Turn to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. The title of
this message is Eternal Security. Eternal Security. I have heard the phrase and I believed Eternal security
at one time in this way, you know once saved always saved
Implying that once a person accepts Jesus as Their personal Savior
as it was put to me That they are saved forever That the Armenian That's their term for speak eternal
security That's not eternal security. Eternal security is not me accepting
Christ as my personal Savior. That's not eternal security.
Eternal security is found in verse 27 through 29. My sheep hear my voice, I know
them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than
all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."
That's eternal security. Not me doing anything. It's not
what I do with Christ. That's not eternal security.
Eternal security is that the father gave me to the son to
say. Jesus Christ is my eternal security,
but let's look at this. Now, the first thing we see here
in verse 19, after our Lord had dealt with these Pharisees and
he, and he, and he had told about the him being the door, him being
the good shepherd. And after that, there was a division.
see in verse 19 there was a division therefore again you see in in
chapter 7 verse 43 there was a division in chapter 9 16 there
was a division and here in chapter 10 there was a division again
again there's a division you see there's there there's nothing
that divides like truth It divides error from the truth. It divides
light from darkness. Truth in a world of liars is
divisive. Is divisive. It would divide
the sheep from the goats. Listen to Matthew chapter 10
verse 34, 36. Think not that I have come to
send peace on earth. That is among everybody. Why
can't we all live together? I didn't come to send peace on
earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword, His Word, the sword
of the Spirit. And it divides asunder. It opens
the heart. It reveals what we are, reveals
who God is, who Christ is. He said, for I am come to set
a man at variance against his father. He didn't come just to
make us fight with one another. He came to make a difference.
You see, there are some sons in a home that are his, and the
father isn't. And it's going to separate them.
It's going to separate them. And the daughter against her
mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's
foes shall be they of his own household. The gospel is going
to divide now. It's going to divide families.
That's what he's saying. It's going to divide families. You know, they
say there's nothing thicker than blood. You know, and you can
see that. Families, tight-knit family.
And I'm telling you this, I like a tight-knit family. I like it. I think we ought to be tight-knit.
All families ought to be tight-knit family, ought to love one another
and be committed to one another. But when one believes the gospel,
he says the enemies of that one is going
to be his own family. There's going to be people in
his house that's going to run him off. Listen to Luke 2. chapter 2 verse 34 and Simon
blessed them Simon you know the one that was in the temple when
Mary brought Christ there and Simon blessed them Mary Joseph
and said to Mary his mother behold this child is set for the fall
and rising again of many in Israel you see we have to be brought
off our high horse before we're raised up we got to be brought
down before God can raise us up. God's got to kill us in order
to make us alive. He's got to do that. He's got
to strip us in order to clothe us. He's got to strip us. He's
got to lay us in the dust. And he's for a sign which shall
be spoken against. Spoken against. He's also called
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense in the scriptures. The Jews stumbled over him. This
can't be the Messiah. This can't be God. It can't be. Now listen, what they hated was
his message. They were divided over what he
had to say, his gospel, his truth. He said, I'm the bread from heaven.
They hated that. You can't come from heaven. We
know you, you're the carpenter's son. He said, I'm the light. He said, I'm from above. He revealed
his deity. You see, that's what they hated.
They could take, you know, their idea, and I heard this from this
Jew that's a very intelligent man, I think, but in the gospel,
he's an ignorant fool. But they look for the Messiah
as a political figure, one who would rise up and lead him out
of captivity, away from the Romans, and they'd have prominence again.
They didn't look for the Messiah to be God. Not the ones that
believed not. Now, the ones that believed did.
Abraham saw my day and was glad. But they hated him because of
what he said. Look over in verse 32 Jesus answered
them many good works have I showed you from my father for which
of those works do you stone me why? Bring up one of those works. I've done making the blind to
see tell me which work do you stone me? And what he's doing
here is making them confess their hatred of Him the Jews answered
him saying for a good work. We stone thee not we don't do
that and but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man,
makest thyself God." That's why we stone you. That's why we hate
you. We hate you. You say you're God. See, they
hated his message. And his message first was about
who he is. He's God manifest in the flesh. And so what they do here, they
charge him, in verse 20, they charge him of being possessed
with the devil, and that's dangerous. When you take the work of the
Holy Spirit, or the work of the Spirit of God, and you charge
that as being the work of the devil, that's blasphemy. That's blasphemy. And many of
them said, he has a devil, and he's mad. You see, they thought
anybody that was insane was possessed. They said, he's insane. That's
what they're saying. He's insane. The man's insane. You don't listen
to an insane man. Can you not hear and see the
subtlety of Satan here? The devil, the children of the
devil is calling him a devil. you see the subtlety of Satan
and Satan is here moving them to say he's a devil he's possessed
with the devil that's Satan doing that as I told you in the Bible
class that's called a diversion tactic he's a devil but others
said these are not the words of him that hath a devil can
a devil open the eyes of the blind now not all of them who
said this believe I believe some of them came to faith ghosts
will always reject the Christ of the Bible of the Bible Everybody
loves this Jesus lying in a manger Everybody thinks well, that's
okay. Put him in a manger leave him there. That's that's okay
But they don't want the Christ of this Bible who sob And he's
gonna prove his sovereignty here in a little bit He's gonna show
it tell us But goats will always reject Christ of God, but there'll
always be some there'll be some that believe you know the The
scripture says in Isaiah 55, 11, God speaks of His Word, and
He says, So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I send it. This morning, this morning, God's
Word will accomplish its purpose. The Word that God has sent to
us this morning is going to accomplish its purpose. And the scriptures
tell us that the Word of God is a saver of life unto life
to some and a saver of death unto death to some. It's going to accomplish its
purpose. It says over in Acts 28, 24,
after Paul had preached, it said, And some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not. And that's how it will always
be. Some believe and some believe
not. But we will see here in just
a little bit why some believe and why some believe not. Our
Lord gives it to us. And they said, these are not
the words of him that has a devil. No devil ever spoke so graciously. You know, it says that grace
poured from his lips. No one, never a man spake like
this man. Never man spoke with such wisdom
and power and grace. You know, I would have liked
to have heard the Lord speak when he spoke to the crowds.
Wouldn't you like to have heard that? I bet his words were so
gracious and kind and it would have just been something to just
hear him speak. Truth, absolute truth coming
out of him because he is the truth, wisdom. But to hear the
graciousness of his voice. I tell you what, to claim to
preach the gospel and to preach grace and to do it in such a
manner where it's harsh. Someone called me here a week
or so ago and told me to listen to a certain person. And they
said, that's just so harsh preaching. I said, well, he won't last long.
I said, because the sheep can't take that kind of, they can't
take that kind of preaching. Speak ye what? What did the Lord
tell Isaac? Speak ye comfortably to my people. Tell them that the war is over.
Tell them the warfare has ended. But speak comfortably to my people. And our Lord did. Grace flowed
from his lips. Now this was done at Jerusalem,
the Feast of Dedication, and it was winter time, this is around
December when it was done, and he walked in the temple in Solomon's
porch, he made himself accessible to sinners, he wasn't afraid
of the Jews, he wasn't afraid. You see, back in that verse,
there in verse 22, you see those two little marks where they look
like a backward P? That's another thought takes over. There's another
thought going on now. Another situation. And this place
takes place in Jerusalem at the Feast of Disdedication. And what
is shown here, our Lord made himself accessible to sinners.
It says the Jews surrounded him. They surrounded him. They gathered
around him in a circle. And he made himself accessible
to them. You know, the gospel is not private. This is not a
private club. Welcome all sinners into this
room. I wish this room was filled full of sinners this morning,
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under heaven. I got
good news. It's not private. I've got good
news. I was telling Donna, I said, we've had over 1,300 downloads
this month. It just caught my attention.
608 of them is in the United States. 724 downloads is in other
countries. Other countries are listening
to us this morning. It's hard telling how many is listening
to us this morning. Hard telling. The gospel is going
out through the world. But our Lord makes Himself accessible
to sinners. And then came the Jews round
about Him. They circled Him, and they said
to Him, How long dost Thou make us to doubt, if Thou be the Christ?
Tell us plainly. Well, if you'd just listen, if
you'd just listen, you would hear Him plainly. He's been telling
them plainly. I'm the bread from heaven. I
came down from heaven. I am the light. My father sent me from above. Does it get any plainer than
that? They were so prejudiced against
him, they didn't hear what he was saying. And when they did
hear, they didn't like it. They didn't like it. Our doubts
are not God's fault. Don't blame God for your doubts
or me for my doubts. Don't blame God for that. That's
not his fault. It's because of the sin of unbelief.
Just believe the Word of God. Believe the Word of God. Just
trust. Take God at His Word. Take God
at His Word. Many proofs were given. They
saw many miracles, but they didn't believe. Because seeing a miracle
doesn't save anybody. Was there ever a greater miracle
witnessed by any people than Israel walking across the Red
Sea on dry ground. And the wall of water standing
up on both sides, and they are a million plus people walking
across. And when they got across, you
know what they did all the way through the wilderness? They
murmur. They murmur. They just walked across on dry
ground. They saw the water come back
together and drown Pharaoh and his army. And what do they do? They murmur. A miracle doesn't
save anybody. A miracle of grace will. If God
performs a miracle of grace in you, now you'll believe God.
But if you, I tell you what, we could have a funeral right
here. We could have a funeral this evening and a person in
that casket could rise up and not one person will ever believe
God because of seeing that person rise up. Lazarus came from the
dead. The whole group of people standing
there when God, when Christ called him forth, he came out of there
and he was wrapped in rags. And the Lord said, unwrap him,
take those grave clothes off. They didn't believe. You know
what they wanted to do? you read on in the gospel you know what
they want to do they wanted to kill Lazarus because because
of him many followed the Lord they wanted to kill that man
they didn't believe they wanted to kill him because because many
were now following Christ because of that but that doesn't mean
they believe your memory says that many disciples are following
then he said he said to eat my flesh and drink my blood then
they said this is a hard saying and many of his disciples so-called
went back and walked no more with him Just because somebody
calls themselves a Christian doesn't mean they are. Matthew
Henry said, the name of a Christian does not give you the nature
of a Christian. You can carry the name all day, but it doesn't
give you the nature. Only God can give you the nature.
Only God can do that. And then we see here in verse
24, as I told you this morning in the Bible class, here's the
Adam and Eve syndrome. They're gonna blame somebody.
How long dost thou make us to doubt? They blamin' God. They blamin' the Lord Jesus Christ
for makin' them doubt. But here's somethin' that I thought
when I thought about this. They said, how long do you make
us to doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us
plainly. When the Lord spoke to the blind beggar, what'd the
blind beggar do? He believed him. Here's evidence of sheep. I'll show you here in a little
bit. When he spoke to the woman at the well, he said, I have
to speak unto them here. What'd she do? She believed him.
She believed him. They didn't doubt. They didn't
doubt. When the Lord calls you by his grace, you will believe.
If you're his sheep, you'll believe. You see, faith is a gift of God.
It's the work of the operation of the Holy Spirit, but it's
your faith. It's God-given faith. It's God-worked-in-you
faith, but it's your faith. God doesn't believe for me, well
I do believe, but I believe by the grace of God, by the work
of God. And Jesus answered them in verse
25, I told you, you're without excuse, I told you, and you believe
not. How many people have sat under
the gospel Week after week, month after month, year after year,
heard the gospel and never believed it. I've known some that sat
under the gospel and never believed it. Never confessed Christ. Oh, they would say they believed
the story, they believed what was being said from the pulpit,
but they never confessed Christ. Because they never believed.
They never believed. I told you, and you believe not,
the works that I do in my father's name. I'm not doing these on
my own. They bear witness of me. If you don't believe what
I'm saying, believe what you see. Believe me. He told them plainly
who he was. We've been going through this.
We've seen this. He said plainly who he was, and
yet they didn't believe. The gospel has to come in power
and in demonstration of the Spirit, not just in word only, but in
power. But here's the reason you do
not believe. You believe not because you're
not of my sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear
my voice and I know them and they follow me. But you believe
not because you're not my sheep. That's truth, isn't it? Our Lord
did. You know, when you read the Bible,
it is very direct. The Word of God does not mince
words. It's very direct. And this is one of the offenses
of the gospel, is God's sovereignty in salvation. This is one of
the things they hated. They hated it. When the Lord
told them about Elijah being sent to none but a woman, a widow,
and Sarepta, and about the leper, about Naaman, He said there were
many lepers in Israel, but God didn't heal any of them, but
one, Naaman, a Syrian, they got mad and they wanted to stone
him, because he spoke of God's sovereignty and salvation. God
has the right to save whom He will. Does He not have the right
to do that? That's the first thing that just,
that's the first thing that really hit me. It struck me when the
Lord gave me ears to hear. Cause everybody, everybody was
telling me, God wants to save you. God wants to save you. God
loves you. God wants to save you. Then one
day I heard he might, and he might not. That scared me to death. That
scared me to death. For the first time, I had a right
fear of God. Always before God was waiting
on me to do something, always before God loved me and wanted
to do something for me, I just had to quit being so rebellious.
And then one day I found out He can save me and He doesn't
have to save me. And He'll be just, whichever
He does. God's a just God. If He dams me, it's to the praise
and glory of His justice. If He saves me, it's to the praise
and glory of His grace. That's an eye opener. That's when you and I, that's
when we fear God, is when we meet Him on His sovereign throne. Not when we meet Him on the street
begging, but when we meet Him on His sovereign throne being
God. Being God. And for the first time we'll
worship Him as God. We'll worship Him as God. If God leaves us alone, no one
will believe, no one will come to Him. Someone said this, we do not
believe in order to become sheep. And this is how false religion
takes and completely turns the truth around. We do not believe
in order to become sheep, we believe because we are sheep.
That's the soul, that's the soul, we believe because we are sheep.
I BELIEVE THE GOSPEL, I BELIEVE GOD, I DO, I CAN'T HELP IT, YOU
KNOW ONE OF THE GREAT COMFORTS OF THAT IS, IT'S EVIDENCE OF
BEING A SHEEP, I BELIEVE, THERE'S TWO DISTINCT MARKS OF THE LORD'S SHEEP, THERE'S
TWO DISTINCT MARKS AND ARE GIVEN TO US IN VERSE 27, MY SHEEP HEAR
MY VOICE, They don't just hear me. They
hear the Lord. And here's the other mark. They
follow me. They hear me and they follow
me. The Lord walked by Matthew at the receipt of customs. And
what did he say? Follow me. He walks by the boat, says the
two disciples, follow me. It says he go, he find a Philip.
He was looking for Philip. He find a Philip and said, follow
me. You know what they did? They
followed him. They followed him. The sheep
will always hear his voice. Now, they might not hear it the
first time the gospel is preached. They might not hear it the thousandth
time the gospel is preached, but they will hear it and they
will follow. They'll follow. This is the voice
of the shepherd. It's the voice of the shepherd,
which our Lord gave us there in the early part of chapter
10. And here's eternal security, and I give unto them eternal
life, not temporary life. I know some, I know some, that
believe that you can be lost, saved, lost, saved, lost, saved,
depending on where you're at when you die. There's some that believe that,
they believe that you can lose your salvation. Well then, he
can't say, I give unto them eternal life. Until it's over with. See where you land at. I give
them eternal, I have eternal life now. You see, eternal life
is the life of God. It's not how long you're going
to live. Everybody's going to live forever. Everybody's going
to live eternally. But that's not what he's talking about.
He's talking about the life of God. He's talking about a divine,
that divine nature. We are made partakers of the
divine nature, eternal life. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. This is why you don't perish.
Something you did is something he did. I give unto them eternal
life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man, and really that word man's been supplied, it's
like this, neither shall any, it doesn't matter if it's Satan,
all the demons of hell, all of humanity, None shall pluck them
out of my hand. None. They shall never perish. Never. Kept by the power of God
through faith. Paul wrote in Colossians 3, For
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When
Christ, who is our life, reads like this, When Christ, our life,
You see, if I have eternal life, it's because I have the Lord
Jesus Christ. I have Him. He is life. He doesn't
just give life, He is life. I have Him. When Christ our life shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. But my life is
hid with Christ in God. And then we see here in verse
29, my father which gave them me is greater than all and no
man's able to pluck them out of my father's hand. No man. And again, it reads like this,
my father which gave is greater than all and no is able to pluck
out of my father's hand. You just put whatever you want
to put in there. Nothing, what Paul say, nothing
shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
Then he goes and lists this name of trials and persecution or
principalities. He said, none can pluck us out
of his hand. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate,
I can't even do it. in my sinful self and my wretchedness
i can't even do it david he commits adultery and commits murder and
he couldn't even separate himself from the love of god which is
in christ jesus christ died for his sins you can't be separated from that
can't do it that's eternal security here's eternal security and i
can i close we have covenant security There's a covenant. There's a covenant between the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There's a covenant made
over every one of them. That covenant can't be broken.
God's not a covenant breaker. Not a covenant. There's righteousness
security. His righteousness is for me. I have His righteousness. There's
no spot or blemish in it. I am made the righteousness of
God in Christ. We have the imputed righteousness
of Christ, and we have the imparted righteousness of Christ, that
nature, that new nature, of which some sadly deny. God gives us a new nature, and
it's righteous. It's created in righteousness and true holiness.
And then we have blood security. There's the blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. Well, here's the shedding of
blood. Here it is. It's the blood of God. Paul spoke of in Acts
20, 28. It's the blood of God. Then we
have Trinity security. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
they are set for our salvation. A threefold cord, Solomon said,
is not quickly broken. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit are set for our salvation. That cannot be broken. Eternal
security rests in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. It doesn't have anything to do
with me and me doing something. It has everything to do with
God doing it for me. All right.