{"id":19113,"date":"2016-07-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-022\/"},"modified":"2016-07-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T05:00:00","slug":"soteriology-022","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-022\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 022"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[90],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19113","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-romans","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 022","sermon_date":"20160703","sermon_month":"7","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":5065,"sermon_slides":3737,"sermon_mp3":3719,"sermon_id":"7316101030","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":90,"chapter_and_verse":"8:29-30","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSoteriology 22, Romans 8:29-30\n\nJuly 3, 2016\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this special weekend where we celebrate 240 years of freedom and we recognize that that\u2019s an anomaly in world history, and we just thank You for the blessings that You have given us in this country.\u00a0 And beyond political freedom, Father, we\u2019re grateful for the spiritual freedom that we have in Your Son.\u00a0 And so I pray that you\u2019ll guide us this morning as we take a look at the great doctrine of salvation; equip us better to understand what we have in Christ.\u00a0 I pray, Father, that You would help us to correct any erroneous thinking we might have on this so we can be better servants for You.\u00a0 And we lift all these things up in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said, Amen.\n\nGood to see everybody, there\u2019s a few people here that I think are here for the first time and that\u2019s because your Sunday School class ended last week so you had no choice but to come in here I guess.\u00a0 What we\u2019re doing in this study is we\u2019re going to be teaching the doctrine of salvation.\u00a0 We actually started teaching it in the spring Wednesday nights and we just kind of let it bubble over into Sunday mornings.\u00a0 So it\u2019s going to continue on throughout the summer months.\u00a0 We\u2019re doing this for the benefit of our missionaries so we are taping these.\u00a0 So since that\u2019s the case we\u2019re using the lecture method and I\u2019m going to stop at about 10:35 and then we\u2019ll open it up for questions at 10:35.\u00a0\u00a0 So if you have a question as I\u2019m moving through it just jot it down and then we\u2019ll try to address it a little bit later on in our session today.\n\nSoteriology, of course, is the doctrine of salvation.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the outline we\u2019ve been working through.\u00a0 There\u2019s a handout going around, does anybody need a handout.\u00a0 We don\u2019t give hand-outs, we give hands-up at this church.\u00a0 But if you have hand up we\u2019ll give you a handout.\u00a0 Those handouts are just the slides that we\u2019re using for any given day.\n\nSo you can see we\u2019re here on Roman numeral VII, the doctrine of eternal security, which is a huge issue in the body of Christ if you get into the subject.\u00a0 In our first summer session on eternal security we sort of went through why this is an important issue.\u00a0 We went through our definition that we\u2019re using for eternal security; I got this from a book called Shall Never Perish<\/em>, which is a very good book on the subject, and the author, Dennis Rokser, says eternal security means those who have genuinely been saved by God\u2019s grace through faith alone in Christ alone shall never be in danger of God\u2019s condemnation or loss of salvation, but God\u2019s grace and power keep them forever secure and safe.\n\nSo the same grace that brought you to Christ is the same grace of God that keeps you in Christ.\u00a0 And it\u2019s amazing as you listen to different Christians how many Christians don\u2019t believe that; they believe they\u2019re on probation, if they step out of line the carpet is going to get\u00a0 yanked out from under them at any given point.\u00a0 So we\u2019re trying to look\u2026 and it\u2019s an issue that\u2019s been going on in the church for centuries, the debate.\u00a0 Some, like our church, believe once saved always saved; some don\u2019t believe that.\u00a0 So we\u2019re trying to do an in-depth examination of what the Bible actually says.\n\nOur first major heading under eternal security is eternal security arguments.\u00a0 And I\u2019m giving you about thirteen of the strongest arguments that I know of that teach we are forever saved the moment we trust in Christ. And I\u2019m not really so much into teaching you what to think as I\u2019m trying to teach you how to think.\u00a0 And in part II we\u2019re going to be going over several passages, not today but later on in the series, that people use over and over again to deny the security of the believer.\u00a0 But we\u2019re not quite there in our outline.\n\nSo eternal security arguments, there are about thirteen of them; we find ourselves this morning on number VII, but to kind of let you know the ground that we\u2019ve covered here\u2019s the arguments.\u00a0 And you can get the past sessions online, these are all archived video and audio and all the ppts are there if you wanted to review.\n\nNumber 1, Because self-righteousness did not save us it is not a basis upon which salvation can be lost.\u00a0 We went over that.\u00a0 Number 2, Salvation is not given or maintained by works.\u00a0 So the same grace that brought you to Christ is the same grace that keeps you \u201cin Christ.\u201d\u00a0 So therefore what work could you do to undo that.\u00a0 Number 3, if a believer can lose eternal life, then eternal life is no longer what? Eternal.