Q&A 17: Once saved always saved? Can a believer lose his salvation?
Vern Peterman · May 9, 2010
Questions & Answers, No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492622261083

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We were moving along here in this 15-page handout before I got carried away and excited. I believe we were about on, what's that? That's what I thought, about 13 or thereabouts. I'm going to back up and do a little bit of review just to make sure we're up to speed here.

We had entered a section here that addresses what are sometimes known as the identification truths, the truths about a believer having been united or identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. And so here in this passage we have On page 12, the middle of page 12, reference there to buried. And then the bottom of page 12, raised. And one of the points we made comes up on page 13 there is a massive and unparalleled magnitude of that resurrection life. And then finally in the middle of page 13, The bold title there is Ascended and Seated.

Acts 1 records the historical account of Christ's ascension, right from the presence of the eleven disciples, and then we have it from the Ephesians passage that we reference above there, and also Ephesians 2, 4-7, that Christ was seated in the heavenlies.

As with any process or sequence, it's where it ends That is what counts so greatly. So it does matter that sequence that we were crucified, buried, raised, descended, and seated. The sequence matters. Let me ask you, what would happen if our being crucified was at the end of that five-point sequence? Yeah, I mean, I'd be at a tough place to leave things, right? So the fact that that sequence of five ends with our being seated with Christ is not just a secondary or non-essential point. It is an essential point. As a matter of fact, it impacts our eternity, right?

So, anyway, key point there. It is there in the heavenlies where we have all our spiritual blessings, right? Ephesians 1, 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, where? In the heavenly places, right?

Which is one of the reasons why we don't just randomly take those five identifications and somehow end up with, when it's all said and done, we're crucified. So, important. We have at the bottom of page 13, good morning, the bottom of page 13, this conclusion. You're in, and I have there, I'm being a little bit silly, and the sun with a long U symbol over the U, the sun never goes down. My reason for putting that There is the, where it's translated with Christ or together with Christ, it is either a word or used as a prefix that means together, and it's pronounced soon. So it's either an individual word or it's a prefix. For example, if we're seated together with Christ, that would be either the individual word, S-U-N, as it's pronounced, or it would be a prefix onto the to the verb, but it's together or together with.

So that's why I have that, and the sun never goes down. That together with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding is permanent. That's why I say it never goes down. So why do we go through all this now? It's at the bottom of page 13 there. Because while all these things are taught of the believer, the reversal of these things is never said to take place or even be threatened to take place ever.

Can you think of a passage that, let's say Paul is warning the believers at some church, and he says, if you guys aren't careful, you're going to be taken out of Christ. Does he say that? No. Have you ever come across a passage where it says that the person who sins or doesn't believe anymore or something is somehow unbaptized in Christ? Do we have any unbaptism ceremonies? Not so much, right? If we look at, you've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies, has anybody ever been unseated with Christ?

No. As you look at these things, the number of places where it says that you are in Christ, the number is well over 100. It's 36 times in Ephesians alone. That you're in Christ. You can find that being in Christ everywhere from Romans all the way into the letters of Peter.

But what you can't find is taken out of Christ. What you can't find is someone who is unbaptized out of Christ. You can't find, you've been unseated in the heavenlies. You've been unblessed with every spiritual blessing. No, excuse me, you're unblessed with every spiritual unblessing. Out of the heavenlies, right? Do you find those words? You don't. And that's the thing.

The identification truths are repeated. I haven't taken that count, but the number is well over 200 times. If you look at all the places. I can't find one example of a reversal or even a threat of a reversal of the identification truths. And that's significant. That's huge. That's big. And let's ask this question.

Why does it matter? It gives us assurance. Okay, one thing is we have assurance. And why is assurance important? Because he's God. What's that? He's God. Assurance is important because he's God. Good. Why else? Pardon? You can count on it forever. Good. It's like foundation. Foundation?

It redefines God's character if it's any other way. Ah, ok, this is a good point. You said he's God and you put it in other words. It redefines God's character if suddenly this can go whoops. Right? A salvation oops. You know? You're in Christ except whoop. See?

