Can I Lose My Salvation?

Can I Lose My Salvation?

October 26, 2008 Morning Service

Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK

Rick Boyne

Message Point: If you are saved, you cannot lose your salvation.

Focus Passage: John 10:7-11, 27-29

Introduction: Normally the flight from Nassau to Miami took Walter Wyatt, Jr., only sixty-five minutes. But on December 5, 1986, he attempted it after thieves had looted the navigational equipment in his Beechcraft. With only a compass and a hand-held radio, Walter flew into skies blackened by storm clouds.

When his compass began to gyrate, Walter concluded he was headed in the wrong direction. He flew his plane below the clouds, hoping to spot something, but soon he knew he was lost. He put out a mayday call, which brought a Coast Guard Falcon search plane to lead him to an emergency landing strip only six miles away. Suddenly Wyatt’s right engine coughed its last and died. The fuel tank had run dry. Around 8 p.m. Wyatt could do little more than glide the plane into the water.

Wyatt survived the crash, but his plane disappeared quickly, leaving him bobbing on the water in a leaky life vest. With blood on his forehead, Wyatt floated on his back. Suddenly he felt a hard bump against his body. A shark had found him. Wyatt kicked the intruder and wondered if he would survive the night. He managed to stay afloat for the next ten hours. In the morning, Wyatt saw no airplanes, but in the water a dorsal fin was headed for him. Twisting, he felt the hide of a shark brush against him. In a moment, two more bull sharks sliced through the water toward him. Again he kicked the sharks, and they veered away, but he was nearing exhaustion. Then he heard the sound of a distant aircraft. When it was within a half mile, he waved his orange vest. The pilot radioed the Cape York, which was twelve minutes away: "Get moving, cutter! There’s a shark targeting this guy!" As the Cape York pulled alongside Wyatt, a Jacob’s ladder was dropped over the side. Wyatt climbed wearily out of the water and onto the ship, where he fell to his knees and kissed the deck. He’d been saved. He didn’t need encouragement or better techniques. Nothing less than outside intervention could have rescued him from sure death. How much we are like Walter Wyatt.

I. GOD’S PROMISE (Rom. 8:38-39) For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39 NASB)

-His promises are guarantees (Rom. 4:21) and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. (Romans 4:21 NASB)

-If you believe the Bible, then you can believe in eternal security!

II. GOD’S PERSEVERANCE (Phil. 1:6) For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6 NASB)

-Who began the work? GOD!

-Who will complete the work? GOD!

III. GOD’S PREDESTINATION (Rom. 8:29-30) For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30 NASB)

-Those who receive Christ are predestined to go to Heaven and to be just like

Jesus.

-He saw it

-He planned it

-He predestined it

-He brought it to pass.

-It is impossible to be saved and then be lost again.

-Because it destroys the predestined plan of Almighty God.

IV. OUR PERFECTION (Heb. 10:14) For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14 NASB)

-He made us perfect by His sacrifice. Not perfect for a time, but perfect

forever!

-He did not make a down payment on our sanctification, He paid the debt in

full and purchased it forever by His precious blood.

V. OUR POSITION (2 Cor. 5:17) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB)

-When a person receives Christ, he becomes a new creation, they literally become

a part of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13) For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13 NASB)

-The only way that a believer can lose his relationship with the Father is for the Son to