SECURE IN CHRIST
Pastor James J. Barker
Text: JOHN 10:22-30
INTRODUCTION:
- I am going to speak this
morning on the doctrine of "eternal security." There is a distinction between
assurance of salvation and eternal security.
- 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."
- 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).
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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?
- Does it line up with
Scripture?
- Is there anything a
Christian can do to lose his salvation?
- 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).
- 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)
- 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).
- First Peter 2:21 says that Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should
follow his steps.
- Then verse 25
says, "For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd
and Bishop of your souls."
- 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.
- 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."
- 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.
- In Matthew 25,
in the parable of the sheep and the goats, our Lord makes a distinction between
sheep and goats.
- In Matthew
25:32, our Lord said He will separate them one from another, "as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats."
- In Matthew
25:46, our Lord said the goats shall go away into everlasting punishment: but
the righteous (His sheep) into life eternal.
- Our Lord said in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me."
- Are you following the Lord?
- Is He your shepherd? (John 10:14).
- David said in Psalm 23:1, "The LORD is my
shepherd; I shall not want."
- 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).
- 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).
- Jesus said in John 10:10, "I am come that they might
have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly."
- Abundant life!
- 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."
- This is more than just going to church for an hour on
Sunday and then living like a worldling the rest of the week!
- This soft soap, namby-pamby, wishy-washy type of
Christianity is not Biblical.
It makes our Lord sick (Revelation 3:15,
16).
- 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).
- "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)
- 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).
- 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.
- "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).
- Our Lord used
the same word in Luke 13:3, "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall
all likewise perish."
- 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."
- 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."
- Jude uses this
same word when he describes the rebels who perished
in the gainsaying of Korah (Jude 11).
- 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."
- 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."
- 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."
- 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."
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.
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."
"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.
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."
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.
In John 10:28, our Lord said, "And I give unto them
eternal life; and they shall never perish."
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."
We see this also in John 8:51.
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."
Which brings us to my final point.
III.
CHRIST'S REASSURANCE
- 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).
- 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."
- 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.
- 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.
- Pointing to the
man's strong hands, the mayor of the town said, "Here are the hands that have
never lost a man!"
- 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.
- Consider Jesus
and His hands. We too can say, "Here are the hands that have never lost a
man!"
- 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:
- 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?”
- Ironside said,
“How many of your sins were in the past when Christ died on the
cross?”
- 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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