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

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome back to the Baptist Church this Sunday evening. Please open up your song books to song number 20. Song number 20, When I See the Blood. Song number 20. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. I will pass, I will pass over you. Chief is no sinner, Jesus can save. As he has promised, so will he do. Oh sinner, he will pass, will pass over you. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. I will pass, I will pass over you. Judgment is coming, all will be there. You have rejected, you have refused. Oh sinner, let Jesus in. Then God will pass, will pass over you. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. I will pass, I will pass over you. Oh blood of passion, oh blood of love, Jesus the power, Jesus is true. All who believe are saved from the sword. Oh he will pass, he will pass over you. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. When I See the Blood. I will pass, I will pass over you. We've been asked to open up for prayer. Brother Michael, please pray for us. Father John, for this day, thank you for this absolute service. Allow for a pastor's retreat of bonus. Allow for us to hear what he has for us to hear. Now we thank you for the congregation. Allow for us to take on the form with us that we need. Let it be a ready word for us that we can take and that we can utilize throughout this week. Now we pray that you can honor your world, Father, in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Alright, for our next song, song number 244. Amazing Grace song number 244. Amazing Grace song number 244. Sing us loud on that first verse. Amazing Grace Now speak us round That saved a wretch like me I once was lost Now I'm found was blind But now I see T'was grace that taught my heart to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace disappear The hour I first believed Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come T'was grace that taught me How precious did that grace disappear The hour I first believed Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come T'was grace that when we first begun came in All right, we're singing this evening. We're going to go through our announcements. So if you don't have a bulletin, you need one, slip your hand up real high and one of our shows will get out to you and make sure that you have one of those. On the first page, if you open up, you'll see our service items listed Sunday morning at 10 30 Sunday evening again at 5 p.m. And then Wednesday night 7 is our Bible study. We're in Psalm 65 this week. We've got the sowing opportunities listed there, as well as the salvation and the baptisms for the month of July, as well as for the year. Let's go ahead and count up the salvation for today. If you weren't sowing today and had any salvation, just slip your hand up real quick. We'll get those counted up for the teams. What today 1 2 3 4 9 Amen. Nine salvation. That's awesome. Oh, make it an even 10. How about that? Sounds good to me. Thank you for pointing that out. Anyone else I missed? Got to look this way, too. These pillars. All right, very good. Keep up the good work. Obviously, it's what it's all about, preaching the gospel down there at the bottom of the page. We have the offering totals received through the month of July on the prayer requests. We so I did get a little bit more information. Oh, you know what? I probably don't have it open right now on my phone. I was looking in between the church services. I talked to my wife and Mrs. Johnson posted something on Facebook. £8 even. I remember that. And I remember the baby was born last night. And it was a quick delivery. It was only about three hours from the time they went to the hospital or something before she had the baby, which is always a really nice thing for the moms who are in labor to not have to be in labor for an extreme amount of time. But it sounded like everything went really well. Everything went great. So all the prayers are appreciated. And if you want to get what we'll print a picture next week and have all the details printed. But I know she has something posted to her Facebook page of her friends with her on social media. So you can check that out. But we're really happy about that. And thank you. Appreciate all the prayers that were made for their family. I got an I got an estimated delivery date. I don't like due dates. And even for cases like this, particularly we my family has had this with every single child that's born that they'd never come anywhere close to the due date. They're always significantly longer than that. So a due date is not a due date. And this is my little mini sermon. It's an estimated delivery date because it's an average based on what we know about child birthing in general. But when you get an average, you also have things that are on the earlier side and on the later side. So unfortunately, a lot of ladies get freaked out over that date sometimes thinking like something's wrong, it's late and stuff like that when it's not. So if you're a lady and you have issues or concerns with that, talk to my wife. She's been through it many times over being late, quote unquote. So she'll be happy to help with that. But continue to pray for all of our ladies with child. Mrs. Wenta is has an estimated delivery date of October 24th. So I just found that out this morning. Christian also wanted us to pray for his grandmother Helena that has cancer and it has spread to her lymph node. So please be in prayer for her as well. They're going to find out more information this week. But that's not a good situation there. I believe it was somewhere in her intestines. So they were able to remove a tumor that's helped with some other issues that she was having. But there's another tumor they can't remove because it's it's intertwined with some veins that they can't can't remove it. So they can't remove it surgically. So be in prayer for her as well. And then, of course, everybody else who is on the list. I went over some of the updates this morning. And we have first works Baptist Church. Hey, pray for Professor Mejia in their church, but also pray for Pastor Anderson and his back and those issues. I meant to have him on here this week. And I just I don't know how I missed that before I printed the bulletin. So pray for him as well. On the next page that Toronto soul winning event is happening this week. So if you're able to make it up there to Toronto for that, I'm sure you have a great time there. The next men's preaching class will be, excuse me, August 12th 10 30 a.m. right here. All men are welcome to attend. Whether you're playing and preaching a sermon or not, you're welcome to join us for that event. And if you would like to preach a sermon and you're by all means, you're welcome to do that, too. So you get ready and prepare something for that. The August challenge is it's not specifically mentioned here, but it is the Bible memory. I guess it is. I put August challenge the next to Hebrews nine. So you have until the end of August to complete this last day of August at midnight is the deadline for quoting this passage. So if you and here's the deal, too. Maybe maybe you've already memorized Hebrews Chapter nine. It is our challenge. So if you're able to quote it word perfect any time during this month, I will honor that. But I would also suggest if it is a passage you already had memorized that maybe you just pick another passage to challenge yourself with as opposed to just quoting something you might already know. So just throwing it out there, right? Take this the spirit of the challenge and take on a challenge for yourself. And I don't even know if that's the case. I don't know if anyone's already memorized Hebrews nine or not. In any case, let's continue on here. The upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there for the month of August and then the upcoming events now at the bottom of the page. I will have more details about our soul winning trip that's coming up soon. And for those of you who are interested as well, my other plan for the last soul winning marathon this year, I don't have a date or anything yet, but my thoughts were Chattanooga, Tennessee for our final soul winning marathon of the year. So we're doing Charlotte now. We'll do Chattanooga sometime in the fourth quarter. And then next year we'll have all new places and things to do. So that's the plan coming up. And that's about it for our announcements. So let's go ahead and turn to our next song. We're going to turn to song number 55. Song number 55. All right. Song number 55 when the roll is called up yonder. Sing it out in that first verse. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. When the roll is called up yonder. As we always do, we're going to read the entire passage out loud and ask brother Michael Ricardo if he can do that for us this evening. Once again, that's the first Corinthians chapter 10. First Corinthians chapter 10, the Bible reads, Moreover, brethren, I would not say you should be ignorant, How that all our fathers were under the cloud, And all passed through the sea, And were all baptized into moments, In the cloud and in the sea, And did all eat the same spiritual meat, And did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, And that rock was Christ's. But with many of them God was not well pleased, For they were overdrawn with the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, We should not lust after evil beings, As they also mustered. Now they didn't get out of it, As were some of them, As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, And rose up to play. Now they let us commit fornication, As some of them committed, And fell in one day, three and twenty thousand. Now they let us tempt Christ, As some of them also tempted, And were destroyed of service. Neither murmured he, As some of them also murdered, And were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for example, And they are written for our admonition, Upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he stand, Take heed lest he fall. There have no temptations taken you, But such as is common to man. For God is faithful, Who will not suffer you, Be tempted above that you are able. For what would the temptation also make a way of escape, That he may be able to bear it? Wherefore, my daily beloved, Please, for my daughter, I speak as to wise men, Judge ye what I say, The cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ, The bread which we break? Is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, Are one bread and one body. For we are all the takers of that one bread. Behold, Israel, After the flesh are not they Which eat of the sacrifices For takers of the altar. What say I then, That the idol is anything But that which is offered in sacrifices to idols Is anything? Would I say, That the things which the Gentiles sacrificed, They sacrificed to devils, And not to God? And I would not say we should have fellowship with devils. He cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. He cannot be partakers of the Lord's table And of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me, For all things are not excused. All things are lawful for me, For all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, But every man is known as well. Whatsoever is sowed in the shambles, That he, Asking no questions, For a conscious sake. For the earth is the Lord's, And the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to at peace, And need be disposed to go. Whatsoever is said before you, He, Asking no questions, For a conscious sake. But if any man say unto you, This is offered as sacrifice unto idols, Eat not for his sake that showed it. And for a conscious sake, For the earth is the Lord's, And the fullness thereof. Conscious, I say, Not thy own, But of the others. But why is my liberty judged, Of another man's confidence? For if I by grace be a partaker, Why am I even spoken of, For that which I give thanks? Whether therefore be he, Or drink, Whatsoever he do, Do all to the glory of God. Give none offense, Neither to the Jews, Nor to the Gentiles, Nor to the church of God. Even as I clean all men, In all things, Not seen in mine own profit, But the profit of many, That they may be saved. Let's pray. Father God, once again we thank you, We praise you, thank you for this congregation, And God that you allow for us to hear, What thus saith the Lord, What you have for us to hear, And to take home with us. Once again, let's pass the birds into the bonus, Preach, Allow for hands to hear what you have for him to say, And to speak whatever it is that you have for him to speak. We praise you once again in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. So this evening I'm going to be closing up my series on debunking Calvinism. And honestly, I'm kind of glad I can only put up with so much Calvinism and thinking on this stuff for so long. Kind of makes my brain hurt, not because it's so complicated, because it's so stupid. So I don't like investing too much time in it. However, it is extremely important. And I think with Calvinism, in some ways, there's a lot of things that they'll say that are either right on or really close. And that's the way that the most effective false doctrines get through is when you can say some things that sound really good or really close, or even in some cases just right on. And we're going to look at that, especially with the P of the tulip here, with the perseverance of the saints. And a lot of this has to do with even just defining terms. As part of it. And then not just that, there's also applications that are made with these truths. And this is probably the closest point, in my opinion, to the truth, depending on what you mean by the perseverance of the saints. And I prefer the term preservation of the saints as far as what's true, because that is a fact and that is truth. And here's the thing that when it comes to Calvinists is that they will also include preservation and perseverance, all of these things together. And for this sermon, I actually copied some points made from a Reformed website, which I don't want to get into all the details about Reformed churches, but they're very Calvinistic in nature. You have Reformed Baptist churches, you have other Reformed churches, you have plenty of churches that will consider themselves to be Reformed, meaning they follow the doctrines of the Reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, all these people that came out of the Catholic Church and started these new denominations. So don't worry if you're not really familiar with all of that. It is where this doctrine comes from, though, ultimately. And what I copied is very commonly taught among Calvinists. This isn't like I'm finding some weird person who believes one thing that not most Calvinists believe. This is what most Calvinists believe. So I will read into that a little bit for you later and point out where the real problems are. But I wanted to start off first of all just with the truth regarding preservation of the saints, not just perseverance. Perseverance means like you're going to endure to the end type of a thing, that you're going to persevere, you're going to stay at it, meaning you're going to be active in the faith and serving God and doing all of the works that would go along with being a disciple of Christ. And pay attention because I'm careful with my words. I'm not just talking about being a believer in Christ. See, we believe that you can be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and put your trust in Jesus and be saved, but at the same time not to be a disciple of Christ because you're not following Him, because you're not doing the works, because you're not walking in the Spirit. You remain in the flesh as far as your day-to-day life is concerned and as far as your choices that you make of how you're going to live. We are very clear on that distinction, and that's the truth. That's what the Bible teaches is that you could either walk in the Spirit or you could walk in the flesh. And we're admonished over and over and over and over and over again. And even in 1 Corinthians 10 where we started, we have more admonishments not to walk in the flesh, not to sin, not to do these wicked things. Hey, you're a Christian. You should do better. You should live holy. You should be righteous. This is how we ought to live. And look, I don't want to downplay that ever. And this is always the problem when you teach on certain things that on the one hand, we believe that you're still saved and we know that you're still saved even if you aren't showing any good works that would go along with what the Bible teaches as righteous living because your faith in your heart and your trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. But just because that fact is true absolutely does not mean that you should just not do anything for the Lord. I say, well, I'm saved, so I guess I won't do anything. I'm not going to try to live righteous and holy. Of course not. Of course. But one doesn't negate the other. We should do as much as possible to live a righteous, holy life. Since we're already saints, meaning we're sanctified through the blood of Jesus Christ, that's how God views us. Let's try to walk as sanctified. Jesus Christ is the light. We have Christ in us. We have that light. So let's walk as children of light. Let's not walk like the children of darkness. Let's walk as children of light. Let's try to do what's right. Even though we know we may not ever get to that perfection while we're still in this body, we get that, but that doesn't mean, well, let's just throw up our hands and forget it all, right? No. Strive to do what's right. We should be striving to persevere in the faith. That's a good thing. Stay with it. Keep going to church. Keep reading your Bible. Keep going soul winning. Keep praying. Keep doing all the things that we ought to be doing in a Christian life. But here's where the main difference is, and here's where the rubber meets the road with Calvinism, is that if Calvinists see someone doing those things, doing those things, and then at some point they just break off, fall away, get out of church, just get completely out, that person was never saved. Doesn't matter what their profession is, that person was never saved. They look to their works to determine if somebody's saved. We don't do that. We don't do that. Now, we know that there's people I've seen, I've witnessed people that I know, and I would still be comfortable in saying, no, that person's saved, they just got out of church. That person's saved, they just got back into some sin that they had had before. I know a guy that was a really great, just a great person, a good friend of mine, known as going to church for a while, going sowing, serving the Lord. He had previously had problems with alcohol, got out of church, well, he picked up the bottle again. Do I think that guy's all unsaved? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. There's no indication for me to think at all that that person's saved. You know what tells me? His flesh won a battle, and he gave in to the lust of his flesh. Because our flesh isn't perfect. And this is why this is such a big deal, because a lot of the things you might read, especially about this point in particular, it's going to sound right on. You'd be like, yeah, yeah, I mean, of course, you know, we shouldn't be doing these things and we should be persevering and all those things, but it's how do they apply it? What does it really mean? What are they really saying when they state some of these facts and they quote a lot of great verses and they'll tell you they believe in once saved, always saved, right? The Calvinists believe in once saved. Hey, we do, too. But that's why you've got to be careful, because sometimes you talk to people at the door when they hear once saved, always saved, they think you're a Calvinist. No, no, not Calvinist. Not. There is a difference there. Because the Calvinist once saved, always saved is like this backdoor implication of works. That just must be there or else you're not saved. Whereas we're saying, no, it is literally just faith alone. The works do not prove your salvation because there are unsaved people that can do good works, like Judas, who is able to do all kinds of good works that people were thinking he was a disciple of Christ. When he never was a believer, never cared about that stuff, was a devil from the beginning. But then you also have people who are believers who have trusted Christ 100 percent, completely faithful in that regard of saying, no, I'm trusting Jesus Christ, my savior, and have never strayed or turned to any other God or turned to any just say, well, now I'm an atheist. None of that. But just know Jesus is my savior, but are not doing anything for the Lord. And those people are saved. And this this is this particular point in this particular doctrine is personal to me, just because I am a living example of someone who is saved and not doing anything for the Lord. So if anyone's going to try to say, oh, well, that person can't be saved because they're not doing it. It's like, well, that was me. OK, good luck convincing me that I wasn't saved when I was 21 years old and going out to the bar and fornicating and doing everything else I was doing. I was wicked and wrong. Go ahead. Good luck trying to tell me, though, I wasn't saved. Because I know 100 percent for sure that I was saved. I got saved when I was 20 years old. I called on the name of the Lord and guess what? He saved me. He saved me. And I knew I was saved and I knew it was done as a done deal, saved through the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, as a babe in Christ, didn't have a lot of understanding, a lot of things, but I knew one thing. I knew I was saved. I was saved. I lived a wicked life. No one would ever be like, oh, yeah, you know, that Dave guy, he's he's he's he's a Christian. You know, because I wasn't so I wasn't following Christ. I was following my belly. I was following the flesh. But was I saved? Yes. Did I have the new man? Yeah. That new creature in Christ? Yes. The Calvinist would be like, yeah, you didn't get saved. Just another false convert by these easy believers and people. OK. But see, then they'll say, oh, yeah, but you finally came around to you. That proves that. Well, I didn't have to, though. I mean, what if I didn't? What if I didn't? What if I never made the life to what if I what if I never ended up going to faithful word Baptist church when my mom wanted me to go? What if I just said, you know what? I'm not going to church. It must have been that irresistible grace that was just like drew me there and I just had no chance ever of not going. No. Now, that being said, do you think that I have like all this great room to boast? That me plugging into a great church now is because of some how great I am. No, of course not, not brag, like, well, I turn my life around because I was so great, because, you know, it's like, no, God's grace still was offered to me and helped me and and help me make the changes and everything else in my life. It's not that I'm just like so self-reliant and so good of myself, but I still had choices to make. It's not bragging on making such a great, wise choice of. Going to church when my mom wanted me to go to church. Kind of hard to brag on that. But these are the arguments that people will make and try to make it sound like, oh, you're you're just proud or what? No. Not pride, it's reality, though, we all choices to make. Some verses I just want to just just throw out there real quick, because this topic I love this time is real important when it comes to preservation of believers. The Bible says in Philippians one six, being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. This is another passage that Calvinists will use also. But this verse is true. We could be confident that the good work that was begun the day you got saved, God gave you new life. And the good news is that in that new life. It's eternal. It's everlasting, so that's not going anywhere, and that was from God and that God will work with you and work on you and help you to grow spiritually until the day of redemption. OK, and. Amen. God's never going to stop working with you and working on you because he loves you. Great. That's true. But that doesn't prove Calvinism. It's just the truth of the Bible, the truth, the word of God. But they'll say things that are very similar on this and sometimes even the same. Right. And that's where it gets tricky on being able to discern and be like, OK, what they're saying there is true, but the rest of it's not. Ephesians one, verse 13, the Bible says this, in whom he also trusted after he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that he believed. You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, and there's again another reference I got some out this morning after you believed, then you're sealed. Right. He doesn't seal you first and then you believe. No, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise after you believe, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession and to the praise of his glory. So we have these great assurances. And what's funny, what's funny and interesting about the Calvinist perspective is I think there's a lot more people who are uncertain of their own salvation that are Calvinists than are Baptists that are not Calvinists. Because we truly do know that no matter what we do, like I have the confidence no matter what I choose to do, I know I'm saved. But the Calvinist is like, well, wait, if I start sinning, maybe I'm not saved. Maybe I'm not the elect because I'm not persevering. Do you see where this really has a big impact on even just the doubting of your own salvation? And think about how much and this is this is just like the repent of your sins crowd. It's the same type of thing, whether it's the Calvinist saying, well, maybe you're not really elect or repent of your sins, saying, well, maybe you didn't really repent of all your sins. Being able to cast that doubt. Of saying, well, I don't know if I'm supposed to turn from all my sins to be saved and why am I sinning? Maybe I didn't really do it. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe, you know. Yeah, but that's the mindset of going. Why do you think you have to do anything? Either accept Christ or you don't. And once you do, hey, praise the Lord, he seals you. You're in his hand and no one can pluck you out of his hand. He seals you that Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't leave you. He's there. You're sealed and you know, you're sealed until the day of redemption. You know what that is when Christ comes back. So he doesn't break that seal. This is not it's not unsealed at any moment in your life. Then prior to that. It's a promise. I was in Second Timothy, Chapter two. Is a faithful saying. For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer. We shall also reign with him if we deny him, he also will deny us if we believe not. Yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. And. This is kind of a key passage. When it comes to this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Because. The Bible is teaching us here, hey, look, we're dead with him, we're also going to live with him if we suffer, we're also going to reign with him. And look, suffering comes as a result of you doing the work. Right. And the reigning is going to be the crowns and the glory and honor that you get, the rewards that you get for serving the Lord, for being a disciple, not just everyone gets that for being saved. That's a result of your efforts. If we deny him, he also will deny us. And again, look, that's a true statement. But in what context is that saying if we deny him, if you if you believed, but then you deny him, then he's taking away your eternal life? No. It doesn't say anything like that. But if you deny him. You better be prepared to deal with whatever consequences are going to come your way in this life. Right. Because look at the next part, though, says if we believe not yet, he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Now, what does that mean? He abideth faithful. It means that God is true, God is faithful and God doesn't doesn't change if he if he makes a promise, it is the way that that is no matter what. And I would say this. If God makes a promise, he says, you know, like like John five twenty four, there's verily, verily I say to the except. He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me sent me hath everlasting life. Right. So you have it as soon as you believe and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Three verb tenses, past, present, future, all of them saying you're saved, saying you've already been saved, you've already passed over from death unto life. You have everlasting life right now. And in the future, guess what? You shall not come into condemnation. There's no way you're going to be damned in the future. So that's the promise. Well, God can't back down on that later. Say, look, I believe today I believe with all my heart. One hundred percent full completely on Jesus Christ as my savior. Well, you have everlasting life then and you shall not come into condemnation. So God is true to that word so that even if in a situation where later on you were to say, well, now I don't believe anymore. Well, God's still faithful, his promise. He's still faithful in the sense that, look, you got it already gave it to you. Now, I don't believe. That people. Will ever stop believing on Christ, if you once you've already accepted Christ, put your faith in him. That would be already a kind of a weird thing. And I would question, did you ever really understand or accept them to begin with? Because it's one of those things that once you do like like once you put your faith in Christ, how do you ever not? I don't I mean, that that's that would be too puzzling for me. But the point that the Bible is making here is that once God makes his promise in one something is true. And sure, like with God, there's no there's no changing that. It's not it's not going to he's not going to change his mind or do anything different than what he had already promised to be. God's faithful. So we're in first Corinthians Chapter 10, and the reason we started here where we read this passage is we