All right, well, we are now at the last point of the tulip. Perseverance of the Saints. We keep doing a review. because these points really do hang or fall together. In fact, as we said when we started, if the very first one, total depravity, is true, the others have to follow by necessity. Of course, that first point is that fallen man is incapable of choosing God, and that is what God himself says in multiple places, but he does very clearly, we just picked one, Romans chapter three. As it's written, there's no one righteous. No, not one. There's no one who understands. There's no one who seeks after God. There is no one who does good. No, not so much as one. Bunch of absolutes in there. No one, no one. So if you really had a seeker-sensitive church, it would be empty because there's no one seeking after God. So man is totally depraved. Every aspect of man is tainted by sin. And if that is true, and it's true because I believe God, then if any are to be saved, no part of salvation can rely on man. God must be the active agent, and he must choose who is saved and who is not. There are no conditions that man could meet in order to earn his salvation, including faith. Therefore, salvation is by an unconditional election. And in order for those chosen to be restored to God, an atonement has to be made. It is out of grace that God provided a substitute to take on that penalty. But that atonement has to be objective. Justice has to be fully met. Therefore, every sin, of everyone who is to be saved had to be born by Christ. And when he did that, propitiation was complete. Now, justice could not be exacted from both Christ and the sinner. Therefore, anyone for whom Christ died is absolutely saved. Now, because not everyone is saved, then the atonement clearly was limited to those who had been unconditionally elected. And then God has chosen to make salvation experiential in this life for his own glory. Therefore, grace, that unmerited favor of God, is made tangible by the Spirit, giving new life to those for whom Christ died. That's what we looked at last time. If man is insensible to spiritual things, just as Paul says, then there are no choices that we're going to make. Without eyes to see or ears to hear, there is no effective appeal to mankind to come to Christ. That man is going to answer. He's a dead man. He can't hear it. He cannot respond. So scripture is clear that it is God who must open hearts. He must open those spiritual ears in order to effectively hear the internal call. And so therefore it must be a grace that is invincible and it is irresistible. There's that external call that goes out when the gospel goes forth, but for those for whom Christ did not die, those who are not elect, there are no internal ears to hear it. It is literally speaking to the dead. In order to respond, the spirit must give new life sovereignly. He must open the heart to hear, just as he did with Lydia. So God then restores the will, releases the will from bondage, so that a measure of sanity returns, and because we are made for God, The only sane choice once that happens is to then answer the call of Christ. That's why Jesus said that his sheep will hear his voice and they're going to come to him. Why? Because they belong to him. They are a part of his sheepfold. Now if we go back to the golden chain in Romans chapter eight, for those whom God foreknew, that is loved in eternity, he also predestined, whom he predestined, those he called, those he called, he also justified, that's through the cross, and whom he justified, those he also glorified. And you'll notice all of those verbs are completed. None of them are future tense, including being glorified. And that goes all the way back to our early lessons on time. God is aware of where the present is along the timeline. And the decree is unfolding across time. But the content of the decree is fixed and it is unchangeable. That's why Luther wrote that this is the very thing that raises, which means completely destroys, the doctrine of free will from its foundation. that God's eternal love of some men and hatred of others is immutable and it cannot be reversed. What Luther is saying is you have the content of the decree and the idea that man's free will could change that is patently absurd. And when he says that it cannot be reversed, that speaks then to our next subject. Just like Erasmus and Arminius and Wesley, much of the modern church believes that a true believer, one who has been saved once in their life, may lose his or her faith and be finally lost. But the unanimous consensus coming out of the Reformation denied that error. They taught that those whom God has accepted and called and sanctified by his spirit, quote, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere until the end. Now, that wasn't just a novelty with the Reformation. Like the rest of these doctrines, it's a recovery of an earlier faith. You can call it Augustinian, or you can call it Pauline. Ultimately, it's simply biblical. Now, within that understanding are then two necessary elements, both the preservation and the perseverance of the saints. Perseverance rests entirely upon preservation. To preserve means to keep. It is the opposite of the word to forsake. And scripture insists God will never forsake his people. And just as election is unconditioned, so is preservation. In other words, holiness and sanctification can be an indicator. but it is not the basis. And I like what the Puritan John Flavel said. He said, as God did not at first choose you because you were so high, he will not forsake you because you are so low. That's a comfort, because I'm really low. All right, so let's look at the preservation then of the saints. And we've now seen over and over, Scripture has established that grace is independent of man's activity. Paul is adamant that if it were in response to some activity of ours, it's no longer grace. It would be owed. Therefore, God initiates new life in order that man will respond. And if the beginning of new life and the beginning of faith rests upon God, then the continuation of the believer in faith also rests upon God. So perseverance is not a disposition that we naturally possess. And I like the way Bavinx defines