Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us, and I hope that the Lord will bless
you in the preaching and teaching of the word of God as we look
at portions of the scripture. Today I'll be preaching from
John chapter six, beginning at verse 37, and I'm gonna talk
to you about this subject, God's preserving grace. God's preserving
grace. Now, for the last three messages,
I've talked about the subject of prerequisites of entering
salvation. What are the prerequirements
for a sinner to be saved? And it was in answer to a question
or an accusation, actually, that a man brought against me saying
that I don't preach repentance as a prerequisite to enter salvation,
and he's right, I don't. Sinners are brought by God to
enter salvation by faith in Christ and repentance of dead works.
No one is going to enter salvation apart from faith in Christ and
repentance, but neither faith nor repentance are prerequisites
that we must meet out of our own goodness or will or power
in order to qualify to enter heaven. Prerequisites or faith
and repentance are gifts from God. by which sinners enter,
but the prerequisites are, number one, God's electing grace, and
I preached a whole message on that. Number two, God's redeeming
grace, another message on that. God has to choose us in Christ,
and righteousness has to be established by Christ. And then thirdly,
God's regenerating grace. Life has to be given from Christ. And that's the new birth. Spoke
on that last week. Well today I want to jump to
another subject talking about prerequisites again, but for
a different purpose. Once a person is brought by God,
once a sinner is brought by God into a state of salvation, What
then is the prerequisite for entering glory? Now, people would
say it this way today, for getting into heaven or going to heaven,
all right? What is the prerequisite there?
Well, the prerequisite, as I've entitled the message, is God's
preserving grace. God must save us by his grace
and his power And God must keep us by His grace and His power. Because if left to ourselves,
we would never, never make it. You say, well, the Bible says
that we're supposed to continue. That's exactly right. But the
only way we're going to continue, that we're going to persevere,
as they say, is by God's preserving grace. And that's the prerequisite
for entering heaven. We must have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. And we must
have life given by Christ through the power of the Spirit. But
not only does He justify us, not only does He regenerate and
convert us, He must keep us. And let me show you that. Now
I've preached from this passage several times on this program,
but it's so appropriate to this subject. Look at John chapter
six and verse 37. This is where the Lord said to
himself, he said, all that the father giveth me shall come to
me. Now when it speaks of all that
the father giveth him, who's he talking about? He's talking
about God's elect. Here's God's electing grace, chosen before
the foundation of the world in Christ. 2 Timothy 1 speaks of
salvation that was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Over in John 17, Christ prayed
for those whom the Father had given Him. They are those whom
God chose before the foundation of the world gave to Christ,
placed all of the responsibility of their salvation upon Christ,
all the conditions of salvation upon Christ, and sent Christ
into the world to fulfill those requirements, to fulfill those
conditions in His obedience unto death, through redemption by
his blood, wherein he established the only righteousness whereby
God could be just to justify the ungodly. And he did that
for all that the Father gave him. Over in John chapter 10,
they're called his sheep. Look at John chapter 10 and verse
11. He says, I am the good shepherd,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And he says
down in verse 14, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep, and
am known of mine. Verse 15, as the father knoweth
me, even so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the
sheep. Look at verse 16 of John 10.
He says other sheep I have which are not of this fold. What fold
is he talking about? He's talking about the Jewish
fold. In other words, he's talking about some of God's elect are
Gentiles. There are Jews, God has a people,
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, Jew and Gentile,
and he says, other sheep I have which are not of this folk, listen
to this, them also I must bring. You see that? Now hold on to
that thought, I'll read the rest of that verse in just a moment. Go back to John 6, 37. I know I'm skipping around here,
but I want you to see this. Verse 37 of John 6. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, he says. They're gonna
come to me. You see that? Over here in John
chapter 10 and verse 16. He says, other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. He's gonna bring
them, you see that? Doesn't say he's gonna beg them.
It doesn't say that he's going to lean over the banister of
heaven just hoping that they might cooperate or might believe
or might accept him. He said, I'm going to bring them.
They're lost sheep. I'm going to bring them. And
he says, and they shall hear my voice. Now what is his voice? I'll tell you exactly what it
is. It's the preaching of the gospel. How God saves sinners
by his grace. The gospel which is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And that's how
he brings them in, by faith, God-given faith. It's the word
of reconciliation. God reconciled to his people
through the merits of the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. Now
the call is, as ambassadors of Christ, his voice, If a man preaches
the word of God, he's not preaching his own word, he's preaching
the voice of Christ, and he says, be ye reconciled to God on that
same ground. So here in John 10 and verse
16, he said, them I must bring, and they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. And verse 17. of
John 10 gives us the ground of it all. Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I laid down my life, that I might take it
again. Verse 18, no man taketh it from
me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down,
I have power to take it again, this commandment I have received
of my Father. You see, it's all based upon
Christ's death, his burial, his resurrection. And his death is
the assurance that all of his sheep will come to him. Now look
back at John 6, 37 again. He says, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me. There's no doubt about that.