get these admonitions in first Corinthians Chapter 10, where we're being continually reminded to walk in the spirit, not in the flesh. And I would say this, you know, if this is a core doctrine, the perseverance of the saints where and put them all together. Hey, I was depraved. Right. But God chose me and irresistibly just chose me to his grace. I mean, if that is the truth, if that is just the way that I couldn't do anything, but he chose to save me, so he saved me. Jesus paid for my sins because I'm one of the chosen ones. It's unconditional. I didn't choose him. He just chose me. Well, since all of that happened, then I must just persevere to the end. Like. To me, that sounds automatic. I had no dealing in any of it. I had no part to play in my own salvation. It was all done through the sovereignty of God. Well, if that's the case. Then apparently I'm going to. Be preserved, I mean, I must be preserved, right, because if he if I am the elect. Which I must be because he saved me, he chose me. Then I know that I will persevere. And this is what causes doubt and a callous mind because they don't persevere. Because they have the flesh and because most of them aren't saved. I say most of them because I've met a couple of people who aren't full blown Calvinists, but they have some. They've been a little deceived in some of the Calvinistic thinking, but. That's another story. So to me, I go then, OK, well, why do we have all these admonitions and why all the warnings and why all the instruction? For believers to just be aware of this and then be aware of these sins and don't don't fall into these traps and don't get into sin. You know, it's like, but I'm going to persevere. I mean, God, he's already done all of this work and. I don't really have a will anyway, so. Any good that I do, it's just got working in me, so it's just kind of like. I get to stand here and be like, God, just do the work. That's pretty much what their doctor teaches. Now, they don't like that. It's not like they've never heard that before. And when I was reading through their material, there's. Oh, yeah, but all you saw, it's like. Yeah, you don't like. That argument against you. But that is the natural. Response, because it's ultimately what you're saying. And yeah, it doesn't sound good, it sounds stupid because it is. But it's still it's still the natural conclusion to what your doctrine is. You could you could try to talk out of both sides of your mouth all you want, but it doesn't change what your core doctrine actually states. Look at verse number six of the Bible says, Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. I mean, think about that. If there's someone committing fornication and God's just like, I'm going to kill that person. One of my children is committing fornication and God just outright kills them. The Calvin is going to be like, well, that guy must not have been saved. Like, no, we actually that actually is a sign that he was because God's so angry with them as his child doing things he ought not to be doing. Right. And having that chastisement of the Lord in their life. First nine, neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents, neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now, all these things happened unto them for in samples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. I'm the chosen one. I must persevere because I am chosen. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. That admonitions in there for a reason. No one gets too puffed up. You still have this flesh. Now, I'm going to read some of these reformed teachings from this Web site. It is a real generic Web site of reform. I don't remember specifically what it was, but it doesn't. This is the same type of thing. Like I said, this is this is very representative of Calvinist doctrine or reformed teachings. They had a little section here on free will, but this ties in. So I'm going to I'm going to read this for you. This is what they believe now. This teaching that man has of himself, a free will to choose God and salvation and which views faith as an act of man's own will is really just a form of Arminianism, which no, it's not. But whatever, because if you ever hear anything about this, we're not Arminianist either. Arminianist believe you could lose your salvation. Calvinism and Arminianism are both wrong. It's like Republican and Democrat. They're both wrong. One one's more wrong than the other, maybe sometimes, but they're both wrong. It's a false choice, a false dichotomy. Here's I'm reading again from this from the site. Obviously, it has no room for any doctrine of perseverance, since. If the faith by which we are saved is indeed an act of our own will. Then whether or not we retain it. Also depends on our will, which can and does change. Now, first of all, I'm confused. Do we have a free will or not? Because they just said our will can and does change. Well, it sounds like you're admitting that we have a will. But then you're saying we don't have it. So which one is it? Calvinist. And it's funny, I didn't even pick that up before the first time I read through this and added it to my notes. But there it is. Like you want to talk about our will changing. But here's the thing. That's the misunderstanding. Yeah, our will does change. But but the will of choosing Christ. Even if your will changes later, it's it's an event then that happens that takes place that is unchangeable. A man and a woman come together and make a decision on one night to lie carnally with each other. And then if there's a birth, a child that's conceived as a result of that, they might change their mind later about wanting to be together anymore. Happens a lot. But you can't undo the new birth, the new life that was conceived as that act of that decision that those two people made and came together for that. There is no undoing that now you could try to murder that life or kill that life, but there's no undoing that. Similarly, when a person willfully puts their faith in Jesus Christ and trust him, there's no undoing the spiritual new birth that takes place. It just is that you can't be unborn. You're a child of God from that moment forward. So, yes, your will can change and does change over time. But you don't have to maintain your salvation because the result of you trusting in Christ caused something else to happen. God saved you then as a result of you putting your faith in Christ. Which that's a permanent thing and that's done and that's sealed. And that's what the Calvinist doesn't understand. And that's why they bring up Arminianism, because Arminianists believe you can lose your salvation. And that's why they're wrong. Because they think, oh, yeah, today you can believe, tomorrow you can't, and then you either have it or you don't, and you go back and forth and kind of flip flop. So, their understanding of free will, it's not like free will is our savior. Because that's kind of how they're pitching it here is, well, I'm willing to be saved today and I'm not willing tomorrow. So, you're like, no, no, no, no. The moment you put your trust in Christ, that was of your own free will. But now you're just saved. Now, it doesn't matter because there's a birth. It's already happened. Can't be undone. And then they say this, only if salvation depends on God's will and not on man's can there be any security and hope of perseverance for saints. Just if it's God's will, you know what, God's not willing that any should perish. So, where's your hope? God's will is that everyone would get saved. They don't. So, if you're just leaving it up to just the will of God, you're going to have a problem. I'm going to read for you now what they also state about perseverance. And the biggest problem we're going to see here is their focus on works to determine a person's salvation, as I mentioned before. Reading from their from their doctrine here, their explanation, however, that God. And prior to this, this section on perseverance, they had one on preservation and the one on preservation was accurate. This and they just reference some things that God preserves you. Great. And look, God preserves us. Amen. We have that preservation of all the believers. God keeps you saved forever. But this is the section on perseverance, however, that God sovereignly preserves his chosen and redeemed saints. Does not take away their responsibility to live holy and thankful lives. Right. I agree with that. God's preservation of us and keeping us saved. Which we believe doesn't mean we should just live a life of sin. That's what they're stating. OK. And this is why I like covering this, because that's a true statement. True Calvinism has never taught this and never will. OK, fine. God does preserve his people in salvation, but always in such a way that they also preserve or excuse me, persevere in holiness. Always, I say always in a way. Where they always where they also persevere in holiness. That is why the canons of Dort. Use the name perseverance of saints to make it as clear as possible that this doctrine does not give his saints the excuse to be anything but saints in their conduct. It is emphatically saints who are preserved by the grace of God. They're really drawing the attention. Now, look, we're we believe in the preservation. Absolutely. And we'll focus on the preservation. And look, we are saints because we're sanctified through the blood of Christ. And that's the only way that we could truly be sanctified and set apart. It isn't because of us, like the only way we could truly be holy or sanctified is because Christ's blood has washed us clean of all of our sin. That is the only real way that we could be truly sanctified. But they're focusing emphatically saints and then get this, it says those who are unholy, wicked and profane do not and cannot have the hope of being preserved. Now, that statement you'd have to ask to define, well, what do you mean by unholy, wicked and profane? What do you mean by that? Now, I would say a reprobate. Yes, I would agree with that. But if you're just talking about it like, well, an unbeliever, of course, you're not saved either. But if you're talking about someone who's a