Have you ever noticed the interesting
ways that the Lord brings us a passage of Scripture that we
are in need of? This last week, there was a little
pamphlet around here of 31 writings of Robert Hawker. And I was out
here this last week a couple of times speaking to some friends
about the gospel, and I was just peeling through there, and this
verse came to my mind as a result of that, and it's found in the
book of Ruth, Chapter 2. Would you turn there with me?
The book of Ruth, Chapter 2. And we find the words of our
sister, a Moabitess, that God moved in mysterious ways his
wonders to perform. He created a famine. So a family
would be taken off to Moab, and there, as a result of that, there
would be the gospel touch one of the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. In the book of Ruth, chapter
2, verse 10, we read these words. These are the words of Ruth.
And she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground and
said unto him, this is Boaz she's speaking to, why have I found
grace in thine eyes? That thou shouldest take knowledge
of me, seeing I am a stranger. What a statement she makes. Why have I found grace in thine
eyes? You know, the same thing God's
people say about their salvation. Why? You know, as we look into
the scriptures, we find that God's so purposed that those
he saves will glory in the Lord. I'd like to read two verses,
one in 1 Corinthians and one in 2 Corinthians, along this
line as in preparation for our message today about God's keeping
his word. I will lose none of them. So often we find that is termed
as perseverance of the saints. And in reading, a lot of people
have the idea that that perseverance is up to you. But I want to rephrase
that. Jesus said, I will lose none
of you. So, turn with me, if you would, to the book of 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians chapter 1. Now, these are the things. This
is what God said about our salvation. God has so purposed that those
He saves will glory in the Lord. Now, just think about your testimony. I know my testimony before I
was saved had a lot of personal pronouns in it. One-letter personal
pronouns. Can you guess what it was? I. A lot of personal pronouns. I, I, I, I. And then we find
out here as the Lord saves His people from their sins, He tells
us here in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 31, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's where our
glory is. So our testimony is radically
changed. Why would you find grace in me? What caused that? And we find
it's because of His grace and grace alone. All right, and then
in 2 Corinthians 10, 2 Corinthians 10, we read this, that God has
just purposed this, that He is going to cause every one of the
people He ever saves, they're going to glory in the Lord. I've
shared with you how I brought those silly questions to the
man who brought me the gospel, and the answer to every question,
Norm, that's not the issue. And I would say, what is the
issue? And he'd say, every time the
same answer, Christ is the issue. That's the issue that we must
deal with, is Christ is the issue. 2 Corinthians 10. In 2 Corinthians
10 and verse 17 we read this, But he that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord. So if we follow the testimony
of the Apostle Paul, we find out that he gives the credit
to every bit of it to God Almighty. The only thing he contributed
to it was his sin. God be merciful, he could say,
to me a sinner. Alright, as we look at this subject,
we have to have a short review this morning about what we've
gone over because as we look at the great doctrines of grace,
we find out that there is a real reason that God has given us
a message about His grace and about these great truths of the
grace, and that is the fall, ruined by the fall. And there's
nobody but exempt from it, and it's been total and complete.
Everybody is inept when it comes to reaching out and presenting
righteousness. We don't have any to give. And
though we may confuse ourselves and talk ourselves into the ability
of doing that, We will find out that in salvation we had nothing
to contribute. Our righteousness was, as the
Bible declares, filthy rags. We have no righteousness that
we can claim that will interest God in the least. So we find
out that we are fallen in Adam, that in Adam we all die. Turn
with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 2, as we think about just a couple
of verses that lend themselves to this. We've gone over many,
and the Bible is so full of passages of scripture that shares with
us what God's dealing with. God's dealing with people that
are dead in trespasses and sin. God's dealing with people that
cannot reach out, reach up, call, do anything. And so here it says
in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14, But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. And you know that's the
truth. We don't have to be afraid of the Bible anymore. We don't
have to be afraid of where we turn in the Bible anymore. We
can go to any place in the Bible and read it with confidence just
as a natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
Oh, that was my problem. I couldn't receive the things
of God, even though they were very, you know, we say, well,
that's plain. That's just plain scripture.