I've heard preachers say, well, if you don't accept Christ as
your savior, then he died for you in vain. That is not so. If you don't accept Christ as
your Savior, that means he didn't die for you at all. That's what
the scripture says. I know people don't like to hear
that, but that's what this book says. Read the book. And so he
says, they will come to me. And then look at the last part
of John 6, 37. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. There's no way I'll cast them
out, he says. There's absolutely no way that
Christ will ever forsake His people. Now somebody says, well,
He will not forsake you, but you may forsake Him. No, you
won't, because you know why? He will not let you forsake Him. He will keep you, He will preserve
you by His power and His grace. That is His people who truly
believe on Him. Now let me show you that, look
back at John 6, 37, verse 38. Now this is after he said, I
will the no wise cast out, verse 38, for I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me,
verse 39, and this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day. Verse 40, and this is the will
of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, now I've
already talked about the prerequisite of the new birth, regeneration,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He says, and this is the will
of him that sent me, verse 40, that everyone which seeth the
Son, see his glory, see his person, the glory of his person, who
he is, the glory of his finished work, what he accomplished in
salvation, in redemption, and believeth on him may have everlasting
life, and I will raise him up at the last day. You see that? You'll raise him up. Now look
over at John chapter 10. He's talking here to religious
people, the Pharisees, and he says, then, verse 24, this is
John 10, 24. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told
you, and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. He is the Messiah. Look at verse
26, but you believe not because you're not of my sheep. As I
said unto you, now here's my sheep. Do you want to know if
you're one of his sheep? Or if you're not one of his sheep?
Well, he says here, verse 27. My sheep hear my voice. They hear the gospel, they believe
the gospel, not a false gospel now. Now listen to me, and I'm
not saying this just to make people mad or split hairs. There's
a lot of people out today who claim to be Christian, who deny
the true Christian gospel. There's a lot of people who are
believing in a false Christ. Not the one in the Bible. And
that's why I always urge you on this program, in this day
and age, the last days we talk about them. The last days have
actually been in existence since the time of Christ, His death,
burial, and resurrection, and ascension, and it'll continue
up to His second coming. But Christ told us that in the
last days, there would be more and more false religion, and
especially more and more false Christianity. They told us that. And therefore, we're to be on
our toes. First of all, we're to make sure that we study the
Bible, read the Word, to show ourselves approved unto God,
workmen that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
Word of truth, We need to examine ourselves according to the scripture,
and that's why I urge you to examine yourself. That's why
I wrote these books, the self-examination series, the rules of scriptural
interpretation. What is salvation? What is a
Christian? Read those. We offer them free
of charge. Order them. Examine yourself. Get into the word. Are you one
of his sheep? Well, he says here to these Pharisees,
he says, but you believe not because you're not one of my
sheep. As I said in you, verse 27, my sheep hear my voice. They hear the gospel. And I know
them and they follow me. Now, let's talk about the prerequisite
for entering heaven's glory, verse 28. He says, I give unto
them eternal life. It's a gift. and they shall never
perish. Is it any plainer? He says, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Now, I had a fella
tell me about that verse. He said, well, see there, it
says, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. He said,
but the devil can do it. Oh, no. The word man there is
in italics in the King James Version, which means it wasn't
in the original. Here's the way it is. Neither
shall any, pluck them out of my hand. Why? Verse 29, my father
which gave them me is greater than all. He's greater than any
man, he's greater than the devil. He's certainly greater than me
and you. He's greater than all and no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. You see that? That's the plain
teachings of scripture. God preserves His people. And He does it by means. He does
it by our perseverance. All the sheep of Christ who have
been brought to hear His voice, who have been brought to enter
salvation, they believe in, they rest in, they cling to, and they
follow Christ. They're still sinners. They're
still full of doubts and sinful doubts and fears that they have
to fight every day. It's a struggle, it's a warfare.
But thank God it's a warfare that the Holy Spirit is engaged
with the flesh within us. That means it's a surefire victory
because Christ has won the victory. And he's going to keep us. The
Apostle Paul. when he was out in the world
preaching the gospel, and sometimes he would come under such harsh
persecution, and they even put him in prison. And he told Timothy,
the young evangelist, trying to encourage Timothy to continue
in the faith. And he said, Timothy, he said,
he said, the reason I do this is for the elect's sake. God
has a people, and he's going to save. If it weren't for that,
I wouldn't do it. But God has a people. And he
said, despite all that I've suffered and all that I'm going through,
in 2 Timothy 1, 12, he made this statement. I know whom I have
believed and I am persuaded that he is able, Christ is able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. against
the day of suffering, the day of persecution, the day of judgment.
