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 the sixth session
of our eight-part series of studies on the topic, what is salvation? Now, we've been studying what
I call the four realms of salvation. Number one, there's the eternal
realm of salvation, the origin and cause of salvation. Number
two, there's the legal realm of salvation, which refers to
the ground of salvation. Number three is the spiritual
realm of salvation. That's the fruit of salvation
as applied and experienced and known by God's people in time. And number four is the glorified
realm of salvation. That's the fruit of salvation
in the future, salvation completed and perfected in final glory.
Now, these four realms of salvation cannot be separated as if you
could be the subject of one realm without the other. All four realms
are necessary in the complete salvation of a sinner. All four
realms are of the Lord. All four realms are founded upon
and centered around the Lord Jesus Christ as the salvation
of His people. And all four realms are of God's
free and sovereign grace conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ alone
and not on the sinner. You see, any salvation that's
conditioned on the sinner is doomed to fail. Now last week
we dealt with the spiritual realm of salvation and seeking mainly
to understand the teachings of God's word on the new birth. You must be born again. Today
I want us to continue on this subject by studying what the
Bible teaches on two vital gospel truths in the spiritual realm
of salvation. Number one, the preservation
of the saved by God's grace in Christ. and number two, the perseverance
of the saved by God's grace in Christ. The reason I want us
to consider these subjects in a lesson by themselves is due
to what I see as two of the greatest errors, misunderstandings, and
even deceptions among people today on this subject of salvation. So many people today think of
salvation as merely a one-time event in a person's life, something
that took place in the past when that person, as many say, made
a decision for Christ or got baptized or joined the church.
But salvation involves all the workings of the Lord in the lives
of His people in time. It's not merely a one-time event
in a person's life. It's not something that one can
rightfully think back on and gain assurance or security or
hope from it. Those who do this are sadly deceiving
themselves. For one to say, I know I'm saved
because I made a decision when I was 12 years old or whatever
young age and got baptized. That's the equivalent of boasting
in the flesh or in their works for salvation. Now don't misunderstand
what I'm saying. There is a beginning in the spiritual
realm, our actual experience of salvation. And that's the
new birth where God the Holy Spirit brings a sinner under
the preaching of the gospel and imparts spiritual life, power,
knowledge, and grace so as to bring that person for the first
time in their lives to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
to repent of dead works and idolatry. You see, we're not born saved.
We're born dead in trespasses and sins, fallen in Adam, ruined
by the fall, born dead in trespasses and sins, and we must be born
again. But a lot of people get hung up on this by trying to
pin down a particular date in which they can relate some earth-shattering
experience or emotional experience and call it their spiritual birthday. Now, there are some who might
be able to do this. For example, the Apostle Paul,
who was converted to Christ on the road to Damascus. Or the
thief on the cross, who was converted just before he died. It may be
harder for others. I think about the evangelist
Timothy, who was brought up by his mother and his grandmother
under the gospel truth. Either way, it is not necessary
for any of us to point to any particular day or experience
to prove our salvation. We only have to know who is our
hope of salvation today, now. You see, if my hope of salvation
today is totally and fully in the Lord Jesus Christ as He is
identified and distinguished and revealed in God's Holy Word,
then I know that at some time in the past I've been born again
by the Holy Spirit. I will caution you, however,
to consider how many people claim to believe in Jesus Christ but
prove without knowing it that their hope is really somewhere
else when they try to defend professions of religion and reformation
under a false gospel rather than the true gospel. You know, to
do that proves a lack of repentance, thus an absence of spiritual
life in the new birth. I hope you're not among those
who deceive themselves in that way. But the point is this, salvation
as set forth in the Bible is a life of trusting, resting in,
and following the Lord Jesus Christ for all salvation. Now
I can anticipate objections to this right away. A common objection
to this is this, what about the thief on the cross? He was converted
at his death. Well, that's true, but I can
assure you that whatever life here on earth he had left, he
lived it looking to Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of
his faith, as it says in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse two. This
is true of all born again persons, whether they're converted by
the Holy Spirit early in life, like Timothy, or even at their