\u00a0 And we went through several passages which describe the gift of eternal life with the noun ai\u014dnios<\/em>, which means eternal.\u00a0 If nothing else you know John 3:16, \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have,\u201d not just life, but \u201ceternal life.\u201d\n\nThe Greek word ai\u014dnios<\/em> is the same word used to describe God elsewhere in the Bible, like Romans 16:26.\u00a0 [Romans 16:26, \u201c\u201cbut now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal<\/u> God, has been made known to all the nations, leading<\/em> to obedience of faith.\u201d (NASB)]\u00a0 So if God is forever, which He is, then\u00a0 your salvation from the point of trusting in Christ is forever as well.\n\nNumber 4, if eternal life can be lost or forfeited then what do you do with the Bible\u2019s promises that guarantee security?\u00a0 So I went through all of the promises of God, these are the clearest ones that I know of that promise that once saved always saved.\u00a0 And these are all based on, looking at that top bullet point, God\u2019s reliability, this is just what God says.\u00a0 So if God can\u2019t lie (and He can\u2019t) then you either take these promises to the bank and build your life on them in terms of a theological view or you don\u2019t.\u00a0 [God\u2019s reliability \u2013 Numbers 23:19; Romans 3:4a; 2 Cor. 1:20; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18; 10:23, John 4:14, John 5:24, John 6:37-40, John 10:27-30, Romans 8:28-38, Hebrews 13:5]\n\nAnd then last week we saw number 5, the Bible promises the assurance of salvation.\u00a0 There are many, many promises in the Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, that essentially say that once a person trusts in Christ they\u2019re not just forever saved but they can actually know that they\u2019re forever saved.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we call the doctrine of the assurance of salvation.\n\nOne of the clearest ones is 1 John 5:13 which says, \u201cThese things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So you notice that the Bible here is not just teaching eternal life, it\u2019s also teaching that you, as a child of God, can know you have it.\u00a0 And this is just one of many that we examined last time.\n\nAnd this is what we call the doctrine of the assurance of salvation.\u00a0 So we don\u2019t just teach once saved always saved; we teach that you can actually know you have it.\u00a0 So we teach two doctrines here, eternal security, number 1, and the assurance of salvation, number 2.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s different in a lot of places because what they\u2019ll essentially teach you, if they\u2019re into a heavy Reformed lens is yeah, we believe in eternal security, but you really can\u2019t know that you have it because as one of the elect you have to persevere in good works till the end of your life.\n\nI gave you several quotes, first of all from Roman Catholics and second of all from Reformed theologians, popular names that you know, where these people are saying over and over again we don\u2019t really know if we\u2019re saved.\u00a0 So they\u2019re believing in eternal security but they\u2019re denying the assurance of salvation.\u00a0 And we\u2019re not teaching that here; we\u2019re teaching both\u2014eternal security AND the assurance of salvation.\u00a0 And these promises wouldn\u2019t mean anything of the assurance of salvation if you\u2019re on divine probation and you can lose salvation.\n\nUnfortunately a lot of people live their lives based on experiences.\u00a0 If you ask them, \u201cdo you know you\u2019re saved,\u201d they\u2019ll give you some kind of experience.\u00a0 Oh yeah, I trusted in Christ and I have a new nature now and I have a hunger for God\u2019s Word and I have an appetite for prayer and I never had those things before so that\u2019s how I know I\u2019m saved.\u00a0 Well, the problem is the reality of carnality,\u00a0 you can go back into the sin nature even as a Christian.\u00a0 We saw last week 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 where Paul taught that is a definite sad possibility.\n\n[1 Corinthians 3:1-3, \u201cBrothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly\u2014mere infants in Christ. [2] I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. [3] You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?\u201d]\n\nAnd if you go back into carnality what do you do with all of these subjective experiences?\u00a0 You\u2019ll discover that your desire for prayer is not what it was, and the desire for the Word is not what it was, the desire to be with God\u2019s people is not what it was.\u00a0 So what I\u2019m trying to communicate is these experiences that we have are really not the final basis upon which you can understand eternal life and the assurance of salvation.\n\nLewis Sperry Chafer writes this about these subjective experiences.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThere is a normal Christian experience. There are new and blessed emotions and desires. Old things do pass away; and behold all things do become new;\u201d but then he writes, \u201call such experiences are but\u00a0 secondary evidences<\/u><\/em>, as to the fact of salvation, in that they grow out of that positive\u00a0 repose of faith which is the primary evidence.\u201d\u00a0 [Lewis Sperry Chafer, Salvation: A Clear Doctrinal Analysis<\/em>\u00a0 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977), 60. Italics added]\n\nThe primary evidence that you know that you\u2019re saved are the promises of God because those never change.\u00a0 Now anything else God gives you, in terms of the subjective experience, you need to put those in your mind as secondary evidences.\u00a0 They are important, God gives them but because they can ebb and flow in the Christian life, depending on your degree of progressive sanctification and your moment by moment dependence upon God, you should not base your eternity on these subjective experiences.