Ephesians 6:17 Part 2

You have your Bibles, turn with me to Ephesians,

chapter 6.

We are coming down the home stretch.

Not only of this subject of

the warfare, of the believer,

and the resources that we have

for victory, but also the

Book of Ephesians as a whole.

A little bit over two years, I think.

We've been in Ephesians.

One of my favorite stories about the Book of Ephesians

came to me from Danny Miller, the music minister at Foster

Road Baptist Church.

Brother Huey Moch preached through Ephesians

much longer than I have.

Of course, Mother Huey, different

level of preacher.

But there, I don't know if you know Greg,

or if any of you have ever met Greg and Thomas at

Foster Road Baptist Church, the little special

needs guys.

They're always there.

And, uh, at

the time when their grandmother was alive.

Um, one son, she always came to church.

There was one particular Sunday morning,

the grandmother didn't come to church.

And so, um, Greg

and Thomas were asked, What's going on with my mom?

You know, we didn't see her here.

Mama said last night.

Ephesians, Ephesians, Ephesians,

I'm sick of Ephesians.

They let it out.

Brother Mike was probably 5 years in Ephesians.

I don't know.

But anyway, we are coming down the stretch

and this particular section that

we have been in here of late.

has been on the armor, as you know,

of the Christian, and in these verses

where Paul uses this great imagery of the Roman

soldier, dressed out for battle,

the practical application has

produced subjects like the

intense need for commitment

on our part as Christians in this warfare.

The selling out of ourselves in

obedience, to fulfill God's will in our lives.

We also talked about the manner of

disciplining ourselves.

day to day living, controlling our

desires, committing ourselves

into conformity, to

the standard of living that is

governed by the word of God.

And anytime we get into this type of

subject matter, there

exists the possibility of

falling into error on two

polar opposite ends

of the understanding of our sanctification.

legalism, on one

end, or antinomianism,

on the other, that's just a big word, theological word for

anti lawism, best

characterized by, you know, I'm saved,

Jesus paid it all, I live however I want.

And we've discussed this many times, these

two polar opposite ways of living through

the Christian life, but because it's so easy.

for all Christians to get out of balance

on one of those two other ends.

It's very important for us to continue to discuss

this, in order for us to keep

our balance, right in

the middle of the king's highway.

As we are all soldiers marching

on the king's highway to the celestial city,

and that comes from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,

if you're a Christian, you've never read Pilgrim's Progress, go home tonight, start reading it.

You need a copy.

I have one on the shelf.

Must reading for every Christian.

All throughout church history, there have been many different ways.

of teaching how to deal with

living the Christian life.

And wow, here, we have

been applying these verses, hopefully,

in a very balanced, non

legalistic way, and living

with commitment and discipline and obedience to

the Word of God.

Hopefully, that's the way I've conveyed it to you, as

good soldiers of Jesus Christ, because that's the meaning of

the text, and that Paul is conveying to us, I'm very certain

about that, or I wouldn't preach it that way.

But there's also another way of applying

these verses to our Christian living.

That is probably to

many varying degrees, the

majority report in American evangelicalism.

There are some, especially

today, but also down through church

history, who believe that all

of this exercise, and

all of this discipline, and all of this struggle,

and all of this effort, is

really not what God is after,

as Christians.

There is a statement in the Old Testament that

is made in reference to King Jehoshaphat that says this.

The battle is not yours.

It's the Lord's.

And that statement.

has become a byword.

For a group of people who

were originally labeled quietist.

This is a teaching that began in

the church in the late 17th century.

And this movement has taught that

the way to live the Christian life is not through

discipline, and effort,

and commitment, but

rather through absolute surrender.

There's a book by that name,

absolute surrender, written by Andrew Murray,

that has sold many copies, that

while not teaching classical quietism

is thought of in our

theological camp of definitely

having quietist leanings, I

remember being ignorant of reform theology and reading this book,

and thinking about how profound it was.

Murray was a leading figure,

and what is called Keswick theology, which

has many quietest elements to it, also

known as the higher life movement,

and I can help you boil down all

these labels I'm giving you in understanding

with one phrase that best defines this movement.

