(Perseverance of the saints and Preservation of the Savior)
Christ keeps Believers in the faith and does not lose any!!!
Proverbs 2:8 “Guarding the paths of justice, and He preserves the way of His godly ones.”
Tells about God and how He relates to His people. He carries the burden of His people.
Psalms 37:24 “When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” If people sin, God won’t leave them there in that state. God continually woos them back and chastises them. Example: David was treated as a child of God even after committing the most heinous of crimes.
John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” The true Believer will at no time in the future come into a state or condition of condemnation. Good Scripture for security of the Believer.
John 6:37-40 “37All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” Those that come to God; God will not reject.
John 10:26-30 “26But you do not believe because you are not My sheep. 27My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.” God won’t lose any. No man is able to pluck anyone from the hand of God. No man includes the man himself. So, the Believer can’t walk away from God’s hand. Again, my question remains, “is it possible that a Believer could stop believing that Jesus is His Lord and Savior?” And if this is not possible that a Believer could stop believing, then this must necessarily indicate that the free will of man ceases to exist once a Believer first makes his profession of faith. I am truly seeking to know and understand the truth according to Scripture and not according to man-made doctrines or because the majority believe a certain way.
Romans 8:30-39 Predestined > Called > Justified > Glorified. Whom = the # of people Predestined, Called, Justified and Glorified by God to be conformed to the image of His Son. God preserves them in the faith. Jesus loses none (no man) given to Him by the Father except the son of perdition (Judas), but Judas was a son of the devil from the beginning?
John 6:66-70 “66As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. 67So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” 68Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” 70Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” The twelve apostles didn’t go away even though it appeared Jesus lost many; in the end Jesus lost none. Filtering/sifting process. Peter had a temporary lapse, but Jesus prayed for him and Peter was not lost. Peter repented, came back to Christ and endured to the end. Ultimately, Peter did not deny Christ and remained faithful to his calling. Peter remained firm at the end despite the ups and downs in the middle. Peter was faithful to his original calling. No man is able to pluck them (the Believers) out of God’s hand. The Believers will never perish or come under condemnation. The Scriptures above (John 6:37-40) supports the security of the Believer, and is absolutely contradictory to other Scriptures (warning Scriptures) that state we must continue in the faith if you are a partaker of Christ Jesus. You must continue to believe firm until the end.
Romans 8:31-39 All these things that would attempt to separate us from the love of Christ (to separate us from our faith) will not, because in verse 37 it says, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” Paul had confidence that come what may, nothing could separate the Believer from the love of God in these verses.
The great and reasonable question remains in my mind, “Even though no one or nothing can pluck the Believer out of God’s hand; could a Believer, who has now stopped believing or having faith in Christ as his Lord and Savior simply choose to walk out of God’s hand and protection? If this were not possible or even remotely possible, then why would God’s holy Word be filled with warnings that we must stay in the faith?
Romans 11:29 “For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (without repentance).” This is not talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit or gift of salvation. This verse is used here not to address the subject of keeping us in the faith, but rather to state a principle: When God gives something; He gives it for good. He doesn’t take it back. This verse refers to God giving to the Nation of Israel the peculiar status of being God’s people. Sons of Jacob and heirs of God. God did not give this status to the Ishmaelites. The idea here is that if you come to God through faith; He will not cast you away.
1 Corinthians 1:8 “Who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 1:12-14 “12For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. 13Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” God is faithful and we hold fast to the promise of eternal life, because we are confident and know that God is faithful. We must learn more of God’s character by learning His Word to know that He will never leave us or forsake us.
1 Peter 1:3-5 “3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” God keeps us through faith. God preserves His saints in the faith, not outside of faith. God keeps us not in spite of faith, butpreserves them in the faith. Scripture does not say that God preserves us because of our faith: If God preserves us because of our faith, then we would be in a dire straight (extremely fearful) to make sure we maintain the proper level of our faith. Scripture says, faith is the means and the channel, but the One who originally gave us the faith keeps us in that faith, keeps stimulating our faith and preserves us in the state of faith. So, it is God’s work and His grace that maintains the keeping of the means through us through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Faith is the means and the channel that God will preserve as He is the Author and Perfector of faith.
2 Timothy 4:18 “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” The Lord will deliver us (Believers) from every evil work and preserve us (Believers) in that ongoing state of faith firm to the end.
1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24 “23Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”
Jude 24, 25 “24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” God is able to keep us from falling. An ongoing means to keep us from falling must be met: We must persevere in the faith, not fall, not turn away, not cast away our confidence, be preserved blameless from every evil work, and that this (what is stated above) is part of our salvation. Our anxiety, fears and lack of hope in doing this only comes when we lean on our own understanding as Proverbs 3:5,6 warn us not to do, and when we look to ourselves and not to God to complete the good work that He began in us as Philippians 1:6 describe. Oh, it could be so easy to unintentionally and subtly start relying and depending on our own efforts, abilities, works and even our own faith in trusting that this is what saves us or at least we can’t be saved without doing “these things”. We could, if we are not careful, take our minds off the simplicity of the Gospel, God’s free gift of grace and eternal life, by focusing too heavily on our faith and “these things” to keep ourselves saved instead of on God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, His keeping power and His precious and magnificent promises to sustain us in our faith through which we are saved. Instead of working “out” our salvation with fear and trembling; we start working “for” our salvation. We know the Bible says His yoke is easy and His burden is light, so if we have a hard yoke and a heavy burden in our walk with the Lord, then we must be trusting in someone or something other than God. Whatever problem man can have; God is always the answer. This sounds simplistic, but if I am going through tough times as I know I will; I want someone to gently, but boldly, remind me of this truth.
Hebrews 9:11-14 “11But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12And not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Eternal redemption for the Believer was obtained by JesusChrist.
Hebrews 9:26-28 “26Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. 28so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”
Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He has perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Hebrews 10:14-17 “14For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, 16 ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,’ He then says, 17 ‘And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ God says that their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews has the best Scriptures for the security of the Believer. However, Hebrews also has the “worst” Scriptures because of the warnings to the Believer to keep in the faith. Many people dispensationalize (disregard) these Scripture warnings for themselves, because they say God was only warning the Hebrew Christians not to go back under Judaism. However, if we disregard the Scripture warnings (hard Scriptures) in Hebrews to keep in the faith; we must also disregard the “Eternal Security” Scriptures in Hebrews as well. However, Romans and Corinthians have just as powerful “Eternal Security” Scriptures which can’t be dispensational zed.
Means God uses to keep the Believers in the faith:
Imputed righteousness is not something that takes place in your experience. It is something God does from without in declaring you to be, in fact, what you’re not. God declared you to be righteous. This does not require any degree of living on your part, but that it is a gift of righteousness. The Scripture view assumes that Salvation is a package. Salvation comes with Imputed Righteousness which removes your sin, and your guilt and your damnation without any response of obedience on your part other than believing, and that we are once and for all eternally saved through that Imputed Righteousness. Salvation also assumes that once that Imputed Righteousness comes in to our hearts in the Scriptures noted above that God will write His laws within our hearts. God will give us a new heart and 1 Corinthians 5:17 applies to us because we are new creatures. Also we must look at the New Covenant promises in Ezekiel 36:25-27, Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Jeremiah 32:34-42.
That act of Imputed Righteousness comes along with the Holy Spirit moving into the spirits soul!!! When the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts; it is with the purpose to conform us into the image of God’s Son. So, all those that were called eventually that number was glorified in heaven. God assumes that this package (Salvation) comes as a whole and that the God who begins the work of Imputed Righteousness continues the work of sanctification, so that He , in fact, does deliver us from every evil work and preserves us firm unto the end. The only assurance of salvation is what Christ did for us before we were born and even before we ever sinned. Do not walk a road of works by believing that these works or your faith is what saves you. These people (saved by works people) are struggling to be righteous to demonstrate that, in fact, they are Christian. Their mind set is that they have to be good every day and not sin, otherwise, they won’t be saved in the end. Eventually, they fall into the spirit that somehow what they are doing is saving them. They are actually walking a road of works for their salvation!!! What confidence they have only comes when they are being good!!! And whenthey sin their confidence flies out the window!!! What are they looking at? Are they looking at the work Christ did for them or are they looking at the work that Christ is doing in them? Are they looking at the work that they are doing for Christ? There is no confidence in the work that we are doing for Christ. The only assurance of salvation comes from what Christ did for us before we were born and before we ever sinned!!! God does use means to keep us in the faith once we believe and are in the faith.
We must throw all of our hope upon God in sustaining our faith. Paul said that God will enact these means all the way to the end!!! The 15 means that God uses to keep us in the faith will be covered today. God expects us to see all these means and faint, and then throw all our hope upon Him!!! Remember, as Believers, we are not working “for” our salvation, but we are working “out” our salvation that God has imputed to us (that which God has already worked within us).
15 means that God uses to keep Believers in the faith
1. Advocacy of Christ
Christ is like a lawyer pleading our case.
Hebrews 4:10-16 “10For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
13And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. 14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16Therfore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Hebrews 4:14 mixes the security of the Believer and our responsibility. Scripture is filled with paradoxes involving the Sovereignty of God and the Free-Will of Man: To destroy either one of these is to set aside the Word of God!!! God said to Abraham regarding Isaac, “Now I know that you fear Me”, but doesn’t God know all things? We know that God knows all things, but it appears that God is functioning on 2 levels at the same time: (1) God knows the end from the beginning, and (2) God learns as we act. (1)God has already chosen the endfrom the beginning, and (2)We must choose and the consequences are ours.
1 Peter 1:4,5 (already listed) Hebrews 9:11,12 (already listed)
1 John 2:1-3 “1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2andHe Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 3By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
2. Intercession of Christ Jesus Christ speaks on our behalf. Jesus speaks to God about us and Jesus speaks to us about God. Jesus continues to hold back the wrath of God.
Romans 8:34-39 (already listed)
3. Prayers of Jesus John 17:15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”
4. Prayers of Christians Psalms 106:33 “Because they were rebellious against His Spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips.”
Moses kept God from destroying a whole Nation of people. This does not compute with God’s sovereignty, because God said He would kill the people. However, Moses intervened and interceded with God on their behalf and God changed His mind for the greatest good. We must obey what God says. True Christians can pray for, exhort and convert a backslider.
James 5:14-20 “14Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 16Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. 17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. 19My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, 20let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
5. Ministry of Angels Hebrews 1:14 “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” Angels interfered with Balaam and ministered to Peter in jail. Angels can deliver up.
6. Word of God Hebrews 2:1 “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” God warns us not to depart from the faith.
Ephesians 6:17 “And take the Helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
7. Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit of promise seals us, dwells in us, convicts us, speaks to us, reminds us, will not allow us to forget and will not go away. The Holy Spirit continues to abide within us to bring us back to truth, obedience and holiness.
8. Love of Christ Christ’s love constrains the child to walk in holiness: obedience and faithfulness.
Romans 5:5 “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
2 Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;”
1 John 4:19 “We love, because He first loved us.”
9. Grace of God Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The grace of God is God’s toolbox of provision, His storehouse of blessings and provision for us, what God does for us on our behalf to stimulate us to obedience. Grace helps us and provides us with strength and keeps us in the faith.
10. Christian Encouragement Encourage, exhort one another daily to walk in holiness to keep Believers from hardening their hearts by the deceitfulness of sin If this hardening of the Believer’s heart was not possible, then God wouldn’t give us all these warnings in Scripture to turn from sin and keep in the faith!!!
Hebrews 3:12-14 “12Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”
Hebrews 10:23-25 “23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
11. Chastisement of Christ We must subject ourselves to God when we as Believers are chastised. Chastening is the means God uses when the Believer does not walk in obedience and holiness. God chastens all those who are His. If staying in the faith, righteousness and obedience were automatic, then God would not have these means,encouragements, rebukes, warnings and chastisements that He brings into our lives so that itis an ongoing thing. These means that God uses does not mean that the work of God is uncertain, but it represents that God uses a means that is ongoing to keep the salvation and maintain it in our experience.
Hebrews 12:4-11 “4You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; 6For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.’ 7It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8But if you are without discipline of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. 11All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
Revelation 3:19 “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”
12. Chastisement of the Church 1 Corinthians 5:5 “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
The Scripture above describes turning this one, a Believer entering into the sin of adultery (sleeping with his father’s wife), over to Satan. Have a “Devil casting in” ceremony for the destruction of his flesh. Have a prayer meeting and talk to the Devil (according to Mike Pearl) and say you can have him; we as the Church take our hands and prayers off him. He is yours. This actually is the means God is using to keep this Believer in the faith!!! Turn him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh (body) so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. It is assumed here in 1 Corinthians 5:5 that if this Believer were killed by the devil it would guarantee the salvation of his soul.
Matthew 18:17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
The Church must treat a professing Believer as a sinner until he repents. The Church has the power: whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
2 Corinthians 2:6-8 “6Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, 7so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.”
Forgive that man given over to Satan and the destruction of his flesh when he repents.
13. Ministry of Preachers 2 Timothy 4:2-5 “2Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. 3For the time will come when theywill not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
1 Timothy 5:20 “Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.”
Acts 11:23,24 “23Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; 24for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.”
Acts 13:43 “Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them were urging them to continue in the grace of God.”
Acts 14:22 “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.’ ”
Hebrews 2:1 “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.”
2 Peter 1:10,11 “10Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
To make sure that you are saved you must:
Search your soul to make sure the Holy Spirit dwells there.
Search your life to make sure you are bearing good fruit.
Search your mind to see where your faith really rests.
Examine yourself to see if you are really in the faith.
14. Warnings A new convert will doubt his salvation and this is good until he becomes mature. We must check out our foundation (Jesus Christ and His shed blood).
Hebrews 6:4-6 “4For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”
Galatians 5:4 “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”
Revelation 21:7,8 “7He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Revelation 22:18,19 “18I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”
Hebrews 3:12-14 (already listed) The warning and exhortation of these Scriptures is to stay in the faith; not to stay good or righteous. If you depart from Christ, then you will not be saved in the end. The warning has not been: if you haven’t reached a certain level of obedience that you’ll lose your salvation. Most of those people on the side of this doctrine that teaches you can lose your salvation proclaim that you can lose it by not being good rather than by losing your faith. Losing your salvation by not being good is a preposterous doctrine that does not appear in Scripture. If this were the case, then our salvation would definitely be by works. Our salvation is by the grace of God through faith. And the faith that saves; we must stay in: this is the exhortation of Scripture. Don’t give up the faith.
Two examples of possible loss of salvation of a Believer:
1) A Believer goes to college and learns philosophy and is convinced that Christianity is a joke. He believes that Jesus is just a good man and he worships nature and not Jesus. Therefore, he has lost his salvation.
2) A preacher as a Believer now believes that believing in Jesus is not enough to be saved, but must meet many other requirements. The preacher decides later that his salvation is not sure at all, but is conditioned on this ongoing obedience. So, he stops having confidence that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin and you’re saved by grace and faith alone. He is convinced that you’ve got to be good and that he is far better than he ever was before: He’s walking far more righteously, far more narrowly and He has a profession of humility, he has a denial of the body, (the flesh) and he is walking as a great righteous man would walk; and he has lost his salvation. How? He gave up Christ for the Law!!! This great salvation is not an issue of how good you are, but rather in whom are you trusting!!! What is the ground and the foundation of your faith. God exhorts us to continue in Christ. When a professing Believer gets into sin; he is in danger of hardening his heart to the point that he would depart from the living God. Sin itself would not separate the man from the work of Christ, but sin could put his heart in a condition where he would stop trusting in the work of Christ; in which case sin would play a part in leading to his denial of the faith. Scripture gives us many warnings to continue in Christ and continue in the faith lest sin could lead you to deny your faith. Don’t be disrespectful to God by disregarding the multitudes of warnings God has in His Word to the Believers. The end or outcome of apostasy is hell.
15. Sin unto death 1 Corinthians 5:5 (already listed)
1 Corinthians 11:30-32 “30For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31But if we judged ourselves rightly we would not be judged. 32But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not becondemned along with the world. This sickness unto death saved them (Believers) so they would not be condemned as the world and be damned. They were delivered by this death.
James 5:14-20 (already listed) Don’t know when a person’s sickness is a result of their sin. It’s not our place to judge, because we may be wrong. However, healing will occur when one repents if his sickness is due to sin.
1 Corinthians 3:15-17 “15If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 16Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” Works done in the Spirit (works of faith) are like gold, silver and precious stones which, when tested by fire, will remain and will receive a reward. Works done by self-effort, self-pride, self-aggrandizement (works of law) are like wood, hay and stubble and when tested by fire will be burned up and disappear with no reward. What kind of works do we have?
1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.” Professing Believers went out with true Believers, they were not true Believers because they went back to sin, Judaism, heathenism, etc. The fact that they left us proves they were not really of us.
2 Thessalonians 3:3,4 “3But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 4We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command.” These Scriptures mix the security of the Believer (God’s commitment) and warnings to stay in the faith (Man’s obligation). God’s sovereignty never negates man’s free-will. God always functions in cooperation with our free-will. We are never saved apart from faith, but always in, by and through faith.!!! God preserves men in the faith, not outside the faith. God preserves us not in spite of our faith, but preserves us to stay in the faith. The act of preservation is not something God does regardless; it’s something God does to keep us obedient to the means of believing. You have no right to believe that you are saved unless you are in the faith and are continuing in the faith.!!!
The security of the Believer is not based on his ability to stay in the faith; nor is it based on God’s ability to keep him outside the faith, but the security of the Believer is God’s ability to keep him in the faith: him who believes.
It is not one’s degree of holiness or faithfulness, but rather it is his faith in the One whose holiness secures for the Believer that eternal salvation. I am not focused on the work that Christ is doing in me to gain my security. I’m focused on the work that God did in Christ. That’s where my security lies. My security doesn’t lie in the day to day ongoing activity of God in me. My security lies in what God did over 2000 years ago on the cross for sinners. This is the only objective reality that gives us any assurance of our salvation!!!