Holiness and Eternal Security
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Matthew 5:3-5
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:
2 Timothy 4:3-4
“The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
Today we will be reading from Luke 15:11-32
Over the past weeks we have taken a look at Christian Holiness.
The first week we looked what Christian holiness is.
Holiness is when a person places his faith and trust in Jesus for salvation and he becomes a “new creation” in Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
This person who is a new creation becomes more and more transformed into the image of Christ and no longer lives in slavery to sin. (Romans 6:22 - Now that you have been set free from …)
From that study we found from God’s Holy Word that His desire for those who are true believers is that they live in holiness.
And, from THAT study we found that while a Christian will never achieve absolute sinless perfection in this life they CAN find a perfect love for God and His will which will lead to a life that is continually growing in holiness and Christ-likeness.
This week we will be taking a look at the repercussions of leaving a life of holiness and returning to a life of sin.
In doing so we will be looking at a parable that Jesus taught in Luke chapter 15. This parable is commonly called The Prodigal Son.
Let’s see what the Word of God has to say in … Luke 15:11-32
(Prayer for help)
The parable of The Prodigal Son or The Lost Son is in a series of 6 parables.
One of the reasons we need to look at this is because we as preachers have a tendency to set up straw men and knock them down to make ourselves look big in the eyes of those around them.
Once again we come to two competing doctrines. The doctrine of Christian Holiness includes the possibility that a truly born again person can turn their back on Christ and reject the salvation they once had.
On the other hand those who believe in the doctrine of unconditional eternal security believe that a person who is truly saved will never be rejected by Christ no matter how much they sin.
They believe that this person does not even have the capability to reject Christ even if they longed to do so with all of their heart.
So, those who believe in Christian Holiness will set up a straw man of a person who becomes saved and then blasphemes the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and is still welcomed into heaven.
And those who believe in unconditional eternal security may set up a straw man of the Lord in heaven with a pencil in one hand and an eraser in the other hand writing the name of a person into the book of Life when they repent and then erasing their name when they commit the smallest sin, over and over and over …
So, let’s look at Scripture.
In the parable of the prodigal son, the son is in relationship with his Father just as a born again person is in relationship with the Heavenly Father. But, the son’s eyes stray and he starts to look outside the boundaries of his father’s ranch. He sees the sin going on out there and it looks so much more appetizing than the dull, everyday life with the family.
He wants to go out there and get some of that fun but he can’t until his Father dies and he gets his inheritance. He becomes so overwhelmed by this temptation that he humiliates his Father with a great insult by demanding his inheritance BEFORE his Father dies.
In essence the son is saying, “Listen, I can’t wait until you die so give me my inheritance now.”
The son rejects the Father, takes his inheritance and goes off to do some wild living. Once all of his money is gone all his “fiends” disappear and he ends up feeding pigs and is so hungry that he longs to eat the pig food.
Then he remembers his Father and goes back home hoping to be a servant for his father. Instead of the Father making the rebellious son into a servant He runs to meet him and gives him a grand welcome back into the family because, “this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
So, what do we see here that we can apply to our spiritual relationship with God the Father.
When we are saved we become a child of God.
Sin will tempt us to turn away from God.
When the son rejected his Father the Father did not stop him from leaving.
The Father did not pursue the son.
The Father had many servants he could have sent after the son.
The Father could have bound the son to keep him from leaving.
The Son could have been found dead from starvation in the pig pen one day.
The Father could have prevented this with force, but what did the Father do instead?
The Father understood that His son had free will and let him go. Then … the Father looked for the son to return and when the son returned with a repentant heart the Father welcomed him home with open arms and celebrated with a feast.
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Have you ever wondered why the Father did not pursue the son?
Have you ever wondered why the Father did not force His son to come home?
We know that the Father loved His son and in the same way, we know that the Heavenly Father loved us so much that He sent His One and Only Son so that we might have eternal life through faith in Jesus’ name.
The Father did not want His son to leave.
The son did not care what His Father wanted.
The son abandoned and rejected his family and moved out from under his Father’s protection.
OK. So, lets’ look at some Scriptures that are used by our Brothers and Sisters in Christ who believe in unconditional eternal security.
Here’s is what we will be looking for in these Scriptures. We will be looking for your part. Remember, the actions of the prodigal son had an impact on their relationship. Yes, the Father loved his son even after the son declared his independence from the family but the Father did not force the son to stay in the family.
Romans 8:38-39
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So, what can separate us from the love of God?
Can death or life? No.
Can Angels or other beings from the spirit realm? No.