You ever heard this?

Let go.

Let God.

Now, a lot of

this sounds good.

Hmm?

As far as Murray is concerned.

He does have some good things in

his book Absolute Surrender.

Mixed in with error.

in his teaching that most definitely

will lead a Christian to

anti-nomianism in his walk.

Let me tell you what I mean by that.

The main idea.

In a nutshell is, hey.

Stop all the striving and struggling and disciplined

in the Christian life and just totally surrender.

Just let go.

And let God.

And while we all do,

have to absolutely surrender to the Lordship of

Jesus Christ in Bible repentance and saving faith

to be right with God.

There's no question about that.

Listen carefully.

It's how you understand what

that means.

that makes all the difference in the world.

I've seen preachers.

With large crowds, on television,

and talked about it this morning again, they

call people, come down to the altar to surrender.

And the tears are flowing.

And the music is playing, stirring

up the emotions, and people are down on

their knees, without a hint of

an actual biblical gospel message ever

having been preached beforehand.

Just come down, and surrender.

to Jesus, without explaining

what that means, biblically.

There's a whole lot of misunderstanding in the church.

about what it means to surrender,

biblically.

I've read and heard from friends who grew up

in the church, who went to summer Bible camps, and

about how kids would come down to dedicate, and rededicate,

and re-rededicate their lives,

every year they went to Bible camp.

Now, I don't have any experience with that.

I was smoking weed and stealing car radios at that time of my life.

I did go to Bible camp one year.

With my cousins.

There's only one thing I remember about the Bible camp that I went to.

I think it was about 12 years old.

The highlight of the week that was talked about all week was

there was a certain night where the boys got to go over

to the girls' dorm and do a painty raid.

Now, that stuck in my mind for a long time, and

of course, it was all planned, and you wonder, thinking back,

who came up with that idea for Bible camp?

I enjoyed it.

But this definitely has been, and

continues to be a problem.

in the church.

And what it's done, as you've heard me say, and you've

heard Ed say, it's produced many false converts.

People trying to get surrendered with

no biblical substance or

foundation in doing so.

There was a man who used to teach to let go

and let God's system.

Listen what he said.

Listen to this.

When you are fully surrendered,

you'll never even experience temptation because

it will be defeated by Christ before it has

time to draw you into a fight.

Now, to the non discerning mind, that might sound.

Yeah, wow, that's...

But if you're using your brain, and you're

thinking biblically, consider.

If that's true, when

you sin, because you will, whose fault is it?

With what he said, it's

Christ's fault, because he just said, it'll be

defeated by Christ for you, never gets time to get going.

Is it Jesus' fault when you sin?

I mean, I find that kind of problematic, don't you?

That's this teaching.

In the Christian secret of a happy life,

Hannah Smith writes the following.

What can be said about man's part in

this great work, but that he,

man, must continually surrender himself and

continually trust.

But when we come to God's side of

the equation, what is there that may not be said as

to the manifold and wonderful ways in which

he accomplishes the work entrusted to him?

In other words, what she's actually saying there,

and in the rest of the book, for that matter, is, if you want

to grow spiritually, do

nothing, but surrender.

Let go.

and let God do it all.

Now, again, that sounds great.

But what happens when you sin?

What do you do then?

What do you do with that?

Do you just keep doing nothing?

You see, the point is, there just has to be

more to the Christian life than this do

nothing surrender approach.

And not only should this be self evident

to you,

We have a bible.

A Bible that has words in it.

And all of the words have meaning.

And never, in any

text that I can find, does

the Bible ever teach this approach to Christian living?

Look for yourself.

Consider just what we've been studying here in Ephesians.

The Bible simply nowhere teaches

that all you have to do in the Christian life is

just surrender and let go and let God.

John MacArthur tells the story of a guy who was

in a church, where they were calling for people to do this.

And he walked the aisle, and

he knelt down, and he started to pray.

He prayed for surrender.

And he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed,

and the pastor is standing there watching him.