\u00a0 And because people are never really taught to define the difference between a primary evidence and a secondary evidence they\u2019re caught in this emotional roller coaster\u2026today I\u2019m saved, today I\u2019m not, sort of mindset.\n\nLet me tell you something from personal experience; if I was flying my plane based on secondary experiences there would be days I would think I\u2019m saved and other days I would think I wasn\u2019t saved, because I have ups and downs in the Christian life just like you do.\u00a0 So I stop flying my plane, I use the plane example because the pilot always his eyes on what?\u00a0 The compass; a pilot does not fly based on how he feels, or she feels.\u00a0 In fact, if you talk to pilots they\u2019ll tell you that many times they feel the plane should be doing something different than what the numbers say.\u00a0 I\u2019ve talked to pilots who will say we actually feel in the midst of a storm as if the plane is upside down, but we don\u2019t fly based on our feelings, we fly based on the objective fact of the numbers, what the compass says. So in the Christian life that\u2019s how you fly your plane; you fly your plane, or live your life based on what God says.\u00a0 Subjective experiences are wonderful but they can come and go.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Dr. Chafer calls these secondary evidences.\n\nAnd this, I actually said we left off at number 6 last time but actually we haven\u2019t covered number six, so here are six reasons for eternal security.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go to Romans 8:29-30 on our list of thirteen, number 6; the 6th<\/sup> argument for eternal security is that the believer is predestined for glory.\u00a0 Now here Paul, in Romans 8:29-30 articulates the various phases of our salvation.\u00a0 And look at the tenses here on all of these, \u201cFor those whom He foreknew, He also predestined\u201d that\u2019s the work of God towards us before we even believed, \u201cFor those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; [30] and these whom He predestined, He also called;\u201d that\u2019s when the Spirit convicts you to the point where you are now willing, through human volition to trust in Christ, but He\u2019s called us, \u201cand these whom He called, He also justified;\u201d that\u2019s justification, the declaration of innocence we receive the moment we trust in the provision of the Son, \u201cand these whom He justified, He also glorified.\u201d Glorification is eternity, it\u2019s the next life.\u00a0 It\u2019s the time period when I\u2019m out of this body.\n\nDo you see the past tense in all of these?\u00a0 Foreknow is in the past tense, predestination is in the past tense, calling is in the past tense, our justification is in the past tense and look at that, so is our glorification.\u00a0 Now are we in glory now?\u00a0 Are you guys glorified right now?\u00a0 You guys don\u2019t look very glorified out there; I don\u2019t look very glorified up here probably, particularly with this cowlick I was trying to get rid of this morning but my left the house earlier so she\u2019s usually the one that mats that down so I tried to mat it down as I was in the car but not with much success.\u00a0 But in glory I won\u2019t have any cowlicks; isn\u2019t that great.\n\nSo legally\u2026 what you have to understand is legally we are already glorified, and that\u2019s the difference between\u2026 let me give you some fancy words, de jure<\/em>, which means legal; de facto<\/em> which means fact.\u00a0 So there are things about us that are legally true, even though they factually haven\u2019t been accomplished yet.\u00a0 For example, Ephesians 2;6 says that we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly places.\u00a0 Ephesians 2:6, [\u201cand raised s up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus\u201d] and that obviously factually hasn\u2019t happened yet but it is a legal positional reality.\n\nSo what you have to understand from the standpoint of God is that we are legally glorified already, de jure<\/em>, even though de facto<\/em> it hasn\u2019t yet been accomplished.\n\nAnd what I\u2019m trying to say is simply this: our glory is so certain that it\u2019s spoken of in the past tense in the Bible.\u00a0 Now how can God do this? How can He express things that haven\u2019t happened yet?\u00a0 Because He\u2019s not bound by time; to God tomorrow is already today.\n\nAnd I like to analogize God\u2019s viewpoint to the Rose Parade, in California we\u2019ve been to the Rose Parade several times.\u00a0 Anybody been to the Rose Parade?\u00a0 Anybody seen it on TV?\u00a0 Okay, good.\u00a0 It\u2019s a crazy thing, you camp out literally night to go to this thing, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s really worth it at the end of the day, but you freeze to death,\u00a0 you\u2019re camping out all night, you get this great seat there on Colorado Boulevard and you see these floats come by, which they\u2019ve worked on for weeks and months, made completely of floral arrangements and things.\u00a0 And you see the floats go by one at a time.\u00a0 That\u2019s our viewpoint.\u00a0 Then you get smart and you say well, I\u2019m going to watch it on TV next year, or you watch the rerun on TV and camera, the guy in the helicopter gives you the aerial shot and you can see the whole parade, you can see (sometimes, depending on the aerial shot) the first float and the last float.\u00a0 So the helicopter viewpoint is God\u2019s viewpoint.\u00a0 He sees the end from the beginning.\u00a0 Man\u2019s viewpoint is the seat on Colorado Boulevard where one float is passing by after another.