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CPC Sunday School | Holy Spirit #6 (Jeremy Seekamp)
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The speaker begins by praying and thanking God for the opportunity to explore the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation. They share their childhood experience of not hearing much about the Holy Spirit and how they appreciate learning more about it now. They review the order of salvation and emphasize the role of the Holy Spirit in each step. They discuss the importance of perseverance in the believer's life and the controversy between Arminians and Calvinists on this topic. They explain the concept of preservation of the saints and the active participation required from believers. They also discuss the unbreakable bond between believers and God and the role of the Holy Spirit in preserving them. The speaker quotes the Westminster Confession of Faith and explains the means of perseverance and the consequences of neglecting them. They end by discussing how believers can grieve the Holy Spirit by not living according to the grace and power given to them. All right, well, let's go ahead and pray before we get started. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity to gather together to explore what you have done in purchasing for us our salvation and also for sending the Comforter to us. We thank you for helping us to be preserved by Him, and we pray that you would help me to be preserved in this presentation, that I would give you glory, and that we would all glorify you the more as a result of what we're hearing. Pray all these things in Jesus' name. Okay. So for the last few weeks, we've been looking at order salutis, which means the order of salvation. And more specifically, we've been looking at the work of the Holy Spirit and His role in our salvation, in the salvation of the believer. And I've really been enjoying this series for a number of reasons, but one reason in particular, I remember as a child, I remember hearing so much about the work of the Father and what He has done and the work of the Son and what He has done and what He's purchased for us and what He's doing on our behalf. But I really don't remember very much as a child hearing a lot about the Holy Spirit. And I don't know if that was your experience as well, but I think sometimes in the Reformed community, we have an overreaction to the way that some denominations put an overemphasis on the Holy Spirit, and we miss out because of that. And I remember specifically a story of my childhood when I was about like nine or ten years old, and we had our cousins over. And as we normally would, we were doing family worship together and our cousins were there. And previous to that, we had been playing some computer games together. It was obviously 2D because that was a long time ago, but we would do that every time our cousins would come over. We would play computer games, and then we would do family worship together. And I remember my father was, he spent a lot of time in family worship, which was wonderful. But as a seven or as a eight, nine, ten-year-old, 45 minutes of family worship was tough to sit through. So my cousins were not accustomed to this, and I remember about 40 or so minutes in, my cousin just raises his hand and he goes, look, I've already asked Jesus into my heart, and the Spirit is leading me to go back to play the computer games. And I remember just looking at my older brother and being like, oh boy, it's about to go down because that, you know, we're going to spend the next 15 minutes discussing, okay, asking Jesus into your heart, let's go through that. And then the Spirit is leading you, interesting, interesting. So my experience with just conversation about the Holy Spirit, I really enjoyed this series because we're really getting in depth, and it's been really, really interesting to see. So there's just so much revelation about what the Spirit does and how He works, and I'm really thankful that I got to talk to you today about that this morning. But before I talk about the Holy Spirit's work in the perseverance of the saints, let's kind of review some of those things that we've already discussed for those who may not have been with us for the first part. So I'm just going to go through just what is the order salutis, oh, that's a little cut off. The order salutis, or order of salvation, is a theological framework that describes the process by which God saves His people. The Reformed belief emphasizes the sovereignty of God in salvation and understands that each step in the order salutis is an act or continuing work of God's grace. So let's review election. Election is the first step in the order salutis and refers to God's sovereign choice to save a particular people. Election is based solely on God's free and unmerited grace rather than any foreseen merit or virtue in human beings. Those who are elected by God are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ and are guaranteed to be saved. Okay, effectual calling. Effectual calling is the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about the salvation of the elect. Effectual calling is a sovereign work of God's grace and is irresistible. Through effectual calling, the Holy Spirit opens the hearts of the elect to the gospel, giving them the ability to repent and believe. Effectual calling is a crucial step in the order salutis, and it highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in