believer being able to do wicked things, well, a believer can do wicked things. A believer can do profane things. Unfortunately, we do. Happens. And I don't believe that you cannot have the hope of being preserved. But notice. They're looking at people going, you're wicked, you're profane on the outside, not saying anything about what they believe, but just saying, well, you don't you can't and don't have any hope of being preserved. That's how they're viewing the people and just saying, well, you just don't have that. What do they believe? One more or two more sections here I'm going to read for you. They say falling, but no falling away. On the other hand, this doctrine does not mean that God's saints never fall into sin or temptation. The very names that are used, preservation and perseverance imply that God's people are surrounded by spiritual dangers and enemies and that they themselves are always liable to fall into temptation and to be overcome by their enemies. The devil, the wicked world and their own sinfulness. Well, which is it, then? I mean, if you're saying that that could be true, if you're saying that they could succumb to their own sinfulness. You just said how emphatic it is that saints can't do these things. They say this, all the doctrine means is that as far as God is concerned, he never allows them to fall away completely or to lose their salvation, but always brings them back. Now, we don't believe you can lose your salvation. So, of course. As far as they are concerned, it means that they, by the grace of God, always come again to repentance and begin a new the struggle to be holy. And see, this is this argument against a false dichotomy of someone who thinks you could lose your salvation versus someone, you know, where they think that you can't. But they're both they're both wrong. The parables of the lost sheep in the Prague of Sun are illustrations of what this doctrine teaches. The former parable teaching, especially the preserving power of God in and through Jesus Christ, our shepherd and the latter parable demonstrating our repentance and spiritual renewal. Now. One last place I'm going to read for you in this and this is going to kind of kick me off into one final direction on the sermon. I'll read this for you, they say, but even in Romans six, Paul goes on to explain what is really the answer of the scriptures to all such objections. That is, that grace is one, the same grace by which we are chosen, redeemed and preserved. Also leads us inevitably to holiness by bringing us regeneration, sanctification, calling and conversion and like. It says it's inevitable. Right, like it's automatic. Will happen, like you are just going to be. Holy and if they don't see that, then you just never were saved and you're not chosen. It says no one can have just part of that grace. You cannot possibly be chosen and justified without also being sanctified and made holy. Now, we, in a sense, believe the same thing. Because at the redemption of our bodies, that's the full redemption, when we will be fully made holy and pure and sanctified and set apart and everything will come to fruition and completion, which is also one of the verses I quote at the very beginning of the sermon. He who has begun a good work in you will do it until the day of redemption. So that that work that's performed. Yeah, he wants us more holy and we ought to be working harder to get closer that in our life. But not everyone will. But you know what? God will make sure that the end is met and we're conformed to the image of his son when we have our new bodies and the sinful flesh is destroyed and converted and changed into a new glorious body that is perfect and righteous and without sin. So we will achieve that holiness. But that's not something. That is attained. Here, we won't have that level of holiness, but we do believe it will come and it is inevitable because you've already been saved and he's going to come back and redeem his purchase possession. But their view on this is not the same, right? Even though you could if you look at the words, it could theoretically mean the same thing, but that's not what they mean. And that's not what they teach because they look at that saying, well, I am not seeing holiness in your life. It's inevitable, which means you aren't saved. And that is a big problem. It says this, if he has no holiness, the only possible explanation is that he is not chosen. And redeemed either. There cannot possibly be such a thing as a carnal Christian. Calvin, his view. Turn to Roman seven, please. And this is what it all boils down to this, the perseverance, right? I wanted to throw out enough enough scripture of the just the good news, the preservation of the saints that we believe it's true. Amen. You're never going to lose that salvation. That is good news. That is great because it wasn't based on our works. God saved you. But when you put your trust in Jesus Christ and you're saved forever, that's great news. God will make us holy. God works with us. We have a new life. We've got the new spirit. We have the ability now to really serve him and do good works and be pleasing in his sight through the actions that we do through choosing to walk in the spirit and living a good life. Amen and amen. But the possibility still exists for for true believers. To walk in the flesh and live a sinful life on this earth, but even them will receive a new body. And be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And they have no. Threat of loss of salvation ever. They are eternally secure. But this this and this is the last statement in that whole thing, because it sums it up saying, yeah, you know what? There's no such thing. Let me just spell it out for you. There's no such thing as a carnal Christian. Well, let's see what the Bible has to say about that. Verse number six, but now we are delivered from the law that being dead, wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of letter. Amen. We should serve in newness of spirit. That's right. We should. What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, I had not known lust, except the law said thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead. Verse nine, for I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. This is describing the condition of man, of human being. During their age of innocence, they're alive. So from the baby within the womb. Infant, toddlers, OK. They don't need their soul to be saved. They don't need the new man because it hasn't died yet. Their spirit hasn't died. Once they get to an age or a time in their life of being able to understand right from wrong, even just in the natural order of things with the conscience and what God has given us to understand right and wrong and and be able to discern that. Then they will be able to die and be held responsible for their own choice of being disobedient to God's law, to being a sinner. But until that point, they're alive. I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good. That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful, for we know that the law is spiritual. What does he say? What's that next part after the after that colon there? The law is spiritual, but I am a colonel. Who is this speaking? Oh, the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul? The apostle Paul, who arguably I think might be one of the best Christians who's ever lived on this planet. The apostle Paul started many churches, got who knows how many people saved. I would be willing to say thousands and thousands of people saved, led to Christ. Is the one responsible for delivering the majority of the word of God in the New Testament? This same apostle Paul, what did he say again? Oh, I am a colonel. But what does the Calvinist say? Oh, there is no such thing as a colonel Christian. Is the apostle Paul a Christian? I mean, if anything, can we call him a Christian? I think he was imprisoned for being a Christian. Even the world knew he was a Christian. Everyone knew he was a Christian. The church received his letters as a Christian. The world imprisoned him as a Christian. It's going to be hard finding anyone to say the apostle Paul is not a Christian. And he's the one saying he's colonel. Hmm. Boy, this Bible gets in the way of doctrine, doesn't it? I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, and he clarifies, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me. And again, oh, this free will. So will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good, I find nice. What he's saying is, look, I want to do good. I want to do good. But the things I want to do, I don't end up doing. And I don't want to do bad things. I don't want to sin. I don't want to do the things I'm not supposed to do. He's like, but then I find myself doing those things. It's not really what I want to do, but I do them. And look, to will is present with me. I have the ability to choose, but I'm just having this hard time of choosing the right thing to do. Does anyone else have that problem? Or is this just unique to the apostle Paul? Yeah. I know, that guy was such a lousy Christian, wasn't he? I mean, I don't know about you, I got my life totally under control. I always do everything I want to do. I mean, all the good things, I never do anything bad. Oh, wait, no, this isn't a holiness Pentecostal church. I mean, let me get my bearings back. I haven't sinned in about, you know, two and a half years. How about you? Ridiculous, right? But the apostle, what's he doing here? He's explaining, we've got this flesh. There is carnality. Show me the Christian that isn't in one sense or another a carnal Christian and the only thing you could show me is someone in heaven because they don't have a body. They're lacking the carnal. That's the only way that could be true. But the Calvinist says there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. We're all carnal Christians. The question is to what degree, right? How much are you walking in the flesh versus walking in the spirit? We all spend time in the flesh. Everybody does. You can't escape that. Hopefully it's a small part of the time. That's what we're striving for. We're trying