Christ is able to keep what I've committed to Him. And what have
I committed to Him? My whole salvation is committed
to Christ. Not committed to me, I'm committed
to Him. That's the key. In Hebrews chapter
seven, he talks about how Christ is able to save to the uttermost. I believe that's Hebrews 7, 24,
25, one of those verses. Christ is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto the Father by him. And they will
persevere. Over in the book of 1 John chapter
two, He had spoken of those who had
a false profession of Christianity, evidenced by the fact that they
left Christ. They apostatized, as they say. To apostatize, or apostasy, is
to totally forsake Christ. Once having professed to be a
believer in the true Christ, but then later totally forsaking
Him, leaving Him. Many who call themselves Christians
today would say, well, they were saved, but then they lost it.
My friend, that is heresy. You see, that makes salvation,
that makes heaven's glory conditioned on your perseverance. That's
not the gospel. That's against the gospel. The prerequisite for entering
heaven's glory is God's preserving grace. And that's evidenced by
our perseverance in the faith. Well, look at 1 John 2 and verse
18. He says, little children, it
is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist
shall come, even now are there many Antichrist, whereby we know
that it is the last time. Now look at verse 19. They went
out from us, they left, but they were not of us. Do you see that? They were never truly members
of the true family of God, the true sheepfold. 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. They
just exposed what they had always been, false professors, even
of the truth. But look at verse 20. He says,
but you have an unction, an anointing, from the Holy One, from Christ,
and you know all things, you know better. And he says in verse
21, I've not written unto you because you know not the truth,
but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
So you see, if you have that unction, that anointing, that's
the power of God in the new birth from Christ, life given, if life's
there. You will never leave him over
in 1 John 3, 9. Here's what it says. Whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin. Now the sin that he's talking
about there is apostasy, totally forsaking Christ. You see, if
you're in Christ, if you're born again, you're still a sinner
saved by grace and nothing you do is uncontaminated and uninfluenced
by sin. That's why we need his intercessory
work. But then it says here, those who, if you're born of
God, you won't leave Christ. For his seed, Christ's children,
his children, remaineth in him. They cling to him. They won't
leave him and he cannot sin. He cannot leave Christ because
he's born of God. And then he says in verse 10,
in this, the children of God are manifest and the children
of the devil. and whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God."
Doing not righteousness means not clinging to Christ as our
righteousness. Neither is he that loveth not
his brother. You see, that's the prerequisite
for entering heaven's glory. It's the keeping power of Jesus
Christ, the keeping power of God who keeps us against that
day. The benediction for a believer
is in Jude 24, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling
and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and forever.
Amen. Jude 24 and 25. That's the benediction. of a believer, of his life, unto
him who is able to save us, to keep us from falling, and present
us faultless. How is he going to present me
faultless? only based upon Christ's righteousness imputed. God does
not charge me with my sins. He charges me with righteousness.
And then He has given me life so that I can cling to Christ
for all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all eternal life and glory,
all righteousness in Him. He's able. I'm not. You're not. Only God is able in Christ. And that's His preserving grace.
God's preserving grace. And how do I know that God is
preserving me? By His grace and by His power.
I will not leave Christ. I'll continue to cling to Him.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness,
and I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus'
name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. I have no hope but Christ. I have no forgiveness but through
His blood. I have no righteousness but in
Him. I have no life, spiritual life,
but that which is given to me freely and unconditionally through
the blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
must choose me In Christ, God must redeem me by Christ, God
must give me life from Christ, and God must preserve me in Christ. That's the whole of salvation
for a sinner saved by grace. And there is no other way. That's
why Christ said in John 14 and verse 6, I am the way, I am the
truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And because he intercedes for
me right now, preserving me unto glory, Nothing can separate me
from the love of God in Christ. Remember in Romans chapter 8,
Paul wrote that. He listed all of the things that
the universe can throw at us. All the things that the devil
can throw at us. All the things that man can throw
at us. And if we're in Christ, If we're
preserved by Him, if our stand before God, our right standing
before God is based on His righteousness imputed, we cannot be separated
from His love and His grace and His mercy. That's the whole of
salvation. Again, God's electing grace,
God's redeeming grace, God's regenerating grace, and God's
preserving grace. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, Christ said. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. This is the
will of God for his people. This is the salvation that he
freely and fully provides in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And remember what he said. He said, in John 10, 28, I give
unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any pluck them
out of my hand. Why? Because my Father, verse
29, my Father which gave them me is greater than all. There's
nothing greater than God. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man, no one, no person, no thing is
able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father
are one. Now, right after that, you know
what happened? It says the Jews, in verse 31,
the Jews took up stones again to stone him. They hated that
message. Now why do men hate that message?
Why does the natural man hate that message and won't receive
that message? It's offensive to him because
it tells us the truth that when it comes to attaining and maintaining
salvation, Our works and our efforts have nothing to do, in
fact, less than nothing. And so we must look to Christ
alone. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.