 This can be so frustrating. If I had hair, I'd pull it out. What has become obvious and apparent to me is the lack of understanding of what salvation is, what it's for, what's the purpose of it, how do we get it? And even more to the point nowadays, can it be lost? Well, if it can be lost, that necessarily means that what was done to get it is no longer in effect. What was applied for your salvation is no longer applicable to you. And if people think about what Christ has done for salvation, how salvation is given to us, they would move away from this point, but in many cases because of pride, because they just don't refuse to see what's happening, refuse to see the scriptures, or maybe sometimes not even know how to read the scriptures because that's an issue sometimes too. There would be no issue this discussion about losing salvation. Now, is it true that you must abide? You must remain. You have to keep remaining in Christ. Yes, is it true you have to keep believing? If you stop believing, then you go to hell. That is true also. Is it true that unbelief gets you to hell? That is true as well. Is it true that if you reject Christ at any point in time, if you lose your faith at any point in time, you go to hell? That is true. But the issue to that point is, will you? Will any of these things happen? Will any of these things even cause what was applied to you to no longer be applied to you? Remember what God has said. Remember what we have with us if we are saved is a supernatural work of the Lord. And out of you, you simply knowing some facts, you simply knowing what, and I say some facts, knowing the fact that Jesus died on the cross, knowing the fact that he rose from the grave and that he ascended, knowing the fact that you can't save yourself and you need to be saved, knowing the fact that you are low in his death, atone for your sin, knowing that if that's all it took, well then anybody could be saved. As a matter of fact, a lot more people than we think are safe, but that's not the case. So before we get into our scriptures or more into it, let me reference some passages and let you guys go back because we don't have time to go through that. Remember what atone for us is our faith in God. And in this case, what we have is a system whereby blood has been given to pay the price and that blood has been applied to our account. It pays a debt. Therefore we can be reconciled. Sin is gone, the debt is paid and we are reconciled. And under the old, in the Old Testament, and even now after the cross, we are in right standing. It's this term that we're gonna hear justify or justification. That means, listen guys, it means to be declared right and treated as such. So we are in right standing or we are righteous. Our righteousness is brought about by our faith, our faith in what? In the blood. Don't miss that point. And the way this worked under the Old Covenant, the way it would work is that this justification, this right standing, this righteousness was only temporary. There were these offerings that you will also have throughout the year, but this day of atonement, you being atoned for and being in right standing is good for one year. And you would have to do this year, after year, after year. But if a person were to die in that time in right standing, not because of what they've done, but because atonement was made, then therefore that's God saying, there is no death that person owed. That person in my eyes are in right standing. And so if God has stated what was owed was paid, then nobody can come back and say, you owe more. That's why he makes a statement in Romans 8, that who can bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Paul goes one step further and says, speaking about Christ, having canceled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. And he has taken it out of the way, taken it out of the way. This certificate of debt, how so by nailing it to the cross. So our debt is nailed to the cross. In other words, we have no debt. That's why Jesus makes a statement to tell us die. It has been finished. It's a perfect tense. And so he has determined that the debt that will be paid will be his blood. And that blood atones, not just temporarily like the blood of bulls and ghosts know it goes one step further, even more so, not just temporary atonement, but a permanent atonement. This debt that God requires was paid. And he does not come back and say, you need more instead. Jesus says to tell us that it is finished. No more debt owed. So now in the scriptures, we understand that mankind, even though the debt is paid, does not necessarily guarantee the fact that he is going to believe and keep believing. And the issue is the keep believing part. So yes, you have to keep believing. You have to keep walking. You have to keep remaining. You have to keep having faith. You can never walk away. That part is understood. The part that people don't get is that God also remedies that because he understands we are not trustworthy. So what does he give us? No longer do we have these different offerings. No longer do we have to have a sacrifice year after year, but instead, what does he give us? Not a profit, not anymore signs and wonders to remind us of God, but instead he gives us himself in us, the Holy Spirit, which is what he says in Jeremiah 32 and 39 and 40. Now he's speaking of Israel. We're going to see this also applies to us. And guys, there's just no way to get past this. And so if you come up with a scripture that seems to go against this, and now we've got a Bible that contradicts itself because you cannot get past this. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts so they will never turn from me. So his spirit in mankind's heart, not just Israel's we're going to see in John 1, Jesus says, it's all of those people, whoever it is that happens to have that, it's been born of God. You were born from the will of God. And so that's whoever it is that has been born of God, Jews and Gentiles. And so if you have the Holy Spirit in your heart, if your heart has been regenerated, God says, this is God says that he will not turn away from us nor will we turn away from him. Ezekiel says the same thing in Ezekiel 11, 19, which is he'll put his spirit in man and they will walk in him in his statues. He says the same thing, he reiterates again in chapter 36 verses 27, I will put my spirit within you. And what happens, ladies and gentlemen, if and when he puts his spirit within you, he says it will cause you to walk. This cause means to make to do. There's no way to get around this. You have to explain this away if you want to. But he says, I will cause you to walk in my statues and you will be careful to observe my ordinances. These are the statements that God has made when he says I will put my spirit within you. We see this also in Hosea. We see this brought up in Jeremiah. We see this brought up in Deuteronomy about what God will do when he puts his spirit in man, when he regenerates that person's heart. Now, not getting towards the issue of does regeneration proceed faith? No, what I can tell you this is that regeneration keeps faith. Forget the fact of whether it proceeds faith or not. We do know for a fact regeneration keeps faith. So you will keep having faith. You will keep abiding. You will keep bearing fruit. He just said he will. He just said he will cause that to happen. And Jesus makes sure that we know that it applies to all of us who have the Son, who have the spirit. But as many as received him, that's the Son, to them he gave the right to become children of God. That's us. And we're sons of God, even of those or to those who believe in his name, that's through our faith, the believing ones, cause this is a part of simple. So we are believing and how are we believing? Cause we have been born, not of blood, not of the will of man or flesh, but we have been born of God, act through and at the time, which means we have been born of God. You can't get around that. Peter says that he caused us to be born again. We didn't cause ourselves to be born again. We didn't do some magic words. We didn't do extra spiritual pushups to give us the strength to make ourselves be born again or to stay born again. That's not how that works. Peter says he caused us to be born again. And then with that, John says that all those that are born again are overcomers. We are told that we no longer have a debt. So when someone says that we can now lose our salvation or walk away from it or forfeit it, we have a huge problem. Why? Because one, Jesus says we won't do so. Jesus described this in John 10. He says that when he puts forth all his own, his own sheep, he says he goes ahead of them and the sheep follow. The sheep, if you are a sheep, if you're saved, raise your hand. Mr. and Mrs. sheep, you will follow him. Why? He says because they know the sheep know his voice. And look what he says in verse five. He says a stranger, a strange voice or a stranger, they simply will not follow. And he is as emphatic and as definitive as you can possibly be. What if Jesus were to say you can never, ever, ever under any shape from a fashion, stop following and follow another voice? If he said that, would you believe him? Well, you're gonna say yes, but in many cases, those that say yes, don't believe that. Yeah, he didn't say that. Well, yeah, he did. In this passage, that's literally what he says. A stranger, they simply will not follow. Well, how is that the most emphatic way? Because what he says is, ooh, may, I call you with faith to sin. A future active indicative is stating that this will happen in the future. But what precedes that is a double negation. Ooh, may says that it will never, ever happen. They, what will never happen? They will never, ever follow this strange voice, but they will flee. So not only will they not follow, they will flee. This is Jesus speaking about his sheep. You know, you and I, those of us that raised our hands and said that we are his sheep, those of us, he says we will never, ever follow him. Why? Because they do not know the voice of the stranger. And so presumably a sheep can do something, a Christian can do something that would cause a new debt to be incurred. That's the only way you go to hell. If there is an outstanding balance, a debt owed by you to God. The problem is Paul says that debt has been paid. If you come back and say, a new debt has been incurred, how? How was that happen? What incurs the debt? Is it sin? Well, let's think about that for a second. If it is sin, that means this sheep or that person sinned. At what point in time does the debt incur? Especially to an amount that causes them that they not now owe something to God. At what point in time do these sins amount to a debt now incurred by God? At