bringing about salvation. Effectual calling is a sovereign work of God's grace and is irresistible, so if you are called, you will come. But really important here is that effectual calling does not negate human effort. Rather it empowers and motivates believers to pursue holiness in their hearts. So here's a quote from Sinclair Ferguson on effectual calling. The Spirit's work in effectual calling leads to the believer's obedience to the gospel. This obedience involves a wholehearted turning to God from sin and trusting in Christ alone for salvation. This turning is not merely an intellectual ascent to the truth of the gospel, but a life-changing response that is marked by faith and repentance. And yet, even as we strive to obey God and live a holy life, we do so with the knowledge that it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to do so. Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit in giving new life to the elect, and is a necessary precondition for faith and repentance. The Reformed view emphasizes that regeneration is a sovereign work of God's grace and precedes faith and repentance. Through regeneration, the Holy Spirit gives the elect a new heart and a new nature, enabling them to respond in faith and obedience to the gospel. Regeneration is another crucial step in the Ordo Salutis, as it highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in giving new life to the elect. This step emphasizes that salvation is not a result of a human decision or our own effort, but it is the work of God's grace through the Holy Spirit. Justification, and we just heard about this, justification is a legal declaration by God that a person is righteous, based solely on the merits of Jesus Christ. It is a one-time event that occurs at the moment of faith and is not based on any works or merits of the believer. Justification is imputed to the believer, meaning that Christ's righteousness is credited to their account. The believer is therefore declared to be fully righteous in God's sight and is no longer under condemnation. So this is a legal declaration by God, not a process of becoming righteous through works. Christ's work is central in achieving this justification for us, and this justification imputed to us is a free gift through faith. This gives us assurance and confidence that we are no longer under condemnation and that we have been fully declared righteous in God's sight. Adoption. Adoption is a legal and relational change that occurs when a person is justified and united to Christ by faith. It involves being legally declared a child of God and receiving all the rights and privileges that come with that status. It also involves a relational change as the believer is brought into a new family and given a new identity as a beloved child of God. Adoption is not simply a metaphorical or spiritual concept, but a concrete reality that involves a legal and relational change in the believer's status with God. We have entered into an intimate relationship with God as our Father, and we have a new sense of security and identity as a result. Sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which believers are progressively conformed to the image of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a lifelong process that involves both the believer's active cooperation and the Holy Spirit's work in transforming them. Sanctification is rooted in the believer's union with Christ and involves a continual putting off of the old man and putting on of the new man. So it's an ongoing process and requires our active participation. Without union with Christ, our participation will not happen. We will not participate. He is the one who sends the Spirit, and true transformation cannot happen apart from that sending. Completion of the process of sanctification is not necessary for salvation. We do not believe that we will be completely sanctified in this life. However, sanctification in our lives is an evidence of a changed heart and is necessary for living a life that is pleasing to God. While our cooperation in this process of sanctification is important, we recognize that ultimately it is the work of the Holy Spirit that brings about true transformation in our lives. Okay. So if there are any questions on any of this, these are the people you need to contact because those were their presentations, not mine. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I can go back if you guys need me. So now we're going to move into what the Shorter Catechism says about what flows from all the things that we just talked about. So the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, what are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification? The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification are assurances of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase in grace, and perseverance there into the end. Now hopefully at some point we'll get to talk about all of those other things, but I'm going to focus specifically on perseverance there into the end. That's the portion that I'm going to look at. Okay. Perseverance of the saints. So I just pulled this definition of perseverance from a bunch of different dictionaries just so we could get an idea of what maybe if you were to say perseverance, what most people would think if they didn't have the context that we have for perseverance of the saints. So perseverance is the quality of those who persevere, continue to or try to achieve something despite difficulty or discouragement. Perseverance can also refer to the act of persevering, as in only through hard work and perseverance will we be able to achieve our goal. It will not be easy. The word is typically used in a positive way to refer to the quality of someone who doesn't give up no matter what. A person who keeps trying despite major challenges and setbacks is said to show perseverance. So again, if you were just to mention perseverance to someone out on the street, this is what they're going to be thinking. They're going to be thinking, I can do this. I can do this. So if you notice those who persevere, will we be able to achieve our goal? Someone who doesn't and a person who keeps trying, right? So another way to think about this, if you're talking to someone and you say perseverance of the saints, another way to think about it is to think about it in terms of preservation. And this is a quote from R.C. Sproul on preservation versus perseverance. I believe, of course, that saints do persevere in faith and that those who have been affectionately called by God are and reborn by the power of the Holy Spirit endure to the end. They do persevere, but not simply because they are so diligent in making use of the mercies of God. The only reason we can give for why we continue in faith until the last day is not because we have persevered so much, but because we have been preserved. So I prefer the term preservation of the saints because the process by which we are kept in the state of grace is something accomplished by God. So does that mean there's no room for human effort then? It's all accomplished by God. So there's no point in us thinking of ourselves as having any human effort involved. No, perseverance is not a passive experience for the believer, but requires active engagement and participation in the means of grace. The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers and enables believers to persevere. But this does not negate the importance of our cooperation in his work. Believers are responsible for their own sanctification and must make every effort to grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. God's grace is not opposed to our effort, but it is opposed to earning. We cannot earn our salvation or merit God's favor, but we must actively participate in the work of the sanctification that God has called us to. So a proof text for this is Philippians 2, 12 through 13, if someone could look that up, that'd be great if someone could read that for me. Anyone have it? Go for it. Right. So yeah, we can see here that it is not through human effort, but it is God who works in you, but we are also supposed to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. So human effort is involved. Our participation is required in this perseverance. So there is some controversy, as you may well know, naturally, there's been some controversy of the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. Actually for centuries, there has been a point of debate between Arminians and Calvinists. Arminians believe that true believers can fall away from salvation if they do not continue in faith and obedience, whereas in the Calvinist reformed theology, true believers will persevere in faith and good works until the end of their lives, demonstrating the reality of their salvation. So in this controversy, the proof text for the Calvinist view is Romans 8, 28 through 30, and if someone could grab that, that'd be great. So Paul is building this chain, and it's sometimes called the golden chain. Where these things are all tied together, that those who are predestined will also be glorified. It's just chained together there. So this is a diagram, but it's actually a very bad rendering. You can't really see it very well, but this is the golden chain. We have election here. This is the reformed Calvinistic point of view. We have election, calling, regeneration, conversion, justification, sanctification, glorification, and those are all on top. Elect believers, this all happens. And then for the non-elect, there is a general call, but they reject that, and they're in eternal damnation. So they never get above this line. The non-elect are always below this line because they reject God. They will reject God because the Holy Spirit will not come to them. And then here's the Arminian point of view, and it's that we can have these people who are saved, but then it's possible for a believer to fall from salvation. So Arminians believe that a believer can fall away from salvation if they do not continue in faith and obedience. We reject this notion that our salvation depends on our obedience. Instead, we believe that true believers will persevere in faith and good works until the end of their lives, because Christ has prayed for us, and he has sent the Holy Spirit to preserve us. So let's look at what the Westminster Confession of Faith says about perseverance of the saints. They whom God hath accepted in his beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end. And be eternally saved. So John 10, 28 through 29 is a proof text for this, and if someone could grab that. Right. Okay. No one will snatch them out of my hand. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. There's this idea here of eternal security, and it is grounded in the unbreakable bond between the believer and God, which is established through the work of the Holy Spirit. So let's explore this unbreakable bond. This is a quote from Sinclair Ferguson on that. The believer's eternal security is not only founded upon the faithfulness of God, but is rooted in the unbreakable bond established by the Holy Spirit between Christ and the believer. That bond is forged in the believer's union with Christ, and is not only unbreakable, but is also an unassailable foundation for our assurance of salvation. As a result of what Christ has done in asking the Father to send the Comforter to us, he has established a permanent bond between himself and us. Christ purchased you, and has let you know that there is no return policy, and he's done that by sending his Spirit. Okay, so here's the next part of the Westminster Confession. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, upon the efficacy and merit and intercession of Jesus Christ, the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace, from all which arises also the certainty and infallibility thereof. We've already discussed much of what this means, so let's focus on the abiding of the Spirit and the seed of God within them. So the abiding of the Spirit is a proof text for the abiding of the Spirit here, John 14, 16-17, if someone could read that for me. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper. So the coming of the Holy Spirit here is a consequence of the finished work of Christ. The Spirit is given as a gift of the risen Christ to his people. What does this mean, though, when he says, you know him, for he dwells in you and will be in you? In verse 16, it looks like it's future tense. He says, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper. So he says, you already know him, for he dwells in you and will be with you. Well, he's saying this because the Spirit that was in Christ, that was with the disciples, that's the same Spirit that they are going to receive. There's only one Spirit. So the same Spirit that indwelled Christ is the same Spirit that they know as a result of being with him. So the seed of God within you. This phrase refers to the Holy Spirit and his work in believers, giving them new birth and new life in Christ. 1 John 3, 9. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. This is the grace of God at work in our lives. It is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who is the seed of God within us. The seed will produce a harvest of righteousness in our lives and will ensure our perseverance in the end. Sinclair Ferguson. Okay, moving on, Westminster. Nevertheless, they may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their perseverance, fall into grievous sin and for a time continue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure and grieve his Holy Spirit, come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, have their hearts hardened and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalized by others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves. So what do you think it means when it says means of their perseverance? Does anyone have any idea what's being discussed there or what Westminster is referring to? And then the neglect of these things also causes grieving of the Holy Spirit. God's law, yes. So I would say that there's actually a bunch of these. We have the ordinary means of grace, reading and preaching of the Word. So if we neglect going to church, then we'll have a more likelihood of grieving the Holy Spirit, right? Prayer, sacraments, being involved in our local church, fellowship and service, and other spiritual disciplines like fasting, meditation and self-examination. If we're not involved in any of these, then we're not making use of the means of our perseverance. So the confession is saying that a neglect of these things will very likely lead to sin and sometimes even grievous sin. So when we find ourselves in sin, part of our repentance should be to examine if we're making good use of these means of preservation or are we grieving the Holy Spirit? So let's talk about grieving the Holy Spirit. Believers can grieve the Holy Spirit by not living according to the grace and power that has been given them. Grieving the Spirit is not the same as losing the Spirit, but it is a real experience of quenching the Holy Spirit's work in our life. Grieving the Holy Spirit is a deeply personal and intimate experience that can cause sadness, sorrow and even mourning in the believer's heart. We see this in Psalm 51 where David is groaning all the night, and part of that is because he was not confessing his sin, but then when he did, he's brought back in. The believer's responsibility is to follow the Holy Spirit's guidance and power and not resist or ignore his promptings. So what do I mean when I say ignore his promptings? The Holy Spirit may use another believer or an elder to come and tell you that you're grieving the Holy Spirit. That could be a prompting that the Holy Spirit sends you. Another one of his promptings is most certainly when we are pricked by an informed conscience. I'm sure as parents you've done this as well, but I often encourage my children to listen to their consciences because it definitely seems like our consciences are closely connected to the work of the Holy Spirit, and I have good reason to think that. So Romans 9.1, I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. Or Hebrews 10.22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our conscience sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. So this verse strongly suggests that the conscience is directly influenced by the Holy Spirit. The conscience can be a very powerful tool for discerning right and wrong and alerting us to areas in our life that need correction. However, we must be aware that our consciences can be easily influenced by external factors such as our culture or personal biases and can lead us astray. A conscience which is insensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit can be a sign that our conscience has become seared though. We must guard our consciences and keep them tender as it is one of the ways that the Holy Spirit preserves us. So how do you keep your conscience tender? One way is to listen to it. When you have that moment of road rage and your conscience pricks you about the reaction that you had, rehearse verses that you know about love towards your neighbor and examine why you had that response in the first place. So don't neglect those opportunities when your conscience pricks you. It's very easy to tell your conscience to be quiet, but that's the same thing as ignoring his prompting. Okay, so serious sins can definitely happen. One thing that can happen as a result of net neglect of the means of perseverance and ignoring an informed conscience is serious sin. So 2 Samuel 12, 9, 13, and 14, if someone can get that for me. Okay, anyone have it? No? David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord, and Nathan said to David, Nope. In verse 13. So it's very possible for us to enter into grievous sin, but the point is that David fell and it is possible to fall, yet not fall entirely from grace. See that here. Okay, here's another instance of serious sin with Peter. Simeon, Simeon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. But he replied, Lord, I'm ready to go with you to prison and to death. And Jesus answered, I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times that you know me. So this is just referring to when Peter did deny Christ. But you see, Christ has prayed for him that his faith will not fail. Sorry. So notice Christ's prayer for Peter. This is significant because it demonstrates Christ's care for Peter, even in the midst of his failure. The fact that Christ prayed for Peter's faith to not fail was also significant because it showed that Christ understood that the preservation of Peter's faith was not ultimately dependent on Peter's own strength or efforts, but on the work of the Holy Spirit within him. So again, it is possible for Christians to have radical and serious falls, yet not fall finally. Church discipline, this is another means of our perseverance. The goal of church discipline is not to punish but to restore and preservation of the individual and the community. That's the goal, preservation of the individual and the community. It does so by confronting and dealing with sin in a loving and biblical manner. The church helps believers to persevere in their faith. The proof text for that is 1 Corinthians 5.1. So when you are assembled and I am with you in the spirit and the power of the Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit might be saved. That's the goal in church discipline, so that the spirit will be saved in the day of the Lord. And so this is referring to the man who had his father's wife and they were being tolerant. They thought they were being tolerant by not kicking him out of the church. And Paul said, no, deliver him to Satan. Remove him from the church. And the goal in mind is not to punish that individual. The goal is that he might be saved. And if you know that story, you know that he returned. And then Paul had to write them another letter and say receive him back. So church discipline is actually one of the means of perseverance that has been given to the church. There are several phases of church discipline. Before we get to excommunication, it's not the first step. There's many steps. It involves going to that person, and then that might involve going to that person with an elder. And then church discipline may take place if that person refuses to see what they have done or address their sin. And then at that point, they might be barred from the sacraments. And then the final thing that would be to try to bring them back in and for them to recognize the seriousness of their sin is indeed excommunication. So the whole purpose of excommunication is to provoke one to repentance. And one other thing about church discipline, it's also to remind us how seriously God takes the purity of his church. So what of those who fall away then? There is an old reform saying that if you have genuine faith and are in a state of saving grace, you will never lose it. And if you lose it, then you never had it. So where's the proof text for that? They went out from us because 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 were not of us. So you can see here very clearly that if you have genuine faith, you'll stay. You may fall away for a while, but you will come back. And if you never had faith, then it will become very clear that you didn't. So we know there are many people who make a profession of faith but turn away and repudiate their profession of faith. In the New Testament, there are those who left the company of the disciples, and that's in this verse. So let's look at another example of that in Mark 7, 6. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So these made an outward profession, but they did not possess what they professed. He does not say to them, I knew you for a season, and then you went your own way and betrayed me. No, he says, you never were part of my invisible body, the invisible church. So where do we see perseverance in the Old Testament? Well, there's a rich history of the Holy Spirit preserving believers in the Old Testament. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He was preserved by grace through faith. Abraham is a model of perseverance, trusting in God's promise against all odds. Job's perseverance, despite his trials, is a demonstration of God's grace as well. Daniel's example of perseverance in the midst of persecution is a powerful testimony to the sustaining grace of God. Here's a quote from Sinclair Ferguson on perseverance throughout history. God's people in the wilderness were an exhibition of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. God loved them with an everlasting love, and he kept them by that love. There was no other explanation for the fact that the entire nation did not die in the wilderness. The perseverance of the saints then is rooted not in our ability to maintain our faith, but in God's determination to maintain his love. Perseverance in the New Testament. We've already kind of talked about this, Peter's denial of Christ, but it is a great example of perseverance of the saints. So Matthew 26, 69 through 75, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but the Holy Spirit worked to preserve Peter even in his denial of Christ. The Holy Spirit had been given to Peter to strengthen him, and yet Peter still failed to stand firm. However, in the midst of his failure, the Holy Spirit continued to work in Peter, leading him to repentance and ultimately restoring him to fellowship with Christ. The Holy Spirit's work in preserving Peter was not just for Peter's sake, but for the sake of the church as well. You see, Peter's restoration was a powerful testimony to the grace and mercy of God, and it serves as an encouragement to other believers, to you and me, who might also struggle with sin and failure. The Holy Spirit's work of preservation is not just about keeping believers from falling away, but about restoring them when they do. The Holy Spirit does not abandon us in our times of weakness or failure, but continues to work within us, leading us to repentance and restoration. So here's a counter example to perseverance in the New Testament, and that's Judas. Judas was one of Jesus' followers and had a close relationship with Christ. So why did he ultimately fall? Well, Judas was not transformed by the Holy Spirit. He rejected the Holy Spirit. Without the preservation of the Holy Spirit, his fall was absolutely inevitable. The difference between Peter and Judas is not due to any inherent superiority on Peter's part, but it is rather the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. Peter was transformed by the Holy Spirit and empowered to become a bold witness for Christ, whereas Judas rejected the Holy Spirit and eventually betrayed Christ. Okay, so what is the difference between the Old Testament versus the New Testament and the Spirit's work? The Holy Spirit's work is both similar and different in the Old and New Testaments. The Holy Spirit's activity in the Old Testament is characterized by occasional and temporary experiences rather than a constant and permanent indwelling, as we see in the New Testament. However, the Holy Spirit is active in regeneration, sanctification, and empowering for service in both Testaments. Ultimately, the Holy Spirit's work is the same in both the Old and New Testament, but the way in which he works is different due to the progressive nature of God's revelation and redemptive plan. Okay, so let's talk about some applications. So what are some uses and applications we can make knowing that the Spirit is persevering in our lives? Well, it should be a great encouragement to us to persevere in faith and holiness. It should motivate us, and it should give us hope. We should recognize that we have a responsibility to cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work and make use of the means of perseverance that we talked about earlier. So, in closing, I have a question. How many Holy Spirits are there? There's one, right? There's one. Of course the answer is one. So, that same Spirit that indwelled Jesus is in you, because he was filled with the Holy Spirit without measure, right? So that same Spirit is the one that dwells within you, but that also means that that same Spirit indwells the Christian sitting next to you and the Christian that you passed on the way here to church. So, it should be the most natural thing for us to express our gratitude for our brothers' abilities and support them in their perseverance. And we should absolutely be ashamed that sometimes when we hear another Christian's name, our first response is to say something that will destroy their reputation. We must remember that our fellow believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that he is actively persevering in their lives. And lastly, we should strive to be a community that baffles non-Christians with our unity and love for one another, prompting them to wonder how such a thing is even possible. How is it possible that we are so knit together? And the answer to that question is because heaven has come down and the Spirit of Jesus Christ has filled our souls. Okay, I ended early. Are there any questions? You have a question? Go for it. Yeah. Right. Yeah, it's not a final falling away, right? I think that's what he means by when he says, those who deny me, who deny me finally, right? Who do not have the work of the Spirit in their lives, who do not return as a result of that work, right? That's a final denial that he's talking about there, not Peter's, right? And so that should be an encouragement even to those who have denied Christ at some point in their lives, right? If the Holy Spirit is at work in them, there is restoration possible. Yeah. Yeah, I do think that we can have an overactive conscience sometimes. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it can lead us to think that something is wrong when there isn't something wrong, where we can just like nag our brothers and sisters sometimes as a result of an overactive conscience, right? And our conscience can also be, our conscience is fallible, right? There's indwelling sin within us. And so our conscience can actually make us think that something is right, even though it's not, right? And so we must inform our consciences. And where our conscience is maybe out of line with the Scriptures, we know which one to follow, right? Yeah. Yes, absolutely, it can be underactive. I think what I have experienced with the conscience, at least in some people that I know, and even in myself, is an overactive conscience sometimes, to the point where you worry that you do not have a good relationship with someone, and you try too hard, right? I think so. I think that might be referring to something else also, but yes. Yeah. Go ahead, Eric. Absolutely. Right. Right. Right. Right. When actually, yeah, when actually that is their means of preservation is perhaps you saying something, right? Right. Right. Right. Right. But an informed conscience, right? If it is an informed conscience, and we do have a very clear direction in Scripture about a particular case. One example is disciplining your children, because when you do it, they will try to convince you that you're killing them, right? That you're destroying their souls, right? That is the draw as a parent is to say, well, okay, I should listen to them. It really sounds like this is hurting them. But we have to obey God rather than men, right? And the Scriptures tell us that we need to discipline our children in love. So we need to make sure it's in love, right? But then at that point, it is the means of preservation, even though they may try to convince us it's not, right? Yeah. I don't want to talk about that. The Scriptures definitely speak to it, but I'm not going to right now. Yes, go ahead. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Yeah, so you don't grieve a thing, right? You can't grieve in an animate object. The Spirit is a person. There's a personhood to the Spirit, and He absolutely is grieved. He indwells you, and now there's sin in your life, and that is grievous. I mean, there's plenty of cases in the Scripture where the Lord talks about being grieved over the turning, especially the children of Israel, where constantly He would bring them back, and they would turn away, and He would bring them back, and He would turn away, they would turn away. And He would say, I want you to be my people and to be your God, and they would turn away. And that's a grievous thing for Him to deal with that, right? He knows everything that's going to come to pass, but it is still, because the Holy Spirit is a person, it is possible for you to grieve Him, right? Right? I know your wife so probably. It's an informed slap. Could be. Okay. All right. Well, if there are no other questions. Oh, Paul, did you have? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to chart the daily or weekly. Yeah, you don't want to chart that. What you want to chart is the general bent, right, of a Christian's life, because we're all going to have moments where we fall. And if you chart on the daily, it's going to look really choppy. If you're being honest with yourself, it's going to look choppy, because you know that you have times where, well, I didn't think about God all day today. That's a pretty low day, right? That's a negative day. And if you're looking at it on the daily chart, it could possibly be very discouraging, right? But we should have an expectation as Christians that this chart is trending up. The Holy Spirit will have His way with us. And so we should be learning more and more to die in the sin and live unto righteousness. So, yes, chart it on the three-month, maybe for some people the yearly. That might be a better chart. All right, well, let's go ahead and close and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending your Son. We thank you for cleansing us through your Son, and as a result of that cleansing, we're able to have the Spirit of God live within us. And you've transformed us, and you're transforming us daily, and you love us so much, and we thank you that we have the Comforter with us. We pray that we would listen to His promptings, that we would be careful to not sear our consciences, that we would make use of the means of our perseverance, that we would listen to others around us who have a good word for us, that we would read your Scriptures daily, and we pray that you would just give us hearts that desire to serve you and please you in every part of our being. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
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