Who You Are In Christ - A Gift from God the Father to Christ

The handout today is just one page, two sides. Copies in the back there. In the Who You Are in Christ series, this is Every Believer is a Gift from God the Father to Christ. And so the passages that speak to that, are all from the Gospel of John. So rather than just zeroing in on those verses, what I'm going to do is kind of do a study of each of those passages, kind of in context, so we don't just get the one verse, but we see the bigger picture of what's being said. And so we'll have kind of a Bible study in two parts, because there's two main passages.

Okay? Everybody okay with that so far? Okay? Nobody outraged or anything of that sort. Okay, all right, then we can go ahead. What we have on the screen, this little clip that I have on a loop, UCLA has an architectural modeling unit and what they've done is they've taken the information about the temple that was in existence during Jesus' time And they've done some computer models. They're not real sophisticated in that the people you notice just stand still. But other than that, they put everything together so that it's somewhat like you were there.

And one of the reasons why we bring that up is the first passage we'll be looking at out of John 10. There is the feast of dedication, which we'll study about in just a little bit. And the feast of dedication, Jesus was in the temple, and this part you see right now is the portico of Solomon, Solomon's portico. And we'll talk about that briefly.

From here, this is at the south end of the temple area, looking into the temple. And one thing you might notice here is this little column of smoke. The Jews were required to have a fire running all the time. No stop, no ending, never let it run out. all the time in the temple. So that column of smoke was always visible. So they've got that in there.

So anyway, that's the question. Yes. Is that in the actual size that was at the temple or this is a smaller? This is smaller than what the temple really was at that time. It is. This is at least as it's perceived to scale. In other words, if you were walking the temple, that would be the scale. Yes, yeah, yeah.

The temple area was the size of several football fields to give you some kind of... Yes, in other words, this is intended to convey that idea where you could fit several football fields in this plaza area. And this is the south end of the temple you see here. And then here's the in the middle of that football, you know, multiple football field area and that Solomon's portico is off to this side where this event is going to take place here.

And where is that located? Where's what located? This? Yeah. I'm not quite sure which year. Where is it? It's a picture of something that has to be somewhere. Okay. This is now no longer in existence. This is the temple in Jerusalem. The replica here? Oh, the replica. No, this is a computer model. All it is is computer modeling. It's computer modeling. What's a computer? Yeah, what's a computer? And this inside here, they're looking up to the ceiling. It was about 45 feet inside that portico.

So it was big enough, for example, they would have the equivalent of small classrooms. Because there was enough room under there, they have people gathered around the whole perimeter. You could have a number of small classrooms, informal, because there's no walls or anything. This is winter when this is taking place. This looks sunny, but this is wintertime when this is taking place here in John chapter 10.

Here's the plan of the temple, so this will give you a little bit of a better answer. Remember I mentioned a football field, several football fields. A football field would be something like this. So you're looking like, you know, easily like six football fields or something like that would fit into this big temple area.

Here's Solomon's portico where this account here in John 10 takes place. And right here is the Eastern Gate, sometimes called the Golden Gate. That's where Jesus came in on what's sometimes called the Triumphal Entry. And the indications are that's the gate that he will come through again when he returns. And it's currently sealed up. Yeah, the Muslims a little over 500 years ago sealed it up.

Here, the Court of the Gentiles includes this whole area around here. The Gentiles could go in here, but there were signs some of which have been found around the gate openings that said Gentiles cannot pass here on penalty of death. And this area over here that's right off to the edge is where the fortress of Antonia was located. That's where Jesus was put before Pilate. and the trial was held and that's where he was beaten. So that would be the fortress right up against this wall here in this part, right off the screen.

Here it says the Court of Women. Jewish women were allowed to go in here. And then in here only the Jewish men were allowed to go in this area where they had the sacrifices. Here's the altar that they had to constantly keep the fires going on. And this was the Holy of Holies in here. And that's the, let's see if we can, I won't try to get to it.

But anyway, that kind of gives you a general idea. And this area we'll be looking at here, Solomon's portico, is an area where the apostles, after Acts 2, continued to meet. So in the early chapters of the book of Acts, still gathering in that Solomon's portico area. Bob? You said that there's many doors going into the temple with a sign to the Gentiles.

