0:00:19.932,0:00:23.166
You know the problem is, we make God out to be

0:00:23.166,0:00:25.107
a very small god when we say we can

0:00:25.107,0:00:27.458
lose our salvation.

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(in response to a comment)

0:00:28.861,0:00:32.409
Yeah, He's not strong enough to keep us.

0:00:32.409,0:00:34.181
But...

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He's not only strong enough to keep us,

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He's strong enough to keep us doing good to the end.

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He's strong enough to keep us persevering,

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all the way.

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You see, you make God weak either way.

0:00:47.857,0:00:50.837
If you say, God can't keep us, you make Him weak.

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And if you say, we're going to make it,

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but we're not going to make it doing good works,

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you make Him weak too.

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Because you're saying basically, He's going to drop the ball.

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Those who bear fruit are the true deal.

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Those who don't bring forth fruit,

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aren't the real deal.

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And they fall out.

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Why do people fall out?

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We know it.

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This has been true of Christianity for 2000 years.

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People start the race and they fall out. Why?

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You've got Demas. What type of soil was he?

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I'd say he was a pretty good indicator of the third type.

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What happened? Cares and riches.

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What'd he do? He loved the world. He fell out.

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Paul talks about others that made shipwreck of the faith.

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Why do people make shipwreck?

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What about Judas?

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He made shipwreck.

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People right in Paul's own company made shipwreck.

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Brethren, it's been that way throughout history.

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People don't make it to the end.

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Christ says if you don't endure...

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So you have it from both standpoints.

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You have the truths that God gives to us

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that are meant to encourage us.

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Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ.

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My faith sinks its teeth in that.

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But you know what, there are some people

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that when the allurements of the world come along,

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they look at that, and they look at the world,

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and they'd rather have the world.

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It doesn't mean anything to them that the Bible says,

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nothing can separate them from the love of Christ.

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They don't care.

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They don't have faith to even lay hold on that.

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They're looking at the worldly things over here,

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and they weigh it out, and they go.

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You know why the true Christian doesn't bail out

0:02:41.146,0:02:44.229
when the trails come?

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Because he wants Christ more than anything else.

0:02:47.795,0:02:50.922
He wants Christ. He loves Christ.

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And when trial comes, He doesn't like the trial,

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any better than the other guy.

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But he wants Christ more than he wants ease.

0:03:01.843,0:03:04.058
He wants Christ more than he wants money.

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He wants Christ more than he wants anything else.

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And so no matter how hard the trial gets,

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even Paul getting beat by the rods,

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and scourged, and in the sea, and false brethren,

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and all that came upon him,

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he never bailed out of the race, why?

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For him to live was Christ,

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and to die was gain to be with Christ.

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Be absent from the body and present with the Lord.

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Folks, when Christ is your all, you'll hold the line.

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No matter what comes, no matter what riches

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you're tempted with, no matter what trials come,

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no matter what persecutions come,

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no matter what pain, suffering, sorrows...

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you'll toe the line. Why?

0:03:42.957,0:03:45.443
Because, it comes back to faith.

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Faith believes in a Christ we have never seen.

0:03:50.252,0:03:53.073
Bottom line: the only way people will hang on to Christ

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at the expense of everything else

0:03:54.880,0:03:57.482
is if they have a faith that really believes

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if somehow in their faith, they've seen in their mind's eye

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the beauties, and the glory, and the preciousness of Christ.

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That in their estimation outweighs everything.

0:04:08.535,0:04:10.985
We love Him, folks, not having seen Him.

0:04:10.985,0:04:13.058
We believe in an unseen Christ.

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You and I haven't seen Him.

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There was Thomas,

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"My Lord and my God."

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And Jesus said to him, "you believe - you've seen,

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blessed are those who believe and they haven't seen."

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Right?

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The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit.

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And if you read you see where that love's coming from;

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it's coming out of the cross.

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And I would say this, that bottom line,

0:04:46.934,0:04:51.178
if somebody is truly saved,

0:04:51.178,0:04:53.598
they love Christ,

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they believe Christ, they trust Christ,

0:04:56.730,0:05:00.033
they look to the cross and they find hope in Christ,

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and the Spirit of God energizes that look to the cross

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and floods that person from one degree to another

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with assurance.

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And that Spirit is the Spirit of adoption that is

0:05:13.634,0:05:15.643
bearing witness.

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And it's that Spirit of adoption that brings

0:05:18.256,0:05:21.770
an inner compulsion now to look at God

0:05:21.770,0:05:24.420
not as a far and a distant God,

0:05:24.420,0:05:26.055
but as a God who is very close

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and who's a Father. We cry, "Abba, Father."

