All right, I need a copy of the lesson for tonight.
Anybody not remember to bring your book?
I need a copy. All right, we got a couple.
All right, Chuck, up here. There we go.
There's a there should be. What?
What are you passing out? What does that say on it?
Oh, that's Part 1. Does it say Part 1?
Let's say Part 2. All right, Jackson, do you have
Part 2 and three? OK, so raise your hand.
You need Part 3 as well. We're going to do Part 2 and
Part 3 tonight. So if you just got one of those
copies, raise your hand again. All right, those should have
been together. All right, let's go to 1st
Thessalonians, chapter one, First Thessalonians Chapter 1.
We're going to get into this here in just a second, But I
was, I was thinking about this this week.
And I think this is something that's very important to, to
point out. It's never been so easy for
people to come in contact with heresy or or really, for lack of
a better term, just goofy principles that people come up
with. You know, there's, there's a lot
of stuff out there nowadays, you know, the emerging church, Flat
Earth, you know, I mean, just so many things out there that that
are just they, they get trending, they get trendy.
One of the things that that is very trendy right now is
reformed theology. Everybody's jumping off on the
reformed theology bandwagon. And you know, I think a lot of
that comes from the fact that you have to be smart to
understand Reformed theology, which if you have to be smart to
understand it, then it's not simple enough to just read it in
the Bible. Then somebody probably came up
with it and it wasn't God. And so, you know, I think that's
that's a lot of where this comes from is, is I am so much smarter
than you that I can get dig deep into the Bible and we should be
getting deep into the Bible. Don't, don't, don't get me wrong
on that. We should be studying deeply as
deep as we can understand into the word of God.
But you know, it used to be for you to encounter a heresy or, or
get off on a wrong doctrine or something like that, you had to
either go to a bookstore and start looking through books or
sit down in the library or maybe listen to a radio program every
single day. Now all you have to do is get on
the Internet and everybody is a theologian, right?
This guy, it could be somebody sitting in his basement that has
never even been to church in the last three years.
But he's a theologian and you're listening to him, you know,
somebody who doesn't believe in the local church and doesn't
believe that, you know, who knows what I mean?
But but everybody has a platform now because of the Internet.
My point with saying that is you have to be very, very careful
who you read, who you listen to, who you study, who you take your
doctrine from. Just because you found this guy
in the Internet and he sounds convincing does not mean that
he's right. You've got to be very careful
about that, especially if you know that you are not very
strong in your faith, especially in areas that you are seeking to
understand, right. You can't just go find the first
person that comes along and offers you $100 Bible class and
take the class and expect that you're going to get all the
doctrines right from the Word of God.
Doctrine matters and if doctrine matters, then who you get your
doctrine from matters just as much.
So you have to be very careful with those things.
You know, one of the greatest dangers I think of the, the
technology with the Internet today is it literally brings
thousands of teachers right into your home.
And you can, you can find anything that you want online.
You can find it. You can, you can find anybody
that's saying anything you want to hear online.
You want to find somebody that says it's OK to drink.
Somebody is on there telling you that it's OK to drink.
You want to find somebody that's that's saying it's OK to have
women preachers and and women in leadership.
You'll find plenty of people that are saying that it's OK.
And here's all the reasons why you want to find somebody that
you know, tells you that that separation and standards and all
of those things are outdated and old.
You'll find plenty of people that will tell you all of those
things, right? And they'll have Bible to back
it up. But most of those things that
they're doing, they're taking out of context.
They're making a passage say something that it was never
intended to say. They are pulling one verse that
that looks like it could be saying something.
But because they don't, many of them even understand how to
study the Bible themselves. They haven't rightly divided the
word of truth. And they're giving you something
that you're jumping off on because they made it sound
convincing and now you're just as wrong as they are.
And, and now you, you come and I'm not saying that this
happened, all right, but now you come to church and the pastor's
wrong because this guy in the Internet said that this is the
way that it was. And if you read it, if you read
in the Bible, that's what the Bible is saying, right?
Get in the Bible yourself, study the Bible yourself.
You figure out what the Bible is saying and then go see what
other people have to say about what you came up with, right?
And maybe you have to tweak your opinion here and there.
Maybe you have to say, oh, you know what?
Maybe I, maybe I, maybe I did misread that a little bit.
Or maybe, you know, maybe I wasn't looking at the context
the right way. OK, look at it from that point
of view. Don't.
Oh, man, I wonder what that verse says.
Let me go see what this guy in the Internet says.
And oh, this is what that passage means.
My pastor is wrong because this guy in the Internet said that
this is what that passage means. And you're not interpreting it
the right way. OK, Don't take this wrong way.
Nobody came to me and said that. All right.
So I'm not, I'm not getting on anybody.
I'm just saying you have to be very, very careful about who you
listen to, who you watch, who you read on the Internet because
you can find anything you want to.
And this, this actually was a testimony that a pastor was, was
talking about, say testimony, but he mentioned this story.
He said that he had a guy that came into his church that at
best was a baby Christian. He hadn't been saved all that
long, really no time in God's word.
He hadn't spent any time reading.
But because he had read all of these people, he considered
himself to be an expert. And so he came to his pastor
And, and it got to the point where in in Bible studies, like
on Wednesday night, he has got his phone out and he's typing
verses in there and looking up what this guy has to say about
it, raising his hand and saying, Oh, that's not right.
That's not what this passage is saying.
This guy said blah blah blah and so finally the pastor sat down
with him and told him you need to stop reading all those
people. And he was shocked, couldn't
believe that the pastor told him, stop reading all those
people. You know, it's shocking to
Americans to tell them that. But, you know, I think a lot of
times what, what people think automatically is you're trying
to hide something. If you don't want me to read
what other people have to say, then you're trying to hide
something. You, you know, you don't want me
to, you know, and, and everything turns into a
conspiracy. And, you know, we have the right
to read and learn from whoever we want to.
