We have been looking at salvation underneath the hood. Christians are agreed that we're saved by grace through faith, but what's going on behind the scenes, what's God been doing to bring people to faith in Christ is what we've looked at, divine election, saving grace, predestination. So is there anything more wonderful than being saved? Well, before you say no, there's something actually that there is. It's being saved and knowing that you're saved. Is there anything more wonderful than being saved and knowing that you're saved? Well, there is. It's being saved and knowing that you're saved and knowing that you can never lose it. Since divine election is unconditional and since salvation is a free gift of God, grace is irresistible, you didn't do anything to get salvation and you can't do anything to lose it. Jesus said, I give them eternal life. and they will never perish, and no one will 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 the Father's hand." So one example of that, according to Peter, is Noah and the ark. That's a type of the salvation we have in Christ. Noah was in the ark. We are in Christ. The floodwaters represent God's judgment. Look at what God did not say to Noah. He did not tell Noah to drive some wooden pegs on the outside of the ark and then to get a stepladder and when the floodwaters came to climb up that stepladder and grab hold of those slimy pegs. Pegs for him and Mrs. Noah and the kids and says, Noah, if you can just hold on to the end, you'll be saved. And I can just see Noah now say, Pray for me, honey, that I can hang on to the end. See, he never would have made it. So no, God put Noah in the ark, and he closed the door and sealed it in behind him. So Noah was in the ark. The water was outside of the ark. He went through some rough seas. Noah probably fell down in the ark, but he didn't fall out of it. And so we are securely in Christ. We do stumble and bumble, but you're not going to fall. So I think that's the picture there. Psalm 37, 24 says, So we are going to look at the idea of eternal security. Now we've all known people who started out with a bang and they made a big profession of faith and they got baptized and they're going out witnessing to people. I've known people that went to Bible college and even seminary and got into the ministry and then chunked the whole thing. They became what we call apostate. They fell away, they deconverted. There are for sure people that do that. Did they lose their salvation? No, they never had it in the first place, which is why we say the faith that fizzles before the finish had a flaw from the first. So we're gonna look at a few verses that deal with this. We've already talked about this sum, as you will recall, but the first stop is gonna be 1 John 2, verse 19. I'm gonna quote it. I wanna know how does this text indicate that people who fall away were never saved in the first place? Here's what it says. They went out from us, but they were not saved. of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they are not of us." So how does that statement by John indicate that people who fall away were never saved in the first place? That's what he said, they were never of us. I feel like it's plain. Well, I feel like it's plain, too, but it's plainer to some than to others, evidently. Now, Jesus says the same kind of thing. He indicates that some professing Christians won't be in heaven, and they were never saved in the first place. And let me read you what He said, and you tell me how this indicates that some professing Christians were never saved in the first place. Matthew chapter 7, verse 23. I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." So they're going to wind up in a bad place, but it's not that they had salvation and lost it. What did Jesus say that indicated they never had it in the first place? I never knew you. It's not like I used to know you and you left. I never knew you from the get-go. That's right. Now some people reject that the doctrine of eternal security is going to lead to immorality, that it's going to cause people to be lax in their obedience. And sure enough, the doctrine of eternal security has been truncated to something that's open to misunderstanding called once saved, always saved. And I knew a deacon in my old Baptist church, and the guy was really old back then. He was a World War II veteran, and he had a friend of his. They were kids, and they went to a revival meeting, and the guy was nine years old, and he walked the aisle, and he prayed the prayer to receive Christ, and he hadn't been to church since. This guy's in his 70s. He hadn't been to church since, and he was known for drunkenness and womanizing, And he was into everything but a casket. But finally, he wound up in a casket. And my deacon said, whoa, Bill was a terrible life. But we'll see him in heaven, because once saved, always saved. That's the perversion of it. The original doctrine is rightly called the perseverance of the saints. But it really ought to be called the perseverance of the Holy Spirit inside of the saints to keep them faithful and holy. Here's a statement from the Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals. We believe that all who are regenerated, called, and justified shall persevere in holiness and never finally fall away. Here's how the Westminster Confession says it. They whom God hath accepted in his beloved, effectively called, and sanctified by his spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved. So that's just how some other people have said it. So I'm going to go back to a verse we've looked at a bunch of times in this series, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. In fact, let's run it through 10. Flip over there if you want. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. We're looking at the relationship between salvation and obedience. And here's what it says. By grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Why? for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So the formula is you're saved by grace, through faith, not works, for good works. Your works don't save you, but they are evidence that you are really saved. If you were like me, you probably hated English in school, but these prepositions are important. So you're saved by grace, through faith, for good works. So those prepositions are quite important, and that's all part of the equation. The salvation equation would be grace plus faith equals what? Salvation plus works. Now that's the correct equation. If any one of those pieces are missing, you don't have salvation. Now here's what the cults do. Of course, they say grace plus faith plus works equals salvation. So if you put works on the wrong side of the equation, if you take it from here and run it over here, you've just got a false gospel. What does grace do in our lives? Well, we've already seen grace produces faith, it produces salvation, and it produces good works. So it's not once saved, always saved, meaning you can live a life of sterility. It's a quality of faith. You're not saved by faith plus works, but you are saved by a faith that works. So we're looking at a quality of faith. Martin Luther, Mr. Sola Fide, said, We're saved by faith alone, but a faith that saves is never alone. It changes you. One weekend, I went to a wedding up in Tennessee. It was a fun wedding, and it was no problem, and we came back, but I was trying to illustrate something to the church when I got back, and I said that we had a flat tire. Now, I'm just making this up. I didn't really have one, but I said we had a flat tire, And I was in a hurry to get to the wedding, and I'm on the side of the road in my suit, and I'm trying to take the tool and spin the nuts off, the lug nuts off the wheel. And I'm on the side of the freeway right there outside of Knoxville, and these tractor trailers are flying by. And one of the nuts got away from me, and it bounced out into the travel lane. And without thinking, because I was in such a hurry, I leaned out, and I grabbed the nut, and I got hit by a tractor trailer truck. But nobody believed me, because there I stood, perfectly healthy with no problems. See, I was lying, Michael. I just made it up. See, you didn't believe me either. The reason, well, see, you can't get hit by a truck or trailer truck and not show it. I said I got hit, but I didn't get hit. It was obvious I didn't get hit. You can't get hit by Jesus and not show it. So if you have experienced God's grace, it's gonna show. So this idea, once saved, always saved is perversion. It is eternal security, but it's the perseverance of the saints in faith and in holiness. That's the complete doctrine. Okay, so this is one of the points related to Reformed soteriology. Now look how James put it. This is the brother of Jesus. He asked some relevant questions on this topic. Answer the question. James 2.14, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? Can it? No, is the correct answer. He goes on to say in verse 17, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Verse 26, as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. Now he said, you believe, you do well. The demons believe and they shudder. So you can have a demonic faith and not make it to heaven. You're not gonna see the devil in heaven, he believes, right? Now, Titus, chapter 2, verse 14, it tells us that Jesus died on the cross to redeem us, right? You know that. When I was a kid, when you had a Coke bottle, it said you could redeem it for five cents. That's kind of cool. So it's like... you're holding their bottle hostage and they'll give you five cents to get it back. That's the redemption, the price of redemption. The Bible uses that terminology. To redeem something is to release it through the payment of a ransom. So we have been redeemed. Jesus bought us back and the price was his death on the cross. But now let's see what this redemption is about. We wanna know, why did he redeem us? So Titus 2, verse 14, Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us. From what? From all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. So if you've been redeemed by Jesus, what's your life gonna look like? According to that. Zealous for good works, right. If you're not zealous for good works, if you're not pure, you're not purified, you have good reason to doubt your salvation. You should doubt it. So don't get the idea that Jesus died to save you from hell. He died to save you from sin. And if he can't save you from sin, he can't save you from hell. All right, now, Jesus again, he's talking about which professing believers are gonna make it into heaven. And the reformers used to talk about, you got this big circle called Christendom. Christendom. And within that, you got the church. It's kind of like the church within the church. You got the outward professors and then the inward possessors. Much smaller subset. And so Jesus is talking about that. So he's going to tell you which professing Christians you can expect to see in heaven. Okay, you ready for this? Matthew 7, 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. So which professing Christians are gonna be in heaven? The will-doers. Thank you, that's correct. So faith is the root, obedience is the fruit. We need to be fruit inspectors. That's what the whole Matthew 18 process, church discipline and better thought of Christian restoration is about. We all need help in our obedience, but we're fruit inspectors, so we're supposed to be looking at that. Now, John chapter 14, verse 15, Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. John the Beloved wrote in 1 John 4 20, if anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. So you got a lot of people who claim to be Christians, and they have no use for the bride of Christ. I mean, what if I called up Dwayne, Dwayne, come over, let's have steaks Friday night. but don't bring Tisha, we don't like her. Would he come? I hope not. So it's like saying, I love Jesus, but I don't have any use for the church. You've seen that bumper sticker, God saved me from your people. These are signs of salvation, love for the brethren. Yes, sir. Yeah, and we'll elaborate. What do you mean by that? What are you saying? There you go, that's a sign, amen, sign of salvation, that's right. So we're looking at can you lose your salvation? We're saying no, but we are looking at how can you tell if you really have it or not, and what does it look like if you really have it? So that's right, Leif. Now here's a promise from Philippians 1.6. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. So what's the promise? Yeah, if he started it, he's going to finish it. That's the promise. And later on in the same book, chapter 2, verse 13, it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And also in the book of Philippians, God said it's been granted to you not only to believe, but to suffer. But notice, it's granted, your faith is granted to you from the Father. Faith is a result of grace. So here's a summary verse related to eternal security from Jude, chapter one, verse 24. to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, He's able to do that, and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forevermore. Amen. So we are secure in Christ. That's what it comes down to. So that is called the perseverance of the saints. Now, there's one more doctrine I want to talk about within the doctrines of grace, and it has a little bit to do with that smoke detector up there. How much authority does that smoke detector have over us right now? Absolutely none. What are we going to do if it sounds off? Well, some of us will leave, or we might consider it's a false alarm. There are chefs in this church who have set it off numerous times. One of them, I won't name his name Dwayne Moore, but he's sitting here right now, and he filled the kitchen with smoke, and the fire department came, and it was exciting. Usually, if that goes off, it tells us there's a problem. and we should do something about it. Now the reason I mention that smoke detector is that last I checked it had been about 2,000 years since the Bible was written. And sometimes we want to pretend like the last 2,000 years didn't happen, but they did. And so Jesus said to the apostles it was to their advantage that he go away. Because what was he going to do When he left, that was good for them. What would happen? Send the Holy Spirit who would guide them into all truth. And that's the basis for the inspiration of the rest of the New Testament. But by extension, when we look at the last 2,000 years of church history, it's not just a bunch of stuff that happened. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the church throughout time. and around the world. And they fought a lot of battle against false teaching. And we can learn from that. The most expensive education is experience. It's much better to learn from somebody else's experience. And so, you know, if you got one computer and it's computing away, that's nice. But if you link computers together from all over the world and get them computing. Man, you got some compute power there. And so you're not going to live long enough to think through every doctrine that needs to be thought through all the way. You're just not smart enough and even if you were Einstein, you're not going to live long enough. So we've got thousands and thousands of Christians studying the scriptures over two millennia, and they wrote down what they came up with. So when we see these ecumenical creeds and these confessions, that's like the smoke alarm. Now, our authority, as Martin Luther said, is the scripture, but these creeds and confessions, the church of history is like the democracy of the dead. It's a secondary authority, and if a teaching violates one of these things, Pay attention. Now maybe the creed's wrong, but most likely the problem is with some bad teaching. So I have looked at history a lot in this series. We've looked at the Bible, and we've looked at what Christians have said about things to give it perspective. So I'm gonna go back into history just a minute. The year is 1517. What happened? There's an Augustinian monk, we've talked about Augustine, haven't we? An Augustinian monk in Germany named Martin Luther who accidentally set off the Protestant Reformation. There's a bunch of people that agreed with him, like Calvin, and Zwingli, and Knox, and their understanding, this Augustinian view of grace, that we've already talked about, is also called Reformed theology, as in Reformation that they ignited. We've talked all about that, I won't go into that again, but that happened in 1517. Now, 100 years go by, and now it's 1610. And a group of Protestant pastors in Holland met at the Dutch city called The Hague. It's still there today. They had been greatly influenced by a theology professor in Holland that we've already talked about this guy. His name was Jacob Arminius. Arminius has run out of time. Calvin's dead, Arminius is dead. Arminius died in 1609. But these guys met and they drew up something called A remonstrance. I don't use that word in everyday language. What is a remonstrance? They regretted somebody else doing something. It sounds, ooh, it does sound mean. All right, well, it's defined as an earnest presentation of reasons for opposing something or in opposition to something. The remonstrance was drawn up by Arminian theologians against Reformed theology. They didn't like what Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and Knox and all those guys were saying. Now, we've talked about this, but this is when that happened. And they drew up five points. This is not a false gospel. Nobody said they weren't Christians. But we're looking under the hood, right? What makes this car go? The Reformers said, it's a gasoline engine. And the Armenians said, no, it's an electric motor. So the first thing they said concerning election, God's election, divine election, they taught conditional election. Now what do you suppose that meant? What does it mean to have divine election as conditional? What would it be conditioned on? People have to do things to be part of the elect, and that is, you gotta come to Jesus, you gotta believe in Jesus, you gotta accept the gospel. How do you wanna define that? So they believe that God foresaw something you would do, and God responded, and this is in eternity past, he responded to what he knew you would do, and that's who got picked, right there. So it's conditional election. The other thing they said, number two, was unlimited atonement. When Jesus died on the cross, it was unlimited. Now what do you think they meant by that? Imagine a store full of merchandise. It's right there. But we don't know if anybody's gonna walk in the door and buy anything or not. So Jesus died for everybody in general, and nobody in particular. He potentially offers salvation for people, but it doesn't guarantee that anybody would be saved. So that's the idea. He died for everybody in general, nobody in particular, doesn't save anybody. The third thing they said is total depravity. Now, what is total depravity? We've talked about it, what is it? How sinful are we, Jeff? We're so sinful that you're never gonna come to Jesus on your own. We taught all through John six, no one can come to me, no one has the ability. Well, wait a minute, that's exactly what the reformers were saying, but they added a twist. Now the twist comes to the next day. They taught prevenient grace. We talked about this too. What does prevenient mean? Before, now they weren't semi-plagians. Semi-plagians were these French monks who said you were born with the ability to come to Jesus, and that was condemned at one of those councils. Well, they're not that, but God gives everybody just enough grace to overcome total depravity to put you in a position to have the ability to respond or not to the offer of salvation. So it puts them in the position of the semi-plagians, but they come by it in a different route. And so they do believe in total depravity, but if you've ever read many of the writings of John Wesley, for example, he was real big into that. And so they reject irresistible grace. You understand? And that's why the death of Christ is just potential for people. It's not guaranteed for anybody. And then the last thing they taught, number five, was conditional preservation or security. In other words, you can lose your salvation. Since you can do something to get it, you can do something to lose it. If you can gin up your own faith, you can also spin off your own faith. So they would say it is possible for a true believer to fall away from the faith and perish eternally as an unbeliever. That's what they taught. So that's the remonstrance. Well, like most of the creeds and confessions that are drawn up, it's always in opposition to something somebody else was teaching that they thought was wrong. So, in the year 1618, reformed theologians from all over Europe got together and they dealt with their monstrance. They met also in Holland, in the city called Doort, it's called the Senate of Doort, and that's where the so-called five points of Calvinism came from. It's because the Armenians had five points. So it was merely to offset what they thought was error. So we've talked about all these points. We talked about unconditional election. We talked about total depravity, but there's no prevenient grace. There's irresistible grace. And we've talked about the perseverance of the saints. It's not conditional. Well, the only thing we haven't talked about, which we might in our fleeting moment, is this one. the unlimited atonement part of it. So it's talked about in response to these other people making claims that were thought not to be accurate. So that's what I want to deal with a little bit today. But when you look at Reformed theology, these groups are coming from all over Europe and they're meeting to deal with this challenge to what's really under the hood. So let's talk a little bit about limited atonement. That sounds as scary as a remonstrance. The idea that Jesus and his death on the cross was in some way limited sounds terrible. So why did Jesus die on the cross? That's right, to pay for or to atone for our sins. How many sins did Jesus pay for? 100%, that's right. Now, since Jesus paid for 100% of sins, why will there be some people in hell? If Jesus paid for their sins, why will they be in hell? That's the question. Okay, leaf. There's one sin, some people say, that he didn't pay for, and what was that one sin? Okay, let's call it unbelief. Is it a sin not to believe in Jesus? Yes. Is it a sin to reject Jesus? Well, if he paid for all sins, did he pay for the sin of unbelief? Armenians have to say no. Everybody limits the atonement in some way except heretics. And they're down the street at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Rob Bell would be a heretic. So the Armenians say he died for all people, but he didn't die for all sins. There's only one sin he didn't die for, unbelief. Now the Reformed position is he died for all sins, 100%, including that one. But he didn't die for all people. He died for the elect. Now if God knew what he was doing from the beginning of time, that kind of makes sense. You know, we talked about foreseeing faith. The only faith that God foresees is the faith that God created. It's there because he made it. Jesus knew what he was doing. He didn't die hoping somebody would take him up on his offer. This guarantees that the elect are going to come to faith. So let me just read a few things. Matthew 121, you shall call his name Jesus for he will save who from their sin? His people. Matthew 26, 28. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for their forgiveness of sins. John chapter 10, verse 5. I lay down my life for the sheep. Now, in the Bible, you've got lost sheep who become saved sheep. But you never have a goat becoming a sheep. And when everybody's born, you're either born, and you don't know it, but you're either born a sheep or a goat. And Jesus told the Pharisees, you don't believe because you're not my sheep. See, it's not that believing makes you a sheep, it's that being a sheep makes you believe, see? So that's who he died for. Ephesians 5.25, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So this is not a haphazard thing on God's part. Now, back to something Ben said a long time ago. It could be said that the death of Jesus on the cross, it certainly is sufficient for all, no doubt, but it's efficient only for the elect, and I think we could all agree with that. It's called limited atonement. It's better to think of it as particular redemption. God got what he paid for. Now, going back to the Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals, this is how they put it. We believe that God's son died at Calvary to effect propitiation, reconciliation, redemption, and atonement for his elect people. So it was limited in that it only effectively paid for the sins of God's elect. Who can think of verses that would seem to go against what I just said? There you go. That's true of any doctrine in the Bible. Try to talk about Jesus being God with a Jehovah's Witness, especially if you haven't studied it. They'll tie you up in a knot. For example, according to the Greek lexicon, there are seven different definitions of the word world. Who knows the Greek word for world? Cosmos is what it is. We get our word cosmetics from that. So one of the definitions, one of the seven is adornment. And that's what you ladies do. You adorn your faces and put on cosmetics. Another definition of the word, and this all depends on context, is planet Earth. Planet Earth. So when it says God so loved the world, he's not talking about your make up. He's not talking about the dirt ball. Here's another meaning, that which is hostile to God and lost in sin. Now the Bible says do not love the world nor the things in the world. And so God's loving the world. So is he contradicting what he told us to do? Which is it? Okay. But another definition is mankind in general, meaning ethnic universalism. I hear that. Not universalism. Ethnic universalism. God has love for the whole world of mankind. So there's two ways you look at world. God so loved the world, does God love all men without exception? Or does he love men without distinction? Somebody tell me, what would the Arminian say? Which of those two is it? All men without exception. What's the difference between without exception and without distinction? What's the difference there? Well, okay, from a negative point of view, this includes everybody. That might exclude some people, but let's go to what Parson Brown said. You said what? He's not a what? God's not a racist. From a Hebrew perspective, the Jews are the chosen people. And they saw us as dogs. They wouldn't eat with you. I mean, every now and then wouldn't slip into Judaism, you know, but they had a bad idea toward anybody that was non-Jew. And so, God loved the world. He's saying it was always God's purpose to bring men, as it said in Revelation, from every tribe and tongue and nation and people. God's not a racist. But, to Brody's point, he is pretty exclusive in the sense that everybody's not going to be in heaven. So, that's the idea behind this. Yes, and it has nothing to do with your genealogy. Well, historically, we've had one Jewish person in the congregation, but that's why we got God's people now from India and China and the Philippines of European descent and Asian descent and African descent, because that's what this is about. When you look at these world verses, and there's a lot of them like that, Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw, now there's that hard word, drag, all men to me. Well, that's the same thing, all without exception or all without distinction. What had just happened was these Gentiles wanted to come to Jesus. And so as Andrew or somebody runs up to the head of the line and says, Jesus, these Gentiles want to see you. And he said, well, when I'm lifted up, I'll draw all men to me. That's just all men without distinction. That was a big shock to the Jews. Alright, so I think at least we would all agree that the death of Jesus is sufficient for everybody, but it's efficient only for the elect. So was His sacrifice on the cross an attempt to save people, or was it a success in saving people? I think Zechariah gives us the answer in Luke chapter 1. He says, blessed be the Lord God for He has redeemed His people. This package of what I've talked about, these points, are called the doctrines of grace. The Senate answered the Armenians in the same order that they had written them out in the remonstrance, but it was rearranged to spell the word tulip, which is nothing to do with the fact that it was in Holland, but if you ever heard of tulip, it comes from an answer to the remonstrance, and so total depravity came up here to the top, so it became T-U-L-I-P in the reform view, but that's where that came from. All right, so that finishes the doctrines of grace. Questions, comments, rebuttals? Yes, sir? So you've kind of given, you've hinted at, I guess, this without exception, without distinction. But are you saying, would you say that that's the same thing? Because in the first part, this is what I guess I have. The God desires all to be saved comes with knowledge of truth, right? Right after this, it says, first of all, then I urge that supplication, prayer, intercession, Well, I would say the fact that all, again, Yeah, you gotta pray for Nero, you don't know. He might be one of the elect, and people in authority. Why? So that we may live quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. So we don't know who the elect are. Look at Paul. He's the one who wrote that whole thing on predestination about the Jews and the Gentiles, and he started off, and he said it twice, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for Israel is that they would be saved. So, there's definitely a human component in this. The elect are not going to be saved apart from the preaching of the gospel and hearing the gospel. And God uses us in that process and our prayers are part of that process too. So, man, pray like an Arminian, but believe like a Calvinist. Absolutely. At the end of Romans 11, in this long section on predestination, 9, 10, 11, Paul concludes it with, oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways, for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? This message was produced by the New Testament Reformation Fellowship, reforming today's church with New Testament church practices. Permission is hereby granted for you to reproduce this message. You can find us on the web at www.ntrf.org. May God bless you as you seek to follow Him in complete obedience to His Word. May your faith in the Lord Jesus be strengthened and your daily walk with Him deepened.