We are protected by a hope that cannot die and we are protected by a power that cannot fail.

God's power is limitless, God's power is sovereign, God's power is supreme, God's power can never, ever fail.

Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

In the early 1600s, a professor in the Netherlands named James Arminius challenged the prevailing thought about how people are saved from their sins. Essentially, Arminius taught that a sinner

receives salvation because he or she chooses to believe in Christ, and not because God chooses

the sinner. That put Arminius in opposition to men like John Calvin,

who taught that salvation is based on God's sovereign choice. After Arminius died, his supporters

continued to spread his teaching, and in response, Christian leaders formalized five counter-arguments

to the Armenian beliefs. Today, those counter

arguments are known as the five points of Calvinism or the doctrines of grace. And in his current

study on Grace to you, titled the doctrines of grace, John MacArthur is examining those five

elements of Calvinism, not to side with Calvin or Arminius or any other man,

but to show you what the Bible says about how God saves sinners.

So follow along with John now as he considers the perseverance of the saints.

I want you to turn to 1st Peter chapter 1. We just sort of introduced that last time and I want to work our way through it.

First Peter chapter 1 and verses 3 through 9.

Now this marvelous epistle begins with the doctrine of election in verse one, we are chosen.

It then moves to the sanctifying work of the spirit, obedience to Christ, being sprinkled

with his blood.

And so it is clearly an epistle directed at the elect those who have been sanctified

by the Spirit through justification unto glorification.

...