We considered three passages of scripture last week that give assurance that an individual who has trusted Christ as Savior will be saved for eternity. Eternal security is our phrase for it. So we looked at John 10. We are in the Father's hand and in the hand of the Son, and together they guarantee nobody can pluck us out. Hebrews 8, 38 and 39, where Paul tells us there is nothing either in heaven, on earth, spirit world, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. And then Philippians 1, 6, this conviction that what God has begun in the work of salvation, he is going to complete and making us like Christ. Those are all excellent verses. Of course, there are many others as well, but these I've selected because they say those truths so well. Alongside those, though, we have to consider that there are other passages, and this won't be an exhaustive list either, there are some other passages that give a warning indicating that you can lose salvation. So let's look at those passages tonight, and we'll start with Luke chapter 12. I encourage you to look there, Luke 12, Christ is telling a parable And in verse 45, we just jump into this parable at this point. This is a master who has set his servants over his household, including his faithful and wise manager. And then he went away on a journey and trusted them with all his possessions. Verse 45 says, but if that servant says to himself, My master is delayed in coming and begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect, does not expect him and an hour he does not know. And he will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. All right, first, let's consider the characteristics of this individual. It seems to be the same individual in verse 45, that servant, that he also describes back in verse 42 as being the faithful and wise manager whom his master set over his household. Seems to be the same one. An individual who at least sustains a relationship with the master of being a servant. And furthermore, a servant that he trusts. So that kind of relationship, fairly well defined, including position, responsibilities. And then through an error in eschatology, his error was supposing that the master won't be coming for a long time. Now, that error is inexcusable because Christ himself, as well as other passages of scripture, exhort us over and over again, be ready at any time. Through his wrong thinking about when the Lord might come back, that then leads him to a worldly lifestyle to abuse of God's people, to eating and drinking and getting drunk. And I'll look at the description in verse 46 of what the master does when he comes back and catches him living and acting that way. It says, he will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. That certainly sounds like a final destination. To be cut in pieces? What would the remedy for that be? To be consigned a place with the unfaithful. There'd be another way of rendering that, the unbelieving. There's a place God has designated for those that don't believe. And this is sounding like this servant, the servant of the Lord ends up there. You can see if all we had were the passages then in this category, the negative passages portraying the possibility of losing salvation, this would be difficult to deal with. We do have the others, but we have these as well. Both of these are reality. Let's look at another one. To John chapter 15. A different imagery here, but it seems to point in the same direction. The imagery in John 15 is a vine, a grape vine, supporting various branches. Verse 6 in particular says, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. Something about these branches, that the admonition here in this passage is to abide. The branches are told to abide, to remain in the vine. The command to abide implies a prior connection. You're already attached. Make sure you stay attached. Don't go drifting. Well, drifting doesn't convey this image at all. Don't be looking to break off and go your own way. You have to stay connected to this vine. But if any does not, if anyone does not abide in me, you see the implication is that he was there. He was connected. but now that individual is disconnected? Well, the implication that he was already is what makes this a passage that seems to indicate that somebody could lose their salvation. If anybody does not abide in me, and his end result, he is thrown away like a branch, that is, like a branch that's off the vine, he is thrown away, He withers and then later someone comes and gathers that branch and like branches and then eventually throws them in the fire and they are burned. Failure in this case, failure to stay connected leads to God's judgment that looks like exclusion, It looks in this passage like eventual destruction and final rejection. One more passage, 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3, verse 17. Peter exhorting the readers of his letter, both then and now, he says, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, knowing what he has just said, that there are some who twist God's word, and don't believe it, don't understand it, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people. Let's stop there for a moment, knowing that there are people that twist God's word. He's describing what he calls earlier in the epistle false prophets and false teachers. He says there were always false prophets among God's people and we have false teachers among us now. Okay, that's fair warning for all of us. Not everybody that presumes to speak for God and to represent God's word is doing so accurately or with the purpose of conveying truth. There are deceivers. who unfortunately have gotten quite adept at handling God's Word and making their portrayal of God's Word sound convincing, their wrong interpretation. So knowing that beforehand, that they are in circulation, and since So much time has passed since Peter wrote this. I think our expectation ought to be that they are more numerous and more highly skilled now than they have ever been. So take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people. Because what could happen if you don't take care? He says you could lose your own stability. failure to stay on guard and to be alert against false teaching that is in circulation can result in falling from, and here's another way of expressing this word stability, you could fall from your secure footing in Christ. I would say that is not as explicit as the previous passages. And I think purposefully so. And yet I've included that in this list because I think it also ought to be enough of a concern that Peter said this in such a way that we decide, well, we need to take this seriously. We do have to be alert to false teaching. So you don't want to find out what it means to lose your secure footing in Christ. Is that talking about salvation? We don't want to know. We don't want to find out by experience. So the very way he has worded this, even with this degree of obscurity, has a particular point to it. And that leads us, we'll take just a few more minutes. I think we are going to have to go on to a part three, which of course won't be next week because we have our business meeting. But what we haven't had time to do yet is get back to Hebrews chapter six, which was the catalyst for this discussion. So that's the part we will save. But let's, I felt like I kind of left you hanging a little bit last week, and it worked out okay. I mean, here you are back again. So, good job. coming back, but I don't wanna just leave this hanging. Let's take a few minutes to kind of appreciate why we have two columns, one that says, that gives assurance of eternal security, and one that says, wait a minute, not so fast. Why do we have to have both? Okay, there are some factors here that tell us that the church, God's people, Needs both. We have to have both. On the one hand, because the church, much like the people of Israel in the Old Testament that God described as being a mixed multitude, they were a mixture of believers and unbelievers. And the church in our day is the same. We have true believers. True believers. need assurance. This is crucial in our walk with God and in our service for God. I mentioned this just briefly last week, that if we didn't have the verses that give us assurance of eternal security, we would be so nervous, we'd be so concerned about what the future holds, That is, if we took eternity seriously, that we would be of no service for the Lord, of no use. We'd be so distracted by what's going to happen to me. Where am I going to go when I die? God doesn't want us being so distracted. And so he has given us more than enough assurances that if you have trusted Christ as Savior, you have reason to be confident that you are going to spend eternity with him. Now let's move on and grow in grace and look for opportunities to serve him, to be concerned about others because now we don't have to be so concerned about self. On the other hand, the church also has some false professors. Some that have made profession of faith But they have done so either, well, I don't want to get into details here, so I'm not going to give various options that might explain different circumstances. Let's just entertain the possibility, and this is a real possibility. that there are individuals who want the association with God's people. They want the respectability of being thought of as a Christian and have gone through the motions of satisfying everybody's curiosity. They can give a testimony of salvation. Sure, anybody could come up with a description. You hear enough of those from other people, I can come up with one of those. I can make one up. I could even actually go through the motions even though I really don't believe in Christ. False professors are part of the church. They're part of every church. And now we have assigned Deacons and the pastors are involved with this on a less formal way, but just as earnestly in striving to and listening to the testimonies of prospective members to listen for those elements that ring true. Now, we are not authorized to question motives. If somebody has a profession of faith, It seems to have other aspects of growth and so forth, and even that you can fake. That we are instructed in God's Word to accept them into the church family. There's a profession, and every appearance seems right, then they are welcome to be a part of us. But there, and I'm confident this is true at Cornerstone as well, but I have no idea how many. I have no suspicion as to who it might be. Every once in a while, somebody will get saved. And they're already a member, okay? And we rejoice at that. At the same time, it's the reminder to us that the church is mixed. And those among the church and every church need the warnings. They need to realize that this doctrine of eternal security, in fact, might not apply to them because they never actually trusted Christ as Savior. The warning then becomes a very healthy thing for those that need to be saved. There's another aspect of this, and I think I'll save this to connect this with Hebrews chapter six, and a couple of verses there that we will consider. And I'll just, well, you've already got it on the outline, and that is that believers also benefit from the warnings. That is, true believers benefit from the warnings. So warnings are not exclusively designed for those false professors that may be among us. that we benefit from that as well. We need to appreciate how that works. What value is there to tell somebody who actually knows Christ as Savior, be careful. You've got to watch who you listen to. You've got to make sure you stay connected to Christ. You have to make sure that you are serving him so that if he came back today, you wouldn't be embarrassed. There's value to that. So I'll let you reflect on that. What value would that be? And we'll consider that then the next opportunity we get and then go back to Hebrews 6 as well. And I think that actually makes a good test case for all of this. That will provide a good summary for us. We are going to close tonight after we have prayer by singing the same song we closed with last week, only we'll sing the second stanza this time. So that is in our Cornerstone Hymnal, Cornerstone Hymn number 39. Before we sing together, let's pray. Father, we're thankful tonight for your word. Thank you for the heart that you have given to your people to think, to consider, to analyze the texts of scripture, Father, even these good questions tonight about the passages we considered this morning. Thank you, Father, for such thoughtfulness and desire to understand, to interpret accurately. We pray, Father, that you would give to all of us such a heart to know your word, to obey your word. We're thankful again, Father, tonight, then, for both the assurances that we have considered and the warnings. We pray, Father, that for those among us who, in reality, do not know Christ as Savior, Father, even as one of the testimonies we heard tonight, that realization came upon that individual a few years after a profession of faith. Father, we pray that you would just uncover, expose that individual's actual condition to the reality of their heart. We pray that you would draw them to Christ. Father, would you use the warnings that way. We pray that you would use them to spur the rest of us to benefit in special ways as well. We are about to go forth into a world that is not only full of false teachers, Father, also full of people that are in rebellion against you in every other way. Father, help us to walk in this world circumspectly, walk carefully, to walk earnestly and closely with Christ. Help us, Father, then to thrive in our walk with you and in our service for you in every way that you open before us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.