Transcription
Okay, so here's the question tonight. Question number 24. Do some people who have become real Christians ever renounce their faith and stop being a Christian? Are to someone who's been saved once, always saved? Laverne asks that question.
This is probably one of the most asked questions that there is. You know, Christianity is pretty much divided into two camps. One side believes in eternal security, and the other side does not. Now, why is Christianity, when all professed to be Bible believers, why is it so divided on this subject? Isn't the Bible clear? Yes, the Bible is quite clear. It clearly teaches that once you're in the faith, Jesus keeps you in the faith unto the end. It also teaches that if you depart from the faith, you'll be damned. In other words, the Bible has two lines of Scripture, two lines of thought. One of them will make a good Pentecostal out of you, and the other will make a good Calvinist out of you. So you have to either choose one or the other and ignore the other half of the scripture, or you have to find a way that reconciles the two different portions of scripture. So that's my big job, to try to reconcile these two different portions of scripture. I don't feel like we'll be able to do it adequately in this short period of time.
So, first of all, I'm going to give you a list of scriptures that teach preservation of the Savior. That is, that God preserves us in the faith. And then I'm going to give you a group of scriptures that is perseverance of the saints. That is, the saints must persevere in the faith to be saved in the end. I once had the opportunity to speak to a group of people that had a split in the church some 10 or 15 years earlier, and this is one of the major issues. And I was just a young man, and so I thought, well, I'm going to go in there and I'm going to bring both sides together, and we'll make them both happy. One side was security, the believer. The other side was pretty insecure about their salvation. So I preached this message on a Sunday afternoon after I'd been fed well, a big long protracted meetings, and I was quite confident that I had reconciled it, but I got most both sides mad. So I have given up actually believing we can reconcile the two different sides. But let's get into it.
Okay, here is preservation of the Savior. John 5:24. "Fairly well I send you, he that heareth my word, believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation." Shall not come into condemnation in future, but is passed from death unto life. Good, strong passage that says when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will not come into condemnation. John 6:37. "The Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will no wise no reason cast out. He that cometh to me I will no wise cast out." So a very clear statement that once you've come to Jesus, he keeps you. So you Calvinists are happy tonight. "I give unto you them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." You hear the Armenian types? I'd say that you can't be plucked out, but you can step out. Hebrews 9:12. "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." In other words, when you get saved, you're saved. It's an eternal redemption. It's not partial, it's not temporary, it's forever and forever. And then Romans 8:30. "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also call." Don't you look at it this way? Let's, let's take this hand right here and let it represent the total number of ones who are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son. So that's, that's five. So there's a total number of five whom he did predestinate, them the five he also called. So this, this five get called because they're predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son. And whom he did call, them he also justified. So the same number that were predestinated to be conformed were called, and they were justified. Five, five, five. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. Takes them up into heaven. So though he didn't lose any, the ones that God knew for ordained, knew from the beginning, the ones who were called, the ones who were justified, ends up being the same number glorified. He didn't lose any. That's the point of that passage. Good passage. "What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" That's a good response. What should we say? "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?" All things that pertain to life and godliness. Peter said, "Who, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? No one, obviously. Is God that justifies? Who is he that condemneth? Is Christ that died? Yea, rather has risen again." "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation separate us? Distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword?" Obviously not. "They in all things we are more than conquerors." So those, those that have been justified are being glorified, are more than conquerors. "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature." That's in case something shows up from outer space. "Shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." So that's a pretty confident salvation. That's just a few passages. I could read you a hundred passages like that. So those people who believe that their salvation is secure and they're not afraid of losing it, stand in good ground on scripture. "Who shall also confirm you unto the end." Christ will confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that's a confidence that what he started, he'll keep doing. Philippians 1:6. Butler, that's 1 Corinthians 1:8 if I've missed it. Philippians 1:6. "Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." So here's the promise that God is active, and what he started, he's going to keep doing it. So he started this process of salvation in you, he'll see it through to the end. 2 Timothy 1:12. "For the which cause also I suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." "Hold fast the form of sound words which you've heard and so forth, so forth." So he's confident in God's keeping power. 1 Peter 1:4. "Where he said, I have an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, fadeth not away, reserved in heaven, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." So we're kept in Christ, in kept in the faith, kept by the power of God through the faith. 2 Timothy 4:18. "And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom." Great confidence there. 1 Thessalonians 5:23. "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." "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." So, in other words, our confidence is not in a doctrine like a once saved always saved doctrine. Our confidence is not in something changed taking place in us. Our confidence is not in our faithfulness. Our confidence is that he who started this process of salvation will see it through to the end, and we will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we are saved right now. Okay, that's one side of the scripture. I said there were two sides. One side will make a Calvinist, certain, if not a Calvinist, a good Baptist out of you, where you say, "I'm saved, and I know that I am. I'm saved, and I know that I am," and be absolutely certain you're saved, know it, and have no fear of losing it.
Alright, here's the other side of scriptures. All you Pentecostals, set up. Let's take note. Your Church of Christ. Preservation of perseverance of the saints. In other words, these are the passages that teach that the saints have an obligation to stay in the faith unto the end, or lose their salvation. Here's the warnings, and there's quite a few of those too. 1 Corinthians 15:1. "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved." So good so far. "If ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." So he starts off, Paul does, this is 1 Corinthians, in great confidence and boldness. But this gospel I preached, you stand in it, you are saved by this gospel. If you keep it in memory, unless you believed in vain. He indicates that if they didn't keep this gospel that he preached that saved them, they didn't keep it in memory, if they threw this gospel away for Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnessism or some other ism that doesn't make salvation based in Jesus Christ alone, they join the Mormons. Or to God, just yesterday, he said, "I was once a born-again Christian. I'm now an atheist." Well, I don't know what he was, but I know there right now, being an atheist, he's not going to go to heaven, regardless of what he was and thinks he was. You're not going to go to heaven. You must stay in the faith unto the end to be saved. Hebrews 3:5 and 14. "Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant for testimony of those things which were to be spoken after: For we are partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." So he talked about how people under Moses died after coming out and under him, they died because they rebelled against God. And he makes a comparison there, and he said, "Don't harden your heart like they did." He said that the Christians, don't harden your heart like they did. He said, "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." So by faith, we're placed into Christ. He said, "If we continue to hold on to Jesus Christ, him alone, not trusting in our works, not trusting in our faithfulness, not trusting anything but the finished work of Christ, and we continue to do that, trusting in Christ alone to the end, we will be saved in the end." The implication here, as these state plainly in other scriptures, if you depart from Christ, depart from the faith, you'll be damned. Now, one of the differences here in what the Bible teaches and what some of the Pentecostals and Church of Christ and others adopt, as many of them teach that you enter into some sort of a kind of righteous state as a Christian, and a sort of state of obedience and repentance from sin and holiness, and that if you stop being holy, you lose your salvation. If you tell a lie, you lost your salvation. If you commit adultery, you've lost your salvation. If you get angry and get drunk, you've lost your salvation. So I'm getting it in, get out, talk to God, you saved, not I lost it. Just not I said, "Well, you saved last week." "That was saved last week, but you're not saved." "No, no, I'm not saved now." "You don't get, I'm going to go back to church, sin time, get saved again." And so that's kind of extreme, but I've talked to people like that. So they kind of think they're in and out based on how faithfully. Oh, that's not what he's saying here. He's saying that we enter into Jesus Christ by faith, trusting him and him alone, and we need to stay there all the way to the end, because we're saved by faith and grace. Now, we'll see, be saved by faith and grace then, but we must continue in that state of faith to the end. So that, that's the perseverance of the saints, not that the saints persevere in holiness, but that they persevere in the faith. That's the key to separating that from some of the traditional Arminian interpretations. Hebrews 3:6. "But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing the hope firm unto the end." He said, "Hang on to that faith, don't give up, trust in Jesus." If you're once saved, you will always be saved, because you will always keep believing. If you once believed and don't believe, you won't be saved. If you once believed, didn't believe something different, you won't be saved. You must once believed and always believed in Jesus Christ alone, and you will always be saved. That's pretty simple, it's biblical, but it's hard for some people that are entrenched in Calvinism, Arminianism, either one. I'm glad I'm not either. 1 Timothy 2:12. "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us." That's kind of self-explanatory. Hebrews 10:35. "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience." You Christians who now have confidence in Christ need to be patient. Then after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise. Promises out there. "After we die, for yet a little while, he that shall come will come and will not tarry." You see, speaking of the second coming. Now, "the just shall live by faith." Yea, you know, this passage has been misunderstood quite a bit. It says it very cleanly. The just shall live by faith. That's not mean, that's not saying that you get justified by faith. That's not what it's saying. It's saying that if you are just justified, then you live step at a time by faith. He's suggesting a process for those that are justified, not just one door you open one time and get into, but a way of life that you adopt. What's being justified, you live by faith. "The just shall live by faith." "But if any man draw back from faith, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." But we're not of them that draw back unto perdition, Paul said, but of them that believe unto the saving of the soul. So Paul is talking to the Christians there, and he said, "Now, if you draw back from this faith, then you end up in perdition." That's hell. It's in. Now, wait a minute. We're not in that group that draws back from the faith and ends up in hell. We're in that group that believes unto the saving of the soul. Believe, keeps on believing. Process of continuous believing. So I can tell you that I am in that group that believed, it's believing, and will continue to believe by the grace of God. By 15 means that we won't discuss, that God provides 15 means to keep us in the faith. That series you can download. We'll give you those 15 means God uses to keep you in the faith. You can get it from No Greater Joy. It's called "Security to Believer." I believe. Now, he goes on to say, Hebrews 6:1. "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God." Now, I've run into a lot of people like preaching on the street. Somebody say to me, I said to him, "You saved?" He said, "Well, it used to be." And I say, "Used to be?" Said, "Young." And so I read him this passage. "Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, going to perfection, not laying again the foundation of doctrine of baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead." This would give God from it. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come." That's clearly a description of that time. I could show you each one of those points, the description of a saved man. He said, "Here, go from where you are unto perfection. Don't relay the foundation, repenting again, getting saved again. He's quit, quit doing that. Pentecostal, quit trying to reset, get yourself to all saved and said, going into perfection, because it's impossible for those who are saved, if they should fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame." So I've said to the man on the street, "You see, you get one shot at coming to Jesus Christ. If you come to Christ, and you get under the finished work of Christ, you're covered by the blood, the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. All your sins removed, now, past, future, forever, they're gone. Okay? At some point, you're out of the grace of God and the provision of Calvary, the work God did that covered your sins, no longer cover them no more. You, you've sinned, you've lost your salvation." He said, "It's impossible for you to come back and repent again and get back under that covenant of salvation because under that covenant, you lost it. You're out of the covenant. The covenant was not sufficient to keep you saved." So you can't get saved again. So I say to him, "Sir, on the street, I said, man, if you've lost it, I'm wasting my time. No, you should be talking to you. You can't ever be saved. You're on your way to hell." And I turn to walk away. I've never had one that didn't stop me and said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me see that." And they look at the passage real close. I show it to him again. And let's say maybe they would say, "Maybe I never did get saved. Maybe I'm not a Christian." Or some of them say, "Maybe I'm still saved, I just need to repent." I said, "Well, you make up your mind. But you're going to get saved once. There's no end and out of salvation. You get into faith, it works for you. God keeps you in the faith unto the end, or you depart from it and you're damned forever." That's scripture. I don't make that up. That's what the Bible says. Colossians 1:22. "And in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight: if you continue in the faith." Continue in the faith. See, if the whole lot of the Bible is about believers continuing in the faith, keep on believing, having patience, enduring. If you continue in the faith, rooted and grounded, settled, be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. He never mentions, you know, if the Christians continue to be good, can he keep the commandments, continue to be righteous, still be saved? That's that's something somebody fabricated. What it says is, if you continue as a sinner, knowing you have no hope apart from Christ, if you continue to believe and continue to trust in Christ, then you'll be saved. If you continue in the faith, rooted and grounded, settled, be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you've heard, which was preached unto every creature under heaven, so forth. Now, here is a group of scripture where the saints are exhorted to continue in the faith. Now, the, the very fact that these scriptures are here, that there's a number of them that exhort the saints to continue in the faith, says that the saints need to give attention to continuing in the faith. If it was impossible for a saint to quit believing, it was impossible for him once he was saved to, "I'll do what I want to, I and go where I want to go and do what I like. I can denounce Christ, God, I become a Satanist. I'm going to be saved because, you know, once saved, always saved." Now, let's read it. Hebrews 4:14. "Seeing then that you have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." That sounds good to me. "Let us hold fast our profession." Hold on to it. Jesus only. Jesus is my Savior. I don't have any other. Hang on to it. Hebrews 10:23. "Let us hold fast the profession of faith without wavering; for he that is he's faithful that promised." In other words, he promised, he's faithful. So for because of his faithfulness, I can hang on. Hebrews 10:35. "Cast not away therefore your confidence." Is it possible for a Christian to cast away his confidence? Apparently, he wouldn't say this. "Which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience. After you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little while, he that shall come will come and will not tarry." So that's just a few. This many passages encouraging believers to continue in the faith. So I've given you three groups of scriptures. One group that says when Jesus Christ places you in the faith, he will keep you in the faith. There's no patch of scripture that says once you're saved, regardless, you're saved. The scriptures teach that once you're saved, he keeps you in the faith. So that in the end, you are in the faith and remain saved by staying in the faith. Second group of scriptures teach that if you depart from the faith, if you throw Christ away, if you trample under foot the blood of the Son of God, count the covenant wherewith you were sanctified an unholy thing, and do despite unto the Spirit of grace, a passage that didn't read, then you, you'll be damned. So you cannot forsake Jesus Christ and somehow just be resurrected out of the bar at the end of your life, a saved man. And you say, "Well, I guess it was true after all. You know, I walked down the aisle when I was 12 years old and prayed the sinner's prayer, but I started drinking at 16, fornicated and killed a couple people, lived a wicked, godless life, and everybody did go to church. But, well, I'm so glad I walked down an aisle when I was 16." Yes, it's kind of surprising. I don't know if I like these people or not, though. All these dirty things. Yes, good, good. You could have get two shoes Christians around here, don't like singing those hymns either. But thank God I'm saved. I'm always safe. Won't happen that way. The people that go into heaven will be looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, and look to the joy set before them, rejoicing in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Now, what I've told you, you will find properly in anybody's. Yeah, Charles Finney would teach this, maybe. But most other places, you won't find it taught. A few of the old Methodists might have taught it, but it's biblical. It's just what the Bible teaches. And I actually learned this from an old preacher years and years ago too. So there's one Oprah tree death. Now, that also believed this. Alright, so that's all on that question. [Music]