Preached in Markham Baptist Church, January 30, 2005

GREAT WORDS OF THE FAITH - PART 5: "ETERNAL SECURITY"

Our great word of the faith today, is actually two words - eternal security. It is the idea that once we belong to God there is nothing that can snatch us out of His hand. Our salvation, justification and glorification all of that is secure since we are in Christ.

So Jesus says in John 10:28,29: “My sheep listen to my voice and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

Those who are in Christ are eternally secure. And this is the point that Paul makes in our text this morning.

And it is a daring word; it is an audacious word. To think that we are eternally secure and we wonder how can God be sure of that? How can He be sure that from the time I accept Christ to the time I die, that I will not be overwhelmed with the worries of life, or be overcome by the temptations of this world, and fall away from Christ and reject the faith?

But this is the bold claim of Scripture if you are truly in Christ you are secure, you need not worry, you need not be overwhelmed, you need not be overcome, you need not look over your shoulder thinking Satan or the world is going to snatch you out of God’s hand – because you are secure in Christ.

And this is the point that Paul emphasizes in verses 31-39 of our text.

Here Paul asks a series of questions, and he engages us in conversation. It’s a wonderful way to write. He begins at verse 31, “What then shall we say to these things?”

What things? That we are predestined that we are justified, that we are regenerated that we are sanctified, all the wonderful miracles God has done in our lives. What shall we say to these things?

“Wow! We are speechless Paul. What can we say? It’s wonderful.”

“Amen” says Paul. And he continues and says in effect, “Doesn’t it make you think that if God is for us, who can be against us?”

“Oh yes. But Paul there are times when there is much that is against us. And to be honest I spend a great deal of time thinking and fretting about all that is against me and against the church and against my family and against my faith against the kingdom of God.”

And Paul would say again, “But God is for you.”

“I know, I know. But look at the world around us. There is Satan, Paul; surely you know about Satan, Scripture tells us that he is like a roaring lion seeking those he can devour. Surely he is a force to reckon with; surely he is one who we should fear, surely Paul he is against us.”

But Paul would come back and repeat the same phrase. “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

That word “if” - it’s not a word of doubt here, the word “if” means “since”. “Since God is for us who can be against us?”

And Paul is saying, “You aren’t going to hold Satan up against God are you? He tried his best to defeat God at Calvary, he danced around the cross in supposed victory thinking that the crown of the universe was his. Satan thought he had destroyed the Son of God but in reality all he did was strike his heel, for on the third day Jesus Christ rose from the dead and crushed Satan’s head. Satan is a defeated personality.”

Since God is for us who can be against us?

Shaquil O'Neal was in town the other night. As I watched the sports report I was fascinated to hear them describe the fact that Shaquil O'Neal came to town, the reporter barely mentioned the name of his team. It was Shaquil O'Neal that decimated the Raptors, it was Shaquil O’Neal who did them in. Sure, he had some other guys on the court with him wearing the same coloured jersey as his, but it was in the words of the reporter, “All Shaquil O'Neal.”

The team was unbeatable because Shaquil O'Neal was on the team. Paul is saying God is on your team. He’s on your side and as you seek to live in Him, nothing can make you fall out of the palm of His hand, you are secure in His love.

If God is for us, the God who worked such a magnificent miracle in your life by justifying you, regenerating you, sanctifying you, not to mention creating the seas, and the setting the moon and sun in place, if that God is for us who can be against us?

Do you see the practicality of this biblical truth of eternal security? Listen, the truth that God is for us has the power to transform us. If this power of God were deeply seated in our souls we would not be so alarmed and so disturbed by every calamity, every natural disaster, every dictator, and every terrorist who threatens to blow up the world, every new disease that is announced in the New England Journal of Medicine – in spite of all this, God is for us, and we know He is for us because of all that He has done for us in Christ and nothing can shake that fact.

Hear me clearly - we do need to be disturbed by the events in this world, but in a caring way, we need to be disturbed but in a compassionate way, we NEED to weep tears over our world – but do not be disturbed thinking that God has lost control, and we are all doomed, and that we are forever abandoned.

