{"id":19110,"date":"2016-06-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-019\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T12:18:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T17:18:36","slug":"soteriology-019","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-019\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 019"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19110","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 019","sermon_date":"20160605","sermon_month":"06","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":26780,"sermon_slides":3657,"sermon_mp3":3658,"sermon_id":"65161013372","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"3:18","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\r\n\r\nSoteriology 19, John 3:18\r\n\r\nJune 5, 2016\r\n\r\nLet me open us in a word of prayer and we\u2019ll get started.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re thankful for today. This is the day the Lord has made and just another opportunity to serve You, learn about You, and I pray You\u2019ll be with us during this class as we broach a difficult subject, and be with us this summer as we look into this doctrine.\u00a0 And I pray that You\u2019ll be with the worship service and communion time that follows and also all this week at VBS.\u00a0 In Jesus name, Amen.\r\n\r\nGood to see everybody.\u00a0 Let me kind of\u2026 normally we are going to have handouts to give to you; I don\u2019t have any this week because I didn\u2019t get these done until about 11:00 last night so you can slap my hand if you want to on that one.\r\n\r\nThose of you that are with this class the first time, what you\u2019re getting on is a soteriology class that we started on Wednesday nights.\u00a0 Who knows what soteriology is?\u00a0 The study of salvation, from the Greek word soterios<\/em>.\u00a0 And if you haven\u2019t been with the class on Wednesdays, basically here\u2019s an outline of what we\u2019ve gone through in soteriology.\u00a0 We\u2019ve gone through the definition of soteriology which is the doctrine of salvation.\u00a0 And then we looked at what God does in the past to prepare us for salvation, and that\u2019s election.\u00a0 And then we looked at the means of salvation, and that\u2019s what Roman numeral III and IV are.\u00a0 When you understand the atonement\u2026who knows what atonement means?\u00a0 Atonement means the substitutionary death of Jesus, that Jesus died in my place.\r\n\r\nSo when you understand atonement and then you also understand salvation words you understand how God has procured salvation for us.\u00a0 And from there we moved into Roman numeral V which is how we gain salvation.\u00a0 And it\u2019s always, in the Bible, based on a single condition, a response of volition by the lost sinner.\u00a0 And what\u2019s that condition?\u00a0 Faith, by itself.\u00a0 From there we moved into Roman numeral VI where we discovered that our spiritual ledger is jam packed with wealth.\u00a0 And that\u2019s called the results of salvation.\u00a0 And that\u2019s where we studied around 33 items that we have as New Testament Christians (that we didn\u2019t have before) simply because we are \u201cin Christ.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we\u2019ve covered thus far in the class, all those lessons are available online.\r\n\r\nAnd what we\u2019re moving into this summer, as you\u2019ll see when we get into this it\u2019s going to take several months to unpack this, it\u2019s a huge topic, but now we get into the subject of eternal security, which is dealing with the issue of once you have salvation can you lose what you have?\u00a0 Or is it true that \u201conce saved always saved\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 And this is something that the church of Jesus Christ has been arguing about for a long time.\u00a0 The debate really got popular around the early 1600\u2019s through a fellow by the name of Jacob Arminius.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be mentioning him, he was a Dutch theologian, I\u2019ll mention him a little later in the series but he basically postulated that you can have salvation and lose it.\u00a0 And as I show you there are actually passages that when you look at them at first glance it looks that way, unless you understand how to interpret the whole counsel of God\u2019s Word.\r\n\r\nSo that\u2019s where we are, we are in Roman numeral VII dealing with the whole subject of eternal security.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be focusing on for the next several months.\u00a0 This class really started for the benefit of our missionaries.\u00a0 We were trying to kind of raise the bar a little bit on the doctrinal beliefs of our missionaries and a lot of them were writing back saying what does the church believe about this issue or that issue and we really had nowhere to send them, other than to scattered sermons where I said yeah, I think I mentioned that in this sermon way over\u00a0 yonder.\u00a0 And most of their questions dealt with these kind of issues so we wanted to create a series of teachings where all of our soteriological positions can be found in one set.\u00a0 So this is lesson 19 in that set.\r\n\r\nSo the format I\u2019m going to follow and those guys up in the sound booth they\u2019ve got to get everything set up for the main service and they also need a bathroom break so I\u2019m going to talk, typically on Sunday mornings till about 10:35.\u00a0 And then they\u2019re going to stop the cameras, we can open it up for Q & A at that time and then we\u2019ll finish about quarter till and then we\u2019ll get ready for our main service.