What we Teach and What we Believe about Salvation - Perseverance and Glorification

I think everybody knows we're kind of moving along in the confession that we are adopting as a church. I finally got to a section that we're going to combine. We're going to combine a little bit of this and look forward to some other combinations. We're going to try to get through this by summer. We want to do a good job with it. We want to cover plenty of material, but I also don't want to string it out. Now I'll go ahead and get you to turn to a few places in your scripture. Now everybody's different. Some of you go back and read these on your own. Some of you want to listen and follow along with your mind and your ears and your heart.

That's okay. We're all different, but you can turn to Romans chapter 8. You can turn to Romans chapter 8, and then you can turn to Matthew 10 and then John 10. It's rare that I get you to turn to more than probably two, but I do want you to put your eyes on a few of these verses. Now we've been in section four for several weeks. This is section four, the way of salvation, and we've really covered some vital, vital information. When I say vital, I mean more than important.

To be honest with you, if we miss some of what we've taught, if we get out of bounds here with some of the things that we have looked at and studied, we really can shipwreck the faith. I want you to think about this with me for a minute. If we tamper with justification, remember I showed you how we could summarize justification with those three phrases. We are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone. If we tamper with that at all, we shipwreck the faith. If it's not of grace, then it can be of works. Then we shipwreck the faith.

If it's not in Christ alone, if we try to add some kind of a spiritual, religious hoop jump, then we shipwreck the faith. And then also think about it like this. If we don't believe and teach the doctrine of regeneration, then we only emphasize one side of man's salvation. Now I've taught you thoroughly, salvation is a two-sided coin. We've got what God does, grace and regeneration. And then we've got repentance and faith, what man does. And sometimes we just can't fully understand how all that works together. And I'm sad to say, a lot of our Baptist friends and a lot of our Baptist churches have moved away from the doctrine of regeneration.

And then when you do that, what happens is you tend to emphasize only what man does. And that can lead into decisionism and all of that kind of stuff that many of us have come from. So I'm showing you how vital much of this is, really all of it is. Now tonight we're going to get to the last part of the way of salvation. And I keep using my arms because I've been using this illustration that the way of salvation is an umbrella and everything that we're studying is under that. Now tonight we're going to cover number five and number six. The perseverance of the saints or the preservation of the saints.

I'm going to use those two words a lot and then the glorification of the saints. If you want to simplify that with two words, you can say preservation and glorification. Now here I want to pose some questions. All right, this will kind of get our minds going in the right direction. Think about this. Can a Christian lose their salvation? Let me flesh that out a little bit more. Can someone who has truly been born of God, they're a true Christian, they're a Bible Christian, can they walk away from the faith and abandon the faith? Let me kind of turn that question around and say it like this.

If we are a true Christian, if we are a true Bible Christian, God saved us and we've trusted by faith in Christ, how can we be sure that we will stay a Christian throughout life and end up in heaven? See how I've turned that around? Now have any of you ever asked those questions or been asked those questions? I think probably many of you have asked that question. You pondered that question. You've heard those questions asked. Those are legitimate questions. They are legitimate questions, but the real issue, the main point is this, that we answer the questions right.

Now I will go ahead and take the shortcut here and I'm going to give you the answer which is no. And then the whole message, the whole lesson tonight is going to be about teaching you that the answer to that question is no. Listen, a born again Christian can't lose their salvation. The Bible clearly teaches that all people who have been truly born of the Spirit of God that they are preserved in Christ by God's power and they will persevere in the faith and they will go to be with Christ in death. They persevere in the faith to the end. They are preserved in the faith to the end. Notice I've already alluded to this.

I used two words, preserved and persevered. We persevere and we're preserved. Now I'm using this language on purpose and I'm speaking to the preservation of the saints of God and the perseverance of the saints of God. We are, they are preserved by God and we and they persevere in Christ for Christ and because of Christ. And those are not just word games there. And I think some of you will begin to see that. Now before I get into some of the teaching here, I want to point out just a little historical theology and this is extremely brief, alright. There has been a question, a rather large debate really among evangelical Christians for eons.

