The Lord Preserves our Salvation
Psalm number 121 is a Song of Ascents, a song for those pilgrims who were on their way to Zion, to the City of God, to Jerusalem. It’s a song for any of us who are traveling on this Christian journey from here until our final destination, our home at the throne of God in heaven.
Let me read the Psalm, and today let’s focus on one phrase in verse 8. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore. Psalm 121:8
Such precious promises we have in this passage, such a rich encouragement for all of us for whatever season or stage we may be at in this journey. This talks about the security of the believer. We are secure now while we’re journeying on this earth, on our pilgrimage to Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. Now, “from this time forth,” or some of your translations say, “now, from now and forevermore.”
Secure—we are being kept by Him during our journey here on this earth, but also secure and being kept by Him from all of eternity. We are eternally secure. This whole psalm—but, particularly, in this last verse. We see God is our keeper. God is faithful. We see His eternal covenant with His people. He watches after His people. He keeps His people. He keeps them secure. We see His grace. And eternal life is a gift by the grace of God, and for it, to be eternal life, it has to be eternal.
On God’s ability to keep us—to keep us safe, to keep us in Christ, to keep us in the faith, to keep us on our way to heaven. He is the “perseverance of the Lord” with His saints. It’s really important. When you go to unholy places where you have sinned or you’re weak or exhausted or vulnerable, and you’re wondering, Am I really able to stay in Christ? I’m being pressured. I’m being tempted.
Many of us have been saved by the grace of God through faith. Praise the Lord! Now, sometimes whatever season or stage, you may ask this question, how can we know that our salvation is secured or not going to be lost? The answer is, it will be kept—not by us but by God. He is our Keeper. Our savior. But our salvation is a little different than the security of the believer. Today, let’s study three important ways, how God keeps, completes, and preserves our salvation.
God Keeps our Salvation:
The fact is, we don’t keep ourselves in Christ. He keeps us. We only keep holding on to Him, which we do because He keeps holding on to us. He is the one who makes our salvation secure both now and forever, as Psalm 121 says in verse 8.
Let’s read a few New Testament verses that expand on and emphasize this point. I Peter 1:3 says that “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefined and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (vv. 3–5). “According to his great mercy . . .” God initiates our salvation. God keeps our salvation. It’s of God.
Did you get the concept that there is a salvation waiting for us in heaven that God has bought for us by His mercy? We have been saved. We are being saved, sanctified. And we will be saved, we will be glorified.
And when we get to heaven, we’ll find that there’s a treasure that He has been keeping for us, our final, ultimate salvation. He’s been keeping it for those who, all during this life, have been guarded, kept, through faith, for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Titus 2:11 says that For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. God is keeping us. It’s all God doing the keeping, the guarding. It goes back to Psalm 121: “The Lord is your keeper.”
God Completes our Salvation:
The Apostle Paul says, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” - Philippians 1:6
If God saved you, then He is going to complete that salvation and complete the work of sanctification and transformation until the day we see Jesus Christ. Paul says, “I’m sure of this. I don’t have any doubt about it. I know it.” That doesn’t mean we don’t fail. It doesn’t mean we don’t blow it—but we can be sure that He who began the good work will bring it to completion.
Here’s another one: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” [look at the last phrase] those whom he justified he also glorified. - Romans, chapter 8:29-30
Every person that God calls and brings to faith in Christ to be justified, made righteous through Christ, every one of those people God will glorify. He’s going to finish the work. And at the end, we’re going to be like Jesus. That process of transformation will be complete.
So, if you have been justified through faith in Christ—if you have been saved, if you have been justified through faith in Christ, you can be sure that you will also be glorified. God will finish the work He has begun in you. God has promised to keep us. In John chapter 17, Christ prayed to the Father, asking that the Father would keep us in His name. “Keep them that You’ve given to Me.”- John 17:9. He prayed for that. Therefore, we can be sure that prayer is going to be answered.
God Preserves Our Salvation:
We also know, as Scripture tells us, that Jesus today is in heaven praying for us as our Advocate before the Father. So when we sin, or when Satan comes and makes accusations, such as: “Did You see what he did?” We have an Advocate before the Father. Those accusations can really mess with our minds and our faith and our assurance of our salvation, but today He prays for us. Our Mediator intercedes for us.
Jesus said about Peter, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” Luke 22:32. You will fall away. But He says, “I’ve prayed for you.” Jesus has prayed for us. He prayed for us here in John 17:9. He’s praying for us today so that our faith will not fail.
Understand, if our faith doesn’t fail, it’s not because we had great faith. It’s because we had a great Advocate, a great Intercessor who never stops praying that our faith would not fail.
Jesus said it this way, in John chapter 10:27, My sheep [that is those who belong to Me,] hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;
It could be better translated: “They shall certainly not perish forever.” That’s what Jesus is saying, and that’s the basis for our assurance.
And they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. (vv. 27–29).
Now, whose hand are we in? Jesus’ hand or the Father’s hand? The answer is: Yes. We are in Jesus’ hand, and we’re in the Father’s hand—double protection—held by God the Father & God the Son whose hands are bigger than our wavering faith. “No one will snatch them out of My hand,” Jesus said, “out of the Father’s hand.”
Understand that it doesn’t mean that all who profess to be followers of Christ will be saved? Jesus made this clear: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; [“You weren’t My sheep”] depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" - Matthew 7:21-22.
Now, that ought to awaken people who have a profession of faith that they do not possess. They profess Christ, but they do not possess Christ. They have not repented of going their own way and placed their faith in Jesus Christ. They have not been called. They don’t have Christ. So they can have no assurance of salvation.
Listen, God’s desire is that the Holy Spirit, working through His Word, would bring assurance of salvation to people who are born again. If you talk like a Christian and do some things that are religious, but you don’t have a heart for Christ, you don’t have a love for Christ, you’re not growing in your faith, you’re not connected to Christ—the vine should abide in Him.
Now, to say this doesn’t mean that true believers will never sin because all believers do sin. When Believers sin, you can be sure that God will deal with them. If they’re His children, He’s going to deal with them as His children. The conviction of His Spirit will be heavy on them. “When I refused to acknowledge my sin, the hand of God was heavy on me” Psalm 32:3-4). And again, Jesus said, when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment of sin. - John 16:8
Conclusion:
God’s Word speaks to all of us and says examine your heart and be sure that you are in the faith because if you don’t have evidence of Christ living in you, then you cannot say, “Oh, I prayed this prayer when I was a child, therefore, I have eternal security.”
You see, the concern lies with those who believe of the eternal security of the believer; The “preservation of God over His Saints.” The problem is thinking and telling people that “Once saved, always saved.” Because this will lead to many losing their motivation for holiness, and they may feel free to sin. This can cause careless living. The truth of the matter is “Once saved, always saved but live a Godly life.”
But those who have been truly born again, those who have the indwelling Spirit of Christ, those who know the persevering love and faithfulness of God, they are eager not to sin against Him. That’s part of their new nature.
Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. On Christ the solid Rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand. The Lord will keep you from this time forth and forevermore. God keeps our salvation He completes our salvation, and He preserves our salvation until the day of Jesus Christ or when we see Him again. And for that we give thanks to the Lord. Amen.