\u00a0 So to understand eternal security you really have to stop having the Colorado Boulevard viewpoint, you have to look at the aerial shot.\u00a0 And God here is giving us the aerial shot.\n\nWhat He basically is saying is it\u2019s a done deal.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why there are these verses like Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8, which says with the Lord a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as what?\u00a0 \u201cone day.\u201d\u00a0 [2 Peter 3:8, \u201cBut do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.\u201d\u00a0 Psalm 90:4, \u201cFor a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.\u201d]\n\nAnd people do all these weird things with that verse, they try to calculate the end of the world, with that verse, when the six thousand years of human history is elapsed or they do weird things with the creation days.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want to take the creation days in Genesis 1 literally.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not even what those verses are about; it\u2019s not giving us calculations about the end of the world, it\u2019s not even making a statement about the creation days which are just normal twenty-four hour days when you understand the Genesis narratives.\u00a0 They\u2019re just simply statements that God is outside of time; He doesn\u2019t look at things the way we do.\n\nSo from God\u2019s timeless viewpoint glory has already happened.\u00a0 This is why you read passages like Joshua 6:2. [Joshua 6:2, \u201cThe LORD said to Joshua, \u2018See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors] Even before Joshua went out to fight the battle of Jericho God already told him, you already won the battle, before any blood was shed, before any actual physical combat took place God said you\u2019ve already won.\n\nSo in a sense that\u2019s what God is saying to us; He\u2019s saying you\u2019ve already won.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to sit nervous,\u00a0 gosh, how\u2019s this thing going to work out in the end.\u00a0 God is saying here\u2019s My viewpoint, aerial viewpoint, the victory is already yours.\n\nNow \u201cglorified\u201d here is the Greek verb edoxasen<\/em>, it active voice which means God Himself is accomplishing this glory, not the believer.\u00a0 Your future glory does not depend on you or your performance; your rewards at the Bema Seat, to some extent, do depend on that, rewards or lack thereof, whether you allowed God to use you in this life for His purposes.\u00a0 But your ultimate glory depends completely on God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I think this is a big deal, because a lot of people look at their salvation as something they have to strive to keep.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not a burden God ever put on a human being.\u00a0 I love the fact that I\u2019m not responsible for my own salvation.\u00a0 Now I have to believe in Christ through volition to receive it but once I have it it\u2019s not something that I have to strive to keep.\u00a0 And it\u2019s sad to me to watch so many people striving to keep it when they\u2019re sweating under some burden that God never gave them.\n\nThis is also in the aorist tense, indicative mood, this word \u201cglorified\u201d at the end of Romans 8:30, which means it\u2019s a completed event in the past time, from the standpoint of the writer.\u00a0 In other words, this is a done deal; our arrival in glory is already a done deal.\u00a0 And then it\u2019s also what you call a proleptic or futuristic sense.\u00a0 Sometimes the Bible\u2026 Dan Wallace, in his Greek Commentary defines futuristic or proleptic this way: it\u2019s to describe an event that has not yet come to pass as though it were already completed.\u00a0 Now how can God describe an event that has not come to pass as though they were already completed?\u00a0 Because of their certainty, that\u2019s how God can do it, and the fact that He is not bound by time.\n\nSo if I could do something to unseat my salvation that means me as a mere human being could cause God\u2019s plan and program to fail.\u00a0 And one of the things I love about God is He doesn\u2019t have any unfinished projects.\u00a0 If you come to my house you\u2019re going to see unfinished projects, just things around, even books, I read through half of a book, I get bored with the book, I decide to read another book; there\u2019s a lot of just things in my life that I haven\u2019t really completed in totality that I wish I had.\u00a0 And God is not that way.\n\nNotice Philippians 1:6, it says, \u201cFor I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will\u201d what? \u201cperfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t have any unfinished projects, and guess what one of His projects is?\u00a0 It\u2019s you!\u00a0 It\u2019s me!\u00a0 So all of this to say that the believer is destined for glory.\n\nLet me take you to a seventh argument and let\u2019s go to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4 and verse 30.\u00a0 Actually let\u2019s go to Ephesians 1:13 and 14 first.\u00a0 Number 7, if a Christian can lose his salvation then the Holy Spirit has failed in His sealing ministry.\u00a0\u00a0 So one of the things that the Spirit of God has done is He has placed the seal on us, that\u2019s a mark of ownership, showing God\u2026 I don\u2019t know if you have to show God anything, but it\u2019s signifying that we belong to God, we are His property.\u00a0 And notice, if you will, Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul says, \u201cIn Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation\u2014having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, [14] who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God\u2019s own<\/em> possession, to the praise of His glory.\u201d\n\nSo you notice that the Spirit there is called, first of all \u201ca pledge.