I don't know who would be willing to admit it, but is there anybody here that has had to go to driving school because you got a ticket? Who's had to go to driving school because you got a ticket? Yeah, some of you. Some of you. Even Norm's willing to raise his hand. I appreciate that. I actually got a ticket when I was 17 years old. with my girlfriend. It was really embarrassing. It's even worse because I married her, so now she can remind me about that the rest of my life. But I got a ticket, and I had to go to driving school, and they made me watch a video. Maybe you guys were used to seeing this video. It was called Red Asphalt. Anybody ever see Red Asphalt? Do you remember that? It was a fine movie. Yeah, it's like a horror movie is what it is. A bunch of traffic accidents that actually happened and people's bodies are just shredded and torn apart. It's just delightful. I really encourage you to watch it. But it really is meant to instill fear in drivers and so that they'll drive more prudently and wisely. And maybe there is really something to that. But I will tell you this, I don't believe that God primarily wants His children to be motivated in their service to Him by fear. I think He wants them to be motivated by love. I think He wants you to know how high and wide and long and deep His love is for you in Christ, that it's a love that is really inexpressible, even difficult for us to totally comprehend, and then in that loving relationship with Him that you just love in return, that your life is characterized by loving service to Him. In fact, I don't think God wants His kids to be insecure. My wife always told our daughters when they were growing up, insecurity is unattractive. And it kind of is, and yet as believers, we're to be attractional. We're actually, others should look at our lives and wonder, why do you have the hope that you have within you? Like, what is it about you that's different? And it's really, it's the result of the love that God has poured into our hearts. And so this idea of, you know, sort of, I think, focusing on fear in the lives of believers, and this passage that we just read today, that Daphne read, I thought, with excellence, by the way. This is not an easy passage to read. Not only is it heavy content, but it's just wordy. So God bless you. I'm impressed by you. But look at verse 4, for it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened if they've tasted the heavenly gift and have shared the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away to restore them again to repentance. I mean, this is that idea of like, you know, like, and oftentimes it's used to kind of instill fear in the lives of believers. Like, you better be good or you'll have your salvation taken away from you. That's the red asphalt approach to the Christian life, and I don't think that's at all even what this passage is intended to communicate. In fact, I actually think it's the opposite. I think what you'll see today as we look at this in context, that really what the writer of Hebrews wanted these people to understand was that he felt secure in their security in Christ. I think God wants you to be confident My son Ryan, as you saw, it was announced today, got engaged last Monday, which means we, meaning Kristen and I, are going to have a very empty nest very soon. We will be a lonely people, so you just have to show up at our house. But Ryan has always carried himself, honestly, since the day that we adopted him, with a measure of great confidence. Like he's not cocky, but he's not afraid. Maybe you've encountered him. He'll say hi to anybody. He'll talk to anybody. He's not easily intimidated. I think he does that mostly with humility, but nonetheless, he's confident, and he was pretty confident in asking Diana to marry him as well. And so, even so confident that he told her that morning he was going to ask her, and he still surprised her. You say, well, how is that even possible? Well, he said, I'm gonna take you out to a fancy dinner, I'm gonna take you out to Carpinteria, it's the end of summer, we wanna celebrate that. She gets in the car and she says to him, are you gonna propose to me today? And he looks back at her and he says, yeah. I'm going to propose to you today in carpenteria." Which is exactly what he was going to do, but she didn't believe it because he said it so confidently. Like, well, he doesn't mean that. He wouldn't just tell me, would he? No, he would. You see, if he had looked back at her and said, no, I'm not going to propose to you. I'm not going to propose to you. No, I'm not. She would have said, oh, he's nervous, but yeah, I'm going to propose to you. Isn't that funny? I'm telling you right now. And he did. You see, I believe this. We live in a time where being a Christian isn't so popular anymore. And I think there's some Christians that are becoming easily intimidated, nervous, not sure, I don't know where I fit in. I think the Lord Jesus wants you to be absolutely confident. that He died for you, that He rose again from the dead, that He's coming back to get you again, and that one day you will be where He is also, and that you can walk with a confidence, not a cockiness, because the Holy Spirit of God lives in you. And what I want to say to you today is I already proclaimed we have security in Christ. Your salvation won't be taken from you, but here's what I think a lot of us are losing is our assurance of our security in Christ. Like, He wants you to know. He wants you to experientially know that you're safe in Him. In fact, I found this, I thought, helpful this week. I'm gonna put it on the screen, that there's a difference between security of believer and assurance of salvation. Eternal security is not the same as assurance, that is true. The former focuses on the work of the trying God, in other words, God's work on our behalf. The latter is concerned with the believer's subjective sense of security. Put another way, eternal security is a true and objective fact whether or not the believer has assurance of their salvation or not. In other words, it could be that you're not so sure you're going to heaven and you're on your way to heaven. What God wants you to know is that you are. He wants you to have this assurance. Listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 10, verse 28. I give them eternal life, speaking of believers, his sheep, his people, and they never perish. You know what, in some churches that would actually get an amen. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Let me just give you the Chris Johnson paraphrase. Jesus has given you eternal life and therefore you won't spend eternity in hell. Okay, that's good, all right. We're getting excited about the right things. And no one, I love this, will snatch them out of my hand. No one will snatch them out of my hand. Last night, Zach Marshall played drums, and I picked on him a little bit. I don't know if you know Zach or not, but like I see Alex Siler. Alex is a big man. Alex is a strong man. Alex, you know, like, Tekas is here today. I mean, there's a lot. Man, it turns out big, strong men come to this service, whatever. I just want you to know, I feel secure. I do. So I sold something. Some of you are on Facebook. I sold something yesterday, which I don't necessarily like that, you know, because then everybody knows what I'm selling, but I sold a Bowflex. It's like a workout machine yesterday. Some of you saw that. Yeah, it's gone. I sold it. And honestly, I just wanted somebody to come take it away. So I was happy, like, you'll give me money? I'll give you money if you come take it apart and remove it from my house. But I didn't tell the guy that I took the money. But somebody from this church commented on there. And he said, wow, that's a great deal. And he goes, and I was really shocked to see that you owned one of those. I was like, thanks a lot. I really appreciate that. I'm a man of steel under this little 145 pound body of mine. I had to help the guy carry it out of the house, so I guess it's not too bad. But I'm really positive of this. Tikas over here, Alex over here, if you messed with Tikas' grandkids that are on that row, He would bust you in two. He's a nice man. He's a kind man. Alex Seiler, gentle spirit, soft-spoken man. You mess with his kids. You're not going to snatch a Seiler kid out of their dad's hands without a serious fight. Do you see what is being said here? No one will snatch you out of the Almighty's hand. In fact, listen to what he goes on to say. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one will snatch them out of my Father's hand. But He's saying, you are secure. But then in 1 John 5, verse 13, we see that God also wants us to have assurance. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. So it can be true that I have eternal life, but God wants me to know it. Sam Storms has said this, there is nothing Satan can do to alter or undermine the fact that we are saved, but What he can do is erode our assurance and confidence that we are saved. Our salvation, our standing with God does not fluctuate or diminish with our success or failure in spiritual battles. But Satan is determined to convince us that it does. So your security is not determined by your even behavior, it's determined by God's behavior. It's not you hanging on to him, it's him hanging on to you. So from man's viewpoint, from the human side, man perseveres, but from God's viewpoint, believers are preserved or kept, as we read in 1 Peter 3, verse 5, that we are kept for heaven. So security has to do with God's side of our perseverance. We are safe in His hands. Maybe you have been over the Golden Gate Bridge. What's interesting about that bridge, though, is while it was being built, 23 men fell to their deaths. And so, because of that, they built a net underneath the bridge where men were working in the final part of that project. for their safety, and 10 more men fell, but all were caught by the net. But there was a 25% increase in work productivity after the net was installed. Why is that the case? Because the men had the assurance of their safety. They were free to wholeheartedly serve on that project. I want to tell you this. I believe God wants you to be able to wholeheartedly serve Him in this life with a confidence and a boldness knowing that you are safe in Him. There is that safety net that is there that the Lord has you and He will protect you and deliver you safely home to heaven. So we come to this passage that is certainly a warning about apostasy, but I don't believe it's meant to be disruptive. I don't think, honestly, it's even meant to be as difficult as we like to make it. I don't think it's supposed to disturb your faith. I believe, in context, it's meant to develop our faith and give us an increased sense of assurance of our salvation in Christ. Well, if you look at verse one of chapter six, we see, first of all, there's this call to move on to maturity, to grow up in your Christian faith. Jeremy preached on this two weeks ago and did an excellent job. Chapter 6 verse 1, therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. So what he's saying is this, is don't move backward in your faith, but grow up, move on. Like a foundation was laid, and I love this, this picture of a foundation. A foundation was laid, but foundations are meant to be built upon. You know, during this current housing boom, there are no empty foundations. But if you lived in the Antelope Valley back in like 2008, you remember whole neighborhoods that