(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're here in Jude chapter 1, and we just talked about eternal security and how the Bible is just extremely clear that your salvation can never be lost, and I want you to notice another verse that proves that here in Jude 1-1 that I'll tell you what the sermon's about. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and in cults, the Bible says in Jude 1-1 that we are preserved in Jesus Christ. Now, Jude is so packed with so much information that sometimes we can overlook some things here and there, but it makes it very clear that we're preserved in Jesus Christ, which means that we are saved forever, okay, that we cannot lose our salvation. It says we're preserved in Jesus Christ, but there's another teaching out there that would claim they believe in eternal security, but they don't believe in eternal security, okay? And this deserves its own sermon, this ties into the morning sermon, we're looking at completely different verses here, and the name of this sermon is called the Perseverance versus the Preservation of the Saints. The Perseverance versus the Preservation. Now those two words sound very similar, and they're spelled very closely to one another, but they're completely different words, okay? Perseverance versus Preservation. You say, what are you talking about? Well, Perseverance of the Saints, it comes from a doctrine called Calvinism, okay? Calvinism is a doctrine that basically teaches that certain people God determined He would just choose from the beginning of the world to burn in hell forever, and certain He chose to go to heaven. And so when you see things like, you know, murders, and you know, pedophilia and all this stuff, that's just God pulling the strings, He wants it to happen, that's what Calvinists believe, okay? And they believe there is no free will in terms of believing on Jesus Christ, but we're all a bunch of wicked, evil sinners that could never believe on Jesus, so God's gotta determine who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. No free will whatsoever. And this comes from a guy named John Calvin, okay? He was part of the Protestant Reformation. He came after Martin Luther, and John Calvin, who was, you can look it up in history, he was not a very good person, you know, he was guilty of murder, and he was not a very good person, but he's the one who came up with this doctrine that's become more popular. Obviously there's no new thing under the sun, this has been around since the very beginning, but it's become more prominent, and even today it's very popular. They have an acronym for what they believe, it's called TULIP, okay? The T, the U, the L, the I, and the P stand for something. The P stands for the perseverance of the saints. Now, they would say, well, that's basically eternal security. Once saved, always saved. Basically, if you're a believer, you're going to go to heaven. Now, we just talked about that, we believe that, but there's a difference, okay? When they say perseverance of the saints, what they mean is this, that you will persevere onto the end and become a good person and get the sin out of your life until the day you die, you're going to walk with God and serve him and come to church, and if you ever stop coming and you start backsliding, well, you're not really backsliding because you just weren't saved to begin with. So basically, they believe the same thing that other people do that say you can lose your salvation, that if you're not walking the walk, you're not really saved. Now, if you're really saved, you're going to endure unto the end, they say, but if you don't endure unto the end, it's proof you were never saved. So they claim to believe in eternal security, but they don't really believe in eternal security like we do. Because what we believe is this, when you get saved, whether or not you walk the walk, you're still saved no matter what. You know, if somebody in this room were to go out one day and become a drunk until the day they die, they'd still be saved, and we wouldn't stop and say, well, I guess they were never saved to begin with. The Calvinists would say, well, they were never saved. We have proof of that because their works show they're not really saved. It shows they believe in a work of salvation. And so there's a difference between what we believe being preserved in Jesus Christ, as it says in Jude 1-1, which means God keeps us saved rather than what they say that perseverance that we, if we're saved, we're going to persevere and walk the walk until the day we die. These are very different things, okay? And so the first point we have is this, that we are preserved, okay? Now turn to Psalms 37. Psalms 37. Now obviously we just covered a sermon on once we're saved, we're always saved. I'm not going to recover the same verses, but I want to explain what preserved versus perseverance is very clearly from the Bible so we can understand the big difference that's taking place here. This really is a sermon showing that the Calvinists don't believe like we do, okay? They would say they believe once they've always saved, but they don't believe once they've always saved. Psalms 37, verse 28, the Bible says, for the Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. So the Bible says he forsaketh not his saints. So that means when you are saved, God's not going to forsake you. He's not going to send you to hell one day. You're preserved. God is keeping you saved. You cannot lose your salvation. We just talked about that. Now notice how it says forsaketh not his saints. Let me ask you a question. When it says saints here, is this talking about people that are alive physically or dead physically? They're alive, aren't they? When he says he forsaketh not his saints. What sense does the Catholic Church have of calling people saints after they die? Because in Psalms 37, they are saints while they are alive. And you've got the Catholic Church that walks around and like hundreds of years after they die, they say, well, we just declared you a saint. No, look, the Bible says he forsaketh not his saints. And if you believed on Jesus Christ in this room, you are a saint, according to the Bible. It doesn't matter where the Catholic Church determines what a saint is. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says he forsaketh not his saints. People that are saved, God will not forsake. He won't send them to hell. The Bible says they are preserved forever. Turn to Matthew 9. Matthew 9. And so in Matthew 9, I want you to notice in verse number 17. Matthew 9, verse 17, the Bible reads, Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish, but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. Okay? It says both are preserved. Let me ask you something. Does the wine already exist? Yes, it is. What's being preserved is the wine that exists and the bottles that exist. Both are preserved. So when we're talking about preserving, it means somebody that already has something is being preserved. It's being kept. What it's saying is, when it says preserved in Jesus Christ, our salvation is kept. It's preserved. See, the wine and the bottles are preserved, which means that they are kept preserved. They're kept safe, right? With us, with our salvation, the Bible says we already have that salvation, and it is preserved. That's what the Bible's talking about. We say preserved in Jesus Christ. We're saying you believe in Jesus, you get saved, and God keeps you saved. You don't keep yourself saved. You don't have to do good works to prove you are saved, but God keeps you saved. You're preserved in Jesus Christ. Now turn to 1 Peter 2. And so in 1 Peter 2, we have a passage that Calvinists, the people that believe in this perseverance of the saints, we have a passage that they love. In 1 Peter 2, verse 2, it says, elect. Now right whenever you see the word elect in the Bible, Calvinists love it when you see that word elect. Because when they see the word elect, they say, well see, it's elect, which means God just elected you and chose you, not based on your free will at all. End of argument, it says the word elect. Let's look at the context of what he says, okay? Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Foreknowledge. What does that mean? It means God foreknew ahead of time. Obviously God is all-knowing. He knows everything that's going to take place already. He foreknows what's going to happen. So God foreknows, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace on you and peace be upon you. Now, the question is, the foreknowledge of what? What did God foreknow? Because whatever he foreknew is the determination of whether or not you're elect, okay? Verse 5, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Now when it says he foreknew, that means God foreknew that they would put their faith in Jesus and receive salvation. Now if God foreknew, that implies he didn't force it to happen. He just knew what was going to happen, okay? The word foreknowledge disproves what they believe. Now here's the thing, you can look online at Calvinist websites and things like that and when they have the word foreknew, what they're going to do is go back to the Greek and they're going to change the meaning there. Now, actually one second, I think I gave you guys the wrong passage, didn't I? Turn to 1 Peter 1, sorry about that, not 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 1 verses 2 through 5. So it says, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father there in verse 2. So God foreknew what was going to take place, okay? In the context you look at verse 5, and it's talking about who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. God foreknew who would put their faith unto Jesus and end up receiving salvation. If he says he foreknew, that means he did not force it to happen. Now if you were to look online and look at Calvinist answering this verse, they're going to go back to the Greek. They're going to go and say, well this is what it really means. Foreknew means this, it implies this. No, the Bible says foreknowledge. That's a word that's a common English word, which means you foreknow, you know ahead of time. It says foreknowledge, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. So this is something that God knew ahead of time who would put their faith in Jesus and who would not put their faith, which means God is not forcing it to happen. Notice what it says in verse 4, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that faith is not away, reserved in heaven for you. So God knew ahead of time who would put their faith in Jesus, and what he has given us is an inheritance that won't fade away, it is reserved in heaven for you. Think about a reservation. If you make a reservation at a restaurant, that means at a future date you're going to go to that restaurant, and when you walk into that restaurant, they have their table and the seats ready for you. With our salvation, it's reserved. It's a done deal. We saw that this morning. You can't lose your salvation, but when you're looking here about election, it says based on the foreknowledge. So it's not based on us walking the walk, it's just God who foreknew who's going to believe on Jesus and get saved. God's the one who keeps us saved. In verse 5 it says, who are kept by the power of God. Being kept by the power of God implies we are preserved. We're kept by his power, we're preserved. Perseverance implies what we do. See, if I were to have to persevere, that is me walking the walk until the day I die. The Bible says we're kept by the power of God. We put our faith in Jesus, he foreknew ahead of time, we receive salvation, and we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. That's what the Bible says, ready to be revealed at the last time. Now turn in your Bible to Ephesians 1. So the main difference we're seeing with preservation versus perseverance is simply this. When you think about the word preservation, that means somebody keeps you saved. We're kept by the power of God unto salvation. The word persevere would be I am persevering unto the end. I am doing good works. That's not what we believe. We believe we're preserved in Jesus Christ, but the Bible does not say we're going to persevere unto the end. These are different doctrines. This is not just a different way to explain eternal security. It's a different salvation. It's a different gospel. Because persevering is your works. That is not what we believe. We believe salvation is a free gift and you can't lose it and once you're saved, he keeps you by his power. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. And them saying that you persevere unto the end, they're basically saying that if you're not walking the walk, you were never really saved. That's not eternal security. What we believe is this, when you put your faith in Jesus, whether or not you walk the walk or not, you stay saved. And if you stop walking the walk, it doesn't mean that you weren't saved, it just means you've chosen your own free will in your flesh to decide not to follow God. Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1, this is what it says in verse 11, In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worked in all things after the counsel of his own will. Now the first point we saw was this, that we're preserved in Jesus Christ, and the second point we have is this, that since we got saved purely by faith, we don't have to persevere. Now think about this, if we were saved by us repenting of our sins, or us changing our lifestyle or doing good works, then it makes sense that we would have to persevere unto the end, because that's how we got saved, that's how we stay saved. But we get saved simply by faith, and then God's the one who keeps us saved. It's by faith how we got saved. And they would look at this verse 11, and they use the word predestinate. Every time they see the word predestinate, they just like to stop, they say predestinate, elect. It's not the end of argument, because let's look at what he predestinated us onto. Verse 12, that we should be to the praise of his glory. Look, we should be to the praise of his glory. When we get saved, we should obey God's rules, but we still have the free will to do that. And if you notice the next words, it says, who first trusted in Christ. Look, first we trust in Christ, and yes, God has works he wants us to do, but first we trust in Christ. First we believe on Jesus, and we have our own free will to decide if we're gonna follow him or not. He didn't predestine us to get saved, he said, well I'm just determining I'm gonna make you saved and take you to heaven. That's not what the Bible says, it says we first trusted in Christ. See, it's very different than what they teach. We first trust in Christ, then it says in whom he also trusted. We trusted, we chose to