Basically there are two camps that deal with these questions. There are two theological camps that deal with the question can you lose your salvation or not. Even what is called Armenianism or Wesleyan theology, it is believed that it is possible for someone to truly lose their salvation. If you look at Methodist theology, they believe you can lose your salvation. It comes out of Wesleyanism which is a form of Armenianism. The Nazarenes, many of the Pentecostals, assemblies of God lean towards being Armenian, in other words losing your salvation. And there are others. Now I'm not trying to hurl stones at them.

I'm just pointing out the reality, the truth of their theology. But within what is called this description of reform theology, it is believed and taught that it is not possible for those who are truly born again to lose their salvation. Well we're Baptists, so what do we believe? Well we're going to get to that. Historically, Baptist history, specifically our theological history, most of our Baptist forefathers have held to a more reformed tradition at this point believing that those who are truly born again cannot lose their salvation.

You will see and you will hear this teaching expressed with phrases like this, the perseverance of the saints, I've already given that to you, the preservation of the saints, I've already given that to you. You've heard this, this phrase, this term, eternal security or the eternal security of the believer. Most Baptists, Presbyterians and others that come from what's called the reformed view of theology believe in eternal security or the perseverance of the saints.

And you can see this teaching, you can see these theological positions in our church history, our Baptist history, in books and in confessions and all types of theological writings. I remember taking church history and just seeing where everybody was in all of this. As a matter of fact, yesterday I spent a little time doing some reading and some other Baptistic doctrine and statements that just talked about these types of things. Now, as always, I've given you just a quick handout of this position, our declaration, our position here, number five.

I want us to read it and then I'm going to mention a couple of things here and then we're going to dive into what I want us to look at. So number five, we believe that God will preserve, he is redeemed throughout life and unto the end. You see that? So that none who have been born of God can ever be lost, that their preserving relationship to Christ is the supreme characteristic which distinguishes them as true believers from those who merely profess to believe that a special providence of God watches over them or over their welfare, over their souls and that they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation from regeneration, we've studied that, to justification, we've studied that, through sanctification, we've studied that and unto final glorification.

And I will touch on that here at the end. Now, two things before we get into really what I'm calling the heart of the lesson tonight. First these two words. Again, get these words, preservation, perseverance. They both help us here. They both show us kind of two aspects of this doctrine, two sides of this work and I think you'll see as we continue. And second, most of what I'm going to share with you tonight really comes out of some systematic work from John MacArthur's work. I'll go ahead and tell you, I was sharing this with Tommy on the phone today.

You know, I'll take all of my systematic works when we're dealing with these topics, I just sort through them and I look at scriptures and I just kind of see what comes to the surface. And I was sharing with another minister this week, you know, whatever the Lord kind of brings to the surface for me and this week when I'm studying for this, I think this is what we need to see. It's in a lesson format, a message format. I'm not being exhaustive by no means because it would take weeks and weeks and weeks to be exhaustive really, really more than that with some of what we're looking at.

So number one, I want us to see the persevering power of God here, the persevering power of God. We need to see and understand that God perseveres in us as believers. God does not save us as believers to just leave us alone. He does it. I was looking at a news article today and we know the crisis there at the border, all of the illegal immigrants coming in and there was this little news story that some of the border patrol agents found a little boy, I think four or five years old and he was completely alone. He was wandering alone and they, he was in tears and he had been abandoned.

I don't know the whole story, but that's not how God leaves us. He doesn't leave us alone. Remember what we learned last week in sanctification. You see, it is God who works in us to sanctify us. God works in the believer to make us more holy. He wants us to be more Christ like a little more every day. I explained when we looked at sanctification, sometimes we do pretty good and sometimes we're not, but we're still tracking along in that journey. So to me, the persevering power of God in the believer is closely tied to sanctification. You see, it is. Now something we must see.

Whereas in sanctification, we cooperate, we participate in that work in the eternal security of the believer. It is God who ultimately preserves us. It is God who preserves us. We do nothing to preserve and keep our salvation. Now stop here. Okay. A little timeout. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but listen, we must see that if we could lose our salvation, we would. We would lose it that quick because we're sinners. We're thoroughly sinful. And even when we are redeemed, we are sinful people. You see, you just keep that in mind because that will keep us humble. Don't ever think we can just make all this work out.

