Eternal Sercurity

Let us turn in our Bibles today to Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1. Reading the first seven verses, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is made for me to thank this of you all, because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of my grace.

My text this morning is verse 6, Being Confident, the Apostle Paul, writing to the believers in this church at Philippi, a church where he had taken the gospel, where he had been beaten, put into prison. God sent an earthquake, you know, and opened the prison doors, and the jailer was the first to call Paul and Silas out of the prison with that question, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul's response was, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now he's writing back, he's in prison in Rome now, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

My subject is the eternal security of the believer in Jesus Christ. Paul had confidence, he had confidence that those with whom, you notice in verse 5, those with whom he had fellowship in the gospel, that they would persevere in the faith that God, who had begun a good work in them, would perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. That is, until the day that Jesus Christ returns again for us, or we go to be with Him.

But I want us to look at three truths. Three truths, there's many others that I could have chosen, but three truths that speak to me of the eternal security of everyone who believes the gospel, everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. That God doesn't save a person today and that person be lost tomorrow. That when God begins a work in a person's heart, he's going to continue that work.

And I have three truths I wanted to mention to us as to why I'm assured of this. Several years ago, we had some men working in our house, and one of the men asked me this question. He said, oh, you're one of those preachers who believes once saved, always saved. And I said, well, it depends on who does the saving. I don't especially like that term, once saved, always saved.

Nothing wrong with it, I guess, but I prefer to speak of the security, the eternal security of the believer. And the first reason I know that a believer, a child of God, cannot be lost is the power of the gospel of Christ. The power of the gospel of Christ. writing to the church at Rome, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believeth. The gospel is a message of Jesus Christ, his person, and what he has done. He did not leave anything undone. When he said it is finished, He did not leave anything undone, anything for the sinner to do to complete the work of salvation. The message that we preach is believe and be saved, look and live, come and welcome. That's the message of this gospel.

If you look with me back a few pages in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, One of the reasons that we have several of the epistles or letters in the New Testament is because everywhere that the gospel went, there were sure to come false teachers to lie about the gospel, about the truth. And here in Corinth was no different, and Paul's writing to them this second letter.

Notice in verse four he said, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him. In other words, Paul recognized, and we know it's certainly true, Till today, there's many who preach another Jesus. There's many who preach another spirit. And there's many who preach another gospel. Although, as he said in Galatians chapter one, there is no other gospel. Not really, but there are those who would come and they preach another Jesus.

They would tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ shed His precious blood. Think of that. Blood so precious that the Apostle Paul in one place calls it the blood of God. That Jesus Christ shed His precious blood for some who will spend eternity in hell. That's another Jesus. That's another Jesus, the Jesus of the Word of God, the Son of God.

He came into this world not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. I was speaking with a person the other day and the conversation turned to some of the Puritans And this person was familiar with John Owen. John Owen was maybe the most prolific writer of all the Puritans that I've ever heard about or had any experience with. But he made this statement one time, and I told this to that person. I said, he's the one who said, Christ either died for all the sins of all men, And if he did, all men will be saved. Or he died for some of the sins of all men. And if that's true, no one will be saved. Or he died for all of the sins of some men.

That is the truth. That is a scripture teaching about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some preach another Jesus who failed, who failed in his work. And then some preach another spirit, the Holy Spirit. We know that God, the Holy Spirit, he comes and he convinces his chosen people of sin. of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come. He doesn't try to do that. He does that. He convinces his people of sin. And that's the reason we need a savior. One thing about preaching, no matter where I preach, I know who I'm preaching to. I'm preaching to people just like me. I'm preaching to people, men and women, boys and girls, who are born sinners.

I read a comment the other day I thought was so good, I've remembered it out of a book. I think the title was, Is Hell Real? Is Hell Real? I didn't read the whole book, but just this excerpt. And he made this statement, the author did. He said, there's many in hell who believe they should be in heaven. And he said, everyone in heaven knows they should be in hell.

Why? Because we've sinned against a holy God. We have, as it were, stuck our fist in the face of God and said, from our youth, I will not have this man to rule over me. That's all of us by nature. But thank God the Holy Spirit conquers us, doesn't he? He conquers us. He breaks us and brings us down into submission. to where we're able to say, not my will, but thy will be done. Save me or I'll perish.

And there's another gospel, another gospel from the good news. The gospel is good news, which tells us something that the everlasting God, the eternal God, has given his son to come and establish righteousness. give us life and salvation. It's a free gift, a free gift. I spoke at a funeral this past week and I tried to mention three things that I see in the beginning of that prayer of the Lord in John chapter 17. And one of those three things is our Lord said, thou has given him power to give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. Eternal life is a gift. God has lifted up His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made Him both Lord and Christ to give eternal life, not to offer eternal life, to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him.

Another gospel. The scriptures tell us in Romans chapter 5, by the obedience of one man. How many millions of men have lived on God's earth until today? Billions, right? Yet there's only been one man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. who perfectly obeyed God in every way. By the obedience of one man, many shall be made righteous.