\u00a0 So that\u2019s sort of the direction we\u2019re headed in.\u00a0 Usually in Sunday School people like to ask questions whenever they want to, which I\u2019m in favor of but we\u2019re changing the format a little bit because we\u2019re actually producing recordings for our missionaries so we\u2019re just asking people to save their questions (you can write them down) for the last ten minutes of class.\r\n\r\nSo eternal security, beginning to look at the subject of eternal security.\u00a0 Question: are you on divine probation?\u00a0 Are believers in Jesus Christ on divine probation with their eternal destiny uncertain?\u00a0 Or, does God\u2019s grace and power keep them saved forever.\u00a0 That is the issue with eternal security.\u00a0 Are we on probation or does the grace of God that brought us to Christ, does that keep us saved?\r\n\r\nArminius basically taught that we\u2019re on divine probation.\u00a0 There\u2019s always some kind of sin you\u2019d better stay away from and they never define what sin it is, it\u2019s just whatever it is that\u2019s bad, or you can actually lose your salvation.\u00a0 Now the very strong Reformed view, which does not deny security but it denies assurance, basically says that you must persevere to the end of your life in good works.\u00a0 Now they never tell you how many good works you have to do or how fast they have to come, but you must persevere to the end of your life in good works to see if you really were saved to begin with.\r\n\r\nSo both the Arminian view and the very strong Calvinist view, I believe, have brought damage to people emotionally and psychologically because they fear, constantly, that they\u2019re going to go to hell even though they are Christians.\u00a0 The strong Calvinist view says, \u201cor must one wait until he dies to see if he has persevered in the faith and\u00a0 godliness to prove he\u2019s one of the elect.\u201d\u00a0 Arminius says you can have salvation and lose it; the very strong Reformed view basically says maybe\u00a0 you never had it to begin with.\u00a0 And both of these views get you to the introspective, always looking at yourself.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that a depressing subject, looking at yourself all the time.\u00a0 You\u2019re not looking at Christ and His promises, you\u2019re always looking at yourself.\r\n\r\nSo take a look at Ephesians 4:14, and I\u2019m just trying to show you my heart and why I\u2019m wanting to get into this subject.\u00a0 Ephesians 4:14 is just describing the ungrounded believer.\u00a0 And Ephesians 4:14 says, \u201cAs a result,\u201d that\u2019s of the maturity process, \u201cwe are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming,\u201d\u00a0 So that\u2019s what this reminds me of, this debate and looking at the state of the church.\u00a0 People are just kind of blown about one direction or the next, they don\u2019t really have any real certainty about what the Bible teaches.\u00a0 They go to one church, they learn one thing, they go to another church, they learn something else, they hear someone on radio, watch someone on TV and they get a different idea in their mind and so what\u2019s happening is it\u2019s the Bible is like a kaleidoscope in their heads, it\u2019s just a bunch of contradictory data.\r\n\r\nAnd I\u2019d like to show you in this series that that\u2019s not what God intended.\u00a0 And according to the Ephesians 4 passage it\u2019s the job of the pastors, particular those with the gift of pastor-teacher, to ground God\u2019s people in truth so they won\u2019t be blown about, tossed do and fro.\u00a0 So the only book we\u2019re going to be using for this is the Bible; I\u2019ll make some references to some authors that I think are helpful, but all of our time is going to be spent looking at Bible passages, because we\u00a0 basically believe that the Bible, when understood correctly, answers this question of eternal security.\r\n\r\nAnd let me give you another, sort of presupposition that I\u2019m coming from; the presupposition is the Bible cannot contradict itself. If God authored all 66 books of the Bible ultimately, which is what we believe, then how can God say one thing on Monday and something completely contradictory on Tuesday.\u00a0 So therefore what I\u2019m going to be doing in this study is showing you how to harmonize passages that appear contradictory on the surface.\u00a0 You know, there\u2019s a lot of things on the surface that look like contradictions but really are not.\r\n\r\nFor example, if you take three men and you blindfold them and they\u2019re all touching the same elephant, and one man is touching the elephant\u2019s trunk and he\u2019s saying it feels like a giant tube, and another man is touching one of the elephant\u2019s feet, the toes, and he says I feel five lumps here, and another man is touching the elephant\u2019s side and he says it feels like a giant wall, at first glance all of those testimonies look like they contradict each other.\u00a0 How can a wall and a tube and five lumps be the same entity.\u00a0 But then when you take the blindfold off guess what?\u00a0 the contradiction disappears, because all these people were doing was feeling different sides of the same animal.\r\n\r\nSo that largely is what is happening in some of these theological debates; we\u2019re all touching different parts of the doctrine of salvation and a lot of times they don\u2019t know what part of it we\u2019re touching so it seems to contradict another part of the doctrine of salvation.