If God is for us, who can be against us? We go forward in His name, secure in what He has done for us and prepared in advance for us in heaven.

But you say, O Pastor, are you calling for some kind of stoic rigid-faced Christianity? Or even worse the smiley "be happy, happy, happy" all the time kind of Christianity? No, no , no. God never tells us that the terrors and the trials that we face are not real and won’t be felt, but He does tell us that through it all we can trust Him.

I saw the power of this demonstrated for me this very week. Many of you received a prayer post on behalf of a family who used to be members of our church family. They have been given notice this past week that they have to be out of their house by the end of February. They have lived in the house for seven years. A new owner has the house now, says they can’t rent the house any more, it will be destroyed to make room for a development. Was this woman upset? Yes. It has been a great home; the kids love it. It has been an answer to prayer and they don’t know where they will move to. Was she crying? Yes. But in the midst of the tears, she looked at me and she said, “But Tom, God is good, He will provide for us.”

Some would say that that is a silly attitude that fails to look reality in the face. No, it’s not. It is in fact the new reality for the Christian. Sure our hearts are broken, but in the midst of it there is a deep-seated understanding that God is good and we are now firmly in His hand and that nothing can rob us of His care, that He will provide for our every need, right to the end.

We may face tribulation. We may be in distress, or face persecution or famine or be left poor without clothing and face the worse kind of trouble looking right down the blade of sword but nothing can take away the love of Christ from you because His love is not contingent on those material things - it is contingent on Christ’s feeling toward you and it will never change it is always love.

But you will say, well if you lose all those things, and face all those awful things, persecution and famine, then surely Christ does not love me. Baloney! What is safety? What is comfort? What are those things compared to the wonder of Christ’s love?

Do you ever wonder how missionaries face terror, persecution, awful living conditions, even death? It is because the best of them are steadfast in knowledge of Christ’s love for them. Whatever happens to them they are secure in God’s love. They’re steadfast in their belief that no power, no tribulation, no force can shake Christ’s love for them.

This is what Paul emphasizes in verse 32: “He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

Listen, God did not even spare His own son – do you think that He will not also give you all you need to live the Christian life? Do you think that after He’s given you His own Son He’s going to let someone or something snatch you out of his Hand? Do you think after letting His Son die on the cross He’s going to let you be overwhelmed by life’s circumstances? Do you actually think that after all the agony and pain and suffering He endured on the cross in order to win you and draw you to Himself He’s going to let you go?

Not a chance. In fact He will freely give us all things, even as He has freely given us Christ.

You say, “What things?”

Peace, we all need peace - will God give us peace? Yes Jesus said, in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.”

To be sure, Paul says we will face trouble. In verse 36 he quotes Psalm 44:22 and says that we are like sheep to be slaughtered. The truth is if you are a Christian you will have more trouble because you will be actively entering into a battle against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

But says Jesus take heart I have overcome the world. And just in case we think that some important need of our ours has been overlooked we read in Philippians 4:19: “God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

And there are some who may persist and who want to bring another objection, but before we can offer another word of objection Paul says in verse 33: "Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?"

And we say, well Paul, there is Satan, but we’ve already dealt with him - but what about our conscience. Our conscience is always rising up against us and condemning us. And again, if Paul were here he perhaps would say, "That may be and your conscience is often the way that the Holy Spirit works to convict us of sin and bring us to the wonderful forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ."

But if your conscience is working overtime, it may be that your conscience does have a strong case against you if – if you were justified by your own power, if it was because of your good works that you were justified, if it was a faith that you mustered up with in you – that won your justification.

But that isn’t the case, is it? It is God who justified you - God alone and that cannot change. Therefore you cannot lose your justification. It is a done deal, your justification papers have been signed by the highest court not just the land, but in the universe, by the highest being in the universe.

What then and who, says Paul in verse 34, are these that condemn you in comparison to God? Nothing. Nothing - you are secure.

This is the second practical application of the doctrine of eternal security. It is that we are freed from relying on our feelings for our salvation. Our salvation has nothing to do with our feelings - it has everything to do with God. It is a done deal because God has done it, regardless of how I feel. The document that declares me to be saved has been signed and the original is kept in heaven, regardless how I feel.