\u201d\u00a0 A pledge is like a down payment,\u00a0 if you make a down payment on something you, as the buyer, are signifying to the seller that further payments are coming.\u00a0 And because God has already given us a down payment, which is the indwelling ministry of the Spirit within us the moment we trust Christ, the Spirit sort of functions as a pledge to guarantee to us that further payments are on the way, which would be our future glorification.\n\nBuy it also uses this expression \u201cseal,\u201d we have been \u201csealed\u201d or marked for ownership by God.\u00a0 Now having said all that let\u2019s go to Ephesians 4:30 because what Paul does in Ephesians 1-3 is he lays out the doctrine; what he does in Ephesians 4-6 is he starts applying it.\u00a0 So to understand Ephesians 4-6 you have to understand the things He said earlier in the book, in Ephesians 1-3.\u00a0 And notice what He says about application; he says, \u201cDo not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.\u201d\u00a0 So the application is since I\u2019ve been marked by God for ownership maybe I ought to live differently.\u00a0 I mean, since I\u2019m a new creature and I\u2019m God\u2019s possession maybe I ought to say no to the sin nature more frequently.\u00a0 And when I don\u2019t do that the Spirit of God, who is in me, begins to grieve and that shows that the Spirit of God is an actual personality; He\u2019s not just some kind of a Star Wars invisible source of energy.\u00a0 A lot of people look at spirituality through the grid of Star Wars.\u00a0 You know, there\u2019s the light side and then there\u2019s the dark side. That\u2019s not the biblical view at all.\u00a0 The biblical view of all is you have the Third Member of the Trinity an actual being with emotions permanently living inside of you.\n\nAnd that\u2019s Paul\u2019s whole injunction to the Corinthians when they were wandering off visiting the temple prostitutes, 1 Corinthians 6.\u00a0 And Paul never says well, I guess you all aren\u2019t saved the way you\u2019re acting.\u00a0 He says, \u201cDo you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?\u201d\n\n[1 Corinthians 6:19, \u201cOr do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?\u201d]\u00a0 So when you do this sin you just brought the Holy Spirit in with you, and what do you think you\u2019re doing to the Holy Spirit\u2019s emotions?\u00a0 So that\u2019s the application but in the process of the application Paul goes back over this sealing ministry. He says, \u201cDo not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed\u201d well how long am I sealed for? Holy Spirit long does the seal last?\u00a0 It lasts to \u201cthe day of redemption,\u201d and in this case it\u2019s speaking of the redemption of the physical body, future, it\u2019s a futuristic redemption.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And what He\u2019s saying is the seal is with you, it\u2019s permanently on you and it will take you all the way to glory.\u00a0 It will stay with you all the way to glory, even though you as a Christian, we as Christians, can go back to the sin nature and grieve the Spirit of God that\u2019s within us.\n\nNow this word \u201cseal\u201d, Ephesians 4:30, is the Greek word sfragiz\u014d<\/em>. It\u2019s in the aorist tense meaning a completed action.\u00a0 It\u2019s in the indicative mood indicating certainty and in this case it\u2019s in the passive voice which basically indicates\u2026 because the subject is what we\u2019re supposed to do, so if it were in the active voice it would indicate what I\u2019m supposed to do but here it\u2019s in the passive voice indicating that God is the One that sealed me. I had nothing to do with my sealing; I believed in Christ but the benefit I got was the sealing mark, or ministry of the Holy Spirit and it\u2019s something God totally did.\n\nThe seal is a big deal in the Greco-Roman world.\u00a0 You have to understand that the book of Ephesians and all the New Testament books were written in the backdrop of the Greco-Roman world. I brought in my props today for show and tell, you guys ready, let\u2019s do some show and tell, this is really high powered stuff here, I\u2019ve worked all weekend on this.\u00a0 So here\u2019s a letter in the Ancient Near East, it\u2019s rolled up like a scroll or the Greco Roman world I should say, and what they did is they took\u2026 to keep it shut they took wax that was just melted from a candle or something of that nature and just before it was melted the Roman Emperor, his insignia would be on the ring and so they took the Roman Emperor\u2019s insignia or a replica which was on the ring and they put it into the melting wax and then the wax would dry there and every time you looked at this seal you would say I can\u2019t open this because if I open it I\u2019m violating Roman law.\u00a0 So the seal,\u00a0 you have to understand,\u00a0 virtually guaranteed that this letter would arrive safely in the hands of the intended recipient.\u00a0 If anybody violated the seal or broke the seal to whom this letter was never written they did so under the penalty of Roman law.\n\nSo this letter is designed to go to somebody, they didn\u2019t have a postal service like we have today so how do you guarantee the letter gets from point A to point B?\u00a0\u00a0 It was with this seal, and so Paul is using that same imagery from Ephesians 4:30 to basically say you are sealed by God, His insignia is on\u00a0 you; and just as a physical seal from the Greco-Roman world guaranteed that the letter would arrive at its intended destination with no tampering God is saying\u00a0 you are going to arrive at your intended destination in glory with no tampering and anybody who tampers with it is doing so under the penalty of God Himself.\u00a0 That\u2019s the imagery.