and struggling to walk in the spirit as much as possible. But any time you spend in the flesh, you're a carnal Christian. It's a fact. It's a fact. You can't escape. Let's keep reading here. I mean, Paul does a pretty good job of describing this condition. Verse 19, for the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do. Now, if I do that, I would not. There's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. I love God's law. I love doing the right things. I love God's instruction and his laws and his commandments. I love that in the inward man, the saved man, the regenerated man. I love that. But I see another law in my members, which is his flesh. Warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? It is such a struggle. And this flesh can be so powerful at times, you ought to have the mindset like this, the spiritual mindset going, I hate this body. I hate being drawn into lust and sin. I don't want to have anything to do with that anymore, yet here I am. We have to deal with this. And this is reality. And this is a fact. And to try to pontificate and say, oh, there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. You're out of your mind. You don't even know what it's like to be saved. Because you're not saved. You think that God's just chosen you and all of a sudden you're just so righteous and holy? No, you put your trust in Jesus Christ and get saved and understand what it's like to have the new man inside because you are saved. Then you'll feel the struggle. You'll know the struggle is real. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Like I said, it's all just a matter of choice. Then how much you do in one over the other. The will is always present with you. It's always present. But it's always, it's also hard making sure that happens right. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I've got a lot of scripture left, but really quick points to make. So I'm going to try to wrap this up here quickly. But these last two points that I want to cover are really important. Last two examples I should say are important and ought to be stated. So I will do my best to get through this quickly. But look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Again, the Calvinist says, at least the one that I quoted, and this isn't unique to them either. The claim that there's no such thing as a criminal Christian isn't just invented by this one person on the internet. This is very common for Calvinist teaching. Because they simply just don't believe that that's possible because you're elect, because you're chosen, because the perseverance of the saints they think is just real. So you just are going to just keep on improving, getting better and better and better. Oh yeah, I know we're not saying that you don't sin. Well, yeah, because then you'd really be called out and no one would, you know, then you'd just be super cultic, right? I can't say no one would believe it because people believe all kinds of weird things that I would never ever imagine a million years that anyone would ever think or believe. But it's out there. All men are weird things out there. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, look at verse number 1, the Bible says, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto what? Now what does he say? And I, brethren. Isn't this addressed to a church? Is a church a congregation of believers? Do you think he's writing letters to churches that are full of just unbelievers? Like, I'm just going to write this letter to these people who aren't even saved, but I'm just going to give them all this godly advice and input on how they ought to be running the church. They're correcting or they're wrong and everything, but they're not even saved. No. He's calling them brethren. It's written to the church. Now, are there unsaved people in the church? Probably. But that's not the point. He's writing a letter to the church, and he's writing a letter to church that's full of new believers. Why? Because he gave them the gospel. Him and fellow laborers with him were out there soul winning and leading people to Christ, and now there's a church at Corinth that wasn't there before. And he says, I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. Now, what is that implying then? That a babe in Christ is carnal. Do they have the spirit? Yes. But a babe in Christ? They're still carnal. The babe in Christ is going to be reliant and needs to grow spiritually, but they're still just a baby. And guess what? The flesh is going to have that much head start over the spirit. Because, hey, depending on how old the person is when they get saved, right, their flesh may still be somewhat young, but it's still the flesh. Or maybe it's an adult flesh, and now you're a baby spiritually. Well, you're carnal. Every new believer is carnal. Not such a thing as a carnal Christian. Well, every babe in, yeah, you're never leading anyone to Christ, so you don't see it. No one's ever getting saved through your ministry. Oh, man, and that's a whole other thing. They had a section on, I'm preaching the gospel. And, like, that's important in their perseverance. I didn't even include that, but I'm just going, like, how many Calvinists, you know, go out and preach the gospel? Honestly, like, I don't, that's a rare animal there. Maybe it was more common in John Calvin's day. It probably was. I think people probably just had more character in general back then to do anything spiritual, but no, not in the United States of America at least. Verse number two there, I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. It's like, I can't even teach you the meat of the word. Like, you're not even to that point yet. You're just babies. You need some milk. You're carnal, right? You need to grow a little bit more and lose some of that carnality and gain some spiritual growth. He says in verse three, again, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one sayeth, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Paulus, and another, I am of John Calvin, are ye not carnal? No such thing as a carnal Christian. Hmm, interesting that you say that. Maybe you should read 1 Corinthians 3. Maybe you should memorize 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Maybe something might jump out at you there. No, last point I want to, obviously the Bible talks about carnal Christians. Believers, they're carnal, okay? It is real. There is such a thing as a carnal Christian. 100%. Should it be? No. No. We shouldn't be carnal. We should be spiritual. We should be walking in the spirit, but guess what? It's a reality, and there are people who literally believe that our chosen, right, they're elect, and they're carnal. They have eternal life, and they're secure, and God will preserve them, but right now they might not be persevering. I mean, think about that. That perseverance, that's, it happens. People get saved. They'll get excited. They'll start coming to church. Their family says, you're in a cult. This is weird, and what happens, they get offended, and they're out. That happens. It happens. Well, that person must not have been saved then. No, they were saved. It was real. There's a new birth there. They're still saved. They're not, they couldn't take the heat, though, and they didn't persevere through that, but God is still preserving them. There's a new life there. So, I'm going to read these examples. You, you all hopefully know these stories. Maybe you don't. If you don't, I'll read them for you, but there's two big examples in Scripture that speak to the heart of this, and that's King Saul and King Solomon, of two people who were saved, two people whose trust was in the Lord. Okay, now look, they're Old Testament examples, but if you don't understand that people in the Old Testament were saying the same way as people in the New Testament, read Romans chapter 4. It gives plenty of examples, Abraham, David. Okay, it gives examples of people from the Old Testament, but they trusted in God, and they trusted in the word of God, and that's how they were saved. It wasn't their own works. It wasn't their obedience to the law. It was through faith in the Lord, through faith in the Messiah, even. They didn't know him by the name of Jesus Christ, but it was still exactly the same way that we're saved today. Okay, people put their trust in the Lord, and they were saved, and they received eternal life, and they were born again. In that passage we read about John chapter 3 about being regenerated, Jesus was rebuking Nicodemus for being a master of Israel and not knowing these things. It wasn't some brand new doctrine of the New Testament, all of a sudden you're born again, and no one was ever born again before. If it were, then how could Jesus be like, how do you not know these things? Like, this is the most basic stuff. He was expected to know them because that truth has been around forever. The truth of being born again has been around, and it was understood prior to Jesus talking to Nicodemus because people have been saved the same way. You can turn there if you want to follow along. I'm going to read from 1 Samuel chapter 10 a little bit, and then I'm going to go to 1 Samuel 28. We're going to see the beginning of our introduction sort of to Saul where God used him, gave him a new heart. We could see he's clearly trusting in God, and then later when Saul has continually rebelled against the word of God, in his mind he didn't think he was, but his actions were showing that he was. And then the results of that. 1 Samuel chapter 10 verse 5, the Bible reads, after that thou shalt come, and this is Samuel telling Saul what's going to happen. I'm just kind of picking up in the middle here. Samuel's just instructing Saul what's going to happen after he's met with him and saying that he's going to be a king and everything. Because after that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines, and it shall come to pass when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery and a tabard and a pipe and a harp before them, and they shall prophesy. And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man. He's like, you're going to get not just