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In the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life and our own men for sin, And opened the life gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, O come to the Father through Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory great things He hath done. O perfect redemption the purchase of blood, To every believer the promise of God, The vilest offender who truly believes, But moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, O come to the Father through Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory great things He hath done. Great things He hath taught us, Great things He hath done, And greater rejoicing through Jesus the Son, But poorer and higher and greater will be, Our wonder, our transport in Jesus we see. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice, O come to the Father through Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory great things He hath done. Amen. Brother Joe, can you open us with a word of prayer? Amen. This hymn is 16. Majestic sweetness sits in throat. Majestic sweetness sits in throat. Upon the Savior's brow, His head with radiant glory's grown, His lips with grace or flow, His lips with grace or flow, No mortal can with Him compare Among the sons of men. Farrer is he than all the fair Who fill the handly train, Who fill the handly train. He saw me plunged in deep distress, And flew to my relief. For me He bore the shameful cross, And carried all my grief, And carried all my grief. To Him I owe my life and breath, And all the joys I have. He makes me triumph over death, And sees me from the grave, And sees me from the grave. Amen. At this time, we'll have the announcements. All right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Shore Foundation Baptist Church. The kicker bullet comes and goes through the announcements real quickly. Scanning to make sure it's King James only. No, I'm just kidding. I changed it last night, so I know for sure it is. So anyway, I just didn't trust Ryland. Anyway, so you had to be here last week to understand what I'm talking about. So anyway, does anybody need a bulletin? If you need one, just lift up your hand. One of the ushers will bring you one. We've got a hand over there. He was handing him out, but he didn't save one for himself. So he's a selfless person. All right. On the front cover, we have our verse of the week. It says, For the wage of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6, 23. Of course, a very famous verse there. And on our inside page there, we have our service times. 10 30 a.m. Sunday morning service. 3 30 p.m. Sunday evening service. We're in Joshua 13 tonight. Thursday Bible study. 6 30 p.m. will be in 1 Chronicles chapter 22. And our sowing times are listed below. If you're going sowing, get with brother Alex to find out what group you're in. And it should be just a light rain out there today. Hopefully it won't be like it was last week when everybody went out. It just seemed to be like Noah's flood out there. So yeah, hopefully it won't be like that today. But meet in the auditorium here, the sanctuary, whatever you want to call it, at 1 p.m. if you're planning on leaving from here. Or meet on site at 1 30. So the WhatsApp group has the maps in it already. And if you look down, you can see the Praise Report, the salvation for February and January there in the last week's attendance. Our six-year anniversary in Spokane is coming up soon. That'll be the 14th through the 16th. I'll be preaching there Friday night and I think it's 6 30. And then, let's see, Saturday we're going to have a sowing marathon as long as the weather is good. And then Sunday is going to be Remy preaching both services. And Remy did get the job there, so he is moving. But then he got offered another job right after that. So now he's in a straight betwixt two, trying to decide which one is the best for him to take. So I think he, I don't know if he's decided for sure. I spoke with him about it the other night. But anyway, so he has two pretty good job offers there. And he's trying to decide which one to take. So the problem is he just doesn't know which one. So anyway, if you'd pray for him about that. But that just means that he's probably leaving sooner rather than later. And he does ask for prayers that you would, that they would be able to sell their house or be able to rent it soon, as soon as possible. And then, let's see, we got the sowing marathon coming up March 29th. That is the fifth Sunday. And so, or fifth Saturday, excuse me. And so, haven't picked a spot yet, but I'll pick one here soon. And then we're having men's preaching nights Sunday evening, for the Sunday evening service. And then April 13th is the Lord's Supper, so I'll probably be preaching about that pretty soon. But we only do the Lord's Supper once a year, so mark the date on that and make sure you're here for that service. And April 19th is the SFBC mega marathon. We're partnering with other churches too. I know that Pastor Stuckey does it, and he's got a bunch of churches also. And I've lost track of all of his churches. People say that about me all the time. I don't even know how many churches you have. Well, I like to be mysterious, so. But Pastor Stuckey is gathering a bunch of churches also. But hopefully other churches will participate with that. And I know that ours will because I'm going to make them. So I'm the pastor, so they kind of have to. But anyway, that's going to be a good thing. We're doing the mega marathon again. And so Easter Sunday is the day after that. And let's see, the second year anniversary for the Seattle church plant. April 25th through 27th, Pastor Anderson will be preaching Friday night at 7 p.m. up there. And there will be a soul winning marathon on Saturday. And I'll be preaching the Sunday services. May 15th through 18th is the King James Conference coming up soon. I think Miss Bobbi is asking for, I think she asked for stuff in the WhatsApp group. So she's looking for donations or borrowed items. So if you, or if you want to help, please see her for decorating and things like that. And off in the distance, there's a Chicago soul winning marathon. I'll be planning that this week. So if you're interested in going to that, it's the weekend of the 28th of June. And Detroit is coming up in September. So also in October, Pastor Shelley is doing a Bahamas trip. Not a cruise, but just a trip. So if anybody's interested in going to that, I'm thinking about going to that. So if anybody else wants to join, you do have to get your own airfare and stuff like that. But apparently people, the fish are just jumping in the boat when you get there. Meaning people are just getting saved left and right here. People are complaining that they're losing their voices because so many people are getting saved. So anyway, there are direct flights to Miami from here. I think it's like a red-eye flight. You wake up from Miami, you get there about 930 in the morning. And so after a quick nap, you