Pastor Ronald Storz | “Six Preserved Things” | Sunday, March 1, 1987
(Special Thanks to Gwen Phillips for transcribing the audio file.)
[BEGIN RECORDING] Now, there are at least six major things that God has promised to preserve in the Bible. Now, there are probably more things that you’ll find but you probably won’t find any more major things than these six major things that God has promised to preserve. I find this very interesting because six is the number of man in the Bible. Each number stands for something in the Bible and six stands for the number of man and man is imperfect. So, there are six things that has to do with man, who is imperfect, that God has promised to perfectly preserve.
Now, let us go down the list and look at each one of these things. The first thing that I find that God has promised to preserve is the race of Israel, or the nation of Israel, or the people of Israel. I want to give you some Scriptures from the Bible that will definitely show you that God has promised to do that all the way back into Genesis in chapter 12 where God began the Jewish race. Here is the origination of it. Here is the beginning of it with the man, Abraham. And right away, in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3, God promised there with the man that He began the race with that He was going to preserve that special earthly race of people, the race of Israel. “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Now, there is certainly a promise right there that God was going to preserve the nation that He was going to create through Abraham, right? And if God said I’m going to curse those that would curse thee—that is the people that comes from you, the seed that comes from you—and I’m going to bless those that bless the seed that comes from you then they are certainly a preserved seed of God, the Jewish nation. And then in Genesis chapter 17 and verses 1 through 8, God once again gave this promise when Abraham had not a child yet and he was getting kind of concerned about this promise that God had given to him. From verse 1 down through verse 8, “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine,” and about that time if you don’t have any children you can get kind of worried about whether you’re going to have any children or not, “the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” That is certainly a promise of preservation, is it not, to the seed that would come from Abraham?
And then look at Isaiah chapter 1, the book of Isaiah and in chapter 1 and we’ll read several verses of Scripture there. The book of Isaiah chapter 1 from verse 7 through 9 and then verses 24 down through 27. “Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” Even when they were down at the lowest depth, God still kept a remnant. Then look at verses 24 through 27 of that same chapter. “Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.” God promised that He would restore them. Then look at Romans chapter 11 verses 1 and 2. And then those that find that, you can turn back to Ezekiel and chapter 37. That’ll be the next place that we look at after Romans chapter 11, in Ezekiel chapter 37. But Romans 11 verses 1 and 2. Paul said, “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew…” Even into the New Testament time we have that assurance that the Jewish people, the Jewish race, the Jewish nation was still around. Now, the one that really clinches it is back in Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 21 through 28. These are just a few of the verses of the many verses in the Bible that prove this very statement. “And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” You see the terminology forever, forever, forever? Well, these are the promises that show us that God has definitely promised to preserve the people of Israel as a people, as a race, as a nation. Has God preserved Israel? I ask you that question this morning after we have read these verses in the Bible, coming to the day and hour in which we live, has God preserved Israel? Are they still amongst us today? Do we still find Jews? Do we still find the people of Israel? We certainly do. Has there been an unbroken line of Jews all the way from the time of Abraham when God promised to make a race through him of Israelites? There has certainly been an unbroken line. There has to be an unbroken line. The very law of extinction of species fits right into this thing. If a species becomes extinct then you don’t find it anymore; it doesn’t come along anymore. It ceases to be at that particular time. If we have Jews today, and we certainly do, then that means there has to be an unbroken line of Jews all the way back to the time of Abraham who was the beginner of the Jews. Isn’t that right? That’s only logical. That only makes sense.