And finally the pastor says to him,

Bring it through, brother.

Pray it through.

And then everybody in the audience, the

pastor turns around and says, folks, let's

uphold him, so he can pray it through.

And then finally, the

guy stood up, and he turned around

to the audience, and he said

out loud, Hell, I can't get through!

And he walked right out the back door.

Think about that.

And I hear that.

And I want to know, just

what exactly, were they

trying to pray him through too?

What does this mean?

Surrender.

Sounds great.

It has no substance.

In this move.

You see, It's a great example of

when it comes to this issue of surrender.

listen to me.

There has to be a biblical understanding

of it, or all you are ever going to

do with that kind of teaching that sounds great.

You're going to be frustrated.

So let's get our biblical bearing straight here with this.

There is no question.

Again, now listen to me.

There's no question that every single Christian

must totally depend on the resources of God

in the Christian life.

There is no question that we must totally

depend on God's power and God's energy and God's strength.

We learned that.

Look at it.

Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 10.

Remember?

Finally, be strong in the Lord.

And in the strength of his might.

But it's unbiblical to

think that while we're doing that, then

all we have to do is just sit there and surrender.

Now, for sure, we can go too far with this idea

of self discipline and go beyond the balance that the

Bible gives us into legalism.

And that is just as bad,

in the opposite direction, and

those who did that in the 17th century at the same time period were

called the Pietist.

So you had the pietist and the quietist, okay?

They were both wrong.

And they still are both wrong.

Today.

But just think about this idea for a minute.

of absolute surrender, as I

have laid it out for you here today.

And once again, let's

just read this whole text concerning

spiritual warfare.

And listen to me now, as we read, C,

if you're in your thinking, if you

can pick up any hint of

surrendering in the way I've laid it out to you in

what Paul is teaching here, let's read together.

Verse 10.

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.

Boy, now that's starting out pretty in line, right?

Verse 11.

Put on the full

armor of God, so that you will be able to stand

firm against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not against

flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the

powers, against the world forces of this darkness,

against the spiritual forces of wickedness, in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of

God, so that you will be able to resist in the

evil day and having done everything to

stand firm.

Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins

with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel

of peace, in addition to all, taking

up the shield of faith, which you will be

able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of

the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation,

and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Amen.

Are you sensing?

Any let go and let

God in any of those words?

I mean, I'm really just a simple minded man.

I'm just a preacher that works at an all company warehouse.

But what I read there is

about discipline.

What I read there is about commitment.

What I'm getting out of that, is

that the Christian life is a war that

we have to fight in.

And we have to do things like stand

firm and put on and take up,

and we're taking on enemy fire of flaming

arrows from a powerful, relentless enemy

in daily battle.

That what I'm reading here.

And you'll find this all over the New Testament.

With a quick summary, just as quick summary.

You go to Hebrews 12, you'll find the Christian life described as a race.

In 1 Corinthians 9, it's described as a fight.

In James 4 and 1 Peter 5, it says, We must resist the devil.

Also in 1 Corinthians 9.

It says we must beat our body to bring it into subjection.

In Philippians 3, it says, we must press on toward

the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus, so clearly.

It's just way too simplistic to say,

all we need to do in the Christian life is

let go, and let God surrender.

You want to say, All right, God, you do it.

Again on the opposite end.

You've got to do it all.

You've got to grind it all out.

Legalism is really just a faith plus work system.

That's really all that amounts to.

The balance again.

It's in the middle.

Yes, we depend on the power and strength of God, absolutely.

Yes, it's not I, but Christ, who lives in me.

But at the same exact time.

There has to be a tremendous level in

the Christian life of commitment and self discipline and self control.

There has to be in the Christian life,

a dedication of our day to day lives, to fight

against our adversary with all that we have,

in the strength, of the

Lord's might.

There has to be a commitment to surrendering, to

the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and acknowledging

his power and resources in it.

But it doesn't end there.

Church, that's where it begins.

Are you with me?

Now, the best example that I know of.

of how the balance works

in the Christian life.

And I've read this many times.