death, like the thief on the cross. And then the second misconception
is that a person can be saved and then lost. Now we're gonna
consider that later on, hold that thought. But let's consider
first what we can call number one, the preservation of the
saved. Now there are seven gospel truths
to be considered under this heading of the preservation of the saved. Truth number one, all who are
truly saved by God's grace in Jesus Christ are preserved unto
final glory in heaven by the power and grace of God in Jesus
Christ. Over in the book of John chapter
10, beginning at verse 27, the Lord speaking of himself as the
shepherd of the sheep, And he said back in John 10, 11, the
good shepherd gives his life, not for all without exception,
but for the sheep. And in verse 27, he says, my
sheep hear my voice. And that's the product of the
new birth. He said, I know them. That's electing grace before
the foundation of the world. And they follow me. That again
is the product of the new birth. Then in verse 28, he says, I
give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
he says. Neither shall any man, literally
any, pluck them out of my hand. In verse 29, he says, my Father
which gave them me is 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, they can never be condemned
or lost again. Now, I know this flies in the
face of much religion today that comes in the name of Christianity,
but which says a sinner can be saved and then lose that salvation,
either by leaving the gospel or by turning back to a life
of unbelief or immorality. You see, many believe in what
is called a conditional preservation of the saints, or commonly called
conditional security. This is the idea that believers
are kept safe by God in their saving relationship with Him
upon the condition of a persevering or continuing faith in Christ. Preservation or security, therefore,
is not totally by God's grace and power, but by the believer
continuing to be better than before. And this is nothing more
than false Christianity and a false gospel. My friend, a salvation
that does not save completely and fully and to the ultimate
perfection is no salvation at all. The reason so many believe
salvation can be lost is because they believe salvation can be
gained or maintained by some condition or conditions sinners
meet, at least in some way, at some stage, to some degree. It
would stand to reason that if I do something to gain my salvation,
then I could do something to lose it. But that is salvation
by works, my friend, not by grace. The Bible teaches us that sinners
are saved by grace and kept or preserved by grace and ultimately
brought to final glory in heaven by grace. Consider secondly,
because of sin, we cannot keep ourselves. Now, we've spoken
much of the reality of our sin before a sinner is converted. That we all have been ruined
in Adam by the fall when Adam disobeyed. That we're born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins and that we cannot be saved by our
best efforts to do anything pleasing unto God. But what about after
we're converted? Well, the Apostle Paul described
this in Romans chapter 7, verses 14 through 25. That whole section
of scripture shows the remaining corruption, influence, and contamination
of sinful flesh so that not even a true believer can attain his
desired goal of being perfectly conformed to Christ in character
and conduct. You see, many people say, well,
Paul's talking about himself before he was converted, but
he's not. He's talking about a spiritual
warfare that goes on within every born-again person. Lost people
do not have this spiritual warfare. Paul speaks of that warfare so
much so that as Paul states, even as a sinner saved by grace,
nothing he did could be counted as measuring up to the standard
of perfect righteousness, so that he must cry, and all God's
people must cry, as recorded in Romans 7 24, O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then he says, who shall deliver
me? Verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then
with the mind, I myself serve the law of God. In other words,
it is my purpose in my mind to obey God, but with the flesh,
the law of sin. The flesh hinders me from reaching
that goal. And the point of this is that
not only can we not save ourselves, but we also cannot keep ourselves. The saved sinner's continuation
and final glory in heaven is the work of God's power, goodness,
and grace in Christ, and not his own. Now, consider thirdly,
God's preserving love and grace in Christ. And over just a few
pages in the book of Romans, chapter 8 and verse 35, listen
to what the apostle writes there. He says, who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, for your sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Verse 38,
he says, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. As we continue to study this
truth of God's preserving grace, consider, fourthly, the nature
of the everlasting covenant of grace of which Christ Jesus is
the surety. Jesus Christ was set up in the
everlasting covenant of grace to be the surety of that covenant. And the Bible tells us that all
of the covenant conditions of the salvation of God's elect
were placed upon Christ alone. Over in the book of Isaiah chapter
9 in verse 6, Isaiah is prophesying of the coming of the Messiah.