foundations were laid and the houses were never built on them. And then if you go back to the 90s, did you know that happened again a previous time, actually? In fact, over there by, you know, kind of where Central Christian's at over there on Avenue J and 30th West right over there, that housing tract there that finally was developed actually was used in a movie where they blew up houses in that neighborhood that were partially built just because they were never going to be built, right? They eventually were. But what a sad thing, right? When you see a foundation laid for a house, which our foundation is Christ, when a foundation is laid, it begs for a building. Like there's something supposed to be built upon that. And what he's saying is this, is you've got to move beyond just the basics, or literally here, the elementary things are the ABCs of the Christian faith. Yes, and I love how he does this too. He says, you've got to move on from the instruction about washings, could be baptisms, could be, you know, Jewish ritualistic washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment. By the way, parenthetical here, that idea of the eternal judgment and the resurrection of the dead, do you realize, I mean, this is the basics, this is the ABCs of the Christian faith, but everybody rises from the dead. Some to eternal life and some to eternal destruction. Everybody lives forever. The question is where? That's just the basics. And he goes, but you've got to move on from that. Like you've got to grow up. You've got to start to eat meat. Remember that from a couple of weeks ago? Like you can't just always drink milk. You saw the announcements today, and you saw a little Christian being held in CJ's arms, where they're starting to give him solid food. And this last week, Malia, the first time she gave him some eggs and some avocado, he didn't like it. In fact, I think there's a picture of it here. I think we have it. Look at the look on his face. That's the first look. He's like, I don't want this. What is he saying? What is his face telling you? I am content with what? My mama's milk. I know you guys, I know, just hang with me for a minute. I love you. But let's just say this, on Saturday night, sometimes Saturday night people, not you, sometimes Saturday night people have that look on their face when you get into the harder things of scripture. They're like, ah, just tell me the easy things. Like, I don't want that. Just give me my baba. You know what I'm saying? You get what I mean? Like it's on Saturday night, not Sunday morning. Sometimes second service, never this service. And that's what he's saying, he's like, you've got to build on that foundation, you've got to grow up, there's unfinished houses, you've got to move forward. Now catch this, he does not say you ever move beyond that foundation, you build on that foundation. You never move past the basic things of the Christian faith, you build upon Christ and the truth of who he is. So it never grows old to us, but we grow up. Then look at verse 3. I love this. And this we will do if God permits. That's in the emphatic, it's an affirmation, it's optimistic. What he's saying is, we will, we'll grow up. I don't think he's trying to be especially hard on these people. I think what he's saying is, come on, let's we do this together. And I even like the pronoun we. You know, we never stop growing in the Christian faith. There's always more to learn about the greatness of our God, our salvation. We grow in our affection for Christ. And I'm convinced we'll do this, Lord willing, if the Lord permits. Of course, we're dependent on Him to do that, but we're going to do that. And then you see the concern that's expressed for those who move away from Christ. This is the difficult part of this passage. Verse four, for it is impossible. That word impossible is a conclusive term. It means absolutely not possible. It's used four times in the book of Hebrews. It's impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come. And if they have fallen away to be restored again to repentance, since they are crucifying again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up in contempt. So we see that there is this impossibility that those who have had this experience, and what I would say to you, that those who have appeared to be believers, but those who have tasted, it says, this heavenly gift, those who have shared in some degree the joy, the presence of the Holy Spirit, that if they fall away, that it's impossible for them to come to repentance and to be saved. Like, not possible. Who is it that he's talking about? Well, the first thing I would say to you is this, is I think it's very possible, well, let me just say two, just three possibilities. Number one, some people would hold to, that it's somebody who's lost their salvation. Somebody who has lost their salvation, somebody who was truly saved and they turn their back on Christ and deny him, they walk away from him and they've lost their salvation and they can never be saved again. I don't hold to that view. But some do, and I understand that. We might not even agree on that. What we would agree on is somebody who denies Jesus as their Lord and Savior isn't going to heaven. I would agree with you on that. Secondly, some people would argue this is a hypothetical argument. You can study the commentaries on this, this comes up as well. And the idea here is that it's not actually a real warning, it's just really more of an absurd argument. That he's writing to Hebrew believers who are being tempted under the pressure of following Christ to go back to their Judaism and to go back to following the law. And what he's saying is it's absurd to think if you go back to following the law that you're gonna end