I've quoted this many times, and I'm going to continue to do so,

I'm certain, until my last breath of preaching, is Philippians

2, let's read it once again, back

to back verses, same context, so

then, beloved, just as you have always obeyed,

not as in my presence only, but

much more in my absence, work out,

not work for, your salvation with fear,

and trembling.

Keyword there is obeyed.

You work out your salvation in

a life of obedience.

And then you flip right to the next verse, verse

13, 4.

It is God, who is at work

in you both to will and to

work for his good pleasure.

God is at work, and you and I, accomplishing

his will, while you work it out, we

work it out in our obedience.

That's the balance.

Right there, in those two verses.

Now, I don't know about you.

I don't find that too complicated.

And finally, just one more for the balance team.

We're on team balance, by the way.

Colossians 129.

Paul writes this.

For this purpose, also, look at it.

I, labor, striving,

accordingly, to his

power, which mightily works within me.

There's both of them right there.

You see that?

If we just let go and let God,

what do all these exhortations from Paul about laboring,

and striving, and fighting, and on and on and on, he goes,

What is that all that about?

We simply have to grasp that

there is a balance between a yieldedness

to the lordship of Christ and a total commitment

and discipline in my own life to follow through

in that surrendering to his lordship in obedience.

Now, let's get back to Ephesians 6.

That's my introduction.

I don't know.

If you can find a text, that

is more anti let go and let God, than

these verses on spiritual warfare in

the armor of God that we read in verses 10 to 17.

The last time we were here, we were looked at verse

17 and the helmet of salvation.

And I have just a little bit more to say about

this piece of armor in line with what

I've given you so far.

So today is helmet of salvation, part two.

Quickly, by way of review.

Remember, the helmet of salvation is not about getting saved.

You wouldn't already have the belt

of truth in the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of

the preparation of the gospel of peace, and the shield of faith.

If you weren't already saved, you wouldn't have all that armor on.

You wouldn't have any armor on.

If you weren't already saved.

And remember I told you last time that salvation

has 3 dimensions to it, past, present, and future.

You were saved in the past from the penalty of sin.

That's the doctrine of justification.

You are being saved in the present,

from the power of sin, that's the doctrine of sanctification,

and you will be saved in the future, from

the very present of sin, that's the doctrine of glorification.

For further explanation of all that, go back and watch my last sermon.

For our purpose is here today, we're

studying the helmet of salvation here in verse 17.

And we're focusing in on the meaning of

this phrase, which deals with, particularly,

our salvation in the future dimension.

What Paul is saying to us here is,

you, Christian, can be sure of your future

salvation, and that eternal security,

of your glorification, becomes a protection against

the broad sword blows of our enemy.

Remember, we said, the broadsword that Satan

has is double edged.

He wields discouragement on one side.

He wields doubt on the other side in

the lives of all believers.

And the protection that we have is

the helmet of salvation, that it's

our trust in the Lord, that there

really is light, at the end of this tunnel

that we're in right now, in this warfare.

There's glory waiting for us on

the other side that is guaranteed by God

in his word for the believer.

There's a finish line.

There's a final gun.

The clock will run out on this life,

and we will stand face to face with King Jesus.

We'll be at that Bemus seat that Ed talked about this morning.

Remember, 1 Thessalonians, I'll requote it again from

last time, chapter 5, verse 8, describes it

well, but since we are of the day, let us

be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love

as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

Remember biblical hope?

This guaranteed assurance of a future outcome,

the guaranteed hope of salvation in the future,

the helmet, is what gives us strength to press on

in the present.

No more sin is coming.

No more struggle with the flesh is coming.

No more warfare.

That's what we're looking forward to, and so much more.

And like I said last time.

If there were no future element.

of salvation.

The other two parts of salvation would be

absolutely meaningless, would they not?

Again, imagine having

to struggle and fight the world, flesh,

and the devil for eternity.

Imagine that.

There'd be no hope in that.

I'd give up.

easily.

Why would I keep doing all this, if that were the case?

But knowing and understanding our

biblical hope of future glorification that is guaranteed?