It is a problem if we are in a place where we can somehow fall out, slip out, come out of Christ, be unbaptized, any reversal, that's a difficulty. Why else is it important that we get this? For peace. For peace. In other words, if I am a believer going through life, and I have to worry about, I sure hope I don't fall out of Christ today. I really like being blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, but I don't want the transmission to slip into reverse. So for peace, you're right.

Our focus is not in the appropriate spot. Our focus is on the works. Ah, okay. Yeah, it is our continuance suddenly becomes the focus and what person does that put the focus on? Ourselves. Yeah, it puts the focus on me. I'm looking at myself instead of looking to the Lord.

Let's ask this other question. How does a believer grow What are the things involved in a believer growing? And not just one answer. Beholding Christ through how? Keeping your focus on Christ. Trials. The Lord is going to use trials. In the midst of that, what happens if I am worried about losing it all? Yeah, my focus is going to be on stuff I'm doing. My focus is going to be on me. Worrying about those things or being concerned about those things is inconsistent with the peace, right? So these things are not incidental and they're not hypothetical. They in fact have a very practical impact upon our lives.

Now, I think there's another reason. Anybody have a loved one, there might be different kinds of relationships, but anybody have a loved one who once claimed to know the Lord and now does not? Know anybody like that? I do. And to sit there and be really concern constantly for that person's salvation can be pretty unsettling. It can be unsettling enough just to deal with the fact that they're not currently walking with the Lord. But there is a place of comfort for being able to say, you know, ultimately the Lord knows, but that person once claimed to know the Lord. And I wish that person was walking with the Lord now, and I'll pray to that effect. But not having to sit here and turn and churn and stew, and worry about whether that person has lost a salvation they once had, is I think a place of comfort. A place of real comfort.

Okay, let's take a look at the top of page 14. The positional ministries of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has almost two dozen ministries in the lives of believers, some of which are positional. What do we mean when we say ministries in the lives of believers? What are we talking about? What ministries does the Holy Spirit have in the lives of believers? He guides and directs us. What other truths are there about the Holy Spirit and the believer?

He indwells us. We'll be taking a look at the list. This is this one page supplement that we have here. As you look at those, not all of those have to do with our position, but some do. Some of them are ongoing ministries of the Holy Spirit. And so we'll take a look at that. We have three bullets here on page 14. He places believers into the body of Christ.

This is 1 Corinthians 12.13. If the Holy Spirit places believers into the body of Christ, can you please tell me the verse that says the Holy Spirit takes believers out of the body of Christ? Can you show me that verse? Go ahead. Don't hesitate. Well, nobody's putting their hand up to do that. Why? Because there isn't any such verse, right? There isn't any such verse.

Next, he indwells a believer, I think Doris was making a point up there, both corporately and individually. 1 Corinthians 3 talks about him dwelling within the whole body of believers. We are a temple. And chapter 6 says that he dwells in each individual believer. So both of those truths are present. So there is a continuous indwelling. He is the seal and pledge of believers.

2 Corinthians 1.22, Ephesians 1.13, and 4.30.

Now, when we say the seal, are we talking about one of those things that goes woof, woof, woof, or what are we talking about? What kind of seal does he mean there? It's the guarantee that you're suitable for his presence in us. Okay. We have seals that we use sometimes, but they're not used as commonly, especially not for individuals, as they once were. There was a time in biblical times when lots of people had a personal seal to seal things. And what did that seal mean? Why did people put a seal on documents and things of that sort?

Right. It's a signature. There's authenticity. This is for real. Okay. What else? It's a guarantee. Okay. You tell if it's been open. A certification of contents was another reason the seal was put on. We have seals for somewhat similar and also for some different purposes now. It can also mean ownership, right? So some of those different things.

Paul puts together in at least two places a seal is a pledge. In other words, the seal of the Holy Spirit is a pledge, a guarantee of what is to come. How good is God's guarantee? In other words, if you think of what's the purpose of the guarantee, the purpose of the guarantee is the one doing the guaranteeing is the one who makes sure that this is for real and gets carried out. Right? So that means, again consistent with what we've already seen here, that means that the seal of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer as a guarantee, as God's guarantee, that He's going to carry this thing out.

It, again, does not depend upon us, right? Alright, now, take a hold of this one-page handout here on the Holy Spirit. We have several passages, and in fact, this is not exhaustive, listing, but several passages that makes the first point, the Spirit dwells in believers. This is what Doris pointed out, right?

We could add to that 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 19, we could add to that the book of Galatians also says the Holy Spirit indwells us. What's the importance of the Holy Spirit indwelling us? Why does that matter? It certifies that we're spiritual, that we're suitable for these presences. Okay, so there's a certification aspect to it. What else? It verifies that Christ is dead. There's much more than that. Think about this.

If the Holy Spirit indwells you, are you waiting around for you know, hey, I need the Holy Spirit now while he's, you know, his schedule doesn't work out for another few days. You're going to have to just hang on there. The Holy Spirit's indwelling means that all these ministries are right here, right now, all the time, every believer.

Nancy and I have a friend who we had contact with regularly in Nevada. She had been raised up in a charismatic church background, where you're always pleading for the Holy Spirit to come back. You know, fall afresh on me, and that kind of thing. And I want to feel the Spirit. So there's all that. And so when we start telling her, look, there's all these passages that says He indwells you all the time.

That was just a wonderful revelation, because she didn't have to go around pleading for the Holy Spirit to come back. The bottom line of that teaching comes from, one, the Old Testament, when the believers did not have the universal constant assurance, but it also comes from the idea of returning the feeling, because in the charismatic circles, getting the feeling is what's important. What this points to is not the feeling, but the fact.

The Holy Spirit is indwelling each believer. It's clear from, we have several passages listed here, but I could add more. The Holy Spirit is indwelling us continuously so the ministries of the Holy Spirit are constant and constantly available. And so that's important. Now, can you give me a passage that talks about the Holy Spirit indwelling a believer here in the church age.

Where Paul writes, you know, hey, the Holy Spirit, he's out of there. You know, you guys are goofy. So the Holy Spirit, he's going to leave you. Now, here he writes to the Galatians. He says, you guys have fallen from grace. But you know what he tells them? The Holy Spirit's indwelling you. You guys are biting and devouring one another. Chapter 5. But the Holy Spirit indwells you.

So the Holy Spirit is continuous indwelling even when the believers seem to be acting like that's not the case. They don't lose the continuous, universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. that the Spirit gives believers access to the Father. Is there any time when you don't have access? No. Why is that? You have the Holy Spirit most of the time? All the time, right? So if the Holy Spirit gives you access and He's always indwelling you, and there's no chance of that being removed, You always have access. Always.

The Spirit has fellowship with believers. Notice several references there. Can we break that fellowship with the Holy Spirit? Yes, we can. Does that mean the Holy Spirit left? No. It's a distinction. There is a distinction in words that we often use that sometimes clarifies it in people's thinking. It is possible to maintain relationship, but not have fellowship. I'll give you an example.

Let's say that Randy did something, and I'll reverse it. Let's say that I did something that just made Randy really mad at me. And he said, Dad, I'll call you when I'm through being mad, and it might be a while, right? Because I did something just really awful. Now, what's happened there is Randy is still my son. I'm still his father. The relationship is unbroken. But the fellowship has been broken, because I blew it somehow. So there's a distinction here.

The Spirit has fellowship with believers. That's God's intent. That's God's will. That's what God wants and desires for us, that we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The relationship is unbreakable. The fellowship can be broken, but it gets broken on my side, not the Lord's side. The next one, number four. The Spirit teaches believers.

Do all believers believe the same thing and know everything? No. No. Why? Why do we say no? different fellowships and stuff like that. Yeah, in other words, we observe that it is possible for believers to be off track in different areas and to have different doctrines and teachings.

Here's Paul, he's writing to the believers at Corinth. He starts off in the first few verses, he says you've been sanctified, in the perfect tense, right? He says in the last part of that introduction, verses 8 and 9, he says God's faithful, he's going to pull it off. And then right after that he goes and deals for several chapters with their divisions.

Divisions of doctrine, divisions by personalities. It's been around a while folks, right? But those divisions, those divisions doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is not doing his part. It means that believers are not walking in fellowship with the Lord. And as Paul says of that group in Corinth in chapter 3, he says, you're walking fleshly. You're walking like a natural man. You're walking, this is you're saved, but you're walking around like you aren't.