And he says in verse 6, For unto us a child is born, That's the
humanity of Christ. Unto us a son is given. That's
the deity of Christ. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder. That's the government of the
kingdom of God. That's the salvation, preservation
of the church. And it's upon his shoulder, conditioned
on him as our surety, not upon the sinner. and his name shall
be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. And verse seven says, of the
increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end
upon the throne of David, that's the messianic throne, and upon
his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and
with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. You see, it's all of Christ.
And when Isaiah preached, the government shall be upon his
shoulder, that's exactly what he meant. The establishment,
the growth, salvation, prosperity, and victory of the whole church
of God would be upon Christ to accomplish it. It was and is
all conditioned on Christ as surety. So true believers are
part of an everlasting covenant of grace, all conditioned on
Christ who is the surety of the covenant. We saw this in the
eternal realm of salvation as believers are those chosen in
Christ, the elect of God, from the very beginning. We saw this
in the legal realm as believers were redeemed by Christ, the
surety of the covenant, who fulfilled all conditions of the covenant
in righteousness to secure the salvation of his people and to
purchase for them the gift of eternal life and faith. And we
see it in the spiritual realm as God's people are brought into
this covenant experientially as they are born again by the
Holy Spirit and brought to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. True
believers are not self-saved people. They are the creation
of God in Christ, the fruit of what Christ accomplished on Calvary. Listen to what the Apostle Paul
wrote in Ephesians chapter two and verse eight. For by grace
are you saved, through faith. That not of yourselves is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Consider
fifthly, true believers cannot be charged with sin. Those who
are truly saved in Christ cannot be charged with sin because Christ
has already been charged and found guilty and taken the full
punishment of all those sins as their substitute. In 2 Corinthians
5.21 it says, For He, that is God the Father, hath made Him,
God the Son incarnate, to be sin for us. Christ, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
This is the great legal exchange that took place on the cross
when Jesus Christ gave His own life a ransom for many, all whom
the Father had given Him before the foundation of the world.
Having their sins charged to Him, they cannot be justly charged. with them ever again. In Romans
8 and verse 33, Paul wrote, Who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. This does not mean that
while on this earth we're not still sinners. Though there is
much sin in us and done by us, and I'm talking about the saved
here now, though there is much sin in them and done by them,
yet God cannot and will not charge them with sin or condemn them
for it. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to destroy, purge, remove, and take away all the
sins of His people, and He's done it. All the sins of God's
elect were laid upon Christ. He bore them in His own body
on the tree. He endured and satisfied the
wrath of God for them. He bore them away. The Son of
God redeemed His people from the curse of the law, made an
end of their sins, justified and sanctified them by His blood.