can probably get out there and just start soloing immediately. And it looks like it's a pretty nice place. However, I think October is hurricane season or maybe at the end of hurricane season. So the Bermuda Triangle, I don't know. I'm not sure if that's... Do you have to go through the Bermuda Triangle to get to the Bahamas? Okay, okay. I don't know. I just kind of look at all of that as the Bermuda Triangle. Amelia Earhart. No. Anyway, apparently my geography needs some retraining there. It's right there, man. No, I'm just kidding. All right, so all the other stuff. We're family integrated. All that good stuff. And the ties and offerings at the bottom of the page. And we've got birthdays. So today is Judah's birthday. How old are you? Seven. Are you seven already? Wow. And you're missing all your teeth in the front? Can you whistle really good now? Not really. What if you put your fingers in your mouth like this? Can you whistle? Okay, you'll have to have Ms. Sherry teach you. Okay, she'll teach you. Well, happy birthday Judah. It's also Sarah Miller's birthday. And then Evelyn Ritchie. Happy birthday. How old are you? Eighteen. That means you can do whatever you want. You better not. That guy will track you down right there. Anyway, well happy birthday. Let's sing happy birthday to all the birthday people. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. All right, that's all I've got for now. So let's go ahead and sing another song. We'll receive the offering. All right. The next song is 264. 264. Once for all. It's our verse of the week explained in verse four. On the verse. Free from the low, happy condition, Jesus has maddened, there is remission. Cursed by the low and bruised by the full, Grace hath redeemed us once for all, Once for all, oh sinner receive it, Once for all, brother believe it, Cling to the cross, a burden will fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all, Hope you're free, there's no condemnation, Jesus provides the perfect salvation, Come unto me, oh, here is sweet God, Come and he saves us once for all, Once for all, sinner receive it, Once for all, brother believe it, Cling to the cross, a burden will fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all, Children of God, oh, glory is calling, Surely his grace will keep us from falling, Passing from death to life at his call, salvation once for all, Once for all, oh sinner receive it, Once for all, oh brother believe it, Cling to the cross, a burden will fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all. And at this time, we'll take the offering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . All right, open your Bibles to Titus chapter number one. Titus chapter number one, if you don't have a Bible, there should be one underneath the seat in front of you. Titus chapter one. Titus one, the Bible reads, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began, but had in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. To Titus, mine own son after the common faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Under the pure are all things pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. Brother Eli, would you pray for us? Amen. Well, I've been preaching a Foundation Doctrine series, and this morning I'm going to be preaching about Once Saved, Always Saved. I've already preached about salvation by faith alone. Of course, that goes along with Once Saved, Always Saved, but I wanted to preach a standalone sermon just for this specific topic because there's a lot of people out there that believe that you can lose your salvation. There's a lot of Christian so-called denominations and so-called Christians that would say, well, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but I think I could lose my salvation. And so Once Saved, Always Saved is really kind of a term that people like to bash people like us with and say, oh, you're one of those Once Saved, Always Saved people, right? And so they're making fun of the doctrine of eternal security of the believer. And eternal security of the believer is a foundational doctrine for Christianity because it is the fact of what the Bible actually teaches. And I just don't understand how you can come to the conclusion that you could lose your salvation except that some person has twisted that in your mind. Some false teacher has taught you that and has preached a false gospel unto you or that you're just a false teacher yourself. And so that chapter that CJ just read, it says that we're supposed to convince the gainsayers. We're supposed to rebuke these wicked people. And some people are just reprobates, and they will not receive this doctrine. And their sole purpose is to teach these things to people so they can make them twice dead like they are themselves. But we wear that doctrine Once Saved, Always Saved as a badge of honor because we don't shy away from what we believe in this church. We will shout it from the housetops, and this is what we believe. This is part of our foundational truths of things that we believe, and it's non-negotiable. We don't just say, oh, it's okay if you don't believe that. You're still saved, you know, whatever. But a lot of Baptists will. A lot of even independent, fundamental Baptists, when they go out soul-winning, they'll say, if someone says they believe in Jesus, they'll go, okay, well, have a nice day. And that's all there is to it. But if they don't believe that Jesus died, died, buried, rose again from the dead, and He gave them eternal life and that you can't lose it, that's not what we believe. So if they're not believing the record that God gave of His Son that is eternal life, then they're not believing the whole truth. And we emphasize that in our soul-winning program that they have to understand eternal security. They have to understand that salvation is a free gift, and that free gift is eternal life, and you cannot lose it. So that's what I'm going to be preaching about this morning. But before we get into the Scriptures, I want to read what our doctrinal statement says online. It says, we believe in the eternal security of the believer, once saved, always saved. Just like there is nothing you can do to earn salvation, there is nothing you can do to lose it. And I cite some Scriptures, John 5, 24, 1 Peter 1, 3 through 5, and John 11, 26. So I want to define some terms real quick before I get into this also. The term forever comes up in the Bible many times in the Old Testament, many, many times. And people will say, well, that's not taught in the Old Testament. Yes, it is, over and over again. And I'm just going to have really one passage of Scripture that I go to in the Old Testament that's under my Scripture, teaches it in the whole Bible, just one passage, and you'll see why I do this, why I only go to one passage. But the term forever means for all future time for always. That's what that means, forever. Eternal means lasting or existing forever without end. Everlasting means eternity or never ending. Never ending, these are