0:05:29.405,0:05:33.903
And so, bottom line is, the Christian feeds

0:05:33.903,0:05:37.076
and finds his strength in Christ.

0:05:37.076,0:05:38.968
The Spirit of God - Christ said that He was

0:05:38.968,0:05:42.804
going to send a Helper or a Comforter.

0:05:42.804,0:05:46.060
And He said that "He's going to glorify Me."

0:05:46.060,0:05:48.269
I guarantee this, no matter what operation

0:05:48.269,0:05:52.105
the Spirit is involved with, Christ is the focus,

0:05:52.105,0:05:55.575
Christ is always the focus, not the Spirit.

0:05:55.575,0:05:58.415
Christ is the focus.

0:05:58.415,0:06:04.479
The man doesn't exist who has true assurance

0:06:04.479,0:06:07.255
from the Spirit and no works.

0:06:07.255,0:06:09.211
It's a strawman.

0:06:09.211,0:06:12.489
The man who in the end falls out,

0:06:12.489,0:06:15.623
was a man maybe who in self-righteousness

0:06:15.623,0:06:20.822
was striving to please God in his own merits;

0:06:20.822,0:06:23.660
he's a man who maybe was a Pharisee

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and he put up a good outer shell show;

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he had confidence in a lot of things,

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maybe in his church going, maybe in his efforts,

0:06:34.198,0:06:36.616
but like Demas, he ends up falling out.

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But I guarantee you,

0:06:38.458,0:06:41.695
whatever confidence he had was a vain confidence,

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and it wasn't a Spirit of God wrought thing.

0:06:44.532,0:06:49.311
And so, no I would adamantly say that's not true.

0:06:49.311,0:06:52.316
The true Christian doesn't all of a sudden

0:06:52.316,0:06:55.480
find out at the end of the race that he's true.

0:06:55.480,0:07:02.442
The true Christian had that Spirit of God indwelling,

0:07:02.442,0:07:08.598
and there was true, living manifestations of His presence

0:07:08.598,0:07:11.140
that gave the believer confidence.

0:07:11.140,0:07:13.325
And where the Spirit gives confidence,

0:07:13.325,0:07:18.186
the Spirit also works love and works the fruits of the Spirit

0:07:18.186,0:07:22.538
and works these works in us, giving us the desires,

0:07:22.538,0:07:26.158
giving us the compulsion, giving us a love for God

0:07:26.158,0:07:30.139
that compels us and constrains us by the love of Christ

0:07:30.139,0:07:31.794
to carry this out.

0:07:31.794,0:07:34.063
And the two go hand in hand.

0:07:34.063,0:07:37.559
Where men and women fall out of the race,

0:07:37.559,0:07:39.299
they didn't have that.

0:07:39.299,0:07:42.442
They had confidence and they believed certain things,

0:07:42.442,0:07:45.545
but in the end it was a vain confidence.

0:07:45.545,0:07:50.423
And I believe the truth is the flags were always there,

0:07:50.423,0:07:54.039
because Jesus Christ says this in Matthew 7,

0:07:54.039,0:07:58.566
"Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness."

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And bottom line, it was there.

0:08:03.658,0:08:05.673
There was lawlessness.

0:08:05.673,0:08:09.146
The Spirit of God was not communicating with them

0:08:09.146,0:08:11.474
the way the Spirit of God does.

0:08:11.474,0:08:13.434
Because they weren't children.

0:08:13.434,0:08:17.886
And in the end, it wasn't true.

0:08:17.886,0:08:20.920
We have a lot of people with vain confidence.

0:08:20.920,0:08:25.079
A lot of people believing that everything is ok,

0:08:25.079,0:08:28.290
but it's vain.

0:08:28.290,0:08:32.161
The Bible never is going to give confidence

0:08:32.161,0:08:34.814
to a person who's walking a wicked life

0:08:34.814,0:08:38.710
to believe that the power of God has ever transformed them.

0:08:38.710,0:08:41.738
They shouldn't expect to have any hope.

0:08:41.738,0:08:43.977
Think about 1 John.

0:08:43.977,0:08:48.433
What are the proofs in 1 John that we're true believers?

0:08:48.433,0:08:51.365
We keep His commandments.

0:08:51.365,0:08:56.318
We walk as He walked.

0:08:56.318,0:08:59.563
We have answer to prayer.

0:08:59.563,0:09:03.467
We love the brethren.

0:09:03.467,0:09:06.506
Basically, you go through all these proofs,

0:09:06.506,0:09:08.612
and you get to the last chapter and he says

0:09:08.612,0:09:10.545
I write things things that you might have assurance.

0:09:10.558,0:09:12.563
And there's no question about it.

0:09:12.563,0:09:15.969
Folks, I don't know how it is with you...

