Major Bible Themes

Today is going to be a whirlwind tour. We're going to talk about the assurance of salvation and we're going to talk about the security of salvation. So this is typically taught in two lessons, but we're going to blow through assurance for reasons that hopefully will be incredibly clear by the end of the class. So let's talk about initially what the difference is between assurance of salvation and security of salvation. The distinction that Schaefer makes is security of salvation is, you can think of it as positional.

It's a matter of fact, it's because of God's, it's a matter of fact, it's because of the work that God has done on our behalf. And scripture is really clear about that part. The assurance of salvation is more about as we walk around in this world, you and I today, How do we personally know that we are safe in a day-to-day walking around?

Why do you think that that would be important? Why would it matter if you know that you're safe? It gives you a peace. It gives you a peace. completely agree with that. So, I don't believe that you can enter into the rest that God provides without that knowledge, for sure. What else? Well, you know where you're going. You know where you're going, right.

Now, let me tell a very brief story to underscore the point. We had somebody staying with us years ago who had come over from Romania. His intent was to be a young people Bible teacher. Somehow we got on the topic of assurance of salvation. We know because the Word of God says so that our salvation is completely secure.

And his response to me saying this was, well, I choose to believe that it's not secure. Get that? I choose to believe that it's not secure. You know, never mind scripture. I choose to believe that because it keeps me on my toes. And I would say that that is absolutely the worst thing in the entire world, and that is why assurance of salvation is so important. You should not be on your toes.

Because until you understand the basis on which you are saved, that it is entirely a work of God and not a work of your own, you're constantly trying to fix yourself up so that you smell better to God. And that's an impossibility. It's the wrong focus and you cannot grow in the Christian life.

So I think that in the Green Letters, Miles puts the basis on which you are accepted to God in chapter two. And the reason why it's right up front is because of that. It's essential that you understand, okay, you are saved. It's based on the work of God.

Therefore, don't try to make yourself smell better. So that's why it's key that not only you are saved, but that you understand in the day-to-day that you're saved. So it's not through works, like so many people think. Yeah, exactly. It can't be of works. Or you negate the work of Christ on the cross. You're saying, I'm sorry Jesus, your work on the cross was completely insufficient.

Now I'm going to have to help you out here. Back to the foundation of identification. If you understand identification, I think that's given me, from 20 or 30 years, whatever, in a believer, When you understand identification, your old man has reckoned a bit, crucified, and placed into Christ. How do you get out of Christ? How do you go back through that transition of crucifixion?

Yeah, exactly. And we're going to hit on that a bunch today because I agree with you, that's critical. Because if not, you're always trying to fix the old man. And as you say, make him smell better. And that's the common I think that most people just don't understand that now you're enabled to be Christ-like.

That's right. It's a wrong mindset. Chaffer answers that question just in the opening statement there. He says it's because it's essential to the program of growth and grace and knowledge of Christ. Yeah, that's right. and you're not going to grow, you're not going to be coming from a position from above if you're thinking that you need to improve you down below to get into that position. So yeah.

Crystal's going to town today. Alright, so we're going to blaze through some of this and it's because I think Schaefer's got a little bit of the wrong focus in the chapter on assurance. I don't know if you all read the chapter But if you didn't and you feel like skipping it, I don't think the world would come crashing to an end. The chapter on security is very good.

And here's why. So Schaefer lists out two reasons why you can know when you're walking around day to day that you are in fact safe. And so one of the ways is, well, you see all these different manifestations of the new life in you walking around, and so you can feel pretty good about that. And number two is because the Bible said so. I like the second reason. I like that one a lot.

Where do we find truth? Any kid that has gone through our Sunday school program will tell you the truth is in the Bible. And you can rest on that. Okay, so the first part of it is, Okay, as we become believers, then we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit. We have the very life of Christ, and so that has some manifestations. And that's absolutely true. 100% true.

My assertion is, you should not be looking at yourself, looking at the fruit that might be bearing, and judging that whether or not you're saved. And I'll make that point on every single one of the Schaeffer points that he made. So he actually listed out seven. I don't know why Roger pulled the other two out, but here are the five that Hal and Roger went over. The other two were greater awareness of sin and how ugly that is, and the fact that you now have the fruit of the spirit. So we'll talk about the five, again, very briefly. So number one.