synonymous with each other, by the way. Never ending, without end. Paul says world without end, amen, in the end of one of his epistles. And then the term immortal means living forever, never dying or decaying. So Paul said this mortality must put on immortality. One day we will be immortal. And the Greek pantheon and all these different pantheons around the world will say that there's these people that are immortal, but they really aren't because their gods can be killed, which is kind of weird, right? If they're immortal and they're gods, how does that work? But anyway, our God cannot be killed in the fashion that they're saying. Obviously, God allowed himself as the Son of God to be killed on the cross, but he rose again the third day. So anyway, so those terms are going to be used today, and I just want those to be kind of burned into your mind. And so the first point of my sermon this morning is God cannot lie, so once saved, always saved must be the truth. God cannot lie, so once saved, always saved must be the truth. And look down in your text at Titus 1, 2, it says, in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. So when God makes a promise, those things come to pass. And it says in hope of eternal life. So when we hope for things, those things are, it's a different kind of hope than what the world might have. Now, the world might say, because when we ask people a question at the door, when we say, hey, do you know for 100% sure that you are going to heaven, they say, well, I hope so. But when they say that, that's not the same hope that this is talking about. Their hope is like, well, I hope so. It's kind of more like a maybe, isn't it? Well, maybe I might, I don't know. But our hope, though, is that we have believed, and that we have a hope that that belief is going to come to pass, but we believe it as a surety. It's a different type of hope. But it says that he promised and that he cannot lie. Now, this is an immutable truth that God cannot lie. God cannot sin. God could not sin even if he wanted to. It's against his nature to do wickedness. It's against his nature to do evil. So the Bible's very clear that eternal life, God promised that to us. Before the world even began, he promised that to us. Turn to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6, verse number 11. The Bible says, We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful but followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself. So God, when he swears, it's actually going to come to pass because God can swear by no greater because when he swears, he always tells the truth. So he can't break his promises. It says, For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise, For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife, wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. So immutability means this, it means unchanging over time, or unable to be changed. So immutability, so he, so he more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, that means that unchanging thing of, oath of his counsel, so he confirmed it by an oath. Immutability, that's what it means, it doesn't change. Verse 18, that by two immutable things, two things that will not change, in which it was impossible for God to lie. So, so far we've seen two verses, very specific, that says it's impossible, God cannot lie, and this one says it's impossible for God to lie. We might have strong consolation or comfort. Consolation, you know, you get the runner up trophy, you know, everybody gets a trophy, that's like a consolation prize, right? But consolation here is just meaning that you're comforted, you know, that's why everyone gets a trophy is that everybody's comforted because everybody got a trophy, right? They all feel good about themselves. It says, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. So we have a hope that God, that we can believe in God's immutability that he cannot lie, and he's promised certain things to us. So I was talking about hope, and the hope that it's talking about here is trust with anticipation. So we've trusted in Christ, we've believed in Christ, and we have this anticipation. So, again, when they say I hope so at the door, that's not the trust that we have. So one of the definitions for hope is an opinion or belief, an opinion or belief not amounting to certainty, but grounded on substantial evidence. That's the hope that they have. So we have a hope with trust, with anticipation, they have a hope of an opinion or belief not amounting to certainty. See the difference? So if someone has, when someone, we go to the door and they say, well, I hope so, I hope I have eternal life, that's what they mean. They mean that they have an opinion not amounting to certainty, but grounded on substantial evidence. So they don't really have a certainty that they're going to heaven. So that's why we perceive the way we do. If someone says I know I'm going to heaven because I believe in Jesus, that's a more firm answer to us because they don't really use hope in the same way that the scriptures are using hope. So hopefully you understand what I mean by that. Verse 19 says, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. I mean, we're Sure Foundation Baptist Church, you have a more sure word of prophecy, this book we can rest our head on, and then we have a steadfast belief that we cannot be moved. So that anchor to our soul, we know that that anchor is going to hold us where we stand in the hope that we have of our soul being saved. It says both sure and steadfast, which enter within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made in high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So what does forever mean again? It means, what? Who said that? It means for all future time, for always. Yeah, but they all are synonymous with each other, pretty much, but that's what the dictionary definition was. So Jesus entered in first, and he is our high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, but it says he's the forerunner. So Jesus is the high priest forever, and that means that he lives forever also. When he resurrected, he resurrected into a body that can never die, it can never corrupt, so on and so forth. And when it says he's the forerunner for us, what is a forerunner? A forerunner is not a Toyota, necessarily. It is, but this is not what it's talking about. It's talking about a person or thing that precedes the coming or development of someone or something else. So like John the Baptist was a forerunner for Jesus. He went before Jesus to prepare the way for him for the Messiah to come. But in this instance, Jesus is the forerunner for everybody else that's gonna get everlasting life. So he lives forever, we are going to live forever. Now go to 1 John 5, verse number 10. 