Introduction:
It Is Impossible to Lose Your Salvation: (Jude 1:24-25)
- Because of God's Power . (Jude 1:24a)
See: John 10:28-29
- Because of God's Promise . (Jude 1:24b)
See: John 6:39 | Philippians 1:6
5 Descriptions of How Thoroughly God Dealt with Your Sin:
- Your sin is Washed away . (Isaiah 1:18)
See: John 15:10
- Your sin is Removed . (Psalm 103:12)
- Your sin is Lost . (Micah 7:19)
- Your sin is Forgotten . (Jeremiah 31:34, Heb 8:12, 10:17)
- Your sin is Pardoned . (Romans 8:1)
- Because of God's Prestige . (Jude 1:25a)
See: Psalm 23:3 | Psalm 25:11 | Isaiah 48:9, 11 | Ezekiel 20:44 | 1 John 2:12
- Because of God's Permanence . (Jude 1:25b)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:50-00:52
Open up your Bibles with me to the book of Jude.
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And while we're turning there, let's just take a moment and pray.
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I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word.
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And I will pray for us to be open to receiving it as the Word of God.
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Alright, let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, there are so many things that could distract us right now.
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And I just ask that we would be so laser-focused that Your Spirit would supernaturally grab our hearts and minds right now to think about nothing else but Your Word.
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We believe that Your Word does Your work.
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That's what You claim, and we trust You.
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That's what we're asking for again today, Father.
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I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
01:49-01:55
We're finishing our series in Jude called "The Hill to Die On." And this is the victory celebration.
01:55-01:59
And if you haven't been with us the last couple of weeks, I want to give you a quick review.
02:00-02:07
Jude was written by one of the half-brothers of Jesus, and he starts with a call to arms.
02:07-02:14
He says, "You have to contend for the faith." He's talking about apostates.
02:14-02:18
Those are people that go into churches and promote false teaching.
02:19-02:28
And it happened even as early as this, and even until today in our church we have dealt with that.
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There are people that want to push their unbiblical false teaching.
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So what are these people like?
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Well, that was the next section of Jude.
02:40-02:44
He says, "Here's how you know the enemy." And he describes these enemies of the truth.
02:45-02:47
Then last week was a stand your ground.
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He tells us we need to be ready.
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They're coming.
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We need to be strong in the Lord ourselves.
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And we need to be merciful because God was merciful with his enemies.
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And it's a holiday weekend.
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And a lot of times for my family, that means getting together with extended family.
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And normally that sounds like fun, but I got to tell you, It's not always great.
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Like, let me tell you why though.
03:17-03:25
This all stems back from a New Year's Eve several years ago at my wife's sister's house.
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Nieces, our cute little nieces said, "Hey, you need to try this buffalo chicken dip." And I'm like, "Okay." And they're like, "Don't worry, there's nothing in it that you won't like." You see where this is going, ladies and gentlemen?
03:44-03:50
Well, I took a bite of the buffalo chicken dip and immediately I knew something was dreadfully amiss.
03:51-04:03
I was like, "Mm, oh." I'm like, "What was in that?" And they're like, "It had ranch in it!" And they start laughing and I am literally throwing up in their kitchen sink.
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You're like, "Why did you tell us that horrible story?" Well, here's why.
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I trusted them, and they deceived me.
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And because I was gullible enough to fall for their deception, there was a price that I had to pay.
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I.e. being sick in their kitchen sink, literally.
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And that's where we left off last week from Jude.
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He said there's a danger of being deceived by these people who have crept into your church to deceive you.
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And that's where we left off.
04:46-04:55
He said, "Show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh." Now listen, they're your mission field.
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We can't look at these people as our enemy and we have to throw them out.
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We have to evangelize them, right?
05:05-05:06
That's where we left off.
05:07-05:13
But he says, "Hate even the garments stained by the flesh." And we explained in detail what that meant.
05:13-05:18
I'm not going to bark up that tree again, but here's the principle, church, and this is so important.
05:20-05:26
When somebody creeps in and they're trying to teach false doctrine, you're trying to convert them, right?
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You want them to come to know Jesus Christ, at the same time, they're trying to convert you.
