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Words I'm
Thankful For
John 10
The first reason to believe in eternal security is because Salvation
is of the Lord.
We looked at that last week and with an open mind, asking God to
correct our position if need be.
The goal for any preacher ought not to be trying to make sure he 'has always
been right' but rather to make sure 'he IS right.'
So hear me out before you pass judgment and part ways with me.
The 2nd reason to believe in eternal security is the language
found in this passage:
v. 27-29
“never”
“any”
“no man”
These are words I'm thankful for this year!
If language means anything at all, and if our God does not have a problem w/
vocabulary, you cannot walk away from this passage w/out saying, I’m not
only saved, I’m secure!
The English is clear enough, but if we were Greek, and spoke the language
the Bible was originally written in, we would be even clearer.
Greek is much more complex and specific than English.
In the Greek, Jn. 10:28, 29 are even clearer.
“give”
=freely bestowed, impossible to earn
When God saved you, he gave you the gift of eternal life.
If you have to work for something, then it’s not a gift.
Ill.—Gary’s fridge goes out/I hear about it/delivery truck brings him a new
one/has all the features!/he writes thank-you note/week later, checks mail,
fat letter from finance company/open it, it’s a payment book for the fridge/
Calls me: “Bro. Jerry, the
payment book for the fridge was accidentally sent to my address"/I reply, it
was no mistake, I made the down payment, now you make the monthly payments!
Is that a gift?
When it comes to the gift of salvation, Jesus made the down payment
(earnest), and He keeps up the monthly payments!
To think otherwise is to insult the high price He paid on the cross!
Then I run into you at the gas station, and you say, nice wheels, where did
that come from? I answer, “Gary
and I bought it”
What an insult to
Eph. 2:8 “For by grace…it is the
gift of God”
Rom. 6:23 “For the wages…but the gift of God…”
“eternal”
Does God need a vocabulary lesson; did He choose the wrong word?
No! In the Greek, it
means, “without end,
never to cease, everlasting”
The Bible does not say you will receive it when you die, but rather it says
that you have it, right now! “He
that believeth…hath everlasting life!”
Salvation has a present tense.
Eph. 2—“we are sitting w/ God in the heavenlies” – present tense.
God has no sense of time, time is a human concept.
That’s why He is called the great I Am.
We're already there in God's mind!
It’s not 10 day life, 10 year life, or until you sin a really bad sin life,
it’s everlasting life…and if doesn’t last forever, it wasn’t everlasting
now, was it?
And if it doesn’t last
forever, then God is a liar, or has a very weak vocabulary…and
no disrespect, but I could throw these verses in the face of God if I were
to lose my salvation, and have a solid case!
"Why did you deceive me, I didn’t see the fine print!"
By the way, the word eternal here is the exact same Greek word used to
describe our eternal God. Think
about that one! Your salvation
is as eternal as is God! Your
salvation will cease to exist when God ceases to exist!
“never”
In the Greek it’s actually 5 words, which put together are translated never.
(condensed to one word)
In Greek it means “certainly
not, not at all, by no means, under no circumstances”…lose their
salvation
Some say, yeah, but you can take yourself out of His hand…no, “under no
circumstance” shall they perish!
Reminds you of Rom. 8, doesn’t it?
38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
“man”
It is italicized in v. 28, because the KJV translators
were above all, honest. When
they added a word for clarification, which was not in the original, they
italicized it, to be honest.
In the Greek it reads,
neither shall any
pluck them out…
Any devil, demon, sin, beast, man, circumstance
“pluck”
means to seize or capture.
If someone is trying to take it, the question arises, “who’s guarding
it?”
ill.—One time in St. Louis, I was in a downtown parking
lot on a hospital visit/saw armed guard, and said, “whew”, because in
downtown St. Louis, they’ll steal your paint job if you leave your car
unattended long enough!
Salvation: who’s guarding
it? Not me, not you.
Phil. 1
6Being
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it (complete, finish)
until the day of Jesus Christ:
(Dad taught me to start jobs, and finish them…if I mow ½ of the lawn, do I
get ½ of the money? No, you get
nothing!)
II Tim. 1
12…for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded
that (I am able?) he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day.
“gave”
v. 29
God
commissioned Jesus to finish the job.
Jesus Christ is perfectly capable of finishing what He starts.
In Bible days, ships were not motorized/operated by power of wind/when a big
ship came into harbor, it was preferred that it be daylight hours/if it came
in at night, they would ask it to wait ‘til the next day, before docking in
the harbor…but they didn’t want to risk it drifting out to sea overnight
either…so they would put the anchor onto a smaller boat, w/ a long rope
attached to the ship/they would proceed to bring the anchor on in to the
harbor, and drop it there…
…so the ship is outside of the harbor, but the anchor is in the harbor
already/the anchor served as a forerunner…which guaranteed that tomorrow,
the ship is coming in!
Heb. 6
19Which hope
we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil; 20Whither the forerunner is for us
entered, even Jesus…
We should be excited, because Jesus is our anchor of hope, Jesus…our forerunner…and when He left earth He ascended into heaven…he’s already there…and I’m tied to Him! (by the ropes of grace)
It’s not me holdin’ out, it’s Him holdin’ on!
"Grace"
It's a wonderful word that is closely related to 'give'
and 'gift'. Grace is
a gift God gives to the
undeserving, not to those who are good enough.
And grace is much misunderstood...
Many who reject eternal security cling to a tiny phrase in Galatians:
Galatians 5
1Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of
bondage. 2...Christ shall profit you nothing...4Christ
is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law;
ye are fallen from grace.
What does it mean to fall from grace?
Not to lose your salvation.
In this passage in context it means to miss the point of grace by
trying to fulfill the law instead of walking in liberty.
Christ doesn't apply to OT law livers.
There’s only 2 possibilities for those who seem to have 'fallen':
1.
Never saved in the first place
Profession w/out possession.
Anyone can walk an aisle and “say” they’re saved.
Anyone can get into the baptistry then, and get wet/go to
church/appear to live for God…but God knows their heart…and eventually,
their true colors will show.
I
Jn. 2:19
19They
went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with
us: but they went out, that they
might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
Some would say they had it and then lost it…the Bible tends to indicate they
never had it!
If that rapture trumpet were to blow right now, some would be left here
scratching their heads.
There’s another
possibility:
2.
They are saved, and God is going to deal w/ them, in His time!
This is a very dangerous place to be…trying God’s patience.
For while He is longsuffering and patient, your meter is running, and
eventually, God will read your meter!
I
Tim. 5
24Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before
to judgment; and some men they
follow after.
To say you can lose or forfeit your salvation, walk away, backslide, and just choose to go another direction, is really a cop-out, which forgets one of the cardinal doctrines of the NT, found in
Heb. 12
6For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7If ye endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? 8But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all
are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
God doesn’t spank the devil’s children. (examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith)
Here’s the hypothetical illustration people always want
to use: “Do you mean I can get saved and then go out and kill someone, and
still go to heaven?”
We don’t have to guess about that, since there’s an
example in the Bible.
David. [also
Moses]
Was David saved?
I Sam. 13:14
The LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and
the LORD hath commanded him to be
captain over his people.
(talking about David)
Psalms: David refers to himself as the apple of God’s eye…then he committed adultery/murder
Confronted by Nathan the prophet w/ an illustration of
someone in the kingdom who had done something very wrong, David pronounce
his own judgment when he said, whoever did this shall restore four-fold.
David’s judgment was four-fold:
1.
His baby died
II Sam. 12:14 (in no uncertain terms)
14Howbeit,
because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the
LORD to blaspheme, the child also that
is born unto thee shall surely die.
This is not to say that every time a baby dies the parents are being
punished for something…don’t misunderstand.
I’m not saying that and the Bible doesn’t say that.
But in this case, it was the reason.
And despite David’s prayers and tears/anguish…the baby died!
Sin always brings loss. And some
men throw away a lifetime of work, and a great marriage, all for 1 night of
pleasure.
(David was a good example of the verse: lust/sin/death
2.
Son Amnon became a sexual whoremonger
picked up on his father’s immorality…to the place that he actually raped his
own half-sister, Tamar.
Imagine the shame David felt/anger/guilt, to think, I have raised a
whoremonger.
3.
Amnon died a premature death in disgrace
When David’s other son, Absalom heard what Amnon had done, he was furious,
and took vengeance into his own hands, hiring hit men to kill Amnon.
For the 2nd time now, David is visiting the cemetery.
4.
Absalom rebelled, and died prematurely.
His rebellion resulted in war.
He died in disgrace, hung by his own hair.
David visits the cemetery again.
How many would agree that David paid dearly for his sin?
Here’s the point:
Even in all of this, David did not lose his salvation (Ps. 51:12--restore
unto me the joy)
(Difference between relationship and fellowship)
2
questions:
Does God punish sin in believers?
Absolutely!
Grace is anything BUT a license to sin.
(
God knows your address/phone number/where you live/and it doesn’t matter if
you’ve got caller id/call block, it doesn’t matter, because God is big
enough to ring your bell.
“Be sure your sin will find you out”
Another question:
Does God take back the salvation He gave if we sin grievously?
No.
Pay? Oh, yes, you’ll pay and pay
dearly! But, nothing could ever
separate you from His grace.
It’s possible for me to do something so foolish as to lose my family/this
church…but nothing can separate me from His grace!
In conclusion: if salvation
COULD be lost, it has ALREADY been lost, even by the best of us.
Any time you ask someone what you have to do to lose it, they can never tell
you. (Wouldn’t you think God
would be clear on that?) And if
adultery and murder aren’t enough, what’s worse?
And who here hasn’t committed both (lust/hate)?
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