1 John 5, verse number 10. I'm gonna read for you Numbers chapter 23, verse 19. Numbers chapter 23, verse 19 says, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? And those are questions that the answer should be yes to. He's not gonna say he's gonna do something and not do it. He is gonna make it good. And these verses in 1 John 5 are really important to nail down people when you're preaching the gospel, especially if you're having trouble nailing them down. If they don't really get eternal security, these are verses that you should have ready to go. If you don't have them memorized, at least know right where to go to get to them because these are very convincing verses. So 1 John 5, 10 says, He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. So we just read several verses that said God cannot lie. It's impossible for God to lie. It's an immutable fact that God can't lie. And he promised eternal life. And then someone says, yeah, but you could lose it. What? Or, no, it's not eternal. You can lose it and you can get it back. No, you can't. See, the verses that people like to show that you can lose it, like in Hebrews 6, if they take that position, then they have to admit that they can never get it back again. So 1 John 5, 10 says that he that believeth not God hath made him a liar. And it says because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. So you have to believe the record that God gave his Son. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. So what is the record that you have to believe? That God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. You have to believe in the Son of God and you have to believe it's eternal life. You can't believe that you can... Eternal life means that it lasts forever. It's all eternity. And so when people say, well, no, you can lose it. Look at this verse. Or, no, you can't lose it. Look at this other verse. And they're pulling these obscure verses or hard to be interpreted verses or verses that they're just twisting, then they're doing what? They're calling God a liar. And God can't lie. And if God takes away eternal life, which just doesn't make sense anyway, but if God was to do that, that would make him a liar. If he doesn't do what he says he's gonna do, that would make him a liar. And God can't lie. It says he that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. So if you don't believe once saved, always saved, you're not saved. Plain and simple. And people will argue about that, and I've gone to other Baptist churches where they say, no, they're still saved. They're just confused about that part. What's the Bible say? If you don't believe the record that God gave his Son, you're calling God a liar. And you don't believe the record, you have to believe it's eternal life, or you're not saved. Verse 13. Why is this part written to us? Well, it says in verse 13, it says, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life, that you may know you have eternal life. We quote these verses to people all the time. People say, well, nobody can really know that for sure. Nobody really knows that. Who's heard that out so many? Everybody that goes solely on him. Oh, you can't really know that. Nobody really knows. And then they push back on you. Sometimes they say, well, yeah, the Bible says you can know for sure, and you quote this verse or you quote another verse about it, and they're like, oh, so you're saying you know you're going to heaven. It's like, well, yeah, I do. The Bible says that we can know, and I know because the Bible says if you believe in Jesus, you have eternal life. It's not like we're trying to be proud about it or something. Like, yeah, I know I'm going to heaven because I'm so good, but that's why they think they're going to heaven, so they must think that we believe because we're so good that we're going, and we don't believe that at all. We're not saying it out of arrogance. We're just saying it out of truth, out of what we know the hope that we have in us is that Christ is going to save us because we believed in him. So it says that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. I mean, it's just real simple, folks. It's real easy, and so the first point is that God cannot lie, so once saved, always saved must be the truth because if he can't lie and he promised to give us eternal life, then eternal security must be true. It's just really that simple. Point number two this morning is the Bible throughout the Old Testament and New Testament teaches once saved, always saved, and I just went to one, I just actually looked up the term his mercy endureth forever, and there's tons of verses that say that in the Old Testament, but remember last week when I was talking about how hell lasts forever, and I just went on this little rant where I went forever and ever and ever and ever and ever, and I just kept going, and you guys were like, this is never gonna be done. Well, let's look at Psalm chapter 136, all right? I didn't go back and count how many times I said forever last week, but I don't even know if it's this many times. But this is 26 times in one Psalm. Some people are like, well, the Old Testament didn't really teach that. There's no verses that say in the Old Testament that it's eternal security. So my second point is the Bible throughout the Old Testament and New Testament teaches once saved, always saved, and I'm just gonna use one verse from the Old Testament, or one chapter from the Old Testament. Let's look at Psalm 136, verse one. What is mercy? Well, mercy is grace. We don't deserve to be saved. The people in the Old Testament didn't deserve to be saved. His mercy endureth for how long? Forever. Forever. Verse two. Oh, give thanks unto the God of gods for his mercy endureth forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of hosts for his mercy endureth forever. To him who alone doeth great wonders for his mercy endureth forever. To him that by wisdom made the heavens for his mercy endureth forever. To him that stretcheth out the earth above the waters for his mercy endureth forever. To him that made great lights for his mercy endureth forever. To the sun to rule by day to rule by day for his mercy endureth forever. The moon and stars to rule by night for his mercy endureth forever. To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn for his mercy endureth forever. And brought out Israel from among them for his mercy endureth forever. With a strong hand with a stretched out arm for his mercy endureth forever. To him which divided the Red Sea into parts for his mercy endureth forever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it for his mercy endureth forever. but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea for his mercy endureth forever. To him which led his people through the wilderness for his mercy endureth forever. To him which smote great kings for his mercy endureth forever and slew famous kings for his mercy endureth forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites for his mercy endureth forever and Og, the king of Bashan for his mercy endureth forever and gave their land for an heritage for his mercy endureth forever. Are you starting to kind of get the point here? His mercy endureth forever. And so if his mercy endureth forever in the Old Testament, and I didn't even get through all the verses, but there's more, there's like six more verses there. I'm just gonna give you a little reprieve here. Do you get the point? His mercy endureth forever. His grace lasts forever. And this is just Psalm 136. If you go to Psalm 118, it has like the first five or six verses and then it ends with saying that too. And that's just two Psalms, but there's multiple Psalms that say this. There's multiple verses in the Old Testament that say it. And then the verse, I won't have you turn there, but it's on your bulletin. It says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's just one verse in the New Testament that Jesus didn't say, but the Apostle Paul wrote. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's multiple verses in the New Testament that teach eternal security, eternal life. And again, I define the terms at the beginning of the sermon. Eternal life is a life that never terminates. It never ends. And when you're talking about God, it's a life that never, it's always been and always will be. But when it comes to us, we are born at a certain time, and when we're born again, our eternity begins from there. It doesn't backdate like God's does. So the definition in the dictionary was kind of like, it never had a beginning or an end, but that's not really true when it comes to us, right? So point number three, moving right along here, is that Jesus specifically taught once saved, always saved. And again, I'm not gonna go through all the verses that Jesus taught because there's so many of them, but we're gonna go through a few of them. John 3, of course, is a very famous passage where he just nails down eternal life and eternal security, and eternal life and everlasting life are interchanged in the King James here. And of course, some people would say if you mess with eternal, eternal life and everlasting life mean the same thing, and eternal, everlasting are synonyms of the same word. But I think in the Spanish Bible, it just uses the same word, right? What is the word in the New Testament here? Huh? Aterna, yeah. So it's the same thing, right? But they just use eternal, aterna in both passages, right? So, but anyway, someone would say, like, if you use eternal life and switch that for everlasting life, that that would be messing with the King James or whatever, but they mean the same thing, right? So anyway, John 3, 15 says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, that means go to hell, but have eternal life. Again, a life that never ends. If you have a red letter edition, this is Jesus speaking, and he's saying that you'll have eternal life. You believe in him, eternal life. So that's the prerequisite for being saved. It's not, and I'm not gonna re-preach my salvation by faith alone sermon, but eternal life is gotten because you had faith in Jesus, you trusted in him, he gives you that gift, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Again, a life that never ends. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So salvation is what? Having everlasting life. So it'd be weird if he said, oh, I'm saved, and then you lost everlasting life. How's that being saved? It's not being saved. That's called a dirty trick. Here's eternal life, now you don't have it, sorry. You sinned today. And then you got hit by a bus, oh, sorry. You had eternal life up until the point that you cussed at that guy sitting next to you and then you walked out in front of a bus. Wah wah, you're going to hell. I mean, what a horrible way to live your life in fear like that. But that's why fear mongers love the doctrine that you could lose your salvation. Because they have you in a snare. They have you in a trap. You got to keep coming to church. You got to keep tithing. You got to keep doing this, you got to keep doing that. And then you might be saved. Do you have eternal life? Come back up to the altar and get saved for the 97th time. I mean, that's ridiculous. God wants you to know you have eternal life. He wants it to be secure. Everybody likes security. Everybody likes to know that their house isn't going to be broken into in the middle of the night. Everybody likes to know that they are protected. Women like to know that they're safe at night. Men like to know that they're safe. That's why they get guns. It's the great equalizer. It's like, hey, you might be puny and like that guy. What was that, on the back of comic books, they'd have that ad on the back as Charles Atlas or whatever. That little skinny puny guy used to be weak and then all the bullies beat him up and then he got the Charles Atlas. What was it, like a workout or something? And then he was buffed and like beat the bullies up or whatever and got all the girls. But every man, you guys probably don't even, most people probably don't know what I'm talking about, but, but what I'm saying is that, before 1990, okay. Just look up Charles Atlas or whatever after the service. There's nothing bad about it. But anyway, men want to be secure. Anybody wants to be secure. But when it comes to the afterlife, of course you want to be secure. But a lot of people are really superstitious. A lot of people are duped by Satan into believing these lies. And then even within Christianity, there's all these charlatans and hucksters that they are false prophets. They are wanting your money. They do want to entrap people into a system that they can't get out of. And this doctrine of once saved, always saved, we want people to wake up to the truth of this. And a lot of times, people can't get over this part. A lot of people in this area can't get over this part. So I was at, what, John 3, 17. Look at verse 18, it says, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So once we believe in him, we're no longer condemned. So it doesn't say you gotta keep believing or you're condemned again. It says once you believe in him, you're not condemned anymore. All across the line, you're not condemned. When it comes to the afterlife, when it comes to salvation and going to heaven. Look at John 5, 24, John 5, 24. Very clear scripture. John 5, 24. It says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. So you have it, that's what it's saying. You have it once you believe in him, and shall not come into condemnation. So once you believe in him, you have everlasting life, and you can't be condemned anymore. Isn't that what it's saying? Shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. The moment you believe, you're no longer condemned, you cannot be condemned again. Now, you might get in trouble on earth. You might get punished by God on earth. He might use men to punish you, but he's never going to throw you into hell. You cannot lose your salvation. That's what this verse is teaching. So, and then look at John 6, 47. John 6, 47. This is just a straightforward, plain as day verse here too. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I mean, I'm showing some pretty clear scriptures here of Jesus himself specifically teaching once saved, always saved. He's not only teaching faith alone, but he's also teaching once saved, always saved. Now, here's the coup de grace, in my opinion, of anybody trying to say you could lose your salvation, where Jesus is clearly teaching that it's impossible to lose your salvation. John chapter 10, turn to John chapter 10. And I think that this is the one that you should probably go to. I think that you go, if you're having trouble, go to 1 John 5, 10 through 13. Obviously, you want to go to Titus 1, 2. There's a lot of these verses are great, but the real, the greatest verses you can go to are here in John chapter 10. John chapter 10, verse 27. It says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And even that verse there, if they're not his sheep, they're probably not gonna hear the next things that are coming out of Jesus' mouth through your lips. And I give, that's a gift, isn't it? And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. I mean, how can you read that and still come away thinking that you can lose your salvation? And they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So what's Jesus saying here? He has us in his hand. You know that song, he's got the whole world in his hand? I don't know if that's necessarily biblical, but he's definitely got the saved people in his hand. And once you believe in him, he says, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Now, any man would include yourself, wouldn't it? So no man can pluck, so you can't pluck yourself out of his hand. And pluck, that word pluck, it's like, you know, you think of a bird plucking something, or someone just taking something out of somebody's hand. You know, have you ever had someone just try to walk up and take something out of your hand, or just playing around or whatever? No, you cannot pluck, nobody can pluck you out of his hand, no false prophet can do that, no other person can steal your salvation, not even you. And then it says, my father which gave them me is greater than all. There's nobody more powerful than God the father, and it says, and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. So not only does Jesus have you in his hand, but then he says, no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. So if he has you in his hand, and then God the father has his hand over that hand, over Jesus' hand, and he's the most powerful being in the whole universe, he created everything, he runs everything by the power of his word alone, he just says things and they happen, how is somebody gonna lose their salvation if it's secured by God himself? How is that possible? I'll tell ya, it's not possible. It's not possible to lose your salvation at all, and Jesus just flat out says it right there, not possible. It's never gonna happen, never gonna happen, and then people will still bristle at that and buck at that, and it's because they don't know the shepherd's voice. They're not of his sheep. Now don't say, well they're reprobate because they don't believe that. That's not necessarily true. Some people just have to wrestle with these scriptures. Sometimes people just have, it takes time for people, takes time to germinate these things in their heart. Some people are, you just don't know. There's no button that glows when they turn into reprobates. We just don't know. I wish that that were the case, it'd be nice. It's like, oh, I perceive that you've become reprobate, and then you just walk off, but it just, we don't know, or we don't know if they really get saved sometimes. They could trick us and just pray with us or whatever. But that's just not the way it is. But all we can do is our best job to present the gospel to them, make sure they understand eternal security, and don't, if you've already convinced them, they already understand it. There's no reason to keep battering them against the waves or against the rocks and just keep hitting them. Just once they understand this, just move past that. That's what I would suggest with anybody with the gospel. Once you've moved past the point and they understand it, keep going. You don't have to keep just, you know, because I know other churches and other soul winners in other churches might not emphasize eternal security and they don't talk about it in their gospel presentations. It's just like the doctrine of Jesus going to hell for three days and three nights. I don't think that we should spend a massive amount of time on that. Now, I think it's good to bring up. I bring it up not every time I preach the gospel, but I do like to bring it up. But I don't wanna just keep talking about it over and over again, because that is not unnecessary. Nobody preached that to me when I got saved. But you just read it in the Bible and you're like, oh yeah, that makes sense. Then you go to your pastor and he says, oh, that's just, you know, if you go back to the Greek, it's just like, you have to wait until you hear someone that actually teaches it right. Or just trust the Holy Spirit that hell means hell, you know? Anyway, point number four, it's my last point. Go ahead and turn to Romans chapter eight, verse 31. Romans eight, 31. Paul gives a bunch of question marks at the end of this chapter. And they're pretty powerful questions. And then he gives some statements at the end of this chapter here. And they're pretty good. And he's trying to logic with us and just help us to be prepared that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Says, Romans eight, 31, says, what shall we? Oh, and my fourth point is logic dictates that once saved, always saved is true. Logic dictates this. Because the term eternal life, the term everlasting life, everybody knows what it means. It means a life that never ends. Unsaved people understand what it means. But then they don't logically connect it when you're talking about it to them. Especially people that have gone to other churches and they have been taught against this doctrine, then they resist. And then they just, they have cognitive dissonance when it comes to this topic. They believe two equally, two different opposing views at the same time. Yes, I know it says that, but no, I don't believe in eternal security. It's like, you know what it means, but you don't believe in it. You know what it says, but you don't believe in it. It's like, you know what the term means, but you believe you could lose it. That's not logical. I mean, I have these two beaming lights here, and if somebody said, hey, I'm giving you these two eternal sources of light right here, they're never gonna go out, and then they go out, then I just got lied to, didn't I? So I like the light bulb analogy, and I like using it because we're usually at someone's door, they always have a light right there, and sometimes they're the ones that change it, sometimes they're not. But either way, they know that light bulbs burn out. And so if you use the analogy of the eternal light bulb, say, hey, if I sold you and said, hey, I'm gonna give you, or I'm gonna sell you an eternal light bulb, and then two weeks later it goes out, did that light bulb last forever? What would you call me if I sold you an eternal light bulb and it goes out? And then they say, a liar. They understand that. So if God gives you eternal life and he takes it away for any reason, what would that make God? It'd make him a liar. And when I told a 14-year-old boy that last week, he understood everything that I said, he was clear, and then at the end he's like, yeah, you have to just follow after Jesus or whatever. I'm just like, okay. But people just won't get it. They don't, I mean, everything else has been biblical, this is biblical too, but logic is also, you have to be able to have some logic in your brain. So logic dictates that it's once saved, always saved. So let's see, Acts, I'm just gonna have you turn to Ephesians chapter two. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter two. It says, for by grace are you saved through faith. That's been abundantly clear so far, I've preached a whole sermon about it, that you are saved by faith. Faith means to trust. Belief is faith. And that, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Now people also logic that you could give away this gift. But this is a gift that you can't give away. And that's something that you should emphasize also, because people will say, well, you can just put the gift back on the shelf. The shelf that doesn't exist. It's the Church of Christ shelf, or the Pentecostal shelf. I'm not sure where the shelf came from. I would like to trace the origins of the shelf that you can give it back to. I don't know where this shelf of giving back the gift of life is, or who in their right mind would want to give it back. But they say that it exists, excuse me. But if it's eternal, and you get it as a gift, once you get it, there's no strings attached. So this is a point of emphasis that we bring up, that it's a gift, and someone paid for it, but you didn't pay for it. And if you give them, if Jesus gives you the gift, you get it through faith. You get it because you don't deserve it. Because grace is mercy. Grace is something you don't deserve. Because we don't deserve mercy, we deserve hell. But God gives it to us anyway through faith. That's the prerequisite for salvation. It says it's not of works lest any man should boast. For we are as a workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So I mean a lot of people think that they're saved by their works. They think that if they don't do works, that they will lose their salvation. Or if they break one of God's commandments, they will lose their salvation, therefore they've lost eternal life. But if they repent, if they just repent, then they can get it back. So even though the Bible does not say that, but they have this he loves me, he loves me not. As long as I repent, he'll take me back. And they live their life in this cycle of being not saved, being saved. Being not saved, being saved. And also people live in this cycle of I can't lose it because I would never commit a sin that would cause me to lose it. Everybody else does, but not me. Everybody else's sins take them to hell and they lose their salvation, but I would never do one of the sins that make me lose my salvation. As they're smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer or whatever while you're talking to them. So they don't logic these things out while they're talking to you. They stand there in hypocrisy and look, I'm not there to judge their life, but they don't logic things through that they're saying back to you. And obviously I'm not gonna say, hey, well, is smoking a sin or, you know. Obviously, you know, it's a minor sin in comparison to a lot of things, but I just find it funny that they don't go to church, you know, they're telling you, or they'll tell you, hey, I was just praying that God would send somebody to give me the gospel and then they're just like, no, I don't believe in once saved, always saved. You know, like, you just said you were praying for someone to come give you the gospel, but you don't wanna believe the gospel that's being preached to you. So I like to use the light bulb example just because that makes sense to people. We also use that, a lot of people use the analogy of saying, hey, if I gave you this Bible as a free gift, but I asked you to wash my car, would that be a free gift? And you know, you always go through the gift analogies, or if I said you have to, I say this about having to keep doing things to maintain your salvation, like in order to stay saved, to stay with eternal life, I say, if I gave you this Bible as a gift, and I asked you to read it in two weeks, and if you didn't do it, I came back and took it from you, would that be a gift? No, it wouldn't be. And they get all those things right, but then they still hang on to the fact that it's not, that you could still lose eternal life. It's like, I just showed you in these teaching tools, and you agree with everything I'm saying, but then when it comes to what I'm actually trying to teach you about, you still deny that truth. That is not logical. They think that if they don't continue to do good things, they don't continue to go to church, they don't continue to do such things, that they'll lose eternal life. But as long as they repent, then they're okay. See, we believe that we just might not be in right standing with God, or that if we sin, we need to confess our sins before God, so that we're in this, in the time that we live in, in our day-to-day life, that we're right with our maker. We're right with our creator as far as our daily life, but God will never send us to hell, because he promised he wouldn't do that. He promised to give us eternal life. And so, turn to John 11. Turn to John 11 will be the last verse I have you turn to. This morning. But even if people just take what, just what Jesus says at face value in this passage here, because this is the passage where Lazarus is risen from the dead, and Jesus is trying to teach them something about eternal life, about the resurrection, but he's also trying to teach them that if they believe, they will live again. They will be resurrected. That death for a Christian is not really death. That they will never die. Look at verse number 21. So Lazarus has died, but when Jesus was talking to his disciples about it, he says that Lazarus is sleeping, and we're going to wake him up. And when Christians die, we do die, our bodies die, but what God usually calls it, or what Jesus calls it a lot of times, or Paul, says that we're sleeping. Our bodies are sleeping in whatever state they're in, but our souls and spirits are not sleeping. We don't believe in the belief of soul sleep that the Jehovah's Witnesses believe, that we're just sleeping in our soul and spirit and our body in the grave somewhere. We believe our body's sleeping, but our souls and spirits are very much awakened in heaven. So he says to his disciples, he's sleeping, then he plainly tells them, Lazarus is dead, so that they finally understand. Because it's like, if