The Spirit reveals the glory of Christ to believers. One of the key points here is the Holy Spirit puts the attention upon Christ. among us as a church body and among us as individual believers. It's one of the reasons for looking at things suspect if you find situations where the Holy Spirit is getting all the attention. It doesn't mean we ignore the Holy Spirit. In fact, we've got a whole page here that says don't ignore the Holy Spirit.

But ultimately, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is going to point us to Christ. Well, the Spirit transforms believers. That's what we've seen in 2 Corinthians 3.18. What's the transforming process going on in believers? What does he mean by transform? Into the image of Christ. Transforming By beholding the Lord through His Word, conforming through the circumstances that the Lord uses to work all things together for good.

What's the good? Does it mean everything that happens, you look at it and say, oh, that's just really good. I got in a mess of a car wreck and that's just great, right? No, it means, it doesn't mean that everything that happens is by itself good. It does mean that the Lord's going to work all things for good.

As we go down this list, we continue to see ministries of the Holy Spirit. Now, I'd like us to take a look at number 20, which is the third from the bottom there. The Spirit can be grieved and quenched by the believer. So when a believer is not in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, when the believer is not responsive to the Holy Spirit, does the believer lose their salvation? No. What happens? Pardon? Yeah, that fellowship is broken.

If I am non-responsive to the Holy Spirit's leading, If the Holy Spirit is leading me in some direction, and it may be a matter of revealing truth to me, and I'm saying, no, I don't want to go there. If I'm non-responsive, that doesn't make me lose my salvation. What it means is that my fellowship with the Holy Spirit where the term quenched is used. The term grieved is when we sin contrary to the nature and ministry of the Holy Spirit. So what happens is when believers are resisting in various ways and living in conflict with the ministries of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit doesn't say bye-bye. The descriptions here are grieved and quenched. Why would the Holy Spirit be grieved and quenched? Because the Holy Spirit didn't leave. The Holy Spirit didn't say, you know, that's a little troubling, I'm out of here.

You're not listening to me, we're not having fellowship, so we're done. No. There is an impact upon this fellowship. But the eternal relationship, the position of the believer is unchanged. As you look at this list, some of these things have to do with our position. All of them ultimately point to the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit because of our position. Because the Holy Spirit is continuously indwelling every single believer. all the time. Every single believer. And if you look at where these kinds of ministries, where they are somehow not being carried out, like the quenched and grieved, it isn't evidence of loss of salvation.

It's evidence of loss of fellowship. See the distinction there? And a really important thing. And again, what difference does this make? What difference does this make, practically, in the life of a believer, that I understand these things? Just every way. It's optimism, assurance, and it just affects the person's whole life, I think.

If I am, let's put it in a context, if Nancy and I are in the kitchen, and Nancy sees in me something that she says, Vern's not walking with the Lord right now, I can tell. Because Vern's all grouchy or he's ticked off or that sort of thing. Vern's not walking with the Lord. Nancy can tell.

She doesn't look at me and say, no boy, I sure hope we don't get saved again. And we'll be taking a look, because you've asked for it, for some of the passages that people think mean loss of salvation. And some of those can be pretty scary. That Hebrews 6 passage, if that means loss of salvation, you can never get saved again. That's what it says. If that passage means that, then boy, it's scary.

Once you lose it, you're done. You're toast. But the Lord is not in a position of having us come crawling back and asking to get saved again. Instead, it's a matter of restoring fellowship. That's a big difference. That's a big difference. Okay, let's get back to our main handout here.

You know, the word saved itself has magnificent connotations associated with it in the description of the word. You're saved. You're saved. You're saved. Yeah, we pointed out in Ephesians chapter 2, twice, It's in the perfect tense. For by grace you have been saved. Perfect tense implying permanence. And then he says, by grace you are saved. Again, perfect tense implying permanence. You're right. Boy, it is, he wants to make it abundantly clear. And by the way, later on he's going to tell them, stop stealing, stop lying, you know.