I'm gonna call that the juice that's worth the squeeze.

Now, for me personally.

I have a hard time conveying this.

It's been 1997

is when I was saved.

So next year'll be 30 years.

I've been a Christian.

And I'm telling you, I am still

radically amazed by

God's grace in my life.

Not only so thankful, still,

that he saved me from the wrath,

which I so richly deserve, but man,

he saved me from myself.

He saved me from the dumpster

fire of a life I was living when life was left up to me,

and it was a raging dumpster fire.

And so, I'm still so amazed

of the nature change that

I can't help myself.

I just want to maximize.

All that I can in serving him with

the rest of my life with whatever vapor of a life I have left.

We talked about it on the podcast yesterday.

As pastors, Brian,

we are compelled to do this.

I cannot not do this.

And I just really believe, we talked about it this

morning, that the harder we roll here in the Christian life, the

more satisfied and glad we're going to be,

when we look back at what we did with

this new nature that God gave us in our life.

What did we do with Jesus in our Christian life?

The more that we rolled hard for him here?

How much more unbelievably

joyous will that occasion be when you're

standing in front of the king?

Now, last time, we talked about Satan's

double edged, broad sword.

Doubt on the one side, discouragement

on the other.

And we focused in on some examples

of discouragement last time, and for today,

I want to consider a little bit more about how he uses the

doubt side of the blade.

Most Christians, I mean really, you could

say that doubt is the ultimate discouragement, right?

And most Christians wrangle with doubt,

especially early on in the Christian life, and

as we grow in sanctification, you usually get to the place where

you don't wrangle with doubt about your eternal

security, but even as I say that, we

have to acknowledge that none of us is immune

to spot hits of flaming doubt arrows

at any time, right?

especially when we don't have our armor on.

As I touched on last time, it's

typically our fleshly responses

to circumstances that we find ourselves in, that

are used to fire a doubt arrow our

way by the enemy.

Remember?

You think you're a Christian?

Look at what you just said.

You think you're a Christian?

Look at what you just did.

And let me tell you, try being a pastor.

We don't even have to worry about the enemy with this one.

We have people who

are very quick to remind us, you're a master?

You're a pastor?

I mean, I've had the clergy card pulled

on me more times than I can count when

I falter and fail.

Now, on top of this, the

enemy uses false teaching in

this area, to keep many people, in

a constant state of doubt and fear.

For example, there are

far too many churches that teach that

you can lose your salvation.

They teach and believe in eternal insecurity.

They live in a constant state of insecurity.

They are taught that you will really never know if

you made it or not until you get face to face with Jesus.

Can you imagine living like that?

I couldn't.

I agree with John MacArthur.

If I could lose my salvation, I would.

I'd lost it a long time ago.

This teaching is such a denial of

the total sufficiency of

the finished work of Jesus Christ.

There's just no way around the fact that

it's Christ's work, plus my works,

that keeps my salvation in check in this teaching that

you can lose your salvation.

You can't get around that, right?

And that immediately brings

up the question for me, and it always has, since this came

into my understanding.

I have a question.

for these folks.

Just how many sins are

to what degree of sins does

it take, to get to the center of

the lose your salvation tootsie pop.

I've never had anybody answer that question.

You know why?

Because you will find exactly zero

answers to that question in the Bible.

Because losing your salvation after

you genuinely have it is false doctrine.

That's why.

And of course, Satan

wants us to be afraid that we don't really have salvation.

Of course he does.

Because he loves for Christians to be miserable.

He's a far more adept

to theologian than any of us.

And guess what?

He knows expertly that

the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer is

true.

And he also knows that what that means is, he

can't have us, no matter what.

So he figures, why not?

While he has access to us, make

us despair and doubt and

worry and be miserable about the state of our soul.

Remember, he hates us.

With a supernatural level of hate.

So any amount of adversity that he can cause

us is his goal, every minute of

every single day.

And he hates God.

He hates God with a seething,

vicious hatred, and he wants us to

doubt the promises of God.

He wants us to believe that

God does not keep his word.