And will God always preserve Israel? I ask you that question. Why, He certainly will! He said so in the Bible! They are His earthly people with earthly promises and with an earthly inheritance and God will forever preserve the people of Israel. That’s the reason why nobody has been able to annihilate the people of Israel. They have tried down through the centuries to get rid of these people but they still flourish. They’re still around. They’re still here. They’ve been dispersed here, there, and everywhere down through the centuries but they’re still in existence and God has called them out, put them back in their land again, given them a nation once again. Here is a race that God has said that He would preserve and He has done so. The nation of Israel has a very important part to play in the program of God on this earth. As I’ve said, they’re God’s earthly people with an earthly promise and an earthly inheritance and so you keep your eyes upon the people of Israel, the nation of Israel because of the part they play in the future plans of God on this earth. You watch Israel. They’re God’s timetable. They’ll let you know where we’re at in God’s program of His Second Coming and of how close the tribulation period is and it’s mighty close for God has put His people, the nation of Israel, back as a nation once again over in the land of Israel. Ever since 1948, they became a nation once again.
Now, the second thing in the Bible, major thing that God has promised to preserve, is Christ’s New Testament church. He has promised to preserve Christ’s New Testament church. Here are the Scriptures you want to put down: in Matthew chapter 16 and in verse 18, at the very end of that chapter, the Lord Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” That is a promise of preservation, isn’t it? Jesus said the church that I’m going to build, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And then in Matthew chapter 28 and in verse 20, in the Great Commission that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to His church, at the very end of that Commission, He said to them, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” After He had told them I have all power in heaven and earth, go ye therefore and teach all nations—that is get them saved—then baptize them and then teach them to observe all things, He said, “and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” or the end of this New Testament age in which we live. Now, that is a promise there that His church was going to continue, that it was going to be preserved, is it not?
Then another promise, in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 21. This is a promise that His church would always, eternally exist. “Unto him” meaning unto God “be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” That is a promise that the church of Jesus Christ would always be in existence throughout all ages, world without end. Alright. Let’s take some thinking on this thing. If God preserved Israel, can He do so with His church? If God promised to preserve Israel and He has done so, will He also preserve His church, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why, of course! If God promised to preserve Israel and He has done so and then if God has promised to preserve the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, then He must do so. He has to! His own credibility is on the line. If He promised to preserve Israel then everything else He promises to preserve has to be preserved. I also ask you this—is there then an unbroken line of churches of the Lord Jesus Christ from the time He started until today or until the time that He said there would be no more church? Yes, there has to be an unbroken line! We go back to that same law, the law of extinction of species. If a species becomes extinct then there will be no more species. We have many that have become extinct and we don’t find anymore today and we’ll not find anymore at all because their line has come to an end. In order for something to be in existence today, it has to have an unbroken line all the way back to the time that it came into existence. And that is true with the nation of Israel and if God did it with the nation of Israel, why should we think that God can’t do it with His local New Testament church? He promised that it would be preserved down through the ages, down through time. That means that there has got to be a church today that has an unbroken line that goes all the way back to the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. That only make sense, doesn’t it? Well, there is. The Lord’s church is alive today, that means. His church is alive. It has got to be and you can tell what church is the Lord Jesus Christ’s church because of this law of the species that there’s got to be an unbroken line all the way back to the beginning of that species. And there is only one church that is in existence today that has an unbroken line that has been preserved all the way back through the many centuries to the very time of the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles. And that one church that can make that claim and make it reliably and no other church can make that claim, my friends, would be the Baptist church. They can make that claim. No reliable historian has ever pointed to a single man who ever claimed