If you would go ahead and turn
with me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. We'll bounce around
a little bit this morning. There's an age old debate about
whether sinners that are saved are always saved. I've heard
it all my life growing up in Southern Baptist Church. I've
been asked the question many times. Do you believe in one
saved always saved? I love what Brother Mahan said
years ago, well, it all depends on who saved you. You see, if
the Lord God in heaven saved you, then you're always saved.
Many call this the doctrine of eternal security. It's the position
that when a person makes a profession of faith in Christ, they can
never lose their salvation. Yet there are still many who
believe that they can lose their salvation. So let me say in the
beginning, there's a great difference between professing declaring,
claiming to be saved, and actually being saved. You know, anyone
can profess to be something. I can profess to be Elvis, but
I'm not. Many believe it's possible to
lose one's salvation, while others believe it's not. But both believe
the Bible supports their claims. I agree with Brother Mahan. I
believe it comes down to this. If your salvation depends on
you in any way, then it can be lost. But if your salvation depends
wholly and completely on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you cannot
be lost. And that settles the issue for
me, but with many it does not. Why? Because many actually believe
that their salvation has to do with a work they perform, a will
that they exercise, and a worth that they themselves have. But we don't have those things.
What does the scripture say? The Bible teaches that salvation's
of the Lord. It doesn't teach that salvation
is a cooperative effort between you and the Lord. Some believe
that salvation is accomplished by a decision that they themselves
make or a will, as I said, that they exercise themselves. And they proudly sing, I have
decided to follow Jesus. They say, I decided to give Jesus
my heart. I decided to make Jesus Lord. I think that's the worst of all
of them. They say, I decided to let go and let God have His
way. Well, if you can let go and let
God have His way, then we need to be worshiping you, because
you're God, but you can't. Well, preacher, what about the
verses that say, He came into this world to His own, and His
own received Him not, but as many received Him, to them gave
He power to become the sons of God. John didn't stop there. He goes on to say, even to them
that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Born of God. If I'm born of God,
I'm being saved, I'm saved, and I'll always be saved. Now, if
you tell the enlightened that God says, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated, and you do know that's in your Bible,
right? They'll say, is there unrighteousness
with God? In other words, is it right for
God to do that? Whatever God does is right. And
I've said it many times, God doesn't do something because
it's right, it's right because God does it. Everything God does
is right. That's God being God. God has
a right to do what He wills with His own, and everything and everybody
belongs to Him as their Creator. God being God gives, that gives
Him the right to do what He will with His own. And when John said
his own received him not, he doesn't mean those of his own
that are saved. He means those who are his, that
he owns by way of creation. They didn't receive him. He came
into the world and men and women in and of the world didn't receive
him not. But it didn't change God. He's
still God. But some believed him. And it
was God that made the difference. 1 Corinthians 4, 7. For he, God, said to Moses, I
will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. That's God. So then, it's not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. So men and women's view and opinion
of eternal security depends on whether or not mankind let God
save them? Is that what you're saying? The view of one saved always
saves has everything to do with or not with God. Let me say it this way, let me
simplify it. God decided from the foundation
of the world before the world was ever created, that's in your
Bible too, to save sinners before they could ever make a decision,
before they could ever exercise their will, before they could
ever do any good or evil. The Bible, God's Word, the Holy
Scriptures is very clear on the matter of who salvation belongs
to. It's amazing how vain men and
women can take God's Word and justify believing what they do. I sometimes wonder if we're reading
a different Bible. I know we've got a different
God. Salvation is either of the Lord
or it's of man. Now that's not hard to understand. It's either one or the other.