If they went in they were subject to death? That's correct. Is that part of the law? Or is this just a Jewish interpretation of we're going to keep the Gentiles out. It has nothing to do with God saying you don't allow the Gentiles in. Actually, the Gentiles were not to go in. Were they subject, from God's standpoint, if they went in? Yes. They were not permitted to go in. And, see, because if you look at it, Gentiles could go in here, but no Gentile, male or female, could go in through these gates.

And that's where the signs were posted warning. In here, Jewish women could go in here, into this court area. And that's where, remember where the widow gave her mite? Hey, the widow's mite? That was in this area in here. She could come in here and make her contributions there as a Jewish woman.

That was permitted. The Jewish women were not allowed to go in here. And then the Jewish men could go in here for the sacrifices, but certain Jewish men were excluded. And there were certain lists of things. You couldn't have certain scars and physical damage and things of that sort and be allowed to go in there. So those men were excluded. So that kind of different rules. Yes. Really, I mentioned it earlier.

What's interesting is, I'm glad you asked about that because it passed through my mind as I was saying that, is remember in the New Testament there are two things about the Holy Spirit that they were warned about. One was don't grieve the Holy Spirit and the other is don't quench the Spirit. Don't put out the Spirit's fire.

So what this is, is this continuously burning altar was to picture the Holy Spirit's presence and that continual burning of the fire was the continual light and warmth of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, pictured in the temple. That's why they're told never to let it go out. By New Testament times, the tribes and the clans within the tribes had a schedule of everybody joining in to cut firewood and bring it in you know, to the temple so they keep the firewood going all the time. And the younger priests were the ones assigned to haul the firewood all the time. Don't let it go out. Constantly let it continue it burning. Okay, let's take a look. Here's the passage, John 10, 22-31.

The Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. The Feast of Dedication What's the modern term? Hanukkah. This is the only place in the Bible that Hanukkah is mentioned and not by the name Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the Jewish festival of lights. There's another name for it. And what it amounted to is 165 BC, a pagan ruler had come in and stopped the sacrifices and violated the temple, slaughtering a pig in the temple, stopped the sacrifices, halted the whole sacrificial system. And the Jews then battled this guy, got control of the temple again, and then rededicated the temple. And that's what this Hanukkah is. So there's a feast of dedication.

It's not in the Old Testament at all. It's the time between the Testaments, right? Not quite because yeah, it's it's not quite New Year I'm trying to think No, it's a few it's a few months off from their New Year time but So it's not a new year and it's only, it was only set there just because of that event which was after the Old Testament times.

The Jewish calendar called for seven, fingers up, seven feasts under the Mosaic law. Added to that was this one, Hanukkah or the Feast of Dedication or Festival of Lights and the other one was Purim. which is from the Book of Esther. So those were two added, so the Jews then had nine total after adding the two to the Book of Moses festivals. So anyway, this was taking place, took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, well yes. When does Hanukkah take place? Usually about December sometime. Sometimes it's early in December, other times it'll be right around or even on Christmas. covering that time, but definitely winter.

And Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. Remember, here's Solomon's portico down here. So Jesus, here would be the entrance gate when people would come from the the Mount of Olives and they'd come in here and if they were involved with the temple activities they'd go in to here into the inner temple But those who are gathered around, who are talking, teaching, even debating, would gather a lot of times, especially in winter, underneath this portico that went all the way around. Okay. The Jews then gathered around him, because of course there's lots of Jews hanging around there, even though Gentiles could be around this portico too.

Because remember, this is outside that inner temple area. But the Jews gathered around him and they were saying to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Now, why did they say the Christ or the Christ? What's the reason for making that distinction? I mean, isn't Christ his last name? You're only Messiah? Pardon? You're only Messiah? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the one Messiah. Yeah.

Now, in truth, many of the Jews did not understand that the Messiah would be one person. Okay? Many of the Jews understood that Messiah, there would be two Messiahs. And so often times if they said the Messiah, it would be a particular one. Let's talk about the two Messiahs that they would think of. One Messiah would be the suffering Messiah. This is the one described in Isaiah 53. This is the one that would bear their iniquities. By his stripes we are healed. So that would be the one Messiah.

And that Messiah was called Messiah Ben Joseph. Ben meaning son of, right? Why Joseph? This was Joseph of the sons of Israel or sons of Judah. This was the Joseph that was basically persecuted by his brothers and sold off and went through various trials and difficulties.