It is God who holds us and preserves us. Now a couple of things I want us to see. Now we're dealing with this persevering power of God. First our eternal security is rooted in God's love. This all starts in the loving heart and mind of God. His love is unchanging. His love is infinite. It is all powerful. It is all sufficient. And God's plan, his salvation plan for man began in eternity past when he determined to love a people for himself. Second Timothy 2, 8 and 9. "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner." Paul's in the jail cell. So many had abandoned him because they were ashamed.

But share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, and here's where I'm trying to go, verse 9. "Who saved us," this is God, "and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works," no, "but because of his own purpose and grace." Here we see Paul point to this love. God's saving love, God's keeping love, for what? For his purposes and his plan for our life. You see? All of this is for God's purpose and for his grace. Now a question, don't we see Paul alluding to eternal security there? Because what we see is by his great love, he saves us for his purposes.

So if he saves us for his purposes, he can keep us and will keep us for his purposes. Romans chapter 8, verse 28 to 29. I got you to turn to Romans 8 earlier. You might want to put your eyes on these verses. Romans 8, 28, 29. We're going to look at some other verses a little later in Romans. Notice what Paul says. "Now we know that for those who love God, all things work together for the good." We know this verse.

"For those who were called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Now there's a lot here, but there are several things I just want to touch on real quick. First we see God's foreordained plan forever ago. I know I use that term a lot. In eternity past, God determined who he would call unto salvation according to what? His purposes and his plans. And then second, we see his people being conformed into the image of his son right there in the verses. In this statement, we see sanctification and security.

He - that's God - will conform his people into the image of his son. It's not a "I might," it's not a "I might try," or it could happen, "He will." Now how can God do this conforming work in his people if he can't keep his people? See how it all points to that? Now here I want to give you two summaries. I think most of you know my teaching style. I'll take us through some scriptures. I'll take a step back and let's just summarize it. It might not help you, but it helps me. I'm going to give you two summaries.

I'm going to give you one from John MacArthur that I couldn't let go of the last couple of days, especially today, and then I'm going to give you mine. So you might like his better than mine. But let me read you what MacArthur wrote. Just a couple of sentences. "It is impossible for those whom the Father has predestined to Christ's likeness to fail to attain that end." See? If he's predestined to bring us to Christ's likeness, it's not going to fail. And then he goes on to say, "Paul presents the events of redemption as an unbreakable chain of God's grace, God's sovereign grace." Now for me, I summarized it like this.

In eternity past, God loved man, and he determined to send his son to save a people for himself, Romans 8, 29. Now why? Why did God do this so that we could just go to heaven? No. This was for his own purpose and for his own grace. First Timothy or second Timothy 2, 9. So God demonstrates his love for man by providing salvation for his people. Then after salvation, God continues to love his people. How? By preserving his people. Remember our Philippians passage when we dealt with sanctification? Philippians 2, 13. "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." You see? And then Romans 8, 35.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" And then Romans 8, 37. "And all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." You see it? So in his love, God preserves his people. He preserves and he perseveres. He preserves his people and he perseveres in his people because, listen, the Father's will is that Christ would lose none of his redeemed and it's all out of his love. Now the second, we're still dealing with our first major truth, the persevering power of God. Second, our eternal security is rooted in Christ saving work.

This will be a little shorter. Our eternal security is rooted in Christ saving work. Christ's death, we looked at that this Sunday, his resurrection, his ascension to the Father is proof that God the Father accepted the Son's redeeming work. We know that. When Jesus rose from the dead, that was proof that God the Father accepted the work of redemption on the cross. Now something we must see here. Christ's saving work is complete, is it not? It's complete. Although we struggle in our sanctification, we dealt with that, we are completely saved.

We're not perfect yet, we're going to deal with that, but Christ's saving work is a perfecting saving faith. It's a perfect saving faith. So let me pause here, let me say this. Although we're working in our sanctification, we are perfectly in Christ. Remember, we dealt with that justification? We are right before God? Now a couple of verses here. I want us to go to Romans 8, verse 35 to 39. Romans 8, 35 to 39. And I read some of this earlier, and I want us to get some of these other verses that I didn't read earlier. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword, just as it is written, "For thy sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." You're dealing with persecution there. But in all things, in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

"For I am convinced neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now here we see Paul point out many things that could seemingly jeopardize our security. You see? That could seemingly jeopardize our eternal security. He names all sorts of struggles in life in verse 35. Then Paul tops it off by saying that in all things, so none of this jeopardizes our eternal security.