Now that we are believers, we have a greater knowledge of God the Father. And we have that greater knowledge of God the Father because it's revealed to us through the Son. And just, maybe I'll just read this, John 17 3, And there is life eternal, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So as believers, we have this greater knowledge of who God the Father is.

Before believing that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our personal sins, was buried and raised, before we believed that, we understand God is pretty awesome, that there are all these fantastic things in this earth that must have been created by something, something probably higher than us. And we've got an awareness of our sin, right? We've got a conscience. But once we believe, then end well with the Holy Spirit, and the light bulb sort of turns on, and we get to see, oh wait, okay, so God is a person, and we can know that person through the Bible.

And that's absolutely cool, but you will run into folks who, Their father was just a horrible, horrible person, and they struggle with this concept of God is, you know, a loving father. We... His spirit has been sent into us crying, Abba, Father. I mean, we get to call the God of this universe, Daddy. Amazing.

Some people don't get that. Are they not safe? Should they be looking at themselves saying, hmm, am I really safe because I don't understand this father relationship? Absolutely not. If you want to know that you're safe, look at the Bible, not yourself. All right.

Number two, new reality in prayer. So once we believe in that basic gospel, then we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows very well how to communicate with God the Father, and it's on that basis that we then begin to pray, and pray meaningfully.

Ephesians 5.20, where we're always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God. That always giving thanks is something that is foreign to the non-believer, right?

So, Crystal, she has lupus. She's very thankful that she has lupus because she gets to know God in a very real way that she may not have had the opportunity to without that. Right? So it looks completely insane to the unbeliever when she says, thank you God for giving me lupus.

Dude, your grace is amazing. Okay? And we all have that. And it's because we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit who understands that all these things are the works of God. Right? You know, that's hard though for if you were, if somebody's sick, like for instance, when my mother was really sick and I said to her, you know, I explained to her that, you know, God allows this to happen because it brings you closer to God.

She thought it was out of my mind. Right. Yeah, it looks crazy. It looks crazy. Another great example is Al, in his last days with leukemia, who knows how many people came to know the Lord through his ministry in the hospital to the doctors, to the patients, to the nurses. The Lord allowed that to happen. Thank you, God, for giving Hal leukemia. I know that it is fully part of your plan. But it's hard to explain that to somebody. I have a hard time with that. They can't understand it. They can't grasp it. The unbeliever absolutely cannot grasp it. The believer, depending upon where they are in their growth, may or may not.

And honestly, there are times when You know, we're entering into a recession, your house is worth nearly nothing, your 401k is kind of tapped out, and you know, you're wondering if this multi-billion dollar bailout is, you know, the work of the devil himself. And it's not clear that, you know, this is something you should be thankful for.

Right? Do you look at yourself and say, I wonder if I'm saved? No. If you want to know if you're saved, look at the Bible, not yourself. So again, these are manifestations of the life of Christ in you, but they're not proof that you've been saved. So, carry on.

New love for the unsaved. This recognition that for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And that includes the unsaved, that these are the people whom Jesus died for. And so there's a recognition that these people who are horrible sinners need our prayers, not our hatred. And it's a shift in view that is readily apparent in a number of believers.

And again, if you're feeling especially angry about somebody who's an unbeliever and it's not sinking in on that particular day, okay. That's fine. That says nothing about your salvation whatsoever. New love for the saved. This is the notion that we love one another as one body.

And this one How many of you came to know the Lord later in life? I mean, I was certainly one of them. Okay, so a handful. And I'm curious to hear your impressions on this. I came to know the Lord, I think, when I was 32, thereabouts. Binary, that's 100,000. That's old. But one of the last stumbling blocks was, OK, so if I believe, then I'm pretty convinced I'm going to have to go to church.

And those people smell funny. They're kind of nerdy. Their interests are not my interests. And that's weird, right? Once I was a believer. I can't get enough of you guys. I want to be around other believers. I traveled to Moscow back in 2006, and the mother of one of the guys that I was traveling with was a believer.

