Can a Believer Lose Salvation?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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October 25, 2017

00:01: We're going to be back tonight in Romans chapter 8.
00:05: If you were here on Sunday, you'll know we read Romans 8, 28 to 39, and I gave an exposition of just the first verse.
00:21: And I said in that sermon, I said, I wish I had time to go all the way through, but I did not.
00:28: I rarely have time to do everything I want to do or say everything I want to say.
00:36: But on Sunday in particular, I was just stopping on Romans 8, 28, because that was the focus of the message, to focus on the providence of God.
00:48: Romans 8, 28 is one of those passages that most everybody knows.
00:52: Maybe can't quote it exactly, but most everybody knows that the Bible teaches that God works all things together for good.
01:01: But the point that I made on Sunday was that God does not work all things together for good for everyone.
01:09: The Bible is clear that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
01:16: That's very, very important.
01:17: And the part that I didn't get to on Sunday is I said there's an adverse.
01:22: And the adverse is that God does not work all things together for the good of those who do not love Him and are not called according to His purpose.
01:30: In fact, their end is destruction, the Bible says.
01:33: So there is an adverse to the promise.
01:37: There's a negative within the positive.
01:42: But tonight, I am going to deal with a question that in theological conversation is very, very divisive.
01:56: And I'm not doing it just because I want to be controversial or to try to get attention.
02:04: I'm doing it because it's on the heels of Sunday's lesson and on the heels of last week's lesson.
02:11: Last week on Wednesday night, we asked the question, how does someone get saved? We said salvation is peace with God and someone is saved by repentance of sin.
02:22: And faith in Jesus Christ.
02:26: So the question often arises, well, we know how someone gets saved.
02:36: If someone gets saved, can they ever lose that salvation? And this is typically referred to as the question of eternal.
02:52: That's an M, not an N, so I'll take that out.
02:56: Eternal security.
02:59: That is a pretty common title that some of you may have heard, especially if you grew up in a Baptist church, or maybe have ever been a part of a Baptist church, or maybe had a friend who was part of a Baptist church.
03:11: You've heard the phrase eternal security.
03:14: Another phrase that is common is what I call OSAS.
03:21: OSAS is once saved, always saved.
03:27: And that's a pretty common, again, a pretty common Baptist use of the term.
03:35: And in my sermon Sunday, I talked about the providence of God.
03:38: I said in the providence of God, He is causing all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
03:47: Everything works to the good of the believer's life and to the glory of God.
03:54: And so tonight, I wanted to simply follow up with the question, well, what if they lose that? Is it possible to lose that? Because if that is the case, and it is possible to lose that, then how are we to really understand Romans 8 and 28? So that's the subject.
04:20: And I want to begin by reading.
04:21: And just like we did on Sunday, I'm going to read all the way to the end of the chapter.
04:26: It says in verse 28, Romans 8, 28.
04:30: And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.
04:35: For those who are called according to His purpose.
04:38: For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
04:47: And those whom He predestined, He called.
04:49: And those whom He called, He also justified.
04:53: And those whom He justified, He also glorified.
04:56: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all.
05:04: How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
05:13: Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.
05:16: More than that, the one who was raised.
05:19: Who is at the right hand of God.
05:22: Who indeed is interceding for us.
05:26: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger assort? As it is written, for your sake, we're being killed all the day long.
05:38: We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
05:41: Knowing all these things, we're more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
05:45: For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
06:02: And may God add His blessing to the reading of His inspired word.
06:13: The question of eternal security is not a question that most people take lightly.
06:24: Especially those who have formed an opinion on the subject.
06:30: I have, would you like a handout brother? I see you just came in.
06:32: You good? Okay.
06:37: Some people don't have an opinion.
06:42: But those who have an opinion on the matter, whether they are on the camp of the can lose, or the camp of the can't lose, tend to be very just strong in whatever the opinion may be.
07:00: If they defend it, they defend it with passion and power.
07:03: If they oppose it, they oppose it sometimes viciously.
07:07: As one, and I've even heard it say that this doctrine of eternal security has done more to damn people in the church than anything else.
07:18: Because it's convincing people that they can live as devilishly as their soul so doth desire, and yet still believe that they're going to be ushered into the kingdom of heaven.
07:33: So you see how serious and why people would take it so serious.
07:39: And I want to make a statement that I have no, I don't, I didn't do a survey.
07:45: And I didn't do a, I didn't call 100 people.
07:49: So I can't prove what I'm about to say by any type of scientific analysis.
07:54: But I think the default position of most people is that you can lose your salvation.
08:04: I think the default position, if you talk to most people who've never thought about it, or who don't have an opinion, and you ask them, well what do you think? Can you or can't you? The default position, at least from the people that I've spoken to, tends to be that you can lose your salvation.
08:24: And they base this on several things.
08:28: The first thing they usually base it on is anecdotal evidence.
08:32: Well, I once knew a guy who went to church.
08:35: He went forward.
08:36: He said a prayer.
08:38: He got baptized.
08:39: And he was, he was living for Jesus for about six months.
08:45: And then, like a light going out, we never saw him again.
08:52: There's a guy that was saved.
08:54: And he lost his salvation.
08:57: So they, they use that sort of anecdotally.
08:59: Well, I can't prove it, but I've seen it, right? Another way that people like to argue, if not from anecdotal evidence, is from logical deduction.
09:16: Well, if I decided to get in, I can decide to get out.
09:22: If I made the step forward, I ought to be able to make the step backward.
09:29: All right, so, so, so not so much anecdotal evidence.
09:32: But for some people, it's an, it's an issue of logic.
09:35: Well, I got in there.
09:36: I can get myself out, right? And another view some people have is from experience.
09:45: Because they'll say, well, I know that since I got saved, there have been times when I have been away from God.
09:59: And I have felt like I was lost again.
10:04: Right? So they'll, so rather than saying, I saw this happen to someone else, or rather so than saying, logically, I should be able to get out.
10:14: They'll say, I feel like I actually have gone from being saved to not being saved.
10:26: And I want to quote something, actually, this is actually, Miss Charlene put this up earlier, and I thought it was great.
10:33: And I told you, I was going to mention it tonight from, from, it was Paul Washer's message.
10:41: And it was a quote from him.
10:42: And he said, I wrote it down here.
10:46: He said, you're not saved because your repentance and faith is perfect.
10:51: You're saved because the work of Christ is perfect.
10:58: And that's key.
11:00: Because the last one, experience, I think is probably the one that most people deal with the most.
11:05: They say, you know, I feel like I was saved, but then I've had these moments where I feel like I've, you know, I failed.
11:12: Was I losing my salvation when I failed? Actually, I looked at a website today.
11:16: Because oftentimes, if I'm preaching on a subject, I like to hear what the other side has to say.
11:20: Even if the other side is crazy.
11:24: And I'm not saying that everybody who disagrees with me on this is crazy.
11:27: What I am saying, though, is there are some crazy people out there.
11:30: And so I just happened to just type in, you know, can you lose your salvation? You know, I googled it.
11:38: And I wanted to see what came up.
11:40: And it never fails.
11:43: There's going to be somebody out there who went out and made themselves a website.
11:47: And you can tell it's homemade because it looks like almost like it was done in crayon.
11:51: But it was.
11:52: And it's just all these litany of verses.
11:54: And the guy was trying to prove that one sin and you're out.
12:05: And that was the argument of the web pages.
12:06: One sin and you're out.
12:09: That has to be a specific kind of sin.
12:13: And he started kind of defining what makes a sin worthy of being out and what kind of sin doesn't make you worthy of being out.
12:20: And I got to thinking, and I heard Dr.
12:22: White make this point one time.
12:24: He said, he said, the greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.
12:35: That's the greatest commandment.
12:37: Would not the greatest commandment have the greatest penalty? And yet, how many of us can say from the moment you woke up this morning to this very moment, you've loved the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength perfectly.
12:55: So wouldn't that be worth if any of them were going to damn you? Wouldn't that be the one that was going to damn you? I mean, in that regard.
13:08: So as most of you probably know, I take the position that salvation once obtained and genuinely obtained cannot be forfeited.
13:24: Praise the Lord.
13:26: And tonight I want to explain why that position I think is important, but I'm going to do so by trying to help you understand why people might hold to the other position and where I think there is some discussion that needs to be had.
13:44: Because I think that there's a far road on both sides that can lead to danger.
13:49: I do think that the position of eternal security can be used as a license for sinful behavior.
13:59: And that's not the intention of the doctrine at all.
14:02: So I put on your list three positions.
14:07: If you have your sheet, I say there's three positions that people hold to.
14:15: The first one is the typical, you can lose your salvation.
14:20: And most people that I know say that believe that they have at some point.
14:27: And salvation is very much up and down.
14:34: In fact, I remember very, very clearly having a conversation.
14:37: I remember where I was.
14:37: I was in my grandmother's front yard on a cellular phone back before there was good reception.
14:42: And it was like just, but I remember being on the phone talking to a man from another church.
14:49: And he was trying to argue with me that he could lose his salvation through sin.
14:57: And I said, okay, have you sinned today? And he said, no, today I'm doing pretty good.
15:05: I just remember that response.
15:06: No, today I'm pretty good.
15:07: I said, could you lose it before bed tonight? Yep.
15:12: I mean, that's, that's maybe hyperbolic.
15:20: Not everybody who believes that you can lose your salvation may believe that it can be lost so quickly or so flippantly, but he did.
15:28: But most everybody that I know who believes that salvation can be lost believes that at some point they've probably lost theirs and had to get it back.
15:38: And I've often had this question, what about baptism? Some people believe that you lose your salvation.
15:47: You got to get re-saved.
15:48: You got to get re-baptized.
15:50: In fact, I know of a church tradition that practices that.
15:53: They do a baptism just about every year or two and the same group of people get baptized.
16:02: Why? Well, they lost the salvation.
16:05: They lost everything that came with it.
16:06: They got to do it all over again.
16:11: Now, as I said, not everybody holds to that.
16:13: Some people think, well, baptism once you just have to re-up your justification.
16:17: But your baptism stays solid.
16:23: The second position on your sheet, first one is salvation can be lost and most have gained and lost theirs at some point.
16:31: The second position is salvation cannot be lost no matter even if the person denies faith and repudiates Jesus Christ.
16:42: I'll never forget this and some of you've heard me tell this story.
16:45: I was writing, I remember where I was here.
16:47: I don't know why my mind does this, but it connects where I was to what I heard.
16:52: I was on Merrill Road driving back towards the Dames Point Bridge and I heard a radio preacher here in town.
16:58: He's an in-town preacher.
16:59: He said, come forward and receive Jesus Christ tonight because even if you find out tomorrow you don't like him, you've still got him.
17:11: Yeah, and I remember thinking, well, that's convenient.
17:20: Just in case, yeah, come on down.
17:27: So, that's OSAS really in a nutshell.
17:30: The once saved, always saved.
17:31: If you come down in this moment and you make this momentary decision, even if the rest of your life is not changed, you can trust this one decision is going to punch your ticket to heaven and this is going to become the, you know, this is your pass.
17:46: You got your hell insurance.
17:48: You've signed on the dotted line as it were and doesn't need to affect your life at all.
17:53: Now, again, you might think that both of these I'm giving a hyperbole and I sort of am, but both of them are people I've seen and heard.
18:01: It's not as if I'm over exaggerating to the point of ridiculousness.
18:05: They may be ridiculous, but they exist.
18:10: So, the third position, and it is the position that I would teach, and I believe it's a biblical position or I wouldn't teach it, is that a person who is truly saved will not fall away and those who fall away demonstrate that their faith was not genuine.
18:36: I hope I don't embarrass her by mentioning her name because she's not here.
18:39: Don's here, so he'll tell me later if I do, but Dottie once was in a Bible study.
18:44: She told me the story and talking about young people who fall away and she says, well, maybe they were never saved.
18:50: And the ladies got all mad at her by even insinuating that they were maybe not saved.
18:56: I did a lesson two years ago at a homeschool convention where I was asked to come and speak.
19:04: I said, what do you want me to speak on? They said, well, what do you think is relevant to homeschooling from your perspective as a teacher of theology? I said, I know what it is.
19:12: Why do young people leave the faith? And that's what was the title of my lesson.
19:16: Why do young people leave the faith? You know what the answer was? Because they ain't saved to begin with.
19:21: The vast majority of the people that leave the faith do so because they were never truly converted to begin with.
19:27: We send our kids to public school for 50 hours a week.
19:30: We give them one hour of Sunday school where we have them colored pictures of Noah's Ark and we wonder why they're really not learning the faith.
19:44: So they go to college.
19:46: They get told the Bible's not true.
19:47: They get told everything you've been told in church is a lie and everything they've seen in church is fantastic anyway.
19:52: So they don't want to believe it to begin with.
19:55: I know, but little Johnny walked forward when he was seven.
19:59: And once saved, always saved, he's still saved.
20:04: You see.
20:06: So of these three positions, I believe the third is the most sensible from the biblical data.
20:12: Because of two reasons.
20:13: One, the Bible teaches, these are your blanks.
20:16: The Bible teaches that salvation is secure and I hope to prove that tonight.
20:20: The Bible teaches that salvation is secure.
20:22: But number two, the Bible does teach that there is such a thing as apostasy.
20:33: And that word is very important.
20:37: Apostasy, coming from the Greek word, essentially the same word apostasia, which means a defiance of the established authority, a rebellion or an abandonment of faith.
20:52: Apostasy is not an act, a singular act of sin.
20:56: Apostasy rather is a denial of the faith.
21:02: It is a denial of the truth.
21:05: It is a denial of Jesus Christ.
21:09: Now, that can be done by a person who just repudiates belief in God to begin with, or it can be done from a person who goes into a false religion.
21:18: Those are both different avenues of apostasy, because both are a denial of Jesus Christ in one way or another.
21:24: But that is the definition of apostasy.
21:27: Apostasy is not a singular sin or an act.
21:31: Apostasy is a repudiation of truth.
21:34: A repudiation of the truth of Jesus Christ.
21:39: Probably the best example I can give to you is Daniel Edwin Barker.
21:47: Daniel Barker, sometimes it's called Dan, is the head of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
21:59: The Freedom From Religion Foundation.
22:02: He is an atheistic activist, and he was a Christian preacher for 19 years.
22:17: How many of you know who Kathryn Kuhlman is? She was Benny Hinn before Benny Hinn was Benny Hinn, right? I mean, she was the proto-Benny Hinn, right? Had the Crusades and all.
22:30: Kathryn Kuhlman had a protege, whose name was Daniel Edwin Barker.
22:38: And he was, for 19 years, a Christian musician and preacher.
22:47: Until he not only abandoned the faith, but became an enemy of the gospel, an enemy of Christ, who by his own words says, I was saved, and now I'm lost again because I don't believe any of it's true.
23:07: In fact, he'll argue with you, I've heard him do it.
23:09: He will argue, if you say he was never saved, he'll say, if anybody was saved, I was saved.
23:16: Of course, he doesn't believe you can be saved.
23:20: But, he makes the argument that he was convinced, he was a believer.
23:29: And he says, if you say he wasn't, you're being arrogant.
23:31: So, therein lies his position.
23:37: So, what do we make of the Barkers? Is Barker still saved? And was he ever? That's an important question.
23:44: Because I would say, this is a man who would repudiate the Lord Jesus Christ, be the head of the Freedom from Foundation religion, or Freedom from Religion Foundation.
23:55: Would we say this man is saved? Well, if we take the OSAS to its extremely illogical end, we would have to say that he is.
24:11: And there are those who would say that he is.
24:21: So, what are we to make of men like Barker? And he's not the only one, he's just the one I've had the most experience with, heard him many times speak.
24:29: And he is a, I mean, he's an interesting man to listen to.
24:33: And his story is, it's so sad, but it's, just to listen to him, your heart breaks.
24:43: And I've heard him many times.
24:48: What are we to say about situations like that, where people would argue their salvation is genuine, but they have repudiated that faith? We would say that they fall into the category of apostasy.
25:01: But how do we define apostasy? Well, first, let's again remind ourselves what salvation is.
25:14: Salvation is peace with God.
25:16: Romans 5.1, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
25:20: That word peace is the Greek word, which is connected to the Hebrew word shalom, which means an absolute wellness of relationship.
25:31: Right now, in Israel, there is no shalom.
25:34: Because even if they have a temporary ceasefire, tomorrow, the guns could go flying again.
25:39: The bullets could go flying again.
25:41: Missiles could go flying again, right? Teachers, when they leave the school and they take kids with them, have to take a rifle slung on their back when they leave the school.
25:49: There is no shalom in Israel right now.
25:53: Right? When the Bible says we have peace with God, it's not a temporary ceasefire that's going to kick up again in the future.
26:03: It's a wellness of relationship.
26:09: And salvation is based on an act of God.
26:12: John 3 says what? Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, and he said, Unless a man be what? Born again, born of the Spirit.
26:24: Unless he be born again, unless he be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
26:30: Can't even see the kingdom of heaven, right? So we know that that's the goal, or that's not the goal.
26:37: That's the work of God, is being born again, being regenerated.
26:43: Jimmy Carter popularized the phrase, born again Christian.
26:50: Because that's actually a redundancy in terms.
26:52: There's no reason to call yourself a born again Christian, because that's like saying I'm a Christian Christian.
26:56: There's only one way to be a Christian, that's being born again.
26:59: But he popularized that term as a southern Georgia man, you know, I'm a born again Christian.
27:04: You know, that's the way people would define themselves.
27:07: But to be born again is to be a Christian, and to be Christian is to be born again.
27:11: And if you haven't been born again, you're not a Christian.
27:13: The question becomes, if you've been born again, can that ever stop? Can the born again be removed? Can you go back to being dead again? Well, there are passages that people use to say that you can.
27:30: I want to show you just two, and I know there are more, whoo, I know there are more.
27:35: But the two that came to my mind as I was preparing this message, is one is John 15.
27:39: So if you want to turn to John 15, and I was worried I wasn't going to be able to fill the whole time tonight.
27:44: I don't think I'm going to be anywhere near to being done when the time's up.
27:47: But go to John 15, and look at verse 1.
27:59: We'll go 1 through 6.
28:01: Jesus is speaking, he says, I am the true vine, my father is the vinedresser.
28:07: Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
28:14: Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
28:16: Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
28:23: I am the vine, you are the branches.
28:25: Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.
28:29: For apart from me you can do nothing.
28:31: If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned.
28:39: He goes on to say, if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
28:45: That goes on to talk, sort of change, moving on, but the point that he makes in verses 1 through 5, is that if you are in him, you're abiding in him, then you're safe, but if you're not, you're going to be pruned away and burned, which is obviously at least from the sense of metaphorically referring to judgment.
29:14: And people say, well, here it is, Jesus says, you're in him, but if you stop being in him, he's going to throw you away and burn you in the fire.
29:23: So that's one of the arguments that is made from this passage.
29:28: You say, well, how would you respond to that, Brother Keith, if somebody pointed out to you this verse? I would immediately say that we have to be careful how we understand the use of any type of parabolic language.
29:42: This is a parable or a metaphor in use of language, and it's not meant to be stressed past beyond what it's intended to say.
29:51: Jesus' clear teaching is this.
29:53: If we are in him, we are safe.
29:55: If we are not in him, we are not safe.
30:00: That's the overall teaching here.
30:03: Now, some people will say, well, what about the ones who are pruned away? He says in the passage, he says, I'm the vine, you're the branches.
30:10: Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
30:16: If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers.
30:20: It's, again, it's abiding in Christ.
30:23: A person can, from a visible perspective, join himself to Christ and it not be a genuine joining.
30:36: A person comes forward in church and is baptized.
30:39: Does that mean they're genuinely saved? No, it really doesn't, and I'm going to show in a minute that it doesn't, but can it look and appear as such? How do we know somebody is truly in Christ? He abides in him.
30:57: Do you know why this is why in the Calvinistic five points, the tulip, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of faith, this is why it's a P and not an E.
31:10: Because Calvinism technically doesn't teach eternal security.
31:15: Calvinism teaches something called the perseverance of the saints, meaning that if God genuinely saves the soul, he will also cause you to persevere in the faith.
31:28: Some people like to call it the preservation of the saints because you're not the one doing the persevering.
31:34: God is persevering through you.
31:36: It is he who wills and works in you.
31:38: Or works in you to will and to do his good pleasure.
31:42: But either way, it's an abiding faith, and it is a faith that continues.
31:50: And that is key.
31:55: One more place, if you don't mind just going there quickly, is Hebrews 6.
32:00: Hebrews actually has several places where there are what we call warning passages, warning for apostasy, but Hebrews 6 is probably the most common.
32:12: Hebrews 6 verse 4 says this, For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm, and holding him up to contempt.
32:47: And people say, well, right there, pastor, it says a person comes and they're enlightened, they've tasted the gift of the Holy Spirit, they've gotten all these things, but then they fall away.
32:58: See, that's proof you can lose your salvation.
33:00: And I say, now, wait a second.
33:02: If you're going to use Hebrews 6 to prove that a person can lose their salvation, it proves too much.
33:13: Because I've never met a person who believed you could lose your salvation, who believed you couldn't get it back.
33:21: And read it again.
33:22: It says, it is impossible to be restored to repentance.
33:32: Yes, dear.
33:38: I'm going there next.
33:39: It's on my notes.
33:40: In fact, it's literally.
33:42: He is an example of apostasy.
33:45: So you're right.
33:46: And that's exactly right.
33:48: Here's a guy who, you could follow it down the line.
33:50: He tasted the heavenly gift, he saw these things, he verbally confessed these things, but then he fell away.
33:57: You know what happened to Simon the magician in Acts chapter 8? History tells us that he went on to be one of the leading false teachers of the first century, actually having influence in the Gnostics, who were the enemies of the church in the end of the first century.
34:15: Isn't that a powerful thing? Not only was he a false teacher, but he became an enemy of the gospel.
34:20: Or not only was he a false professor, but he became an enemy of the gospel.
34:24: Yeah, that's an example of apostasy.
34:26: Here's a guy who confesses, but the confession is not genuine.
34:30: So what does Hebrews 8 or Hebrews 6, 4 through 8 mean? Do you want to? Go ahead, brother.
34:36: Yeah, on Hebrews 6.
34:38: If it were possible for someone to start clapping their arms and take off and fly straight to the sun and keep going, they would burn up.
34:48: Yes.
34:49: If it were possible.
34:50: Yes.
34:52: And that's what, and that is what, how it's often interpreted and can be rightfully interpreted as a, if it were possible to fall away, it would be impossible to be resaved.
35:10: Is it possible though? I like what he goes on to say because this, he says in verse 9, something very important.
35:17: He says, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.
35:27: So we're talking about this possibility here.
35:30: What if it were possible to fall away, it would be impossible to repent.
35:34: But you, that for you, we're talking about better things, things that actually belong to salvation.
35:46: I think that, and again, I know I'm having you run all over the Bible, but the two verses that I look at when people are telling me, you can lose your salvation and get it again.
36:01: You can lose your salvation and get it again.
36:06: I say, I want to show you two Bible verses that I think would deny that.
36:11: Number one, and you don't even have to go there.
36:14: I bet you probably know this one.
36:15: Matthew 7, 21.
36:19: Jesus said that on that day, many will say unto me, Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name and do miracles in your name? And I will look at them and say, what? Depart from me, I never knew you.
36:43: That's the key word there.
36:45: Because if they got saved, got lost, got saved, got lost, got saved, got lost, Jesus would say, depart from me, you couldn't handle it.
36:51: Or depart from me, you knew me for a while, but you fell away.
36:55: He says, I never knew you.
36:57: And the word knew is a word of relationship.
37:02: The Bible says God knew Israel of all the nations of the world, Amos 3, 2, meaning that he had a relationship with Israel that was different.
37:11: The Bible says Adam knew Eve and they bore a child.
37:17: No, in the Bible is a word of relationship.
37:21: So when Jesus says, I never knew you, doesn't mean I didn't know your name or who you were, it means we were never in a relationship.
37:28: He never was born again.
37:30: Yes.
37:42: Yeah, that's what I said earlier, being born again, being regenerate.
37:45: You're either regenerate or you're not.
37:47: And if you are a regenerate, can that ever be forfeited? Can that be taken away? Will it be taken away? And if it was, could it be gotten back? Is it an in and out thing? You're in, you're out, you're in, you're out like a yo-yo.
38:01: You're up, you're down.
38:03: But the other verse that I like to point people to is 1 John 2, 19.
38:10: You may want to write that one down.
38:12: 1 John 2, 19.
38:17: In fact, let's go there and look at it.
38:18: Because it's one of those ones that I like for people to read.
38:25: Because you'll hear me say it, but I want you to look at it with me.
38:28: And if you happen to have a version that's not ESV, they all read pretty much the same.
38:35: He's talking about people who have come in and confessed Jesus and then demonstrate themselves to be antichrist.
38:41: Not the antichrist, but antichrist in their being opposed to Christ.
38:45: These are apostates.
38:48: And here's what he says in verse 19.
38:50: He says, they went out from us, but they were not of us.
38:55: For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
39:02: But they went out that it might become plain that they are all not of us.
39:12: You see, the departure is the demonstration of the apostasy.
39:18: And the departure is the demonstration that they were never of us.
39:33: Simon's, again, that's the example.
39:36: He claimed to be of us, but he wasn't.
39:40: So the Bible doesn't shy away from saying, yes, there are those who will fall away.
39:46: But those who fall away, fall away because they were never of us.
39:51: And here's a good example from Jesus' own teachings.
39:55: Jesus said, a man went out to sow seeds.
39:58: And as he went to sow his seed, some of the seed fell on the pathway.
40:03: And the birds of the air came and they ate the seed.
40:06: And some of the seed fell among the rocks.
40:10: And it sprang up for a time, but it withered away because it had no root.
40:15: And some fell among the weeds.
40:17: And it didn't grow because it was choked out.
40:21: Its life was choked out by the weeds.
40:23: He says, but some was thrown into the good soil.
40:26: And that grew and it made a crop of 30, 50 and 100 fold.
40:33: And then he later said, let me interpret this for you.
40:35: He says, the seed that fell among the pathway, that's the people that when they hear the gospel, it immediately bounces off them like a hard roadway.
40:46: And the birds come and just pick it up.
40:47: That's the picture of the devil just taking it right away.
40:50: He said, but the rocky soil, that's the person who hears it.
40:52: And they spring up for a time, but they did not really receive it.
40:56: And they wither away almost as quick as they say they received it.
41:01: And then those who are among the weeds, that's the ones who the cares of this world keep them from genuinely receiving it.
41:07: They're more concerned with what they're going to get in this life than the next.
41:11: He said, but then there's that good soil.
41:13: What makes it good soil? Jesus didn't say this part, but I've always thought this.
41:16: What makes soil good soil? It's prepared by the sower.
41:21: He prepares it and God prepares the heart to hear and receive the gospel.
41:25: And that's what happens.
41:33: Did he? Yeah, I didn't know that.
41:37: It's such a, the reality of it, we've all seen it.
41:42: I mean, I've seen it.
41:44: I've seen people that seem so excited about Jesus Christ for a hot minute.
41:53: And that was it.
41:56: Jesus said, it's the abiding in him.
41:58: That's how we know.
42:03: I'm not really going to get to go through the passage as much as I'd like to, but I want to finish by giving you the answers.
42:11: You can read through Romans 8 and see these.
42:14: But if somebody said to me, Pastor Keith, I want you to debate this.
42:21: And maybe one day that'll happen.
42:22: I would love to do another debate and this would be a subject I'd be willing to debate.
42:27: But if somebody said, Pastor, you're going to debate this subject.
42:31: What passage will you use? It wouldn't be the ones we've already looked at.
42:38: Because the ones that we've already looked at are important and they're polemic.
42:41: They make an argument.
42:43: But I think the best argument is Romans 8, 28, 39.
42:50: Because, listen to me as I go through it and I'll give you the answers.
42:55: One, it teaches our salvation is secure.
42:59: Because it says, for those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
43:05: And those whom he predestined, he called.
43:07: Those whom he called, he justified.
43:09: Those whom he justified, he glorified.
43:11: Beloved, if God predestines and calls you, he justifies you.
43:18: And if you are justified, you will be glorified.
43:21: There is no, it doesn't say, and some he called, he justified.
43:25: And some he justified, he glorified.
43:27: He says, those whom he called, he justified.
43:30: And those whom he justified, he glorified.
43:32: There is nowhere in the Bible where a man goes from the position of justified to unjustified.
43:40: Anyway, justification is a legal declaration of righteousness.
43:47: And you do not lose that declaration because it is based on the righteousness of Christ and not your own.
43:56: Exactly.
43:57: So right there, I think Romans 8, 30 is the passage I would argue from the most.
44:03: But it goes on.
44:04: It says, God is now on our side.
44:06: Verse 31, it says, what shall we say then? If God is for us, who shall be against us? Who can be against us? The whole world tries.
44:14: The devil tries to be against us.
44:16: The world tries to be against us.
44:17: Our own flesh tries to be against us.
44:20: We try to be against us.
44:21: Paul says in Romans 14, I fight my flesh.
44:26: Or Romans 7 rather, I'm sorry.
44:28: But you understand, God is for us.
44:31: We are now in a new relationship.
44:33: We're in a relationship of God being on our side.
44:38: We're no longer his enemy.
44:42: And he said he's going to protect us.
44:44: He said he's going to be there.
44:45: And he says in the next thing, that our salvation is secure.
44:48: Our Savior has secured it.
44:50: That's the next.
44:50: Number three, our Savior has secured us.
44:54: Romans 8, 32.
44:55: He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also graciously give us all things? See, that's the beauty.
45:06: God was willing to send his son to die for you.
45:09: You think he's going to lose you over a whim? Number four, no person can bring a charge against us that will stand.
45:22: No person, it says.
45:23: Who can bring a charge against God's elect? And that's a rhetorical question.
45:29: It doesn't say it, but the answer is no one.
45:32: No one can bring a charge that's going to stick.
45:34: Because it is God who justifies.
45:37: You didn't justify yourself.
45:39: God justified you.
45:41: And who can condemn you if Jesus Christ died for you? The answer is no one.
45:47: The devil may try to condemn, but Christ is interceding.
45:52: Every time the devil brings an accusation against you, Jesus Christ stands as your advocate.
45:59: At that very moment, the same one who is the judge is your lawyer.
46:04: That's a sweet deal.
46:09: No circumstance.
46:10: Number five, no circumstance can separate us from the love Christ has for us.
46:18: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, it goes on and on.
46:23: Even if we're killed? No, in everything we're more than conquerors.
46:27: We are conquerors through him who loved us.
46:30: Because Christ has conquered death, so shall we.
46:33: And finally, number six, no enemy.
46:35: No enemy can rob us of what Christ has provided for us.
46:42: Neither death nor life, angels, rulers, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height and depth.
46:48: Nothing can separate us from that.
46:51: And I've heard people say, well, none of those things can, but I can separate myself.
47:00: So you're more powerful than God.
47:04: I'll leave you with this.
47:05: It's the last thing on your sheet says, this is a reminder that our salvation security is not in what we do, but in what God has done.
47:12: But let me add this thought.
47:14: The only reason why, and this would be, if I were debating, this would be my final statement.
47:21: The only reason why anyone believes they can lose their salvation is they believe that in some way they have contributed to it.
47:35: Because unless you believe you did something to get it, why would you believe you could do something to lose it? You see, when you believe you can lose your salvation, you have a wrong view of the gift of God.
47:52: Let's pray.
47:53: Father, I thank you for your word.
47:55: I thank you for the whole truth.
47:57: And I pray that we have been fair to the truth tonight, fair to those who would disagree, knowing Lord that I know in my heart that even those who disagree, Lord, many of them do love you.
48:07: And they seek to know the truth.
48:09: And I pray that this lesson might be used of you, not only among our people tonight, but those who will hear it on the recording Lord, that it might be used to help them understand the precious security that we have in Jesus Christ.
48:20: And it's in his name we pray.
48:22: Amen.