To be sure there will be a reaction of feeling – there will be the sorrow of my sin, there will be joy at my salvation, there will be praise and adoration for what God has done, but when these feelings don’t come, do not worry – you have not lost your place in heaven. It is secure in Christ.

Do you see the freedom that brings? You don’t have to worry about how you feel, it is a done deal and you can get on with living a Christian life without wondering if you’re “in” or “out”. Feelings are fickle, God is not.

This brings us to the big question. What about those who, we know, fall away from God? In Scripture we read of Hymenaeus, and Alexander and Demas and Philetus who all ship wreck their faith. The saddest verse in all Scripture is about Demas, “But Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed from me.”

Jesus Himself, in the parable of the soils, says that there will be some who receive the word with great joy and will live for Him, even producing a some growth – for awhile – but because their roots are not firmly established in Him will, when trouble comes their way, fall away from the faith. (Mark 4:16-17)

So are we eternally secure or can we lose the faith? Is there a contradiction here? I do not believe so. I think the two teachings can be reconciled if we realize that we are indeed eternally secure in God’s hands and now we need to live in the light of that. You are secure so live like it. Don’t keep on doubting your salvation, don’t doubt God’s care for you, Realize that you cannot be snatched from His hands and now you have the joyful responsibility of living in the truth of it.

Yes, but what about those Christians who fall away? Logically we have we have two choices - either we can say that they were Christians and fell away, or they never were Christians. There are scholars who opt for either one. I am of the conviction that such people who fall away from the faith were never really believers in the first place. In 1 John 2:19 we read of those who have fallen away from the faith and denied the reality of Christ and John says that "they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”

Well what about others who fall into temptation? What about Peter who cursed Christ three times?

The idea of eternal security is not that you won’t fall into temptation. If you are in Christ and you have fallen into sin, you won’t stay there long. It will be unbearable for you.

The text is saying that you are secure.

Don’t misunderstand - this idea of eternal security is not to make us lazy and think that we can do whatever we want, that we can sin however we like – that God will accept us in the end – that He has to because we have eternal security.

Be very careful – God will not be mocked. The idea of eternal security is not to make us lazy, it is to help us realize our responsibility – it is true that we are safe in God’s hands, now live in the light of it.

So this doctrine of eternal security has three very practical outcomes. Two I’ve already mentioned. There is a sense of peace, a sense of security that we belong to God and nothing, no power, no force, no calamity can shake that fact.

Second, we are freed from being slaves to our feelings. Our salvation is secure in God’s hands. .

And the third practical application of this Biblical idea of eternal security is that there is a boldness to be gained - a surety of step, a firmness of tread; a steadfast belief that we go forward for God and in God, and that nothing can stand in our way.

You know, I think of the church in North America, in Markham. We face no tribulation, we face no sword, we do not deal with nakedness, we have no famine, no peril and we have a great God, we have a Saviour who is interceding for us, we have a guarantee of Christ’s love and nothing can separate us from it - doesn’t that encourage you? Does that embolden us? Doesn’t that enable us to dream dreams? And actually reach and do for God that which seems impossible?

No, no not really? Listen, listen. God is a mighty God, God is a mighty God, God is a mighty God who has justified you, redeemed you who answers your prayers because of His Son who loves you and intercedes for you and how He loves you so much so that nothing, absolutely nothing neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can snatch you out of His hand. Now I ask - how are we going to respond?

Yawn. Is he done yet?

No, no, please no! Our community needs men and women like you who are convinced of the sovereignty of God and the undying love of Christ to go out and serve in His mighty name, actively praying actively inviting the lost, the weak, the lame the prisoner to come to Christ, actively caring for the lonely, actively feeding the hungry. Knowing that if God is for us, who can be against us. Knowing that there is no obstacle that God cannot overcome, no force that can snatch you out of God’s hand. No worry, no scheme, no idea that thwarts God’s plan for us.

My friends you are eternally secure in God’s hands. So what could possibly hold us back? Since God is for us who can be against us?

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