Philippians (Lesson 6)

All right, fellas, very pleasant day, and greetings to each and every one of you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

I'm Brother James, and I greet you one more time and welcome you to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

We are very, very happy that you've joined us today.

I trust that the time we spend together be helpful, be profitable to you.

I hope that you are not one of those who believes everything you hear.

And I hope one of the that you're not one of those who doesn't believe anything you hear if it doesn't line up with something you've heard before.

I hope that you're willing to take every preacher's words and line them up with God's words in the Holy Bible, and then stick with the Word of God.

Not everybody, not everybody is sincere.

Not everybody is properly informed, and some of the most sincere and properly informed people obviously don't know everything.

That includes me and includes you.

And so we study the Bible together that we might learn, that we might grow, that we might improve, that we might be more the man, the woman, the Christian that God wants us to be today than we were yesterday, and tomorrow than we are today.

Now we are studying the Bible book of Philippians.

We have made our way into the sixth verse, and on the last broadcast we began a discussion of what is but should not be a very, very controversial doctrine among Christians.

Christians argue about whether or not salvation is a gift given by God, whether or not salvation is given by the grace of God to those who exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, or whether or not salvation is by works.

Alright, then let me ask you something.

Is it not true that the majority of Christian denominations teach that once a man or woman has trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior and has been saved by the grace of God, that they are still not sure of heaven because good works are necessary to either complete or maintain that salvation, the answer if you're honest, the answer if you're informed is yes.

My friend, if works are necessary before or after one trusts Jesus Christ as Savior, then one is not trusting Jesus Christ as Savior.

One is trusting works or Jesus plus works.

In either case, the dependence, in either case, the final determination of whether or not one enters heaven will be their good works, not the finished work of Jesus Christ upon the cross.

Now we can't repeat all the verses that we looked at on the last broadcast, but the starting place for our study was Philippians 1 6, where the Bible says, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

And what we considered on the last program is whether or not those words are true.

Can we confidently believe that our Savior will continue his work of saving us until the day, until the day when we meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face?

I'm confident that he will.

Many of you are confident that he will.

Many of you teach or have been taught that he won't.

That it's up to you.

Well, let's look today at Romans.

Romans chapter eight and Romans chapter eleven, no particular order for these verses.

Romans eight, let's start at verse number thirty eight.

In Philippians the apostle Paul was confident.

In Hebrews he was bold.

In Romans he says Romans eight thirty eight for I am persuaded.

I am persuaded.

He's convinced of something that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor death nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hallelujah.

Now you might not be persuaded, I am.

I am persuaded.

I am persuaded that rather than live in fear, I can live in gladness, that rather than live in worry, I can live in confidence, that rather than live in bondage I can live in liberty, rather than live in doubt, I can live in certainty because I am persuaded that death will not separate me from the love of God.

You said, Well, of course, I mean once you die, you can't uh sin or fall or fail or do anything wrong.

All right.

I am persuaded that life cannot separate me from the love of God.

Now, how about that?

You said, Well, you don't know how you're going to live.

Uh no, I don't.

You don't know what life will bring your way tomorrow.

No, I don't, but I am persuaded that whatever happens in life will not separate me from the love of God.

Then comes angels, principalities, powers.

Those are satanic forces.

You say the devil might deceive you, the devil might trip you up, the devil might oppress you, the devil might cause you to go astray, he might do all of that and worse.

But I'm persuaded that none of that is able to separate me from the love of God.

Things present, things present.

My family, my friends, my job, the world in which I live, all that is present is incapable of separating me from the love of God, nor things to come.

You say you say, Now, now wait a minute, preacher, if I go out here tomorrow, you mean things to come.

You say, Now wait a minute, preacher, if a month from now you mean things to come.

You say, now, preacher, are you telling me that if if that in the next five years you mean things to come?

Now you can throw all the but whatabouts you want to, and the what-ifs you you can throw all those out there you want to, but I am persuaded that no thing to come can separate me from the love of God, nor height, no matter how high I climb, nor depth, no matter how low I sink.

Nothing can separate me from the love of God.

You say, Well, okay, uh now I can agree to that point, but but what if you see this this uh people that believe salvation is by works, they never say, I believe I can lose it if I do the following.

They say, I believe you can lose it if you do the following.

But so so I'll I'll be honest.

If I what if I do this, what if I do that?

Well, guess what?

I am a created being.

I'm not a chance accident of some evolutionary process.

I was not made in a in a factory somewhere.

I was not cloned, I am a creature.

And so the Bible says, nor any other creature, that's me.

That's you, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I'm in Christ when I get saved, I'll never be anywhere but in Christ.