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You see them as your mission field, they see you as their mission field.
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That's why Jude says you have to show mercy with fear.
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Because just like me on New Year's Eve, falling for the horrible chicken dip or whatever it was, there's a danger that you can be deceived.
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And that's why you need to be careful.
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Because we are all prone to being deceived.
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You see, now we have to ask ourselves, "Well, what if I fall for it?
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What if these false teachers come, and what if their thing they're saying makes sense?
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And what if I begin to question certain things?
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And what if I kind of get caught up in what they're teaching?
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Could I lose my salvation?" So here's the truth I want you to see today.
06:30-06:38
And this is absolutely critical whether we're dealing with false teachers, or battling with sin, or whatever.
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This is an absolutely critical truth.
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If you are truly saved, if you are a true, born-again believer in Jesus Christ, you absolutely cannot lose your salvation.
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called the doctrine of security.
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That's what we're gonna talk about today.
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And you see how the stage is set here?
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Like, wait a minute, what if I'm deceived?
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What if these people deceive me and I believe it and I could lose my salvation?
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That's how Jude closes this.
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He goes, no, no, no, you're not gonna worry about that.
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You don't get to worry about that.
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If you are truly saved, there's nothing that can take that from you.
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Because if you take away security, you don't have hope.
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All you have is doubt.
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All you have is worry.
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All you have is like just constant anxiety.
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There's no joy in the Christian walk.
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There's no assurance.
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There's no resting in the finished work of Jesus if it's possible that I could lose my salvation.
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But you see, here's the thing.
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We think that we can lose our salvation when we start to think that it's up to me to keep it.
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But it can't be up to me, because I fail every day.
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How about you?
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So the only hope that I have of staying saved, and the only hope that you have of staying saved, if you're really saved, is if God Himself somehow holds on to you.
08:19-08:39
Because if God doesn't hold you, hope do you have?" We'd start to ask ourselves questions like this, and I hear this all the time from people, like, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, how much messing up is too much? You know, what sin could I commit that would cost me my salvation?
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Is there a line? Is there some kind of like line that like, if I cross this line, now I'm not saved anymore, like, where is the line? Like, is there some certain sin I could commit, or certain number of sins that I could commit, or what if I start doubting, or what if I have questions about the Bible?
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Is there some kind of a line?
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And if I cross the line, would I be able to go back across the line again if I believe?
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Or is it like you cross the line and you can't go back?
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That's how some Christians live.
09:13-09:16
Just with lack of assurance.
09:18-09:27
And then some say, "Well, maybe God grades on the curve, right?" Then I want to compare myself to others, but that's a problem.
09:28-09:29
That's a problem for all of us.
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Because I can always find somebody worse than me. Always.
09:34-09:41
Some of you are laughing because you're like, "That must be hard for you to find somebody worse than you, Jeff." No, I can always find somebody worse than me.
09:42-09:47
Like, look, I realize I'm a bad person by nature, but I'm not as bad as that guy.
09:47-09:50
Anybody else know what I'm talking about? It's easy to compare.
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Like, okay, so maybe God grades on the curve.
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Like, okay, I'm looking at everybody here and...
09:59-10:05
There's another side of that coin though, in that I can always find somebody better than me.
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Right? Like, look, I'm trying really hard, but I'm never going to be as good as this guy.
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Never.
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And no matter how hard I try, He's always way better than me.
10:19-10:22
So if God's grading on the curve, boy, He just brought the average way up.
10:25-10:32
And I just have to hope that I'm good enough to get to heaven.
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But how good is good enough? And I'm right back where I started.
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Can you lose your salvation if you're truly saved?
10:40-10:41
Can you lose your salvation?
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I've talked to so many Christians that say yes, but Jude says no.
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So let's look at what he says, verse 24 and 25.
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Look very closely here, and then we're going to break it down.
10:58-11:52
Jude closes his letter by saying, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God Our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. And if you're a Christian, this is the best news that I can give you. If you are truly saved, Jude closes by reminding us that nothing can take that away. So if you have an outline, which we always encourage. I want you to jot down four reasons from Jude that it is impossible to lose your salvation. It is impossible to lose your salvation. Why?