And you do have the right to read and learn from whoever you
want to. But my job as a pastor and as
your pastor is to help you be very careful about the wolves
that are coming in in sheep's clothing.
And there are lots and lots and lots of them, especially because
it's so prevalent on the Internet today.
You can find anybody who will say anything that you want to
hear. If that's not an indication that
there's a lot of people out there saying stuff that's not
biblical, then I don't know what is.
My job is to protect you from the wolves that are trying to
get you off on these wrong doctrines.
So you want to know what a passage says?
I'm not saying, you know, call me up every 5 minutes and say,
hey, pastor, what does this passage say?
But I'll have a discussion with you about it and then I'll give
you some good resources. That's the reason why we have so
many of the books that we have in the bookstore, right?
It's those are resources. Go, go read them.
That's, that's why we have them there.
They're there for you to have something to study that I know
is safe. You, you can't be here for very
long without realizing that every message that I preach,
everything that I teach, I have tons and tons and tons of Bible
verses for it. Because it's not just my
opinion. I'm, it's from God's word.
And the people who I read, I read people as well, right?
The people who I read have been at it for a long time.
They've proven themselves that they are, that they are
biblicist, that they, that they are in God's word, that they are
going to read it in a literal context, that they are going to
stick with only the King James Version of the Bible that we
are, that you're going to get something.
And, and even with some of those, I come across people who
I'm saying, I don't, I don't think that's right.
I don't think that's what the Bible is saying right there.
And I dig into the Bible for myself and I get into a little
bit more. I have, I have 3 or 4
commentaries that I really like. And guess what?
Sometimes they disagree with each other.
You know what that means? Somebody's wrong.
You know what that means? I better figure out what that
passage is saying before I just go listen to this one guy
because I really like the way that he says it or what he's
saying, right? It's very, very, very important
that we study. Somebody wrote this, a pastor
wrote this. In my experience and opinion,
very few Christians are mature enough in the Lord to be on
social media. Social media is, along with many
other things, A1 world church tool that promotes unbiblical
doctrines and heresies through the use of peer pressure and
exposure to philosophy of the world.
It is a place where one can trust in the world's
understanding and reason is a place where the individual can
gather agreement for anything he or she wants to believe or
promote from the smorgasbord of ideas.
Do born again believers not know the Wiles of the devil?
That's how we concluded. I think it's really good.
But you know, you know, second Timothy, chapter 3 and verse 7,
ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth. I think that's what the Internet
has kind of produced with a lot of these people.
A lot of people that just get all of their theology from,
they're too lazy to read the Bible for themselves.
So I'll just go listen to what this guy says it is and he's got
to be right because I like the way that he said it.
You've got to be very, very, very careful about that.
And, and obviously, you know, you know, we're concerned about
the younger generation that is many of them apathetic and
carnal. And you know, we, we're trying
to get them excited and get them to have a zeal for the things of
the word of God. But sometimes what happens is in
that zeal, and not even just young people, young Christians,
this happens with a lot. They get so excited about the
word of God and, and, and so much zeal in the word of God
that they, it's a zeal without knowledge is what the Bible
says. That's what the Bible does.
That's what the Bible says that a pastor ought not to be a
novice. You know what novice means?
I mean, somebody that doesn't have a lot of exposure to God's
word, right? You might have, you might, you
might get saved and you might study the word of God every day
for that year. You've read through the Bible
three times. That's a good start, right?
But that's just getting a, that's just getting a foothold.
That's just getting a foundation.
You're still a novice in God's word, right?
It takes time, it takes, it takes, it takes studying it, it
takes going through those. And so, you know, there's,
there's a lot of Calvinist pastors, a lot of hyper
dispensationalist pastors out there, teachers who can sound
very convincing to somebody who doesn't know what they believe.
And it's very, very easy for you to get off on, on a strange
doctrine or on, on a, on a wrong doctrine because you listened to
the wrong person, right? And I don't know everybody
that's out there, but part of my job is to know who's out there
and what they're teaching and what they're preaching and why
it's right or why it's wrong. Most of them are wrong, right?
That's why the Bible says broad is the way that leadeth to
destruction. Narrow is the way that leadeth
to life. It doesn't mean that 90% of them
are right and the other 10% are wrong.
It's the other way around. 90% of them are wrong.
Maybe 10% of them are, right. So my, my, it's just a warning,
all right. And, and we're going to get into
this because, and the only reason that that I started
thinking about that is because eternal security is one of those
issues, right? There's a lot of people out
there who will say that eternal security is not a biblical
doctrine with as many verses as we've looked at that talk about
eternal security in the context of eternal security.
It's you can't say that it's not a Bible doctrine.
It is a Bible doctrine, but for the people who don't want to
believe in eternal security for whatever reason, there's 100
people out there. It'll show you why eternal
security is not a biblical doctrine.
And if you're reading and listening to and watching the
wrong people, it's very easy for you to say, man, that sounds
really convincing. They're they maybe they're
right. What do you think a wolf in
sheep's clothing is? Right?
He's not wearing a tattered. You know, then the Bible uses
that term, basically a wolf in sheep's clothing, right?
I mean, he's not, he's not wearing some tattered wolf
clothing that you're like, you're a wolf and you're just
trying to pretend you're a sheep.
No, he looks like a sheep. That's why people go after it,
right? That's why people are fooled by
it. So, and the Bible tells us all
about that. And you know, false teachers
that that look so good and sounds so good.
And people will heap to themselves having teachers
having itching ears, not the teacher that has an itching ear.
It's the people they want to know something.
And so they'll just go find all of these teachers.
That's exactly what the Bible is talking about.
I mean, it's almost like the Bible knew that the Internet was
going to come along someday and it was going to be there.
And there's thousands and thousands of teachers out there
that you have at your fingertips that you can listen to and get
doctrine from, and they can be wrong because you have itching
ears. Go study the Bible for yourself.
And if you don't know how to do it, then go to the bookstore and
find the book that says how to be an effective Bible student.
It's a thick book in there, or not even that thick.
It's probably a hundred 120 pages that tells you how to
study the Bible for yourself. Great tool.
All right, we have so many of the tools down there.
It's not just a plug for the bookstore.
It's the reason I have the bookstore and the reason that we
take the time to go through all of these resources and to make
sure that they fit in line with what the Bible teaches is
because I don't want you to have to go to a Christian bookstore,
go online to some bookstore and say, man, I hope this book is
OK. Let me try it out and see,
right, you can trust everything that we have in there.
It's all been vetted. It will all help you to study
God's Word and it's going to lead you down the right path,
not the wrong 1. So be very, very careful about
that when it comes to this idea of eternal security.
We're going to look at 2 questions tonight.
The first one being Part 2. Does the doctrine of eternal
security mean that anyone who professes Christ has eternal
life? And the second one being is if
the disobedient believer does not lose his salvation, what
does happen to him? So some of these, especially in
Part 2, we've already discussed, so I'm going to cover it fairly
quickly. Some of these, especially in
Part 3, we're going to cover in a lot more detail later on, so
I'm going to try to cover it fairly quickly.
All right, I know trying to get 2 lessons done in one night
seems to be pretty adventurous. That's not the word I'm looking
for, but ambitious. That's right.
Thank you. Maybe, maybe we should have,
maybe you guys should come up here and help me out.
But that's a little ambitious. But at the same time, like I
said, I think we can get through this.
Got a lot of verses to look at tonight, so let's jump as
quickly as we can to those. But that's the question that we
want to start with. Does the doctrine of eternal
security mean that anyone who professes Christ has eternal
life? The short answer is no, but we
won't leave it at that. The promise of eternal security
is only for those who have been saved, not for mere professors.
Salvation always changes a person's life.
And the reason that I say that we've discussed a lot of these
things already is because a lot of this goes back to repentance
and faith, repentance and faith, repentance and faith.
When somebody truly repents, there is going to be a change in
that person, OK? Salvation #1 demands repentance
and we're there in First Thessalonians chapter 1 and
verse #9 for they themselves show of us what manner of
entering in we had unto you and how ye turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God.
Sure sounds like a giving up of some things, doesn't it?
Sure sounds like a change of life.
How come they didn't turn to God and keep serving those idols?
Because that's not repentance. Repentance demands and salvation
demands repentance and repentance demands a change and
to wait verse 10 for his Son from heaven whom he raised from
the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to
come. Now here's what else what I'll
say as we go through this. You can look to the next points
and see the next verse that's coming up.
If you want to jump to that verse that way, by the time I
mention it, you're almost there already, then that's perfectly
fine. But to, to, to sum up, what the
Bible is talking about here is that God requires repentance for
salvation. And repentance means your
dramatic change of mind resulting in a change of life.
It means to surrender to God. If you are going to surrender to
God, if there's going to be a change in your life, then there
is going to be a giving up of the old life and a giving up of
the old ways and a change from who you used to be.
And I've said this many, many, many times, and I hope you get
it. You don't change in order to be
saved, but you changed because you have been saved.
And there's a difference. I'm not changing my life.
I'm not reforming my life because I'm hoping that God will
take me to heaven. I'm reforming my life.
I'm changing my life because I accepted Christ as my Savior,
and I'm not that person anymore. I'm going in a totally different
direction. That's what repentance is all
about. And so the believers there at
Thessalonica exemplify biblical repentance.
They turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse #17 I think this is one of
the, one of the powerful verses that we have that really shows
that repentance is a change in somebody's life course.
John 3 verse #7 Jesus said you must be born again.
Born again is a dramatic change. It's a, it's a, it's a new
birth. It's a miracle that God does for
a new believer. It's a dramatic transformation.
Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse #17 says therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he is what a new creature, old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new, right? That's a change that's I'm not
who I used to be. There is something different
about me, right? This, this, this idea.
And I've, I've heard people say this before and, and I've, you
know, read many stories of, of people saying this, especially
in the, in the books where they're trying to get a ton of
people saved. And you know, they have these
salvation contests and all of these things where they're
trying to see who can lead the most people to Christ.
What if I told you that you could keep living your life
exactly the way that you're living your life and you can
still go to heaven? Would you want that?
Who wouldn't? All you have to do is believe
that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins and you can go
to heaven when you die. Do you believe that?
Yes. Well, do you want to pray and
ask Jesus to come into your heart?
Yes. OK, you're saved.
No, you're not saved. That's not salvation.
That is not repentance. There's no repentance in it.
There's probably not even really any faith in it either, but
there's no repentance in it. You cannot continue to live your
life in the same way that you're living your life and expect that
there has been a change, that there's been repentance.
So that salvation requires a new birth, and a new birth changes a
man's life #3 those who are saved hear Christ's voice and
follow him. So there's 3 verses here in John
chapter 10 that all go hand in hand.
You cannot separate the one from the other.
And that's what a lot of people try to do.
They take verses as I just mentioned, out of context and
make it say something that it was not meant to say.
You can say if you read in verse 28, I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. That's for all of those who
accept Christ as their Savior. That's for all of those who
believe on Jesus Christ, Right? But Jesus gives the definition
of a true believer who has eternal life.
Jesus is sheep hear his voice, meaning they respond to his
word, and they follow Christ, meaning they submit to him as
disciples. That's what verse 27 says.
My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
Somebody who has not had one minute of change in their life
is not following the voice of God, right?
I believe I'm I'm a Christian. I'm a believer.