These other things. So the moral issues are not salvation issues. There are sanctification issues. They are the growth and spiritual well-being of the believer who is saved permanently. Here's another one. This is the middle of page 14. Accepted and Adopted. This is page 14 of the main handout. Accepted and Adopted. And this is key in the context in which the New Testament was written.

In the Roman Empire, the laws allowed the father of a family to reject a son or a daughter at any age, even to the point of abandoning an infant or outright killing even an adult son. We have record of a father going off to work, his wife is due to have a baby at any time, and he leaves orders with her, if it's a girl, kill it. We also have another record of parents leaving an infant just in the bushes outside of town. You know, if the baby dies and the animal gets it or something, then that's just the way it is. If somebody comes and finds the infant and wants to do something, that's fine. But just outright abandonment was completely legal.

It was also legal for, and we have a record of this, I was reading one account where during New Testament times, a father killed his adult son in his middle twenties, right in front of a bunch of other men, and nobody flinched. He had the perfect right to do that. It's like he just made a right turn or something. That was the legal environment in the Roman Empire.

Now, while that was true, there were two ways closely related, two ways that a father could be actually be legally prevented from carrying this out. And one was to officially accept, legally and officially accept, the son. Or daughter for that matter. So you could file papers in which he would have said, I have accepted this son or this daughter. And then they couldn't. Then it was no longer permitted to kill, abandon, those kinds of things. And there was, well, here's some examples. Ephesians 5, 1 and 2. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Or 1 John 3, 1 and the first half of verse 2. See how great a love, and to put a little bit more explanation to it, see how great a quality of love the Father has bestowed, and that's a perfect tense verb, which means what?

Right, but implying permanence. How He has permanently bestowed on us that we would be called children of God and such we are. The implication here is He has officially accepted us, irreversibly. That we would be called children of God and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God. Permanently.

It's funny, I was going through the last part of my Greek translation courses when I was going through this verse, and you're sitting there looking up all these Greek words and the grammar and all that, all of a sudden I couldn't see the screen. Because I realized that people reading this, it was a rare and precious thing to actually be legally accepted by the father in the family. And for them all to have gotten this, to realize that the Lord loves them so much they're all legally accepted, that it's permanent.

And here's a father who loves me irreversibly. That was a precious thing. And so as these people read this, here's John writing this, they just were gripped at heart. Oh, to have a father who really loves me that much. I can no longer be rejected or abandoned or killed. What a wonderful thing. What an amazing thing. What a precious thing.

Additionally, the ultimate in legal priority of inheritance, which could not be reversed, was the Roman adoption of sons, which Paul wrote about, we have in Romans 8, 15, 8.23, 9.4, Galatians 4.5, and Ephesians 1.5.

This was according to Roman law. It was set up. Many of the Caesars during the early part of the New Testament era, including Caesar Augustus during the time of the birth and youth of Christ. Caesar Augustus was one of those who was made a Caesar by this process of adoption of sons. It had to be Witnessed by seven witnesses, it had to be approved at the Emperor's level by the full Roman Senate. It had highest level of official recognition and authority.

And it could not be reversed. The person who was given the adoption of sons, now we think of adoption as you have this little baby and you know, adopt the baby. But the person who was given the adoption of sons was often a young adult. If they had any criminal record, that was expunged. Debts, if they owed any, no matter the magnitude or the number, were all forgiven, categorically. As if they were never owed. Completely forgiven and forgotten. that adopted son got priority status of inheritance and position that even a natural born son born at any time before or afterwards didn't displace. So when Paul says we have the adoption of sons, he's saying This is untouchable. First of all, everything you've ever done or owed is completely forgiven.

And there's no way, no way that this can be displaced. You can't do it, nobody else can do it, and it also has highest possible level of approval. So to tell them, multiple church bodies, You know, we have the adoption of sons. This just got their attention like nothing else. First of all, that rarely happened.

But when it did happen, it was always astounding. Here would be someone, it didn't matter what their past was, they were completely forgiven. It didn't matter how much they owed or what the total number of debts were, all gone. and their priority position as the adopted son could never be displaced by anybody. I think that implies permanence, don't you? Do you feel secure? Do you feel secure?

And I think that's God's intent here. God wants for us to have the ultimate in security. not just in our enjoyment of it, in our feeling of it, but in the reality of it. God wants that. At the bottom on page 14 we have their reward, wanted dead, then alive. Where do those who claim that a believer can lose his or her salvation come up with that idea? Well, we'll be taking a look at the verses more particularly, but as a general observation, we're not going to take the time to address everything right now, but the point is this, and I'm switching to page 15, the last page in your longer handout.

While scripture does not teach that a believer can lose his or her salvation, it does teach about eternal spiritual rewards This is Revelation 12.2.

The Lord intends to reward us. 2.12 rather. The Lord intends to reward us. And then secondly, the Lord desires to reward us fully, but that a portion or all of the reward that He desires to give may be lost. Why would Scripture talks about rewards being lost if they haven't been given yet. Any ideas? As we look at this, how much does the Lord want to reward you?

Completely. It is the Lord's intent. He wants to reward you to the max. That is His motivation. He desires to reward you to the full, to the max, as much as possible. And so from the Lord's intent and desire, His desire and intent is that you be rewarded fully. And so if that's the Lord's intent, He doesn't want you to end up being rewarded any less than that. And so that's why scripture will refer to reward being lost. Why is that different from salvation being lost? Why is reward being lost different from salvation being lost? Turn in your Bibles. Let's turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10. I hear this buzzing in my ears. Okay, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 10. I'm going to start actually in verse 9 here so that it's clear.

For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, you are God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. but let each one take heed how he builds on it, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now if anyone builds on his foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. Verse 15, but if anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss. Again, here's a reference to loss. He will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet it's through fire.

Does it seem here that it's possible for a person to be saved completely, but lose reward? Yeah, that's exactly the point. And so that's why we say this jokingly. Some people will enter heaven naked and smoking, right? And because through this test, they will have lost reward and sometimes all of it, but still saved. You see that? Now, we'll be talking about this a little bit more in the main service. But a key thing, some people will look at this and not understand. Oh, wait a minute.

Let me ask, in this last verse, verse 15, was the person saved? Yes, the person was saved. Did they lose reward? Yes. But were they saved? Yes. Where are they going to spend eternity? Yeah. They'll be saved. They'll be with the Lord for eternity. That's not the same as losing your salvation. It's a big, big difference. Forever. Right? It's a huge difference forever. It's important for believers to recognize that.

There are about 50 passages in both the Old and New Testaments that address the judgment for rewards for the believer and or judgment for punishments for the unbeliever. This is where we see verbiage that addresses people, believers and unbelievers, being judged according to their deeds or according to their works. You're going to see those verses again and again because there's about 50 of them. What some claim points to loss of salvation is actually addressing loss of reward, not loss of salvation.

It's failing to make that distinction. We have the next paragraph there. Additionally, while the believer's eternal position is fixed and unchangeable in our daily condition, sadly we may choose to work for the sin nature. And the sin nature pays a wage for that work, spiritual death, which is separation from God, loss of fellowship in our daily condition, but not in our eternal position.

Romans 6.23 is often looked upon as some sort of a salvation or unsaved kind of verse. For the wages of sin is death. That word sin there has the definite article. And so I'll expand and explain. For the wages that the sin nature pays is death, which is separation from God in your daily walk. See that? See the difference?

If you want death in your daily life as a Christian, which is separation from God, lack of fellowship with Him, you're going to have to work for it. You're going to have to work for it. If you want eternal life to be experienced right now, as you walk with the Lord in fellowship with Him, that's absolutely free. That's what that verse is telling us. So, you make the decision. The choice is yours. If you want to have separation from the Lord in your walk, you're going to have to work for that. This in nature pays dutifully. That's what it tells you. But if you want fellowship with the Lord today, right now, to walk in fellowship with Him, that's absolutely free.

There's no way you can pay for it. Isn't that great? So, any volunteers to work for death? No? I don't see any hands going up. I take it you'd rather opt for the free gift of eternal life, lived out right now, fellowship that you can enjoy right now. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for the marvelous, gracious free gift. We can't even begin, can't even dream of paying you back. owe you anything, we never could. But you gave it all by grace. Thank you for your amazing, marvelous grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.