the honor of having been the head and founder of the Baptist church this side of Jesus Christ and the apostles. And on the other hand, the world’s leading historians have ascribed to Baptists as having had their origin with Jesus and a number of whom speak as follows: The Bureau of Census of the United States Department of Commerce says this, The Baptist bodies of today trace their origin as distinct communities to the Protestant Reformation. Distinct means they’re different than the Protestant Reformation. It is claimed indeed that the churches of the Apostolic Age were in doctrine, policy, and ordinances the exact counterparts of Baptist churches today. Cardinal Hosius was a Catholic in 1554, president of the Council of Trent, said, “were it not that the Baptist have been previously tormented and cut off with the knife during the past twelve hundred years, they would swarm in greater numbers than all of the Reformers.” The 1,200 years were the years preceding the Reformation in which Rome persecuted Baptists with the most cruel persecutions thinkable. Sir Isaac Newton said this, “The Baptists are the only body of known Christians that have never symbolized with Rome.” Mosheim, the great historian Luther who is now dead, said this, “Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay secreted in almost all the countries of Europe, persons who have adhered tenaciously to the principles of modern Dutch Baptists.” The Edinburgh encyclopedia which is a Presbyterian encyclopedia says, “It must have already occurred to our readers that the Baptists are the same sect of Christians that were formerly described as Anabaptists. Indeed, this seems to have been their leading principles from the time of Tertullian to the present time.” And Tertullian was born just 50 years after the death of the Apostle John. John Clark Ridpath, who was a Methodist, said “I should not readily admit that there were Baptist churches as far back as A.D. 11, although without doubt there were Baptists now as all Christians were Baptists.” The Professor William C. Duncan of the Department of Greek and Latin the University of Louisiana said, “Baptists do not, as most Protestant denominations, date their origins from the Reformation of 1520. By means of that great movement, they were brought out of comparative obscurity into prominent notice. They did not, however, originate with the Reformation for long before Luther lived, and long before the Catholic church itself was known, Baptists and Baptist churches flourished in Europe, Asia, and Africa.” Then Zwingli, who was the Swiss reformer, contemporary with Luther and Calvin in 1500, he said this—The institution of Anabaptists is no novelty but for thirteen hundred years have caused great trouble to the church, meaning the church of Rome. And then Robert Barclay, who was a Quaker, said there are also reasons for believing that on the continent of Europe small hidden societies, who have the opinions of the Anabaptists have existed from the time of the apostles. And then W. C. King in the Crossing of the Centuries said, “Of the Baptists it may be said that they are not Reformers. These people, comprising bodies of Christian believers, known under various names in different countries, are entirely independent of and distinct from the Greek and Roman churches and have an unbroken continuity from apostolic days down through the centuries. Throughout this long period they were bitterly persecuted for heresy, driven from country to country, disfranchised, deprived of their property, imprisoned, tortured, and slain by the thousands; yet they swerved not from the New Testament faith, doctrine, and practice.” One more, Alexander Campbell, who headed and was the founder of the so-called Christian’s or Disciples church including the Church of Christ said, From the Apostolic Age to the present time, the sentiments of Baptists have a chain of advocates and public movements or monuments of their existence in every country can be produced. He also said that the church at Jerusalem was a Baptist church and also the church at Samaria. Thus we have historical perpetuity of the Baptist church. These are just some of the statements by historians, by reliable individuals who were not even Baptists themselves who give the declaration, who make the statement that the Baptists have an unbroken linage, an unbroken line all the way back to the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles. And that is to be expected because Jesus Christ, because God said He would preserve Christ’s church! He promised that there would be an unbroken line. And so today we can know what type of church we ought to be in. With all the confusion of the churches today, with the over 365 denominations that are all around and many more that are springing up all the time, we need to know where we ought to go to church! We need to know what kind of church we should be in. And since God promised that He would preserve His church, that means He had to and there must be one with an unbroken line and there is only one that even claims to have an unbroken line. There is only one that can prove that it has the unbroken line and it would be the Baptist churches. That’s the reason why everyone, when they get saved, ought to get into a Baptist church—because God has promised to preserve His church.