No, no change in your life whatsoever.
No forsaking the old ways and turning to God.
No, no change of mind that leads to a change of direction.
You're not hearing the Shepherd's voice because you're
not following him or or you would, right?
So what we're saying here is the promise of verse 28 and 29.
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my, my hand.
My Father which gave them Me is greater than all.
And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
So you have Jesus's hand. I mentioned this the last week.
You have Jesus holding them in their hands, in his hand, and
then the Father holding them in his hand.
There's no way that you're getting out of there.
You're secure, right? But the promises of verse 28 and
29 cannot be divorced from the evidence of verse 27.
You have to take all of those things in context.
Who is it that has eternal life? Who is it that nobody can pluck
out of Jesus's hand? Who is it that nobody can pluck
out of the Father's hand? It's the sheep that hears voice
and follow them. Follow Him.
That's who it is. All right, we have another one
that's almost the exact same way in Ephesians chapter 2.
Turn over there. Those who are saved hear
Christ's voice and follow Him. But saving faith always produces
holy works. And again, I'm not going to take
the time to go all the way through the entire book of James
because we already did that. But how many times do we see in
the book of James that works follows salvation, works follows
repentance, right? Not for salvation, but because
of it. And it will be evident.
It will be obvious. Ephesians 2, eight through 10
describes the proper relationship between faith and
works. It's faith that saves us and
works that follow as a result. The works in the Christian life
are God's works in the believer. Thus there is no glory for man.
But to mix works together with faith for salvation is a false
gospel. Look Ephesians chapter 2, verse
8. For by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves.
That is the gift of God, not of works less than any man should
boast. All of that is Jesus's part.
That's all on him. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained, that we should walk in them.
What is, what is preordained, right?
We read it, we read about that in Romans, right?
And the preordained is that some are going to be saved and some
are not going to be saved. And you're preordained to go to
heaven. You're preordained to be damned
to hell, right? That's what preordination is.
No, it's not. He's talking about two good
works, right? And if you read the context of
that passage, it says the exact same thing.
But what is he? What is he ordaining us to?
He which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them. What is them?
Good works. OK, so if God has before
ordained that we should walk in good works, who is he talking
about here? The people who are saved, right?
For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast.
We then those who are saved are his workmanship in Christ Jesus
created unto good works, that we should walk in them, right?
Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
So it's also true that holy works follow saving faith.
James describes a Christian life from man's perspective.
If a man says he has faith and does not have anything in his
life to back it up, he does not have saving faith, right?
In fact, let's go over there and look at that.
We're not going to, we're not going to go through the entire
passage, but let's go to James chapter 2.
Many times James mentions this faith without works is dead.
But James chapter 2 and verse #14 what does it profit, my
brethren? Though a man say he hath faith
and have not works, Can faith save him?
If a brother or sister be naked and death due to daily food, and
one of you saying to them depart in peace, be your warmed and
filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things which are
needful to the body, What does it profit?
You see what he's saying here? It's all just empty words.
Oh, oh, you need clothes. OK, go, go in peace and be warm.
But you didn't do anything. You didn't put any clothes on
them. How are they going to go in
peace and be warm? It's just, it's just words,
right? What he's saying is faith
without works. Because then he concludes with
that verse #17 Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead,
being alone. Faith in works go hand in hand,
right? If you're saved, you're going to
have the works that prove that you're saved.
You're not doing it to stay saved.
You're not doing it to be saved, but you're doing it because you
are saved and there's going to be an evidence that you are.
So then #5 let's go over to 1st John chapter 2.
First John chapter 2. The Bible says that true
believers keep God's commandments and purify
themselves. First John chapter 2 and verse
#4 he that saith, I know him. Who would that be?
Those who claim to be saved, right?
Those who claim to be Christians, he that says I know
him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the
truth is not in him. So if, if, if you don't keep his
commandments, you're a liar, the truth's not in you.
Then what do you not do? You don't know him, right?
You say you know him, but you don't keep his commandments.
You're a liar and there's no truth in you.
That means you don't know him. Claim that you know Him, but if
you don't keep His commandments, you don't, right?
Verse number or chapter 3. Verse #2 Beloved now, are we the
sons of God? And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know that when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
And every man that hath this hope in Him purifies himself
even as he is pure. What's the hope?
Heaven, He's coming back, right?
So what he's saying does not appear what we shall be, but we
know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is. Everybody that has this hope
does what purifies himself, who has the hope that God's, that
Jesus Christ is coming back for us someday?
The saved, right? So if you're saved and you have
that hope, then what are you going to do?
You're going to purify yourself. So then let's do the opposite of
that. Somebody who says they're saved
but doesn't purify themselves because he could come back.
What's the only conclusion that we can draw from that?
Probably you're not saved right now.
You can still be a Christian in sin, all right?
You can still be a Christian living in sin.
We're going to talk about that in the next lesson.
But there's a good indication then that you're not saved.
The promise of verse 2 cannot be divorced from the evidence of
verse 3, Right? Here's the promise.
He's coming back for us. I have this hope that he's
coming back. But verse 3 is, and every man
that hath this hope purifies himself.
So if you don't purify yourself, you don't have that hope.
That's basically what he's saying.
And what Brother Cloud is saying here in this fifth point is the
promise that he's coming back for you cannot be divorced from
the fact that if he really is coming back for you, you're
going to live a pure life. Number six, the Bible warns
about those who profess Christ but do not obey him.
Titus chapter 1. Let's turn over there.
They are false professors, false professors.
And we see a lot of this. In fact, Titus talks a lot about
exactly what I was just talking about, false teachers.
But Titus chapter one verse #16 Let's go back to verse 15.
Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are
defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their
mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny Him, being abominable and
disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
That is exactly what our question is.