Well, we couldn't understand it. But for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned. So we don't have that spirit. We're not quickened.
We don't have a live spirit. So we just can't comprehend it.
And it's a different language. It's a totally different language.
We can read the verses. We can read the Bible. We say
we understand it. We know the definition of the
words, but when it comes to the spiritual context of it, until
God gives us a new birth, we're just blind to it. We just can't
comprehend it. And one other verse or a little
phrase, a few verses here in the book of Romans. If you turn
there with me to the book of Romans, back to the book of Romans
chapter eight, and there in verses five, 6, 7, and 8, we read these
words. It says, Romans 8, verse 5, For
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,
but they that are after the Spirit do things of the Spirit. For
to be carnally minded is death. I don't have to be afraid of
that anymore. To be carnally minded is death. You know, I
don't know if you've ever heard or read about carnal Christians.
You know, that is not, there's just no such thing. You're either
alive or you're dead. You're either spiritual or fleshly. That's all there is. Now, we
do foolish things and we sin against God, but we're not carnal
Christians. carnal Christian. There is no
such thing. It says to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. You know where that philosophy
came from? Some preacher had a whole bunch of people saved,
and now they're not acting like they're saved. So, oh, it must
be Let's see, let's come up with something here that kind of describes
this. And we have the word backslidden. We have the word carnal Christians.
We have all kinds of things to describe that. I know my son
was saved and now he's away from the Lord. So I have to come up
with some conclusion about it. You know what? Just lost lost
lost until God saves us will continue to be lost Carnal mind
is enmity against God for does not subject to the law of God
neither indeed can be and then we went on and we found out that
In order for God to do anything for anybody he had to have a
plan ahead of time He had a manifest he had plans for the flying of
the plane ahead of time and He had the plane built ahead of
time. He did everything ahead of time. Knowing full well what
was going to happen in that garden, He had every plan. He had everything
in order. In fact, we find there, according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
God took care of business before the foundation of the world,
and He chose a people, Ephesians 1, verse 4. Well, there's just
so much in the Bible that shares with us that God had a plan ahead
of time. He was not caught short in that
day that Adam took that fruit and ate. He was not looking for
plan B. He had plan A all along. He's
not a changeable God. God changes not. Therefore ye
sons of Jacob are not consumed. God didn't have to come up with
some other plan. He had a plan and in that plan
was the redemption of his people and he had a lamb that was prepared
and slain from the foundation of the world. Knowing brethren
beloved your election of God. God took interest in a people
before the foundation of the world and that the purpose of
God according to election might stand is why he said Jacob have
I loved and he so have I hated. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand. So God had everything worked
out before the foundation of the world. He had a grace of
God to choose a people that were the worst of the worst. Over
there in the Old Testament, there's an illustration that Jacob, He
got the ring straked and the speckled. He got all of the odd
sheep. Well, what a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ and what he got. He got the ring straked and the
speckle. In the New Testament, he called
sinners. I came to save sinners. And there was a woman that came
and put an alabaster box of ointment on him, and the person in charge
of the home said, you know, I just know right now, this guy is not
the truth, because if he was the truth, he'd know what kind
of woman she is. He knew what kind of woman she
was. That's why He saved her. She was a sinner, the man that
was a publican. God be merciful to me, a sinner. So that's who Jesus Christ came
for, not the righteous, but sinners. We find that there was a redemption. God had purposed a redemption.
And as we heard this morning, that redemption is so clear. and so decreed and so purposed
that he said, I am the good shepherd, I lay my life down for the sheep. He didn't mix it up. He didn't,
you know, he knew the scriptures and he knew the power of God.
He didn't mix it up. He didn't say, well, let's discuss
this a little while, or let's get some theologian to answer
this. He just simply said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. And he does that twice. And he
said, I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give
my life a ransom for many. So there was a purpose that he
had. So we have a total fall in Adam. We have God's interest
in a people before the foundation of the world in writing their
names down in the Lamb's Book of Life. We have a Savior already
decreed in the covenant of grace that is going to save His people
from their sins. You shall call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. This has already
taken place. And you know what? None of that
would we seek out on our own. God has to go further. We're
so dead in trespasses and sin, even when we hear that Jesus
Christ died for sinners, even when we hear that He wrote names
down in the Lamb's Book of Life, it is of absolute no interest
to us. We're still at enmity. God has
to go further, and God does. By His free and sovereign grace,
He goes further, and He quickens a people. He raises them from
the spiritual dead. He brings them out of the grave,
if you please. He causes life in them. Last
Sunday, we looked at that valley of dry bones. Oh, what an illustration
that God gave us in the Old Testament, and then we come to the New Testament,
and we find our Savior walking up to dead people and say, �Arise.�
He comes up to that tomb with Lazarus in it and says, �Come
forth.� And He did. And that�s exactly an illustration
of what He does for us when it comes to spiritual things. He
raises us. He gives us the new birth. And
then, we are like Adam there in the Laying down, just a created
being, and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and he became a living soul. Oh my goodness. We don't become
two people. We become the old man and indwell
by the Holy Spirit. We have that rich blessing of
the Holy Spirit indwelling us. So we have this great thing.
You know, in Deuteronomy chapter 29 and verse 4, would you turn
over there with me for just a moment? In Deuteronomy chapter 29 and
verse 4, the Lord explained to Israel why they were the way
they were. He is absolute sovereign over
all things. And you know what? He told them
to do stuff and they wouldn't do it. And he says, ten times
you've rebelled against me. Well, look with me in Deuteronomy
chapter 29 and verse 4. Here we read this. This is God's
statement about the whole thing. He shares with us Deuteronomy
chapter 29 and verse 4. And you know I've had people,
when I've read this to them, you know their answer? That's
not fair. Don't look for fair from God.
Fair is judgment. Fair is everlasting death. So
here it says, ìYet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive,
and eyes to see, and ears to hear unto this day.î And my friend,
if you can, if you have a heart to perceive and eyes to see and
ears to hear Thank God Almighty, because He is the only physician
that can take care of that problem. He gives a heart to perceive
in regeneration. He gives eyes to see. We're able
to look into the scriptures as Jesus shared with those two on
the road to Emmaus and began with Moses and the prophets and
all the scriptures of the Old Testament and declared into them
Himself. He didn't go to the law. He didn't
go to the Ten Commandments. He went to Himself. He showed
in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. And that's
what the book is about. So, the Lord Jesus must, God
the Son must, God the Father must, God the Holy Spirit must,
must give us a raised life, a new life. Regeneration has to be. He's taking care of it all. Now,
the question comes, and we're not going to finish it today.
Lord willing, we might next Sunday, but the question comes, all right,
God has saved me by His grace. Am I secure? Am I secure? You just talk to people, and
most people, they don't feel secure. If I commit this, I'll
lose it. If I do this, I'll lose it. If
I do this, I'll lose it. Well, I don't discuss eternal
security, but I will ask you, who saved you? Now, if God saved you, we can
go right to his word and find out what he said about who he's
going to save and how secure he is. But if you saved you,
then no wonder you don't feel secure. I know what it's like
not to feel secure. I've told you that I've gone
fishing and asked the Lord, if I'm saved, let me catch a fish.
Now that's not security. There is not security in that.
There's nothing in that. It's a falsehood. I'm basing
everything upon my quality. And my quality, I find out, is
absolutely worthless. But His blood cleanseth me from
all sin. Now, that's the basis we want
to go to. We want to go to Him. It is the
Lord. Now, we find that the Lord, He
comes upon someone that is in absolute animosity against Him,
enmity with Him. I mean, shake down enmity with
him. Just follow Saul on the road
to Damascus, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against God's people. And he is really angry with God,
the God of heaven. Now, he has a God of creation.
the God of the Jews. He has their God, but He doesn
t have the God of Heaven. He has another God. So, we have
here Saul of Tarsus going, and he is at enmity. He could care
less about the fall, about name written in the Book of Life,
about someone dying for a sin or sin, about Him coming and
doing any work, and on the road to Damascus, he declares God
came upon a wretched, wretched rebel and made his knees bow. Now, he didn't argue with the
sovereignty of God, and he certainly didn't argue with the elective
grace of God. He was used by God to write a
whole lot about it. In God's great salvation, he
shared with Saul of Tarsus, later to become the Apostle Paul, that
what I do, I do permanently, and when I save my people from
their sins, it is a permanent salvation. Well, let's just look
at this question for just a moment. We must answer the question,
was the blood of Christ sufficient for time and for eternity? Will
his great work to his people be ever or temporal? How much am I involved in this
process? We have to ask that. And you
know, I go to the scriptures and I just love what it tells
us there in John chapter 19 and verse 30. In the Greek, it's
one word. In my translation, it is, it
is finished. Now that is, that's a term that
you might use at the grocery store. That's a term if you were
a prisoner or you were arrested for not paying your bill and
you go to jail and you work out the bill and pay it off, they
put a stamp on your accusation and said, paid in full. Now Jesus Christ paid in full
for all the sins of all of his people and nobody will ever have
a retraction on that. God does not change. We find
I shall lose none. John chapter 6 and verse 33,
let's go over there and look at that for just a moment. John
chapter 6, John chapter 6, and there in verse 39, John chapter
6 and verse 39, we read these precious words that the Lord
has given us. It says, and this is the Father's
will which sent me. This is the Father's will that
sent me. You know, there's a passage of
Scripture, God is not willing that any should perish. He's
long-suffering to us-ward. That's what the prior to that
goes. Not willing that any should perish. You know what? I found
out from God's Word what He's willing to do. He will do. He's
not willy-nilly about His will. He says, this is My will and
it will be fulfilled. We have a will and sometimes
we get it accomplished and sometimes it doesn't turn out like we wish
it would, but God never is in that problem. What He wills,
He will perform. He's God. He is almighty, He
has the power to fulfill what He has promised to do. So it
says here, this is my Father's will, this is the Father's will
that has sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. So He
has made a promise. The Father's made a promise,
the Son has made a promise, and the Holy Spirit has made a promise
that I will not lose any one of them. Well, we have people
say, as we read over there in the book of John chapter 10,
we're in His hand and we're in the Father's hand. And you know,
people will write the audacious things and say, well, we can
slip through the Father's hands, or we can get out of the Father's
hands. That's not what the Bible says.
I don't care whether you can slip through His fingers or not.
He said, I will present you spotless. there is none of this garbage
that goes on. You know, that's just to describe a person that
doesn't have the grace of God exercised in their soul at the
time. People that have believed that have, God has saved by His
mighty grace, and they come back, oh my goodness, how could I have
ever said that? You know, we had a dear man here. He used
to sing for great gatherings and he used to call them revival
meetings, open air revival meetings. And he told me after I met him,
he says, I have to pray to God, Lord, forgive me for all the
songs I sang that were so unscriptural, unscriptural. You know, oh Lord,
I was consented to the death of Stephen. Oh Lord, I'm a sinner,
saved by grace. But never did God ever tell Saul
of Tarsus or any other of his children that because of this
you will not enter in. He says, I've counteracted that.
I know the problem. Though you fall, you shall not
utterly be yet cast down. I know the problem. You're frailty. You're the frailty of the flesh.
That's why I'm going to get involved in this and you will not leave
the position that you have in Christ Jesus. I give, turn with
me to John chapter 10. We heard that read, but I want
to just read verse 28 and make a few comments here. John chapter
10 and verse John 10, verse 28. And we find this blessed verse
of Scripture, this passage of Scripture here, this whole 10th
chapter. You know, it's been a blessing to go over this with
a young man. His name is Stephen. I'm meeting with him again tomorrow
at 9 o'clock in the morning. We're going through the John
10. He's just a white blackboard. I mean, no marks have been put
on him. He doesn't have anything to go
back to. You just mention the Scriptures, and okay. No argument. First time in my life. I haven't
had an argument out of somebody. But, you know, it's going to
take the same grace of God to save the boy. All right. John chapter 10, verse 28, I
give on, let's, verse 27, my sheep hear my voice. I don't know how many times I've
had people, well, they really don't. Yes, they do. My sheep hear my voice. And if
we look up there in verse 26, you believe not because you're
not my sheep. As I said it to you. Now that group of people
that Jesus said, you're not my sheep. You know what? They're
never going to be his sheep. He does not take goats and make
sheep out of them. He doesn't evolve us into from
goats to sheep. They're the lost sheep and they're
the found sheep, but there's no goat sheep. The goats always
say, yeah, but. They'll but you to death. All
right. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me. And I give. Isn't that an interesting word?