0:09:15.969,0:09:19.969
I look at the cross, and the Spirit of God assures me

0:09:19.969,0:09:22.794
I am His child.

0:09:22.794,0:09:26.826
Then I look at my life and I see,

0:09:26.826,0:09:29.826
I'm not what I used to be,

0:09:29.826,0:09:32.003
and that gives me assurance.

0:09:32.003,0:09:35.592
And then I find out that when I stray,

0:09:35.592,0:09:38.852
the Spirit of God - my Father comes for me.

0:09:38.852,0:09:40.698
And He lays the rod on my back.

0:09:40.698,0:09:42.344
And He brings me back.

0:09:42.344,0:09:48.507
I have found that the corrections of God in my life

0:09:48.507,0:09:52.634
they give me assurance like few other things do,

0:09:52.634,0:09:55.144
that I see as faithfulness to me,

0:09:55.144,0:09:57.923
that if ever I begin to stray, bang, He's there.

0:09:57.923,0:10:00.516
He's on me, and He pulls me back.

0:10:00.516,0:10:03.475
I mean, sometimes that has caused me to go to tears

0:10:03.475,0:10:06.501
more than anything - He is so faithful.

0:10:06.501,0:10:08.091
That gives me such confidence.

0:10:08.091,0:10:09.688
He's not going to let me go.

0:10:09.688,0:10:11.714
I'm in my Father's hand.

0:10:11.714,0:10:18.319
I mean, if I start drifting, He puts the clamps down.

0:10:18.319,0:10:22.044
This thing is real, it's living.

0:10:22.044,0:10:25.123
I look at this thing and realize,

0:10:25.123,0:10:27.137
I need to make it to the end.

0:10:27.137,0:10:30.130
I pray, "God, get me to the end!"

0:10:30.130,0:10:31.881
"Help me to the end!"

0:10:31.881,0:10:35.354
Because I feel that if God let me go,

0:10:35.354,0:10:38.850
I would run away.

0:10:38.850,0:10:41.977
I mean, that's just prone to wander,

0:10:41.977,0:10:44.770
Lord, I feel it. I feel it!

0:10:44.770,0:10:47.485
If You let me go, I'm going.

0:10:47.485,0:10:50.372
Not that I want to, but I feel that.

0:10:50.372,0:10:54.653
I feel the battle.

0:10:54.653,0:10:59.612
But at the same time, I feel this confidence.

0:10:59.612,0:11:02.029
Do I expect that God's going to take me to the end?

0:11:02.029,0:11:03.932
Yes, I don't feel like I have to wait to the end

0:11:03.932,0:11:05.776
to figure out whether I'm truly saved.

0:11:05.776,0:11:08.618
I believe with all my heart that God has truly saved me.

0:11:08.618,0:11:11.737
And I've seen a massive transformation in my life.

0:11:11.737,0:11:14.866
And I think that's exactly what the Bible tells us we should see.

0:11:14.866,0:11:18.725
And on top of that, I've known repeatedly

0:11:18.725,0:11:20.911
the floodings and the sheddings abroad

0:11:20.911,0:11:24.552
of the love of God in my heart

0:11:24.552,0:11:26.624
at sights of the cross.

0:11:26.624,0:11:31.161
I know that He has caused me to will

0:11:31.161,0:11:33.792
in a way that I never willed before.

0:11:33.792,0:11:37.118
I have wills and I have a desire now to do things

0:11:37.118,0:11:40.282
that I never had a desire for before.

0:11:40.282,0:11:42.340
I know I don't love the brethren perfectly,

0:11:42.340,0:11:44.129
but I love the brethren.

0:11:44.129,0:11:46.107
I want to be around Christians.

0:11:46.107,0:11:48.954
I want to be where they are. I want to talk with them.

0:11:48.954,0:11:50.689
I love the same Christ they love.

0:11:50.689,0:11:53.856
I love being at church with them.

0:11:53.856,0:11:57.627
I love hearing preaching. I love hearing about Christ.

0:11:57.627,0:11:59.148
I mean the simple Gospel still...

0:11:59.148,0:12:03.029
there are times when I'm studying for a message

0:12:03.029,0:12:14.150
and I'm looking at the old truths,

0:12:14.150,0:12:15.885
and they flood over me again,

0:12:15.885,0:12:20.990
and I find myself falling out of my chair on the floor.

0:12:20.990,0:12:23.271
Can you guys relate to this?

0:12:23.271,0:12:24.659
This is Christianity.

0:12:24.659,0:12:26.868
This is the living reality.

0:12:26.868,0:12:30.817
This is life in Christ.

0:12:30.817,0:12:35.865
This isn't make-believe.