Nothing can separate me from Jesus Christ.

How about that?

How about that?

Now I don't know what you're confident in today.

You might be confident in your good works, you might be confident in your religion, you might be confident in your self-righteousness, you might be confident in your strength and your ability to hold on, you might be confident in your dedication.

I've I've known myself, I've known Christians long enough to know that confidence is vain.

I'll put my confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now look at Romans 11.

Romans 11.

And with it Ephesians chapter 2, Romans chapter 1, and Ephesians chapter number 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention Romans 1 · chapter mention

Now here's what somebody's gonna say.

They always do.

They always do.

Brother James, if I believe what you're saying, if I believe that once I'm saved, I'm always saved, what's me to keep me from going out here and living any way I want to?

And I'll tell you why that's such a foolish, silly argument.

Because you do go out and live any way you want to.

Sure you do.

If you live right this week, it's because you wanted to.

If you live wrong this week, it's because you wanted to.

God didn't make you live right and God didn't make you live wrong.

He watched to see what you were going to do, and every single day of our lives we do what we choose to do.

We do right or we don't do right.

It doesn't matter if you believe in eternal security or don't believe in eternal security.

You're gonna do what you want to do.

That's how people are.

Now, if you love the Lord, you'll want to live in a way that pleases him.

If you love the world, the flesh, and the devil, you'll live after the flesh, no matter what you believe.

Now you know that and I know that.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2, verse 8, for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

Ephesians 2:8

Okay, we're saved by grace.

We're not saved by works.

If I could lose my salvation once I had it, I would be saved by grace, but I would also be saved by works.

Obviously, once I'm saved by grace, if failure to do good works cost me that salvation, that I wasn't saved by grace, I was saved by works.

That's obvious.

If I can lose my salvation by smoking marijuana, then the way to heaven is trust Jesus and don't smoke marijuana.

That's works.

It's so obvious.

And Romans six says it this way, or Romans eleven verse six says it this way.

And if it be by grace, then is it no more of works.

Otherwise grace is no more grace.

But if it be of works, then is it no more grace.

Otherwise work is no more work.

It couldn't be any clearer.

It cannot be both grace and works.

It's got to be one or the other.

If it's works it's not grace.

If it's grace, it's not works.

Now according to Ephesians two, which is it?

It's grace.

Well, if it's grace, then it's all grace.

It can't be grace up to a point and then works after that point, or it becomes works.

It's not grace.

Come on.

How can it be all of grace?

Well, here we are, here we are.

Twenty centuries or more from the death of Jesus Christ.

And you've sinned every year you've been alive.

I've sinned every year I've been alive.

I've been a sinner, you've been a sinner, we hear the gospel.

We need to be saved.

We need the new birth.

Without Jesus, we'll never make it to heaven.

But here's the good news.

Here's the good news.

Jesus died for all your sins.

Come to Jesus, trust him, and he will forgive all your sins.

Now let me ask you something.

Let me ask you something.

If you came to Jesus Christ in the year nineteen fifty and said, Please forgive me, save me, give me eternal life, believing that Jesus had died for all your sins.

Did he die for every sin up to nineteen fifty?

But not the ones in nineteen fifty one?

They said, Well now that doesn't even make any sense.

Of course he died for all my sins, then they are all paid for, are they not?

Then when you trusted him for the forgiveness of your sins, did that expire in nineteen fifty-one because Jesus had only died for the sins up to nineteen fifty, or did he die for all the sins of all the world for all time?

Listen carefully.

If Jesus died for all your sins, then which ones would you have to commit to not be saved anymore?

If they're all paid for, if they're all washed away with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, if all have been atoned for, if all have been fully paid for, if the sacrificial payment on Calvary took care of every sin, were not all your sins future when Jesus died on the cross?

You hadn't committed any sins yet when he died for your sins on the cross, and he died for all of them.

That's why it's all grace and not grace plus works, because he died for every sin, and the grace that saves from sin covers them all.

Ephesians 4 30 says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Isn't that good?

I'm sealed.

Are you saved?

If you're saved, you're sealed.

What kind of a seal is that?

Well, let's say it's a mark on the put on the outside, a stamp, saying mine, mine that belongs to me.

How long will that seal placed by the Holy Spirit on the believer, how long will that stamp abide?

Ephesians 4 30 says, till the day Jesus Christ returns.

If we say sealed means placed inside something and preserved, well we were placed in Christ.

And the verse at hand says we are sealed unto the day, the very day when the Lord redeems our bodies and takes us to be with Himself, praise His holy name.

Some of you ladies do canning.

You cook those preserves, you put 'em in the jar, you close the lid on that jar, you seal.

You seal the thing.

In that jar are sweet, pure, delicious preserves, and you've sealed them up.

You take them out, put them in the carport, dirt gets on the jar, cobwebs get on the jar, dust gets on the jar.

You go out one day and take that jar out of that carport.

It's filthy.

You wash that lid off real good.

You open it up, and what do you find?

All the dirt on the outside did not affect the purity and the sweetness of what you put inside the day you canned those preserves.

Why?

They're sealed.

They're sealed.

Hallelujah.

I'm walking through this world and guess what?

I'm getting dirt on me.

I am getting dust on me.

I am getting cobwebs on me, but God, God, put me inside Jesus Christ, preserves me there, seals me with the Holy Spirit.

What an amazing thing.

Now look at verse 31 of Ephesians 4.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

In verse 30, he said they were sealed.

In verse 31, they weren't controlling their tongue.

In verse 31, they weren't treating people right.

In verse 31, they had to be corrected because they had some bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking and malice.

But they were sealed, but they belonged to God.

Now he didn't say you guys need to get rid of that bitterness and get back in Christ because you fell out.

He didn't say you need to get rid of that wrath and anger because it cost you your seal, it cost you your redemption.

No.

No.

We don't live right in order to go to heaven.

We live right because we are going to heaven.

We don't live right to earn God's blessing.

We live right because God has blessed us.

Quickly now, look at John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

John 5, verse 24.

John 5:24

Jesus speaking.

John 5 24.

Jesus says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, did you do that?

And believeth on him that sent me.

Did you do that?

If you believed on him, according to the word, listen what he says.

He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life.

Is that what you got?

When you heard the word and believed, did you get everlasting life?

That's what Jesus said.

Alright, let's finish the verse.

And shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.

How about that?

Do you see that?

Do you see that?

If you have right now everlasting life, you got it by hearing and believing.

Not by works, by hearing and believing.

If you heard and believed, you have everlasting life.

If you have everlasting life, you shall not come into condemnation.

You see, he's the author and the finisher.

He puts you in Christ and he seals you there.

He gives you eternal life and promises you'll not come into condemnation.

Now, how can a man stand in a pulpit or come on a radio or sit in a living room and talk to you across the coffee table and say, You're saved?

But if you don't do this and don't do this and don't start doing this and don't stop doing that, you're saved, but you'll end up in condemnation.

When the same Lord that said, I'll give you everlasting life, said, And you'll not come into condemnation.

You say, Brother James, I heard somebody say one time, doesn't matter.

What did God say?

He said, Well, uh now, preacher, I knew a man one time, we've all known people like that.

But what did the Bible say?

John 10, 26.

Ye believe not because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

Now, a sheep believes.

One who does not believe is not a sheep.

That's what the verse said.

Verse 27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life.

When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, did he give you eternal life?

That's what he said.

That's what he said.

I believe it.

I believe it.

He said, I give unto them eternal life, and and they shall never perish.

I believe that.

I am so confident.

I believe that.

I am so bold, I believe that.

I am so persuaded.

I don't think I'm a good person.

I don't think I live it.

I don't think I measure up.

I am just a glad recipient of what God was willing to give me, and He gave me everlasting life.

Verse 29, no man, no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

Excellent, excellent.

I'm in Jesus Christ.

I'm in the hand of God, and no one, no thing now or forever, can take me out of that hand.

There's so many more places we could look.

Second Timothy one twelve.

Second Timothy one twelve, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he would is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

In Titus three, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.

That, being justified by his grace, we should be heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

1 John.

1 John chapter 1, verse 10 says, If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:10

But the next verse says, My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not.

And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, there to plead our cause.

First Thessalonians 5, verse 24.

1 Thessalonians 5:24

Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

Amazing, amazing truths.

Let's wrap up with one more verse.

No one who claims to be saved would deny that Jesus Christ is their Savior.

Now they may believe they could lose that salvation, or they may believe that salvation is eternal, but they all believe they got that salvation because of something Jesus Christ did when he saved them by the by his grace.

So, whatever side of this argument you are on, you believe that Jesus Christ is the one who saved you.

Now I'm going to read you Ecclesiastes chapter three and verse fourteen.

I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.

Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it that men should fear before him.

Okay, since God saved me, my salvation lasts forever.

If God saved you, your salvation lasts forever.

How about that?

That's what I believe.

I believe with all my heart.

I'm not basing it on how I feel or what somebody did or how somebody I knew one time lived.

I believe it because it's written clearly in the Bible.

Salvation by grace through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, we're out of time for today.

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