That's Messiah ben Joseph, the one who would suffer for the Jews. And even the Jews believed that Isaiah 53, where it talks about, by his stripes were healed, He was wounded for our iniquities. Even the Jews believed that that was Messiah Ben Joseph up until about 1850, the suffering Messiah. The other Messiah, which is probably the one they're talking about here, is Messiah Ben David, the one who was king, the one who would rule. So the Jews taught two Messiahs, probably in this one referring to Messiah ben David, the one Messiah who would come and rule and reign and get these Romans off our backs, right? Question? Yes. You mentioned the year 1850. Yes.

What does that Messiah ben Joseph mean? In 1850, what happened is the predominant view of the Jews, the Jewish scholars, was that Isaiah 53 was referring not to a suffering Savior, but to the nation of Israel. Which doesn't fit at all. And it's also why they didn't believe it until about 1850. It doesn't fit at all.

You know, by the stripes, in other words, by the wounds of Israel were healed. It just doesn't make any sense. Isaiah 53 includes Christ's death and burial and resurrection. And how does that fit with, you know, especially when it keeps talking in the singular, He, His. How does that fit with that chapter describing the nation of Israel? It doesn't.

But it was largely in reaction to the Christians saying, see, this is, there's Jesus. The Christians would say, here's Jesus. And finally they said, oh, we can't swallow that. We can't handle that. some rabbis use it as the nation of Israel. Yeah, the idea started centuries earlier, but it was 1850 when most of the Jews kind of in a sweep moved to looking at Isaiah 53 being the nation of Israel. Hi, handout on the back there, just a single page, both sides. Okay, let's continue on here. We're in John chapter 10. and just finished up the question that the Jews posed in verse 24.

How long will you keep us in suspense if you are the Christ, the Messiah, that is, the Anointed One? The Jews in their Hebrew would have said, if you are Hamashiach, tell us plainly. Why would they ask that question? Why would they come up and say, tell us straight out if you're really the Messiah, the Anointed One?

Why would they ask that question? Okay, one, that's a good point. They must have been doubting it. All right, why else? Okay, they wanted a real Messiah, that's for sure. Okay, and then why else? Why else would they look at this as, well there's a question we gotta pin him on.

What would they like to do to him? I'll let you cheat. What does verse 31 say? Yeah, it says, we want you to tell us something that will allow us to stone you. That's what they're saying, which is a pretty intense thing to ask somebody. Please tell us something that will allow us to kill you. Right? I mean, that's a pretty wicked thing to ask, but that's what they were doing. Alright, so here's Jesus, and so He comes back with nothing doing, guys, right? No, what does He say? Let's look at verse 25. And Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. Okay, so did He answer them before? Yeah.

And they thought that was great, right? Or what happened? They didn't believe, right? He says, I told you that already, and they didn't believe. Steve? So they were already convinced that he wasn't. Pardon? They were already convinced that he was not in the society because people were trying to set him up. Yeah, in other words, they're asking the question because they want to nail him in order to stone him. It's not because they wanted to believe. So Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter. He says, I've already answered your question. But you don't believe me. But you don't believe me.

So, then he goes on, the works that I do in my Father's name, these testify of me. Now, that right there is going to get him into some trouble, because it was the Jews' custom to refer to God as our Father. That was okay. But for someone to claim a relationship using the words, my Father, For the Jews that was a no-no. So having a unique personal relationship with God that you would claim my father was a real problem. So here's in my father's name. Now you find this use of the word name especially in the New Testament and we'll pray sometimes in Jesus name. What do we mean by that? Do we just kind of drop in names? Why do we use the term name? Identification. Identification, okay. Good, and why else?

Authority. Authority, yes. It's essentially an assignment of authority. When we say in Jesus' name, okay, it's because He gave us the authority to do so. He gave us the authority to claim His place. Isn't that something? So when we say in Jesus' name, we're not dropping names. We are in fact claiming the right to access the Father. Why? Because of the authority that Jesus has and passed along to us. So an in my Father's name means that he has been given the authority to do these things. by the father himself. He has the authority from the father. These testify of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

You don't believe. So when he told him twice, you don't believe. Twice already, right? He says, you guys just don't believe me. And by the way, you don't believe me. So he's made it abundantly clear. One thing that the Gospel of John comes to again and again and again is believing. Remember later on he's going to write towards the end of this book, I think it's 20-31, these things are written so that you might believe. And that believing you might have life through his name. And he's going to say exactly that here.