He was not. She spoke like this much English, but I could tell she had a Bible verse on her wall, and I asked her what Bible verse that was, and we got that translated. She came to life. And she handed me some literature and we were, you know, not communicating in words at all, but both very excited that we both knew the Lord.

And it's that, you know, scripturally, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the Brethren. So it's very clear, you know, we can't actually look at this love and say, oh, okay, I absolutely know that I'm I'm now saved because of this love. Now if I find myself at complete odds with Mike and I've just had it up to here with him and I'm done and you know what, I want to kick him, am I saved? Yeah, of course.

And so all of these things provide a little bit of evidence. I can see that I'm changing. I can see that my relationship with God is changing. And it's nice, and it can provide a little bit of comfort. Okay, yeah, I actually do see that I'm transforming. And so on that basis, I accept that I've got this wife of Christ within me.

But you should never, ever, ever hang your hat on yourself or your feelings or any of these sorts of things in terms of what's true. So I'll put Tristan on the spot here. He's been unprompted for this particular one. So hopefully the message we have been teaching from infancy until now has stuck, because if it doesn't, it'll be mildly embarrassing. Tristan, what have we taught you about your feelings? Don't trust your feelings. Don't trust your feelings. It's not a humanitarian sort of view. It's not the humanist view. where you've just got to go with your feelings, you've got to go with your instinct. No, you go with the Word of God. Because the Bible is true.

And we can always hang our hat on that. So, what does the Bible say about your salvation? Oh, I guess there's one more. So, truthfulness of the Word of God. Another one that we've got available to us today because of this new life in Christ, because of being indwelt with the Holy Spirit is the ability to understand scripture.

So this is something that's been completely locked out for the unbeliever. It looks like foolishness to him. To us, we can understand scripture. And again, just to reiterate the point that I've made a hundred times so far, If I'm reading Jeremiah and the prophecies are deeply confusing and I'm having to reach for a commentary and the commentators are saying, you know what, Jeremiah is a really hard book to understand, but this is kind of what the scholars are thinking.

Should I doubt that I actually have the Spirit of God within me? Of course not, because the Word of God says that I do. So, there you go. So what does the word of God say? The one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life.

And that has passed out is perfect tense, which is pretty cool in the Greek. It means that it's a singular action that occurred in the past. So it's something that happened yea long ago, and it's got abiding results into the future. So because of this thing that happened in the past, this passing out of death, that next part, that into life, is abiding into the future.

For the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Not to 40% of those who believe and who say the right things and do the right things. And then whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. On Wednesday night we're studying 1 Corinthians and there's a contrast between Paul's appeal to the Greek intelligence And he came to preach Christ and him crucified. And the difference is, is that from a Greek standpoint, a Greek person would want to have information that they could debate about, exercise their minds about.

What the gospel is, is power. And it's not, it's in the words, but it's power itself. And that's really an important distinction, I think. I think that it is, and I think that we're told in scripture that we are to proclaim the gospel, not argue, not debate, not go after the evolutionists. We are to proclaim the gospel. And it's powerful in and of itself. Yeah, that's right.

Okay, so that was it for the assurance of salvation, and hopefully you understand why I breezed through that so quickly. Our assurance of salvation comes by faith, and that faith is an understanding and belief in the Word of God, which we know to be true. And so if you're wondering how you can be assured in your day-to-day that you're actually saved, it's by understanding very clearly what Scripture says. So, let's jump into what Scripture says.

Yeah, and an important point to make about this particular chapter is that it's not asking the question, well, what if you only thought you were saved? It's assuming, okay, for those who have been saved at any point in their lives, can that then be undone? Is that distinction clear? Okay. By the way, I didn't solicit input again on that. For those of you who were saved later in life, I really am curious, were you worried about having to hang out with the Christians once you were saved? Or was that just me? I've got at least two nods and two nons. Okay. 50%? There you go. Okay.

So The way that Schaeffer treats the security of salvation is to look at it from the, what has God done with respect to your salvation and where does he stand? What has Christ done and what is he currently doing? What has the spirit done? What is the spirit currently doing?