Does the doctrine of eternal security mean that anyone who
professes Christ has eternal life?
Well, here's somebody who is professing to know Christ,
right? That's what he's saying.
They profess that they know God, but it works.
They deny him, and they're abominable and disobedient and
reprobate. So to go on to the next page, if
a person claims to have faith in Christ, but his life doesn't
reflect that he's deceived, A fruitless profession of faith
cannot lay claim to God's promises of eternal security.
If an individual professes Christ and then turns away,
that's evidence that he was never saved, right?
So does the doctrine of eternal security 'cause people to live
carelessly? Well, I suppose that it could,
right? We're in Titus chapter 2.
Look at verse #11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that
blessed hope in the glorious appearing of our great God.
Of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself
for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify
unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
So those who don't believe in the doctrine of eternal security
say that it causes people to live carelessly.
Well, you can if, if you can, if you can't lose your salvation,
then you can go live your life however you want to.
And it just, it encourages you to live your life however you
want to because you know that you can't lose your salvation.
If you can lose your salvation, it makes you want to live for
Christ. Because I don't want to lose
what I have, right? Well, in fact, the opposite is
true, the cloud said. I began my preaching career in
part of Tennessee where Methodists had predominated for
a couple centuries. The doctrine of losing your
salvation had devastated that area.
It was filled with people who had tried to live the Christian
life and failed and now lived like the devil.
That's exactly what happens, right?
If you know that you cannot lose your salvation, you realize what
a wonderful thing you have that motivates you to live for the
Lord. They their argument is the exact
opposite. Well, if you know that you can
lose that, that you can't lose your salvation, you can just go
live how you want to and that's going to motivate you to not
live for the Lord. No, exactly what Brother Cloud
is saying is exactly what happens so often.
You try so hard and you realize you can't do it on your own.
And then you never know if you're saved or not.
And you don't have any kind of security that you, when you die,
you're going to go to heaven. What's the point of doing all
this anyway? Then they quit and they go live
like the devil. That's exactly what happens in
many of these places where they don't believe in eternal
security. But the Bible teaches that the
grace of God and motivates believers to serve God with a
thankful heart. And we read that in Romans 2,
Ephesians chapter 3. The more a believer understands
the unfathomable love that God has for him in Christ, the more
he wants to please God first. John 419 We love him because he
first loved us. No, it's not.
It's not what's the what keeps me living for the Lord.
What is it that keeps me living for the Lord?
His love for me, right? I know what He gave me.
I know what I have in Him. I have eternal life.
Could I go jump off the deep end and live my life however I want
to right now? Absolutely I could.
And I could still go to heaven because I know I'm saved.
But the reason I don't do those things is not because I can't.
It's because I don't want to. For the love of Christ
constraineth us. I don't want to go do those
things because I know what He's done for me.
I know what He saved me from. That's why I have the motivation
to live for him. It does the exact opposite.
I'm not trying to do this to to get myself to heaven.
I'm not trying to do this so that I can, you know, have a
higher, higher rung or a bigger mansion or any of those kind of
things. Those those things are already
promised to me. I can't lose that because I know
I'm saved. But I don't want to live like
the world. I don't want to live like the
old man. I don't want to live like who I
used to be because I know that what I have is something that's
far more valuable than what I had before.
I accept the Christ as my Savior.
So the true grace of God teaches people to live holy lives.
And that's what we're saying there in Titus chapter 2 verse
#11 So let's go on to Part 3. Then a third question, I guess
what this would be, but a second main question.
If the disobedient believer does not lose his salvation, then
what does happen to him? OK, well, isn't that a
motivation? The doctrine of eternal security
causes people to live carelessly because they know they can't
lose it. I suppose that's a possibility.
But what happens to the believer who knows that he's eternally
secure, knows that he cannot lose his salvation, but he's
disobedient to the Word of God? Well, we have a few things here.
Number one, let's go over to 1st John chapter 1.
We're not too far from there. The sinning believer is out of
fellowship with the Lord and his people.
First John chapter 1 and verse #3.
Well, really verse 3 through 7 that which we have seen and
heard, declare we unto you, that she also may have fellowship
with us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
And these things right we unto you, that your joy may be full.
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and
declare unto you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness
at all. We say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness. We lie and do not the truth but
but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin. John's gospel here of first
John. First John really is all about
our fellowship, right? The the, the, the, the
fellowship that we have with God.
That's kind of the theme of that whole book John was writing to
instruct the believers in how to maintain that fellowship with
with Jesus. So verse #7 is all about verse
#3 is all about that which we have seen and heard and declare
unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son
Jesus Christ. It's all about having that
fellowship with Him. We do that by walking in the
light instead of walking in darkness.
Walking in the light is walking in obedience to God's Word.
Walking in darkness is walking in disobedience to God's Word.
So to live out a fellowship with Christ means that I'm not
walking according to God's Word. And if I'm not walking according
to God's word, then I don't have that fellowship with him.
I'm not going to have that fellowship with him.
I don't have the wisdom that he can give me.
I don't have the power that only comes from him.
I don't have the blessing that he wants to give me.
So when I get to the point where I have decisions that I have to
make in my life and I'm doing it without God's blessing.
When I have decisions that I have to make and I'm making it
without God's wisdom. When I when I have to get up
and, and try to share the gospel with somebody in a crowd or
one-on-one and I don't have God's power, right, I lose all
of that when I'm not living in fellowship with God.
The question that that that I think that I think we ought to
think about often is are you on praying ground, right?
How many times somebody comes to you and says, Hey, I need you to
pray about this is a really serious matter.