You're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them. Because the sheep are the ones who believe, right? The sheep are the ones who do believe. The ones who don't believe aren't his sheep. It's as simple as that. It's as simple as that. Now notice that the sheep believe. It's not the sheep believe and they're baptized. The sheep believe and they try really hard to be good. It's the sheep believe.

That's what makes the distinction here, isn't it? He keeps harping on that. My sheep hear my voice and I know them. What difference does it make that the Lord knows us? Pardon? Lots. Yes! Bingo! Lots of difference. Huge difference. The truth is, nobody's going to get through heaven's gates unless the Lord knows them, right? Unless the Lord knows them. That's massive. If we believe, He knows us. If we don't believe, as the Lord says in the Gospels, I never knew you, right? I never knew you. Believing you're right is pivotal.

Huge difference. Yes. Interesting also with sheep. Yes. You had a bunch. More than one flock. They know their master's name. Yes. They know their call. When the master says something, that group will follow. And the other won't. Yeah. And they do know the voice. That's right. They do know the voice. On my folks' ranch there, they've had sheep for a number of years. Still do.

But there's never been a resident full-time shepherd. So Randy, who teaches in here, he and his brother Ed, and this was when they're both little guys, would go and run after the sheep and play games with the sheep. And of course, the sheep were all panicked about these little boys running after them. But the sheep would never follow Randy and his brother.

Why? They don't know them. And it's funny, here's these little boys, I mean they're little guys like this, you know, and just cute as could be, but the sheep are just terrified. Because they don't know them. And Randy and Ed didn't know the sheep either. Anyway, okay, enough sheep stories.

I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them. Here's a key thing to think about this. The way that the Greek comes across there is, I am constantly giving them life eternal. Constantly. And I think that's something to think about is the Lord doesn't just say, okay, here's some eternal life and see you when you get to heaven. But he is constantly giving us life. Isn't that something? He is always active giving us life. Always. So that's one message that he comes up with. How about this word eternal life? What does eternal life mean? Okay, it's not going to end, but here's a little bit of a surprise. The primary focus of eternal life, though you're quite correct, The primary focus of eternal life is not on time.

The focus is on life that is ageless. Remember, here in the Gospel of John, before this time, what did Jesus say? Before Abraham was born, I am. Present tense. The sense of time is not really the big factor. We're going to see in John 17, eternal life is knowing God. This passage, He knows us. John 17. Or excuse me, this passage, He knows us. John 17, we know Him. And they will never perish. Now, key thing about they will never perish. John 1028, one of my favorite verses, and here's why.

And it doesn't come out in English. Two things about this word perish. One is the word never. Never isn't a strong enough word. There's two words in the Greek that mean no or not. And what they do here, and this is one of the places where it exists, there's two words for no put right together.

It's called oomei. you put them together it means not even the slightest chance not even remotely possible. So one thing is when he says and they will never perish he says not a chance that they will ever. So that's one thing is is it puts our you know here's a question can a believer end up slipping up somehow or unbelieving and then end up going to hell?

So what's his answer here? not a chance. He tells them with the strongest words possible, not even remotely possible. No way. Here's the other part and this is really cool. The word perish is in the middle voice and it's a word that's used in for example Matthew 1028, same reference in Matthew. Matthew 1028 for going to hell. So, but it's middle voice, and what does that mean? It means they cannot go to hell of their own doing. I can't blow it.

Isn't that cool? That's really cool. That's wonderful news. So you put that together, what does it say? There is not even the slightest chance, it is not remotely possible that they will end up losing their salvation of their own doing. Wow, that's major cool, isn't it? Here's Jesus himself saying, not a chance. Will they lose their salvation of their own doing? They can't mess up. Yes. What do you mean by own doing? Their own doing, that's the middle voice. The middle voice which says that the action starts from me and comes back on me. So they can't go to hell by their own doing, but...

But what? Oh, in other words, no, but this is my sheep. See, so these are what, in other words, one who is already saved cannot mess up so as to lose that salvation. That's what we're talking about. It is not talking about an unbeliever going to hell. Yeah, they will go to hell by their own doing because that's what they chose. But for the believer, what it's saying here, because remember, he's talking about his sheep. the ones he's constantly giving eternal life, he's saying that there's not even the slightest chance that those believers who are among his sheep will, of their own doing, lose that salvation. We cannot blow it and end up going by either intent or surprise to hell.