Can things in the heavens or things under the earth? No.
Can any other creature or creation? No.
This is looking like a tug of war. God has one of your arms and all of these things what to tear you away from Him but none of them can.
What’s the only thing that is not mentioned in those verses, or, more accurately, WHO is the only one not mentioned in those verses? YOU! You are the only one not mentioned in this apparent battle for your soul.
Just as the as the prodigal son turned his back on his Father and
abandoned the family as an “emancipated minor” HE was the only one who could do that. His Father never wanted him to leave. His brother wouldn’t kick him out. The servants couldn’t throw him out. He left because he didn’t want to be there anymore. He turned his back on his Father and rejected him and the Father let him go.
What other Scripture might we look at?
What about Hebrews 13:5b where it says,
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
We know that is true. We know that the Father will never leave us, that He will never forsake us. But, that is a one way street. It says nothing about our ability to leave the Father, nothing about our ability to forsake Him.
And, in reality, that verse is not even speaking about spiritual matters, it is speaking about the Father caring for our needs here on earth.
Here is the verse in its context, Hebrews 13:5
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”
Let’s look at one more …
In John 10:27-30 Jesus says,
“My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will 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. I and the Father are one.”
This one seems the most convincing to me. But … what about that little phrase, “no one can snatch them out of My hand (or My Father’s hand) …”.
Do you know what that reminds me of? A purse snatcher.
Someone who is walks up behind an unsuspecting lady on the street and they see that she only has a loose grasp on her purse. So the cowardly thief runs by and snatches the purse from her hand.
What about this?
Imagine holding a coin in your hand and telling your child or grandchild that they can have it before you close your hand.
That could be fun, right? (As long as they eventually get the coin!)
And, who could ever snatch anything from the Heavenly Father’s hand?
But a purse is an inanimate object; it has no will of its own.
And, a coin is also an inanimate object; it has no will of its own.
But, we humans are not inanimate objects, God created us as free moral agents with a free will. He has endowed us with the ability to choose.
We have, by God’s grace, the ability to come to Jesus for salvation and we have, in this sinful world the ability to reject Jesus’ salvation.
Yes, it is true that no one can snatch us from the Father’s hand but can we leave if we wish to do so? Can we leave the protection of the Father just as the foolish prodigal son chose to leave his Father?
What does Scripture say?
In John 15:5-8 Jesus is speaking to those who were His disciples and now He is speaking to those who ARE His disciples when He says,
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.
“If you do not remain in Me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
“If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.”
Here we have an “If” sandwich.
“If you remain in Me” followed by a blessing and ending with an “If you remain in Me” followed by another blessing.
Those are the two slices of the sandwich but what goes between those two slices of blessing is NOT so tasty.
“If you do not remain in me” followed by a curse and the curse goes like this … “You are like a branch that is thrown away and withers: such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned!”
Some will say that the older translations of the Bible use the word “abide” instead of “remain”. But, it has the same meaning. Pastor Karenlee and I used to “abide” or “live in” Newark Valley, NY. But we chose to move and we no longer “abide” there, we chose to leave and we now abide here. We do not abide or remain there. We were not forced to move but we chose to do so.
And then we have another of our memory Scriptures where Paul is writing to Timothy and it is applicable to us as well,
2 Timothy 2:11-13
“Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot disown Himself.”
Just as the prodigal son chose to disown the Father, if we are foolish, we can also disown the Lord and He will disown us.
Now, this is important! THE LORD DOES NOT EVER WANT TO DISOWN US but He will not stop us from disowning Him.
In this one little section of verses God calls us to endure to the end and to be faithful.
If we live for ourselves we will not live with Him.
If we do not endure to the end we will not reign with Him.
If we disown Him, He will disown us.
If we are unfaithful to Him, He must remain faithful to Himself because He cannot be unfaithful to Himself and thereby disown Himself.
Why is it so important to read the Bible?
So we can know the heart of God.
In the OT the people of Israel were God’s elect, God’s chosen ones.
His heart yearned to be their God and for them to be His people and even though they rebelled against Him over and over and over and over for thousands of years He was faithful to them until the point came where if He did not allow them to suffer the punishment for disobedience He would have been a liar.
“If” … one of the smallest words in the Bible and yet it is one of the most profound words in the Bible.
If you … I will …
By God’s amazing Grace we have the ability to choose God, we have the ability to live with Him, we have the ability to endure to the end, we have the ability to be faithful, but, we also have the ability to do what the prodigal son did and reject his Father and his place in the family.
Where are you today?
Final thoughts and prayer.