And God Almighty has, through the effectual redemptive work
of Christ, so thoroughly blotted out the sins of His elect that
He does not hold them against them. Now as we continue to think
about God's preserving those He saves, consider sixthly, the
righteousness by which saved sinners are justified is the
imputed righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of God the
Son incarnate. It is the righteousness of God,
and it is a perfect, eternal, unchangeable righteousness, which
God will never take away. It cannot be removed. It cannot
be contaminated with sin. It is the righteousness of God,
as it is the merit of Christ, the God-man, and His work of
obedience unto death. Christ is the advocate of His
people, and He continually intercedes on our behalf. Over in 1 John
2 and verse 1, John wrote, My little children, these things
I write unto you, that you sin not. That's the believer's goal. I want to obey God. And if any
man sin, that's not just in case. That means because we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, And he's
the propitiation, the sin-bearing sacrifice who brought satisfaction
for our sins. And not only for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world. Not all without exception
now, but God's people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. True believers cannot lose salvation because Christ
never quits pleading the merits of his blood and righteousness
on their behalf. Consider seventhly, True believers
can never totally leave and forsake Christ. Now this brings us to
the second major point of this lesson. Remember the first one
was the preservation of the saved by God's grace in Christ. Number
two is the perseverance of the saved by God's grace in Christ. God revealed in the prophecy
of Jeremiah concerning the new covenant in Christ and his people
in that covenant, as recorded in Jeremiah 32 and verse 40,
he says, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will
not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my
fear in their hearts, and listen, that they shall not depart from
me. Now Israel, the nation under
the old covenant, departed from the Lord. That was a conditional
covenant towards that nation. And because that nation, like
all men by nature, was made up of sinful people, that covenant
of law, that works-based covenant, was destined to fail. And the
people were destined to fail to meet its conditions. Well,
why was it given? The Bible tells us that the law
was given to them to show man's need of salvation by God's grace
in Jesus Christ. The covenant of grace is a covenant
in Christ who saves his people and keeps them from departing.
True believers will persevere, continue in the faith of Jesus
Christ. They will never totally quit
believing and following Christ. They can get sidetracked. They
can lose sight of reality for a while, but they cannot totally
apostatize. That means fall away from the
faith. Now why? Well, as we've stated,
because God by his grace and power in the Lord Jesus Christ
preserves them and he does it by means. Now, what are the means? Well, consider. God's means of
preservation by which the true people of God persevere, first
of all, is the continual indwelling of the presence and power of
the Holy Spirit. In John 14 and verse 16, the
Lord said, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another comforter, talking about the Holy Spirit, that he may
abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him, listen, for he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. The Holy Spirit is with His people
and in His people. And this is the reality of Christ
Himself dwelling within His people by His Spirit and by His Word. Secondly, the second means is
the new life. the new heart, the new spirit
given and imparted by the word of God, whereby the word of God
is written on the hearts of his people so that they cannot leave
Christ totally. Over in the book of 1 John chapter
three and verse nine, it says, whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. Now that doesn't mean that they're
not still sinners saved by grace, but the commit sin there in the
context means they cannot, they do not leave Christ totally. And then it says, listen, for
his seed remaineth in him. His seed there is his children,
born again persons. Those who were ruined by the
fall, but redeemed by the blood and regenerated by the spirit.
His generation remaineth in him. They remain in Christ. And he
cannot sin. He cannot leave Christ. Why?
Because he's born of God. He has a new heart. He has a
new mind. He has new motives, new goals.
So in today's study of this spiritual realm of salvation, we see how
these great truths dispel two of the most common errors that
exist in what is called Christianity or comes in the name of Christianity
today. That salvation is just some one
time event in a person's life that happens to them when they're
young. Oh no, my friend, salvation, the spiritual realm of salvation
shows us this is being born of the spirit. the fruit of Christ's
death, life comes out of his death, whereby a sinner has new
life, a new heart, a new spirit, new motives, a new knowledge,
new goals, all of these things that remain in him by the indwelling
presence and power of the Holy Spirit. and that he can never
lose salvation because he's preserved by the grace of God. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. And
he perseveres in the faith because he's been born of God. God won't
let him go and he won't turn loose of Christ. He'll lay hold
of Christ forever. Well, in this study of the spiritual
realm of salvation, we see how God preserves all those he saves
by specific means, whereby he ensures their perseverance in
the faith. And I hope this portion of our
study has been helpful to your understanding. If you'd like
a free copy of today's program, Simply request Lesson 6 of the
series entitled, What is Salvation? In addition, the entire eight-part
study is available in an attractive package set along with a complimentary
book of the same title, What is Salvation? I hope you'll join
us next week as we'll examine the glorified realm of salvation. 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 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.