Yes? So, can't anybody change their belief? Ah, okay. Can someone change their belief? Let's ask this question. Have you ever known anybody that said, I'm no longer a Christian? Ever seen that? Ever known somebody that's done that? I have. However, if they have truly believed and truly been saved, what this verse says is, they're still saved just the same. That once a person is One of the sheep, they cannot fall out of the sheepfold. You look puzzled. Am I not answering the question? No, I'm not puzzled. I'm just listening.

I'm trying to think back to another reference somewhere where raise up a child and they will never turn them out. Raise up a child on the way that he should go, that's one you're thinking of? That's actually a very different kind of reference. Hal and I talked about this before he went home. And both of us have been independently on studying that passage concluded that what that passage is really talking about, this is the Old Testament Proverbs passage, raise up a child in the way that he should go, that that has to do with raise up a child in the way that they are bent, in the way that they are internally made. And it basically is parental guidance, guiding parents for giving kids support and training And that also says this is how they are made or how they are internally bent and that you need to train them and support them in that direction. Which is a really very different kind of reference than this one which is really talking about salvation.

Okay. Now, the next part, they will never perish, that is, there's not the slightest chance they will lose their salvation or their own doing, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. So, we ourselves cannot blow it. Once we're a believer, we cannot blow it and lose the salvation, but also somebody else on the outside can't come and take us out of the Lord's hand either. And that word snatch means to take by violence. Someone cannot even aggressively come in and take us out of the Lord's hand. So I myself, of my own doing, cannot lose my salvation, and someone coming from the outside cannot take me out of that salvation either.

But He's not done. And this is the verse that centers on our theme here. Verse 29, My Father who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Think about this. No one can snatch someone who was saved by belief out of Christ's hand. And where did Christ get those sheep? From God the Father. And no one is going to snatch them out of His hand either. So you have a double no chance of losing your own salvation, and a double no one's going to snatch him, because the word that's snatched by violence, taken by violence is there again too. So no one's going to take him out of Christ's hand, no one's going to take him out of the Father's hand, and you're not going to lose your salvation, not even the slightest chance of your own doing.

So how secure is that? Isn't that cool? That's major cool. That is unbelievable security. Except, yes, believe it. That is really cool stuff. And that's really the thing. Every believer is a gift from God the Father to Christ. Let's think about something because this theme continues. Why is it that he can talk about the Father has given them to me and no one can snatch them out of my hand and the Father who gave them to me, no one can snatch them out of His hand either. It tells us that though we are given from God the Father to Christ, that in that giving, we're still in the Father's hand too. Isn't that something? So it's not a transfer. You have Christ, you have these, and I don't. But it's a sharing together, isn't it?

And we're going to see that in John 17 as well. Now, John 17, we don't have time to go through it all because we've used up our time so far. That's right, flip this handout over, page 2. And what we'll do, since we have a shortage of time, is to zero in on those verses that we have, perhaps you can see them bolded here.

And I'll just start by reading the beginning of John 17, verse 1, and continue on into verse 2. Jesus spoke these things, and by the way, this is Jesus going from the upper room, the Last Supper, to the Garden of Gethsemane. And these words were spoken either while walking between the two places or perhaps just on arrival to the Garden of Gethsemane. So Jesus spoke these things and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh and to all whom you have given him. Who's the whom you have given him?

That's us, right? All. Remember, it's not just the disciples, but all. So that's us. So isn't this amazing? Here's the Lord. He's about to be crucified. And who does he pray for? Who does he pray for? Us. The ones gathered here. What's really cool about this, you see Jesus giving just astoundingly secure and assuring and comforting words about there's no way these sheep can lose their salvation or their own doing. No one's going to snatch them out of my hand. No one's going to snatch them out of the Father's hand. And now he's praying for us.

Here is the Lord of glory praying for you and for me. that he may give eternal life and there's here's verse three which makes the point we made before this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent that's eternal life is knowing knowing God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent now for the sake of time I'm going to move on to verse six I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me."