He wants us to believe that

salvation isn't forever.

and that God can't hold on to us,

and he will use men

and any and all types

of the twisting of scripture to

convince us of what he wants.

He wants us to deny God's power.

He wants us to deny God's resources.

He wants us to deny that

God speaks the truth, just like in the garden at the very beginning.

And all of these things are simply denials of that.

That God speaks the truth in his word.

So how do we react properly

and biblically to all of that?

Well, as often as the case, we

have to use our minds to

read and comprehend our Bibles and have

a solid understanding of just basic,

fundamental, sound doctrine, for example,

as easily proven from scripture, is this reality.

That if you have a past salvation

that we've talked about, then

without question, you have a future

salvation that is guarantee.

How do I know that?

Because there is no other kind of salvation

that's found in the Bible.

There's no other kind of salvation that has

the 3 dimensions that I've taught you past,

present, and future, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

Those are the three most fundamental

Christian doctrines of the Christian faith that every Christian

absolutely must understand.

You must understand those doctrines separately.

And you must also understand how

they inseparably work together.

And if you sit in here in this

church this morning, and you profess to be a Christian, and

you don't understand what I just said, please come see me immediately

after church, and we will get that straight today.

Amen.

And you know where we'll start?

Romans chapter 8, verse 29.

Look at it.

For those whom he foreknew,

he also predestined

to become conformed to

the image of his son.

Now, let me ask you something.

If Creator, omniscient,

omnipresent, omnipotent God,

predestined you to become conformed to the

image of his son.

Is there any way possible that you

will not become conformed to the image of his son?

I ain't too smart.

But that makes clear sense to me, and Paul's not done, verse 30.

And these whom he predestined,

he also called, and these whom he called, he also

justified, and these whom he justified,

he also glorified, for very

obvious reasons, this is called the golden chain of

redemption, predestined, called, justified, glorified.

There's nobody in the gaps there.

You see anybody in the gaps?

If you can find a brake in that chain.

You also need to see me after church.

Because I need to try to understand how your mind

works when you read sentences.

We're talking about biblically, understanding

the three dimensions of salvation, past,

present, and future, and we're talking about the guarantee of

that future aspect of glorification.

Folks, we just simply cannot exclude John chapter 6.

Please look at verse 37.

Jesus says, all that the Father gives me will come to me.

And the one who comes to me.

I will certainly not cast out.

Now, that phrase right there, you got to understand,

certainly not, see that phrase, in the Greek, you know what that

also can be translated as?

Under no circumstances.

That's what it means.

This means there are no circumstances

in existence whereby Christ would ever

cast anybody out who comes to him in saving faith.

Why?

Because the only ones who come are the ones who the

Father gives in verse 37.

And if God, the father.

gives you to Christ.

Then you have the decree of God

himself to eternal salvation,

and not only that, you have the response of Christ.

to eternal salvation.

There is absolutely no way you can lose.

As we have learned, before,

we are the love gifts, from

the Father, to the Son.

Now, this

reality is the extremely rarefied

error that exists within the Trinity.

This is way above

our human ability to fully comprehend, but

just feel the weight of the blessing

of understanding this in the way that we

have been allowed to by God.

The Son has accomplished,

the greatest work, that has

ever occurred, in the human experience, in

redemption, and the Father, in

response to this great work, gives

the Son gifts, the

souls of his people, that he died

for, and the Son loves the Father.

so much that he holds on tightly

to the gifts that he's been given by the Father.

He says, All that the Father,

Look at it, gives me, will come.

And when they come under no circumstances,

will I ever turn them away, why?

Well, it isn't because of you and me.

We aren't even really into picture here, folks.

This is all about the Son,

loving the Father so much to ever lose

anybody that is a love gift from the Father to the Son.

That's what's going on here.

Now watch this.

Look, next in verse 38, Jesus says, for

I have come down from heaven, not to do my

own will, but the will of him who sent me.

That's the Father's plan to redeem his people, to

give them to the Son, and have the Son keep them.

How do you know that, preacher?

Look next in verse 39.

This is the will of him who sent me, that of all

that he has what?