the Spirit of God, but you're going to be turned into another man when this happens at this event. And let it be when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee, for God is with thee. And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and show thee what thou shalt do. And it was so that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all those signs came to pass that day, and when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied. So exactly what Samuel said was going to happen happened. And it says here, though, God gave him another heart. Now, the Calvinists, they know about this story. It's been brought up to them before, but you know what they want to say? They're going to say, oh, well, you know, unsaved people have been used by God before. So they'll bring up like Caiaphas, the high priest, where people have said the word of God. But I'm sorry, the examples that we have of unsaved people being used of God never say they were given a new heart. Nothing as extreme of a story as, like, nothing like this. You can say, oh, well, Nebuchadnezzar was used of, yeah, he was used of God. Pharaoh was used of God in that regard. Caiaphas, yeah, because he was the high priest, he ended up speaking the word of God. I can guarantee you his understanding wasn't there on what it actually meant. He was thinking something else. But, yes, he was used of God in the deliverance of the word of God. And just as there were probably unsaved people, the King James Bible translators involved in the work of the preservation of God's word, too. So God could use the men in that regard, in that capacity, but you're really going to tell me that God giving Saul another heart? You're still just going to say, yeah, but he was just unsaved. I mean, come on. I mean, how much more clear do you need to be? He started off right, he was doing the right things, he was humble in his own eyes. But when did it change? When he got proud, when he got lifted up, when he decided to take matters in his own hands. Are you going to tell me that a believer can't do those things? A believer can't get proud? A believer can't say, well, no, I'm just going to do things my way? Of course they can. Of course they can. He was little in his own eyes, and that's why God chose him, because he was meek and he was humble. Even though he was taller than everyone else, he still had a humble heart and a humble attitude. And God will exalt the humble. And that's what he did with Saul. He exalted the humble. But then it went to Saul's head. And you know what? God even warned, Samuel warned about the way that a king's going to be, because men aren't designed to have that much power. That power belongs unto God. And it wasn't God's plan for there to be a king, but he allowed them to have a king, he suffered them to have a king, and just said, well, if you're going to have a king, you're still going to come to me and I'll tell you who your king should be. But it wasn't God's plan or design for them to ever have a king for that very reason, and even the very first king that was selected by God. I mean, it's the first king. You think God's just going to be like, well, watch this, I'm just going to pick some unsaved guy to be their king. Why would he do that? God's the one choosing. So that's the first part, you know, and there's more to the story, but we just get this glimpse of God, of him getting another heart. But then we fast forward to chapter 28, which is near the end of his life here, after he's made bad choices, after God's already told him, you're not going to be king anymore. We see what happens when he goes to this witch. I mean, he's fallen so low. He's banned witchcraft. He did the right thing by instituting the law of God and saying, hey, no witches, because the Levitical law, the law of God, says that witches should be put to death. And Saul was enacting the word of God, in that regard at least, and trying to make things righteous and have righteous laws. But then he's turning into a hypocrite because he's just so backslid, and now he's going and just trying to, and look though, he's also trying to seek the Lord. He is. But he wasn't really listening before when God was trying to instruct him. He still thought he was doing everything the right way, but was doing it the way that he wanted to do it. And then God stopped answering him. And that's a whole another sermon in itself. Let's look at verse number five here in First Samuel 28. It says, when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants, seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. For sake of time, let's jump down here. Verse number 13, verse number 11, he says, then said the woman, whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with loud voice. And the woman spake to Samuel, excuse me, to Saul, saying, why is thou deceive me for thou art Saul? And the king said unto her, be not afraid, for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw God descending out of the earth. And he said unto her, what form is he of? And she said, an old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed, for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me, and he answereth me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. This is pathetic. Saul's just going like, look, man, I'm trying to get a hold of God, so no one's answering me, so I figured I'll just go to witch and get you here to tell me what I should do. Now, there are people who want to discredit this story, and I know I'm going over time, but I apologize for that. Just hang with me here, we're almost done. And they'll try to say, oh, well, I mean, the witchcraft isn't real or whatever, but there's a few things to note here. One is the woman's reaction when she saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice, it says in verse 12. When she saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice, and now all of a sudden it's like, why did you see me? She saw something that she wasn't used to. Now, these people who deal with familiar spirits and stuff or whatever, the deceitful devils or whatever they're dealing with is one thing, but it's not normal for someone who's in heaven, someone who's saved to be brought up by some witch here on earth. That is not a regular or normal occurrence because it says she deals with familiar spirits. Familiar spirits are devils. Okay? This is unique. This is different. Not only does Saul discern that it is Samuel, but the Bible is telling, like, the narrator of the Bible is telling the story. So it's one thing when a person thinks or says something, right? So the woman could say something, but it may or may not be true. Saul could say something that may or may not be true, he may or may not be right. Because if it's their thoughts and what they see or what they perceive or what they say, it may or may not be actually accurate. But when you're reading the Bible and it's literally the narrator describing the story as this third person about the story, that is true. One hundred percent, that is a fact. That's the Holy Spirit speaking as the narrator of scripture. So when the Bible says here, Samuel said to Saul in verse 15, why has thou disquieted me? Saul answered and tells him that, then said Samuel, verse 16, wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord has departed from thee and has become that enemy? And the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me. For the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to thy neighbor, even to David. Because thou obey it's not the voice of the Lord, nor execute his fierce wrath upon Amalek. Therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. The Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. The narrator is saying, Samuel speaking this. Samuel is telling Saul what's going to happen and it comes to pass, it's real, okay. Devils don't have this ability of like being able to prophesy the future. They don't have that skill or ability. But Samuel as a prophet of God does know these things. And was still able to tell him and that's exactly what happened, not only him but also his sons. But the takeaway then there is, you and your sons are going to be with me. You're going to be with me. Now is Samuel unsaved? Is Samuel burning in hell and was brought up out of hell? It's a hard sell. All of a sudden you've got all these, these heroes are going to be, well no actually he was unsaved too. Okay. Because we see a salvation testimony of him too before he knew the Lord and then he's hearing the voice of the Lord. And then Eli's telling him, you know what, that's the Lord. You say, here am I, you know, thy servant here, speakest thou for thy servant here thee. And we see when Samuel comes to know the Lord. Okay, so he's clearly saved. And he's telling Saul, hey you're going to be with me. You know what that tells me? Tells me King Saul was saved. And then what happens, he gets killed in a battle, well he kills himself actually. We use that passage as to show people that even something as bad as killing yourself is still, if you're saved, you're still saved. You don't lose that salvation. Saul went to be on with Samuel the next day. And that's true. And we didn't read all of the things that Saul had done in his life, in his downward spiral of his life of continuing to slide back farther and farther and farther away from the things of the Lord. It started off with him just performing a sacrifice he wasn't supposed to perform. But he was still like, in his heart he's thinking, well I need to serve God, we need to do this, we need to make sure his sacrifice is done. But he's not obeying the Lord the way that God's telling him to. So he's still trying to do these things, he still has, wanting Samuel to be there with him, he wants to do what's right in his own way though. Not in the way that God said. And even to this point where he's seeking witches and stuff. But he was troubled by the Lord, he was troubled with these evil spirits, he was trying to kill David. He ends up killing all these priests of the Lord, and has done so many wicked things in his life, but he was still saved. Now that's a carnal Christian. But I think