Can you pray about this for me? And you say, you're never going
to say, no, I can't pray. I'm not in fellowship with God,
right? You're going to say, yeah, I'll
pray with you about that. And then you start thinking
about all the things that you're doing that are not in
fellowship. And man, I haven't been on my
knees in a while. And boy, if I, I mean, if I do
pray, is my prayer going to be the thing that hinders the
answer because God can't answer me because I'm, and you're not
on praying ground at all, right? How about, how about living a
life that's clean before God and living in fellowship with God so
that when somebody does come and say, hey, I really need you to
pray about this. Can you pray about this with me?
I can say, yeah, I'll drop it at my knees right now.
I'm, I'm in fellowship with God and there's nothing that I have
between me and him. I'll go to God on your behalf
right now. And I'm going to trust that
God's going to answer that prayer because there's nothing
between me and him, right? You're out of fellowship with
him. Now You can, you can be a saved
Sinner that's out of fellowship with God and you lose all the
things that come with that fellowship, right?
It's like it's, it's, it's just think about it with any
relationship that you have, right?
You're in fellowship with somebody, you have a great
relationship. And then you do something that
kind of stabs them in the back and all the, the jokes that you
used to, you know, tell together and all the fun things that you
used to do and all the, you know, the, the inside jokes and
whatever else that you had with each other.
It just kind of goes away because, well, I mean, he
probably, I mean, we probably could joke around again, but I
know what I did to him and he knows what I did to him.
And so we just kind of, we lost it.
You know, it's, it's not there anymore.
And it happens in relationships, right?
It may not even be something that you did.
It might just be that you kind of went separate ways and you
don't really hang out very much anymore.
That's exactly what the what the fellowship with Christ is too,
right? Sometimes you sinned against him
and you know that there's this thing between you and him.
Well, you're not going to come to him and ask him to do this
for you, or ask for his power or ask for his wisdom when you know
you have something between you and Him.
But sometimes it may not even be a sin.
It might just be that you got cold and you grew away and you
haven't been, you know, you haven't been in prayer and you
haven't been in your Bible, and you haven't been doing the
things that you know you're supposed to do.
And that causes the fellowship to grow cold too.
And now somebody comes and says, hey, I need you to pray about
this. And you say, well, yeah, I'll
pray about it. And you don't because you can't,
right? So what happens to a saved
person, a Christian that that can't lose his salvation, but
he's in sin anyway? Well, he's out of fellowship
with the Lord. 2 The sinning believer grieves the Holy Spirit
that lives in him. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4. Now this whole part here, this
whole third part of the eternal security is, is under the
assumption that you know Christ as your Savior, right?
And you know that you know Christ as your Savior.
The sitting believer grieves the Holy Spirit that lives in, in
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse #30 and grieve not the Holy
Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption. OK, You're sealed under the day
of redemption. You cannot lose your salvation.
But what can you do? You can grieve the Spirit,
right? So I mean, if you want to, if
you want one verse on eternal security, that's about it right
there, right? You're sealed under the day of
redemption by that Holy Spirit that you can grieve.
How do you grieve the Holy Spirit?
By living for him? No, by not living for him,
right. So what this verse is saying is
you're sealed, the Holy Spirit seals you and you're going to
heaven, but you can grieve him at the same time, which means
you can sin and not lose your salvation.
But don't. That's what he's saying.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto
the day of redemption. So to grieve the Holy Spirit
means that his ministration in my life is hindered.
He cannot do the things that he wants to do through me and in
me. He is the believer's comforter
and strength and guide and teacher.
And when he's grieved, I lose that blessing.
I don't grow spiritually. I don't have spiritual power.
I don't have spiritual enlightenment, I don't have
spiritual wisdom. I lose all of the things that
the Holy Spirit does in the life of a believer when I grieve him
#3 the sinning believer is helped by the Lord Jesus Christ.
First John chapter 2 probably could have stayed over there,
but let's go back to it. First John chapter 2 verse #1 My
little children, these things right I unto you, that ye sin
not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world, right?
So. My little children, OK, who is a
child who's a child that he's talking to here?
Yes, us right. It's the it's the children of
God. It's not just the the the little
kids, it's the children of God. So he's saying, my children,
these things I write unto you that you sin not, but if you do
sin, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous right.
He's our advocate with the Father and he'll be there to to
go to God on behalf of our sin, right?
He's the propitiation. He's the he is the the the go
between, if you will, the payment for our sin and not for
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
He'll do that for anybody. But when we sin, God doesn't
abandoned us. We have an advocate, we have a
helper. The name Jesus means savior and
he does not cease to be my savior when I sin.
Jesus is there helping me. And I've used this illustration
many times when it comes to the the, the the list of all of my
sins. And you accept Christ as your
savior and that and, and he puts his name that in, in ran in
blood over the top of all of your sins.
Well, what happens when you sin again still covered under the
blood of Christ, right? He opens the book, he writes
that sin down and he closes the book again, right?
Grieves him. It hurts his heart to have to
write a sin down that he died for, but he still does it and he
still covers it the same way, and he'll still go to God on our
behalf as an advocate for us #4 Then the sinning believer is
chastened by the Father in Hebrews chapter 12.
We like this passage because it
talks about wherefore seeing we also are compassed about.
We have this great cloud of witnesses looking under Jesus.
Very inspiring verses, right, But it continues on, and they
get not very inspiring, and just a few short verses after that,
but necessary verse #5 And you have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him. That in for whom the Lord
loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth. That comes from Proverbs chapter
3. If you endure chastening, verse
7, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all our
partakers, then are you bastards and not sons?
Listen, what he's saying is if you can sin and there's no
punishment that comes from that sin, then you're not a son
because God punishes his children, right?
You cannot just sin, sin, sin, sin, sin and have no consequence
for it and have no pricked conscience about your sin.
If you can live your life that way and you don't feel anything,
there's a good possibility it's because you're not saved.
You ought to feel something. You're, you're a son of God and
he's going to treat you like a son.
He's going to discipline you the way a father disciplines a son,
right? Verse.