Who's he talking about there? The disciples, right? Because he's talking in the past tense and the ones he spent time with. The disciples, 12 or how many? Just 11, right? Because he has an exception there in verse 12 that excludes Judas. So the 11 disciples are the ones he's praying for right there. Continuing on in verse 6, The men whom you gave me out of the world, they were yours and you gave them to me. Is that consistent with what we read in John chapter 10? Yeah, perfectly. Perfectly consistent. So even though we're seven chapters later, still he's quite consistent in the way he puts things.

Then in verse 9, Moving down here, I ask on their behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given to me, for they are yours. We see the same message we saw in John chapter 10. You've given them to me, but they're still yours.

See? So we're a gift from God the Father to Christ. But that doesn't mean a transfer of possession. It means that the Son shares in our belonging to Him. And the Father. So we have a double security there, don't we? We have a double security. And John 10 and John 17 are perfectly consistent. Now, let's move on down the passage, because we're short on time, to verse 20.

He says, And I do not ask on behalf of these alone. Who are the these alone? the disciples, right? The eleven. I do not ask on behalf of these alone but for all, excuse me, for those also who believe in me through their word. And guess who that is? It's us again. So this is really beautiful stuff. It is perfectly consistent down to the finest detail with John chapter 10 where the Father gives us as a gift to the Son but not as a transfer of ownership where the father has hands off, but as a sharing. And what we see is he prays for both the disciples and the first and the final references both include us. Steve?

So with that in mind, where does Judas fall into this? Okay. He asked the question, where does Judas fall into this? Where does Judas fall into this? And fall is probably a good word. I'm sorry, what? He's on his way to hell. Yeah, what happened with Judas? What does verse 12 call him? Son of Perdition. Perdition is another term for hell.

And what's this word son of? It's something we actually see a fair amount in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. What does son of mean? in the lineage of? Yes, it is to be, it comes from the idea of lineage and it means to be close in character and similar in kind. Yeah, yes. So does all that indicate that he was never truly a believer? I believe that that is the case. Yeah, because if you look at it, this guy is a son of perdition. He would not be one who is closely related to and like in character to hell. if he were a believer at some point. Yeah.

What's your understanding of Ananias and Sapphira? You're asking about Ananias and Sapphira in the account in Acts, where they essentially lose their lives for lying to the apostles. In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, the question is, are these guys saved or not? Yeah. So that's what you're wondering there? Yeah. What's interesting is, why did they die physically? Okay. They died because they lied, right? Does that happen to all believers?

No. And that's really good because I wouldn't be standing in front of you here today. Okay? Yeah. It is not an across-the-board situation. Why would the Lord deal with Ananias and Sapphira so severely? Exceptionally. Yeah. Why would Ananias and Sapphira receive this, you know, you're going to drop dead right now kind of treatment. Pardon? Example. Okay, an example. Alright. And why else?

They were in a place of authority weren't they? I mean they weren't. They represented authority. They, so far as I'm aware, didn't have a place of of authority in the church, but they certainly were representing to the apostles that they were giving the whole amount here.

So if you look at it, I think there's probably a couple of reasons why the Lord would take them out of the picture, and one is just what Doug brought up, example, and another thing is at the beginning of the church There were things that were done exceptionally because it was a matter of, you know, we're getting things established here.

We're getting things begun and beginning things started. We need to have things head off on the right track. And so it was not just example, although that's certainly one of them. Another thing is just simply to cut off, you know, falsehood. And so there was more, and it was an exceptional circumstance. We don't see every instance of somebody lying dealt with that way. Here's a for instance. It would only be a matter of years later in the book of Ephesians. Paul would write to the Ephesian believers and start off with, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Later on in chapter 4, he'd say, stop lying.

Okay? So the Lord does not deal with that exceptionally, excuse me, consistently that way, but as an exception with Ananias and Sapphira. I don't think that it automatically means that Ananias and Sapphira were not saved. Yeah. Yes, yeah. It doesn't automatically mean that they weren't saved because their salvation was not based upon works, right?

So they could well have erred badly to the point where the Lord says, you know, this can't go on. And taken them out. Let's ask another very closely related question. Is it possible that the Lord could take out a believer now? Yes, good. I know of a particular circumstance.

There was a fellow, this was years ago, who was a pastor at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto. There was one fellow who was sort of growing towards leadership in the church and this fellow suddenly took a position of outspoken resistance and standing within the fellowship and resisting the teaching and resisting obeying God's Word and submitting himself to it. He all of a sudden just kind of dug his heels in.