\u00a0 And yet what I\u2019m going to try to do in this class is take the blindfold off and show you that there is no contradiction at all.\r\n\r\nHaving said all that let\u2019s begin with the definition of eternal security.\u00a0 When we talk about eternal security what exactly are we talking about?\u00a0 And I got this definition from Dennis Rokser who wrote a very good book on this subject called Shall Never Perish<\/em>.\u00a0 And on page 11, he\u2019s the pastor-teacher at the Duluth Bible Church, where I get the opportunity to travel to almost every year to participate in their conference.\u00a0 And he has a very good definition of eternal security.\u00a0 So let\u2019s look at this definition very carefully so we can figure out what it is that we\u2019re talking about.\r\n\r\n\u201cEternal Security means that those who have been genuinely saved by God\u2019s grace through faith alone in Christ alone shall never be in danger of God\u2019s condemnation or loss of salvation but God\u2019s grace and power keep them forever saved and secure.\u201d [Dennis Rokser, Shall Never Perish Forever<\/em>, p. 11]\u00a0 And that basically, as I\u2019ll be showing you, is what we think the Bible teaches.\u00a0 There are a couple of words in this definition that are important because not all in Christendom that profess to be a Christian are actually a Christian.\u00a0 The churches are filled with what I would call false converts.\u00a0 Now I define a false convert very differently than a Calvinist.\u00a0 A Calvinist says a false convert is somebody that\u2019s not bearing enough fruit to prove they were saved.\u00a0 I am not defining false convert that way.\r\n\r\nWhat I\u2019m defining a false convert is someone who has actually never trusted in the promises of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So if that\u2019s true, what are they trusting in?\u00a0 Well, they could be trusting in themselves and their own good works, and I know that for sure because I was one of those for the first 16 years of my life.\u00a0 I was in a church, I really had never heard the gospel or the grace of Jesus Christ; I heard a lot of religious biblical type messages but I had never actually heard the gospel.\u00a0\u00a0 And so one day I was confronted by somebody, and I thank God that I was confronted because God knows where I\u2019d be today if he didn\u2019t have the love to confront me.\u00a0 It was at a home Bible study, spring of 1983, my sophomore year in high school, he basically asked me, he said if you were standing at the gates of heaven and you wanted to get in what would your answer be, how would you get in?\u00a0 And my answer went to myself, I\u2019ve done this, I\u2019ve done that.\u00a0 I was actually an acolyte, I was an altar boy in this church and wasn\u2019t even regenerated.\u00a0 I had the Ten Commandments memorized, they actually gave me a big cross for perfect attendance at Sunday School.\r\n\r\nSo I had the Ten Commandments memorized, I actually had the worship service memorized to a large extent because I was an altar boy in this church.\u00a0 So my answer went to me and what I\u2019ve done and look at me, what we call self-righteousness.\u00a0 And this fellow basically said the whole thing is not what you do, it\u2019s what Jesus has done for you, and your volition to receive that as a gift by faith. Now until I had heard that I don\u2019t think I was saved.\u00a0 I think I would be what\u2019s called a false convert.\r\n\r\nSo this definition of eternal security, the way it\u2019s written, you\u2019ll see that through this clause, \u201cthose who have genuinely been saved by God\u2019s grace through faith alone\u201d is assuming that the person studying this is already a Christian because they\u2019re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So this does not apply to people that never have ever in their life trusted in Christ.\u00a0 The gospel only becomes of value to you; it\u2019s like a gift.\u00a0 My daughter Sarah, I could go out and buy her a great gift, I can wrap it up and put a big bow on it (I don\u2019t wrap gifts at our house, I know that shocks you guys but my wife does that) but anyway, we can get her this wonderful gift, wrap it all up, stick it right in front of her and if she never opens it, receives it, it\u2019s just a box, that\u2019s all it is.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what salvation is to a lot of folks, Jesus has done all of this but because they\u2019ve never heard any clear instructions on how to receive it it\u2019s of no value to them.\u00a0 The gospel becomes valuable once you actually trust or believe in its message. \u00a0So this definition of eternal security is basically assuming that the people that are benefitted by this wonderful doctrine are actually believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.\r\n\r\nSo just a couple of verses, just to show you that I\u2019m really not making things up here, take a look at the Gospel of John, chapter 3, and verse 18, just to show you that the gospel doesn\u2019t mean anything to a person in terms of value until they believe it.\u00a0 John 3:18 says, \u201cHe who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.\u201d\u00a0 So if you have trusted in Christ at some point in your life or even right now as I\u2019m speaking, trusting in Christ, then you have moved out of the divine judgment of God because your judgment has already been paid for.\u00a0 But if you have never believed then\u00a0 you\u2019re under God\u2019s condemnation as we speak.\u00a0 It\u2019s just the penalty has never been exacted yet, which it will be.