He says, "In all things we are conquerors because of Christ who loved us and saved us." You can turn that around. Verse 37 says, "All things." So you can turn it around and say, "All things can't separate us." Nothing. Hebrews 7, 25. Again, I'm just kind of unfolding this far. "Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them." Here, the writer of Hebrews powerfully says that he, that is Christ, is able to save to the uttermost which means perfectly. That uttermost is a key phrase. It means perfectly, completely, eternally. See?

He tops it off by saying Christ is making intercession for those that He has saved perfectly. You see? Now, in summary, what do we see right here? The eternal security of the believer rests in Christ's finished work. I haven't been exhaustive here. I've just barely skimmed the surface. Not just that He died and rose again, but Christ rose and He ascended to the Father and He's seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us right now. So His saving work is perfect. It is complete. And we are secure because of that. Not perfect in our sanctification. No. So we see this preserving power of God in Christ Jesus.

You know, I thought about it like this. I thought about all of the things that could ruin us. You know, we could make a bad decision in our career and ruin our career. You know, we could make a bad decision and ruin our marriage. We could make bad decisions in the life of the church and ruin a church. I could make bad decisions and ruin the ministry that God's given me. Some of you know about the allegations, or really not allegations. It started off as allegations against the famous Ravi Zacharias. He's ruined. I mean, his career, his ministry, the whole ministry that he had worldwide is ruined. So we understand ruin.

Nothing can ruin our position in Christ. Nothing. No matter what comes our way. So what am I trying to show you? The preserving power of God in Christ Jesus. And I promise you, there's a whole lot more than I could say right here. Now, number two. Number two, the persevering faith of the saved. The persevering faith of the saved. We have seen very, very briefly that true Christians are preserved by God in their salvation. That is a work of God in them and for them, in us and for us. This is all of God, but man does have a responsibility to persevere in the faith. I'm going to say the faith and our faith.

We have a responsibility to persevere in the faith and in our faith. You notice what we see here? Another paradox, seeming contradiction. You see what I mean? Because this, notice the question. Who perseveres in the faith? Is it God or man? Yes. You see both sides. God preserves us. God perseveres in us, but yet we persevere in the faith. We are responsible to persevere in our faith. Let me give you this list of both and. Okay. Both and. I like that little phrase there. Notice, God's sovereignty does not excuse our responsibility to repent and believe the gospel. Both and.

God's sovereignty in our sanctification does not excuse our responsibility to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It's both and. God's sovereignty in persevering us in our salvation and preserving us, it does not contradict our responsibility to persevere in the faith and in our faith. You see? So who perseveres in the faith? Yes. It's God working in us and us working in our faith. A couple of verses here and then this will be a little shorter. Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. I do want us to put our eyes on these verses. Matthew 10 verse 16. Verse 16 to 22. Behold. I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

That's for his disciples. I imagine that blessed them that day. Gee whiz, Lord, thank you. For be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves, but beware of men for they will deliver you up to the courts and discourage you and in their synagogues again. Boy, he's blessing them, isn't he? And you shall even be brought before governors and kings from my sake as a testimony to them and in as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak, for it shall be given to you in thy hour what you were to speak.

For it is not you who speak, but it is the spirit of your father who speaks in you. In other words, God will tell you what to say. And brother will deliver up a brother to death and a father up his child and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. Oh, this Christian life thing looks tough, doesn't it? And you will be hated by all on my account, on my name, but it is the one who is endured to the end who will be saved. Now the verse, verse 22 is the key verse. Now here the situation is simple. It's tough, but it's simple.

Jesus is telling his followers that they will face all sorts of trials and tribulations and persecutions because of him, right? And what does he say? Those who will endure to the end will be saved. Now is he saying they're going to earn their salvation? Is this a salvation by works? Can they save themselves? No. He is saying they are to persevere in their faith to the end. That's the point there. You don't have to turn to this verse, John 8.31, just one little verse. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. Of course, we know that many of the Jews did not.