And it comes up with 12 things, 12 manifestations. And why 12, why not 16? Well, could have easily done 27, right? So, pick 12 because that filled the chapter fairly nicely, but you should understand that this is not the 12, the only 12, or even necessarily the best 12. It's just, here are 12 things that you can look at in scripture. If you want to go off and look at the other 142, go for it.

You know, read the Bible, it's not going to hurt you. So we'll go through this systematically, looking at the Father, and then the Son, and then the Holy Spirit. And we're going to blaze through. And it's my expectation that we probably won't make it to the end. So even if the 12, maybe we'll see 8. And it's fairly logically laid out. So we start with the Father.

We start with, OK, what has he promised? And then, assuming that he's promised we can actually be saved, there's still an open question, right? Does he have the power to carry that out? Could he promise us something and then fail to deliver? So we have to look at the power to make sure that the promise is actually worth something.

Then he looks at the love of God, and this in logic terms is called evidence of inference. The love of God does not actually establish fact our salvation, but it provides more evidence that, you know what, if he promised it and he has the power to deliver it and he loves us, of course he's going to do it, right? And then the last one we look at, you know, Christ's requests of God in what I think most of us consider the real Lord's Prayer.

Okay, then with the son, what did his work on the cross do? What about a couple days later when he was raised? And then currently, what's he doing? What's his role up in heaven in regard to our salvation? And then with the spirit, we'll look at first the fact that we've got this new life as a result, and then that the spirit himself is constantly in us and what that relates to salvation and then finally baptism into Christ and sealing by the Holy Spirit.

You know it's funny because when I was young I always believed in God but I put him on the back burner because I was busy living and so does that mean even though I believed you know sort of Luke 1 Would that still give me salvation? It depends what you believed in. If you believed in God, no. There's a very specific gospel that must be believed, and that is simply that Christ died on the cross for your sins. Monique's sins, not just, you know, sins. Yeah. So, Christ died on the cross for your sins, was buried and raised again. Right. If you believe that, you're saved. Even though I, okay. Yeah, that's right.

Again, you have to look at what your salvation rests on. So, if it is completely the work of God, then what you do in your day-to-day life after you believe doesn't matter for your salvation. Now, you may not be growing, but it doesn't matter for your salvation. To say that you only gave it 30% and so you're worried about your salvation says that God needed your 100% to seal the deal.

Christ dying on the cross took care of 99% of the problem and now it's left to Monique to do the other bits. Okay, thank you. Okay, so the promise of God. What has God actually promised in his word? So he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I'm standing in front of what anybody could actually read, but hopefully we all know John 3.16.

Okay, what else? He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life. And again, remember, this passing out is something that is ongoing. The consequences of it are great. And all that the Father gives to me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. So it's not, I won't cast him out today, but maybe I'll cast him out tomorrow. It is, I will not cast them out. So, once saved, always saved.

That is the promise of God. Alright, so now the next question is, does he actually have the power to carry it out? And on this one, I want to read the whole section of verses, so if you can turn to John 10, 27. While I do the same. Okay, so this is Christ speaking. We are sheep.

And this... I was going to get a little pipe cleaner from the Sunday school classes, but I couldn't find one this morning to make a little person out of. So this is going to have to represent a person. And it's a sweet little pink heart, so I've decided that this is probably Monique right here. Okay? So this represents Monique.

And as we go through this verse, I'm going to rely on Tristan to be Jesus Christ, and I get to be God Almighty. So, as we go through this, 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. I give eternal life to them, they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given...

So we're going to start with Monique. Nobody's snatching Monique out of Christ's hand. So Tristan is going to securely hold Monique in his hand. You see? Is Monique getting out of there? Okay. 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. So, here's the Father. Explain to me how Monique gets out of there. That is the relationship that the believer has with God the Father and God the Son.

Okay? So does God have the power to ensure our salvation? Yeah. The Bible says He does. Moving on to Romans 8, if you want to look at that even more, toward the end of the chapter, But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquered through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Is there something that was not listed there? God has the power to carry through on his promises. What are his promises that your salvation is secure? Would you say that the security of my salvation is based on God's promise, but as I discover as I go forward that it's not promise, it's fact. Everything he teaches me is already a fact.