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a sword of Damocles hanging over somebody\u2019s head waiting to fall at any minute.\r\n\r\nAnd then take a look at John 5:39-40, a couple of chapters to the right, Jesus, speaking to the Pharisees, He says, \u201cYou search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; [40] and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.\u201d\u00a0 So these Pharisees stayed unsaved because they were unwilling to come to God on His terms.\u00a0 And when people hear the terms of God sometimes they get made at the messenger, as if we made this up or something.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get mad at me, it\u2019s just right out of the Scripture, God has one condition.\u00a0 And in the class we\u2019ve explained why that condition exists, but one condition for entering into life and that\u2019s faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 And if a person has never trusted in Christ and instead focused on themselves or their religion then they remain unregenerate and the doctrine of eternal security has really no value to them.\r\n\r\nSo that\u2019s one of the reasons I like this definition here, because it applies only to the person who has trusted in Christ.\u00a0 So if a person has trusted in Christ then the issue becomes well once you have these 33 blessings, called the riches of salvation, can God pull the carpet out from under you?\u00a0 Can you have it and then lose it?\u00a0 That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to figure out here.\u00a0 Jacob Arminius said you can and we\u2019re trying to take the position here that you can\u2019t.\r\n\r\nDoes it really matter?\u00a0 I mean, come on, aren\u2019t you splitting hairs.\u00a0 To quote that great theologian, Rodney King, \u201ccan\u2019t we all get along?\u201d\u00a0 Remember that, the L.A. riots?\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cCan\u2019t we all get along,\u201d that\u2019s sort of the mentality in a lot of places is it really doesn\u2019t matter as long as we all love Jesus, you know, we\u2019re all on the same team,\u00a0 I mean, why actually split hairs on the doctrine of eternal security.\u00a0 And let me give you three reasons why I think this doctrine matters.\u00a0 Your ability to come to certainty on this issue will change\u00a0 your life as a Christian in three fundamental ways, at least.\r\n\r\nThe first one is your productivity.\u00a0 Your productivity for God will increase if you get this settled in\u00a0 your mind that once saved always saved.\u00a0 And the reason I say that is I like to use the example of the Golden Gate Bridge in northern California, when that was being constructed many people committed suicide jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge because of the height once your body hits the water there in the San Francisco area you basically die immediately, it\u2019s like hitting concrete.\u00a0 So they were constructing this bridge, I can\u2019t remember the year it was built but sometime back and actually builders were falling to their death and the productivity on the bridge wasn\u2019t getting very far because the builders couldn\u2019t really focus on their work, they\u2019re worried about their own safety.\r\n\r\nSo somebody had a bright idea, why don\u2019t we put a net beneath these builders so that if they fall, God forbid, they\u2019ll be buoyed by this net and they won\u2019t die and they won\u2019t plummet to their death by hitting the water.\u00a0 So the security issue was taken care of, so the builders now could not have a mind divided.\u00a0 The book of James warns about a divided mind, James 1:5-8.\u00a0 [James 1:5-8, \u201cBut if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. [6] But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. [7] For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, [8]being<\/em> a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAs long as you\u2019re sitting there worried about whether you\u2019re a Christian, whether you\u2019re going to heaven, whether your name is written in the Book of Life, your mind is divided.\u00a0 And that\u2019s basically, you know, where the devil wants you to be because you\u2019re like a child being tossed to and fro.\u00a0 And you\u2019re worried about your security because you keep hearing these mixed messages on so-called Christian media and you\u2019re also trying to focus on VBS or whatever God has you to do and you really can\u2019t give DVBS your full energy because\u00a0 your mind is divided about your security.\u00a0 So once a person really gets settled in their mind that salvation is a work of God from beginning to end and you have the hope of heaven and assurance of heaven and there\u2019s nothing that can happen that can rip the carpet out from under you, that is such a liberating thing, because now you can focus on what God wants\u00a0 you to do.\u00a0 All of your energy that used to be spent in anxiety can now be focused into productivity.\u00a0 So I think this doctrine is important, I don\u2019t think it is just splitting hairs.\r\n\r\nAnother reason this doctrine is important is because it changes the motive of the servant.\u00a0 And there are so many people that are showing up to churches out of duty, out of responsibility, out of obligation.\u00a0 And they\u2019re serving God because they think that I need to demonstrate some fruit because if I don\u2019t see some fruit in my life maybe I\u2019m not one of the elect.\u00a0 Or I need to demonstrate some fruit so I don\u2019t lose my salvation.\u00a0 And so then what is the issue?