what point in time if they, if it's believed, you mean telling me that the person walked away, no longer believes, they believe that Jesus died on the cross with them, all those things, but they walked away. Is that considered not believing? No, because the belief that the Bible talks about when someone's walking away is a walk away from the belief, the noun, attendance of faith, the tenets of the faith, what they hold to, they walk away from that. I don't know if I believe that Jesus is the only way. I don't know if I necessarily believe that he died on the cross anymore. I don't know if I necessarily believe that he actually existed. Well, that's them walking away from the tenets of the faith, but even still, a person who has placed their faith in Christ, Jesus says, God says, the Bible says, that person will never turn away. I want you to consider this famous passage that we typically don't apply it to this, but we should. He says that we know that God causes, he caused, Sunerge, he works with, he causes all things, what things, all things to work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Who is that? That's you or not. If we are here, that's us who raise our hands and say we are sheep. He's gonna cause all things. What things? Maybe it's some sort of, I'm wondering about this. I'm not sure about this text. What does this verse mean? Or I've done something, some sort of sin, something that's coming to my life, some people are coming after me. He says, I'm gonna cause all those things to work, what he says, for good, to those who love God, who are called. So as believers, a sheep, he's gonna cause those things, even the horrible things that happen on life, the bad things, the missteps, the falls, the fumbles. He says, I'm gonna cause those things to work for good. Well, if we lost our salvation, that's not working for good. There's no way, shape or fashion, that you can spend that to say, well, that's for the good of us. No, it says work for the good of those who love him. So when even if we sin, that's why he used those things to discipline us, to grow us, to cause us to get back in line. That's why punishments and consequences come. He's gonna cause those things, even sending somebody else or scriptures or what have you, or just this uneasiness by the Holy Spirit to keep us awake at night, uncomfortable in our own skin. He's gonna cause those things to work for those who absolutely love him. That is if indeed you do loving. And because of that, there is no longer an offering that is needed. Again, the only way that you can go to hell is if you owe something to God. The only way to pay off what you owe to God is you bring about an offering. Either you can do it yourself, which is gonna be as efficient, or God will do so through the person of Jesus Christ. This is why the writer of Hebrews says that for by one offering, he has perfected, this is perfect in so in the past. He has a, it's a completed action from the past. He has perfected for all time, forever, those who are sanctified. That's you and I. That is if indeed we are actual believers. And since he has forgiven our sins and swore never to remember them again, that is past, present, and future. What does he state? There, if there is forgiveness, there no longer remains an offering for sin. There's no more offering that you could possibly give. And you cannot go back and look at how Jewish law works, how the covenant, how the old covenant works, how the atonement works. There is no retroactive offering. What was offered in the past? Well, I remember that offering. And I had faith during that offering so I can retroactively apply my faith for that past offering for today. That's not how that works. And so the person's gonna say that now you owe a debt then all you've done is equated the blood of Christ with the blood of bulls and goats. The blood of Christ that can be temporary and can be forfeited just like the blood of bulls and goats that can be forfeited and it's only temporary. Instead, what we actually have is a blood is a payment that lasts forever and that very same blood that comes with the power of the Holy Spirit keeps us, sanctifies us, cause us to keep walking, causes us to remain, causes us to keep believing, make sure as Jesus says that we will never ever follow any other strange voice. I say this, shame on the individuals that will downplay the blood of God. And I understand they may be honestly misunderstanding the text that they love the Lord, they mean no bad intentions but still shame on the fact that this is coming out of their mouth. The fact that believers would come back and say that what Christ has done in many cases works well for them but not for others. The effectiveness of the Holy Spirit in them works for them but not for everyone else. Stop calling people who aren't saved and then saying see, that person was saved and walked away. We don't have an example of that in the Bible. I wish that people actually understood salvation. I wish people understood actually what the atonement meant in the old and what it means now, what it did. The fact that there is no longer a debt. The fact that when Jesus says it is finished, what he meant. I wish somebody would actually read the Bible instead of trying to prove their doctrinal or theological points and get to the matter. I wish that people knew that what Jesus did was enough. Amen.