Like being in his hand, that's not a promise, that's a fact. You see what I'm saying? I understand what you're saying and I'm trying to decide if I think that that's a distinction that needs to be drawn. Maybe say it another way. My faith in the principles of security, my faith is focused and based and rests on facts. Not because God promised me anything. He's just told me this is it, this is what is and invited me to believe it.

So I think it's both Mike because What we're told is here's our relationship now to God because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That is all absolutely fact and we can rest on that. And that falls in when that'll be two slides from now when we go through Jesus Christ and his substitutionary death and his resurrection and what that does for us and the work of the Spirit. All of those are absolutely facts. So, yeah, that's fantastic, but there is a separate sort of thing, which is, God promised that these things would be the case. So, he promised that the facts would follow. Can we rest in the facts? Absolutely. Can we rest in the promise? Absolutely. Does that make sense?

The love of God, and I mean, this is very clear in Romans 5 that while we were, this is how God demonstrates his love for us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So when we were completely worthless, ugly, bad smelling sinners, God said, you know what? I really want to send my son to die for those people. That's love. And I think it's in 1 John where we find out that our ability to love comes from the fact that God first loved us. Are you going to try to find that way? Yeah. Sweet.

And then lastly, the fourth one that we'll go through with God the Father is the influence on the father of the prayer of the son. So in John 17 you can see Christ just pouring out his heart for the believers and what he wants from God for that. You kind of have to ask yourself the question, is God going to hear this prayer and say, no, of course he's not. So what word Christ desires So I ask on their behalf, I don't ask on behalf of the world, but on those who have given me, for they are yours.

Okay, open question. Who's he praying for? Those who have been given to him. But who are they? Alright, so we find out later on. I'm no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world. And I come to you, Holy Father, keep them in your name. While I was with them, I was keeping them in your name, which you have given me. And I guarded them. and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the scripture would be fulfilled. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. And I do not ask on behalf of these alone, meaning the disciples, but those also who believe in me through their word.

That's you. So when you read John 17 and you're looking at what What is Christ asking for and for whom is he asking? The answer to the second question is you. And so now, and I would encourage you all to do that, just go through and read John 17 this week and understand he's talking about you.

So looking at the security of salvation this time, to sum up, we looked at four things that relate to God and your salvation. There are more than four things, we just looked at four. So now moving on to Jesus Christ, we'll look at four things there as well. The first one being his substitutionary death and the second one being his resurrection. So what did each one of these acts accomplish individually? Why do we call them out as two separate things? Isn't it all just sort of the gospel? Is the question clear? Let me ask the question differently.

What would we have if we had substitutionary death, but we did not have resurrection? and looked at from a different angle, what would we have if we had only resurrection but the death was not substitutionary? We'd still be lost. Okay. Well, in the first case, if there was no resurrection, there wouldn't be any proof that it was inadequate work.

Yeah, it's twofold. So I agree with that. So we know that God said, yeah, that was great because he held his end of the deal and raised Christ. Should we choose to ignore even that? We look at the purpose of the substitutionary death, which is to pay the penalty of sin. Right?

So now God is completely satisfied with the sin issue. This is not an issue, and so he's not looking at us all with eyes of, you know, you're completely unrighteous, you can't be with me. Without the resurrection, though, we would not be raised up in newness of life with Christ. And it's being raised up in newness of life which is where we get baptized into Christ and get all of the security of salvation.

So the first point, the substitutionary debt satisfies God. And why is that important? Because it means that you don't have to do a bunch of works to satisfy God. He's okay with the situation after that. The second one, the resurrection says, great, now you are a new creation in Christ and that new creation cannot be undone. Do you see why it's, why they're two separate sort of things? You good with that? Okay. Okay, substitutionary is meant that it was just, it wasn't permanent. Substitutionary isn't permanent because after all he was raised, right? Is that the reason you use that word?

Substitutionary means that Monique has sinned at least three times in her life. And she's probably going to sin one more time. So we've got four total sins for Monique in her entire life. Substitutionary death means that those four sins were put on Christ and he paid the penalty for those with his death. So we don't have to worry about your individual sins that you're going to do in the future and that you've done in the past.