It can't be both. God either chose and saved a
people without their cooperation, or man chose God and saved himself. What does the book teach? The Lord Jesus Himself made that
issue very clear in John 15, 16. He said, you have not chosen
me, but I've chosen you and ordained you. I did the choosing, I did
the ordaining that you should go forth and bring forth fruit
and that your fruit should remain. In other words, the Lord did
the saving and the Lord does the keeping. Any fruit that we
bear, God enabled us to bear it. Speaking of Jacob, whom God
loved, and Esau, whom God hated, Paul wrote for the children,
these twin boys, being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
according to God's choosing, might stand not of works, not
of works, but of Him, God. that calleth, and it was said
unto her by God, the elder Esau shall serve the younger, as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. Amen.
Salvation is not of works, but of God who calls. The redemption
of the sinner is brought about by a decision, okay? But it's
not your decision, it's God's decision. And it's right, His
right, to make, You know, fallen men and women are vain creatures. We always seek glory for ourselves. And it's because of that that
men and women's idea of salvation is all wrong. Because of that,
John wrote, we love him because he first loved us. Why do we
love him? Because he first loved us. John
also wrote in verse 10 of that same chapter, herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Now doesn't that say it
all? If we're saved by the love of God, it was not our love for
God that saved us, but His love for us. And then John tells us
why the Lord loved us. It was because He sent His Son
to be the propitiation, the appeasement, the atonement for our sin. And
how can salvation be of man when the Lord said, search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me. And you will not come to me.
Now there's God's opinion of your will. You will not. God makes you willing in the
day of His fire. You will not come. And you will
not come to me that you might have life. And then he said,
I receive not honor from men, but I know you that you have
not the love of God in you. Why? Because it was His to give.
He knows who He gave it to. And this is why we conclude that
God loved a sinner before that sinner ever loved Him, and we
would not come to Him that we might have life. He doesn't receive
any honor from us. By nature, none of us had the
love of God in us. God initiated it. Now, I pray
this morning in the few minutes that I have, the Lord might shine
some light on the subject of eternal security for you who
yet doubt. First, have you ever noticed
that when someone asks about your spiritual state, it's always
in the past tense, they say, have you been saved? Have you
been born again? It's always asked in the past
tense. Have you been saved? That's the modern terminology.
But men will look at you funny if you say, I'm being saved and
hope in the end to be saved. Well, that's a lack of faith,
isn't it? No, that's the truth. Seems today
everyone knows when they were saved. Just ask them. They'll
say, I was saved on December the 17th, 1991. Why that day? Because that was the day that
I made a decision as the day I joined the church, or that
was the day I was baptized. And when they do that, they're
making their decision, their baptism, their membership into
the church to be the means that saved them. But if you say, I was saved from
the foundation of the world, If you say, I'm being saved right
now, and if you say I'm being saved
until the end, people think you're crazy. Or they'll know you're
a believer. Because they believe that salvation
is a one and done matter. And that's why folks believe
they can backslide and lose their salvation when the fact of the
matter is they were never truly saved. And that's why they believe
that there's no such thing as being eternally secure. Why do
they believe that? Because salvation depends on
them and what they did. Because salvation depends on
a work that they themselves accomplished. But it doesn't. Salvation is
accomplished by the one-time finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. accomplished for the sinner.
Larry read in Hebrews a moment ago, when the men meet, about
that very thing. And if Christ did the work of
righteousness that God requires from me, then what I do has nothing
to do with my salvation. Because to add to it is to actually
take away. His work's finished and it's
always accepted by God. And that's why I'm eternally
secure. Now I know some folks use that
as a license to sin, but Paul said, shall we continue in sin
that grace may abound, God forbid. It won't cause a true believer
to sin. And this is where a sinner can find peace and rest and comfort
and some assurance. Because salvation is not dependent
on what they do. It's totally dependent upon what
Christ has done. And God stamped His stamp of
approval on it. God accepted that work. And we're
forever saved. Forever saved. The first, with that long introduction,
my text, as I said, is in 1 Peter 1, or begins here. Look at verse
23. The first clue to what I've said
about the present tense of salvation, being saved, is that word being. Not being, being. Here in 1 Peter
1, verse 23, Peter writes, being born again. Not I have been born again. How
are we being saved? How are we being born again? Well, first it's not of corruptible
seed, he says, but of incorruptible seed. So immediately ask, what
is this incorruptible seed? Well, it's not that corruptible
seed that you cast into the earth and it's first got to corrupt
and rot and decay and then it's quickened and then it rises and
brings forth fruit. That's corruptible seed. That's
why we can't save ourselves. There's no life in us until God
gives us life. Our seed has been corrupted by
sin. We're polluted, we're depraved. We cannot be born of blood. Our blood is polluted and corrupted. We can't be born again by our
will. Our will is in bondage to sin. We will not come to Christ that
we might have life because we're slaves to sin and will not come. And even if we would, we can't
because we don't have the ability to come because we're dead in
trespasses and sin. Isn't that what the Bible teaches?
