1 John 5:10-13 CAN A SAVED PERSON BE LOST AGAIN?
Today I want to talk for a little while on the subject; CAN A SAVED PERSON BE LOST AGAIN?
There are certain denominations that teach that a person can lose their salvation, but what does the Word of God say about it?
Listen as I read today’s text found in 1 John 5:10-13
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
What does “eternal life” mean? If it’s eternal it means just what it says, eternal life, and its everlasting.
Everyone will exist forever somewhere. people who don’t believe in Jesus Christ as Savior are described by the Word of God as being spiritually dead. Spiritually dead sinners are separated from God. When they die, they will exist forever, separated from God in Hell. But when we put our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, He gives us spiritual life.
Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened,[made alive] who were dead in trespasses and sins;”
Jesus said in
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 pass “ed” from death unto life.” Listen this will help you understand.-
--- and shall not come into condemnation; but is pass “ed” from death unto life.”
listen- in this next verse I’m about to read you, Jude is talking about something that’s already happened;
Jude VS.3-- that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once deliver-“ed: unto the saints-
And this next verse Paul is telling the Corinthians how to conduct the Lords Supper.
1 Corinthians 11: 23 For I have receiv-ed of the Lord that which also I deliver-“ed” unto you, --
All of these verses are telling about something that is passed, its already happened, and now that it has already happened theres nothing that can change that fact.
Listen, the same is true with the word “SAV-“ED” its already taken place and nothing can change that fact.
If Jesus Christ has given you eternal life, you will never perish in Hell.
John 3:16. “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.”
And so I say unto you according to the Word of God, faith in and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord & Saviour brings eternal salvation to the sinner.
The salvation that we have, now that we’re saved was a gift from God because of our believing in and receiving Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
Salvation can be given to us as a free gift only if the sin penalty has been fully paid.
I think most of us realize what a gift is, a gift is some thing that some one freely gives us, we don’t have to do any thing for it in exchange for the gift, if we have to raise so much as one little finger to receive this gift, then it no longer is a free gift, a gift is given freely with no strings attached.
If some one was to say something like,” if you don’t do this or that I’ll take my gift back” ‘ well once a person has given some one a gift it is no longer his to take back.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Romans 5:17-19
17For if by one man’s offence** death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18Therefore as by the offence of one** judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Let me say right here, to be JUSTIFIED is not the same as being PARDONED.
Look at the word”JUST-IF-IED—just if I’d never sinned in my entire life.
To be PARDONED IS TO BE PARDONED from a wrong, but there is still a record of it, not so with being JUSTIFIED, there’s not even a record that we’d ever sinned.
The Precious Blood of Jesus don’t wash us in our sins, but from our sins.
1 John 1:7-- and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
So Grace must be absolutely free and without any price at all on man's part; while on God's part the price was fully paid. So for man to think that his works can play any part in either earning or keeping his salvation is an insult to God.
For the people that seem to think that they must do some kind of works for salvation, is like saying that Jesus death on the cross was not sufficient.
If there had been any other way that man could have been saved apart from the death of Jesus in paying our sin debt, then Jesus wouldn’t have had to die, it will be a happy day for these dear “works” people when they realize that we have no part at all in our becoming saved.
2 Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
12 --for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day
Jude 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, (JUSTIFIED)
1 Peter 1: 3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again—BORN AGAIN—unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
We could never produce “salvation” of ourselves, it’s all the doing of God.
Psalm 37: 39 says, the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD—
There will be some who will quickly say, that a person that claims to be a Christain and falls into sin is not “righteous”.
But the only reason any person can say that he or she is “righteous” at any time, is because God has imputed, that is to say, has put on our account the “rightousness” of Jesus Christ, because of our believing and receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savoir.
Abraham believed God and we’re told in;
Romans 4: 21-22 And being fully persuaded that, what HE had promised, HE was able also to perform. 22And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Theres certainly nothing rightous of any man apart from the imputation of Christ rightousness on us.
When God now looks on us that have the ‘rightousness” of Jesus Christ that has been imputed to us, He don’t see our unrightousness, instead He see the rightousness of His Son.
The people that think they can be lost again simply don’t understand what “grace” means, they try and mix “law and grace”.
Under the OT law the people had to “do, or don’t do certain things, the law says “do-do and keep on doing, but under “grace” all the doing has been done, Jesus said it is finished.
Colossians 2:8-9 8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10And ye are complete in him—
John 10: 27-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
It seems that some people don,t want to believe that they will be saved forever because it just don’t make sense to them. Even though there are numerous verses that teach that believers in Jesus Christ have everlasting life with God, there are people that still don’t believe it.
But we need to remember, that just because some thing doesn’t make sense to our finite, human minds, that doesn’t mean that it don’t make sense to God!
Isaiah 55: 8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
The dear people that believe a saved person can be lost again once they’ve been saved more than likely have been taught this as they were growing up.
Since our works had nothing to do with meriting grace in the first place, there is nothing we could do that would cause us to no longer merit it and "fall" from it.
“Works” determine our reward or punishment-not our salvation, which comes by God's grace. The problem is confusion about grace and works.
Therefore we must be absolutely clear that these two can never mix. “Works & grace”
Romans 11:16 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.
Once again works have nothing to do with salvation at all.
Eph 2:8-10 8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
So God does want us to do good works after we’re saved, but doing GOOD WORKS after we’re saved don’t keep us saved.
-- created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And also we can not purchase even the smallest part our salvation, because it requires payment of the penalty for sin-a payment we can't make.
For instance if I should get caught speeding and the patrolman writes me a speeding ticket, it won't help me to say to the judge, "well your Honor, most of the time I drive within the speed limit, Surely my many good deeds will make up for this one bad deed."
And then I go on to say, "If you’ll let me off this time, I promise never to break the law again."
The judge would most likely reply, "To never break the law again is only to do what the law demands. You get no extra credit for not breaking the law, that’s what yoursuppose to do. The penalty for breaking the law is a separate matter and must be paid."
Rom 3: 20--by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight...
So if salvation from the penalty of breaking God's laws cannot be earned by good deeds, then it stands to reason that it cannot be lost by bad deeds.
Our works have no part in either earning or keeping salvation.
If it could, then those who reach heaven could boast that while Christ saved them, they by their good lives kept their salvation, and then God would be robbed of having all the glory in eternity.
I had a dear Christian lady tell me one time, that she didn’t believe any body could know for sure that they were saved until they got to heaven; she was of a denomination that was unsure what eternal life meant. I’m confident that she’s saved, but how sad to go through life wondering from day to day if she’ll make to heaven.
Think about this, what if a saved person lived an out standing Christian life, say for the last 50 years, and then out of the blue he or she falls into some kind of sin and before he has time to repent of that sin, has a heart attack and suddenly dies, do you believe that dear soul would go to hell?. I don’t simple because, he died as a believer in Christ Jesus.
Listen dear heart, saved people sin just about every day in some form or another, if saved people sinned and they were lost again there would be no need for Heb.12: that tells us of the chastening hand of God. God only chastens His children, not Satan’s children.
Hebrews 12 5-8 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Now if saved people didn’t sin God would ever chasten him, God does not disown one of His when he sins, there are some saved people that do live good lives, but none live perfect lives because we read in
Verse 7-- for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Jesus said in
Matthew 7:22-23 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
This verse makes it plain that Jesus could not say, I never knew you: if a person had at one time been saved, and now he’s lost again, because Jesus would have known him at one time.
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:
