6 3 Eternal Security 1

Hebrews Series- Fellowship Baptist Church

Passage:           Hebrews 5:11-6:12 (Part 4)

Theme: The State of the Dull and the Diligent

Proposition:      Salvation Cannot Be Lost

Introduction:

Overview:

      A Difficulty Identified (5:11-14)

                  teaching spiritual truth to spiritually dull

      A Danger to Avoid (6:1-8)

                  participation without regeneration

      A Solution to Accept (6:9-13)b

                  be diligent about spiritual change

Today I would like for us to consider an issue that is crucial as it relates to our hope in Christ and the message of the gospel.

This issue is whether or not one can lose God’s salvation. 

1999 was my first experience of traveling over the Atlantic Ocean  to visit the country of Ukraine.  I was to spend a week and a half meeting with the leaders of a seminary in Kiev that the college oversaw, preaching in churches, and teaching in the seminary.  It was a time of learning:

To trust God through customs and international travel.

About the culture and history of a proud people who had been under the bondage of Russian tyranny for decades.

How the religious persecution of the government had affected the churches of Ukraine.

I had heard reports of some unbiblical teaching that the Christians there held to, one of which was this issue we will consider today.   For a long time, the people in the churches had been taught that there was no such thing as eternal security.  What intrigued me were the reasons why they had concluded that “saved” people could end up in hell.  The answer was two-fold:

First, they had had the horrible experience of seeing many of their friends and family who professed Christ, suffer under the intense persecution of an atheistic government.  The pastor and many of the deacons of the church sponsoring the seminary had all spent some level of time in prison for their faith.  Church for many became Christians gathering in secret, in homes and in the woods, for their services.  Many Christians died for their faith.  In the midst of this, there were also many in the churches that walked away from their profession.  Intimidated and scared, they denounced what they had said they believed.  It was a difficult time for these churches as they dealt with unfaithful friends and loved ones and tried to explain what they were experiencing and observing.

The second problem was also a result of the persecution but in a different way.  The government authorities were very good at confiscating the Bibles and Christian writings that belonged to the believers.  This, coupled with a vacuum of leadership and trained teachers (who were in prison) meant that there was no or little biblical authority in the churches.  People were left with partial truth mixed with human logic and experience.  The results were devastating.  The conclusion was that if salvation depended on a person’s exercise of faith in the first place, then a person could renounce their faith later and lose their salvation.  Logical, but biblically false on both counts.

Two of the passages that were used then and today in many circles to argue against the idea of eternal security, are found in the book of Hebrews.

This is ironic, in a sad way, since the purpose of this book to help us understand our standing and security in Christ.  It is intended to give us hope for the future, and for us to understand that it is because of Christ, not ourselves, that we have hope.

But it is also just like Satan to take God’s words of secure hope and twist them to produce fear, uncertainty, and hopelessness in the minds and hearts of people.

Since there are those who seek to convince others that Hebrews 6 teaches that the gift of salvation, once possessed, can be lost, I would like for us first to consider what the Bible says about this issue and then come back to study Hebrews 6 in further detail.

In other words, Hebrews 6 or 10 cannot stand alone but must be interpreted in the context and teaching of other New Testament truth.

First, let’s consider the main verses that are used to “prove” the position of lost salvation:

            Christ:

Mark 13:13, ESV  - "And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved."

John 8:31, ESV  "So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,"

(John 15:1-6, ESV) "“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned."

            Epistles:

1 Corinthians 15:2, ESV "and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain."

2 Corinthians 13:5, ESV "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test!"

Philippians 2:12, ESV "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,"

Colossians 1:21-23, ESV  "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard,

And there are others that could be cited as well.  Now, we could spend time looking at these passages and determining if they are being interpreted in context.  There are considerations regarding who the audience is, what else is said that might affect the meaning, etc.

I will say this though, one must consider whether these are statements that teach that we become something by doing something, or that we do something because we are something?

This question brings us to a more foundational question:  Is a person saved because of what he/she has done or continues to do or because of what God did and continues to do.

Another way of asking this question is this: 

Does salvation depend on the work of man or the work of God?

Another important related question is this:

Is faith something that I generate or possess myself, or is faith the result of God’s work in me? 

These questions are of utmost importance and must be answered before we can settle the issue of eternal security.  Both sides can throw “proof texts” at each other all day to prove their point, but in the end are we saying what scripture says.

I submit to you that salvation is wholly the work of God, that man cannot in any way effect or take credit for his salvation, and that the even the response of faith that to God’s offer is the product of the work of God in one’s life.

Salvation is the work of God, guaranteed by God, kept by God, and finished by God, and cannot be lost, stolen, or given up.  God won’t allow it.

Next week we will look at what God has to say about His work from beginning to the end.  But let me leave you with a statement of Jesus and a statement of Peter’s:

(John 10:27-30, ESV)

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”"

(1 Peter 1:3-5, NIV)

" Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."