We are born though, born again of incorruptible seed, given
by the grace of the Spirit of God. that pure and incorruptible
seed, seed with no sin, no pollution, seed that has never been corrupted
by the world. It's void of any temptation by
Satan. It's seed giving life with no
guilt. How do we receive this incorruptible
seed? It tells us, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever. That's why we're forever saved.
By the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is
the Word, is the only one who's able to give us an inheritance,
making us heirs with Him in all things that belong and pertain
to God. Christ is the Word of truth.
And we asked with Thomas, how could we know the way to the
Father? And the Lord said, I am the way and the truth and the
life, and no man cometh to the Father but by me. And if we're
saved by Christ, the incorruptible seed and the word of God, you
will be forever saved. Why? Because he liveth and abideth
forever. See, this is not a hard message,
is it? Look up at verse 18. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who barely was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, ordained to be what? Our substitute, our sacrifice,
our savior, our surety, but was manifest in these last times,
why? For you. For you to believe. Who are the you spoken of here?
Verse two tells us. Peter wrote this letter to believers.
And he says in verse two, we're told to the elect according to
the foreknowledge of God. The Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience in the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ. And Peter confirms this again
in verse 21. Who by Him do believe in God
that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your
faith and hope might be where? In God. Not in yourself. So what
do we have to do with being saved? What do we have to do with being
born again? Nothing. Not a thing. Verse 24, for all flesh is as
a grass. And all the glory of man is as
the flower of grass. What does the grass do? It withers,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word by which
the gospel is preached unto you. You see, friends, the preaching
of the word of God is what reveals these things to us. That's why
I wonder sometimes if folks in religion ever read their Bible. You know, a lot of churches discourage
it. So-called churches. And anything that we do is a
result of God giving us life in Christ. And what do we do
when God gives us life? It's not what we've done. It's
what we do. We've done nothing. Our flesh
is grass that withers. Our glory is like a flower that
falls away. And I want you to remember that
these letters didn't have division of chapters and verses. Look
at chapter two, verse one. I'm being saved. It says, wherefore
laying, present tense, laying aside all malice, all guile and
hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking. See, we're not
saved because we have already laid. these things aside, we
are presently and continually laying them aside. Aren't we?
I haven't arrived, have you? We're being saved as we continue
to lay aside malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and
evil speaking. These things presently and constantly
plague us. And they never cease plaguing
us, not in this body. They continue and we continually
and presently lay them aside. Not to be saved, but because
we are saved. Verse two, as newborn babes,
we desire the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby.
And this agrees with what Paul wrote in Philippians chapter
3 verse 12. Look there with me. We'll come
back, hold your place here, we'll come back to 1 Peter 2, but look
at Philippians chapter 3 and verse 12. Paul writing here, says in Philippians
3 verse 12, not as though I have already attained past tense,
Either we're already perfect, past tense, but I follow after,
present tense. I'm following. I'm still following. I have to continue to follow.
If that I may apprehend, not that I have, that I may, that
for which also I am apprehended of Christ. Brethren, I count
not myself to have apprehended. I'm apprehending, present tense.