Many. We like to think of that, don't you? Sometimes people get the idea if you believe in the doctrine, the truth of God's sovereign election, you're talking about just a handful of people. No, I'm talking about a multitude so large that no man can number it. Yes, many. As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of flesh, but of God.

So when a person believes the gospel, pointing out that the power of the gospel of Christ convinces me that when a person is saved, because God is the one who saves, the gospel is about Him and what He's done, that once a person is saved, he's not going to lose that salvation. How could it be everlasting life if you could have life today? and not have it tomorrow. How could it be everlasting life, eternal life?

In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17, Paul said, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. The one who believes in Christ is made a new creature, a new creation in Christ. And that new creation is distinguished in several ways. Let me mention three ways. It's sorrows. It has sorrows which are new.

You say, have I been made a new creation? Let me ask you. Do you have sorrows today that you at one time didn't have? Do you ever have sorrows because of your unfaithfulness and your spiritual failure? It's sorrows, for it is so easily distracted when reading the word of God and praying. Does that ever cause you concern? You're reading the word of God and before you know it, your mind is way out there in left field somewhere. That causes sorrow to a child of God, doesn't it?

He's made a new creature. While you're praying or calling it prayer, your mind is thinking about a hundred different things. Someone likened it one time to a subject to a king. And when we're praying, we are speaking to the king of kings and lord of lords, but they likened our waywardness and prayer to a subject who was brought before his king, a monarch. And here's a butterfly that comes into the palace and he takes off, leaves off speaking to the king and takes off after the butterfly, chasing the butterfly. And how many times when we're talking to the Lord and then all of a sudden we realize, what am I thinking about here?

Does that grieve you? Does it bother you? And it sorrows, this new nature sorrows because it can hear a sad story about a dog. And I know you love your animals, that's good. But we can hear a sad story about Lassie going over a waterfall and falling in or something, and it brings a tear to our eye, but we can hear about the Lord Jesus Christ crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, pierced his side, and his old hat. There's no sorrow, there's no tear. The new man sorrows because it's not a better witness. How many times have people told me, I just wish I had thought to say this, or I wish I could have been a better witness.

Don't we all feel that? All of God's children, not only sorrows, which come with this new man, but there's also joys, joys which are new. The old things of the world that at one time gave us the greatest joy, they don't have that influence, they don't have that impact anymore. But the new things, the things of God, the things of the word of God, when we read the word And God the Holy Spirit blesses his word to us.

As we was reading just a few minutes ago at the beginning here in Philippians chapter one, if you still have your Bible, open there where the apostle Paul in verse two said, grace be unto you and peace. As I read that, I thought in my mind again, there'll never be peace with God if there's not grace first. Grace always comes first. The grace of God that bring us salvation hath appeared unto all men.

But oh, the peace, to know peace, what a blessing that is, what joy that gives us to come together to worship the Lord, to be with the people of God. I know many of you, you work with people and sometimes it's a burden. It's a burden, let me just put it like that. You hear things and people are engaged in things that you just rather not hear anything about, but you're exposed to that. But then you come here with your brothers and sisters in Christ, word of God, hymns, and there's a joy, a joy that you don't find anywhere else except in His presence.

And then there's new desires also, new sorrows, new joys, new desires. We now desire to live for Christ, to be and to do what He would have us to do. The first thing Paul said almost after the Lord revealed Himself to Paul was, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? That's our desire, isn't it, to serve him. The subjects of this new creation are the objects of God's everlasting love. And because we are the objects of his everlasting love, he has created us new by God the Holy Spirit. making us the subjects of his grace and the objects of eternal glory.

You know, there are two things. The scripture says, what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. I know that's speaking in the context there of marriage, but what God has joined together, two things that God has joined together is grace and glory. And if you experience God's grace, you're going to experience God's glory. They're not going to be separated. Everyone that experiences his marvelous grace will also experience his glory. A second reason I would give us this morning as to why I believe in the eternal security of a believer is a believer's union with Christ. is union with Christ. Now we know that we have, from the Word of God, a representative union with Christ.

God has dealt with all men, and these two men, the first Adam and the last Adam, the first man and the last man, that is Adam, who was created and placed in the Garden of Eden, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Adam, all die. As many as Adam represented, we all die. But in Christ, as many as he represented, we all are given life.

There's a union that exists, a representative union. When he came into this world, he lived and died as our representative. We have a representative form of government, don't we? We live here. We have congressmen or congressladies, and they represent us in Congress. And we may not agree with everything they vote for or vote against, but they're our representatives. They represent us. Christ represented those that the Father gave him. And thank God we know that everything he did is right. It's right. We have a representative union. We have a federal union also. But I wanted to mention these three unions. First of all, the union that is, and this is a mystery. It's a mystery. And this union is mystical.

