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. Now today's message is the 15th
message in a series that's intended to accompany a new book that
we are offering. And the title of the new book
is called, What is a Christian? A Biblical Study of the One True
Faith. And in these messages and in
the book, it's a journey through much of the Bible, as to how
the Bible defines what a true Christian is and what a true
Christian is not. And I've tried to emphasize that
the book and this series of messages, which we'll offer free of charge
on DVD and CD, or however you want it, the book goes into much
more depth, has much more information, many more scriptures, These are
intended to be a guide for your study of the scriptures as you
go through the process of what the Bible calls self-examination. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. And I have two messages that
accompany the last chapter of the book of what is a Christian.
And that chapter is entitled, or it states this, that Christians
persevere unto the end. True Christians are those who
continue in salvation by the grace of God as they persevere
unto the end, the end there being their final glorification in
heaven. Now, what we're talking about
here is the biblical truth of the eternal security of the saved. And it states that true Christians
are saved and eternally secure in the grace of God through Jesus
Christ and they cannot lose that salvation. They cannot lose it. Now, this is so important for
us to understand from the Bible because there are so many people
who call themselves Christians who believe that one can be saved
And then through sinning in some way or to some degree or some
amount, they can lose that salvation. But that is not what the Bible
teaches. And I'm going to show you that in these last two messages
of this series on what is a Christian. A true Christian, one who is
truly saved by the grace of God, one who is truly in Christ and
truly believes in Christ, is saved and secure forever. And
I know the objections that come on that. You know, people say,
well, you're saying then that it doesn't matter what we do
or that we can go out and sin as much as we want to. That's
not what the doctrine of eternal security teaches. The eternal
security of the saved claims that salvation, the salvation,
a true Christian is secure in salvation and as a result they
persevere in the faith. Now they're still sinners. We're
still sinners. There are only two types of people
on this earth. Sinners who are lost in their
sins and sinners saved by grace. But once saved, always saved,
if we're saved by God's grace through Christ, by His blood
and righteousness alone. So one of the marks of true Christians,
therefore, is that by the grace of God, they will persevere. That word means they will continue. They will endure to the end,
unto final glory in heaven. And the Bible reveals that those
who fail to persevere, Those who claim to be Christians and
who fail to continue in the faith, all right, the Bible reveals
that those who fail to persevere to the end were never saved at
all, never saved to begin with. They may have claimed to be Christians.
They may, to other people, look like Christians. They may have
gone through some great changes of character and conduct and
all, but they were never Christian to begin with. Their claim of
salvation was false. Now, many who claim to be Christians,
who believe that it's possible for a person to be saved and
then lost, and send their salvation away, they believe that for several
reasons. Number one, they believe that
because they believe salvation was never totally secured by
God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe it
was always conditioned on them. And then secondly, they never
believed that Christ's death, or they believed that Christ's
death did not really secure the salvation of anyone. But it only
made salvation possible if the sinner would do his or her part.
But I want you to consider several things in this first message.
Consider the following biblical statements concerning the eternal
security of the saved and the ground of godly assurance. Now
I want you to see this from the scripture. I'm going to give
you several statements where the Bible supports that once
a person is truly saved by grace, that's a true Christian now,
they will always be saved. And those who claim to be saved
but then who deny the faith later on or who apostatize or fall
away, that's what the word means, they were never Christians to
begin with. And here's the first statement
I want you to understand. Number one, God saves and preserves
His true children unto final glory in heaven by His grace
through the Lord Jesus Christ. God saves and preserves his true
children unto final glory in heaven by his grace through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now we see that stated out by
the Savior himself, by the Lord himself in John chapter 10 and
verse 27. And I want to encourage you to
study the Bible on this, because this is not the only verse that
teaches. When I give you these example
verses, these are just one of many. But let's look at it, John
chapter 10 and verse 27, the Lord had already said the good
shepherd gives his life for the sheep. The sheep are God's elect,
the redeemed of the Lord. And he says in John 10, 27, my
sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Now hearing his voice has to
do with the gospel. the gospel that is empowered
under their salvation, their conversion by the Holy Spirit.
And so as a result, they follow Christ, they trust Christ. And
he says in verse 28, he says, and I give unto them eternal
life. They shall never perish. Do you see that? Neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. And then why is that? What is the basis, the source,
the power, the foundation of it? Here it is, John 10, 29.
My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand, and I and my
Father are one. You see that? It's all of God
in Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. You
see, so many people today who claim to be Christian, they believe
salvation in some way at some stage to some degree is conditioned
on them and it is not. Now there are grounds of salvation
and then there are fruits of salvation. The ground of salvation
is totally what Christ has accomplished for his people in putting away
their sins and making them righteous before God. And that's all of
grace. Now, as a result of that, there
are the fruits of salvation, the evidences of salvation, and
that has to do with the faith, the repentance, the obedience,
the perseverance of the believer. You see, it's not their faith,
their repentance, or their perseverance that secures them to salvation. It's the grace of God in Christ
that secures their salvation. The faith, the repentance, the
obedience, the perseverance are the fruit and the evidences of
it. They bring forth fruit unto God. The fruit is not the source of
salvation. It's the evidence. The fruit
is not the cause. It's not the ground. It's not
the power. It's all the fruit. Now here's
the second statement that I want you to see. God's grace and God's
power through the Lord Jesus Christ ensures and enables true
Christians not only to begin the Christian life and walk by
believing in Christ unto salvation, but also to persevere in that
faith unto heaven's glory. That's the key. Now, the scripture
tells us that God's people are justified by the grace of God. And remember what it is to be
justified. To be justified means that you're not guilty. If you're
justified before a holy God, you're not guilty. Now again,
a true Christian is a justified sinner. Now that sounds like
it's a contradiction, but you see, here's how it works. We're
sinners, if we're a Christian. We're sinners, but we're saved
by grace, which means that we're not guilty unto condemnation. Because in Christ, we have no
condemnation. Our condemnation was endured
by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. He took the wrath of God
in my place. And I'm justified before God
in and by Him. There's no way that God can condemn
me. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died, rather, that is risen again and is seated on the right
hand of the Father ever living to make intercession for us.
So to be justified means that God will not and cannot charge
me with sin. The guilt and defilement of sin
so as to condemn me. Why? Because He charged it to
Christ. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Now
to be justified also means that I have a righteousness before
God that answers all the demands of His law and justice. I have
a perfect righteousness. And it's not one that I worked
out. It's not one that I even appropriated. It's one God worked out through
His Son in His obedience unto death as my surety and substitute,
and one that is imputed, charged, accounted to me. So I'm justified
before God. Now the Bible says those who
are, somebody said, and see that had nothing to do with anything
I am or anything I do or don't do. That justification is totally
outside of me what God has done for me by His grace. But, now
somebody says, well if that's true then it doesn't matter what
I do, I don't have to seek the Lord, I don't have to believe,
oh no. How do I know that I'm justified? You understand that? What's the evidence? of being
justified before God in Christ. What's the evidence of having
been chosen before the foundation of the world? What's the evidence? What's the fruit of being justified,
redeemed by the blood of Christ? Well, the fruit of that is the
new birth. Those who are justified shall
be called, the scripture says. Calling of the spirit in the
new birth, regeneration and conversion. And the Bible says, now this
is Hebrews chapter 10, verses 38 through 39, listen to it.
Now the just or the justified shall live by faith. Now, what is it to live by faith?
Well, the Bible explains that all over the place. One scripture
we can go to is Hebrews 12, 2, where it says that we run the
race of grace looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. To live by faith means to live
as we look totally to Christ for salvation, for forgiveness,
for righteousness, for security, for final glory. It's to rest
in Christ. is to walk in Christ, have the
assurance of salvation. Now the just shall live by faith. But look on in Hebrews 10, 38.
But if any man draw back, that is, leave it, my soul shall have
no pleasure in him. But we, true Christians, are
not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul. You see, a true Christian is
not of them. who draw back, but of them who believe to the saving
of the soul. Back over in the book of 1 John,
chapter two and verse 19, John deals with this very issue. You
see, just like in the book of Hebrews, there were Hebrew Christians
who claimed to believe the gospel, who claimed to be saved, but
then because of persecution and ridicule, they left the faith
totally. And so Paul dealt with that.
He said, we're not of them that draw back. Well, the apostle
John had the same problem into the ones to whom he was writing
in the book of first John. And in first John chapter two
and verse 19, here's what he says. He says, they, now the
they that he's talking about are those who had a profession
of Christianity, but who left it. who forsook Christ and the
people of God. And he says, they went out from
us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. You see that? But they
went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all
of us. In fact, they're going out, you
see. They're going out, they're leaving, just simply manifested
the fact that they were never saved at all. They were never
a part of the body of Christ. And John went on in the next
verse, in 1 John 2.20, he wrote of true Christians, true believers.
He says, but ye have an unction, an anointing, from the Holy One,
and ye know all things. What is that unction? That's
the work of the Holy Spirit. in the new birth to bring a sinner
to faith in Christ and repentance and the Holy Spirit indwells
and empowers for perseverance." So you see that's the reality.
Here's the third biblical statement and it's another reality and
that's this and this shows us the reality of the security of
the believer, the security of the eternal security. that true
Christians will persevere. And it has to do with the reality
of remaining sin and corruption within a true believer. That
proves that we cannot save or preserve or keep ourselves under
final glory by our own power and wills. Do you understand
this? Here's the point. The Bible teaches
that if it were possible For a true Christian to fall away
from the faith and lose salvation, it's a guaranteed thing. It would
happen. There's no doubt about it. We're
not able to save ourselves or to keep ourselves saved. Think
about the Apostle Paul describing himself as a born-again person. A true Christian, in Romans chapter
7, when he's talking about his inward struggle with sin, verse
22, he makes this statement, he says, in Romans 7, 22, he
says, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Now the inward man is his heart,
his spirit. And he can delight in the law
of God after the inward man because he sees that law fulfilled by
Christ for him. He looks by faith to Christ.