trust, not God forces us to trust, in whom ye also trusted. You had your choice, you trusted in Jesus, you believed on him, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. We believe, and then we're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. We're not sealed before we're born, where God just determines, you know, hey, I'm just gonna put that seal on you and take you to heaven no matter what. No, once we put our faith in Jesus, that's when we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the person in possession on to the praise of his glory. Look at Ephesians 1, go back to verse 4. Now when it comes to Calvinism, what they believe, Ephesians is a book that they love. Ephesians is one of their big books, it might be their biggest book that they love, because there's certain words like predestined, predestinated, they use the word elect, and what they like to say is, well, it uses the word elect, that means God just chooses you, it's his choice apart from our free will. Yes, God elects us, but it is based on us believing on Jesus Christ, right? You know, if somebody gets elected, if a president gets elected, President Duterte, he was elected, he was chosen based on the fact he got more votes than the other guys. It wasn't just random, it was because he got more votes than the other people, right? And so when God elects us, it's not random, it's because we chose to believe. That's the determination. It says who first trusted in Christ in Ephesians 1. Even the verses that they love disprove what they believe, because it says first trusted in Christ. It says in verse 4, according as they have chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us on the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. So once again, it uses the word chosen in verse 4, and uses the word predestinate in verse 5, so they love this passage, but notice what he chose us for, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, he predestinated us on the adoption of children. Look, when you have children, you expect them to be holy before you. You expect them to obey your rules, and if they don't obey your rules, you punish them. So what he chose is that if you believe, you become my child, okay? What he predestinated us for is this, that if you were to believe on Jesus, you become his child, and he expects you to be holy and without blame. He says to peculiar people in the Bible, he expects you to obey his rules. It doesn't negate the fact that you have a free choice. So we see here with salvation, even in the passages that they love, first we put our faith in Christ and we are preserved. Now here's the thing, if God just single-handedly chose us to salvation apart from our free will, then of course God would make it very obvious who his children are based on their works. If we had no free will in the matter, there would be a big difference between the children of God and the children of the devil, because they believe you're either a child of God or a child of the devil. They don't believe in an in-between. But there'd be a big difference between those that are saved and those that aren't saved. Those that are saved would read the Bible for hours every day and go to church and love the Lord, and those that aren't saved would just be a bunch of drunks. There'd be a huge difference if what they're saying is right, but you look at the world and you don't see that difference. Because you can look at statistics, and you know what, Christians get divorced as much as non-Christians. Now, in the Philippines, that's not really an issue with divorce, right, because divorce is illegal in this country. But I'll tell you what, in America, half of people are divorced. And look, guess what, lots of Christians are divorced too. It doesn't change the fact that they're still Christians, because it's based on believing, but people make poor choices in life. And so the Bible is very clear that first you trust in Christ, and what God has predestinated us onto is the adoption of children. He wants us to obey His rules, He wants us to be His child, like the Bible says, and then obey His rules. But it's still our free will. Turn to 2 Timothy 3, and so the Bible says, as you turn to 2 Timothy 3, in 1 John 3, 1, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. See, that's a great promise we see in the Bible, that we are called the sons of God. And look, that's a great promise God has for us. When God calls us His children, that's great that God adopts us as His children. But it also means that when He has a book here with commandments that He wants us to follow, we ought to obey those commandments. He wants us to be holy, He wants us to be without blame, He wants us to actually walk the walk that He tells us to do. But it's based on our free will, and when we put our faith in Jesus, not repenting of our sins, putting our faith in Jesus, He preserves us, He keeps us safe. We get saved simply by faith. We don't get saved by changing our lifestyle. 2 Timothy 3, 15, And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make me wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So the Bible is very clear, it's through faith. We get saved through faith, not through our works, which disproves their idea of perseverance. Turn to Titus 2, Titus 2. This is an important sermon because we have to understand that what they believe is not the same thing as what we believe. We would look at every verse I've quoted right now, and they would explain it drastically differently. All the verses about chosen or elect, they would say, well see, God chooses you apart from your free will, and He determines that you're going to repent of your sins and believe on Him and be a good person until the day you die. That's how we would look at those verses. That's not how we look at it. We look at it as we have free will, He elects us based on our deciding to obey, to believe on Jesus, become His child, and then God wants us to obey, but we're not required to. Now that shows you that we believe different things, because every verse I'm showing you, the people that believe in perseverance of the saints, they would explain it a lot differently, because they do not believe it's possible to put your faith in Jesus and then end up becoming a worldly person that just doesn't obey God's rules. They don't believe that's possible. Titus 2 verses 11 and 12, it says in verse 11, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. I mean, isn't it very clear it appears to all men? That's not what they believe. They believe that all there means some men. That's what they believe. They believe that all just refers to those that actually get saved. The grace appears to all men! Well, those that are alive, that's what it appears to. No, the Bible says the grace of God's bringing salvation has appeared to all men. But notice verse 12, once you look at the wording very closely, teaching us, okay, there's a difference between all men and us there, if you look at the grammar. See, this is not the same group. All men, the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to, but then it teaches us, he's saying, it teaches us that are saved. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. See, us that are saved, being saved, it does teach us that we should obey his rules. Look, before I was saved, I had no idea that the music I listened to was so bad. It didn't make sense to me. When we talk to unsaved people, they don't understand why we don't drink, do they? They don't understand why we don't watch movies. They think we're crazy not having a television. They think it's insanity. We just moved into our new condo, and the person that was helping us was so apologetic because the TV wouldn't turn on. We're just like, no, that's fine. That's great. And they think it's weird. Why? Because people, they just spend all their time watching TV and just, they don't understand. Now we that are saved, especially as we hear the preaching of God's word, it teaches us something, that we should live soberly and righteously and godly, okay? But we still have our free will choice. It says, should, okay? It's not forced. So the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, okay? What they would say is the all men is just referring to those that get saved. But you know, that really doesn't make sense from the grammar there. But there is a difference. Now, here's the thing. When you get saved, it doesn't guarantee you're going to walk the walk. But it does teach you, when you know the Bible, you know what salvation is, you understand as you start hearing the preaching of God's word that you know what, you need to start cleaning up your life. That's what most of the preaching is about. You need to start changing your actions. Now turn to Titus 1, Titus 1, and the Bible says in Titus 1, verse number 4, to Titus, my own son, after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. It says the common faith, okay? So the common faith means this is accessible to everyone. It's the same way we get saved. It's the common faith. We choose to believe on Jesus Christ. It's just based on faith. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 10. Now what Paul told Titus is to Titus, my own son. Why does he call Titus his son? Was Paul a Roman Catholic priest? No. When you get somebody saved, the Bible uses the term begetting them. You preach the gospel to them, they believe on Jesus, they become God's child. But you're the spiritual father in a sense because you're the one that preached the gospel and explained to them, okay? That does not mean we should walk around and, don't walk around calling me holy father or something like that, okay? That's about the biggest insult you could possibly give me, okay? But he says to Titus, my own son, because he led Titus to the Lord. Now it said common faith in Titus 1, but let's notice 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, okay? So common is implying to everyone. Look, all of us as normal people, whether we're saved or unsaved, look, you know, we have the same temptations that we deal with. The only people that have these weird temptations are people that have a mind that's defiant and they think of things just drastically different. It's hard for us to comprehend the mind of someone who's a child of the devil who's a reprobate because we're not reprobates and our mind doesn't think the way they do, right? And so it's hard for us to comprehend that, but look, temptation that's taken you is common to man. And the term common means it's something that we all deal with. Look, all of us at times might get depressed. All of us at times might get bitter or envious. All of us at times have various temptations that we go through. When you go through that temptation, it's not you specifically, it's everybody, okay? And so this idea from Calvinists that, well, it's only, you know, only certain people have these temptations. No, that was just common to man. It's the common faith accessible to everyone. We deal through the same struggles. Even us as saved, the same things we struggled with in the past are going to come up from time to time. You know, being worldly, that's going to be something we all struggle with from time to time. I'm not perfect. There are certain times when, you know, I choose to be worldly. All of us are like them. The Bible says it's common to man. Turn to Romans 1. Romans 1. Remember what it said in Titus 1 was common faith. So how do you get saved? By faith. And that's the point here. We get saved by faith, not by changing our lifestyle, but by faith, okay? And so since we're saved by faith, we don't have to persevere on to the end because being saved by faith has nothing to do with works. It's this idea you got to persevere and walk the walk till the day you die. That doesn't make sense because on this side of salvation is by faith. On this side, oh, it's by works. That doesn't make sense. We're saved by faith and we're kept by the power of God. He keeps us saved. The Bible uses the term we're preserved in Jesus Christ, okay? Romans 1 verses 16 through 20, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek. Once again, it's by belief, it's we hear the gospel, we choose to believe it. Nothing about repenting of sins. Over there then is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. What does that mean? It means somebody who is saved, somebody who has saved, is saved and has faith, they pass that salvation on to somebody else by preaching the gospel. Salvation is revealed from faith to faith. It's not revealed by God just determining you're going to go to heaven apart from somebody preaching the gospel. No, it's revealed by it from faith to faith. See, we understand that from the context, as Paul says, he's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And so he understands, I need to pass on the message of believing alone because of the fact that if somebody's going to have faith, people need to pass on that message. That's against what the Calvinists believe, when they have this idea that God chooses you to be saved. No, it's passed on from faith to faith. You need a soul winner. See, why is this so important that we go soul winning every single week? Because if we don't preach the gospel, this whole area, all of Manila, all of Metro Manila is going to go to hell because if nobody passes on that message, it's revealed from faith to faith. God will not come down from heaven and preach the gospel to these unsaved people. It's revealed from faith to faith. That's not what the Calvinists believe, though. They believe, I mean, listen to John MacArthur's testimony on YouTube. I mean, it's embarrassing. It's such a weird testimony. He gets into this massive car wreck and gets like thrown out or whatever. And he decides, you know what, Lord, I'm going to follow you. It's like, well, where's the person that preached the gospel to you? He just decided he's going to follow God. Why? Why does he say follow God? Why does he believe on Jesus Christ? You know why? Because he thinks salvation is following God. He believes you got to walk the walk and do good works and repent of your sins. Out of his own mouth, you see what his actual belief is. You hear people give their testimonies, whether it's on YouTube or whether or not it's in person from all these different Christian churches, and we listen as believers and we're like, we miss the part about you getting saved. We miss the part about somebody preaching the gospel to you and you believing and changing your mind about your Roman Catholicism and believing on Jesus. They never talk about it. Why? Because they don't believe that's part of salvation. That's not what they believe. Most everybody, when they give their testimony, nobody preached the gospel to them and they just decided to reform their life. That's not salvation. It