And then the third thing that God has promised to preserve we find in the Bible is the Holy Scriptures. He has promised to preserve the Holy Scriptures. In Psalm chapter 12 and verses 7 and 8 (6 and 7). There are other Scriptures but because of time’s sake I’ll only read this one here but “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” There’s one promise out of the many in the Bible where God has promised that He would give His Word and He would preserve His Word from generation to generation. Could there have ever been a time then that God’s Word didn’t exist? No. If He promised to preserve the nation of Israel and has done so, if He’s promised to preserve His church and He has done so, if He has promised to preserve His Word, His written Word, then He must do so! Ever since it has been written there has got to be a preserved line of Scriptures that would be the very Word of God. Now, the Word of God in the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. The Word of God in the New Testament was written in Greek and God has preserved His Word so that we have a Bible today that is infallible, a Bible today that is without error, a Bible today that is unadulterated, a Bible today that is trustworthy, a Bible today that you and I can go to and when we read it we know that we’re reading not the words of man but the words of Almighty God. A man came to my office this week and he said, Well, I don’t believe that the Bible is a reliable source because man has been into it and man has had something to do with it and therefore man has corrupted it. I said to him, Well, that would be true if God didn’t have anything to do with it. But it’s God’s Word and because it’s God’s Word, God is Almighty, He is all powerful and He promised to preserve His Word so He’s on the line to do it! And He’s a great enough God to do it and He has done so and He has preserved His Word so that when we read it we don’t have to wonder whether that’s something man has snuck into it or not.
Now, where is God’s Word today for there are so many Bibles circulating today all claiming to be the Word of God—where is God’s Word today? My friend, it is in the King James Bible in the English language today. That is the preserved Word of God. How do we know that? Because God has promised to preserve His Word all the way down through the ages. And the King James Bible has a lineage that goes all the way back to what is called the Textus Receptus or meaning the Received Text of the People back at the time when the Greek language was the Koine language or the common language of the people. The King James Bible goes through that lineage of Scriptures. There was also another lineage of Scriptures way back there that the people, they spoke of it as being perverted. They spoke of it as being wrong. It was the Septuagint version. It was the corrupt vulgate version of the Roman Catholic church that Jerome wrote, that he didn’t want to write, that he was forced to write. All of the other versions of the English Bible today go back through those corrupt versions. But the King James Bible goes back through the Textus Receptus. God has kept it intact down through time. It was preserved in the Greek language when the Greek language was the common language. Then it was put into the Syrian language for the Syrian churches in Asia Minor. Then it was put into the Latin language when Latin was the common language of the European nations. But that Greek text was never gotten rid of. And from that Greek text from which these others were written it was put into the German language by Martin Luther. Then it was put into the English Language and our King James Bible of 1611 is from that Textus Receptus, that very line of Scriptures that God has promised to preserve. When you sit down and read the King James Bible, you are reading the Word of God. When you read other versions of the Bible you see verses left out, you see words changed, not to the better but to the worse. When you read the King James Bible you have the unadulterated Word of God, not the word of man. God has promised to preserve His Word.
And then, fourthly, God has promised to preserve genuine believers. He has promised to preserve genuine believers. In what way? In a couple of ways. First of all, in their standing before God. In I Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 23, He has promised to preserve real genuine Christians, real genuine believers in their stand before God the Father. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a verse to believers and it is a promise that believers would be preserved blameless before Almighty God! That’s an unbelievable promise of preservation. Be preserved blameless? How in the world can a believer ever be blameless before God and then have the promise of being preserved blameless before God? It is all because of what we have in Jesus Christ. Back in Romans chapter 3, read these verses and it will explain it clearly to you. Romans chapter 3 from verse 21 down through verse 26. “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:” When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, what is that you get? The righteousness of God! What does the righteousness of God give you? Blamelessness before God. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” The redemption that is in Christ Jesus is the redemption that He made on the cross for us, what He purchased on the cross. And freely therefore it is given unto us justification, just as if you had never sinned through that redemption. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” When you believe in Jesus Christ, you’re justified—made just as if you had never sinned. You have remission of sins in verse 25. That means that they’re all forgiven. You are given the righteousness of God Himself. This all means that we’re made blameless when we accept Jesus Christ by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And then we have the promise of God that we will be preserved blameless before God. That means as a genuine believer you’re always going to be a genuine believer. That means as a Christian you’ll always be a Christian. That means as a saved person, if you’re really saved you’ll always be really saved. You’ll have this position before God preserved as being blameless forever because of what we have declared to us through Christ when we’ve received Him as our Savior.