\u00a0\u00a0 You get to the root of their service and it\u2019s fear; they\u2019re afraid of hell basically.\u00a0 And I would challenge you to find a single verse in the Bible that supports that.\u00a0 The child of God is never called to serve God out of threats or fear.\u00a0 When you study service in the Bible you\u2019ll discover that service comes out of gratitude for what God has done.\u00a0 In other words,\u00a0 you\u2019re just stunned at what God has done for you that what else can you do, other than to submit to Him, not because you\u2019re afraid of something but because you do it out of gratitude.\u00a0 Or we might put it this way; you do it out of worship.\u00a0 There\u2019s this worshipful response that takes place in your heart, you have an attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving because you get to serve the Lord, because of what He has done.\r\n\r\nAnd when\u00a0 you go into the New Testament letters, for example, you\u2019ll see that that\u2019s how Paul always sets up his arguments.\u00a0 How many commands are there in Ephesians 1-3? Anybody know?\u00a0 It\u2019s a trick question.\u00a0 Zero, no commands.\u00a0 Well, what\u2019s Ephesians 1-3?\u00a0 It\u2019s our wealth.\u00a0 He spends three chapters, and by the way, Ephesians 1 is a giant run-on sentence.\u00a0 I say that to my students, if your teachers ever criticize you for run-on sentences just say well, Paul had his run-on sentence so I can have mine.\u00a0 But it\u2019s just one giant run-on sentence, Ephesians 1, and it goes into chapters 2 and 3 explaining our wealth; it doesn\u2019t tell us to do anything in Ephesians 1-3\u00a0 Then you get to Ephesians 4:1 and you see the word \u201cTherefore\u201d and when you see the word \u201ctherefore\u201d you have to ask yourself what is the word there for what there for?\u00a0 And then it propels us into service, chapters 4, 5 and 6, only after the right doctrinal foundation has been laid.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll see the same pattern in Romans, Romans 1-11, doctrine; Romans 12:1 the word \u201cTherefore\u201d, what is the word therefore there for?\u00a0 Romans 12-16, service. And what he\u2019s doing in Romans 12, after he gets out of Romans 11 by vindicating the trust\u00adworthiness of God, because God is not even going to renege on Israel, His apostate nation.\r\n\r\nIf he\u2019s not going to renege on Israel He\u2019s not going to renege on you.\u00a0 So you leave Romans 11 just completely uplifted out of what God has done.\u00a0 And then it says \u201cTherefore,\u201d and it begins to outline principles of service.\u00a0 The book of Galatians the same way, chapters 1-4, what God has done for us; Galatians 5:1, \u201cTherefore,\u201d Galatians 5 and 6, service.\r\n\r\nAnd this is the problem I have with modern day teaching methods as modern day preaching methods are always trying to work towards an application.\u00a0 We need an application or it\u2019s not a complete sermon, right?\u00a0 Well, show me the application in Ephesians 1-3?\u00a0 There\u2019s not one application.\u00a0 Paul spends three chapters with no application whatsoever.\u00a0 Now he does get to application, and I\u2019m not minimizing application, in chapters 4, 5 and 6, but Paul never applies anything to anybody until people understand what they have.\u00a0 It\u2019s like trying to drive a car with no gas in the engine.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s how a lot of Christians are trying to live the spiritual life because they hear all these applications and do this and do that and they don\u2019t even understand what they have in Christ.\u00a0 So the motivation for service is not fear, it is worship and gratitude.\r\n\r\nAnd then a third reason I think the Christian life, the doctrine of eternal security matters is because of the issue of joy.\u00a0 You know, there\u2019s so many, what I would call sad-faced saints walking around and I can be like that too, just downers and depressed and man, I\u2019m really struggling under this load and the fact of the matter is, where is that in the Bible.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re supposed to be people of joy, aren\u2019t we?\u00a0 Not artificial happiness but inner satisfaction that God is in control of this world; God is at work, God is at work in my heart, look at what God has done for me.\u00a0 And so should the Christian life be a perpetual downer?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so because of the emphasis that the New Testament places on joy.\u00a0 Folks, we\u2019re winners here.\u00a0 We\u2019re on the winning side, isn\u2019t that a great thing.\u00a0 I remember watching my favorite basketball team play and I remember being all nervous about the game and is my team going to win or is it not going to win.\u00a0 And I got back home (my team did win by the way) I got back home and I watched the taped delay on the TV.\u00a0 Guess what, I wasn\u2019t nervous anymore because I knew who was going to win.\r\n\r\nAnd this is the attitude that we\u2019re to have as New Testament Christians, we\u2019ve seen the movie, we know how this thing is going to end, we know we\u2019re on the winning side of history.\u00a0\u00a0 So let\u2019s be people of joy instead of insecurity and fear.\u00a0 And if\u00a0 you are ambiguous about am I going to go to hell or not, how in the world are you supposed to have joy in your life.\u00a0 You can\u2019t have it, it\u2019s impossible.\u00a0 So the issue of productivity, the issue of a proper motive for service, the issue of joy, I believe, are reasons why this doctrine is significant and why we need to actually spend some time looking into this.