Ceaseless Security

A.K.A. Perseverance of the Saints

People want to have security in their jobs and financial situation.
People long for security in their homes so they purchase alarm systems.
People want security against misfortunes so they purchase insurance.
People desire marriage to have security in their home life and family life.
People desire security in the afterlife… which brings us to the message today.

I think we can go with the general consensus that it is God who saves us.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (HCSB)
8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.

BF&M; All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.[1]

A mom and her little boy were taking a stroll along the beach when they came across a dead sea gull, lying in the sand. The boy points it out to his mom. The mother gives caring reassurance to her son by saying, “The sea gull went up to heaven.”

The boy continues to examine the dead bird and still confused, asked his mom, “Well, why did God throw him back down here?”

Certified Security

Does God keep you saved or do you keep yourself saved?

And…What about the ones who say they are saved but don’t act like it?

So here I am, I have placed my faith in Jesus Christ for my salvation. I realize that I am sinful and that I cannot save myself…

Sunday morning, I have repented of my sin, asked God for forgiveness through His Son, Jesus Christ. I am openly confessing Him as Lord of my life.

But things don’t get easier.
I’m still tempted by the things that I was tempted by before.
I have some short term stamina from the excitement of my experience, but the temptations keep coming, stronger and stronger. Never ending, relentless in trying to wear me down.
Addictions plague my physical body and though I desire so strongly to quit… the flesh is weak.
The other Christians (like Sister Bertha Better Than You) are saying, “you need to do this” and “you need to quit doing that” and “what are you doing now?”
Non-Christians are saying stuff like, “I thought you were a ‘Christian’”?

And now it is Monday afternoon! I don’t feel like I’m saved at all! In fact, I don’t even look like someone who is saved!

If I have to keep myself in God’s good graces… I have already failed!
Not only can we not “save ourselves” but we cannot ‘keep ourselves saved.’
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… all three persons of the Godhead have a part in keeping us in grace.

The Father and Son:

John 10:27-30 (HCSB)
27 My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”

The Seal of the Holy Spirit:

Ephesians 1:13-14 (HCSB)
13 In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation—in Him when you believed—were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 14 He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.

· And 2 Corinthians 5:5 also refers to the seal of the Holy Spirit as a down payment, a certainty, proof that the eternal covenant has been made between the believer and God.

This is only a scratch on the surface as to how God keeps us in grace. But in just two passages we see that it is the power of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) that can keep us in His eternal embrace.

God will not pardon you in one moment and condemn you the next.
God will not justify you one moment and torment you the next.
God will not make you His child and then abandon you as an orphan.
I cannot be born again, born from above, born anew… and then be “unborn.” Praise God that He is ‘pro-life’ meaning that after you are born again… He won’t abort you!
I cannot have eternal life, and then not have “eternal life.”

Two men discussing eternal security and the one uses the example of he and his child in a boat on dangerous waters. “I held my son, so he would not fall out of the boat. Even though he did not understand the dangers of the waters.”

“But what if he wriggled away from you and went out of the boat himself?”

“Oh, but you have misunderstood that maybe I only had a hold of his coat, but no, I had a hold of him.”

Senseless Security

What about the ones who say they are saved but don’t act like it?

I contend that those who seem to have lost their salvation were never saved. They were never true believers. They never really had eternal life. They never really put their faith in Christ.

You say, “But I know that he/she was saved.” No, you don’t.
You say, “But you don’t know that they were not saved.” Yes, you’re right.

Two places in the Scriptures clearly show people appeared to be saved, but were not.

Matthew 7:22-23 and 1 John 2:19-20 (HCSB)
19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

As for those who are really saved, but don’t act like it.

Baptist Faith and Message: Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

Discipline for those disobedient children.

Psalm 89:31-33 (HCSB)
31 if they dishonor My statutes and do not keep My commandments, 32 then I will call their rebellion to account with the rod, their sin with blows. 33 But I will not withdraw My faithful love from him or betray My faithfulness.

Hebrews 12:5-6 as sons, God disciplines us because He loves us.

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:

My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly,

Or faint when you are reproved by Him;

6 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves,

and punishes every son whom He receives.
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[1]The Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist Faith and Message.