up in heaven. It's just absurd. It's like 1 Corinthians 15, right? Remember 1 Corinthians 15, the great resurrection chapter of the Bible? He says, if Christ hasn't been raised, he's not saying Christ hasn't been raised, it's absurd to think that, because he has been raised. But the logical conclusion, if he hasn't been raised, then we're worse than unbelievers, because we're following a man that we say is alive and has risen from the dead in our hopes in him, but if he's dead, then so are we. He's not saying he didn't rise from the dead, he's just saying think of the logical outcome of that. It could be that this is an argument ad absurdum is what it's called. Like this is an argument just, like it's absurd to think that you could go back to following the law and that you're gonna end up in heaven. No, you're not. The third argument, and this is the one I would hold to, is that there are people who have signs outwardly of being believers but really aren't. Jesus warned that there would be wheat and tares, right? That there would be weeds amongst the life of the body, that they would sneak in, that they would actually be planted there. Do you remember Matthew chapter 13, the parable of the soils? The soil that falls on rocky ground, right? But it doesn't have roots that go down, so when the sun comes, when persecution comes, when difficulty comes, what happens? They wither up and blow away. I think that's gonna happen in the church in America. I think it's happening now. I think it's becoming more difficult to follow Jesus, and as that happens, the church will be purified. It's gonna happen. There's no doubt in my mind that pressure's coming. Who's the classic example of a man who was a professor but not really a possessor of salvation, of following Jesus? Judas is the perfect example. They trusted him so much that he handled the money. And yet, he wasn't the real deal. That can certainly happen. Listen to 1 John 2, verse 19. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their goings show that none of them belong to us. Look at those words again. They went out from us, but they didn't really belong to us, because if they had, they would have persevered. If they really belonged, if they were really saved, they would have stayed, because why? They would have been being kept by God. They would have persevered through faith. I want to draw your attention there back to verse 5. They've tasted the goodness of the Word of God. In other words, they've sat under the teaching of the Word. They've been nourished. The reign of the Word of God has fallen on them. And yet, there is really no fruit. That's evidence that they were never really saved. So they've tasted, but it doesn't mean they really partook. It doesn't mean that they really drank from the Word of God. They've tasted. They've gotten a taste. You know what? It's kind of like this. You could ask me, Chris, do you like sushi? Have you eaten sushi? I would say, well, no, I haven't eaten sushi. I've tasted sushi, but I haven't eaten sushi because it's disgusting. I'd be like, ah. Here's another example. Some of you, kombucha? Who likes kombucha? Look at you people. I got a picture for you on the screen. That's kombucha. You say, well, what is kombucha? It's a fermented tea. You're drinking bacteria. I helped a guy this week clean out his pool. He never had a pool before. They bought a house. He has a pool. And he's like, can you come help me? My pool's green. So I go and help him. We're putting chemicals in. I'm showing him how to clean the filter. We're doing all that kind of stuff. But listen, I didn't walk up to the pool and think, oh, that looks delicious. I'm just going to scoop up some of that and drink it. There's different arguments about whether kombucha is good for you or not. But have I ever had kombucha? I did taste it, like I smelled it. I'm like, oh, you really drink that? That's where the beard's coming from. I mean, it says on their brew, it's not beer, don't worry. It's like, you let tea ferment, and it smells, you can smell the fermentation. It reminds me of that time that we didn't change the grape juice out quick enough for communion. And at the end, everybody's like, whoa, because it had fermented. And other people are like, wow. So bad. This is not in my notes. But I bought one of my kids a thing of kombucha when we were on vacation. I said, go in the store, buy whatever you want. They came out with that. I'm like, we're buying that. So it tasted a little bit, but I didn't drink of it. And here's what I'm saying. I think there really are people, catch this, who come to church and they actually like it. They like the community. They like the love that's here. They even like, oh yeah, that guy, he's funny, or I like sitting in his sermon, that's great, and they hear the word of God, and they, yeah, that sounds good, I wanna know God loves me, and they smell it and taste it, but they never really, they never really buy it. They don't really drink it, they don't really partake of it. Now, there's a part of this that really trips some people up, and I get it, and it says, and have shared in the Holy Spirit. Ah, can that describe an unbeliever? They could, we get, well yeah, God's Word could fall on somebody, but what does it mean that they've shared in the Holy Spirit? That sounds like a true believer. Here's what I would say to you, and I'm gonna make this argument a minute from 1 Corinthians 7. What I would say is I think they've shared in the Holy Spirit in that they've been amongst a people who all have the Holy Spirit living in them, and so they share the benefits or the sanctifying impact of being around believers. Let me make that argument from 1 Corinthians 7 just for a minute. Listen to this verse, it says this. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. Certainly we know from Scripture, right, because we know the unity of Scripture. Scripture never contradicts Scripture. We know that it takes personal relationship with Jesus for somebody to be saved. We know that God doesn't have any grandchildren, that because you're saved doesn't make your children saved. That's certainly not what 1 Corinthians 7 is saying. But instead, what it's saying is this, is if you're married to an unbeliever, there's a sanctifying influence that you have on that unbeliever, even as you follow Jesus. Now, the scriptures make it clear that we shouldn't be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever, but let's be honest. Sometimes believers marry unbelievers. Or sometimes, as in my family's case, my mom and dad were married, and then they got saved, and my mom got saved first. In 1 Peter 3, the Bible called my mom in that situation to win my dad without a word, and that's what happened. My dad came to Christ after my mom came to Christ. But what this is saying is when you plant a believer in the midst of even an ungodly, unbelieving home, there is a blessing that comes to all of those around. And by the way, I had breakfast this morning with a public school teacher, and I rejoice. I mean, obviously, I love Christian education. We have a Christian school. I was a Christian school principal. I love Christian education, but I'm so thankful for so many of you who are teaching in a public school setting because you're having a sanctifying influence in that place. Like, your calling's just different. Both are good. But you're having a, some of you are nurses, and so you're over at the hospital, and you're having a sanctifying influence over at the hospital. That's why we don't ever separate secular from sacred work jobs. It's no more sacred what I'm doing than what you do all week when you interact with the people you interact with. You have a sanctifying influence. So here's what he's saying, I believe. There's people who come to church, they hear God's word, they're with believers, they love it, but they've never really surrendered to Christ. And then when they walk away from that truth that now they've heard and they reject the gospel, that there's no longer an opportunity for them to be saved. You say, well, who are those people? That's for God to know. I just keep praying, keep wooing, keep sharing the gospel. I've never come to a place where I'm like, well, that guy's crossed that line. There's no salvation for him. That is not my job. That is God's job. And so I believe this. I believe what's being said here is not that you can lose your salvation. In fact, we're gonna see this in verse nine in just a moment. I think instead, It's a reminder to all of us that there are people, sometimes even in our midst, who pretend to be Christians but really aren't. And maybe there is a warning in this passage. If there's somebody here this morning that you've never really surrendered, don't wait any longer. Today is the day. Then we go to this analogy in verse 7. For land has drunk the rain. When you see the word for in the Bible, it's always explanatory. It's going to be an analogy. You know, therefore is always an application. For is always an analogy. So he's going to give us a farming analogy. He's going to explain this. He's going to help us to understand it. I think this makes it so clear. that he's talking about people who are believers and aren't believers who are exposed to God's word and their response. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, so it's a picture, a piece of land, water falls on it from heaven and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. So there's this land, it's a soft heart, that it's showered with the word of God, the truth of the gospel, they believe and it grows and it produces fruit. And then there's another field in verse eight. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. So what he's saying is, there's different fruit in each one of these people's lives. Sinclair Ferguson has said this, any way of salvation that depends on something that we must contribute can never bring assurance to us, for we can never be sure we have done enough to help in our salvation. So I'm not trying to teach you right now like you need to produce a bunch of good works so that you can be saved. It's not the point. The point here is there's a contrast of those who have heard the word, been exposed to the Holy Spirit, of those who believe and those who don't. And then finally we come to this expression of the writer's confidence that they were saved, that the people who you're writing to really did believe. And that's what I want you to leave your thinking today to. Look at verse 9. Though we speak in this way, I love this. So now he's saying, this was a figure of speech he was using. Though we speak in this way, here it is, yet in your case, beloved, this is so important right here, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. It's really important when you study the Bible to read what comes right after a passage, right before a passage, and right after a passage. Because verse nine is here, it changes the way we see verse four. The writer's saying, we feel sure, we are assured of better things, things that belong to salvation for you. So we're speaking in this way, but in your case, we know. Verse 10, for God is not unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do. So he says, your labor of love brings assurance that you are really saved. And the more you grow in that labor of love because of what God's done for you, you will find more and more assurance and more and more maturity. Verse 11. And we desire, I love this. What a great prayer for a pastor. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end. Do you see now why I changed my sermon title this week during the week to to blessed assurance, it was going to be, can I lose my salvation? That's what it was on Tuesday. And by Thursday, it was blessed assurance, which we're gonna sing in just a few moments. Because I'm like, wait a minute, what's the whole desire? Why is this being written? So that you would have a full assurance of hope until the end. My desire for you is that you would be assured. that your sins are forgiven and that you're going to heaven. Verse 12, so that you may not be sluggish. You see that idea, like the idea of like if you don't walk in assurance, you're lazy in your service to the Lord. It's funny to me how some people think if you give people such assurance, they're not gonna wanna serve the Lord. And I'm like, that's because you're trying to motivate by guilt and shame and I think scripture wants to motivate us by love and care. and godly desire. Did you catch it? If you don't have this full assurance, what will you be? Sluggish. But imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. This last week, it was the 18th anniversary of my dad's passage into eternity, when he left this world and entered the next, crossed that thin veil, which we will all cross. And it was at that place, and that's why it's fresh in my mind, because each year that date comes, that moment of his death comes back to me, and I was with my dad. I literally watched him. It's the weirdest thing. And the Lord put this verse on my mind, a verse that I have memorized a lot of verses in my life, but I had never memorized this verse. I had read it. But for it to just come out of thin air, I'm like, the Lord had to give me that. And these were the words, I spoke these words to my dad like in the moment of his passage into heaven. 2 Timothy 1.12, for I know in whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Like, Dad, you can go. He's guarded you. He's guarded your inheritance. You've entrusted yourself to him. He was able to guard that. And now go. You can trust him too. Listen to Romans chapter eight. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation is able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There's nothing that can separate us from Christ. And if you're in Christ, I want you to leave here today with that full assurance. Watchman Ni, a famous Chinese pastor, who was actually martyred for his faith in the early 70s in China, which by the way, it does sadden my heart, and I don't mean this in some kind of a political, but when I hear the glorification of communism today, it just breaks my heart, because I'm like, you're not, you need to read history. You need to visit a communist country sometime soon. Live there for a month. I've been to China on a number of occasions. Tell the underground church pastors that communism's a great thing. It's not. It's oppressive. I don't think there's any perfect system until Jesus comes back to rule and reign, by the way, and I don't think our system's perfect either, but it's a whole lot better than that system. So he died in a prison, Watchman Nee did, and he told a story about a new convert who had come in deep distress to see him. And he said this, no matter how much I pray, no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot seem to be faithful to my Lord. I think I'm losing my salvation. That's what the man said. Watchman Nee said this, do you see this dog here? Here is my dog. He is house trained, he never makes a mess. I wish mine didn't. He is obedient. He is a pure delight to me. Out in the kitchen, I have a son, a baby son. He makes a mess. He throws his food all around. He fouls his clothes. It means he poops his diaper. He is a total mess. But who is going to inherit my kingdom? Not my dog. My son is my heir. You are Jesus Christ's heir because it is for you that he died. We are Christ's heirs not because of our perfection, but because of his grace. We are saved by grace, we are held by grace. John Piper has said this, the assurance of the believer is not that God will save him even if he stops believing. And by the way, I don't believe somebody, there's people now, famous people, famous Christians, which I think is an oxymoron, Jesus alone is the famous one, who are deconstructing, walking away from their faith. You say, well, why is that happening? I'll tell you why it's happening, because I think culturally it's less and less popular. So there's not a reason to associate with Christ unless you really believe Christ died for you and saved you from your sins. So I don't believe that somebody who denies Christ is going to heaven because they said a prayer when they were seven. I don't believe that. I just don't think they were ever really saved at all. But he says this, the assurance of the believer is not that God will save him even if he stops believing, but that God will keep him believing. God will sustain you in faith. He will make your hope firm and stable to the end. He will cause you to persevere. And the church said? Let me pray. Father, thank you for your word. I pray today that your people would leave as secure followers of Jesus. And Lord, if there's anyone here today who has tasted the fruit of the Spirit and the Word of God and yet never really surrendered, I pray today would be the day of salvation for them. But Lord, for so many here who have chosen to trust you, even those online, I just pray that you would bless them, that you would fill them, that you would remind them that they belong to you and that they would walk in assurance. today, not just a knowledge of security, but an assurance that they are yours. And Lord, may that then overflow into a life of faithful service to you. In Jesus' name, amen.