he's sleeping, he doeth well. He's going to recover from his fever or whatever, because you're sick, what do you want to do? Have some Alka-Seltzer or some Nyquil and just sleep it off, right? And so they're just like, oh, they just don't understand, and then he finally just says, Lazarus is dead. So he doesn't go on purpose right away. He wants to make sure that there's plenty of time and that there's four days in between Lazarus' death and from him getting there. Verse 21 says, then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will give it thee. So she's a little upset, because Jesus didn't come right away. They sent these special messengers to her, to him, excuse me, and I don't know if they had the Pony Express or what they had, but somehow they sent, they had a lot of money, and they sent Jesus' word that Lazarus was sick. And he didn't come right away, so she's like, well, if he would have been here, he wouldn't have died. He would have been able to heal him. He would have not passed away. And he says, Jesus saith unto her, thy brothers shall rise again. And she's just probably thinking, well, I know he's going to rise again. He was saved. Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And so she understands that there's a resurrection. She understands that there is eternal life. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth, that means lives right now, and believeth in me shall never die. So if you believe in him, what's he saying? You will never die. You will never die. And he says, believeth thou this? It's an important thing for a believer to believe is that you believe this, what? That whosoever liveth, you know, if you wait till you're dead, it's too late. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. You shall never die. Your body might die and be in the grave, but you will never die. Your soul and spirit will never experience death. You'll go straight to heaven to be with God, and then your body will be reunited, and hopefully, and obviously not hopefully, it will be made better. Whatever problems you had, those problems are gone. You're not gonna have the problems in your body that we have right now, because there will be no corruption. There will be no getting old. It'll just be an eternal body that can't die. That's eternal life. That's what it is. And he said, believeth thou this? This is what someone has to believe. That's what John was saying, because this is the book of John. This is the same author that penned 1 John chapter five. He said, you have to believe the record. What's the record? The record is eternal life, and this life is in his son. Whosoever believeth in Jesus, they will have an everlasting life. They will have eternal life. That's what he's saying right here in John chapter 11. And she saith unto him, yea, Lord, or yes, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. She answered right. She answered true. So, for those that would say, well, you could lose it, well, Jesus has some things to say that are different than that, doesn't he? Who should we believe? Some charlatan that's telling you you can lose your salvation, or these bozos that get on the internet and say once saved, always saved isn't true, and they have these stupid answers for why it isn't true. No, we should believe what the Bible says over what man says any day. And you should go home and test these scriptures. I mean, I've just plainly told you what the Bible says, but you should test it for yourself and just go see what the Bible actually says. And people that wanna just pull out these obscure, you know, people have all these arguments to try to argue against once saved, always saved. How can you argue with what Jesus said? How can you argue with what King David said in the Psalms? How can you argue with what the Bible says? All they do, all they have is obscure verses that are not like John 3.16, the most famous verse in the whole Bible. It says, whosoever believeth shall have everlasting life. It's really that simple. So the appeals that people have against once saved, always saved, and the vitriol that they have against once saved, always saved, is garbage. They're easily refuted, easily refuted. And the people that fight against it, and the ones that are prophesying against once saved, always saved, those people are either very greatly misled, or they're just false prophets. And any time I have to shut them down, I will definitely take that opportunity to do so. Once saved, always saved must be true, because God can't lie. The Bible throughout teaches once saved, always saved, and Jesus clearly and specifically taught once saved, always saved, and pure logic just dictates that if you say something lasts forever, it really means that it lasts forever. And if you say that you can lose something that lasts forever, that logically just does not make sense. Because if it lasts forever, that means it lasts forever. It doesn't go away. And if it's a life that lasts forever, or whether it's a light bulb that lasts forever, or if it's a gobstopper from Willy Wonka, it should last forever, right? Let's pray, Lord, we thank you so much for the doctrine of once saved, always saved, and how it comforts Christians all around the world. And Lord, pray that you'd help us to just make sure that this is emphasized when we preach at the door. And Lord, that our people will be just razor sharp when it comes to these things. Lord, help us to preach these things to people clearly. Lord, help us to teach them to our children diligently. And Lord, help us to not let anybody in our families slip through the cracks on these things. Pray that you'd help us and that these might help edify people at the doors today as we go out sowing and help us to be sharpened as we preach the gospel today. Lord, we thank you for this foundational doctrine, and we thank you for the hope that we have in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Closing hymn will be 303. My faith looks up to thee. 303, in the red or the green. Let's go. Together on the first. My faith looks up to thee. Thou Lamb of Calvary. Savior divine. Now hear me while I pray. Take all my guilt away. O let me from this day be holy thine. May thy rich grace impart. Strength to my fainting heart. By zeal and spar. As thou hast died for me. O thou hast died for me. O may my love to thee. O warm and changeless be a living heart. While life's dark days I tread. And griefs around me spread. Be thou my guide. In darkness turn today. Wipe sorrow's tears away. Nor let me ever stray from the outside. When in life's transient dream. When discord's swollen stream. Shall o'er me roam. Last savior then involved. Fear and distrust removed. O bear me safe above. A ransom soul. Amen. Brother. Lord my brother Mikey, can you close this with a word of prayer? Lord, thank you for making salvation so clear and simple in the Bible. And making it so simple. And please bless the soul when it dies to come. Please hold back the reign. And hopefully find some seeds and save some souls after today. You