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Number one, it's impossible to lose your salvation because of God's power. Because of God's power, look at verse 24 again. It says, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling." Stop there. "To him who is able to keep you from stumbling." He says he's able to, first of all, keep you. That word keep is a military term. It was a term used to describe somebody being guarded or watched over. That to me isn't as captivating That is the first part of that phrase.
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He is able.
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He is able.
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Like, "Well, I don't think I can keep my salvation, Jeff." It's not up to you.
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He is able.
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Did you see that?
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You can't save yourself, and you can't keep yourself saved.
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And if you could lose your salvation, You absolutely would.
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But you see, the power to save is God's, and the power to keep you saved is God's.
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He is able.
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And if you think you can lose your salvation, it's because you think that it rests in your power.
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But that's not what the Bible says.
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The Bible says it's in His power.
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He is able. Did you see that?
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Notice how Jesus said it back in John chapter 10.
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We just went through the Gospel of John recently.
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But I have to quote this passage.
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Jesus said, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish." Look at this, "And no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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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." Do you see that?
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According to Jesus, if you're truly saved, where are you?
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You're in his hand, right?
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You are in his hand and he says nobody can take you from his hand.
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You know, and I like to use illustration.
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If I had something here, we'll just use my ring for example.
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If I just said, "Hey, I have this ring here and if you can get it out of my hand, you can have it." And it's worth a fortune, it's really not.
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This one's not.
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You can have this.
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All you got to do is take it from me.
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there's a lot of people in this room that could take that from me.
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There's a lot of people in here that can come up and snatch this out of my hand.
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But, if I had, say, Hulk Hogan up here, and the ring was in his hand, and I'm like, "If you can snatch the ring out of Hulk Hogan's hand, brother, then you can have it!" There's not a person here that would be able to take it from him.
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And you're like, "Isn't he 100 now?" That's not the point of the illustration.
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6'7", 2 inches from heaven, 303 pounds, whatever.
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You couldn't take it from his hand.
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You see what Jesus is saying.
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He says, "If you belong to him, you're in his hand." Then he ratchets it up again.
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He goes, "You're in the Father's hand." Now, who could possibly take you from the hand of God?
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Who? Who?
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Anybody that would take you from the hand of God Himself would have to be stronger than God.
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He's able.
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He is able to keep you from stumbling.
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That word "stumbling" literally in the Greek is the same word where we get "apostate." He's able to keep you from falling away if you're truly saved.
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It's a question of ability.
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You can't keep your salvation in your own power, and you don't need to worry about that.
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He has the power to keep you.
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So it's impossible to lose your salvation because of God's power.
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Secondly, because of God's promise.
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Look at verse 24 again.
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It says, "And to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy." So He's able, two things, to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless.
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Like when and where?
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Before the presence of His glory, with great joy.
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Boy, I could spend probably four sermons unpacking that statement, but just for today's purpose, I want you to see this.
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When God saves you, He declares what your future holds.
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You see that?
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When God saves you, He's like, "I already know what your end game looks like." In other words, John 6.39, it says, "And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should," look at this, "lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day." Did you see this?
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When you're saved, Jesus is like, "I'm not going to lose you, but here's what I am going to do.
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I'm going to raise you up on the last day." That's exactly what Jude's talking about here.
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Paul commenting on this concept, Philippians 1.6 says, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." He promised to see you through to the end.
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He promised to finish what he starts.
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And your salvation being secure, listen, it's based on God's integrity.
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It's based on God keeping His promise, you see.
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So when I say, "I'm saved, I'm going to heaven," that's not a statement of my ability.
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That's a statement of, "This is the promise that God made me and I believe it." It's God's integrity.
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It says, "He'll present you blameless." Blameless.
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You're going to doubt your salvation when you don't truly understand how thoroughly you've been saved.
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So that's why we've talked about this before.
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I'm going to go through this very quickly.
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Five descriptions of how thoroughly God dealt with your sin.
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We're gonna doubt our salvation when we, you know, sometimes we view forgiveness as sort of like God saying, "Okay, you know what?