Verse #9 Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which
corrected us, and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of
spirits, and live? For they barely for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit,
that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous,
but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yielded the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. Boy, you cannot get more
beautiful language than what you read in verse 9 through 9
through 11. Such a beautiful, beautiful
language on the way that God deals with his children.
He's saying, man, you have a father, you have an earthly
father that, that that spanked you when you did wrong.
And he was doing that to to make himself feel better because you
he knew that he wanted to live a peaceable life and with you
running around like a Wildman. He's not going to have it.
So he he disciplines you and you gave him reverence because he
disciplined you. How much more should you give
reference to God when he does it?
He's not doing look, he that's that's what he's saying verse
#10 for verily, for they Verily for a few days chastened us
after their own pleasure. But he for our prophet that we
might be protectors of His Holiness.
The reason we should be thankful that God is willing to punish us
and chastise us as his children is because he's trying to make
us more holy. He's trying to make us more like
him right. It doesn't seem to be fun, but
the fruit of it is good. It's going to help you be what
he wants you to be. So what happens to some a Sinner
That's, that's that. I mean, a saved person that's in
sin, God has to chasten them. He has to chastise them.
And it's not fun, but it's for our good.
Verse #5 the sinning believer reaps corruption.
Galatians chapter 6. Let's turn over there.
Coming to a close here. Galatians chapter 6.
These are verses that most of you could quote pretty easily.
Verse 7 and 8, Be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever
a man soweth that shall, he also reap, for he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth
to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
There's a price to be paid for sin in this present world.
Just because we're saved doesn't mean that we escape the sowing
and reaping. And I think that's a that's a
really sad principle. It's a really hard principle.
And, and he mentions a few things here that I think are are
easy for us to understand. Many believers have paid a
terrible price, such as losing their marriage over such things
as adultery, anger, worldliness, losing their kids hearts, losing
their ministries. Anything can be forgiven by
confession, but God has but, but sin has consequences.
For example, I know many divorce believers who have confessed
their sin, but the divorce is still a reality with all of its
ugly and hurtful lifelong ramifications.
It's true, right? Yeah, you could be saved and you
can go have an affair and you're not going to lose your salvation
and go to hell because you had an affair.
There's a lot of things that come as a result of that.
And you can choose your sin, but you don't get to choose the
consequences. God chooses the consequences.
And sometimes, like he did with David, he'll have mercy,
Sometimes he doesn't because he knows what we need to help us
get to the point where we're not going to do that again.
Can't lose your salvation, but you're going to reap that
corruption. You sinned.
You're still, there's still a principle of sowing and reaping
and we still all fit within that principle.
Number six, the sinning believer loses irreplaceable
opportunities for service and fruit.
And I think this is one of the saddest parts of it for, for,
you know, obviously, if you know, many times when somebody
sins and they know they've sinned and they're repentant,
like David was right. David said, I know that
everything that that I'm getting everything that's happening to
me. I deserve this right and I think
a lot of people feel that way. But the sad thing is you lose
out on so many opportunities to serve the Lord.
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse #14 Wherefore he says, awake
thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light. See then that you walk
circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time,
because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but
understanding what the will of the Lord is.
See, we, we can be forgiven, but we lose opportunities when they,
when the Israelites doubted God, they were forced to walk in the
wilderness for 40 years. They repented.
As soon as they realized what was going to happen, they, they
repented and they asked God, you know, for forgiveness.
Oh, we're so sorry. We should have never said that.
We should have never done that. Please forgive us.
And God said, that's fine, I forgive you, but you're still
going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, right?
You're still going to have to go through all of those things.
And, and then the same thing, all of those who, who, who
complained and God said, all right, everybody that's 20 years
old and up, you're going to die in the wilderness.
Some of them, some of them repented, if you will.
Some of them ask for forgiveness, but the
consequences were still there. Many believers have lost
irreplaceable opportunities by making important decisions when
they were backslidden out of God's will.
And it happens a lot. Marry the wrong person, take the
wrong job, because you stop paying attention to what God
wanted. You start focusing on money and
start focusing on all those other things and you get out of
God's will because you're backslidden.
You have to live with those consequences.
You have to live with, with all of the the consequences of your
choices right now. Obviously you marry the wrong
person. You're not going to say up,
definitely marry the wrong person, get divorced.
Let's go and try this again. No, you live with it and you
move on and you and you try to make the best of it for God's
glory in the middle of a situation that you made a mess
out of, right. But you can still move on.
But you can't go back and start over.
So what the conclusion here is then we must live very
cautiously and make sure that we're in God's will every step
of the way. The last one here then is in
First Corinthians chapter 3. And I think this is this one
ought to be the most sobering for all of us.
And again, one of the motivations that keeps us from
sinning. Just because we can't lose our
salvation doesn't mean like as we already said, this doesn't
mean that we can live our lives how we want to, right?
But the sinning believer will suffer loss at the judgement
seat of Christ. One of these days we're all
going to stand before God. And one of these days we're
going to get rewarded or we're going to not get rewarded,
depending on how we lived our lives.
And verse #11 for other foundation can no man laid, and
that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver,
precious stones, what hay stubble, all those are things
that we can build on top of, right?
So you get the foundation, right.
Once the foundation, right, that's, that's Christ, right.
Your house is not going to collapse when the storms come.
You're not going to end up, you know, with a, with a, with a
flat house because you built on sand, you built the foundation,
right? Nobody can lay that foundation
other than Jesus Christ. But then you build on that
foundation, and you can build out of gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, stubble. Every man's work shall be made
manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of
what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he
has built there upon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss,
but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire.
Again, not necessarily a verse that we usually think of for
eternal security, but eternal security is, is right there in
that verse. You're going to be saved, right?
You're not going to, you're not going to lose your salvation.
