
00:00
00:00
00:01
ប្រតិចារិក
1/0
Well, I still remember as a new believer, I hadn't been saved for very long. In fact, I didn't really know a lot doctrinally. I knew I was saved. I knew I was internally secure. I knew I was going to heaven. And I had just learned about 1 John 1, 9. And specifically, how that related to fellowship. And how 1 John 1, 9, its purpose was to restore fellowship and not to restore one's lost salvation, which people had been trying to lead me to believe. So one time I was getting my car fixed and I knew some family members lived nearby who thought that way. And I thought, all right, I'll go over and visit them. And so I would share this liberating news with them, thinking, oh, they'll be excited to have this cleared up in their mind. And so I go over there with my little handout. And again, I don't know a whole lot, but I knock on their door. And again, these are Christians or professed Christians. And I said, hey, can I share something with you that I just recently learned in church? They're like, yeah, come on in, come on in, that'll be great, that'll be wonderful. And so as we sat down at the table and we began to go through my handout, it wasn't very long before this sort of welcomeness, this sort of joy that had started out our conversation turned to anger. And we're not just talking anger, I specifically remember one of them was just leaning over here and he had his teeth clenched and he's yelling at me, saying, you mean to tell me, you mean to tell me, And I'll tell you what, I was shook up, because that didn't really go that well. And so I was a student at the time, and I was walking across the grass over at UMD the next day, and I remember thinking to myself, I'm serious about that, I am never, ever going to talk to somebody about this kind of stuff again. I was pretty shook up. But I was a new believer, I had a desire for the Lord, and really it was through the encouragement of a lot of other believers that I did get over that. And it actually strengthened my faith because I had to go back and find out exactly what people were saying in opposition to this doctrine of eternal security. And so I was learning verse after verse after verse. And we did continue to have discussions with these family members over the years. And frankly, it never really went that well. Both me and my wife were involved in that. And it really got to the point where we kind of had to lay discussions aside because they just weren't open to it. But what it really boiled down to that day was what our difference was in what we believe Christ actually accomplished on the cross. See, there are those that believe that when Christ died on the cross and when he said it was finished, they know it was finished. It was completely taken care of, the sin issue, that Christ's death was complete and satisfied God completely. And that by faith alone, apart from a person's works, that's all that's needed for salvation. And then there's those that say, well, I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe He died on the cross. But when they say that, they don't really mean that His work was finished. They believe that, oh, in some way, some form, some fashion, they have to add to their own, they have to add their own self-effort. And usually in your discussions, first it starts out with, well, certainly you can't, you know, do one of the whopper sins like murder or commit adultery, right? But then when you talk about, well, Christ died for these sins, then they'll maybe, you know, go to, well, it can't be a continual pattern of sins. And then you kind of explain, well, these are still sins that Christ died for, and pretty soon they'll get to, well, you can't be a Satan worshipper, you can't stop believing, something like that. But there's always some level of self-effort involved in their thinking. And we're going to see from the Scripture this morning, as John says, he says, I wrote these things down to those who believe in the name of the Son of God that you can know, K-N-O-W, that you have eternal life. Because God wants you and I to know that we have eternal life. It's based upon the completed work of Jesus Christ, and it's not on your or I's self-effort. So as we continue our studies and growing deeper in the Christian life, we really want to address the question, can a person who is saved ever be lost? Can a Christian who has placed their faith in Christ, can they sin to such a degree that they'll lose their salvation? What if they stop believing? What if they become an atheist? What if they switch to Buddhism or become a devil worshipper? Can that person still know for sure that they're going to heaven? And that's what I want to show you this morning. That God wants us to know the answers to these questions. In fact, He wants us to know so much that it's emphasized over and over and over in Scripture. Eternal security is not one of these sort of obscure concepts that's buried way back in the Old Testament and grabbed out and a whole campaign is set up around it. No, it's over and over in scriptures. So let's define our term this morning. What do we mean by eternal security? And this is on your handout. It means that when you have been genuinely saved by God's grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, you will never be in danger of God's condemnation. or loss of your salvation, but instead you're kept forever, saved and secure by God's grace and power. Now what does that mean simply? It means once saved, always saved. That's exactly what eternal security means. And see, according to the scriptures, God guarantees our salvation. See, the person who's truly saved has eternal life, it's never to be lost, and it's safe and secure. And why is that? It's because this is God's work. And He always does His work well. And please note, security and assurance, they're not the same thing. A person can lose their assurance. We saw that the last couple of weeks through various things that may happen in their life. But a person cannot lose their salvation. So let's begin our study this morning by opening to Romans chapter 8. And let's allow the Word of God to speak to us this morning. And we're going to see that the Bible emphasizes the eternal security in different ways. And we're going to focus this morning on what we call the Trinity Approach. So we'll open up to Romans 8. And on your handout, we can start by filling in. It's provided first by God the Father through the purpose of the Father. Through the purpose of the Father. And I'll read verses 28 through 30, and you can follow along with me. It says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the call according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified." Now, there's a whole lot of truths in this portion of Scripture, but we're going to focus on just one aspect for our purposes this morning. See, if you're a believer this morning, God has plans for you, big plans. In fact, He has a purpose for you. Notice in verse 28, His purpose. And I want you to notice the verbs here in this passage. We have first foreknew. That means that God knew beforehand. It's part of his omniscience. He says those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. Predestined means really to set up boundaries. I'm always reminded of that when we have a baptism and you hear the stories of the testimonies that God directed certain people in certain ways ultimately to the same path of salvation, but they come from all different directions. That was true in my life. And it says, those whom He predestined, verse 30, moreover whom He predestined, these He also called. Called like a phone call. It's like God called and said, hey, this is the Gospel. What do you think about that? And a believer really answers that call. And it says, whom He called, these He also justified. Now, justified is a judicial term. It means to be declared righteous. We're not made righteous when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, but we are declared righteous And then it says, in whom he justified, these he also glorified. So these are five words. They're all in the past tense. And for the believer, four of these have already happened. Let's see if I can get this. Figured it out. Four of these have already happened. But the fifth one, glorified, has not happened yet. And yet God puts it in the past tense as if it already has happened. This is sometimes called the prophetic past tense. See, in God's eyes, every believer has been glorified. Why? Because it's going to happen. Now, here's a important biblical distinction I hope you either have down or you're starting to understand the three tenses of salvation. First, we have salvation from past tense. That's called justification. When a person places their faith in Christ, at that point in time, they are declared righteous by God. That is called justification. Then we have salvation from present tense. That's salvation from the power of sin in one's life. And that is dependent on a believer's walk. Are they yielding themselves to God and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through their lives? And if that's the case, then we can be saved from the power of sin in our lives. And then there's also future salvation, future tense. That's a point in time, it'll either be by death or by rapture, when the believer will be glorified. And that's what we're talking about, glorification. And verse 30 in Romans says what? Those whom He's justified, He will also glorify. So this is a promise. Those whom He's justified, I'm not technical enough to switch colors, so you'll have to bear with me here. That He will also glorify. So the point is here, all who are saved will be glorified someday in the future. That's the point of verse 30. Now, and if you could lose your salvation due to some degree of sin, due to some walk or whatever, and God will not glorify you, then he's really a failure. Because his purpose is to glorify those whom he justified. That's his promise. Now what's missing from this list of verbs here in Romans chapter 8? That would be this one right here. Sanctification. Why is that one missing? Well, because that's not guaranteed. Again, that's dependent on the believer's walk, their willingness to yield themselves to God and allow the Holy Spirit to work in their lives. And so first off, we see this point in that the purpose of the Father is to glorify those whom He justifies. Now, as we move on, the Bible is also provided by God the Father through the power of the Father. And to see that, we want to go to 1 Peter 1. And boys, I studied this out this week, and I've had the privilege of teaching this in the past. This is an awesome portion of Scripture right here. 1 Peter 1. Now, a little background. These are believers who are going through a time of suffering. In fact, it was a time of great trial. And Peter has a lot of things to say to these believers. But the first thing he does after he greets them is he brings them right back and reminds them of what they have. Look at verse 3. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now notice, to an inheritance that's incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. Verse 5, we are kept by the power of God through faith, that's how it's appropriated, for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials." So here Peter is reminding them of what they have. They have an inheritance. The believer has an inheritance. We're talking about salvation. We're talking about eternal life. And what do we know about this inheritance? Well, first we see it's incorruptible. We all have cars that are corruptible, especially in our climate. We get a little salt on them. They rust after a period of time. They're corruptible. And Peter here is saying our inheritance is not corruptible. Also it says it's undefiled. Now I realize this picture is kind of gross, but it makes the point very well. It's not subject to imperfection impurities like our body. Our body is fading away in a sense. Our inheritance also does not fade away. And haven't we noticed that here as we've seen the transition from summer to fall to winter? You know, you have these beautiful flowers on your deck and they're full of color, and over a period of time they start to fade away until they're completely gone. Our inheritance does not fade away. And our inheritance, what also is, it's reserved in heaven. In fact, if you're here this morning, you know what, and you're saved, you have a reservation in heaven. It's not going to be cancelled by God, it can't be cancelled by you or I. In fact, I was thinking, if you get to heaven too and they say, hey, do you have a confirmation number? You can say, yes I do, 1 Peter 1, 3-6. Or 3-16, or 2-8-9, we have a lot of confirmation numbers. But also, I noticed about this verse, who is maintaining your salvation? God is. Not you, not I. God is maintaining your salvation. Now notice there's a couple of words here in verse 5 that says, who are kept by God. Are kept is a verb. It speaks of guarding. It's like a sentinel that's put in on post to protect. Notice God is guarding our salvation. God is holding it on our behalf. We have no part, and it's ready to be revealed in the last time when we need it the most, right? By death or by rapture. In fact, I like to use the card illustration here. You know how it is in our society when maybe your little grandson or your son has a birthday or it could be Christmas, and they get a couple of dollars from grandma, and then they get a dollar from auntie, and then a dollar from uncle, and a couple from mom and dad. They're little, they're two or three years old, so they're kind of walking around and they're dropping their money all over the place. And you as a loving parent then, you pick all this money up and you say, I'll hold on to this for you until the time when we go to the store. That way it will be there when we need it the most. I think that's what God's doing with our salvation. He's saying, I'll hold on to it for you until the time when you need it the most, which will be, again, by death or by rapture. And so God's holding on to our salvation. And let me ask you, is He reliable? He's omnipotent. He's the sovereign God, the creator of the universe. He can raise the dead. He certainly can hold on to our salvation. You know, and frankly, if you could lose your salvation due to sin or unfaithfulness or something like that, then who is really the biggest threat to your salvation? That would be you, and that would be us. In fact, we can backslide, we can fall, we can turn away from the Lord. In fact, I'm convinced if it was up to us to keep our salvation, we'd lose it in a day, if even that long, right? We wouldn't even be able to make it a day, probably, if it was up to us to maintain our salvation. But we have God, our loving God, who is holding on to our salvation for us, and even keeping it from the biggest threat, which is ourselves. In fact, the psalmist says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in His way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with His hand. Notice it says, though, not if he falls. In fact, I was looking through other versions too. I like the way the New American Standard says, when he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the one who holds his hand. So the picture I get in my mind, you know, someone picks you up like this and hurls you headlong. God's not going to do that to us. He's holding on to us. See, we can fall but we'll never perish because our inheritance is reserved in heaven. And we can be thankful that we have a loving God who's willing to do that. Notice the end, too, in verse 6. Peter says, in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. See, these are words of encouragement. You know, and if you're going through a trial, and I know sometimes we go through hard trials, you know, we can remember, you know, we're going to heaven. Or maybe you don't know what to say to somebody. I'm not very good at comforting people when they're struggling or whatever, but we could take an illustration of Peter right here and remind them, you know what, I know things are tough and God will work them all together for good, but even so, we're going to heaven someday. And so Peter is reminding these believers of what they had in this time of great trial. And so we see we have salvation, secure salvation through the purpose and the power of the Father, but we also have it through the protection of the Father. I've got the verse up here on the screen. Hopefully you can see it. This is John now. John writes down these words. He says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hands. I and my Father are one. And so here we have the words of Jesus Christ in reference to His sheep, right? Which is a synonym for a believer. And what does He say? I give them eternal life. Now how long is eternal life? It's eternal. It's forever. And He also says in verse 28, they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. In fact, notice He says, no one shall snatch them out of My Father's hand also. Verse 29. We're in the good hands of God. Notice, there's no conditions on our part in this portion of Scripture. These are all statements of fact. I want to look at this term, shall never perish. That's in verse 28. I want to give you a little Greek lesson here this morning, as the New Testament was written in Greek. I'm not trying to wall you with Greek right here. In fact, if you knew my Greek grades, you'd wonder what I'm doing talking about Greek. But it really brings out the strength of the words that God chose to use here. So we take this Greek word, Greek phrase, shall never perish. It's actually ume, apa, lontai, aiston, iona. Now let's break that down. Ume is a double negative. It means never, ever. Now I know in English we can't use the double negative, but in the Greek we can. Apa, lontai means shall perish, or carries the idea of be lost or destroyed. And aiston, iona means into the ages. So we can literally translate this phrase, shall never, ever perish forever. That's what shall never perish means. Shall never ever perish forever. That is an ultra emphatic statement. And what is Jesus saying here? I give them eternal life and they shall never ever perish forever. Well, how can he say that? Well, again, we're in the good hands of God. We're safe and secure. In fact, all state may be able to take care of your earthly insurance needs, right? But we're in the good hands of God when it comes to our salvation. That is eternal security. So we have the purpose, the power, and the protection of the Father. We also have the promise of the Father. Let's go to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Paul records here for us in Romans chapter 5, a lot of good stuff. But we want to read verses 7-10. Paul says, For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love towards us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, notice, we shall be saved by His life. These are future promises. Having been justified when a person places their faith in Jesus Christ, at that point in time they're justified, we shall be saved in the future from wrath, the wrath that is to come someday. So these are future promises for God. We shall in the future be saved. And frankly, if you could lose your salvation, then Paul should have used the words, may, right? Well, you may be saved. That would have been a much better truth for us to be taught, if we could truly lose our salvation. But he didn't. He says, we shall never perish. Now let's go to Romans chapter 8. We looked at part of this before. Paul really gets into it here. Remember we saw in verse 30, those whom He justified, these He also glorified. So He's already iterated that promise to us. Now notice in verse 35, He says, Well, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Notice Paul says, "...for I am persuaded..." And look at the extreme Jesus. He says, "...neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present right now, nor things in the future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing..." Which would include ourselves, right? "...shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." See, this is a love that can never be broken away from. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. I mean, notice the list of circumstances. This is quite the laundry list. And Paul was persuaded that no one or no thing could separate him from the love of God, including himself. That is eternal security. And so we've seen that eternal security is provided through the Father's purpose, power, protection and promise. And if that's not enough, we'll continue. Because it's also provided by God the Son. Jesus Christ Himself through the promise of the Son. And to see this, we'll need to go to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. Now Jesus here is talking to a group of people. There are always people, crowds, following him around. He was doing stuff and saying stuff, and there were a lot of people that were curious. In fact, Jesus Christ aroused a lot of great interest back then. Discussion and debate. And that's still true today, for those of you who follow sports. NFL quarterback right now named Tim Tebow. I listen to sports talk radio on my lunch breaks and whatnot. And he's created this great discussion on sports radio because he usually gets up after the game and says, first and foremost, I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And this became banter for talk on sports radio, which I was kind of surprised. And I thought, you know, you can get up there and mention the name of God, say I want to thank God, and it doesn't really generate much discussion or arousal. But you mentioned the name of Jesus Christ. And all of a sudden, the mood in any room tenses up, doesn't it? So nothing's changed. Even back then, people were curious about what he was doing. So he's talking to this group of people. And notice what he says. Verse 35, And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Again, there were people in the crowd that actually saw Jesus Christ do some of the things He did, yet they didn't believe. And he makes some statements here though. He says, "...all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." Okay, what's that? This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life and I will raise Him up the last day. So as we look at this now, what is the responsibility of Jesus Christ in this portion? He says, well, I will by no means cast out. Cast out is the Greek word ekbalo, ek meaning out and balo meaning to throw. He's not going to cast out, right? You know how we find something worthless in our whatever and we kind of cast it in the garbage? He's not going to do that. He also says he will lose nothing. He should lose nothing that the Father has given him. And he also says, you know what? He will raise you up the last day when we need it the most. And what is our responsibility? It says right in verse 30. Our responsibility is to believe. When a person believes, he or she has all these wonderful truths. So this little portion of scripture is really loaded with promises of the Son. And so we see the eternal security is provided by God the Son through His promise. But it's also provided through the faithfulness of the Son. The faithfulness of the Son. And I've got the next scripture up here on the screen. Paul is talking to young Timothy. He's laying out a lot of important truths for him. And he says this in chapter 2. He says, this is a faithful saying, for if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. In verse 13, if we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. So let's break this down a little bit here. Notice verse 11 says, this is a faithful saying. If we died with him, we shall also live with him. Now the word if here is in the first class condition of the Greek. It means they really could be translated since, right? It means if and it's true. So since we died with him, it's a fact, and that is a fact that every believer has died with Jesus Christ. That's Roman six, which we went over I think last Sunday. A positional statement. When the believer is saved, they are identified with the death of Christ. And so it says that if we died with Him, since we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. That's the promise and the guarantee of God. Look at verse 12 now. So this one's a guarantee. Verse 12, there was an option. It says, if we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. See, some people say, well, they'll say yes to these promises, these are true of the believer, but if you stop believing or you become unfaithful, they no longer apply to you. Well, I actually think these verses help clarify this issue. Notice it says, those who endure, what does it say? It says, will reign with Him. See, this is talking about the possible future reward of reigning with Jesus Christ. And it says, those who deny Him will be denied. Well, what will be denied of those who deny Him? The context in this verse is clearly the reward of rain. It's not salvation. See, Christ will deny certain privileges to the unfaithful believer in the future. But he's not going to deny us entrance into heaven. I would contradict verse 11 and the many other verses that we're looking at. In fact, who is the most famous denier in the Bible? Peter. He denied. We certainly do believe that Peter is in heaven. But what happens to those who are faithless? It says, well, if we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself. See, He remains faithful. And why is that? He can't deny Himself. Christ can't deny that He died on the cross for our sins. He can't deny that He's made all kinds of promises to us of eternal life. And there's many, many promises. In fact, he has made many salvation promises to the believer in Jesus Christ. You know, on these people that I talked about earlier, I had a lot of discussions on eternal security early on in the days, and they brought up a few of these classic problem passages, which Kurt will go over in a couple of weeks. There's not many, but there's some. And as you study them all, you'll see that they don't mean what they say. But I began to sit down and come up with a list of problem passages for those who believe you can lose your salvation. All the ones I've got here. And I came up with this huge list of, if you think you can lose your salvation, you've got a lot of problem passages that you've got to work through. See, Christ has made many promises to the believer in Christ. And our salvation doesn't depend on our faithfulness. thank God for that, put on His. And so we have the faithfulness of the Son. We also have the prayer of the Son. It's provided by God the Son through the prayer of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. John records for all, actually we got to go to John chapter 17, sorry. Thought I had it up on the screen. So in John chapter 17 we have The recorded words of Jesus Christ as He prays. He says in verse 11, He says, Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world. These people that have become believers in Him. And I come to you, Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I have kept and none of them is lost except the son of perdition. That was a reference to Judas. Judas was never a believer. That the Scripture might be fulfilled. So here Jesus Christ is praying. He's praying to the Father that the believers would be kept. Notice verse 20. He says, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. He's prayer planning ahead. This is what he's really doing. And are his prayers heard and answered? Then they took him away with a stone from the place where the dead man was lying, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me, and I know that you always hear me. He said, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this. He was speaking a law that they may believe that you sent me. So the Father hears the prayers of Jesus Christ, and he answers them. And so we have the prayer of the Son helping to keep us eternally secure. We also have the provision of the Son. The provision of the Son keeping us eternally secure. This is another one of those portions of scripture that is awesome. I mean they all are. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 10-14. I have it up on your screen here. It says, by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. From that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Now, the writer of Hebrews was writing to these saved Jews who had gone back to the system of sacrifices. And the idea of Hebrews, the theme really is Christ is better. His work is better. His work was completed, total and finished. And notice the contrast here. First, we have every priest. So we've got many priests versus one man. We have priests that are standing. They were standing and ministering daily. We have Jesus Christ who sat down at the right hand of God. which after he was done, he sat down, which is a place of honor. Notice we have these priests that are offering repeatedly the same sacrifices. So there are sacrifices that are being done over and over and over. And yet we have Jesus Christ, He offered one sacrifice for sins. And what do we notice about these sacrifices of the priests? Well, they can never take away sins. And yet we have the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. One sacrifice for sins forever. That's why our sins have been paid in full. And when Jesus Christ said on the cross, it is finished, He meant it was finished. The sin issue was taken care of once and for all. That's eternal security given to us through the Son. So we have the Bible, or excuse me, the Bible emphasizes eternal security through the Father, through the Son, and it also emphasizes eternal security through the Holy Spirit. Through the indwelling of the Spirit. In fact, to see that, let's flip back a few chapters to John chapter 14. John chapter 14, in verse 16, he says, And He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in with you." And so here we have Jesus Christ, He's saying He's going to pray for the Holy Spirit to come and abide with the believer forever. See, prior to the old church age, like in Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit would come and go, you know, at God's discretion. But now, At the point of salvation, a believer is indwelt with the Holy Spirit forever. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks or Minnesotans, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. So a believer is indwelt with the Holy Spirit. This is true of every believer also. And so, in effect, what happens is we're going to take the Holy Spirit with us wherever we go. And if you could lose your salvation, and die, and go to hell, then you have to take the Holy Spirit with you. And that's not going to happen. And so we have the promise of the Holy Spirit indwelling us. We also have the Holy Spirit, it's called the earnest, through the earnest of the Spirit. Eternal security is provided by God and the Holy Spirit through the earnest of the Spirit. Now that's probably odd term, especially if you're younger here, you know, and you've never dealt with things like that. And that's actually the King James word. The new King James uses the word guarantee. Notice Paul writing down here in Ephesians. He says in verse 13 of chapter 1, "...and him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also having belief..." Well, then what happened? "...you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance..." Remember that inheritance Peter was talking about? "...until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory." Paul also told the Corinthians, Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. So we have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit. Now it's similar to the earnest money concept. And those who have bought a house have used this, right? It's like a down payment. You know, when you go to purchase a house, you probably don't have the 150 grand in your back pocket at the time. So you make a down payment. You make what's called an earnest payment. And what you're really saying is, this is a promise that there will be more to come later. And that's really what God is saying. I've given you this down payment or this guarantee or this earnest of the Holy Spirit because there is more to come. And that will be glorification in the future. And so we have eternal security through the earnest of the Holy Spirit. And our last point here is through the sealing of the Spirit. Eternal security is provided by God the Holy Spirit through the sealing of the Spirit. Paul goes on in Ephesians 4, verse 30, he says, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. See, at the point of salvation, again, a believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit. And that's really a symbol or a sign of a completed transaction or ownership, right? We don't really do this these days, but in the old days, you know, if you watched those old movies, the king would make a declaration, and he'd have his scribe, or he'd write it down in his scroll, and he'd roll it up, and he'd take a little wax, and he'd drip it on there, and he'd put his seal on there. That meant this was the message of the king. was not to be tampered with and was to be delivered to whoever it was. That's really what the idea is here. God has put on us His seal so that we can know that the day of redemption will be able to be taken to heaven. So in summary, we see this morning that the three persons of the Trinity are all actually involved in the security of the believer. And we'll pick this up next week, either I or Kurt will, when he gets back, and we'll continue this study, as we'll have one more, because God's got a lot more to say about eternal security. Well, let's finish up with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we again come before you this morning, and are thankful for this time. We do thank you for the many, many promises that we have regarding our eternal security, Father, that once a person is truly saved, if they've truly trusted in Christ alone, apart from their works, they are eternally secure forever and ever. We thank you that our salvation is not based on us, our faithfulness, our works, but it's based upon your promises and the completed work of your Son, Jesus Christ. And so pray that we would remember that. I pray that we would remember that, Father, especially if we're going through difficult trials or whatever may be going on in our life. We can remember that we are saved and we're going to heaven someday. And pray that we would not only remember this, but we would get down these promises. We know this is really a battle in our world, Father. We know the devil wants everybody to think they're working their way to heaven. And we see the truth is contrary to that. So just pray we have these ingrained in our thinking, Father. And whenever we discuss something with somebody, we let the scriptures speak for themselves. And we do truly thank you for the wonderful work of Jesus Christ, that it was complete, that it was satisfactory. It was all that's needed.
Explaining Eternal Security Pt. 1
ស៊េរី Growing in Your Christian Life
GIBS 4 graduate Sonny Meyers teaches message 10 of the, "Growing Deeper in Your Christian Life" series with a message titled, "The Foundation of Eternal Security - Explaining Eternal Security Part 1" reviewing the different ways the Bible emphasizes eternal security.
លេខសម្គាល់សេចក្ដីអធិប្បាយ | 121111844287 |
រយៈពេល | 39:27 |
កាលបរិច្ឆេទ | |
ប្រភេទ | ការថ្វាយបង្គំថ្ងៃអាទិត្យ |
ភាសា | អង់គ្លេស |
បន្ថែមមតិយោបល់
មតិយោបល់
គ្មានយោបល់
© រក្សាសិទ្ធិ
2025 SermonAudio.