In verse 23, he said, but I see another law, another powerful
principle in my members. the members being his physical
body, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. And then he
concludes it this way. He says in verse 24, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Who's going to deliver me from my sinful, sinful human nature
and the corruption of sin? I can't do it. You can't do it
for me. Well, who can do it? Verse 25,
I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Do you see that? So
then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with
the flesh, the law of sin. You see, if it were possible
for a true believer to lose salvation and to forsake the faith totally,
then he would. Because we can't keep ourselves,
we're in a, you know, a believer. A true Christian is in a warfare. We have three great enemies.
Number one is the world. We are at war with the world. Christ said, in the world you
shall have tribulation. Well, can we win that warfare
by our own power, by our own goodness, by our own wills? Absolutely
not. Christ said, be of good cheer,
for I have overcome the world. We win victory over the world
because of what Christ has accomplished in our behalf. Talking about
true Christians now. The next warfare we have is the
warfare with Satan. War with the world and the war
with the devil. Can we win that war with the
devil? Absolutely not. The devil's more powerful than
we are. but he's not more powerful than the Lord, the Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ told his disciples, he
said, the gates of hell will not prevail against the kingdom
of God, his church that he builds. You see, I'm not the builder
of the church, Christ is. I'm not the foundation of the
church, Christ is. I'm not the glue that holds it
all together, Christ is. I'm not the heart of the church,
Christ is. And I'm not the head of the church,
Christ is. And so he overcomes that. And
whenever the devil charges me or attacks me, what am I to do? I'm to plead the blood of the
Lamb of God. That hurls back his accusations. I have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice. The devil's accusing
arrows cannot penetrate. So he says, I thank God. Well,
our next enemy is ourselves, the war with the flesh, with
the inward flesh, inward sin, the remaining inward sins of
corruption that reside within us, our evil thoughts, evil motives,
evil goals, evil desires. And we have to fight them. It's
a daily warfare. We can't win the battle. How
do we win this battle? Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Well, here's the fourth statement
by which the Bible supports the eternal security of the saved.
That Christians will persevere unto the end. True Christians.
And that is God commands and brings his children to rest in
the Lord Jesus Christ for all security and assurance of salvation.
Now I know that sounds just like repeating some of the others,
but I need to emphasize this, and that's this, true Christians
are neither commanded nor encouraged to seek assurance and peace and
comfort of salvation based on their own efforts, their own
power, or their own goodness. In other words, all security
and assurance comes by God-given faith, as I stated before from
Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. The Apostle Paul wrote this in 2 Timothy 1, 12. He said, For I know whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that He is able, Christ is able, not
I'm able, I'm not able, Christ is able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him against that day, against the day of God's
wrath, against the day of judgment, against the day of trial, against
the day of testing, He's able. to keep, preserve that which
I've committed unto Him. Now, what have I committed unto
Him? I've committed unto Him my whole salvation. The point
of what I'm making in this fourth statement is expressed very well
in the old hymn which I often quote on this program, The Solid
Rock. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. 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.
All other ground is sinking sand. Here's the fifth statement. Security
and assurance of salvation by the grace of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ is the basis and motivation for all godliness,
all obedience, and all good works. You see, the true Christian knows
he has one righteousness before holy God. And that's the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We stated, I repeat it
so often, Romans 10, 4, for Christ is the end, the perfection, fulfillment,
completion, finishing of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. And the obedience of a believer
is motivated not by legal fears of punishment or loss of reward,
and it's not motivated by mercenary promises of earned reward. You
see, we're not forced slave. If you're a true Christian, you're
not a forced slave. You're a willing, loving bond
servant, serving the master because you love him, because he has
shown you the debt has been paid. You didn't pay the debt. I didn't
pay the debt. Christ paid it. In other words, a believer's
continuance, perseverance, obedience is not aimed at making himself
righteous before God. A believer's obedience, service,
worship, all of that is motivated by the fact that Jesus Christ
has already accomplished salvation, righteousness completely for
him and given it to him freely. And therefore he acts, he serves
out of gratitude, grace. and love. He's not a legal slave. He's not in bondage. He's free. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made you free and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Galatians 5.1. And he's not a
mercenary. He's not out for hire. He's not
serving God for what he can get out of God. He's serving God
because he loves him. Paul said, the love of Christ
constrains me. Now in the Bible, that's called
fruit unto God. You see, before a person is born
again by the Spirit and brought to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works, all of his efforts to obey, all of his efforts to
keep the law, all of his efforts to serve and worship God are
called fruit unto death. But when he sees the completeness,
the the absolute sovereign grace of God in Christ, then he becomes
a willing, loving servant of God. 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, 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.