says in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shown it unto them. God holds people without excuse because you know what? He has manifested onto people. We all know that God is real. You look at Cornelius in the Bible, someone who feared God, God made it a point to give him the gospel. God made a special situation. He sent Peter to preach the gospel to him. He sent his best guy to preach the gospel. People that are unsaved, they're without excuse. God's manifesting what the truth is and they choose to reject it. They choose it. They're not interested. We're going to preach the gospel to people today and tons of people are going to say, I don't have time. They're without excuse. They had an opportunity. We tried to reveal to them salvation, that it's by faith, and they just choose they don't have time. One famous person who got saved on his own, supposedly, is Martin Luther. The guy who was the big Protestant reformer. I've read Martin Luther's book and this ties into the sermon, The Bondage of the Will. I haven't finished it, but his book, The Bondage of the Will. It's known as the greatest and most important book of the Protestant Reformation. The Bondage of the Will, think about that name, the whole point of the book was this, we don't have free will. That was the point of Martin Luther's book, that we do not have free will. So we look at John Calvin and the Presbyterians in a line that followed John Calvin and say, wait a minute, there's where the Calvinists are. No, the Lutherans. That's what Martin Luther and them believe. Now Martin Luther, he came before John Calvin. So if you were to walk up to him and ask him, are you a five-point Calvinist, he wouldn't even know what that meant, because the term's after John Calvin. But you read that book and Martin Luther believed in four of those points. What's interesting is this, when you listen to him, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. One of the smartest religious people ever. Martin Luther basically believed this, God predestines you to salvation apart from your free will, but you have the choice to just throw it all away and go to hell after you're saved a few more. That's what he believed. The only thing he didn't believe was the perseverance of the saints. But he was still a Calvinist. That's why Calvinists love him, because he thought there was no free will. If you don't believe in free will, Calvinists love you, whether or not you baptize babies or not, they don't care. John Calvin, Martin Luther, a bunch of infant-baptizing babies. That's what they believe. Look, they're Catholic. They never left the religion, they just added more Calvinism to Catholicism. That's what Martin Luther, that's what the Presbyterians, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the United Methodists, the Anglicans, Puritans, all those people that followed that line, they're just Catholic. I promise you during that time, Pierre, there was good Bible-believing Christians, that we'll never know their names until we go to heaven. Unknown and yet well-known, the Bible says. Because if you live for the Lord, the great men of history, we don't know who they are. Unknown, but we don't know their names now. But I promise you, you go back 400 years, I promise you there were some great soul winners that lived. We're not going to know their names until we get to heaven. Why are they well-known? Because God knows them. He knows all the work they do. But you look at these people like Martin Luther, who supposedly was just reading the Bible. He was a Catholic reading his Bible, and he said, wow, we're saved by faith. It's not by works. But then you listen to Martin Luther, who thought you could lose your salvation, and you had no free will, and if you're really saved, you're going to persevere. Look, he didn't believe salvation was by grace through faith. He didn't believe on Jesus because no one can believe on Jesus unless someone reveals it. It's from faith to faith, that's what the Bible teaches. Turn to 1 Samuel 31, and so the first thing we looked at is what preservation means. The Bible says we're preserved, well what does that mean? The second thing we looked at is this, that the way we get saved before we're preserved is purely by faith. It's not God just predestinating you. It's not you repenting of your sins, it's you by faith, putting your faith in Jesus Christ. And that gets us to our third point. In the Bible you'll see that many people that believe do not persevere on to the end. We don't have to. We're saved by faith, we're kept by the power of God and salvation ready to be real in the last times of the Bible. So let's do our faith. We're saved by faith, we're preserved, we do not necessarily persevere. We're preserved, we're kept saved, we do not necessarily persevere. One example is King Saul, we talked about him this morning, let's look at 1 Samuel 31. Let's look at the end of the life of King Saul, King Saul is a pretty good character in the Bible. If you read the Bible there's a lot written about King Saul. He started out a very humble man who loved the Lord. Look at what it says in verse 3. And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was sore wounded of the archers. Then Saul said unto his armor bearer, Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it. So Saul is wounded, and he knows he's going to eventually die, and he's basically worried about what the Philistines were going to do to him. Why? Because they were wicked. He was worried he was going to get abused, he didn't know what was going to happen to him. So he wanted to just kill himself, just get it over with, he doesn't have to worry about it. And he asks his armor bearer to kill him, and he refuses to. So what does Saul do? It says when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, Saul takes his sword and he falls upon it. He commits suicide. His armor bearer won't kill him, so he takes his sword and he just falls upon it. The same thing with his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died with him. So both King Saul and the armor bearer commit suicide. So Saul died, and his three sons and his armor bearer, and all his men that same way together. There's no doubt from this passage that King Saul, the last thing he ever does is commit suicide. Let's go back to chapter 28. Regardless of King Saul committing suicide, if you read 1 Samuel, King Saul is trying to kill David over and over again. Now when King Saul started, he was humble, it says he was little. I mean, remember how he's embarrassed to be seen in front of the people, he was humble. He started off like he loved the Lord, and then all of a sudden he's trying to kill David later on because he's envious. Now wait a minute, I thought Perseverance of the Saints told you that when you get saved, you'll slowly become more sanctified and more godly with each passing year. It's the opposite with King Saul. King Saul starts humble, and he becomes wicked as he goes. Now we know that King Saul was saved because notice what it says in 1 Samuel 28 verse 19. This is what Samuel told him, verse 19, Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with the end of the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow shall thou and thy sons be with me. And let me turn there myself, I'm missing here a verse, 1 Samuel 28, and he said, Tomorrow shall thou and thy sons be with me, the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. So