But this one thing I do, forgetting, present tense. Not that I've
already forgot, I'm forgetting those things which are behind
me and pressing toward, press, present tense, toward the mark
of the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ. Let me
pause to ask you again, have you been saved or are you being
saved? God foreknew and chose his people
before the world was. God called them in the course
of time. They were saved in the mind and
heart of God, yet he's saving them and causing them to endure
till the end. So they're being saved. And in
one sense of the word, I was saved, I am saved, and I'm being
saved. But when I'm saved, it's forever. And even though we're being saved,
we can never be lost. Why? Because having loved His
own that were in the world, He loved them to the end. And if
the Lord loves me to the end, and He will, and He does, His
people, then you can bet that you and I will endure till the
end. And that's our hope. Now back
in 1 Peter chapter two, verse two again, as newborn babes desire
the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if
so be that you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now, it's
through the sincere milk of the Word of God that we learn something
about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look down at verse
4. Are we being saved? Well, it
says, to whom coming. Not to who came, but to Christ
who we keep coming. To whom coming. We keep coming
to Him. We just don't come to Him once. Isn't that right? We're constantly coming to Him.
We keep coming, present tense. We come to Him today. We come
to Him tomorrow. We come to Him every day. Coming
to Christ means to believe in Him. Coming means believing.
It's a continual exercise of faith. And here our Lord is compared
to a stone. Christ is the stone, the rock
upon which the church is built. He's the foundational stone,
it says, upon which every believer is laid. Our house is built upon
what? A solid rock. The winds and storms
of life blow against it, but to no avail because we're built
upon the rock, not sinking sand. Now, if it's dependent on me
and the work that I do, that's sinking sand and that house is
going to fall, but not the one built on the rock. Christ who
is the rock. Did you notice that Christ is
a living stone? He has eternal life within himself. He was disallowed of men, the
Jewish builders, the high priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, and
the biggest part of the nation of Israel rejected Christ as
the Messiah, as the stone of Israel. They did and they still
do. He's not their foundational stone
of life, but He's mine. They're still seeking life in
the law and among their dead works. But their unbelief doesn't
make the faith of God without effect. We looked at that a couple
of weeks ago. It doesn't change God. You can
declare and jump up and down and say there's no God, there's
no God, there's no God. That don't change God being God.
Men are still rejecting. They will not have Christ to
be their foundation stone, their solid rock, their sure foundation. But I sure will. I sure enough
will. He's my only hope. And verse
four tells us plainly that he was chosen of God and what? Precious. Oh, isn't he precious? To the
believer, he's precious. That's where our acceptance lies.
Verse five, you also as lively stones are built up. Present
tense, we weren't already built, we're built up, we're being built
up. A spiritual house, a holy priesthood
to offer, we continually offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. That's how we're being saved.
As lively stones, we continually build, we continually offer up
spiritual sacrifices, and they're continually acceptable to God. And there's only one way, by
Jesus Christ. I was saved, I am saved, and
I'm being saved. I recently read an article titled,
Does the Bible Teach One Saved Always Saved? And this man's
answer was no. No, the Bible does not teach
the doctrine of one saved, always saved. And he went on to say
that a person who has gained salvation by faith in Christ
can lose that faith and that salvation becomes with it. The Bible says that maintaining
faith requires a great effort, a hard fight. Early Christians
who had already accepted Christ were told, keep working, keep
working, keep working out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Now listen, to one sense we do continue to work, but we don't
work to be saved. We work because we are saved.
See, that's what I've been trying to say all along. If we stop,
then we were never saved. Why do men quote this particular
verse and leave out the very next statement, which is the
hope of every single believer who's encouraged to do good work?
Paul finished that statement with, for it is God which worketh
in you both to will and do His good pleasure. Present tense. Friends, we are being saved.