That foundation is still there, but you could build an entire
life on top of a foundation that's solid, but that's going
to be burned up the second you touch the fire to it.
And everything that you put your life around, everything that you
built your life around could be gone in an instant.
You'll be saved. You're going to heaven.
Your foundation is is is secure, but everything that you built
your life around is gone in an instant unless you build out a
gold, silver, precious stones that would hay stubble be gone
in an instant. That's a sinning believer.
You can live your life how you want to.
You can and you don't. You're not going to lose your
salvation, but you're going to pay the consequences of it.
And one of these days you're going to stand before God.
I, as he says here, want to hear him say well done, thou good and
faithful servant. To not hear that will be a very
tragic loss. That's the sinning believer.
You're a believer. You're saved.
You're on your way to heaven. You can't lose that salvation.
He's holding you in his hand, in God's hand.
All of those are there for you, but it's all going to be burned
up. And not only that, but the life
that you live here is going to be a miserable life because
you're going to be getting chastised by God.
And if you don't get it right and come back, he's going to
keep chastising you. And things are probably going to
keep getting worse and worse and worse and worse for you.
But not only that, you don't have God's power, you don't have
God's blessing, you don't have God's wisdom, you don't have the
work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Can you be a Christian and sin, live your life how you want to
and still go to heaven? You can, but it's a miserable
life and it's a miserable judgment because everything that
you built your life around, it's going to be burned up, it's
going to be gone. It's not going to come for
anything. So the thing that he mentions
here at the very end, I can't recommend this book enough
Things hard to be understood. It's a handbook of biblical
difficulties. And basically what it is, is
everything that everything that we find in God's word that seems
to be a contradiction is just that it seems to be a
contradiction. God's word does not contradict
itself. So this book things hard to be
understood is a really good book for helping you to understand
the difficult passages what is being said here.
But there's a whole section at the end of that book that is all
topics, if you will, eternal security.
And he says for passages, look at the at the article in eternal
security for passages that are used by those who deny the
doctrine of eternal security. So these are all verses in all
passages that would that would refute the passages that they
used to say that eternal security is not a valid
doctrine, if you will. We don't have time to go through
all of those. We, we pretty much have, I mean,
in, in one way or another, one form or another over these last
couple weeks that we've done this lesson, but things hard to
be understood. It's a tremendous, tremendous
book. You can get it in a hard copy.
You can get it in a digital copy.
I believe we have hard copies of it back there in the bookstore.
I know we did. I don't know if we, you know,
we, we try to keep up with them and we've made several orders
and everything else. Sometimes it just disappears,
but you can get a digital copy of that too.
And it's easy to have that as part of like a Bible study in
the mornings or something like that, if you're, if you're
looking at it. But again, we have to be very,
very, very careful about who you read and who you listen to and
who you watch, all of those kind of things, because the doctrine
should come from God's Word. You looked at, look at all these
verses that we looked at tonight, right?
You can get in God's Word and find those verses for yourself.
You can do it. Why don't we?
Many times it's because we're too lazy to actually get in
there and look at it ourselves, right?
So it's a whole lot easier to just go find somebody that wrote
an article about it on the Internet, read what they have to
say, take their opinion, and that forms the basis of our
belief about this. Now I don't have to study that
out anymore because this guy said this and it sounded good.
So this is what I believe, right?
That's not Bible study, that's reading somebody's opinion,
right? Bible study is get in there,
figure out what it says. What do these verses mean?
OK, let's find the verses. Let's find the verses that
people who are opposed to eternal security use as evidence
for why they think eternal security is not a Bible
doctrine. And let's go find verses that
show us how we know that it is and how we know that they're
wrong. Right?
You can find it. You just got to study it out.
And again, that's why we have hundreds of Bible study tools.
You can use tools to help you find those things, but you need
to study it out for yourself. And don't just count on somebody
else's opinion or somebody else's study.
Get into the Bible yourself, read those verses yourself, see
what it has to say, come to your own conclusion based on what
God's Word says, right? It's a very important that we do
that. All right, we're going to get
into position and practice next week.
Let me mention this as we close. We have, I think, 6 people that
have accepted Christ as their Savior since the last time we
did a baptism service. And I'd like to do a baptism
service on Sunday for those who need to be baptized.
I know that's kind of short notice, but I mean really, I
don't know what I don't know how you prepare for baptism, you
know, other than maybe telling other people about it that might
want to be there and be a part of it.
But having said that, I will plan to do it on on Sunday.
So come let me know if, if you need to be baptized, if you're
one of those 6 that we, most of us, in fact all of us have
talked about about baptism. I've talked to all of you about
baptism. It's just kind of the date we
get into the next Sunday is Christmas, the Sunday after
that, a lot of people are out of town and things like that.
That puts us into the beginning of the new year, which is our,
our Sunday where we're kicking off the new theme.
And it just, it's going to be another month before we can do
it. I'd rather do it sooner than
later. So I'm planning to do it this
Sunday for all of those who would like to be baptized that
have been saved recently. So come see me, let me know,
send me a text, something like that and let me know.
I'll probably shoot each of you a text and just and, and see
where you're at with it. But if you can do it, we'd like
to do it this Sunday. All right, let's pray we'll be
done and we will sing our song and be dismissed.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
Thank you for these lessons that we have.
I thank you for the work that Brother Cloud has put into, but
digging these things out of the Word of God and helping us to
have a framework to go off of and some verses that we can look
at that that that just really help us with understanding the
doctrine of the Bible and making sure that we are getting it from
your word and not just from somebody's opinion or from
anywhere else. God may.
May our final authority be God's word, and may you help us to be
truly students of your word and be effective at it.
And may you help us to be witnesses for you because of
what you've done for us. Thank you again for all you do
for us in Jesus name, Amen. All right.