And that comes from the word mystery. in the Word of God. A mystery is not like a mystery book that you would read today. A mystery in the Word of God is a truth that man could never have figured out or known if God had not revealed it. A mystical union exists between the Lord Jesus Christ and every child of God. Everyone who believes in Him believes the gospel.

And it's represented in the union of marriage, one of the ways. That's the reason Paul said this is a great mystery. This union is pictured by a marriage between a man and woman in which the two become one. Now we know that marriages break up sometimes in this world because We're sinners, and we know that's going to happen. But I tell you, this marriage that I'm talking about today, between Christ and his people, there's not going to be a divorce. There's not going to be a separation. This union, this union is forever.

Turn back with me to Malachi, just a moment. Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, chapter two. Malachi chapter 2 and verse 14. This is God speaking to the nation of Israel. Yet you say, wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant.

And did not he make one That is, when God created a wife for Adam, he didn't create him five wives or two wives. He created him one. He could have created a hundred. If polygamy was according to God's purpose and will, it never was. You say, well, David had several wives. I know it. So did Solomon. I forget how many he had.

But in the beginning, remember when our Lord was asked this question about divorce. He said, in the beginning, takes us all the way back to Genesis chapter two, doesn't he? When God saw that it was not good that the man should be alone and he made him a helpmate. Didn't make him two helpmates, he made him one. Wherefore, the scripture said, he did not make one, yet had he the residue of the spirit, and wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. Now, some men are mean. Let me just put it like that. Some men are mean. They're just mean. And evidently, many of these Jews were just mean. And if a wife burned his breakfast, he'd just put her out, divorce her, put her out of the house. And that was accepted.

This is what God is talking about here in this passage. dealing treacherously, betraying the wife of thy youth. But the point I wanted, I brought us here to see is what God says in verse 16. I believe it's verse 16. Yes. For the Lord, the God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away.

Some of those men, those old codgers, they were just mean, lost, mean men. What else can I say? Here's a lady, and we've seen this, a lady that's given herself to her husband and born him children, and then he gets up to, they say, his second childhood, and he starts dealing treacherously. with his wife, looking for someone younger. God said he hated putting away.

No, God's never gonna put away a wife, his wife, the church. That's what I'm talking about, this union. It's mystical, I understand that, but he's a groom, the bridegroom, and his church, we are his bride. There's a union. You think that one day a person could be a part of his bride and then a day or two later he's out, she or he is out of the bride? No. No. The bridegroom has his bride and it's also pictured in the union of the body.

We like this one, don't we? Our bodies, what an easy to see illustration of the union between Christ and every child of God. We've got a number of members. I forget how many bones are in your hand. Doctors could tell you that. It's amazing, isn't it, how that the Lord has created us. Many members in this body. And everyone has a function, has a service, but we only have one head. Christ is the head of his body, that is the church, and we're members of his body.

You think his body's gonna be incomplete? Of course not. And then the branches in the vine, what a beautiful picture is that? this branch and it's there by itself laying on the ground and it's just got all kinds of clusters of grapes on it and it's just by itself. No, no. No, it's gonna be connected, right? It's gonna be in union with the vine if it's going to bring forth fruit.

And you and I are in union with him. and God the Holy Spirit, and that brings me to my third point, the reason I know that a child of God cannot be lost, the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. beginning with verse seven, in whom, that is in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery, there it is, the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all the things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. And we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom, now he's talking to these believers in the church at Ephesus, in whom you also trusted. You believed the gospel, you trusted in Christ.

After that, you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Person has to hear the gospel, right? Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. A person has to hear the gospel, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Whosoever believeth not shall be damned. Paul tells these believers in the church at Ephesus, after that you heard the gospel.

Then you believed, and what took place then? in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory.

Oh, there's so much in those few verses. But when God saves a sinner, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in in that individual. And I jotted down these three things. The Holy Spirit comes as our comforter. Remember our Lord told his disciples the night before he was crucified, I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. And when you get Grieved or in sorrow or disturbed, trials, struggles, temptations, whatever it is that you experience, it's God the Holy Spirit living in you who comforts you. And how does he comfort you? By showing you what he says in his word. By bringing you back to the truths that are revealed here. And then not only is he in us as a comforter, but he is in every believer as a seal. You seal something to show ownership.

And God the Holy Spirit testifies to us that we're bought with a price. You notice it says, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. When Christ purchased you, if you're one of his children, he purchased you, all of you, body and soul.

Now, how many bodies of believers have turned back to the dust over these millenniums? Oh, but there is the earnest of the Holy Spirit. Testify that in the day and the morning when Christ comes again, we look forward to that day, don't we? When he comes again and all of his, he's going to bring with him, their souls, their spirits are with him now, but their bodies have turned back to the dust.

But he's going to give that shout. and the bodies are going to be raised incorruptible like unto his glorious body and be reunited with the soul, the spirit of man. Christ in you, the hope of glory. I trust the Lord would bless this word to us here today.

Eternal Sercurity

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