\n\nSo we don\u2019t really get a lot of these images because we\u2019re removed, we\u2019re now in the 21st<\/sup> century and we have a different, similar but different way of doing things in terms of postal service but to Paul\u2019s readers this sealing imagery, they would all pick up on it and they would understand exactly what he was talking about.\n\nWhat\u2019s interesting is when you study Matthew 27:66 the Jews, unbelieving Jews were worried that the disciples were going to fake the resurrection of Jesus by stealing the body in the middle of the night and then get up on Sunday and say look, it\u2019s empty, the burial place of Jesus is empty and fake this whole resurrection deal.\u00a0 So to prevent that from happening notice what it says there in Matthew 27:66,\u00a0 it says, \u201cAnd they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a\u201d what \u201cseal on the stone.\u201d\u00a0 Now this one obviously wasn\u2019t of wax, the stone would be too big but it was some kind of mark indicating that if you moved this stone, and you tampered with this in any way then\u00a0 you were under violation of Roman law.\u00a0 That verb \u201cseal\u201d is the exact same word sfragiz\u014d<\/em> that Paul uses both in Ephesians 1:13 and Ephesians 4:30.\n\n[Ephesians 1:13, \u201cIn Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.\u201d Ephesians 4:30, \u201cDo not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.\u201d]\n\nSo what you have to understand is that you have been permanently sealed by God.\u00a0 Nothing can derail your arrival at future glory.\u00a0 And the Holy Spirit is something that all Christians have.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have the Holy Spirit then you\u2019re not a Christian.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 I used to think well, there\u2019s the Methodist Christians over there, there\u2019s the Baptist Christians over there, the Presbyterian Christians over there, you had the Catholic Christians over there, and then\u00a0 oh yeah, there\u2019s the born again Christians over here.\u00a0 Before I was saved I thought born again was kind of a denomination within Christendom.\u00a0 But the fact of the matter is there\u2019s only one kind of Christian, that\u2019s the born again Christian.\u00a0 Regardless where you attend church if you haven\u2019t been born by the Spirit of God then you\u2019re not a Christian.\u00a0 You can be a \"MethaCathaBapterian\" or a \"BaptiCostalFundamatic\" or whatever you are but if you\u2019re not born of the Spirit of God you\u2019re not saved, it doesn\u2019t matter where you go to church.\u00a0 And Romans 8:9 says that.\u00a0 [Romans 8:9, \u201cHowever, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.]\n\nAnd let me ask you a question;\u00a0 how long is the Spirit of God in me for?\u00a0 Forever.\u00a0\u00a0 You say well where is he getting this from?\u00a0 I\u2019m getting it from the words of Christ in the Upper Room, as He was speaking of the Spirit\u2019s work that would begin in the church age on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2.\u00a0 And what does Jesus say in John 14:16, \u201cI will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper,\u201d the word \u201cHelper\u201d there is paraclete<\/em>, it\u2019s the one who comes alongside and assists; paraclete<\/em>, \u201cthat He may be with you\u201d for how long?\u00a0 What does it say at the end of verse 16? \u201cforever.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Now the Greek word for \u201cforever there is ai\u014dnios<\/em>, which is the same word used to describe God in Romans 16:26.\u00a0 [Romans 16:26, \u201cbut now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;\u201d]\n\nSo the Spirit is within you forever.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t qualify it, it doesn\u2019t say well, you know, the Spirit is in you but man, you\u2019d better keep your church attendance up or you\u2019re in a lot of trouble.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that at all.\u00a0 I\u2019m pro church attendance, by the way; actually I have to show up to church, I get paid to be here.\u00a0 As Howard Hendricks said I get paid to be good, everybody else is good for nothing.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 So you guys can be good for nothing, I get paid to be good; isn\u2019t that cool?\n\nBut it doesn\u2019t qualify it at all, it doesn\u2019t say\u2026 you know, gee, maybe the Spirit is in you, maybe it\u2019s not.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t qualify it on some kind of human performance.\u00a0 It says \u201cthe Spirit is in you forever.\u201d\u00a0 So the mark of God on\u00a0 you\u2026 you know, it\u2019s interesting, you study the marks in the Bible, there are a lot of interesting marks, 144,000 Jewish evangelists are going to be sealed by God.\u00a0 God put a protective mark on Cain, remember, in the book of Genesis, chapter 4.\u00a0 The antichrist, who duplicates God\u2019s system is going to have the mark of the beast and things like that.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very interesting study to look at this insignia or mark.\u00a0 But as I\u2019m understanding it there\u2019s some kind of mark on you spiritually, marking you out as God\u2019s possession.\u00a0 And nothing can deactivate that, you are sealed unto the day of redemption because the Spirit of God is in you forever.\u00a0 [Ephesians 4:30, \u201cDo not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.\u201d] Now if that doesn\u2019t build your doctrine of eternal security I don\u2019t know what can or will.\n\nLet me take\u00a0 you to an eighth reason and let\u2019s go to the book of 1 Peter, chapter 1, and verses 3-6.\u00a0 An eighth reason why you cannot lose your salvation: if a Christian can lose his salvation then God has failed in His intention to keep us.