No, as we look at this, we find out that eternal life, security
in Christ Jesus is a divine gift. It's not something that, eternal
life is not a reward for service. Oh my goodness, you do good and
work here long enough and pay your tithes, we'll get you in.
No, no, no, no. Eternal life is not a reward
for service. Eternal life is not a debt being
paid. Eternal life is not based on
worthiness. I give unto them eternal life. I give it to them. Eternal life
is a gift of God and only by grace. And because of God making
this statement, eternal life is irrevocable. I will not take your name out. I knew you from the beginning.
You were a rascal from the beginning. You were depraved from the beginning.
You were a sinner from the beginning, and I'll raise you to newness
of life, and I'll present you spotless. And the church says,
thank God. Because without that, we would
be nobody�s. Eternal life is a gift of God.
To give eternal life beyond this present mortal existence is only
because of God and not us. If we go out of this life without
Christ, we go into eternal death. But to go into eternal life has
to have outside work on us, the new birth. All right. And in that same,
it says, to this God added, I give unto them eternal life. And then
he adds the next phrase, and they shall never perish. I like it. We've got another
statement. Now, the Bible is just full of
verses like this that share with us, but so synced, the Lord shares
with us in this passage of scripture that it is eternal life, they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
Father's hand. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. The idea that we could slip through
the fingers of God is atrocious. It's a desperate thing by desperate
people to explain a situation that is not even truth. Then
it says there, he gives us an eternal hold fast. What's he say? neither shall
any pluck them out of my hand. It's so eternal. Now this is
all based upon the very truth of the blood of Christ. a couple of verses, and then
we want to come to the Lord's table, because we want to observe
the real, a picture of that pure blood of Christ purchasing eternal
life for all His people. So, turn with me, if you would,
to the book of Hebrews 8. Hebrews 8. In Hebrews 8, we read these
words about the blood of Christ. Hebrews 8 and verse 12. Now, he tells us something about
God's Word, about what He deals with, does with sin. Well, you
run into verses like this. He says, Hebrews 8, verse 12,
For I will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and their sins,
and their iniquities will I remember no more. Well, that's good news. No, my dad was a historian. Not that he studied a lot of
history, but he was always bringing up my past. And God's not going to bring
up our past. God's not going to accuse us of anything in that
day. I don't know about you, but I
was in a church that said, you did something wrong, you're going
to have to answer for that. You're going to have to answer
for that. You're going to have to answer for that. And you know
what? When you say that, you're just
revealing the very fact that you don't know the first thing
about salvation in Christ Jesus, because he said, you will not
answer for that. If I answered for it, you will
not. And since he answered for it,
we shall not. We shall be presented spotless.
I like what we heard this morning. Those 12 disciples, or 11 that
were left, you know what, Jesus, the first words out of His mouth
to them? Peace. Be at peace. Be at peace. I took
care of all of it. All right, turn with me to the
book of Isaiah, chapter 43. Isaiah, chapter 43. God is not going to be bringing
up our past. He's taking care of it. And as
we look through the Scriptures, we find many references, many
ways He illustrates this very point about how far, what He
did with our sin, and He took care of it completely. All right? Verse 25 of Isaiah chapter 43,
Isaiah 43, verse 25, I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy
transgressions for mine own sake. He has a lot at stake here. He's
the one that has it at stake. If He said, I will give unto
them eternal life, then He has a lot at stake to get that fulfilled. Well, He has the power to do
that, and He has the words to perform it. And then He says,
and will not remember thy sins. Oh, my God. We know what they
were. They're all piled up, but He
will not remember them. We're going to find out they're
thrown over His shoulder, far as the east is from the west,
buried in the deepest sea, and all because of the precious blood
of Christ that purchased our redemption. And we'll stop there
today and bring this subject up again.