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You're a sinner and I forgive you, but don't you dare mess up because I remember what you did." And we have this idea that we mess up and God's like, "I knew it!
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You're a screw up.
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You're unsaved." And I need to remind you here of how thoroughly God dealt with your sin.
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All right, quickly, five descriptions of how thoroughly God dealt with your sin.
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First of all, letter A, your sin is washed away.
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Isaiah 1.18 says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, "they shall be white as snow." That's a thorough cleansing.
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Your sin is washed away.
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Letter B, your sin is removed.
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Psalm 103.12, I love this, says, "As far as the east is from the west, "so far does he remove our transgressions from us." How far is the east from the west?
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How far?
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How far is that?
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It's infinite, right?
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You know what's so interesting to me about that?
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Is God didn't say as far as the North is from the South.
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Do you know why God didn't say that?
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Because if you keep going North, eventually you start to go South again.
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You know what I mean?
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Like grab a globe, keep going North, eventually go South.
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That doesn't happen East and West.
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You keep going East, you will never go West.
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Your sin is gone.
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Your sin is removed.
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Letter C, your sin is lost.
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I love this, Micah 7.19 says, "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." Think about that.
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Using my ring as an illustration again.
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Imagine that I'm on a cruise ship and I'm standing leaning over the edge of the deck, just leaning over the railing, looking down at the ocean.
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And we were actually married on a cruise, a party on back in 2002. But imagine I'm leaning over the railing and there's the we're on the cruise middle of the ocean traveling and I'm just playing with my ring and oh that's unfortunate and it goes into the ocean. What are the chances I'm ever going to get that back? What are the chances? Zero! There is no No way anybody's ever going to find that.
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You can hire the best diver...
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Mucklewood, thank you.
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Knowing him, I bet you he'd put on a scuba suit and go look for it.
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Thank you, Muck.
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But if that really did drop into the ocean, I don't even think he'd be able to find that.
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It would be gone forever.
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And that's what God says, "I did with your sin." Or like on the cruise ship, over the edge, boop!
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Your sin is gone!
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Right? Your sin is lost.
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Letter D, your sin is forgotten.
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Jeremiah 31-34, God says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." This must be very important to God, because He says it twice in the New Testament.
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Hebrews 8-12, Hebrews 10-17.
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God says, "I will remember their sins no more." I can't even wrap my brain around that because I know, I know my sin.
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And I think people, we get this idea that we're gonna stand before God someday and God's gonna say, well, okay, we're gonna talk about letting you into heaven, but first I gotta talk to you about your sin.
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And remember when you did this?
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And I've had friends tell me that.
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They said, Jeff, I think someday when you die, God kind of shows you a movie of your life and shows you all of the sin that you committed.
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And I said, "That is absolutely not true, "if the Bible's true." Because God says He's willing to forget your sin.
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Then we'll stand before Him someday and say, "God, I was such a screw up and I did this "and boy, I really messed up here." And if the Bible's true, God's response is going to be, "Yeah, I don't remember that.
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"But God, surely you have to understand, "I was such a, you know, I had lustful thoughts, God, and I was deceptive and I lied so many times, and then I received Christ, and God's like, "I just don't remember your sin." He has chosen to forget about it.
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And He said it three times in His Word.
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"Your sin is forgotten." And then finally, "Your sin is pardoned." Romans 8.1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." When we receive Christ, we are pronounced not guilty.
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This is courtroom terminology.
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God the Judge slams His gavel down, and He says, "Oh, you received My Son for the forgiveness of sin. Payment is made.
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You are pronounced not guilty." Now let me ask you, who's going to run into the courtroom and say, "Hold on, Judge! I have reason that we should pronounce them guilty and condemn them." Who's going to tell God that, really?
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Who's going to overturn that judge's decision?
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Like, anybody? No.
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He's already pronounced you not guilty.
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"No condemnation," it says.
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So do you see - and I could go on, but I'm not going to - Like, "Well, what's your point here?" My point is this, if I can lose salvation, that means my sin will be held against me.
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Right?
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That means God's decided, "You know what?
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I am going to hold your sin against you." And do you know what that means?
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All that stuff I just shared with you, God lied about all of that.