he says, you know what, you're going to be killed tomorrow, he says tomorrow this will happen, and he says, you are going to be with me. Now where was Samuel? Where was this great prophet of God? He was in heaven, he wasn't in hell. So when he says to Saul, Tomorrow shall thou and thy sons be with me, what is he telling you? He's saying, tomorrow you're going to be with me in heaven. Now the next day, what happens? King Saul kills himself, well where did he go? He went to be where Samuel was, in heaven, with me. Samuel was not in hell, Samuel was in heaven. So what do you see? You see that a person committing suicide does not mean that they go to hell, it means they don't necessarily persevere onto the end, because Saul started off humble, he became more wicked, and then he killed himself, and guess what, he went to heaven. So guess what, this idea you're going to persevere to the very end, that's not what the Bible teaches. Let's look at the life of King David. Turn to 2 Samuel 11, because people try to argue King Saul and say, well you know I don't really believe that in that story, I think King Saul went to hell, well that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says he was with Samuel in heaven, but let's look at King David. I think we could all raise our hand and say, I agree King David went to heaven. I don't think anyone's going to argue that. I did have one person argue with me one time. I was talking to a Catholic at the door, it was a long time ago, a decade ago, and they didn't know how to answer anything, they were like, well you know, I was showing them verses, and they told me maybe David and John the Baptist were in hell, because they were trying to answer verses. I was like, alright, I'll just go to the next door, it's like, thank you, have a nice day. This is called being willingly ignorant, not wanting to believe what the Bible says. But I think we would all agree that King David was in heaven. King David in the Bible says he was a man after God's own heart, and you read the story of King David, he loved the Lord, but let's look at what happened in 2 Samuel 11 verse 1. And it came to pass after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab into service with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Reba, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. What does it say in 2 Samuel 11 verse 1? It says at the time when kings go forth to battle. Now one thing we don't see in today's world, we do not see leaders fighting their own battles. You look at the country in the world that sheds more blood than any other country, there's no doubt it's the United States of America, a wicked country. Let me tell you something, a lot less wars would be fought if they were on the front line of battle fighting the battle. Like Barack Obama, the Bushes, Donald Trump, if they were actually out there when kings go forth to battle, I don't think they'd start all those wars, would they? If they had to risk their own lives, right? But you have these leaders today, they don't go forth to battle at all. David was a guy who went forth to battle, not in this example though, okay? And so David's just sitting around doing nothing, he should be fighting the battle, but he's being lazy. Notice what it says in verse 2, and it came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. So David is getting up off his bed at night time. Now why is it that David couldn't sleep? Because the sleep of a laboring man is sweet. Now what if you're lazy? He won't be able to sleep very well. Look, we go out soloing on days, like on Saturdays or Sundays, you're out there in the heat, guess what happens? You fall asleep like this, and I fell asleep, we were out there for hours yesterday, I fell asleep like this. I mean like immediately, I was asleep before I even hit the bed. I'm trying to take out my contacts and I'm just like, and I'm out, right? Because when you work hard, you fall asleep very easily. Now David, he can't sleep. Why? Because of the fact he's being lazy. You say, what's the cure for insomnia? One of the big cures is this, don't be lazy. Now I understand people can have various reasons why they can't sleep, there's exceptions some days, but by and large, when you work hard you fall asleep very quickly, we all know that's true. But he can't sleep, he's up at night, and then all of a sudden he starts looking upon another woman. Verse 3, and David said and inquired after the woman, and one said, Is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto them, and he lay with her, because she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house. When it says he lay with her, that means he physically was with her. Okay, this is obviously very wicked. This was Uriah's wife. He's committing adultery. This is a man after God's own heart, but he's committing adultery here. I mean, does it really get much more wicked than that? And eventually he has Uriah put to death, okay, because she ends up becoming pregnant. Turn to Psalms 51. One lesson we can learn from this story is this, that we need to make sure we're not sitting around doing nothing. Sit around doing nothing and you're going to get into trouble. When we have days off, we should have a plan of what we actually are going to do, rather than just, I'm going to sit around my house and just surf at the internet. You're going to get yourself in trouble, especially as a single guy. You know, you're single in this room, you need to be careful with your free time. You know, work hard. Don't be lazy. You end up being lazy, what ends up happening? Well, David ends up committing adultery. That's what happens. But I want you to understand that David ends up getting right with God later on in the story. We know that. Now in Psalms 51, we see kind of David's answer to after this takes place. Notice what it says in verse 9, hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. It says renew a right spirit, which means before that he already had the right spirit. He needs it renewed now. Verse 11, cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Now, he's not saying in verse 11, don't send me to hell. That is not what he's saying. In the Old Testament, people were not in dwell with the Holy Spirit. We're in dwell with the Holy Spirit today. Now, people in the Old Testament could not lose their salvation, but all their future sins were forgiven, but they weren't in dwell with the Holy Spirit. But what you'll see often is the Spirit of the Lord came upon them to do something mighty, to win a battle, to preach a sermon, to go soloing. The same thing happens today. We pray that, you know, somebody will be filled with the Spirit. Now, we're not a bunch of Pentecostals that are saying, hey, just go roll around on the ground and start just babbling nonsense. That's not what we're saying. We're saying that God would just fill them with the Spirit so they could be bold and be a mighty sower. I hope this afternoon we're filled with the Spirit as we go out sowing, and I know we will be. We get a lot of people saying. And so David was a man who was after God's own heart, loved the Lord, and he was certainly a man that oftentimes the Spirit of the Lord came upon him to kill Goliath and do mighty things that he would not be able to do in his own power. So he said, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. He says, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. He wants his joy to be restored, which means he used to have joy. He doesn't say, give me back my salvation. He says, restore to me the joy of thy salvation. He already had the salvation. Restore unto me the joy he's saying, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Look, us as believers, when we end up sinning and breaking God's rules, we need to have a cleansing with God. We need to say, God, I'm sorry for what I did. Forgive me. I ask you once again to fill me with your Spirit and help me live for you. Give me another chance. Notice what it says in verse 13. Why this is so important? Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto me. What does David say? He's like, if you give me back your joy and fill me with your Spirit, I'll be able to convert sinners on you. I'll be able to get people saved. That's what he's saying in verse 13. He's saying, was soul winning in the Old Testament? Yes, it was. There it is in Psalms 51. He says, and sinners shall be converted unto me. So he's saying, I want my joy to be restored. Well, what does a Calvinist say to this? Isn't it very clear David started off great like King Saul, killing Goliath? We see him coming on the scene. He's humble and everything. And then he eventually commits adultery. You know what a lot of Calvinists say? They say, well, you know, he wasn't saved until after Second Samuel 12. They said he wasn't saved when he came to adultery. Ray Comfort doesn't believe he was saved. You can look in his books and he makes it very clear. He implies that he was not saved when he committed. The guy who killed Goliath, I mean, are you kidding me? There's already so much written about him. I guess you have no answer, though, because their belief is that if you're really saved, you're going to persevere on to the end. And David committing adultery for everyone, he wasn't saved until after that. That's ridiculous. That's a different gospel, because you see that they re-explain every single passage that we would talk about and then just change. From the wording, he's asking his joy to be restored, his right spirit to be renewed, which means he already had the right spirit and the joy, and he already had the salvation, because he wants the joy of the salvation to be restored, which means he already had the salvation. But they don't understand that. Ray Comfort doesn't understand that, because he doesn't have the spirit of God inside of him helping him understand that passage. He's not saved. He teaches and works salvation. Turn to 2 Timothy 4. And so we're seeing here that there's plenty of people that they don't persevere on to the end. And so what would the Calvinists say about this? Well, you know, one thing they might say is this. Well, that was the Old Testament. Okay, it's like, all right, you're a dispensationalist now? I mean, is that what you're doing? You know, now you're eternally secure, but, you know, not in the Old Testament. Well, let's look at the New Testament then. 2 Timothy 4, verse 10. Paul says, Demas forsook him. Why? He loved this present world. Okay? See, Calvinists say this, that when you're saved, you're going to be more sanctified and love God more. With each passing year, and they say you'll get more and more of your sins out of your life because you've been chosen by God. That's what they believe. You're going to persevere on to the end, and you're just going to get better and better and better. Now, would the God that all of us in this room would get closer to God every single year? Well, we've got to make that choice to do it. It's not a guarantee that it's going to happen. They say it's a guarantee, but wait a minute. Demas left him. He forsook him. Why? He loved this present world. Look, a lot of people leave church because of the fact they end up becoming worldly. They love this present world. They love this present world. They choose to just, I want to go back to my old lifestyle. It was so much fun. I promise you this. You as a soul winner in this room, if you decide to go back to your old lifestyle when you weren't living for the Lord, you will not be happy. Because the Bible says, if you know the truth, happy are ye if ye do it. That's what the Bible says. See, if you know what the truth is, and you've seen the great works of God and all these people saved, man, you will not be happy if you return back to your old lifestyle. It's not going to be the same anymore. You're going to make a big mistake. But, you know, I hope nobody would do that. But the odds are that in this room, certain people will. Why? Because that's what you see. Even in the Bible, Demas, who's a mighty soul winner, one of Paul's right-hand men, forsook him, loving the present world. Doesn't mean he wasn't saved, though. It means he didn't persevere unto the end. But he's still preserved in Jesus Christ because the Bible teaches, once you're saved, you're always saved. Turn to one last place, 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. So first we just saw basically what preserved means. It means that we get saved and God keeps us saved. Then we see in our second point that the way we're saved before we get preserved is simply by faith, okay? It's not us walking the walk. If it was us walking the walk, it would make sense, what they're saying, that you'd have to keep walking the walk. But that's not what's on this side of salvation. On this side of salvation is we hear the gospel revealed from faith to faith and we believe on Jesus. So on the other side, guess what? God keeps us saved. We're kept by the power of God. Now if it was by us repenting of our sins, then yes, on the other side, if we're really saved, we're gonna just keep walking the walk, right? But that's not what salvation is. 1 Corinthians 3. Another thing Calvinists like to say, these people that say you persevere unto the end, R.C. Sproul, one of the big writers when it comes to Calvinists, said one of the, I'm trying to remember his exact word, but he says, and teachings in Christian theology is the such thing as a carnal Christian. Paul Washer will say the same thing. There's no such thing as a carnal Christian. And we already saw in the last couple weeks that Paul declared himself carnal. I guess R.C. Sproul and Paul Washer are just better Christians than Paul the Apostle who wrote half the New Testament. What does it say in 1 Corinthians 3? And I brethren, cannot speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. Babes in Christ, they're carnal. I have fed you with milk, and not with me, for hitherto you are not able to bear it. Neither yet are ye now able, for ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envy and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? For once sayeth, I am a Paul, and another, I am a Paul, are ye not carnal? In four verses, three of them, he says carnal, carnal, carnal, not just to one person, not just to some weird exception, to a whole church full of believers. He says you're a carnal church. That's what he says. So according to the Bible, could you be carnal as a Christian? Yes you can. Now here's what's funny about the Calvinists. They are some of the biggest hypocrites in the world. R.C. Sproul, who makes a big deal by saying there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. Well guess what one of the big Calvinists was out there a few years? R.C. Sproul Jr. Now you know why he's not one of the famous Calvinists now? Because he