this. He said perseverance is that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit and the believer by which the work of divine grace that is begun in the heart is continued and brought to completion. It is because God does not forsake what he has begun that believers will continue to the end. And that's by the power of deity. It is the apostolic message that the preservation of the saints is as sure as God's omnipotence, because it's by divine power that the Christian is kept in the gift of faith. So there's a necessary certainty of grace. Peter says, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again. who are being kept by the power of God through faith for salvation to be revealed in the last time. What a wonderful verse that is. Because Peter addresses the start and the finish. God caused us to be born again. And then those who have received this new life are being kept by the power of God to salvation. And Calvin commented on this verse that we are not left then in suspense about the certainty of grace, for he testifies that we stand by the power of God. Therein is its security, not only for the present, but also for the future. So the context in which we keep ourselves rests entirely upon the fact that we are being kept. And Jude captures both aspects. He says first, he says, keep yourselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love of God. But then at just a couple of verses later in the doxology, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless. That's divine concurrence. There's an admonition to keep yourself. That's actually the means by which God's gonna keep you from stumbling. So it's both perseverance and preservation. And because grace has a purpose, God is willing to ensure the ultimate success of that purpose. The preservation of the saint does not depend upon the attributes of the saint, it depends upon who God is. And so the security of the elect is ultimately guaranteed by God's attributes, faithfulness, immutability, love, omnipotence. And the means are through the excellencies of Christ as a Savior. Unlike the Armenian position, Christ is not a failure. He has left none behind, none. Now, if we flip that on the other side, if it were left to ourselves, all of his children would fall away. But God is able and he is just as willing as he is able to ensure the ultimate success of his purpose by keeping us and causing us to stand. So preservation of God's people rests upon an immutable purpose that is secured by omnipotent providence. It is all by the power of God. And what Psalm 94 says is that God will not forsake his inheritance. That's also the context of Christ's intercessory prayers in John 17. We've looked at that many, many times. He prays twice that the Father keep those whom he had been given from the evil one. So Christ not only rescued the elect from the wrath of divine judgment, he also rescued them from the designs of Satan to try and wrest them from his grace. Remember, that's what Jesus told Peter. Satan's been begging. I wanna sift Peter like wheat. Thankfully, it's not a real battle between God and Satan like you see a lot of times. He was told no. Of course, why was he told no? Because Jesus said, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. So who is it then that preserves faith? Why would Jesus pray to God that Peter's faith not fail? Isn't that a matter of the will? I have a free will. Peter had a free will. But if God could really answer that prayer and ensure Peter's faith, why doesn't he ensure everyone's faith? Because it's a false premise. If any were ultimately lost whom Christ prayed for, then Satan would have thwarted Christ. And we would also say that the Father had denied Christ's prayer. That is inconceivable. And it is denied by Christ's own testimony when he said, this is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me, I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. That is the will of the Father, and the Son perfectly fulfills that will as Savior. So the elect are eternally secure because they were chosen, quote, in him before the foundation of the world. And because they are in him, they could no more be forsaken by God than the father forsake Christ. That's actually, again, what Jesus says in John 17. Remember, I don't pray for the world, but for those who you have given me, and those you have given me I have kept, I am in them, you are in me, that they may be perfected into one, and the world may know that you sent me, and the most important part, and you love them even as you loved me. So by being chosen in Christ, by being loved by the father even as he loves the son. It is upon the person of Christ that the saint is elected with the certainty that is absolutely unbreakable. It's as unbreakable of God rejecting his own son, he will not do that. And if he loves us in the same way that he loves the son, he cannot lose us, he will not lose us. It is unbreakable. It's unbreakable in the past, present, future, because nothing can separate us from God, including us. Those are the words of scripture. Paul closes the eighth chapter of Romans by insisting that nothing can separate us, separate the elect from the love of God in Christ, and that agrees precisely with Christ's own teaching that we've mentioned before. Jesus gives his sheep eternal life, and he says they shall never perish. Again in John 10, Christ shows the unity of purpose between Father and the Son in the preservation of his sheep. He insists that no one can take the sheep from his hand in verse 28, nor the father's hand in verse 29. And I want to read this from John 10, beginning in verse 26. Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. Now he's speaking to Pharisees. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you're not amongst my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish. Why? No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me. That's what he says in John 17. It's an inheritance. is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. And of course he is at the end. I and the Father is one. He's already made that case. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father's the greatest of all, and nobody can snatch them out of his hand. Father and I are one. And so that image conveys the same message of being sealed by the Holy Spirit. And so the main purpose in both images is to indicate ownership. We belong to God. And like any property, we are as secure as the power of the owner to preserve and protect it. Well, in this case, that power is infinite. No creature, man or Satan, can steal property from the Almighty God. That includes the elect themselves. So God preserves us. What about perseverance? Well, throughout scripture, believers are admonished to continue and to persist in faith and holiness. So as God preserves his people, the means by which he preserves them is the saints' perseverance. So the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints really isn't defined by some single act of faith. It is a life of faith and a life of repentance. Now to be certain, this is also granted by God. We've read those passages before. But he's not going to allow us to remain passive. Sanctification, not optional. It's a necessary evidence of regeneration. And the believer must persevere as evidence of God's preservation. So the true doctrine is more than continuing on in the name of Christ. It is in the imitation of Christ, in the reliance upon Christ, and an understanding of who you really are, and that gulf between the two, which forces you on your knees, begging for mercy and grace. Now, I wanna be clear, does that mean there's some measure of works that proves that we're genuine? No. But it does eliminate those who are ultimately going to deny Christ and never return, or who completely cease the struggle with sin. So Luther said, he said, since this steadfast and inevitable purpose of God cannot be reversed nor disannulled by any creature whatever, We have a most assured hope that we shall finally triumph over sin, no matter how violently it may at present rage in our mortal bodies. Won't that be a relief? So consider, if your response to this would be, relief in the fact that you think you have a liberty to sin, then your evidence of salvation is seriously lacking. The struggle that we find in Romans chapter seven never embraces complacency. It never looks, it never accepts failure. It simply rests in it. As Paul would say, may it never be. And so the many verses that implore and warn believers to persevere are not evidence of some uncertainty in the election of God. They are themselves the means by which God preserves the elect to the end. And so when a professing Christian does not persevere by those means, there's two possibilities. Either a truly elect person will at some point be restored by God to a place of perseverance, bring them back in repentance, or this is someone who was never truly elect to begin with. So when John wrote of those who had left the apostolic faith, he denied that they had lost their salvation. In fact, they had never truly possessed the faith that they professed. Remember, and so this is what he says in 1 John, they went out from us, but they were not really of us. What's the evidence? For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. So all of the elect will continue with Christ. How we continue and persevere is not due to our great ability, it's due to our great Savior. We persevere to the end because God perseveres with us. And so Augustine gave this assurance. He said, brethren, let us not imagine that God puts down any man in his book and then erases him. For if Pilate could say, what I have written, I have written, how can it be thought that the great God would write a person's name in the book of life and then blot it out again? And he's absolutely right. It is an absurdity to think that the pencil of an omniscient God has an eraser. He can't have an eraser. Scripture is clear that God will complete what he began in us. It says he is the author and the finisher of our faith. It's not so much the perseverance of the saints, but the perseverance of the Savior who's in the hearts of the elect, in which he continues to work in us. Paul uses a powerful illustration that gives us the new identity that secures our place as members in the household of God. As a Roman citizen, the Apostle Paul is aware of the Roman legal custom, coethesia. That is the word that Paul uses for adoption. It literally means placing as a son. It's only used five times. But in each case, it refers to what God has done for his people. And what this concept of adoption meant was when an estate was going to pass to an appointed heir, not a natural one, not a natural born son, but an appointed heir, under Roman law, that chosen heir would become legal with all the rights and the privileges of a natural son. But this was almost always as an adult. We actually have some very famous examples. Some of the most famous emperors of Rome came to the throne because of this. Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, there are actually others. And so we immediately see that adoption can take you into the very heart of the family and securing the very heights of privilege as sons. And again, that's precisely what Christ prayed for in John 17. And in Galatians, it says that in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son to redeem us so that we might receive the adoption of sons. Now, to redeem pays a price, and under Roman law, the adoption could be very costly. But that's a price that the father paid. And the most intimate aspect of the adoption is then when you have these full rights, when as a someone who's not natural born is then brought into the family and formally adopted, you can now call God Abba Father. You have that privilege. So clearly Paul saw this as a way to describe how the regenerate child of God is conferred the legal privileges of receiving membership in the household of God. And while that image is judicial, we have to keep in mind the adoption itself is based on love. Paul also uses this to show a profound distinction between the Old and New Testament saints. He explains this in a very lengthy section in Galatians. He says, the law was our guardian until Christ came. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. And then in the following chapter, that Roman tradition comes to the forefront. Paul states that as long as the heir remains a child, he is no different than a slave because he's under a guardian. So while the elect of Israel were regenerate, they'd been under the tutelage of the law until, he says, God sent forth his son born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as saints. That's our new identity. And so the Old Testament saints, just as saved as the new, but it's a benefit of being on this side of the appearance of Christ that believers enjoy that freedom, that sonship confers versus being under the demands and the tutelage of the Mosaic Covenant. And in this context, the sonship of Israel prefigured this new reality to come. When the intimate personal sonship under the Spirit is then ushered in by Christ. But the most important aspect here is that adoption was not required by justice, it's completely by grace. So God predestined us in love for adoption as sons. And this adoption includes the promise then of receiving the divine family name. Remember Christ's own words in Revelation promise an identification of believers with his name. He says, I will write on him the name of my God and my own new name. And you will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. And adoption is expressly in reference to the love of God for his people. The Apostle John captures that in context in 1 John 3. See what kind of love the Father has given to us. that we should be called children of God, and so we are. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. All right, so let's mention the destiny then of adoption. In systematics, we talk about how the incarnation proves there's this astounding capacity in humanity, the way God has created us, for being united with deity. That's the hypostatic union in Christ. Now that is unique to Christ, but adopted sonship also taps into that union. By creating man in his own image, God has prepared all of his children for this remarkable future. And so Christ's high priestly prayer in John 17 contains these echoes, then, of this ever-circulating relationship with the Father. And yet his prayer included the request that we, his children, also participate in that indwelling fellowship. So our spiritual union with Christ, that's the basis of our adoption. It's not merely symbolic or figurative. Being fellow heirs with Christ means that we will share in communion with God himself. We are going to be participants in that circulating indwelt love that's been there from all eternity and will be there into eternity future. That's the real magnificence of the biblical doctrine of salvation. Adoption is a part of that order of salvation. Paul never suggests this is something that's going to happen at death. What kind of father would God be to have adopted a son or daughter into the heart of his family and then in the end reject him or her? What would we think about a human parent who did that? The very nature of being in Christ and of being a son of God means he will protect us, he will hold us, he will keep us. And how profound and intimate a reality that actually is is evidenced by the fact that God will not leave our destiny to us. So we mentioned it last time, remember that picture of the child walking across the street. The parent doesn't rely on the child to hang on. It's the parent who holds on to the child tightly. Only a casual, indifferent relationship on God's part would ever allow for the sinner to come in and out of salvation. If you didn't care about the child, okay, hang on. Oh, now he let go, oh, he grabbed back on. That's the picture we get from the modern church. You gotta keep your hand tightly on God. If it rests on you, you're lost. But it doesn't. It's the omnipotence of God who has hold of you. You're gonna get across the road safely. And so it's because of that infinite power in love, he's going to preserve forever those whom he adopts. And so Calvin said, it's not a question of our great faith, because we don't have great faith. He said, however minuscule and weak faith may be in the elect, yet the spirit of God is a certain pledge and seal to them of their adoption. We can also quote Augustine, who rightly said that of those whom God has predestined, none can perish in as much as they are his own elect. Could they be lost, the power of God would be made void by man's sin. But his power is invincible, therefore they're safe. So, if you are his, you cannot be lost, because God is sovereign over all. Questions? Ray? I want to make sure everyone is prepared when I say this, because a simple fact is, If you play a game of isolation, extrapolation, and exclusion with the Bible, you can convince vast crowds of people what many of the churches all over here in Texas, all over the US, all over the world do. And it's just, there are no end of dance outs. Because one thing that Jesus said is he said, he who perseveres to the end will be saved. talking to people and even reading the scriptures and being careful to avoid certain passages you find offensive, you can lead them right down that path and they will believe it. And one of the reasons they'll believe it is because they don't take the time to read it at home and notice passages that contradict their program not to. So a couple I want to throw up there also is, when you said he doesn't have an eraser, I absolutely believe everything you said. Here's a passage at the end of Revelation in the King James version. I'm going to read it. There's a reason for the King James, because they goofed in the translation. Revelation 22, 19, it says, well, 18, for I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, Revelation, Apocalypse. If any man shall add unto these things, God will add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. Now listen carefully. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, they goofed in the King James. In the King James, it says, zoulos or zoulon, which is out from under the tree of life, which is not the book of life. So don't be deceived by that. But it says, out of the book of life, and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. And so if you're debating an Arminian, that's one they'll bring up and say, see, he has an eraser. And it goes round and round. So you have to kind of accept, unless you read the whole scripture and see, there are devastating passages to blow away in the bulk of professing churches today. They can continually find passages that paint the picture they're trying to present. telling you, hold on to that finger tight, persevere to the end because you can lose your salvation. And from our perspective, we talked about perspective last Sunday, it's still very troubling because we perceive that we're in time, we can be deceived about things, and so the tendency is to feel that way. One of the things Jacobus Arminian said was, it isn't practical to tell people that they're only saved because God chose them. It's sufficient to salvation to tell them they've got to persevere to the end. And so it's very much how a worldling thinks, and it's hard to know if you'll ever see Jacobus Arminius in heaven at all. We don't really know. We don't know where God draws the line, because the scriptures even reveal that Jesus has toleration for doctrine where. There are constant dilemmas to being a Christian and trying to debate with people who are very good at isolating passages and saying, see, that says what I want to believe. And so get ready if you're ever trying to debate. Yeah. So one of the things, I'll just say, next week, Lord willing, we're going to talk about prayer. We're going to talk about preaching in this context of sovereignty. There are, as I tried to say, there are plenty of passages that are given as warning. Okay? That's right. But again, what we always confuse is God has determined the means as well as the ends. Those warnings are a means for us to persevere. He's not made us robots. He is working within us. And so I've used this 1,000 times. I'll use it 1,001, where Paul's on the boat. You know this one now. You can say it by heart now. Paul's on the boat. He's divinely told what's about to happen. And he's divinely told no one's going to perish. Now, Paul could have sat back. You know, had a mint julep there as the ship's going down. Instead, what does he do? He has to go and plead with them and warn them. And so don't leave the ship. You're going to be OK as long as you stay on the ship. What was the means by which they were then saved and none was perished was him warning them and telling them and getting them to stay. But the end was already predetermined. But we don't live in that, right? Sovereignty and predestination, all of that is given for our comfort to us, but that's not where we live. So, thank you for that. Yeah. You know, like Ray mentioned, we're not saved from our knowledge at all. We're saved by Christ alone through faith alone. Faith is a gift of God. We're in the elect. There's something, though, that has, it's not, this is not just a debate within the church, like, traditionism, or pentebaptism, or whatever. This is scripture replete, like, going out, and it's about the nature of God, and the nature of Christ, and what he has done, and how our justification was based on. And so, if you're presented with all these scriptures, and you're arguing, and you're not believing the report, God is gracious and he can save us in spite of our ignorance, but there's a point on which you have to say, why am I arguing with Scripture? So you're called to give a faithful account. In the end, and I'm not saying you say, okay, that's it, I'm not talking this subject yet, I'm not saying that. But at the same time, we need to remember, and I'll bring it up next week, we're not talking anybody into the kingdom of God. That's not the way it works. That's the way Finney thought it worked, that you could talk somebody into the kingdom. That's not how it works. So you give a proclamation, you declare the truth of scripture, you've given a good account of what scripture actually says. It's up to the spirit of God to decide, to choose whether that person you're talking to is elect or not. Right, and you end up, and again, we'll talk about it, I'm already in the next week, but, Evangelism, prayer, all of that, again, just like we just said, is a part of the means that God has chosen, right? So as the Word goes forth, it's the Spirit who decides whether with that Word comes new life, whether He gives new life to the Word. But Scripture is also very clear, just like the warnings. The preaching needs to go forth. And Paul says that. How are they gonna hear it if you don't have a preacher going out to do it? That's the divine means that he is appointed for it to happen. It's the foolishness of preaching, he says. That's the power of God unto salvation. So the preaching has to go forth, okay? That's what he's called us to do. But past that, that's God deciding who is or who isn't. Katie, what's the verse? Acts 13, 48. Preaching goes out. Those ordained to eternal life then believed. I understand. It's perplexing to us. As we said, the scripture doesn't say how wrong we can be, but they're really wrong. Well that's what I said, you know, I've quoted that before, I won't say the name this time, I've said it in the past, but saying that this doctrine is basically divine right, That's about as close to a blasphemy of the Holy Spirit I can think of. Now, I hope that's, you know, it's not for me to decide that, but man, that's. I know, I know, I know. Again, oh, Barry, I'm sorry. I was just gonna say, sitting here listening to you preach, I know that in God's elect, the Holy Spirit is in us. But it's still, the Bible also says that Satan will only be able to tempt us when he knows that that body has the Holy Spirit in them. It's kind of hard to fathom. Are you still able to do it? Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah. Well, it's kind of the same thing we always said, right? you're still mostly dead in the end. You're still mostly dead. And it is all a struggle. But I'm convinced from what scripture says, the struggle is part of God's purpose, right? He could have just flipped the switch and all of a sudden we have all the knowledge and we're perfect, whatever. That's that word persevere. It invades that struggle. Exactly. But God didn't choose to do that because he decided to leave us in the world. If we were that, We'd no longer be in the world at all. It'd be a separate world. We would be creatures outside of this world. That's not what he chose to do.