us away from sin. And in Galatians, He talks about that battle that's going on between the flesh and the spirit, and we need to walk in the way of the Spirit. and put to death the deeds of the flesh." And so then verse 25, he says, in answer to his question, "...thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I myself, my true self, serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. My flesh, that I'm still in in the here and now, still is not renewed. It's still waiting for that final consummation of salvation that's going to come in the future. But then look at verse 1 of chapter 8. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And that's what we have to grasp on to. Even in our great struggle with sin that we still have as believers because we have this body of flesh that we are still carrying around with us, There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no possibility of it because Christ has taken it all upon Himself. We are fully forgiven in Christ and there is no condemnation that's possible from the law because He took it all on Himself. And so, in our struggle with sin, we have to keep that in mind. Now, before I finish here, I have to talk about this for a minute. And I want us to... How many of you have heard the phrase, once saved, always saved? I'm sure most people have heard that. And the phrase by itself is basically saying the same thing that we would say, eternal security, perseverance of the saints. However, in my experience, what I have seen largely, is that when that phrase is used, what's typically being referred to is a scenario where people have raised their hand, they've walked the aisle, they've prayed a prayer, and they've put their faith in Jesus at some point in their life. And then that's it. The idea is they have been saved, they had this experience, and that's it. They're saved and that's it, and there's nothing else that comes along with that. There's no concept of continuing to follow Christ, continuing to pursue Him in your life. I mean, I grew up in a church that was like that. and so somebody would come and they would have an experience some Sunday, and then you'd never see them again. But they were on the church roll, and they were talked about as a saint and everything else, and you'd hear about how they're living their lives and whatnot, and they would still be seen as somebody who is once saved, always saved, and that is just the absolute wrong mentality. We do not see that in Scripture. And if we stay there in Romans 8, Paul even addresses that. He says, "...if you live according to the flesh that you still have, if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." And so he is saying, yes, there is a battle that is going on in our lives as believers with sin. but it's a battle that we can win and that we must be engaged in and really. The big difference between typically the mentality of once saved, always saved, and what we're talking about here in perseverance of the saints. Perseverance is that there is a battle that's occurring. There is a battle that's going on, whereas the once saved, always saved is basically you just kind of have an experience at one point, you put your faith in Christ, and then there is nothing that comes after that. But as believers, we are called to persevere, to fight this battle with sin that still resides in us, not for the sake of salvation, but for the sake of the glory of Christ, because we want to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. Such a big difference in those two mentalities and definitely wanted to give just a little bit of time on that and so Jeremy yes, it's it's amazing to me that that seven and eight go together so well Yeah, because in seven you see that works has no transformational power yeah, but Christ is the transformational power, but eight says Christ is a transformational power. Yeah, the Spirit working in us. The Spirit is, yes, and there's an actual transformation. And if there's not an actual life transformation, you need to ask yourself some crucial questions. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. All right, we've got a minute. Any questions or other comments? Alright, very good. Let's close with a word of prayer.