\r\n\r\nAnd then a preview, what are we actually going to be doing in this class?\u00a0 The class only has two parts to it, the first part of the class is we\u2019re going to be going over eternal security arguments.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to try to show you, a little bit philosophically but primarily biblically, why once saved always saved.\u00a0 If you are \u201cin Christ\u201d by faith alone God is not going to rip the carpet out from under you.\r\n\r\nAnd then in part 2 of the class you\u2019ll start to see, and I\u2019m going to have about thirteen arguments there in part 1, we won\u2019t get through all of them in a session, you\u2019ll notice that they are kind of drawn out, maybe we\u2019ll be able to cover 2, 3, 4, per session.\u00a0 We might even have time to cover one or two of them today.\u00a0 But then in the second part of the class we\u2019re going to be going over problem passages.\u00a0 And I have by my total here 48 problem passages.\u00a0 There are about 48 verses that you\u2019ll look at and you\u2019ll say oooh what do we do with that one.\u00a0 Some of them you already know, the unpardonable sin, what is that?\u00a0 Well, I know it\u2019s really bad whatever it is, I hope I haven\u2019t done it.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m going to show you there\u2019s an actual definition for the unpardonable sin. What do you do with all that stuff in Hebrews 6:4-6 about those who have once been enlightened, tasted of the heavenly gift and it\u2019s impossible to renew them again unto repentance.\u00a0 [Hebrews 6:4-6, \u201cFor in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, [5] and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, [6] And then<\/em> have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo we\u2019re going to actually be walking through all 48 verses or major passages that throw doubt on the issue of salvation.\u00a0 And remember, my premise in the whole thing is the Bible cannot contradict itself.\u00a0 If the whole Bible is from God and if God\u2019s character is the same yesterday, today and forever, then there has to be a way to harmonize these difficult passages with the thirteen very clear arguments that we can never lose our salvation.\u00a0 And once I show you how to harmonize it you\u2019ll be like the V-8 commercial.\u00a0 Oh yeah, of course, I just needed a little bit extra information.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s sort of the direction we\u2019re going here.\r\n\r\nSo a little time remains and let\u2019s just go ahead and launch in here to eternal security arguments.\u00a0 In my heart, and I have all thirteen listed here, I would say there\u2019s about thirteen or so reasons and passages that teach once saved always saved.\u00a0 So I won\u2019t read all these to you now, I\u2019ll just start off with the first one or two.\r\n\r\nThe first argument is this: Because self-righteousness did not save us in the first place, this is more of a philosophical argument, because self-righteousness did not save us in the first place, it is not a basis upon which salvation can be continued or lost.\u00a0 So because self-righteousness did not\u2026\u00a0 you know what I mean by self-righteousness?\u00a0 Self-righteousness is what Adam and Eve were doing in Genesis 3:7, they clothed themselves and were trying to present themselves to God by what THEY had done, that\u2019s what I was doing for the first 16 years of my life.\u00a0 We did not get into the door through self-righteousness, we got into the door through transferred righteousness, as a gift.\u00a0 That\u2019s the significance of the animal skin, Genesis 3:21, being used to clothe Adam and Eve.\u00a0 [Genesis 3:7, \u201cThen the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.\u201d]\u00a0 Genesis 3:21, \u201cThe LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.\u201d]\r\n\r\nGenesis 3:7 is religion, they were trying to clothe themselves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Genesis 3:21 is Christianity.\u00a0 We don\u2019t clothe ourselves before a holy God, remember this is Genesis 3, this is right after they sinned. We don\u2019t clothe ourselves before a holy God, He clothes us.\u00a0 And by the way, where did those animal skins come from there, that God used in Genesis 3:21?\u00a0 Well, it doesn\u2019t say but we can assume, can\u2019t we, that an innocent animal was killed. Well what did the animal do wrong?\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 And see what God is showing at the beginning of history\u2014here\u2019s how I\u2019m going to forgive sin, an innocent scapegoat, ultimately pointing to Jesus, is going to be killed in the place of the guilty, and I\u2019m going to take those skins from that transaction and I\u2019m going to use it to clothe you.\u00a0 So if you want to be right with Me you\u00a0 have to receive what I\u2019ve done for you as a free gift.\r\n\r\nRight there at the beginning of the Bible it\u2019s an attack on self-righteousness.\u00a0 We, in our fallen state, are self-righteous by nature.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because of the \u201cP\u201d word, pride.\u00a0 If I can gain righteous\u00adness through my own power who gets the bragging rights?\u00a0 I do! So that\u2019s why self-righteousness, even though it\u2019s a wrong path to God is so popular.\u00a0 And this is why the gospel, people are always attacking it because they want to add something that they can do.