SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.
SPEAKER_00: Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delant, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's your host, Pastor James W.
SPEAKER_00: Knox.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Brother James, and I greet you one more time.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he is and always will be the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: I welcome you one more time to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.
SPEAKER_01: This program is a ministry of the Bible Baptist Church in De Land, Florida, USA, heard by the grace of God on this radio station and many, many others across the nation and around the world, and now streaming out there in the vast unknown, the world wide web, the internet.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you who are watching and those of you who are listening.
SPEAKER_01: We pray that God will help you today, and that our time together will be well spent as we study the pure and perfect word of God, this good old King James Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God's word shall not pass away.
SPEAKER_01: And so we build our lives and place all of our hope and trust in the living words of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: We began a study many programs ago on the eternal security of the born-again believer.
SPEAKER_01: There are many groups of professing Christians who do not believe that salvation is by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_01: They do not believe it is a gift of God.
SPEAKER_01: They believe it's an earned reward, a payment that God makes to those men and women who have been good enough, who have achieved enough, who have refused enough, who have earned themselves a place in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We do not believe the Bible teaches that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, as we study the Bible together, we come to the conclusion that salvation is by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_01: It is a gift of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is not of works, lest any man should boast.
SPEAKER_01: We come to the conclusion that no man is righteous in the eyes of God, but that Jesus Christ the Lord suffered, bled, and died upon the cross at Calvary to pay for all sin and all transgression, and that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life, God declaring them righteous on the merit of Jesus Christ, not on their own merit.
SPEAKER_01: And this declaration of God is called in the Bible, it's called justification.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we are looking at are twenty-five places in the Word of God, which all teach, God only has to say something once, but 25 places in addition to our starting point in Romans 8, which state that once a person has been saved by the grace of God, upon their receiving Jesus Christ as Savior, that they are assured of eternal, everlasting life as a gift of God.
SPEAKER_01: Our first passage today and our next passage in our study is proof text number six found in Ephesians chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: In Ephesians 1, we're going to read together verses 12 through 14, which say that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so here's the order in the verses we just read.
SPEAKER_01: A sinner hears the word of truth.
SPEAKER_01: Did not begin before Adam was formed, did not begin before God spoke the heavens and the earth into existence.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, as far as your soul is concerned, my soul is concerned, the starting place is a sinner hears the word of truth.
SPEAKER_01: Second, the sinner believes what God calls the gospel, word of truth, gospel, gospel, word of truth.
SPEAKER_01: The sinner believes the gospel and is saved.
SPEAKER_01: Immediately, the father seals those who trusted the Son with, by, in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So the Father sends the Son to die and rise again.
SPEAKER_01: The Father puts the son to death, bruises him for your sins and mine, raises him from the dead, having accepted his sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: The son ascends to the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: If you will believe the preaching of the gospel, Christ died for you, buried, rose again, ascended.
SPEAKER_01: If you believe the preaching of the gospel, God the Father will justify you.
SPEAKER_01: He will declare you righteous on the merits of Jesus Christ, as we have said, and then give to you the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will seal you, mark you as God's, seal you, preserve you in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's promise that he will keep in his possession everyone who is purchased, or whom he has purchased, until the saved one enters heaven.
SPEAKER_01: The gift of the Holy Spirit is God's earnest down payment, if you will, on the fullness of our certain inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And what you read twice in these verses is that your salvation, my salvation, everyone who's saved, listen now, our salvation is to the praise of his glory, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Under the praise of his glory, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: There is not a chance that there's a group in heaven right now bragging about their baptism.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a chance there's another group in heaven bragging about their patron saint.
SPEAKER_01: There is no group in heaven right now dusting the ashes off and boasting of how they made it through purgatory.
SPEAKER_01: There is no group of people in heaven who are receiving glory, who are seeking glory, or who deserve glory, because no one there attained heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone there and everyone who will enter there will be giving all the glory to God, because he is the one who provided his son to establish a gospel and then was made it amazingly simple in agreeing that he would save the sinner who believes.
SPEAKER_01: And thank God for that.
SPEAKER_01: After believing, you say, Preacher, what if I slip?
SPEAKER_01: What if I fall?
SPEAKER_01: What if I turn the wrong way?
SPEAKER_01: What if I lean to the right hand or the left hand?
SPEAKER_01: You have and you will.
SPEAKER_01: God has made provision for that in the sealing, the preserving power brought by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Your sins were paid for by the power of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Your sins were forgiven by the power of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: You are kept by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that's why God gets all the glory from all the saints through all the ages.
SPEAKER_01: Now move ahead to Ephesians chapter 4, and let's look at verse number 7 or proof number seven.
SPEAKER_01: And for this we need verse number 30.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, verse number 30.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Ephesians 4 and verse number 30, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be surprised, if you're a new Christian, you'll be surprised when you start reading your Bible how many times in your life you have cursed or sworn or uttered an oath and didn't even realize the devil had put the word of God in your mouth so you would learn to disrespect the very truths of scripture for Christ's sake?
SPEAKER_01: That's not a curse.
SPEAKER_01: That's not something to be thrown about as you're swearing.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ, has sealed in a state of salvation everyone who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now let me show you something here.
SPEAKER_01: Watch the order.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a Christian, God's writing this to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a Christian, God's writing this to me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, grieve not, do not bring grief, sadness, sorrow, heartache, pain.
SPEAKER_01: Do not bring grief to the Holy Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what if I do?
SPEAKER_01: Whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: He is not going to break the seal if I grieve him.
SPEAKER_01: He is not going to fail in his assignment, his responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: If I fail in mine, the day of redemption, my soul is saved.
SPEAKER_01: Your soul is saved.
SPEAKER_01: If you trust in Christ is saved, your soul is saved.
SPEAKER_01: Your body is not.
SPEAKER_01: There's coming a time, Romans 8, when God will redeem not just spirit, not just soul, but also the body.
SPEAKER_01: We will be with the Lord fully and completely until that day the Holy Spirit of God is pledged, the word of God is as stated, so you can stand upon it, that we are sealed in Jesus Christ, sealed in this state of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, watch.
SPEAKER_01: He tells saved people to do away with bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, malice.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now listen.
SPEAKER_01: How can he tell a Christian to stop doing those things if Christians didn't do those things?
SPEAKER_01: How can he tell a saved person, stop being bitter?
SPEAKER_01: How can he tell a believer, stop with the anger already?
SPEAKER_01: How can he tell someone who's born again, put away the evil speaking?
SPEAKER_01: If people who have trusted Christ have not yet spiritually outgrown these sins and these failures.
SPEAKER_01: So what you what you have in religion is if you trust the Lord, he'll save you.
SPEAKER_01: But if you become bitter, if you become clamorous, if you become a person of malice, then he will cast you away.
SPEAKER_01: But that can't be so.
SPEAKER_01: Because the people who have those problems are not cast away, they are sealed and encouraged to let the Lord make them better, not threatened with expulsion.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if every believer was kind, there wouldn't be an admonition in the Bible to practice kindness.
SPEAKER_01: If everyone who was born again was tender-hearted, we wouldn't be urged to soften our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Look, here's the fact of the matter.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a man married to a woman, and the two of you have been blessed by God, you've conceived a child and brought a child into the world, that child at age two, age three, age four, is contributing nothing to your household.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, you probably have very few chores or duties for that child to perform.
SPEAKER_01: You do spend a lot of the time saying no, no, no, and someone could walk into your home and say, I don't think that's really your child.
SPEAKER_01: Why not?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's so disobedient.
SPEAKER_01: It does so many things that are wrong.
SPEAKER_01: It it really doesn't act like you at all.
SPEAKER_01: That's growth, not birth.
SPEAKER_01: That's training, not you understand the difference?
SPEAKER_01: The moment you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Bible calls you a child of God, a newborn babe.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me ask you something.
SPEAKER_01: If after twenty years of training and eight twelve years of schooling, and a small fortune of investment, and tears and laughter and meals and shelter and clothing, if your son, if my son, if your daughter, if my daughter says, I don't love you, I don't agree with you, I don't like this way of living, I'm going to go out and do my own thing, and you may or may not hear from me again.
SPEAKER_01: Are you not grieved?
SPEAKER_01: Is your heart not broken?
SPEAKER_01: Are you not greatly disappointed?
SPEAKER_01: Question.
SPEAKER_01: Is that your son?
SPEAKER_01: Is that your daughter?
SPEAKER_01: Why, of course.
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
SPEAKER_01: As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
SPEAKER_01: Now look in the passage.
SPEAKER_01: Look in the passage again.
SPEAKER_01: One more look at this, Ephesians 4.
SPEAKER_01: So there's bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking and malice, none of those are good.
SPEAKER_01: Kindness, uh, tender heart, forgiving others, that that's all good.
SPEAKER_01: The one we're told to stop, the other we're told to start.
SPEAKER_01: Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: The things that saved people are doing that are disappointing to the Lord, the things that saved people are doing that are acts of disobedience, Ephesians 4 says, they've already been forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus Christ died upon the cross, what did he die for?
SPEAKER_01: You say, My sins.
SPEAKER_01: All of them are part of them.
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, all of them?
SPEAKER_01: Don't say it with doubt, say it with certainty.
SPEAKER_01: Every sin you would ever commit was in the future when Christ went to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: This idea that he died for the ones that I committed before I got saved, but somehow he didn't make payment for the ones that we commit after I got saved?
SPEAKER_01: Where did you get that?
SPEAKER_01: You didn't get that out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You got that from a minister, you got that from a denominational handbook, you didn't get that from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus paid it all.
SPEAKER_01: He cried, it is finished when he died upon the cross.
SPEAKER_01: All right, uh, proof number eight.
SPEAKER_01: We are establishing from the Bible the eternal security of the born-again believer.
SPEAKER_01: And Hebrews chapter 13.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 13, if you're following along in your Bible, give you a second to find it.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number five.
SPEAKER_01: Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before I even finish the verse, here's what ministers tell me, and here's what people under such ministers tell me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I just believe that after you're saved, if you sin, that you lose it.
SPEAKER_01: And I always say to them, Well, are you telling me you don't sin?
SPEAKER_01: And in their minds, in their minds, they don't commit adultery.
SPEAKER_01: That's a bad one.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, they don't kill anyone, that's a bad one.
SPEAKER_01: They they don't uh rob, steal, you know, that traffic humans, that uh all these terrible things in their mind, what they determine are terrible sins, that they're confident.
SPEAKER_01: I don't do those things.
SPEAKER_01: All right, well, how about this one?
SPEAKER_01: Be content with such things as you have.
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing with that?
SPEAKER_01: The weather that you have, the temperature that you have, the money that you have, the health that you have, the circumstances that you have, the home, the clothing, the vehicle that you have.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: You're content all the time.
SPEAKER_01: You see, it's not up to you to define sin.
SPEAKER_01: God defines it.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not up to me to determine whether or not I'm meeting the standard or not.
SPEAKER_01: Uh God determines that.
SPEAKER_01: And he just before he's gonna tell us that that we have eternal security, he just points out how impossible it would be to keep our salvation if it were up to us to keep it.
SPEAKER_01: Discontentment is a sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's why God could easily say, all have sinned and come short of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: So let's finish the verse.
SPEAKER_01: Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just curious.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that?
SPEAKER_01: I just want to know.
SPEAKER_01: I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
SPEAKER_01: How about that?
SPEAKER_01: Never, not in a year, not five years from now, not between now and the day I die, not in eternity.
SPEAKER_01: God has promised, my savior has promised, he will never leave me.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: You said, What if I leave him?
SPEAKER_01: You can't.
SPEAKER_01: If if you go over there, there he is.
SPEAKER_01: If you go over there, there he is.
SPEAKER_01: If you climb up there, there he is.
SPEAKER_01: You dig down there, there he is.
SPEAKER_01: He he's not leaving you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, you can't leave him, nor forsake thee.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, may loved ones, may, associates will.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, look at the wording of the verse.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will not fear what men shall do unto me.
SPEAKER_01: There's a promise.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's gonna shall do you.
SPEAKER_01: You're you're gonna get a shall do one day that's not going to be pleasant.
SPEAKER_01: I've had plenty of them in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen people I thought would never walk away, walk away.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen people I thought you could count on when you couldn't count on anyone else, and turns out you couldn't count on them.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm I'm telling you something.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, God's not like that.
SPEAKER_01: He has given us his word that he will never be gone.
SPEAKER_01: We will never look around and say, where did Did God go?
SPEAKER_01: Why did he leave me here all alone?
SPEAKER_01: Why did he forsake me and fail to be my helper?
SPEAKER_01: Never happen, it'll never happen.
SPEAKER_01: Titus 1 3 says, God cannot lie.
SPEAKER_01: God cannot lie.
SPEAKER_01: And so we may, verse 6, boldly say, the Lord is my helper.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's a fact.
SPEAKER_01: From the earliest days of my Christian life, I have had expectations of God that weren't based upon the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: They were based upon something I thought or imagined or something I was taught.
SPEAKER_01: And when God didn't meet my false expectations, I lost a measure of confidence.
SPEAKER_01: And I had to return to the Bible and keep reading and studying my Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And the more I learned about the Lord, the more I realized He hadn't broken any of his promises.
SPEAKER_01: I just had been taught things or absorbed things throughout the course of my life that just weren't so.
SPEAKER_01: And as time goes on, all these decades have rolled by, and those of you that have been saved a long time and lived a long time, you know this is true.
SPEAKER_01: In good health, it's easy to be bold.
SPEAKER_01: In prosperity, it's easy to be bold.
SPEAKER_01: When things are going well in the church you attend or pastor, it's easy to be bold.
SPEAKER_01: But when the storms come and the trials come and the reversals come and the heartaches come, God doesn't change, his promises haven't changed.
SPEAKER_01: We just tend to lose our bold, certain confidence.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what God would tell us.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever you are, whatever you're experiencing, whatever some man, some woman, some group of people may have done to you, you can be as bold in that hour as in the best hours of your life in proclaiming the Lord has not forsaken me.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord has not left me.
SPEAKER_01: It's a wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_01: One of the first public displays of Christianity, I recall, is seeing a billboard sign along a highway.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't remember where, but I remember the sign.
SPEAKER_01: This was a late 60s, early 70s things.
SPEAKER_01: But but it was had on that sign, Psalm 46, 1.
SPEAKER_01: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: And how many times has trouble made one of us wonder if God was present?
SPEAKER_01: How many times, how many times has trouble made one of us wonder if God was really helping or going to help?
SPEAKER_01: I'd say more often than either of us wish to recall or admit to.
SPEAKER_01: You might have an earthly father who gave you stones or scorpions, but your heavenly father, it's all eggs and bread.
SPEAKER_01: Don't put trust in yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Put your trust in the Lord, and you'll never, never be disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we've got just a couple of minutes left.
SPEAKER_01: We have, I've mentioned to you so many times, we have dozens and dozens of helpful books available to you.
SPEAKER_01: This is our the second book we ever published.
SPEAKER_01: And just recently we republished it for the eighth to eighth printing.
SPEAKER_01: But in this eighth printing, we've expanded this book, A Sure Foundation.
SPEAKER_01: This book now has uh many, many chapters on the attributes of God taken from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Not what a religion says about God, not what a denomination says about God, but we discuss in this book God's eternity, his wisdom, his power, his justice, his holiness, his trustworthiness, his love, his order, his creation, God manifest in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And that's just a quick glance through the titles.
SPEAKER_01: Uh this book is well, a sure foundation.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is the first building block.
SPEAKER_01: With your Bible, we take you verse by verse and show you this is who God is.
SPEAKER_01: You can trust him, serve him, live for him, proclaiming so much better if you have a proper understanding of his person.
SPEAKER_01: And so this book is available to you when you visit our website, jameswnox.org.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can find it there in our in our store.
SPEAKER_01: If you write to us at our mailing address, 872 Glenwood Road, Delane, Florida, 32720.
SPEAKER_01: You can inquire about how to obtain a copy of this book.
SPEAKER_01: It'll help you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh get one for yourself and one to pass along to somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for watching today.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening today.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.
SPEAKER_01: The announcement will be all now in just a moment to let you know where you can hear us again on this radio station.
SPEAKER_01: We hope at that time that you and a friend that you invite to listen with you will join us.
SPEAKER_01: Until then, I'm Brother James.
SPEAKER_01: May the Lord richly bless you, and good day.
SPEAKER_00: Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W.
SPEAKER_00: Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptistoland, or our website, Bible Baptistteland.com.
SPEAKER_00: Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.