Here Jesus is dealing with that great crowd, so many that profess to follow him. And here he is calling them to demonstrate a genuine faith by obedience. Obedience. What he is showing them is this. First, those who endure in his word are true believers. They persevere in the word and in the faith. Second, those who do not endure in his word are not true believers. They may have a verbal profession, but because their profession is not true, they do not persevere in the word or in the faith. They fall away. What happened to the great crowds? They fell away.

So this number two, the persevering in the faith, the saved that are persevering in the faith. What do we see? We see passages, there are so many more. The New Testament talks about believers. They are to persevere in the faith. Now how do they do it? Through obedience. They obey. We obey God's word. We obey by following the Lord Jesus Christ throughout all of life. We are not working for salvation, no. But we are working in our salvation. You see? You know I have seen this in so many people's lives that I know. I am going to just use Brother Keith and Mr. Esa. They do not mind because they have openly shared this.

I have watched them persevere in the faith through trials. You all know that they have children that they have adopted. When they were dealing with infertility in that trial, they just persevered in the faith. That is an open testimony, a testimony right in front of us for that. And that is just one little blip on the radar of their life. You see? Now I want us to take a step back here. I want us to take a step back from what I have just shared. It has been a lot of no. And I want us to see two things. For us as Christians, we must see a present reality and a personal responsibility. That might help some of you. A present reality.

There must be a present reality of God the Holy Spirit working in us to preserve us in the faith. We must be seeing this preserving work of God in our lives whereby He preserves us, He keeps us, He works in us. And listen, when you are rooted in the life of a local church with believers all around you, they will see it too. But then second, there must be this personal responsibility that is being worked out. It is being fleshed out in our lives. We must be working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We must be working in our sanctification, persevering in the faith and in our faith because it is a personal faith. You see?

We see those things all through the scripture. All through the scripture. I thought about an illustration that might help you. Behind our house is a set of train tracks. My property on 10 acres is rectangular and it almost butts up to the train tracks. When the train comes by, you hear it, it vibrates. That thing comes by about five in the morning. We are pretty used to it. Now many of you know our story. We sold our house in town and our house was a project so we had to find somewhere to go. We lived in a 30 foot camper in the backyard. It had a pull out. That didn't help much.

But boy howdy, when you were in that camper and you wanted to sleep, man the train came through and you just felt like it was going to run you over. Well, this is a lot like a set of train tracks. On one track we have God's persevering in his people. Our Lord persevering in us. But then on the other track we have God's people us persevering in him. We are persevering in the faith and in our faith. So we've got one track God persevering and preserving us. And then we've got our responsibility of working hard in the faith. And at times we see both tracks in our life. But at times we see what only seems to be one.

At times we might even feel like these tracks are just kind of all coming together. Now we know what happens to a train if we move the tracks, a derailment. But with this work that I've described, sometimes we see the tracks to the left and to the right. Sometimes it just all comes together. But no matter what this looks like in our lives, we have God's sovereign work of preserving us and persevering in us. And listen, and we also have our responsibility. We're working hard to persevere in the faith. Now what's preeminent? It's God. If you didn't have God working in your life, you couldn't do one thing for the Lord. Don't ever move past that.

You can't do anything to save yourself, to keep yourself. And without God's help, you'll never walk with the Lord in this great persevering work. And you might think of an illustration that helps you better than that. Now I want to make a transition. I want to make a few statements here. This is all about perseverance in the faith. I'm going to give you three statements that really help flesh out your understanding here. You could probably add to this. I think this might help some of you more than maybe you know. It could help someone to the right, maybe to the left more than you.

Number one, all who are truly born again will persevere in the faith to the end. All. All who are truly born again will persevere to the end. Now I'm not going to read John 10 because of time. We're going a little bit longer than I want. John 10, 27 to 29. Here Jesus says that those who follow Him, they are His sheep. And listen, they are given eternal life. He says that they shall never perish. And the construction of the language there is key. It is forceful. It means Jesus is saying this. They shall never, ever, ever perish. They shall never, is certain that they won't perish.

