John 3:15
Pillars of Eternal Security
I was lead to a saving knowledge of Jesus by those associated with
Baptists, but I am not a Baptist because I was lead to the Lord by a
Baptist. I would have started out in the Baptist church, but I began
to study the Bible for myself years ago and would have left years
ago had I thought the Baptist to be wrong in their doctrine.
Baptists are not perfect, but I believe they are the closest to
correct to in Bible doctrine and that includes their belief in the
eternal security of the believer, otherwise referred to as “Once
saved, always saved.”
Years ago, we had a man in the church who did not believe in eternal
security. In one of our earlier Bible discussions, he said to me
something along the line, "You only have one verse in all the Bible
that teaches eternal security." Well, I did not believe that so I
looked, and he was wrong.
We do not believe in eternal security because of one verse. The
doctrine of eternal security is like a gigantic bridge. No structure
so colossal could be held in place by one lone pillar. It takes many
pillars, each secured in their own right, to support such a truth.
Let me share with you some of those pillars.
I. There is the pillar of eternal and everlasting life.
A. What is it that God has offered to us?
John 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up
at the last day.
John 17:2 As thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him.
3 And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
B. Not only does the Bible tell us WHAT God offered, it also
indicates WHEN God offered it.
John 3:36 HE THAT BELIEVETH ON THE SON
HATH EVERLASTING LIFE: and he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of
God abideth on him.
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, HE
THAT HEARETH MY WORD, AND BELIEVETH
ON HIM THAT SENT ME, HATH EVERLASTING
LIFE, and shall not come into condemnation; but
is passed from death unto life.
John 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, HE
THAT BELIEVETH ON ME HATH
EVERLASTING LIFE.
II. There is the pillar of Holy Spirit’s seal.
A. The Bible speaks of a work the Holy Spirit HAS done for the
believer.
1. It is the work of sealing us.
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation: in whom also after that ye
believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit
of promise,
Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption.
2. What is sealing?
a. The Bible never actually defines it so we will have to
look at how it was used in Bible times.
b. A seal in the Bible was a mark of ownership and
possession.
c. When Jesus’ tomb was sealed, it showed that His grave
was now under the authority of Rome.
d. As long as that seal was there, that tomb belonged to
Rome.
B. Someone says, “Well, if it can be marked, it can be
unmarked.”
1. Not if it was marked with the Person of the Holy Ghost.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another Comforter, that he may
abide with you for ever.
2. What the Holy Ghost marks, is marked forever.
III. There is the pillar of grace.
A. We were never saved by doing right. We were saved by grace.
B. Unfortunately, I do not know where the Bible defines grace.
1. We know my definition.
2. Grace is God working in you, through you, and around
you to accomplish His will.
3. But not the Bible.
C. However Paul, in speaking of salvation, made it clear that
grace is God doing the work.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the
gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Romans 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward
not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness.
Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then is it no more
of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But
if it be of works, then is it no more grace:
otherwise work is no more work.
1. To any unbiased person, grace is God doing the work
without human aid.
2. How you could add baptism, joining a church, doing
good works, and so forth without calling it human
work, I don’t know.
D. But the Paul added that what grace has begun, the works
of the flesh can not finish.
Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you, that ye should not obey the truth, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set
forth, crucified among you?
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the
Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith?
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit,
are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it
be yet in vain.
E. AND what grace has given, sin cannot take it away.
Romans 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the
offence might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound:
IV. There is the pillar of sinful, carnal, backslidden, getting
in by the seat-of-the-pants Christians.
A. This is a truth I am very sad to have to admit to.
1. \\#1Cor 3:1-4\\ There are carnal Christians.
2. \\#1John 1:8-9\\ There are sinful Christians.
B. Yet, they get into heaven!
1Cor 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,
stubble;
13 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.
14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built
thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet
so as by fire.
C. So what sin does a person have to commit to lose his
salvation?
1. \\#1Cor 5:1-4\\ Paul gives us the example of a man at
Corinth who slept with his father’s wife! Yet, Paul
instructed the church to pray that God would take
his flesh so his spirit could be saved.
1Cor 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for
the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
a. I God answered that prayer and took the man’s life
at that very moment, would he still be saved?
b. Paul thought he would have been, or else praying
for the destruction of the flesh would have been
a sure ticket to hell.
2. Then there is Paul’s admonition concerning one who would
not obey the epistle.
2Thessalonians 3:14 And if any man obey not our
word by this epistle, note that man, and have no
company with him, that he may be ashamed.
15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish
him as a brother.
a. Yet Paul said the church was to treat him like a
brother!
b. We would not treat a lost person like a brother.
D. If disobedience to the Word, incest and fornication don’t
take salvation, what sin does?
V. There is the pillar of our reservations.
A. I have a house prepared in heaven.
John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye
believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if
it were not so, I would have told you. I go
to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again, and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also.
4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye
know.
1. What does God do with the mansion of the person who
lost his salvation?
2. If one can lose their salvation, there is likely to be
a lot of empty subdivisions in heaven!
B. I have an inheritance.
1Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time.
1. \\#4\\ Every Christian gets a reserved place in
heaven! It does not fade away!
2. \\#5\\ Why? Because we are being kept by the power of
God!
VI. There is the pillar of predestination
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose.
A. \\#28\\ - Going from saved to lost, heaven to hell—
cannot be considered for OUR good.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many
brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he
also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified: and whom he justified, them he also
glorified.
B. \\#29\\ While men and women are not predestined to go to
heaven or hell, Christians are predestined to be made
into Jesus’ image.
C. No such promise is made to the lost and that work is not
going to be done in hell.
D. \\#30\\ God has decided that those who are saved will be
justified (have their sin’s made right) and glorified
(share in the glory of God). That is not going to
happen in hell either.
VII. There is the pillar of Jesus’ keeping.
A. \\#28\\ Jesus promised to keep those who were His.
B. \\#29\\ Jesus promised that His Father would keep those
who were given to Him.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father’s hand.
C. The Bible refers to this commitment repeatedly.
John 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I
kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me
I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the
son of perdition; that the scripture might be
fulfilled.
Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in
you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ:
Jude 1:1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and
brother of James, to them that are sanctified by
God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ,
and called:
Jude 1:24 Now unto him that is able to keep you
from falling, and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
VIII. There is the pillar of receiving all things.
Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things?
A. Paul said that God will give us all the things we need.
B. If we could lose our salvation, we would have lost the
MOST IMPORTANT THING that we needed.
C. That would make the Bible untrue.
IX. There is the pillar of being more than conquerors.
Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us.
A. A conqueror is a victor.
B. If I could lose my salvation, I would not be a victor!
C. I would be defeated.
D. Again, this would make the Bible untrue.
<OutlineIndex>
<Close Window>
