Perseverance and Community in the Journey of Faith

"let's look at second Timothy Chapter 2 verses 8-13 and the question that will emerge is as we contemplate the certainty that Christians that is God's elect will persevere to the end and inherit salvation are there means or conditions or Warfare that they necessarily must pass through successfully in order to be saved even though they are absolutely eternally secure and if so what does that have to say to us who have Christian friends who we would would like to assist on their way to glory and pastors who need to help their people be saved in the end" [00:00:07]

"remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead offspring of David as preached in my gospel for which I am suffering bound with chains as a criminal but the word of God is not bound therefore I Endure everything for the sake of the elect and that's the crucial thing to ponder that they may obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory the saying is trustworthy for if we have died with him we will live with him if we endure we will reign with him if we deny him he also will deny us and if we are faithless oh he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself" [00:01:31]

"now my question is as we read this what are we to make of the statement Paul endures everything for the sake of the elect that the elect May obtain salvation in Christ Jesus unto eternal glory or with eternal glory is he saying I simply serve the elect by enduring everything so that they may come to Salvation that is I may be a means of their conversion or is he saying I do everything endure everything for the sake of the elect so that they may obtain the Salvation that is final salvation eternal glory so I'm not just trying to get people saved who God knows are elect I am trying to get the elect who are converted all the way home to glory and I think it's the latter" [00:02:46]

"because of what follows the saying is trustworthy if we have if we we elect have died with him we will live with him if we endure we will reign with him now there's the condition if we endure to the end we will reign with him if we don't endure we won't rain or to put it negatively so those two are the positive if we deny him he will deny us we won't be saved we will be denied at the last day if we deny him we if we are faithless he remains faithful well does that contradict what he just said if we deny him he'll deny us and then he says if we're faithless he won't deny us he remains faithful to us no that's not what it says this Faithful Is defined right here if we are faithless oh he remains faithful he cannot deny himself he is faithful to his name in his glory he will not compromise his own self or his glory" [00:03:56]

"now before we go any further let's just make sure we have before us some stunning promises for those who are elected Those whom he predestined this is Romans 8:30 Those whom he predestined and these are the elect he called and Those whom he called he justified and Those whom he justified he glorified between justification that's the beginning of the Christian Life and glorification which is the end in glory nobody drops out all the Justified are glorified who shall bring but the question is between these two in this in this right here right in between justification and glorification are there any things that have to happen who shall bring any charge against God's elect it is God who justifies who is to condemn Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that was raised who is at the right hand of God who is interceding for us" [00:05:20]

"why does he need to intercede for us right now between justification and glorification because there's Warfare here for our souls Satan is hammering us if by any means possible he might deceive the elect and bring them to ruin and our making it from justification to glorification is not automatic it's not without Warfare It's not without the intercession of Jesus do you remember what he prayed in Luke 2232 where he said Satan demanded to have you Peter that he might sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail why did Jesus I mean why did Peter persevere even through denial to the end and arrive at glorification because the Lord Jesus prayed that his faith wouldn't fail there's a Warfare going on and to get us who are elect from justification to glorification a war must be fought in heaven and a war must be fought on Earth" [00:06:30]

"so back here to Second Timothy Paul says astonishingly I Endure everything for the sake of the elect this is Paul's part everything this is Paul's part Jesus is interceding for the elect and part of his intercession is that there would be Ministers of the word who' do everything necessary for the sake of the elect that they may attain eternal glory and might not fail to endure they might not deny the Lord Jesus or be faithless so we may be sure that because the Christ is risen from the dead and he is the king of Israel and therefore the king of the whole world therefore the word of God is not bound even if our the spokesman are in prison like Paul is in Chains though I'm in change the word of God is not bound and I am writing this letter and doing everything I can do in order that the elect might obtain salvation which brings them to eternal glory and might not fall prey to this horrible denial of the Lord decisively which Peter did not do but only temporarily because the Lord Jesus prayed for him and brought him to confession" [00:07:42]

"what then should we do for each other to be like Paul one last observation Hebrews 3:13 exort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened none of you you Christians may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin because we have come to share in Christ notice the tense we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end if you hold it firm to the end then you have come to share in Christ if you don't hold it firm to the end if you don't hold it firm to the end you had not come nobody loses salvation Those whom he justified he glorified but don't ever naively and with superficial logic as though you're smarter than scripture draw the conclusion that means are not necessary to get the elect to Glory Paul had a totally different mentality I Endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may obtain the Salvation which is with eternal glory may God give us discipline to love each other well because eternal security is a community project" [00:09:19]