Given me?

I lose nothing.

But raise it up at the last day.

How many does Jesus lose?

None.

He loses none.

There is absolutely no loss

between the decree of the Father, the

gift of the Son, and the resurrection on the last day.

Church is so clear.

The Bible teaches that God has a

counsel that cannot be changed.

A calling that cannot be

revoked, an inheritance that

cannot be defiled, a foundation that

cannot be shaken, a seal that

cannot be broken, a life that cannot

perish.

Jesus said in John 10, 27 to 30.

My sheep, hear my voice.

And I know them, and they follow me,

and I give eternal life to

them, and they will never perish,

and no one will snatch them out of my out of my hand.

Verse 29.

My father, here it is again, who has given them

to me is greater than all, and no

one is able to snatch them out of the father's

hand, and just for good measure, I and the father are one.

With his own words.

Jesus is confirming the fact that

a past salvation includes a future one as well.

He gives eternal life,

he says, and no one can reverse that.

Now, I got to land this plane.

Food is smelling really good right now.

And I promise you, this week I left a lot on the table.

Back there in the new, I got my room back,

and Cat, Frank the Cat went outside.

So I got to study in my room again.

And I left a lot on the table.

I had to really condense this, but...

Just for quick hits, Philippians 16,

Paul, for I am confident

of this very thing.

that he who began a good working,

you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

That's a promise.

He began it, he's going to finish it.

Like, 2 Timothy 112,

For this reason, I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for

I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he

is able to guard that which I have entrusted to him

until that day.

That's a promise.

Jude verse 25, now to

him who is able to keep you from stumbling

and to make you stand in the

presence of his glory, blameless with great joy.

That's a promise.

You getting this?

Now, there's really much more to say about this.

But I really hope you grab some of what I'm trying to tell you here.

When Satan's blows of doubt and

discouragement assail you, I'm

telling you here today, put on the helmet of salvation.

Put on the reality of your future glory.

Put on the reality of the eternal security

unbreakable of your salvation, the

guarantee of the very eternally

secure future that you have that lies ahead

in glory.

All right, let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 11.

Because now this is what we get to do.

We get to proclaim, and

we get to celebrate, what

made all this future glory possible for us.

1 Corinthians chapter 11.

Starting in verse 27.

Therefore, whoever eats the

bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall

be guilty of the body in the blood of the Lord, but a

man must examine himself, and

in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he who eats and drinks, Each

and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

For this reason, many among you are weak and

sick, and a number sleep.

Do you get any let go and let God out of that?

I don't find any hint of let go and let God in there.

I find examination.

Now, remember, I'm going to say this to you.

to continue to say this every time.

It's a specific context of this.

They were getting quite out of

hand in Corinth.

And Paul needed to correct them about

what was happening at the Lord's Supper.

It was wild.

Maybe one day I'll preach, one Corinthians, and we'll get through the

whole thing, but they were way out of order.

So he had to correct what was going on.

He said, Hey.

You need to examine yourself.

You need to check to make sure, you know, you're

Christian acting like this.

So why would I quote this?

Why do I quote this every time?

Because I want you to feel the weightiness.

That big word gravitas.

I like that word better.

Same thing, but it has a little more to it.

The gravitas of what it is that we're doing.

So there should be two primary

thoughts and two primary

emotions in my mind, and in our thinking.

One of reverence, number one

for what we're doing.

So we read this verse and we say, hey, examine

myself about the security of my salvation that I just heard about.

But number two, pure joy.

You should be feeling pure joy

and thanksgiving at the same time you're being reverent

with what we're doing, absolute joy

of the fact that God has plucked

you as a brand from the fire.

And you get to come down here and

participate in what he has commanded

us to do until he returns.

Preach the gospel through the Lord's

Supper until he comes again.

So let's bow our heads and close our eyes.

Just take some time to do business with him.

Consider the realities of the need for temporal forgiveness,

that you need to ask for, that's

rooted and grounded in the judicial position, forgiveness of Christ.

Take a moment of silence.

Pray.

And, you know, one of the time.