So number one, always remember all of those who are truly born again will persevere in the faith. Number two, those who fall away are not truly born again. Those who fall away are not truly born again. First John 2, 19. This is a verse that you really need. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they are not of us. Listen, this could be one of the most important passages for you and for us because so many of us know people who've made a profession. They've been baptized. They've joined the church, but they've gone out.

And John says they go out because they never were of us. So number one, all who are truly born again will persevere in the faith to the end. Then those who fall away are not truly born again. And then number three, those who fall away can give external signs of true conversion to Christ at times. Those who fall away can at times give external signs of true conversion. I'm not going to read all of the verses I have here. Matthew 7, 21 to 22, probably some of the saddest verses in Scripture. Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

On that day, the great day of judgment," verse 22, "Many," he says, "many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?'" These works were in the name of Jesus. These were not the cults, people. Second Corinthians 11, 14 to 15, "And no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light," verse 15, "so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness." Servants of Satan as righteousness. You see?

Corinthians 2, 4, "Yet because of false brothers, yet because of false brothers secretly brought in who slipped in to spy out our freedom," see Paul's talking about false brothers who came into the church there. Galatians' situation. What about Judas? Did he give external fruit? Did he have an external righteousness? He kept the money back. I've often said this, "Don't we know? Wasn't Peter just the rambunctious?" I mean, you know, he was wild. When Jesus was getting arrested, he was chopping off ears. I've often said this, "If Peter would have known Judas was a traitor, I don't think Judas would have lived very long.

He looked that good." So those who are truly Christian remain in the faith to the end. There are some who fall away, and those who fall away are not true Christians. Can listen, false converts, can look the part, sound the part, and act the part, but the false convert is a false convert. Now an important question here. Does this mean we believe in sinless perfection? No. No. Christian struggle with sin, sure, we dealt with that in sanctification, but the true Christian remains in Christ. They remain in the faith. The true Christian struggles through it. See, most of those who oppose this are sadly mistaken here.

They are defending one that's not struggling. They are misidentified. They are not struggling the one they are defending. They've abandoned the ship. They're not persevering in the faith. They've left the front lines of the battle that's called walking with God. And I'm going to be honest with you, I've been accused of believing in sinless perfection, and I've been accused of believing that you can lose your salvation. Because we have so many in our culture who've made that decision. They've been baptized and they walk the aisle, and a lot of times later they'll come to true faith in Christ, and people misunderstand that.

They can misunderstand that. They really can. Now for the sake of time, we're not going to go back and read our definition. We've been reading them all through the messages, but you have it before you. Now notice what we have here. This umbrella, the way of salvation. We have grace in regeneration one, repentance in faith two, justification three, sanctification four, the perseverance of the saints. And remember our bookends. We have God's salvation planned for man. We have election, what God did in eternity past. And then the other bookend is glorification. Now real quick, we're going to just read glorification.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time here at all. What does it say? We believe that the culmination of man's redemption is glorification. That glorification is the final step in the application of man's salvation. That it is the completion of all that Christ has begun in his people, and it involves the removal of even the presence of sin and the lives of the redeemed and the transformation of their mortal, perishable bodies into immortal, imperishable bodies.

That glorification happens at the final resurrection of the believers and that it describes the eternal state of the redeemed in which believers will share in the glory of God and glorify him perfectly forever. We believe in glorification. It's when it's all said and done. I thought about it like this, graduation. Graduation's right around the corner. I remember when I graduated from high school. I do. Now when I got my seminary degree, the degree that I have, I didn't walk. I was busy serving a local church. I didn't have time to take off. We know what graduation is. Glorification's graduation, folks. I'm not going to get into that.

You know why? I think you get that. I think you get that. I think all of the other builds to that. Now real quick and then we'll close. The next section. Next week, Roman numeral five, God's purpose of grace. It ties into a lot of things that we've been dealing with here. Next week, really, it's good. You don't want to miss it. Okay? Now, it's been a while since I've mentioned this. Anybody has a question about anything I've shared you ask? I've not been thorough. There's no way. I'm just really skimming the surface and trying to make application and help you see how this applies to us.

And also help you understand some of the bigger parts of what we're looking at. So if there's a question, if you have one, ask. You can call me, text me, email me, come up to me afterwards. And if you don't know, if I don't know the answer, I'll find it out. Okay? Let me pray real quick over this and then we're going to look at some notes.