\u00a0 I mean, my father-in-law buys lunch and what\u2019s my first reaction?\u00a0 Well I\u2019m reaching for my wallet, can I leave the tip, because it\u2019s hard, is it not difficult to receive a gift?\u00a0 It\u2019s far easier for me to give a gift than receive a gift.\u00a0 When I receive something for free I have this pride that wells up within me, where I want to con\u00adtribute.\u00a0 And it\u2019s difficult for me to just sit there and relax (it\u2019s getting easier by the way, especially when you buy me lunch, especially when the tip is pretty big) but it\u2019s difficult for me to just sit back and relax and receive something.\u00a0 Pride is such that we always want to insert something.\r\n\r\nAnd so people have a tendency to carry that though into their Christian life.\u00a0 Well, self-righteousness didn\u2019t get me in the door, but doggone it, I\u2019d better keep performin\u2019; if I don\u2019t keep performin\u2019 God\u2019s going to pull the carpet out from under me.\u00a0 So what they\u2019ve done is they\u2019ve started right on the basis of grace, but they haven\u2019t let the concept of grace continue on.\u00a0 Self-righteousness and our own works didn\u2019t get us in the door to begin with and it\u2019s not going to be what keeps us there.\u00a0 This whole operation of God is a grace gift from beginning to end.\r\n\r\nTake a look, just for a moment, if you could, at Galatians 3:3, this is rapidly becoming one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible.\u00a0 Galatians is a book on the spiritual life.\u00a0 Look at how it starts, \u201cAre you so foolish?\u201d\u00a0 Aren\u2019t we like that sometimes, we\u2019re just foolish so we don\u2019t allow God to renew our minds.\u00a0 \u201cAre you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?\u201d\u00a0 So the Galatians started off right, they started off by grace through the power of the Spirit and then they got in their minds into legalism and okay, I\u2019m in the door but I\u2019d better keep on cranking it out through human power to keep myself from being put out the door.\u00a0 And Paul says, \u201cAre you so foolish,\u201d\u00a0 you got into the game through grace alone so why in the world would you think that works, human works are going to somehow keep you in.\r\n\r\nAnd what I\u2019m talking about here, it\u2019s like when you\u2019re lost and your maps go.. I\u2019ve gotten so lost even the mapsco. can\u2019t rescue me, it just keeps saying recalibrating, recalibrating, recalibrating, and that\u2019s basically what we need in our minds, they need to be recalibrated because we are so, because of pride, so performance oriented.\u00a0 And when it comes to the world we\u2019re performance oriented.\u00a0 And how do you get ahead in your job?\u00a0 You get a good performance appraisal.\u00a0 How do you get ahead as a student?\u00a0 You get a good report card.\u00a0 So we are performance, performance, performance and that\u2019s the world system that we\u2019re living in and it appeals to our sin nature anyway, so we just sort of transfer that into God.\u00a0 And if we\u2019re not careful we\u2019re into self-righteousness, not to get saved but to stay saved, because in the loss of salvation issue the focus is always you, have you done this or that, because if you have, or haven\u2019t, then maybe you can lose your salvation.\u00a0 So the whole concept of Arminianism, loss of salvation, if you really start boiling it down and looking at it carefully you\u2019ll see it\u2019s really related to self-righteousness.\r\n\r\nAnd guess what folks, God doesn\u2019t work the way we work.\u00a0 Have you noticed that?\u00a0 I\u2019ve tried to get God to conform to my way of doing things; He doesn\u2019t seem all that interested.\u00a0\u00a0 So it doesn\u2019t matter what I think is right or what I think is wrong; I have to start allowing myself to think the way God thinks and that\u2019s why He says over in Isaiah 55,\u00a0 you might want to look at that for a second, Isaiah 55:8-9, \u201c\u2018For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,\u2019 declares the LORD. [9] For as<\/em> the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.\u201d\u00a0 So I can think self-righteously all I want to but the fact of the matter is that never got me saved and that doesn\u2019t keep me saved.\r\n\r\nAnd this is why there is such an emphasis in the New Testament letters on renewing the mind.\u00a0 My mind, because of pride and the world system, thinks a certain way.\u00a0 And God wants to take this process and turn it into something different.\u00a0 He wants me to think differently.\u00a0 And the only way I\u2019m going to start thinking differently is if I start renewing my mind through what? The Scripture.\u00a0 The only thing that\u2019s going to start causing me to think differently is the Scripture.\u00a0 No other source that you can ever give yourself to will ever cause your mind to be renewed.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there\u2019s such an emphasis in the New Testament about the intake of the Bible.\r\n\r\nAnd look at Romans 12:2, it says, \u201cAnd do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.\u201d\u00a0 So I drag into my\u2026 and this is a common misunderstanding, people think they come to Christ and they have a new mind, which they do positionally but they don\u2019t understand that they\u2019re carrying into Christianity a bunch of baggage that they have accumulated their whole lives.\u00a0 I have seen this even in some of my apologetic friends, apologia<\/em> means defense of the faith.