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a specific promise in the Bible that God, present tense, keeps us.\u00a0 And where do we find that?\u00a0 We find it in 1 Peter 1:3-6, let me read these verses to you.\u00a0 \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Chris, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,\u201d here\u2019s the key point, verse 5, \u201cwho\u201d that would be us, \u201care protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.\u201d\u00a0 Verse\u00a0 6, \u201cIn this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.\u201d\n\nThis is so tremendous here.\u00a0 He tells us we have been born again so the only type of Christian there is, as we\u2019ve said before, is the born again Christian.\u00a0 Jesus revealed that in His whole dialogue with Nicodemus in John 3, I call that Nick at night.\u00a0 And then he says we\u2019ve \u201cbeen born again\u00a0 to a living hope,\u201d now remember from our study of the word \u201chope\u201d last week what the word \u201chope\u201d means?\u00a0 It\u2019s the Greek word elpis<\/em>, see, we use the word hope differently in English, I hope that business deal goes through.\u00a0 I hope my house sells.\u00a0 I hope I get the new job, where we use the word hope almost as if it\u2019s an uncertainty.\u00a0 That is not how the Bible uses the word hope.\u00a0 It\u2019s a certainty that hasn\u2019t materialized yet.\u00a0 Don\u2019t analyze the word hope from the English language; analyze it from the Greek language. And when you look at the word elpis<\/em> in Greek you\u2019ll very clearly see that.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve been born again to a hope, that\u2019s the certainty of our glory, we know that we have these things because Jesus bodily came out of the grave.\n\nSo we are going \u201cto obtain an inheritance\u201d, now what in the world is an inheritance?\u00a0 An inheritance is not a reward; people confuse those constantly.\u00a0 A reward is something we receive from God based on how we allowed Him to use us in this life.\u00a0 Peter is not dealing with rewards here.\u00a0 It\u2019s a different doctrine.\u00a0 He\u2019s dealing with inheritance; an inheritance is legally something that\u2019s yours.\u00a0 Back to our fancy words, De jure<\/em>, legally it\u2019s yours.\u00a0 Factually you\u2019re not yet possessing it or enjoying it but legally it\u2019s yours.\u00a0 It\u2019s just like receiving an inheritance from your prior generation that puts you in a will or a trust; it\u2019s something that the law says is legally yours but you have to wait till so and so dies before you can actually enjoy or possess that inheritance.\u00a0 So we are on a fast track with God towards this inheritance.\n\nNow is the inheritance sure?\u00a0 I mean, can inflation corrupt its value?\u00a0 Can thieves break in and steal?\u00a0 Can greedy relatives secretly re-write the will and kick you out of your inheritance?\u00a0 No, because it\u2019s \u201creserved in heaven for you.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s protected.\u00a0 So consequently it\u2019s imperishable and\u00a0 undefiled.\u00a0\u00a0 And here our inheritance is our future glory with Christ.\n\nNow how do I know I\u2019m going to get this inheritance?\u00a0 How do I know something is not going to go astray or go wrong on the front end before I arrive at my inheritance?\u00a0 Because, verse 5, \u201cwe are protected by the power of God\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 The Greek word for \u201cprotected\u201d here is phroure\u014d.<\/em> It\u2019s a military term, it means to be guarded, protected, and shielded.\u00a0 So what has happened to you is\u00a0 you are currently being guarded, protected, and shielded by God which is your guarantee that you are going to arrive at your place of glory.\u00a0 And this Greek word is in the present tense which means God is continually doing it.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like God protected us so we arrive at our future glory, the idea here is He is currently protecting us.\n\nAnd what you discover here is this is in the passive voice, meaning it\u2019s not the believer that\u2019s doing anything.\u00a0 It\u2019s God that\u2019s doing it!\u00a0 I\u2019m not protecting myself so I arrive at my intended destination; God is currently protecting me.\u00a0 And as you continue on in verse 5 it says I am being protected \u201cthrough faith,\u201d now faith of course is the one condition that\u2019s necessary for me to be saved, but once I\u2019m in faith then I have the present tense power of God protecting me.\n\nNow how strong is this protection exactly?\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice there in verse 5 we are being protected by the power of what?\u00a0 \u201cthe power of God.\u201d\u00a0 Is there a stronger power than that?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think there is a stronger power than that, so what is happening is we are currently being protected by the power of God Himself; God\u2019s power is what we call omnipotence, all powerful.\u00a0 So how do I know that I\u2019m going to arrive at my future destination?\u00a0 Because I\u2019m being currently protected, present tense, by the power of God for my salvation.\n\nVerse 5, \u201c\u2026for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.\u201d\u00a0 Now you say well why is salvation there futuristic, I thought salvation is something we already have.\u00a0 Well remember the three tenses of salvation?\u00a0 Remember what they are?\u00a0 Justification.\u00a0 What\u2019s the middle one, sanctification.\u00a0 What\u2019s the last one? Glorification. \u00a0So you\u2019ll find in the Scripture that salvation is used three different ways.\u00a0 So when people say Brother, have you been saved, the right answer is I have been saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved.\u00a0 And they\u2019ll probably say that\u2019s more information than what I was looking for.\u00a0 But here salvation is speaking of my future glory.\u00a0 How do I know I\u2019m going to get my future glory, which is my inheritance, which is my legal possession even though I don\u2019t possess it yet?\u00a0 Because the power of God, present tense, the omnipotent power of God permanently protects me.\u00a0 Oh, so that means that God\u2019s power is protecting me, I don\u2019t have any problems in life, right?\u00a0 No, it doesn\u2019t say that, does it.\n\nVerse 6, \u201cIn this you greatly rejoice,\u201d are you rejoicing in this?\u00a0 I get so nauseated with Christians that say well, I\u2019m not going to worship God because they don\u2019t play the kind of music I like.\u00a0 They do too many traditional hymns, or they do too many contemporary hymns, and what everybody is wanting is their own self-centered generational needs catered to.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see that at all in the Bible; I think we ought to be people of rejoicing no matter what kind of music is played.\u00a0 Now the music, and Bruce is in the back, he does a great job of making it biblically accurate, but my rejoicing doesn\u2019t depend upon the style of music that\u2019s being played that day.\u00a0 I ought to be a persons of rejoicing, even if I have to, God forbid, you don\u2019t want this to happen, get up and sing a cappella, what a disaster that would be.\u00a0 <\/em>\n\n\u00a0<\/em>But regardless of whether it\u2019s a guitar or a re-stringed banjo or a piano or a choir, I ought to just rejoice in that; I ought to just can\u2019t wait to get amongst God\u2019s people and in amongst His church and rejoice in what He\u2019s done for me. Oh, I\u2019ve got to be careful, I feel a three point sermon coming on here and I\u2019ve got to conserve my energy.\u00a0 But the Bible says we ought to rejoice in this.\u00a0 It says, \u201cIn this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while\u201d you look at your problems this way, as things that just happen \u201cfor a little while\u201d?\u00a0 We don\u2019t naturally look at our problems that way, we see them as these big things that never end.\u00a0 And the problem is we have the Colorado Boulevard mindset, we\u2019re not looking at it from the aerial shot.\u00a0 We don\u2019t look at it from God\u2019s point of view.\n\nSo the Scripture says, \u2018In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while \u2026 you have been distressed by various trials.\u201d\u00a0 So you will notice that trials do distress us but they should not inhibit our joy.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice the word \u201cvarious trials,\u201d trials come in different shapes and sizes, don\u2019t they.\u00a0 The trial I\u2019m in today was not the trial I was in last year or the\u00a0 year before that.\u00a0 There are different types of trials that come into our lives and distress us.\n\nBy the way, do you know what was going to happen to these people in 1 Peter?\u00a0 Most of them were about read to be headed off to the lion\u2019s den because Nero is now on the throne, he\u2019s kind of going wacko, losing his mind; he\u2019s a hateful man and he\u2019s the one that brought the first formal wave of persecution against the church, formerly from Rome.\u00a0 And he\u2019s the one that financed the coliseum, I\u2019ve actually stood in one, they have one in the land of Israel in a place called\u2026I think it was Beth Shean, if I remember right.\u00a0 But it\u2019s sort of eerie, you walk in there and\u00a0 you actually stand where Christians were devoured by ravenous animals 2,000 years earlier.\u00a0 And you know, my little complaints of the day, I didn\u2019t get enough ketchup on my eggs at breakfast, I got suntan lotion in my eye, those kind of have a tendency to dissipate when you\u2019re standing in the actual place where martyrs blood was spilled.\n\nSo when he says various trials this is what these people were about to go through.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the end of 1 Peter talks about Satan roams about like a roaring what? Lion!\u00a0 I take \u201clion\u201d there pretty literally, most people just see it as a metaphor for Satan but I see it as that but I think it\u2019s actually a reference to the literal lion\u2019s den these people are going to face.\u00a0 And how does Peter describe even a trial of that severity?\u00a0 It just happens for a little while and you can still rejoice in the midst of it.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because nothing can derail your eternity because you are protected by the present tense power of God. So rejoice in that.\n\nAnd how someone can look at this and deny the doctrine of eternal security is totally beyond me.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to get ready to stop here in just a second, I went too long last week and those guys taught me to have a bathroom break, but basically what we\u2019ve covered is some\u00a0 more arguments for eternal security, we\u2019ve covered number 6, the believer is predestined for glory.\u00a0 Number 7, the Spirit\u2019s seal in you, on\u00a0 you, cannot be broken.\u00a0 And then number 8, according to this tremendous set of verses in 1 Peter 1:3-5 God keeps us, the present tense power of God continually keeps us so that we are guaranteed that we will arrive at our ultimate destination.\n\nNext week you\u2019re going to learn that you have a defense attorney that\u2019s better than Johnny Cochran.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll stop there.\u00a0 We\u2019ll let people go, if they want to get some extra leg time and then we\u2019ll open it up for questions if you guys\u2026..","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t