Now, the first thing that I want to point out
about this thing of perseverance of the saints
is that the way that most people are using it
is something that's a false doctrine.
Because if you just Google it,
perseverance of the saints,
I'm not saying this is the final authority,
but again, it's an unbiblical term.
So, you know, different people are using it in different ways.
If you just Google it, it says perseverance of the saints
is a Christian teaching that asserts
that once a person is truly born of God or regenerated
by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
they will continue doing good works
and believing in God until the end of their life.
Now, the problem here is that we're mixing a few things here
by saying, oh, they're going to continue to do good works
and believe in God until the end of their life.
Let me just start out by explaining to you
what we believe about this,
and then I'm going to prove it all from scripture.
You know, the first thing I want to say is that
we do believe that once a person is truly born of God,
they will continue to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
for the rest of their life.
They're not going to stop believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
Also, what we would agree with is that
there's no way for a person to lose their salvation.
Once they've been saved,
they will never lose their salvation.
We believe that, okay?
But the part that we don't believe
is that a person who's saved
is for sure going to continue doing good works.
Now, if everyone who is truly saved
was for sure going to continue doing good works,
well, the world would be an extremely different place
from what it is right now.
I mean, if people who are truly saved
are just gonna keep living for God and serving God,
well, then that sounds great,
except that it's not reality
and it's not what the Bible teaches either.
And the problem with this is that it's a marriage
of basically believing and works for salvation.
It's combining these two things.
And salvation is by faith and it's not of works.
And whenever you see people mixing faith and works,
they're teaching heresy
because of the fact that the Bible
clearly differentiates between these two things.
If the Bible says by grace or you saved through faith,
you're saved through faith.
And then it turns out it says not of works.
And then you'll go and talk to people and they'll say,
well, you know, faith includes doing the works, right?
It's like, hello, how can it say,
yes, you're saved by faith?
No, you're not saved by works.
Oh, but they're the same thing.
They just go together.
They're just like this.
That is false.
They are not the same.
They are not always going together.
And then someone will bring out,
oh, faith without works is dead.
Okay, just the fact that the Bible says this statement,
faith without works is dead,
is that it's possible to have faith without works.
Because if it were impossible to have faith without works,
that statement would be meaningless.
It would be describing an impossible condition.
Well, if you have faith, you're for sure gonna have works.
Then how can faith without works be dead?
Sounds like it's possible to have faith and not have works.
And guess what the Bible says,
but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.
Even as David also described the blessedness of the man,
unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
You have to read James two in tandem with Romans chapter four.
James two is talking about being justified before man.
Romans four is talking about being justified before God.
And those are two very different things.
And when it comes to salvation,
what matters is our justification in the eyes of God,
not in the eyes of man.