Then there’s another part of this preservation of the genuine believer in our position in Christ. We are promised to be preserved. In Jude and verse 1, that is the second to the last book in the New Testament, one little book with one little chapter and in verse 1 it says, “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:” When you are saved, the Bible says here you are preserved in Jesus Christ. That means that a believer can never fall out of Christ! When you are in Christ you can’t fall out of Christ! You’re preserved in Christ. You can’t fall out of your salvation, in other words. There are many churches today that say that you can fall out of Christ, you can fall out of salvation that you can lose what you have in Christ. The Bible says you’re preserved in Christ when you are in Christ. You’ll never fall out of that. And our place, our position in Christ will always be preserved. That’s a tremendous promise. You say, Preacher, that’s talking about eternal security. That’s exactly right! You say that’s talking about salvation that is forever and ever. That’s exactly right! The real genuine believer is promised to be preserved in Christ Jesus and in their standing before God. Well, preacher, that means, boy, when you get saved that you can just go ahead and do anything that you want to do. If you’re preserved in Christ and preserved in your standing before God then that means that there is nothing to stop you from going and living any old way you want to live after you get saved. No, my friend, that means you don’t understand this salvation. If you think that way, if that is what your logic is then you don’t know God’s salvation for God’s salvation brings, for one thing, a new nature. When you get saved you’ve got a brand new nature and you have a different wants. You have different desires. You don’t want to do those things that you’ve done before. You don’t have those strong desires, you know, that are completely uncontrollable to do those rotten things that you did before. You have different desires and different wants because you’ve received a new nature when you’ve gotten saved. And you don’t understand either that this new birth, this salvation brings a new outlook. When you get saved you’ve got a different outlook on life. You’ve got a different outlook on sin. You’ve got a different outlook on that which is wrong. You don’t look on sin and wickedness and ungodliness with the same thirst and lust and desire that you looked on it in your lost condition. You look on it now as wrong. You know it’s wrong. You know it’s evil. You know that it’s something that you ought not to do. You don’t understand also that the new birth, real salvation brings a new love. When you really get saved you get a new love inside. You get a love for God. You get a love for spiritual things. You get a love for the things of God and you want to do those things of God. The new birth, the salvation experience—it brings you something brand new and you’re a different person in Christ Jesus and you don’t want to go out and use your eternal security as a license to sin because you’re different on the inside and you love the Lord and you want to live holy and you want to live Godly and when you go wrong you know it. It strikes you deep in the heart. It smites you. You can’t go out and sin and love it and enjoy it and revel in it anymore because salvation brings you something you didn’t have before. The genuine believer is preserved forever and ever. I’m glad that that’s the kind of salvation God has given.
And then the fifth thing God has promised to preserve is our Heavenly inheritance. In I Peter chapter 1 verses 3 and 4, His promise to preserve our Heavenly inheritance as believers, as Christians. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,”. That’s talking about our inheritance. It is a preserved inheritance. Now, Heaven and all that there is for God’s people is preserved. Our Heavenly mansion, and there are Heavenly mansions for born-again believers. Jesus said in John 14:2, didn’t He? “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” If it were not so I wouldn’t have told you about it. He said I told you because they’re there. Our Heavenly mansions and our Heavenly estate and our Heavenly rewards and all of our saved loved ones that are in Heaven and all the Heavenly blessings, these are all preserved for born-again believers. All preserved for the people of God. Look at the words that are used here in verse 4. To an inheritance incorruptible. That means that it can never decay. That means that it can never deteriorate. That means that the inheritance that God has for us up there in Heaven and all that it includes will never rot away. And undefiled—that means that it’s already perfect. There is not a seed of corruption within it. There is no error in what God has prepared for us. There is no flaw in what God has ready for us in Heaven. It’s not like things down here on this earth. You can get the best builder in the world down here on earth to build something and there will be a flaw in it. You’ll find at least one flaw, probably more than that, but what we have in Heaven for our inheritance is undefiled—no flaw. And fadeth not away—our inheritance, believers, that we have in Heaven is not like the fleeting hopes that we have down here of things in life. It’s not like a cloud that is here today and gone tomorrow. It is not like a puff of steam that is here one moment and then it is gone the next. It fadeth not away! The inheritance that God promises us and describes to us will be there for us. Reserved in Heaven for you. That means that it is preserved. It is there awaiting us. It’s marvelous! We are a preserved people when we’re saved with a preserved inheritance in Heaven.
And then the last thing that God has promised to preserve are the lost. God has promised to preserve the lost. What do I mean by the lost? The lost would be the unsaved. Those that are outside of Christ. Those that have never been born again. Those that have never come to Jesus Christ and bowed the knee of their heart and submitted and surrendered their lives unto Him. Those who have never saw what Jesus Christ has done on the cross of Calvary for them, in dying for their sins, paying the penalty of God for their sins and then rising again from the grave to be the only Savior that there is in the world. They’ve never come to Him to be saved. They’re still outside of Christ. God has promised to preserve these lost people. What kind of preservation awaits the lost? First of all, they will be preserved in a place. Psalm chapter 9 and in verse 17 says “And the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” They’re going to be preserved in a place and that place is called hell. Then, secondly, they’re going to be preserved in a form. In Luke chapter 16, starting in the second part of verse 22 and reading down through verse 24, they’re going to be preserved in a form. Luke chapter 16, the end of verse 22 says the rich man, who was lost, “the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” This man, this lost man ended up in this place of preservation for the unsaved which is called Hell and he was in a form! He could see! He could feel! He could taste! He had a body! He was not just a nothing. He was not just a blob. He was not just a glob. But he was in a form. He had all of his senses. The lost are going to be preserved in a place called Hell. They’re going to be preserved in a form and they’ll be preserved in punishment. Two verses, Matthew chapter 25 and in verse 46, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” Now, if the righteous have life eternal then the unrighteous must have this everlasting punishment. The everlasting punishment, the word everlasting has to mean the same thing as eternal for the righteous. If the righteous are going to have eternal life then the unrighteous, the lost have to have this eternal punishment. Then we also have Revelation, and there are many more Scriptures, but the book of Revelation chapter 14 and in verse 11 it says, “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night…” The unsaved are going to be preserved. God has promised it in a place called Hell in a form where they have their five senses. And they’re going to be preserved in punishment, torment, in a place where there is fire and brimstone, in a place where they’re going to be punished for their sins. These two folks are going to be preserved—the genuine believers and the lost. The genuine believers will be preserved here and now and for eternity in Heaven; the lost are going to be preserved in Hell forever and ever in a state of punishment, in a condition of punishment. In a place of punishment for their sins but, you see, if you’re unsaved, you don’t have to be in that situation. You have a chance. You have an opportunity while you’re alive. You don’t have to sit back and get mad at God and say that doesn’t sound fair, that doesn’t sound right. I don’t think God would be that kind of a God to do something like that. My friend, He’s giving you an opportunity in this lifetime right now to do something about it. He’s made a way for you to be saved. He’s given His Son into this life as a human being to die for your sins on the cross and to rise from the dead. He’s given you the invitation to come and receive His Son and to be born again, to have all your sins forgiven. He gives you the invitation to come and repent of your sins and put your heart’s faith and trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, as your only Savior and Lord. And if you’ll do that, you won’t have to be in the number of the lost. You won’t have to be preserved with the lost but you can be preserved with the believers, the genuine believers. You see, it’s up to you. You’ve got the opportunity to do something about it but you’ve got to do it now. You can’t do anything after you die. Do it now.
These are six preserved, major preserved things that God has promised He’ll preserve. May I have every head bowed and every eye closed? [END RECORDING]