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