SECURE IN CHRIST

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: JOHN 10:22-30




INTRODUCTION:


  1. I am going to speak this morning on the doctrine of "eternal security."   There is a distinction between assurance of salvation and eternal security.
  2. J. Vernon McGee said this about the distinction between one’s eternal security and his assurance of salvation. "Eternal security is an objective fact; assurance of salvation is a subjective experience.  Eternal security is not in the realm of experience, and therefore is totally independent of a person’s feelings; assurance of salvation is truly an experience – an inner consciousness and confidence that a right relationship exists between the soul and God."
  3. While I agree that "eternal security is an objective fact," and that assurance of salvation is a "subjective experience," I would also add that assurance of salvation is also an objective fact (John 3:16).
  4. Assurance of salvation means you know for sure you are going to heaven -- not because of your baptism or church affiliation or your good works, etc.
  5. Assurance of salvation means you know for sure you are going to heaven because the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins on the cross, and you have put your faith in Him (John 3:16).
  6. Romans 8:16 says, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."  That is subjective, but it is also an objective fact.  We are saved by fact, not by feelings.
  7. However, while the believer may have assurance of salvation and know for sure that he has been saved, sometimes the question comes up concerning the permanence of his salvation.
  8. The question: Once a believer is genuinely saved by trusting in Christ’s death on the cross for his sin, can he lose his salvation?
  9. I heard a man say, "We do not teach that a man can lose his salvation, but he can forfeit his salvation."  But is that possible?
  10. Does it line up with Scripture?
  11. Is there anything a Christian can do to lose his salvation?
  12. I believe the answer to these questions is, "No, because the Bible clearly teaches that once we receive the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive everlasting life (John 3:16; 10:27-29).
  13. First John 5:11 says, "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."

 

I. CHRIST'S LEADERSHIP (10:27)

  1. Those that are genuinely saved will follow our Lord's leadership.  He is the Good Shepherd, and we are His sheep (10:14, 15, 27).
  2. First Peter 2:21 says that Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps.
  3. Then verse 25 says, "For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."
  4. I am often asked if I believe in the eternal security of the believer.  I respond that I do believe in the eternal security of the true believer, but I do not believe in the eternal security of the make-believer.
  5. First John 2:19 says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."
  6. If a professed believer goes out into the world and stays there, he is giving evidence that he was probably never saved in the first place.
  7. In Matthew 25, in the parable of the sheep and the goats, our Lord makes a distinction between sheep and goats.
  8. In Matthew 25:32, our Lord said He will separate them one from another, "as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats."
  9. In Matthew 25:46, our Lord said the goats shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous (His sheep) into life eternal.
  10. Our Lord said in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
  11. Are you following the Lord?
  12. Is He your shepherd? (John 10:14).
  13. David said in Psalm 23:1, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want."
  14. Our Lord's biggest adversaries were the religious leaders.  He made it very clear that they were not His sheep because they "believed not" (John 10:25, 26).
  15. The term "eternal life" not only refers to quantity of life, but "quality of life."   When we receive Christ we become partakers of His divine nature (cf. II Peter 1:4).
  16. Jesus said in John 10:10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
  17. Abundant life!
  18. Our Lord said in John 7:38, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
  19. This is more than just going to church for an hour on Sunday and then living like a worldling the rest of the week!
  20. This soft soap, namby-pamby, wishy-washy type of Christianity is not Biblical.   It makes our Lord sick (Revelation 3:15, 16).
  21. A professed Christian who is not following our Lord is probably not a genuine believer.  Those who are genuinely saved hear His voice, and He knows them, and they follow Him (John 10:27).
  22. "Where He leads me I will follow;
    I’ll go with Him, with Him, all the way"
    -- Er­nest W. Blan­dy

 

II. CHRIST'S PROMISE (10:28, 29)

  1. This should settle it for those of us who believe the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God.  Jesus said, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish" (10:28).
  2. The Greek word translated "perish" means, "to be lost."   Our Lord's promise is for those who are His sheep (10:27, 28).   His sheep will never be lost.  They shall never perish.
  3. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
  4. Our Lord used the same word in Luke 13:3, "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
  5. The apostle Paul used the same word in I Corinthians 1:18, "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."
  6. The apostle Peter used the same word in II Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
  7. Jude uses this same word when he describes the rebels who perished in the gainsaying of Korah (Jude 11).
  8. The word means, "to be lost," and in fact, the Greek word is often translated as "lost."  Our Lord said in Luke 19:10, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
  9. While praying to God the Father in John 17:12, our Lord said, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled."
  10. In other words, all the Lord's sheep are safe and secure in the arms of the Good Shepherd.  I was walking through a cemetery one day after a funeral service, and I stopped to admire a beautiful tombstone.  The inscription read, "Safe in the arms of Jesus."
  11. Fanny Crosby wrote that beautiful hymn, "Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast; There by His love o’ershaded, sweetly my soul shall rest."
  12. Back in 1885, at President Ulysses S. Grant's funeral right here in New York, Fanny Cosby played and sang her hymn "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" as the great general and president was laid to rest in Ri­ver­side Park, on the banks of the Hud­son Ri­ver.
  13. Our Lord said, "None of them is lost, but the son of perdition." Some have wondered about Judas, the one apostle who was lost, the son of perdition (John 17:12).  Judas Iscariot was never saved in the first place.  Acts 1:25 says Judas hung himself, "that he might go to his own place."
  14. "His own place" was hell, not heaven.  Our Lord said in John 6:70, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  Devils cannot go to heaven.  Devils can only go to hell.
  15. In fact, our Lord said hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.  He said in Matthew 25:41, "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."
  16. Those of us who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ are not going to hell because we are not goats.  We are His sheep, and He said we will never perish.
  17. In John 10:28, our Lord said, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish."
  18. It is not clear in our English translation, but in the original text, it is an emphatic double negative -- "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never never perish."
  19. We see this also in John 8:51.
  20. We see something similar in John 6:37, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."  Strong's Concordance says the force of the negation signifies, "not at all, in no wise, by no means."
  21. Which brings us to my final point.

 

III. CHRIST'S REASSURANCE

  1. We are safe and secure because the Lord Jesus Christ says we are in His hand and neither shall any man pluck us out (John 10:28).
  2. That is wonderful to know, but that is not all.  In John 10:29, our Lord goes on to say, "My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."
  3. In his message on spiritual security, Stephen Olford tells the story of a famous guide who had led thousands of tourists up the slippery slopes of the Swiss Alps.  After many years, his climbing days were over, and his friends and admirers honored him with a special tribute.
  4. After the speeches were over, the old man opened his hand to receive a special gift presentation, and those near by could see his strong hands were rough and gnarled.
  5. Pointing to the man's strong hands, the mayor of the town said, "Here are the hands that have never lost a man!"
  6. Consider Jesus.  His hands are not only rough and strong, but they are nail-pierced because He was nailed to the cross for you and for me.
  7. Consider Jesus and His hands. We too can say, "Here are the hands that have never lost a man!"
  8. No man can pluck us out of His strong hands -- no man, no demon, not even Satan can pluck us out (John 10:28, 29).

 

CONCLUSION:

  1. A lady came to Harry Ironside one day and said, “I do not understand you there. I can understand that Christ died for the sins I committed up to the night of my conversion, but do you mean to tell me that Christ died for my future sins?”
  2. Ironside said, “How many of your sins were in the past when Christ died on the cross?”
  3. She looked puzzled for a moment, and then the light broke in, and she said, “How foolish I have been! Of course they were all future when Jesus died for me. I had not committed any of them.”


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