Well, my friend who now lives in Boise, my friend was driving along in a little VW Bug. Remember the old ones? VW Bug, he was in the driver's seat and this fellow was sitting next to him that was in outspoken rebellion and this fellow who was one of the pastors at the church was trying to deal with this guy and therefore he was right next to him there. While they were just driving along in not too extraordinary a set of circumstances all of a sudden a truck came by and totally wiped out the passenger side of that car. The pastor friend of mine who had his hands on the steering wheel got a few bumps and scratches. The other guy was killed instantly.

So it's like, wow, the Lord can indeed carry that out at certain times and places. But what we see is it's not uniform. Now, I don't know, I'm not in a position to judge was this fellow who was rebellious, you know, was he not saved? Was he saved? I'm not, I can't tell that. The Lord certainly knows, doesn't he? But I would not necessarily connect up the Lord's dealing rather severely with something with an automatic statement that that person isn't saved.

Quick answer to your questions. Yeah, Doug? Question. Yeah. Verse 20. It says, through their word, who is the their? Okay, who's their work? Who is it? I think it refers here to the disciples of Rome? Yes, yes, that's right. The apostles who wrote the Word. You have these eleven that he's referring to and those men would initially speak the Word, speak the Word and we know very clearly that they did. They would also among some of them write in such a way as to have what they wrote included in God's Word, including what we just studied this morning. Think of how many of these disciples wrote some portion of the New Testament? We've got Peter, right? We've got John, right? Who's there on the list? Here's Peter, wrote two books. We've got John, wrote five. So right there you've got some.

Who else of the apostles wrote some scripture? James is actually Jesus' half-brother who actually was one of the, he was a lead elder, if you will, in the church. But who else? There were other apostles who wrote scripture. How about the first book of the New Testament? Matthew, okay, was one member. He was also called Levi, and he was a tax collector. Wrote the very first gospel in fairly substantial writing. That would be another example of a New Testament book written by these men. So by what they said and what they wrote, both. Those who would believe in Christ through the things that they said and wrote. Through their word. Yes, Steve?

So you really have to square that away with Judas being the son of perdition because if you didn't, all the passages we did in John and John 17 wouldn't be accurate. That's correct. So tracking back to when was Judas recruited as a disciple? Very early in the Gospels because the recruiting took place where the disciples were called at a fairly tight interval. And so Judas had been around for three years. So I guess at that point it was just a matter of calling them. And to whatever degree or whatnot degree that they chose to believe, that's where Judas was lined up. Yeah, so here's Judas. The Lord called him. Judas, I think the Lord knew.

This one is not going to be faithful. But he called him. Why? Why would he do that, knowing full well this guy isn't going to cut it? Why would he do that? Yeah, to fulfill. And that's the last part of what we see in verse 12. So that the scripture would be fulfilled. That's his appointed place.

Judas would never believe. Judas would betray Christ. He even says in the Old Testament he would be paid 30 pieces of silver. He would betray Christ and the Lord knew all along that this is the one who would do it. And at the Last Supper It says that Satan entered him to do what he did. Isn't that amazing? Yeah.

Do we know where Judas came from? We know some were fishermen and so forth. Do we know anything about Judas' background? I'm not personally aware of anything about Judas' background. There may be one indication that his role was treasurer. And so he may have had a financial background of some kind. Careful about that there.

We've run out of time, but I think the thing to look at this, the big picture is who we are in Christ. We are as believers a gift from God the Father to Christ the Son, but that gifting is not a, the Father is now hands off, but it's actually a sharing, a sharing and inclusion in our belonging to Him.

We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and we belong to the Father and we are continually in the hands of both, never to be snatched out. We ourselves cannot lose that salvation and nobody by any act, even by violence, can take us out of that salvation that we have. We're saved for good, saved for eternal life.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as you've given us these words of comfort. How comforting it is to know that we are doubly secure from even our own blowing it. We're doubly secure from someone from the outside taking us out of that comforting position of salvation. And that you not only prayed for the apostles, but you prayed for us. Lord, what a A great thing that is for us to learn and see here this morning. And we thank you that by being a gift from the father to the son that is sharing, we see with greater depth what that double security means. We thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen.