In Defense of Eternal Security
1) INTRODUCTION
a) There are many Scriptures that show that once we are saved, we are eternally secure.
i) Romans 8:38-39
ii) Philippians 1:6
(1) God completes what He started.
(2) If God started with you, then He’s going to finish with you.
iii) Romans 11:29
iv) Romans 8:29
v) Hebrews 10:14
vi) John 5:24
vii) 1 John 5:12
viii) Hebrews 7:25
ix) John 17:15, 20
(1) Jesus’ prayers are always answered.
x) 1 Peter 1:5
(1) We are kept by the power of God.
(2) It’s not a matter of us holding onto God but God holding onto us.
b) Today’s message will look at other Scriptures that may seem to indicate the opposite, that we are not eternally secure.
i) When we find a supposed contradiction in the Bible, we need to be sure we’re not taking it out of context and examine it carefully.
2) 2 PETER 2:20-22
a) This is a classic illustration of a passage often used to indicate that we might be able to fall away.
i) But if we look at the Scripture more carefully, it does not teach that a saved person can be lost again; rather, it teaches the opposite.
b) 2 Peter 2:20
i) This speaks of a person who has been living in sin, and they free themselves.
(1) They hear about Jesus, and they turn over a new leaf.
(2) But they never receive a new life.
ii) This verse doesn’t say that they are saved and on their way to Heaven.
iii) They have heard the Gospel and know about our Lord Jesus Christ, but they are again entangled therein.
(1) “Entangled” literally means to weave something into a pattern.
(2) They are weaving themselves deeper and deeper into bondage by following certain false teachers.
iv) What Peter is speaking of here hinges on the area of false teachers.
(1) They hear about Jesus from false teachers, and they never really learn what it is to be saved, to be born again.
(2) They weave into their hearts and minds certain philosophies and false truths, and they never know the Gospel of grace.
(a) When they do, they are worse off than they were before they ever heard anything about Jesus.
c) 2 Peter 2:21
i) Those who live by truth get more and more freedom.
ii) Those who live by lies experience more and more bondage.
iii) Reformation without transformation leads to greater degradation and final condemnation.
(1) It is better for someone not to have known the way of truth than to reform their lives without meeting the Lord Jesus Christ.
(2) The classic example of this is Judas.
(a) Matthew 26:24
(i) It would have been better for him not to have been born.
(b) Judas heard the truth.
(c) He reformed his life.
(d) He escaped the pollution of the world for a while, but his latter end was worse than his first.
iv) Sinful desires do not disappear by reformation; they only hibernate and wake up stronger.
(1) Salvation, on the other hand, gives us a new nature.
(2) Reformation doesn’t give us a new nature.
(a) Reformation doesn’t change anything.
v) Some people claim that if they believed in eternal security, then they would get saved and sin all they want to because their ticket to Heaven would be secure.
(1) A Christian doesn’t want to sin.
(2) If someone has the idea that eternal security is a license to sin, then they probably need to get saved.
(a) They need a brand new “wanter.”
vi) The people Peter is talking about had reformation, but they never had regeneration.
d) 2 Peter 2:22
i) Peter gives two classic examples that make it very clear that he is not talking about someone who is saved and then lost their salvation:
(1) The dog
(2) The hog
ii) God never called any of His children a dog or a hog.
(1) God refers to His children as sheep.
iii) The dog went back to his vomit because he was still a dog.
(1) Proverbs 26:11
(2) That’s his nature.
iv) You can wash a pig, but the pig will stay clean only until it has the opportunity to go back to the mire.
(1) That is the natural habitat of a pig.
v) The dog feels better and the pig looks better, but neither is changed.
(1) Neither has been essentially or eternally changed.
vi) We remember the story of the prodigal son, but there isn’t a story about a prodigal pig.
(1) Luke 15:11-32
(2) When the prodigal son was down in the hog pen, he said that he wasn’t made to live with the hogs.
(a) The pig belongs in the hog pen.
(b) The child of God belongs in his Father’s house.
e) This passage in 2 Peter 2 is talking about reformation without regeneration.
i) Reformation without regeneration makes a person worse off than they were before.
3) MATTHEW 24:11-13
a) This is another passage that people frequently use to try to prove that we can lose our salvation.
b) Some claim that this passage states that in order to be saved, we must endure to the end.
c) But, instead, God teaches here that in order to endure to the end, we must be saved.
i) Those who endure are the ones who are saved.
(1) They’re not saved because they endure; they endure because they’re saved.
d) Endurance is the mark of reality in the life of a human soul.
i) We endure because God has worked a miracle in our lives.
ii) It is not that we’ve held onto Him, but that He’s held onto us.
e) Luke 22:31-32
i) Satan can’t do anything to us unless God allows him.
ii) God does allow Satan to do certain things to us.
(1) He does allow Satan to sift us.
iii) In verse 32, the word “converted” does not mean when he’s saved, but it means “when you turned.”
iv) Jesus was praying for Peter; and because Jesus was praying for Peter, his faith would not fail.
(1) Peter did endure.
(2) Peter, who was frightened and trembled and cursed and denied the Lord Jesus, never ultimately forsook the Lord Jesus.
(a) Eternal security is like a strong rubber band that God puts around us when we get saved.
(i) We may stray, but He keeps drawing us back.
f) Luke 22:47-48
i) There’s another person in this chapter besides Peter, and that is Judas.
(1) If we had been there in that day before Peter denied Christ and before Judas betrayed Christ, we would have likely said that Judas was saved and Peter wasn’t.
(a) Peter was a mess.
(i) He was frequently putting his foot in his mouth.
(ii) He was impetuous.
(iii) He was always blustering.
(b) Judas was the treasurer.
(i) The treasurer is normally the person you trust most.
(2) Judas did not endure but fell away.
ii) John 6:64
(1) Jesus knew that Judas never believed in Him.
(a) John 6:70-71
(b) John 17:12
(i) Jesus chose Judas so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
iii) Why did Peter endure to the end and Judas not endure?
(1) Peter had faith.
(a) Luke 22:32
(2) Judas didn’t have faith.
(3) Judas never believed, and Simon Peter did.
(a) 1 John 2:19
(i) Those who go away don’t lose their salvation.
(ii) Those who don’t endure don’t lose their salvation.
1. They never had salvation.
4) JOHN 15:5-8
a) Some people say that this is a picture of someone who was in Christ, is cut away from Christ, and is thrown into the fire and burned.
b) But the Lord Jesus is not talking about salvation in this passage.
i) He is talking about fruit bearing.
(1) He is using an illustration and a metaphor that we are to abide in Christ if we bear much fruit.
c) The husbandman or vinedresser trims the grapevine.
i) He takes his pruning knife and cuts away the branches that don’t bear fruit.
ii) If the wood is not good, he throws the branches that have been cut off onto a brush pile to burn it.
d) If we don’t abide in the Lord, we are good for nothing.
i) He’s not talking about Heaven or Hell.
ii) He’s not talking about salvation but about fruit bearing.
iii) The Apostle Paul spoke of the same thing when he said that he didn’t want to become a castaway.
(1) 1 Corinthians 9:27
(2) Paul did not want to become useless.
e) We should never try to get theology from a metaphor.
f) The truth taught in this passage is that we need to abide in the Lord Jesus if we are going to bear fruit.
5) HEBREWS 6:4-9
a) The writer here is talking about an impossibility.
i) He says that it is impossible for a certain category of people to be renewed unto repentance if they do a certain thing.
b) Hebrews 6:4
i) If we use this verse to prove that a person can lose their salvation, then it also proves that you can never be saved again.
(1) Therefore, if you don’t believe in once saved always saved, then you have to believe in twice lost always lost.
c) This passage is not talking about people who have been saved.
i) Hebrews 4:9
ii) The author is speaking of people who come to the very threshold of salvation and turn away.
(1) It is impossible for those who have done business with God, who know the truth and turn from the truth with their eyes wide open, to be brought to repentance.
(2) They have committed the unpardonable sin.
(3) They were once enlightened.
(a) The entrance of God’s Word gives light.
d) There are those who have heard the Word of God preached.
i) They were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.
(1) The Holy Ghost gripped their hearts.
ii) They tasted the good Word of God.
iii) They still turned away.
(1) This is not a person who sins in ignorance or who sins without understanding, but someone whose eyes are wide open and says, “I don’t want Jesus.”
(2) As an illustration, this is like someone who loves cheese and has just sampled a rare and exquisite piece of cheese.
(a) He decides he likes the cheese and wants to buy it.
(b) He gets to the checkout counter and discovers how much the cheese costs.
(c) Even though he has tasted the cheese, sniffed it, and is aware of exactly what he is doing, he is not willing to pay the price and walks out.
e) Hebrews 6:7-8
i) This illustration shows us two plots of ground.
ii) Both plots get rain.
(1) Matthew 5:45
iii) Both plots get sunshine.
iv) Both of them have the breezes that blow.
v) On one plot, there comes wonderful fruit.
vi) On the other plot, there are thorns and briers.
vii) The same sun, the same ground, the same rain, the same atmosphere, but there is a difference in what’s on one side and what is on the other side.
(1) The difference is the seed.
(2) The Holy Spirit works on both sides, but there are individuals who will say yes to Jesus and others who say no to Him.
(a) It all depends upon the seed that’s in the heart.
f) This book of Hebrews was written to the Jews.
i) It is talking about Jews who were coming out of the old way and coming into the new way.
(1) They were coming out of the old dispensation (the Old Testament laws) and coming into the new way.
ii) Many of these Jews and early disciples had to turn their backs on the old way, and may were persecuted and even put to death.
(1) Some of them did not want to pay the price, and they turned their backs on the Lord Jesus Christ.
(a) They tasted, they knew, they had gone along with the Holy Ghost, they heard the Scriptures read in the synagogue, and they heard the apostles testify.
(2) The book of Hebrews was written to those who had a tendency to want to turn and go back to Judaism, to the old way.
iii) In Hebrews 11, we read were many did die.
g) Hebrews 6:6
i) Hebrews 10:29
ii) The author is not talking about a saved person (a saved person could never do this) but an unsaved person.
(1) Hebrews 6:9
6) CONCLUSION
a) If you’re a child of God and you know that you’re saved, rejoice and rest in His love.
i) Out of gratitude, serve Him because of such a wonderful salvation.
(1) We cannot work for salvation.
(a) Our Lord has done the work.
b) If you are not saved, you can be today.
c) Pray to the Lord Jesus and Him to come into your life.
d) Call upon Jesus today. Repent (turn) from your sins, and turn to Jesus. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and acknowledge Him as Lord of your life.
i) Romans 3:23
ii) Romans 10:9-10
iii) Romans 10:13
iv) Acts 16:31
v) John 3:16
Freedom From Anger
"For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." (Psalms 51:3)
Anger Assessment Test:
1.I’ve had trouble on the job because of my temper. True or False
2.People say that I fly off the handle easily. True or False
3. When things don’t go my way, I “lose it.” True or False
4.I still get angry when I think of the bad things people did to me in the past. True or False
5.I find it very hard to forgive someone who has treated me badly. True or False
6.I often find myself engaged in heated arguments with the people who are close to me. True or False
7.At times I’ve felt angry enough to kill. True or False
8.When riled, I often blurt out things which I later regret saying. True or False
9.When I get angry, frustrated or hurt, I comfort myself by eating or using alcohol, or other drugs. True or False
10.I get angry with myself when I lose control of my emotions. True or False
11.When someone says or does something that upsets me, I don’t usually say anything at the time, but later I spend a lot of time thinking of cutting replies I could and should have made. True or False
12.If I get really upset about something, I have a tendency to feel sick later (frequently experiencing weak spells, headaches, upset stomach or diarrhea). True or False
13.I am apt to take frustration so badly that I cannot put it out of my mind. True or False
14.I’ve been so angry at times I couldn’t remember what I said or did. True or False
15.Sometimes I feel so hurt and alone that I’ve thought about killing myself. True of False
16.Some people are afraid of my bad temper. True or False
17. I’ve become so angry at times that I’ve become physically violent, hitting other people or breaking things. True or False
18.When someone hurts me, I want to get even. True or False
19.People I’ve trusted have often let me down, leaving me feeling angry or betrayed. True or False
Scoring:
- If you answered true for 10 or more questions – you might be prone to anger problems. You may need to consider seeking advice from a professional to help you deal with these anger issues.
- If you answered true for 5 questions, your anger feelings are at an average level, however it might be beneficial learning some anger management and relaxation techniques.
1.Admit you have an anger problem.
2.Determine what you are going to do to help defeat the anger in your life.
What Will We Be in Heaven?
“The Ultimate Extreme Makeover.”
Reading - 2 Corinthians 5:1-9
What is going to happen to us one day when our bodies receive its ultimate extreme makeover?
See 1 Corinthians 15:35 - Paul put before us a question which is the question for today message. Here is the question. “But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?"
In the next several verse Paul gives us some contrast between our current body and the body that we are going to have someday and doing so he literally outlines for us all the aspects of the Ultimate Extreme Makeover we are going to have.
- The Requirement for a Resurrected Body.
- The requirement for a resurrected body is that you must be dead.
- The requirement for the resurrected body is the death of the body.
- Note 1 Corinthians 15:36 “You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.”
- The requirement for a resurrected body is that you must be dead.
- John 12:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
- Don’t be afraid of death - Just embrace it. Without death there is no new body.
- You must walk through the doorway of death to get that new body, unless you just happen to be alive when the rapture takes place.
The Results of the Resurrections in a Different kind of a Body. (V.37-38)
“And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. “
A. The body that comes out of the grave is different than the body that went into the grave.
B. Look at the illustration in our text - if you put a kernel of corn into the ground, what comes out of the ground is different. A green stock that produces ears of corn. It is different.
C. Paul is saying that the day our body dies, and it is put into the ground when the resurrection of the body takes place, we are not going to have the same body we are going to have a new kind of a body
D. We all understand what kind of body we now. Falling apart and getting harder and harder to maintain a good healthy body. AMEN
Paul is now going to answer the question, what king of a body are we going to have in heaven.
Please understand that when we die, our soul goes to be with Jesus in heaven, our body awaits the resurrection from the dead when Jesus returns.
Paul gives us four thoughts about our new bodies:
A. Our New Bodies will be Indestructible (V.42)
1. “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.” (1 Cor. 15:42)
2. The body in buried in corruption and raised in incorruption.
3. There has only been ONE body that has not every experienced corruption. The body of Jesus!
a. “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption.” (Psalms 16:10)
b. When Jesus died, he was buried but in the third day his body was resurrected. His body did not see corruption.
c. This body we have now gets tired and worn out, but our new body we will get one day is Indestructible! AMEN!!
B. Our New Bodies will be Identifiable. (v.43)
“It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.” (1 Cor. 15:43)
1. Glory – Brilliant
2. Philippians 3:20-21 “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
3. 1 Cor. 15:43 – our body is sown in dishonor - raised in GOLRY. That glory is the glory of our Lord Jesus.
a. Glory is the description of the resurrected body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
b. See 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
c. Now notice 1 Cor. 15:49 “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
d. Bodies By Jesus
What is the body by Jesus?
During the 40-day period between the resurrection and when he ascended back to heaven is the only place we can answer the question, what is the body of Jesus.
4. Jesus said that His Body was Real
a. Luke 24:39 “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."
b. You are not going to have a spirit body that is going to just float around. Real body.
c. Jesus ate on two occasions. AMEN!
d. Are we going to eat when we get to heaven? Yes
e. Luke 24:42-42 “Jesus ate a piece of broiled fish.”
f. John:21-12-13 – Jesus had breakfast with the disciples.
2. Jesus told Thomas to touch his body
g. John 20:27 - Jesus told Thomas to touch his side.
h. John 20:17 Mary saw Jesus after the resurrections when she went to visit the tomb of Jesus. “Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
i. Real bodies – that are totally reinvented and made over.
j. They knew Jesus and were willing to testify of His resurrection up until their death. These men would not have died for a lie!
k. When you get to heaven you are going to know all the people you knew down here that put their faith and trust in Jesus for eternal salvation.
Our New Bodies will be Indestructible, Our New Bodies will be Identifiable, and our New Bodies will Be Incredible
C. Our New Bodies Will Be Incredible (V.43)
1. John 20:19 “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."
D. Our New Bodies Will Be Infinite (V.44) Limitless, will never die or wear out.
1. A Spiritual Body – What is this?
2. Jesus had a material body.
3. Paul is talking about a real body that is no longer controlled by your fleshly appetites but is controlled totally by your Spirit.
A Place Called Heaven
John 14:1-4 “"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going."
Can you imagine a place designed for you by someone who loved you so much He gave His Son to die for you? The Apostle John said, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son...” (1 John 4:10).
That’s love, isn’t it? We’re limited in our knowledge of the details about Heaven. God has purposely withheld some things from us. But He gives us all we need to know, and what we know leaves us in breathless wonder.
Did you know that the Apostle Paul took his trip to Heaven, he later said he was in the third heaven where he saw and heard “inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Corinthians 12:4).
A Gallup poll found that 72% of the American people believe in Heaven, 60% believe in Hell, and only 4% think they are going to Hell. That leaves a vast majority believing they’re going to Heaven, but as the old Gospel song says, “Everybody talkin' 'bout heav'n ain't goin' there.”
Here are some facts God does give us about Heaven.
A.Heaven is a real place.
1.Heaven isn’t a philosophical idea or a vague state of mind.
2.It’s a real place on God’s map.
3.When Paul described his experience of visiting Heaven, he wrote, “whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows” (2 Corinthians 12:3). That indicates you can go to Heaven in your body or in your spirit.
4.Paul also said he was “caught up” into the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
B.Where is heaven located?
- We know Heaven is up:
- Acts 1:1-11 – “And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11)
3.In Isaiah 14:13-14, Lucifer said, before he fell, “I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north…above the stars... above the heights of the clouds.”
4.In Leviticus 1:11, God said the altar before Him was on the north side.
5.Psalm 75:6-7 says exaltation does not come from the east, west, or south but from God, and only one direction remains: north.
C.Why would Paul mention the “third heaven”? Because there are three.
- The Bible speaks of the “fowls of the heavens." That’s the atmospheric heaven, the atmosphere surrounding earth.
- “The stars of Heaven” indicate the second heaven, the stellar heaven.
- The third heaven is the abode of God, a real place to which Jesus ascended in His resurrection body.
D.Do the Saved go to Heaven immediately at death?
- According to the Bible - Every believer in Christ goes immediately to Heaven at death.
- Some people think the soul sleeps in the grave, awaiting the resurrection. No. The body awaits the resurrection; your spirit goes immediately to be with Jesus. For example:
- Jesus told the dying thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
- Jesus Himself as He died, said, “Father, into Your hands, I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46).
- Stephen, the first Christian martyr, stoned for his faith, “looked up steadfastly into Heaven, and saw the glory of God,” then said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59).