\u00a0 I have seen people come out of Roman Catholicism and they have become very strict critics of the Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0 But when you actually sit and listen to their presentation of the gospel it sounds pretty Roman Catholic, what they\u2019re saying.\r\n\r\nI have seen, and this is where you have to watch, we have, praise the Lord, former Muslims that come to Christ and they become critics of Islam.\u00a0 If their mind is not renewed\u00a0 they\u2019re going to take the same works righteousness that\u2019s in Islam, because in Islam it\u2019s all does the good outweigh the bad.\u00a0 They\u2019re going to drag that into Christianity and their doctrine of salvation is going to start sounding kind of Islamic, maybe with Jesus\u2019 name thrown in a little bit.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve seen this happen and I\u2019ve not wanted this to happen to me, I want my mind to be totally renewed where I\u2019m not telling people things from my pre-conversion days.\r\n\r\nLet me squeeze in one more here, I\u2019ve got four minutes left.\u00a0 Number 2, if God bestows, this gives us a philosophical argument, it\u2019s similar to the first argument, if God bestows initial salvation without effort but then requires us to perform to maintain salvation, then salvation is no longer a what?\u00a0 A gift, but it is something that we must work to have.\u00a0 Now in the idea that you can lose your salvation the focus is always you, your personal choice, your sin habits or pattern, your apostasy.\u00a0 Staying away from those things is what keeps you saved under the doctrine of you can lose your salvation.\u00a0 And as you\u2019ll see in this class, I\u2019m not minimizing holiness at all; there\u2019s a real place for that.\u00a0 I\u2019m simply saying that those maintaining a holy life is not a basis upon which you can boost your salvation, if it was then it\u2019s a doctrine of works.\r\n\r\nThis is really what troubles me because there are certain people that will fight tooth and nail on this and they\u2019re convinced you can lose your salvation.\u00a0 And I know it\u2019s not very PC for me to say this and I say this with humility and gentleness, but if someone wants to go to the bat on this in the back of my mind I\u2019m questioning whether that person is saved at all.\u00a0 And I think that way because they think it\u2019s their ability to stay away from a certain sin that keeps them saved.\u00a0 Now is that not works?\u00a0 That isn\u2019t anything but pure works.\u00a0 And if a person is functioning totally on the basis of works, then in the back of my mind I\u2019m really wondering, has this person ever understood the grace of God at all?\u00a0 If the Bible is clear on anything it\u2019s we\u2019re not saved by works, Ephesians 2:8-9. \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith; [9] and that not of\u201d what? \u201cworks, lest any man boast.\u201d\u00a0 By the way, what does God think about our manmade works?\u00a0\u00a0 Filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6.\u00a0 [\u201cBut we are all as an unclean thing<\/em>, and all our righteousnesses are<\/em> as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.\u201d KJV]\r\n\r\nAnd so in\u2026 there\u2019s two things to be careful about, front loading and back loading the gospel.\u00a0 Front loading is sticking a bunch of works on the front end, I\u2019ve got to do faith plus works to be justified.\u00a0 Back loading is sticking a bunch of works on the back end, yes, I\u2019m saved by faith but to keep myself saved I\u2019ve got to do works.\u00a0 Both are works, whether it\u2019s front loading or whether it\u2019s back loading.\u00a0 And the front loader and the back loader of the gospel, they are their own savior, that\u2019s the problem.\u00a0 They think that it\u2019s their ability to do good works to be justified and they like to mix faith in a little bit.\u00a0 Or if a person thinks that it\u2019s their ability to stay away from a certain sin or a pattern or group of sins that keeps them saved, that\u2019s works on the back end.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll just tell you, I think both to God\u2019s eyes are an abomination.\r\n\r\nAnd if we will not come to God His way we don\u2019t come.\u00a0 Now if you don\u2019t believe me just ask Cain about that.\u00a0 Abel came through blood sacrifice the way God ordained; Cain had the Frank Sinatra approach, \u201cI did it my way.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And God received one sacrifice and not the other because it is not my rules, it\u2019s not Sugar Land Bible Church\u2019s rules, these are God\u2019s rules.\u00a0 I know this can be a little bit controversial, but this, as the Psalmist says, \u201cSelah.\u201d\u00a0 Do you know what Selah means in Hebrew?\u00a0 It means to consider carefully\u2026 consider carefully, don\u2019t believe it because I said it, check it out in the Scripture yourself and see if these things be so.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve only given you two arguments, when you put all thirteen together I think you\u2019ll see there\u2019s a very strong case that can be made that you cannot lose your salvation.\u00a0 But more on that as we continue in the class.\r\n\r\nWe\u2019ll pray and then we\u2019ll open it up for questions. Father, we thank You for this time, I pray that Your hand will be in this study as we look at this very important doctrine.\u00a0 I pray this will be a time of growth for us and we lift these things up, in Jesus name. Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t