it's clearly recorded in scripture that he still went on to be with Samuel. Not to be tortured in the pits of hell. In spite of all that he had done that's wrong. Why is that important? Because it shows the preservation of the saints. It also shows that even though he did all those wicked works, he was still saved. He didn't persevere to the end. He backslid to the end. And just continued to do worse and worse things to the end. But he was still saved. And I can make the same argument with Solomon, I'm not going to go through all the passages. You can read that for yourself if you want. 1 Kings, between chapters 3 and 11 kind of are this, turn if you go to Psalm 89 though I do want to close with this passage. By the end of Solomon's life, at the beginning of his life, God is communing with him, he's answering his prayers directly. Solomon is seeking exactly what is right, he wants to lead the people, he wants wisdom, he wants God to be with him. All these right things, God blesses him, he gives him great wisdom, he gives him riches, he gives him prosperity, he gives him peace. He gives him all of these things in the kingdom and for a long time Solomon does good things, right things. He's promoting the Lord, building the temple, giving us the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, right? Being used in a mighty way to deliver the word of God. As the preacher, as it says in Ecclesiastes, he's the preacher. But the end of his life, because he had married all these outlandish women. He married women that they were not supposed to go into, that the law, God's law says hey look, don't go into the heathen people and take wives of them. He married someone from Egypt, he married someone, you know, from all over the place, he had a thousand women. The Bible says that these women turned his heart from the Lord. He was carnal, carnal in his appetite for women. He was still saved, he was still born again, but he gave over to this carnality and allowed these women to influence him so much. That he even was building abominable idols and altars of false gods and doing things that you'd be like, how could anybody that's saved do that? He did that at the end of his life, but the Bible says that, and that's why I want to go to Psalm 89, because we also see this referenced here. That it's a result of this is why God stripped the kingdom away from Solomon's children, right? When Rehoboam began to reign, Solomon's son, that's when the kingdom, the nation of Israel was split into two nations, the nation of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. He left them with that one tribe, which is, you know, this is a much small remnant of the whole because of David's sake. But the punishment was because of Solomon going after these women and not serving the Lord with all of his heart like David, his father did. Okay, but that does not mean that Solomon was, well, then he just wasn't saved. That is ridiculous. He was saved and did some, made some really bad choices. Psalm 89, I believe, describes this. Look at verse number 20. The Bible says, I have found David my servant. Just, I'm getting this in context. So we see we're talking about here, David, my servant with my holy oil, have I anointed him with whom my hand shall be established. Mine arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. And I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him. Did that happen? Yes. That actually happened in real life. But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. His horn, his kingship, him being a leader. I will set his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me, thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. That's David. He had a heart to serve God. Also, I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. Now, we have a mixing here of prophecies about Jesus Christ as well as David. There's a dual prophecy here, as it were, where David is still calling the Lord his God and his father. But also then this applies, of course, to the prophecy of Jesus Christ who comes through the line of David. But let's keep going here because I don't want to get sidetracked on that. It's real late. Verse number 27, I also make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. Look at verse 30, if his children forsake my law. Now, we have the reference there of Jesus Christ, but as most prophecies in scripture, you get these prophecies, but in the context, the story still continues. The main subject matter will continue on. Jesus didn't physically have any children, right? David did. Now, Jesus has spiritual children, and I still think you could also apply this the same way, but the surface application still stands with David, continuing on then with his children. If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, because that's how God deals with children. You will get chastised. You will get punished. Absolutely. There is consequences for your actions. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. And my point is this. If this is applied to Solomon, as I think it should be, absolutely. Amen. God did punish him. God did bring the rod. God did strip the kingdom away from Solomon and from his sons, right, that weren't walking in his ways perfectly as they ought to have been. But if you just say, well, no, this is just spiritual, then amen, it still applies, and it's still true, and it still demonstrates exactly what I'm saying, that a child of God, a believer, a Christian may not persevere, and they may get into bad sins here, and then God's going to punish them and chastise them. And here's the thing. They may or may not come back from their backsliding. They may die before they ever repent or come to repentance over the things that they're doing wrong. That can happen to anybody. So trying to rely on, well, if they're really saved, then they will come back for sure. No, they may not. What if they die? What if they're just in backsliding for long enough and then they die? And I would say, what if I died at 25? Well, no one would have seen me repent even though, yes, I did later on in my life, but you wouldn't have seen it. Calvinists would be like, yep, he was just unsaved. Clearly, that didn't take. Well, no, clearly you're wrong and a fool, and you don't even understand salvation. Because, yes, it did. And Solomon, if he didn't die, maybe he would have, you know, we don't know. But it's a fool's errand to say, well, if you're not continually doing the work until the day of your death, then all of a sudden that means you're not saved. That is foolish. That's foolish. Now, you may be missing out on some crowns. The Apostle Paul was able to say, hey, I've kept the faith. I finished my course. You know, from henceforth, there's crowns laid up for me. He was able to confidently say that because he was at the end of his life, and he knows he's done the work. He knows he's been faithful, and he's done what he's supposed to do. But it wasn't, he's not saying, well, now I'm finally confident in my salvation. He's confident in his rewards. Because if you, you know, there are rewards definitely that are eternal, right? Any rewards you get in heaven are eternal, and you're not going to lose those rewards. But I'll tell you, I do believe this, though, is that you have this opportunity to blow some of the things that you might have gained by just completely doing things like Solomon did, and not staying faithful as you ought to to the end, and end up forfeiting more opportunity for rewards that easily would have been there. And that there is some level of loss as a result of what you do here in the way that you live your life. But the salvation doesn't change. Doesn't mean you're unsaved. Even something as bad as building an altar to a false god doesn't mean Solomon was unsaved. I think we have enough examples of people like that in Scripture to illustrate the truthfulness of that doctrine that says, no, you're saved forever. Once you're saved, you're saved. And while you should persevere, you should finish the course well, you should run the race all the way to the end and do it faithfully. If you don't, it's not an indicator that you were never saved. And that's what Calvinism teaches, and that's why it's so wicked. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. Thank you so much for making salvation so clear, so plain, so easily understood, and that you love us so much. And that when you save us, we can have the confidence of knowing that it is forever, that it is eternal, and that we don't have any, we really shouldn't have any reason that we'd have to doubt that because of your word and because of your goodness and your mercy and long suffering, dear Lord. But I pray that you would please help us to make sure that these doctrines are clear and that we could proclaim the truth of the Bible and win over people who might have been impacted by false doctrine, dear Lord, and help them to see the truth of this doctrine about the preservation of the saints that you preserve us, dear Lord. And once we're saved, we're saved eternally. God, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. Let's turn to song number 162, To God Be the Glory. Song 162, To God Be the Glory. Sing it out on the first verse. To God be the glory. Great things He hath done. So loved be the world that He gave us His Son. Who healed His life and atoned Him for sin. And opened the wide gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father through Jesus the Son. And give Him the glory. Great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase of one. To every believer, the promise of God. The vilest offender who truly believes. That moment from Jesus the pardon receives. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father through Jesus the Son. And give Him the glory. Great things He hath done. Great things He hath taught us. Great things He hath done. And great are rejoicing through Jesus the Son. A newer and higher and greater will be. Our wonder, our transform, may Jesus be seen. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father through Jesus the Son. And give Him the glory. Great things He hath done. Amen. Praise the Lord. .