God's good with those. That's substitutionary. He paid the penalty. Yeah, thanks for asking. Okay, so that's substitutionary death, and we can see it in 1st John 2.2. He himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. So, even the unbelievers, the penalty of their sin has actually been paid. Right? Problem is, they've not been raised in newness of life.

And that's what the second part is about, which is his resurrection. And I think it's going to be important to have a good chunk of Romans 6 under our belts as we go through the next few sessions. So I'm going to read through it once now and then constantly remind you. So Romans 6, I think we'll start in verse 3, if I remember correctly, and go through 11.

And this is all of us is all of us, those who have believed the gospel. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, So we too might walk in newness of life. That resurrection gave us newness of life because we were baptized into him. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again.

Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, and in the Greek, the lives, it's a constative present. I'm going to change the way I read this just a little bit. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he is constantly living, he is constantly living to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but constantly alive to God in Christ Jesus. Okay? So that's our story. I mean, if you want to know what your history is, that's your history. Once you believed, that became your history.

So substitutionary death, he paid the penalty for sin. Resurrection, you were raised up together with him. Now that you're in this position, having been raised up with him, you get to derive certain benefits. So right now he is in the heavenlies and he's talking to the father.

And one of the things, we'll skip intercession because we're running out of time, but advocacy. It turns out that Jesus Christ is your defense attorney in heaven. So every time you mess up, Jesus Christ is up there and he's being your defense attorney. So the question is, what's his defense? Is he pleading temporary insanity for you?

Is he saying, no contest, guilty, but we're not going to worry about it. Let's plea bargain. What's he arguing? I already paid the price. Bingo. So for those listening to the recording later, what Bruce said is he's arguing that he already paid the price. So every time you're messing up, he's saying, yeah, and I took care of that one. And I took care of that one. and I took care of that one.

So it's pretty good defense because it turns out that it's factual and the Bible says so. We know what the Bible says is true because where do we find truth? It's in the Bible. So let's look at the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit's regenerative work. So this is, now that we have been raised up with Christ, we now walk in newness of life. Jesus is explaining this to Nicodemus in John 3.

It says, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. He must be born again. And what's Neat about this is how Nicodemus' take on it is, which is, you are absolutely crazy. I cannot go back into my mother's womb and get unborn and come out differently somehow. So I've got no idea what you're talking about.

And what Christ, of course, was talking about was a new birth, a second birth. But that second birth has some of the same properties as the first birth. which means you're going to get out of that life one of two ways. You're going to get out of that life if you can undo the birth, and we can't undo the birth, or you're going to get out of that life by death. And that's why it's so important in Romans 6 where it says, Christ died once, never to die again.

So we are in Christ to be, I guess, Maybe more blunt than I should, is it possible for Christ at some point in the future to kick the bucket? Do we need to be worried about that? Okay, well we're in Christ, so are we going to kick the bucket? No, absolutely not.

So again, our salvation is secure. Let me skip through the Spirit's home, indwelling. Spirit's baptism, again, this is what we hit in Romans 6, where the work of the Spirit was to baptize us into Christ. That baptism is a one-time process that cannot then be undone. We were baptized into His death, meaning the penalty of sin has been taken care of. We have been baptized into His resurrection, and we get to walk in newness of life.

We are together with Jesus Christ. And that is an eternal thing. And then finally, the spirit sealing. We've all heard upstairs from Fern a gajillion times at this point what the seal meant to the Roman authorities. They put seals on things that they did not want opened under penalty of death. And the seal was a permanent mark that this thing is not supposed to be opened, period. They put a seal across Jesus' tomb so that it was clear to everybody, you know, nobody gets to open this thing. So, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. So we have been sealed until we meet the Lord. Right? So that's about as cool as it gets. And that's that. Questions?

It was a whirlwind tour. Alright, let's pray. Lord, thanks so much for this opportunity to look at your word and see what it says and to understand that we can rest on the truth that is in your word and that we don't need to be looking at ourselves to try to derive truth or feel better about the truth that we know is absolutely certain because of who you are and the power that you have to carry that out. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.