Colossians 1:23 - Eternal Security Through The Bible, Pt. 3

Good morning, everybody. So you get the prize for packing the pews on this side. And someone's missing, Mr. Karpiak loses today. He did not bring his crowd. Where's Kenner sitting? See, she's even abandoned her dad, moved over here.

All right. Good to see all of you. It's a great day in the Lord, isn't it? Beautiful weather, shiny faces, happy faces. That's good. We get to come in out of the world just a little bit for a couple of hours.

And it's great. Miss Judy, welcome back, our traveler. We got to hear all the stories at lunchtime. So be ready to tell us all the stories. She's been all over the United States of America. Glad you got back before that hurricane went through there.

Goodness, you think about that. Wow. That's a blessing. Yeah. Yes. A lot of places she went would have been flooded. So anyway, Lord watched over you. All right. Well, let's get started today. Looks like Matt gave me a little extra time and we will use it.

Eternal Security and the Meaning of “If” in Colossians 1:23

So turn with me to Colossians chapter one. And let's see, verse 23, let's go to verse 22 so that verse 23 makes sense. All right. Colossians chapter one, verse 22, Jesus, who in the body of his flesh through death to present you wholly unblameable, which in the Greek says unblemished and unreprovable, unable to be judged in his sight.

That is a marvelous eternal security verse that by the work of Jesus, the finished work on the cross that he did for us, he made us to be wholly unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. That is amazing, isn't it?

But look at the next verse. It says, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of your calling. And that word if can be problematic if you don't study it, but it's not problematic when you do.

For one thing, the same Greek word can be translated since or because and not so much because, but since. And so it could be translated that way. But even if it's if, we have to ask ourselves the question, is this saying that you are saved by works then?

So think about that. The verse 22 sounds like that once you're saved, God keeps you saved, not only saved, but he keeps you holy. He keeps you unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. But then the next word is if, and that sounds like it's something you've got to do to make that happen.

Now we know from a couple of hundred other scriptures in the Bible, Old Testament all the way through the New Testament, that it's not about what you do because it's grace. And by the way, grace didn't start with Jesus, although the scripture says that Moses brought the law, but Jesus brought grace.

But actually Abraham, 400 years before the laws of Moses were given, was a salvation by grace situation. If you don't remember that, go back and read it. But the book of Galatians in the New Testament talks all about that.

It ties us in with that Abrahamic covenant. The only way we make it to heaven is because of the Abrahamic covenant. And so Jesus came and brought the people back to that, back to grace. And the apostle Paul is so many wonderful things he says about that we're not saved by works, but by grace through faith and that not of ourselves.

It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. All of those beautiful verses that talk about that our salvation doesn't come from us. It's a gift given to us. Now, if that's true, then if doesn't mean, well, as long as you keep doing good, you'll stay saved.

It can't mean that. It would defy too many hundreds of other scriptures. So it doesn't mean that, but what does it mean? So we've talked about this for several Sundays. You can go back and see the archives on our website, parkmeadowschurch .com and see all the other messages on this since we started this little group of studies on what this word if means.

But what we did is we went through and we asked several questions and so I'll pick it up where we were, but let me just tell you the previous questions we asked and we went through scriptures to answer these questions.

The first one was, and by the way, if you can answer these questions, then the Bible itself will teach you that the word if there doesn't mean that you keep yourself saved by doing stuff. In fact, the book of Galatians, Paul rebuked the whole church at Galatia for thinking that they were saved by grace, but they stayed saved by doing good works and he corrected them and said, no, it's not like that.

You stay saved the same way you got saved. You're saved by grace through faith. You stay saved that way. So we know that's the fact, but if you can answer these questions, it just fortifies the fact that you got this right.

And so the first question I asked was who is responsible to keep us saved? Can anyone remember the answer? The scriptures were Psalm 37, 23 and John 6, 43 and several others, but who is responsible to keep us saved?

In other words, is it a sheep's responsibility to keep himself in the flock or is it the shepherd's responsibility to keep him in the flock? So it's Jesus's responsibility to keep us saved. So if you lose your salvation, he's got to answer to God for that because he said of them I will lose nothing.

Of all the ones that God the father gave me, I will lose nothing. So if he lost you, he would answer, not you. Think about that. Here's the second question. Who promised to keep us saved? Well, that's, yes, sir.

That's one answer. That's one answer. John 5, 24 and John 6, 36. So Jesus and God the father both promised to keep us saved. So there's the answer to that one. Now the third question, whose will is it that we have eternal security?

Which means we can't, a genuine born again person can never lose his salvation. Who is it that willed that into existence? Wait a minute. Tell me. It's God. Absolutely. It was God the father's will. Ben, take one of these.

Take a mic back here. We need a mic over there. Actually, they don't need mics. Only I need the mic. They do not need mics. All right. All right. So I'm glad to hear my congregation is listening and also proves I'm an absolute genius.

Because Brother Otis used to say, if you can't teach in a way that the children get it to, you're a terrible teacher. Amen. Hallelujah. Akshayim shalosh. That's not tongue speaking. That's Hebrew. Okay.

It just means one, two, three. It doesn't mean anything. It's the only Hebrew words I can say properly. All right. So the next thing we asked was who believes and who does not, right? Who believes and who does not believe?

Do you remember when we went through scriptures that talked about that, John 10, 24, several other places, who was it that Jesus said it is that appears to fall away? The ones that never believed. So there's no record in the Bible of saved people falling away.

There's only records of unbelievers falling away from church. You see, that's a person. That's not a person who's a believer. That's a person who was a false professor. He made a profession of faith, said I'm saved, but he wasn't.

Jesus says the only ones that appear to fall away are unbelievers. And the Old Testament says the same thing. So we talked about that a little bit. So that brings us to where we are now. And oh, wait, wait.

There was one other question. Sorry. The sixth question was whose power and work is it that keeps us saved? Not so sure about that. Let's read the scripture and see if you're right. So turn to Hebrews 7, verse 24.

We'll start here. We touched on this last time, but we'll start. I want to see if these kids got this right. Whose power and work keeps us saved? They say it's Jesus and God. A lot of denominations in our city today think it's you, that it's your own power that keeps you saved.

The kids on the back view say it's God and Jesus. We'll see who's right. All right. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 24. But this man, because he continueth ever. Now if you read in the context, it's talking about Jesus, our high priest, this man, Jesus.

Because he continueth forever, has an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he, Jesus, right, is able also to save them to the uttermost, who come unto God by him, because he ever lives to make intercession for them.

And Philippians 2 .13 says, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do his good pleasure. It is God that works in us, both to make us want to do and to do his good pleasure. So who is it that keeps us saved?

Whose power is it? Whose work is it? It's Jesus's and it's God the Father's and the Holy Spirit. So it's not ours. Now, do we have a part to play in it? We have a part to play in everything, but only because God ordained it to be that way.

I have, you know, I'm a businessman preacher, right? I mean, I don't take money from the church, never have, don't need to. God's blessed me in business, several businesses. But you know what it's taught me is when I read the Bible, I see a whole lot of business scriptures in there.

There's a whole lot of entrepreneurial information in the Bible about how to run a business, how to do business, how finance works, economics, all that, all in the Bible. But what's interesting about it is I have discovered that God started the first family business and it was with his son, Jesus.

And then Jesus spread that out a little bit and brought all of us into the family business because he said, as the father sent me, so send I you. And Jesus said, I don't do anything or say anything I haven't seen the father do.

So it's all part of a family business, all God's business. So if you're in business, it's not yours, it's God's, but God loves working together with you. If you're in the ministry, it's not your ministry, it's God's, but he loves ministering to people through you.

So everything we're doing, like you got money, it's not your money, it's his money, but he loves letting you be a steward of his money and working together with you. The whole thing is that way. You can take the whole thing down to that.

And so when we talk about salvation, well, let's take even the Bible, who wrote this book? I thought Paul wrote it and Peter and John and James and Moses. Well, they were the penman, weren't they? But who was the author?

You already got it right. The Holy Spirit. But let me ask you this, did the Holy Spirit, can you think of one example where God himself wrote the Bible? Trick question, trick question. Someone on the back pew back there that's less than 10 years old should probably answer it.

All right. He wrote the commandments with his own finger into the rock. But what did man do with that? He broke it. Right? Remember? You got to be less than 10 to get it right, Ben. You were doing that when you were less than 10.

Yeah. All right. So like he, like they broke it, didn't they? They shattered it. So then what? Well, I think Moses wrote the next one, right? God told him exactly what to put back. But now let's take the whole of the Bible, who wrote it?

The Holy Spirit. But who did he, did he just like write it on a leaf or something and men found it and stuck it on paper? What happened? Holy men of God were moved by the Holy Spirit to write exactly what he wanted written.

So it was a family business thing. God didn't just give us a Bible. He used his people and he worked in them and with them and gave us this Bible, but it's an eternal book. Now you think about that. This book came from a place that's not a place and where there is no time and yet we're in time and space and here it is physical.

It came from a pure spirit being who is invisible that no man will ever see. And now we have this where we can see it and it's God's word. And he gave it through the Holy Spirit inspiring, which means in Greek, God breathed it into the men who wrote this.

And so we have it. And not only did he say he gave it to us in a perfect state, he said he would preserve it to the last generation. So if you believe God, then this book is God's word. And every cross of the T and dot of the I is important and every little word is there for a reason in this book.

It's an amazing book, powerful book, and we have it. Now in this book, the Bible says in Hebrews 7, 25, that the God who saved us saved us to the uttermost. You can't get more saved than that. That Greek word for uttermost is like the ultimate word.

You just cannot get more saved than that. And it also says that Jesus lives now. So the thing that saved us to the uttermost, we call that the finished work of Christ. What does that mean? What's it talking about doctrinally, the finished work of Christ?

No, I mean, what is the actual work and where was it done? On the cross, 2 ,000 years ago approximately, when he died, he gave his blood and we're saved by the blood plus nothing. And that's the finished work of Christ.

And that's why we're saved to the uttermost. But now, what about this thing of trying to live right as a Christian? I don't mean a lost person, but I mean like a truly born-again person. Don't we have some responsibility working together in God's family business where he wants us to walk like Jesus, to talk more like Jesus, and to live more like Jesus as we grow?

It's a growth process. But he said he would conform us into the image of Christ, did he not, over time, in this life, right here in this world? Not in the next one. The next one, I don't know what happens there.

But this one, you get gradually conformed in his image, and it's directly proportional to the amount of this book you study. The Bible says this book, his word, is what sanctifies you. That means makes you different than the world and more like God.

The more you read it, you're less like the world and more like Jesus. And the Holy Spirit's the other component because you can't understand this without him. He is our teacher. And so, he wrote this too.

He can tell you what he meant by every passage. If you just ask him and just study, keep studying, you won't get it all at once. But over time, stuff starts making sense. And you become more and more in the image of Christ.

Now, if that's not enough, I would say it's true that Christians should live right, read the book of James. The whole book of James is about that. However, what most people don't know, including preachers, they don't know that the book of James is about effects, not causes.

It is not a book that's telling you how God saves you or how regeneration works. It's a book that tells you what happens after you're regenerated and why you do live a certain way because you're different because the Holy Ghost lives in your body now and he didn't used to.

That has to make you different. God lives in you. He didn't used to. That has to make a difference. And James talks about the difference it makes. Now, I would say this, you know, James says, well, is faith without works even real?

And I would say it this way, I mean, I'm not saying I can say it better than James, but maybe I can say it more modern than he did, right, where it makes more sense to this generation, is if you don't have effects, was there ever a cause?

Now, if the cause of salvation is the Holy Ghost called you out of darkness and delight and awakened you and put 33 different things in you, such as he gave you the Holy Spirit, he gave you the love of God, he opened your eyes and your ears to spiritual things and your little old dead spirit came alive.

He did all that to you in a nanosecond, over 33 things he did to you when he called you, he made Jesus irresistible to you, he made you want him for the first time in your whole life or you would have received him the day before and you didn't, all of that is a work of God too, but that's the work of the Holy Spirit and he only goes to the people the Father sends him to, he doesn't save everybody.

Now, if you think he does, you don't know anything about the Bible, he saves a small remnant of the human race, but he goes exactly to every, I don't care where you live, where you are, how you grew up, when it's your spiritual birthday, because the Father told the Holy Spirit it's that person's spiritual birthday, he shows up, he probably already been showing up for your whole life working on you, but he shows up and he makes Jesus absolutely irresistible because he shows him to you for the first time and you want him for the first time and so you receive him as your personal Lord and Savior and that is ordained by the Father also, that that's what you would do, but all of that is a work of God.

Now, that's the cause, you see what I'm saying? That's the cause of salvation. The stuff that you do, like get baptized in water to show your, to visualize your salvation, you start doing good works, you start trying to be nicer to people, you start trying to help people, all of that are effects and James talks about that.

People get it confused, they think those are the causes, they are not. So that's what Philippians, I'm sorry, that's what the last verse there in Hebrews 7, 25 helps with, that he ever lives to make intercession for us.

Why is that necessary? You see, the finished work of Jesus saves us, but the continuing present tense work of Jesus right now on our behalf in heaven, at the throne of God, where he intercedes for us when we mess up, can you not see how that helps you to stay saved?

I mean, it even helps you to look saved to the world because when we get where we're not looking saved and our testimony is messed up, we need Jesus to tell the Father, I know Satan is telling you, God, that they don't look saved because the way they're acting, and Jesus says, but I'm telling you, I died for that one.

I live in that one's heart, and they are saved, and they're innocent, and they're not guilty. That's the intercessory work of Jesus ongoing on our behalf our whole life. So if you could lose it, he wouldn't let you lose it.

He is your shepherd, you get that? So that's what we talked about. Now, I love this Philippians 2 .13 that we didn't get to last time, but we do now, for it is God which works in you both to will and to do is good pleasure.

So you say, well, I have to have good works or I lose my salvation. Well then, okay, I'll agree with you then. Because I would have to say, if there are no effects, then you didn't have a cause, you're not saved yet.

I agree with James on that. How many of you here agree with James on that? All right, Martin Luther didn't, he cut that out of his Bible. He didn't have James in there, but he was wrong. That's because he didn't understand it was about effects.

But the thing is, you have to understand and agree with James. But when God says that it's his job to work in me to make me want to live right, and then to make me actually do good works, then he's keeping me saved.

Do you see that? So you see, there's a past tense of salvation. The work Jesus already did 2 ,000 years ago, and the salvation moment of me and my car driving to work when I was 24, I got saved, all that's past tense.

There's a present tense where the Holy Ghost is working in me right now to keep me from hopefully saying something that would be wrong or inappropriate because I did get saved late in life. You all know that, you've been here for a while.

He helps to keep me living right now, and he intercedes for me in heaven right now. And then there's a future work where he brings us safely into heaven and presents every man faultless that's in Christ.

So you got past, present, future tense of salvation. It's God doing it all. But do we have a role? Absolutely. Read the book of James. Our role, I'll tell you how Brother Otis said it. It's better than anything I've read in any theology book anywhere.

He said, Brother David, and Kenner was there at the same time. He said it to me probably. He said, for one thing, you don't get sent out of your life by trying to think about don't do this, don't do that.

You get sent out of your life by planning a bunch of good stuff to do all day, and being so tired at the end of the day, you just go to sleep. You just plan good works, all right? And so many things that he talked to us about like that.

I mean, there's tons of them. Don't have time to say them all, but he was such a wonderful teacher. Now, I was gonna say one other thing he said, though, what was I talking about right before that? If y 'all don't know, then I can just skip it and move on.

Huh? I don't know, I can't get it, it's gone. There was another Otis thing I was gonna teach you about it. We'll skip it. Maybe if it comes back, it'll interrupt the sermon here in a minute. That'll be okay.

All right, so let's go to the seventh question that I wanna ask you guys. And this all has to do with this little word if. Is it saying that you gotta keep yourself saved? Or is it saying that God works together with us and keeps us saved?

You've gotta ask these questions to get the right answer. And so look at the next question. What makes us walk right? I just remembered the Otis thing. So let me talk quick, let me talk quick. What makes us walk right?

I already forgot it again. Let's see, what makes us walk right? I really did. I was trying to be funny and it made me forget it. Okay, all right. The question is, what makes, it'll come back maybe, because it has to do with this question.

What makes us walk right in this world? It's not coming back, but anyway. Okay, so I just put a note here. The effects of salvation, Book of James, okay? But then I'd like you to turn to Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6 and take a look at this, okay?

If you're gonna leave the word if in that verse in Colossians, where it says, well, you're saved and you're perfect and all this stuff, if you keep walking right all the way till you die. And if you wanna leave it like that, now, you could put since you do keep walking right would be a really great translation, but it's the same Greek word.

But what if we leave if? Well, the if is sort of in God's hands, not yours, because he's the shepherd, and that's my whole point, right? It's his job to keep you walking right, okay? So Hebrews 8, 6, look what it says.

But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator. Now, this is Jesus again. He is the mediator of a better covenant. Why is grace better than law? For a gazillion reasons, because you can't keep the law as the most important reason.

Which was established upon better promises. So the New Testament grace is established on better promises than the Mosaic law. Because the New Testament grace is established on the Abrahamic promises. It is established on a better promise.

Do you get that? Listen, most people in, of course, kind of don't know what you just, I mean, most of you already know this stuff. People don't know this anymore. This is old fashioned, 150 year ago type preaching.

But it's still in the same Bible. So it was established on a better promise, the Abrahamic promise. Why is it better? Who can tell me? Why is the Abrahamic promise better than the Mosaic promise? It's unconditional.

See Moses, God said this. He says, if you do this, I will bless you. Now, if you stop doing that, I'll curse you. Does that sound fun? Seeing as how we are imperfect beings and we aren't gonna do the right thing a lot of times.

But the Abrahamic covenant was unconditional. God just said, I'm gonna bless you. And when you mess up, my son's gonna die in your place and pay for your sins. So you're covered. So there's nothing you have to do to be saved.

It's all on me. That is a better promise. Would you agree with me? And that's what the New Testament promise of grace is based upon. So it talks about there in Hebrews chapter 8, 6. And remember, this is written to Jews.

And it was important for Jews to learn this because they thought you got saved by what? Works. Did you know half the denominations that call themselves Christians in this town right here think you're saved by works?

And even the ones that claim they don't, like the Southern Baptist churches, they actually do because they'll tell you two things you gotta do to get saved. And if you gotta do them, that's a work. See, listen, modern Baptist is not like 150 year ago Baptist.

If you wanna see that, read Charles Spurgeon. He was the Prince of Preachers. Read his sermons. You'll see what a Baptist used to look like. All right, so we try to be like that, okay? So, but look at this.

He says, it's a better promise. Now, Hebrews 8, 10 says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts.

Now you say, well, that's only to Israel. Not so, because when you get adopted into God's family, it's neither Jew nor Gentile. We're all saved the same way. And this was looking forward in time. This was a prophecy from the Old Testament.

Hebrews is quoting the Old Testament. It's a prophecy toward the end, probably after or towards the very end of the church age, which was neither Jew nor Gentile at this point. So it applies to both Jews and Gentiles.

And he says, I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me, my people. And so now you've got this concept of the two things required for people to be saved and to grow.

Two things, what are they? The water and the spirit. What does Ephesians say the water is? It's the word of God, the water of the word. So you have to have the gospel, the word of God, and you have to have the Holy Spirit or a person doesn't get saved.

But if you have that and God tells the Holy Spirit, call that person and wake them up, then that person is gonna get saved, but he has to have heard the gospel. That's why we need to witness. That's why we need to tell people the gospel.

All right, so that's our job. So now you have the water and you have the spirit. You got the word of God and the Holy Spirit. And God, then when he saves you, he puts his laws in your heart and in your mind.

And I just say like, when you're spirit-filled, you're not gonna sin. Because the Holy Spirit's not gonna lead you into the wrong place and hang out with the wrong people and all the temptations gonna take you away from that.

And so if you're spirit-filled, you won't sin. Now we're not spirit-filled every moment of every day though, are we? So we have to deal with that. We can still got the old man, which will tempt us to our own flesh, tempts us to sin, the world, flesh and the devil.

But God is walking with us and he has put his laws in our heart. We have a supercharged, as a born-again Christian, we have a supercharged conscience. When you do sin, you hate it the minute you're done with it.

You hate it and you say, why did I do that? Lord, I agree with you, it's sinful. Thank you that you've cleansed me from even my future sins and the one I just did. Thank you that I can get back up and walk again and serve you and walk with you again and just keep on going.

And that is the Christian faith. So what makes us walk right? The thing that makes us walk right is the Holy Spirit who lives in us. He lives in us. He was sealed within us until the day of redemption.

And he, together with this book, are the two sanctifying things in our life that make us different. And every day you're in this book, you're closer like Jesus and less like the world. Every day that you're in it, it's just directly proportional to the amount of time spent in that book.

All right, so the next thing I would talk about, the eighth thing is we have to understand the intercessory present work of Christ maybe a little better. In Hebrews 9, verse 24 says, "'For Christ has not entered into the holy places "'made with hands, which are figures of the true place, "'but he's entered into heaven now to appear "'in the presence of God for us.'".

So he's not only an interceder, but he is like an attorney. He's our attorney. He stands before God, the Father, and when Satan comes and accuses you because you did something wrong as a Christian, Jesus, as our lawyer, stands up and says, "'But, Father, I gave my blood for that person.

"'That's what saved him. "'Flee from here, Satan.'". This person is innocent, you see that? So that's what that talks about. So that keeps you saved because God, the Father, is the only one that can make you not saved, isn't he?

He's the only one that could take your salvation away if someone could, but he won't because first of all, it's his will that you not lose it. Secondly, he has set up Jesus as responsible for you to keep you saved till you meet him.

And he not only did the finished work, but he's right there at the throne of God to intercede for you as your attorney when you do sin. And that's wonderful. And by the way, if you don't work at believing these passages, when you sin, Satan will come to you and say, you're probably not saved.

You can doubt your salvation if you're a new Christian. Now, if you've been saved a while, you don't, but if you're a new Christian and you sin, you say, well, I guess it doesn't work. That's what Satan wants you to think.

But that's because you have the misconception that you keep yourself saved, but you don't. So you need to know these passages. You need to understand when I sin, God set me up this way on purpose. He said, the treasure, the new man is in an earthen vessel.

Earthen means it's sinful. It's prone to sin. God put the new man in there on purpose so he will get the glory when you do get it right. And that is a fact. It's how it is. You got to deal with it. You won't like it.

If you're a new Christian, when you're brand new, you're zealous and you think, well, I'll never sin again. I remember that feeling. How many of you remember that when you first got saved? I don't want to sin.

I won't sin again. But then you learn after time goes by, the flesh wants to sin, doesn't it? The old man. And so you do sin again. And now you got to learn to deal with it. So what do you do? It's like a kid getting a whooping, although God doesn't always spank us, does he?

And the father never does. He doesn't even see your sin, by the way. You do know that, right? Everybody's been here a while, knows that. He does not see your sin ever. He sees you as already glorified, but Jesus is in time with us.

And so is the Holy Spirit. They see your sin and they sometimes will spank us. You agree with that? Book of Hebrews talks about him chastening us. But sometimes he doesn't. It's just like I did my kids.

I'll say, well, meet me in my study. And I'd wait a long time, let them think about it. And then I would show up. And by then they're already okay. I don't even have to do anything. They're okay. They are repentant, right?

God does that to us sometimes. But the thing is, we need to understand, we didn't lose any such thing as salvation. What we lost was respect for ourselves. That's all we lost. We lost self-respect because we sinned.

And then the Holy Spirit says, yeah, but if you confess it, doesn't say apologize. It says agree. In Greek, it means agree with God that it was a sin. Then he is faithful, which means he'll do it every time.

And just, which means it's right for him to forgive you because he died for that sin and paid for it, to forgive you from every sin and every unrighteous act you've ever done. And even the ones you forgot to confess.

That's the plan. So live it, live it. When you fall, get back up. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

That's the plan. It's a great plan. The plan does not include you losing your salvation. Okay, so then my next question is, what really saved us in the first place? Us? Question mark. Or the blood? Question mark.

Which of the two? It's not both. It's not, it's either or. Which is it? Well, look at Hebrews chapter nine, verse 27. Notice how much of these passages are in the book of Hebrews, which is written to the Jews because they did not understand grace.