cheated on his wife. But they still think he's saved. Why? Well because he doesn't believe in free will. Well wait a minute, he's not walking the walk. You're a hypocrite. Because you have one of your own people who ends up committing adultery and ends up shaming you and embarrassing you, but you say he's still saved because he's a Calvinist. See they don't even believe their own theology. They make an exception for R.C. Sproul Jr. who was caught on the Ashley Madison website because of the fact he's a Calvinist. So nobody would get him and say, well he wasn't saved. R.C. Sproul didn't get up and say, my son's not saved. In fact, he kept R.C. Sproul Jr. Not only did he cheat on his wife, he was caught drunk and driving several times and he was kept on the ministry, an Calvinist ministry, who say that if you're really saved you're gonna persevere at the end. R.C. Sproul Jr., there's a big Calvinist documentary a few years ago and he was one of the big guys and he's literally talking and saying there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. If you're really saved, you're not gonna be carnal. And then you end up cheating on your wife and being a drunk. But they'll say he's saved. Why? Because he's a Calvinist. But based on their theology, would he be saved? No. Because of the fact, he's not walking the walk. That's what they believe. He's not walking the walk. So based on their own theology. Here's what's funny about Calvinism. If what they were saying was right and if we're really saved, we're gonna persevere on to the end and you're gonna see it through our works, guess who would be saved? People like us in this room and not them. Because the Calvinists are the ones that don't live holy lives. I mean, show me the Calvinist that preaches against television. I've heard him preach for years. I've never heard anyone say not to watch television. They're fine with drinking. They'll never say from the pulpit, don't drink, don't watch TV, don't do these things. Why? Because of the fact they're not living very holy at all. And what you see is when you have this theology that if you're really saved, you're gonna walk the walk and just obey his rules. You know what you do? You justify all of your actions. That's what you see. Why? Because you can't even meet your own standard. Why? Because we're sinners. And look, we can't meet the standard. But in this room, we're gonna say salvation is by free. And behind this pulpit, we're gonna rip hard that you need to get the sin out of your life. Not to prove you're saved, but because of the fact God expects us to be holy and without blame. It's not just the Calvinist. The Mormons do the same thing. They'll say, be ye therefore perfect. And so what do they do? They don't consider anything a sin except some weird, obscure things. It's wrong to drink a Coke, but it's okay to watch whatever movie. It's like, all right, that's an interesting theology you got there, Mormons. But what can we learn in conclusion? Because the name of the sermon was this. The perseverance versus the preservation of the saints. What we believe as believers is that we're preserved in Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible says. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. When I was a new believer, I remember just studying all these topics, and I would have told people that I was a one-point Calvinist, okay? Because I did not understand what that meant. I thought it just meant that you believe once you're saved, you're always saved. Which, you know, I knew from day one when I got saved that once you're saved, you're always saved. But that's what they believe. They don't believe that, though. If somebody asks you, are you a Calvinist, are you a one-point... How many points? Zero. We're zero-point Calvinists because all of them teach works, salvation, and are damnable heresies. What's the difference between what we believe and they believe? Well, I mean, they say there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. Paul said he was carnal. The church at Corinth is carnal. That's what their theology teaches because if you're really a Savior and a perseverant at the end, that's not what we believe. We believe you can be carnal. And all of us at times are carnal. And live worldly at times. Calvinists say that if you're really saved, you won't commit big sins afterwards. Nobody who was really saved would commit murder or suicide or something like that. Well, the Bible would say otherwise because you see people that are saved that commit both those sins and go to heaven. They commit adultery, murder, suicide. Why? Because those are common demand. There's something that all of us could have a temptation to screw those up, okay? They don't understand that because they believe you're either a child of God or a child of the devil. They don't get that. But look, us as normal people, look, the same sins that people struggle with then and people like David committed, we could end up committing those same sins as well if we're not living a godly life. It's definitely possible to commit big sins. They say you won't love the pleasures of sin or this world. But the question is, what about Demas then? Because Demas forsook because he loved this present world. They don't understand what fruit is. They don't understand what any of this stuff is. And they say, if you're really saved, you're going to have fruit. Look, we're the ones that go soul-winding and bear fruit. They believe in themselves. They believe in a false gospel. And sadly, there's people that are at these churches which are confused. They believe with salvation that salvation requires a change under part. That's not what we believe. We've already talked about that here in this first couple of weeks. Just to show you, I mean Calvinists, what they believe and if you hear them talk, they have no problem with people that believe in Arminianism. People that believe that you can lose your salvation. They have no problem. They have a problem with us but not with them. Why? Because they believe the same thing. Because let's say for example somebody in this room, I hate to signal someone out. I'm going to signal Brother Emmon out. Let's say Brother Emmon one day becomes a bad person. Let's say he kills someone one day. Look, I would look at that and say, you know what? That's a sin that's common to man. Let's say he becomes worldly and leaves his church. I'm not going to say well he wasn't really saved. Why? Because I need salvation by faith. Now the Calvinists will say that person wasn't really saved and the Arminians will say that person lost their salvation. And so guess what? They don't have a problem with each other. Why? They got a problem with us because they say we say that he went to heaven. Because salvation is by faith. What does that show? It shows once again that there's really just two religions in this world. Right? It's by faith alone or it's by worse. And look, this is a doctrine that I hate because it's very tricky. Right? They'll sound like they believe in eternal security like us but you listen to them explain any of the verses we talked about they're going to have a different opinion. Why? Because they don't believe in the preservation of the saints. They believe in the perseverance of the saints which is not eternal security. It's not what we believe. They believe in a different Gospel. Let's go to the word prayer. Dear heavenly father...