We're being conformed to the Christ image. We're growing in
grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. I mean, a baby doesn't
come out of the womb of a full-grown man or woman. No, they grow. God is working in us both to
will and do His good pleasure. Now, I wanna show you something
else found in Hebrews chapter six. Again, keep your marker
there. We may come back to it. But look
at Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 4. I know you've heard these verses.
I want you to look at them in light of what I'm endeavoring
to say. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 4, it
says, For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, that being Christ, and
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good
word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall
fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to
an open shame. Now, what does that mean? Well,
hear me on this. If it were possible for a person
to be saved and lose their salvation, it's not. But if it was, that
person could never be saved again. Know what it says? Those who believe that they can
be saved and then lost and then saved again and then lost and
then saved again, they don't wanna use this passage to try
to convince anyone. For if that was possible, according
to this passage of Scripture, you could never be saved. It's impossible to be saved and
then be lost. Well, preacher, what about those
who profess to believe and trust in Christ that depart from the
faith? Some who have professed faith in Christ for a very, very
long time. Those of you that have attended
here for a while, you can look around this morning, you can
see folks that attended here for 25, 30 years that are no
longer here. I've seen it time and time again.
What about them? Well, I just have to put it bluntly.
Unless the Lord brings them back, they were never saved. They never were saved. John said,
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 manifest, that they were not of us. What are you going to do with
that? If they'd been true believers, they would have continued and
continued and continued. Oh, our feelings hurt sometimes? Yes. But we get over it and we
continue because we're being saved. We're growing in grace
and in the knowledge of the Lord. And we still pray for those folks.
We still hope they'll return, and maybe some of them will.
I sure hope so. But friends, you can't lose what
you never had. Now I leave you with the words
found in 1 Samuel 12, verse 22. You don't have to turn there.
You probably know this verse. I quote it often, and I love
it. I love this verse. It gives me such hope and comfort
and assurance. For the Lord will not, will not
forsake His people. Why? For His great name's sake. If God saves you, you're saved.
And you're always saved. You can't be lost. For the Lord
will not forsake His people for His great name's sake because
it pleased the Lord to make you His people. What's the Lord pleased
to do? Whatever He pleases to do. Isn't
that right? Psalm 135 verse 5, Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did He, in heaven and in earth and in
the seas and in all deep places. The Lord is pleased not to forsake
those whom He chose, elected, called, and saved. Not pleased
to do it. If he's not pleased to do it,
it won't happen. He's bound by His Word. He's bound by His covenant. He's bound by the oath that He's
made with His people to His Son. The Lord is pleased to make some
His people. Why? For His own names, great
names sake. And that's the only reason that
I was saved. And that's the only reason that
I am saved. And that's the only reason that
I'm being saved. I was saved by God elected me
from the foundation of the world. Before you ever were, Amy, the
Lord set His affection on you. I was saved when Christ died
on the cross of Calvary in my room instead and paid the debt
of my sin. I am saved by trusting in Christ
alone this very day as my substitute and sacrifice for sin. And I'm
going to have to trust Him tomorrow and the day after and every day
after that. I'm being saved. And I'm being
saved by enduring to the end for those who do are the same
shall be saved, it says. They shall be. How do we endure
to the end? I've already told you, having
loved His own, those that He chose, those that He died for,
those that He gave faith to trust in Him, because He loved them
until the end. Now this is not speaking of those
that belong to Him by the right of creation. This is not speaking
of those who belong to Him in a saving way. This is speaking
of those who belong to Him by right of a new creation. John 6.37, you know it well. All that the Father giveth me,
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out." Why won't they be cast out? Because
those whom God saves are being saved, are saved, and once saved,
they're always saved. And I'm going to tell you what,
you can go home with a smile on your face if you're trusting
in Christ. You can have some confidence
and assurance that one day where He is, you shall be also. He
said, I'm going to prepare a place for you that where I am, you
may be also. I'm looking forward to the day.
How about you? What a gospel, what a God, what a Savior.