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That was all lies.
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If I can lose my salvation.
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that if all these things are true, and I believe that they are, it's just simply this, church, God promised to keep you.
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He promised.
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Is his word good?
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I'll go with it.
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All right, it is impossible to lose your salvation because of God's power, because of God's promise.
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Thirdly, because of God's prestige.
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Because of God's prestige, look at the beginning of verse 25.
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that says, "To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority." Whatever the false teachers may claim, there's one God, there's one Savior.
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Jude reminds us, and he has a prestige unlike any other.
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He gives us a list again.
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These could all be their own sermon.
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I want us to look at the big picture here, right?
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He describes as God, first of all, glory.
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Glory is the radiance of all that God is in His being and in His nature.
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Glory is what God radiates, like the light from a light bulb.
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That's the glory radiating.
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Speaking to His character.
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Majesty speaks to God's greatness.
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Opinion speaks to God's power, and authority speaks to God's sovereignty.
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We worship God for the way that He's demonstrated His power, and for the way that He keeps His promises.
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So let me ask you, if God lacks the power to keep you, and if God's promises fail, would He be worthy of worship?
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I want you to think about this.
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Why does he list this?
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You know, the glory, the majesty, dominion, and authority.
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Why does he list this here?
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I want you to think about this.
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When God saves someone, obviously that person who is saved receives a benefit, right?
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Eternal life.
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Sin forgiven.
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But God personally has a vested interest in salvation, in the very work of salvation.
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God personally has an interest in the work of salvation.
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It's not just about the benefit of the one who receives it.
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You're like, "Well, what in the world does that mean?" I'm going to tell you, and you're never going to be able to read God's Word again without seeing this phrase and thinking about this.
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Because there's a phrase that comes up in God's Word over and over and over and over and over.
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Old Testament, New Testament, and when you see it, sometimes I think we gloss over it, but this is such an important phrase.
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And the phrase is this, "For His name's sake." Some variation of that.
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For His name's sake.
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What does that mean?
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It means that salvation is more than the person receiving the benefit.
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God personally has a vested personal interest in the work of salvation because salvation has to do with the very reputation of God Himself.
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You understand what I'm saying?
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Let me give you some examples.
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This is about the reputation of God.
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And I had this whole giant list of examples.
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I narrowed it down to just a few here.
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But here's some examples.
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Psalm 23.3.
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You're familiar with this one, right?
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23rd Psalm, he restores my soul.
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He leads me in paths of righteousness.
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Why would he do that?
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Because I'm awesome?
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Because I'm in need?
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Why does he do it?
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Tell me.
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Come on, more than three of you.
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Why does he do it?
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For his namesake, do you see that?
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That's why God is working.
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Not because of me, but because of his reputation, right?
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And then next, Psalm 25 11.
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Look at this.
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For your namesake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
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Why should you forgive me, God?
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because I deserve it, because I'm not that bad, because I promise I'm not going to...
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God, why should you be so motivated to pardon my horrible sin?
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Why, God, why?
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Do you see how He appeals?
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It's because of who you are.
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It's because of your reputation.
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It's because of what salvation means to you, right?
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Isaiah 48 verses 9 and 11, it says, this is the Lord speaking, He says, "For my name's sake I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise I restrain it for you that I may not cut you off." Then verse 11, "For my own sake, for my own sake I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another." Do you see? God's stressing a point. Why am I doing what I'm doing? It's not because of you, it's Ezekiel 20 verse 44, "And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for My name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God." You're like, "That's very Old Testament." Pastor Jeff, do you have anything from the New Testament?
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What about 1 John 2.12?
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This one statement really sums it up.
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As John writes, "I am writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven." Why? Why are your sins forgiven?
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Do you see it? Say it. Say it.
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"For His name's sake." Do you see that?
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God has His reputation attached to His work.
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And here's the point. Listen closely, please.
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God works for His glory and for our good. Both.
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But, the Bible puts the priority on God's interest over ours as the basis of His action.
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In other words, God's actions are based on and motivated by His glory, not us.
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Or to put it another way, you being saved says nothing about you, but it says everything about God.
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So God saving people speaks to how awesome He is, His prestige, so He will keep you, He will fulfill His promise to you all the way to the end because that's what brings Him glory.
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It's impossible for you to lose your salvation because of God's prestige, right?
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It's not about you.
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We are the recipients of the most awesome benefit.
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Salvation is about God's glory, and that's why He's going to keep you.
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And finally, number four, because of God's permanence.
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It's impossible to lose your salvation because of God's power, because of God's promise, because of God's prestige, and finally because of God's permanence.
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Look at the end of verse 25.
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He says, "Before all time and now and forever, Amen." That's pretty simple, isn't it?
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This is all time, right?
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Past, present, and future.
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God's plan will be carried out because God doesn't change.
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You see that?
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When God saved you, He made a promise to keep you.
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And it's not as if God's gonna change His mind about that.
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God adopted you as His child in Christ, and you don't have to worry that tomorrow God's going to take you back to the adoption agency and say, "Hey, sorry, it's just not working out.
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"I'm gonna have to give her back." That's not how He works.
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Because He doesn't change.
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He goes, "Look, did I make a promise to save you Did I make a promise to pronounce you righteous and holy in Christ?
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Did I make a promise to keep you?
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Did I make a promise to someday present you blameless in heaven?
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I'm standing by that promise.
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God's not like us, where we change our minds and we're so fickle and we change.
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God's not like that.
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He doesn't change.
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His word doesn't change.
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His promise to keep you doesn't change.
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His power doesn't change, and His motivation of His glory, that will not change.
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So when you fully embrace this truth, that in Christ your salvation is a done deal, you're free to be who God called you to be.
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You're free to do the work that God has prepared for you.
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free to pray, and you're free to worship, and you're free to love others, even apostates, without fear of messing up, without fear of getting kicked out of the family, without fear of somehow doing something so bad that you forfeited heaven.
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It's not going to happen.
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So listen, if you're a believer and you've been plagued with doubt, and I know a lot of believers are. Now's the time to confess that. And now's the time to receive the truth of God's Word and joyfully live in the power and the promise of God. To His glory. Forever.
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I'd like the worship team to come back up please. I'm going to lead us in a prayer and I'd like you to bow your heads with me.
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Because I know, church, so many times over the years I've had people come to me, and this is the thing they struggle with.
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And I'd just like you to bow your heads.
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If this is you, if you're like, man, this is the thing that I'm struggling with right now.
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I do believe that I sincerely receive Christ, but I just, I don't know, I think I forfeited that.
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Listen, it's time to take God at His Word.
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It's time to confess this truth before Him.
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That Father, there are times that I doubt.
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Because I recognize my own sinfulness and my own waywardness, and I look at Your holiness, and I start to compare myself with others, And Father, I start to wonder if I truly lost my salvation that I knew that I had.
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Today, no matter what I've thought in the past or what I've wrestled with, Father, today I embrace your promise.
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You have promised to keep me in your power, and God, I believe that.
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I believe that it's not up to me and it can't be up to me.
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Father, I receive that today.
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Salvation is based on Your power, it's based on Your promise, God.
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It's Your integrity, God. It speaks to who You are.
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It's based on Your prestige, God.
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That my salvation isn't even really about me.
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It doesn't even speak anything about me, but it says much about You.
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And God, we rest in the truth that You never change.
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We don't have to worry that next week, Jeff or Rich or Matt or somebody from the church is going to stand up and say, "Hey, we got new information.
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God's changed His terms and conditions." We don't worry about that.
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Because You've told us this is forever.
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So Father, I pray that we would be a church that has a humble confidence before You.
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Yes, confident in Your power and the truth of Your Word, but humble, knowing that it's not anything in or of us.
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But Father, as we embrace this humble confidence and turn from Your Word to proclaiming how we feel about You in song.
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Father, I pray now we would lift our voices and truly celebrate the joy that comes from knowing that once we belong to You, there is not a force in the universe that can take that away.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Jude 1:24-25
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What do you think makes true Christians doubt their salvation?
Have you ever doubted your salvation? Why? How did that situation resolve?
Can a true Christian ever become apostate? Why or why not?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
