Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, we will be getting to this passage in just a moment… but first Let’s Pray….
Statement of Faith: VII Free Agency
We believe that the human race’s creation in Godlikeness included ability to choose between right and wrong, and that thus human beings were made morally responsible; that through the fall of Adam they became depraved so that they cannot now turn and prepare themselves by their own natural strength and works to faith and calling upon God. But we also believe that the grace of God through Jesus Christ is freely bestowed upon all people, enabling all who will to turn from sin to righteousness, believe on Jesus Christ for pardon and cleansing from sin, and follow good works pleasing and acceptable in His sight.
We believe that all persons, though in the possession of the experience of regeneration and entire sanctification, may fall from grace and apostatize and, unless they repent of their sins, be hopelessly and eternally lost. Manual pg.29
This morning we are going to see how much God loves us, we are going to look at God’s Word and find that His Love is so strong that He has given us a great gift…. And that gift is the gift of choice… a free will… the ability to choose Him…. Or the ability to choose not to serve him.
We exercise this ability of choice all the time… you have chosen to attend New Hope Church this morning….. And we are so happy that you did, but you could have chosen to do 100 other things this morning if you wanted. Most of you chose what clothes you put on this morning, you chose what you were going to eat this morning, or if you would eat anything at all… this list is endless… everyday we are faced with hundreds of choices. If you were not a free person… your choices would be severely cut down.
This is why our children have a hard time moving from summer time, when their choices are unlimited almost to school time, when all the sudden, their freedom to choose what they will do, what they will eat, where they will go are all pretty much removed from them… that’s why they refer to school as prison.. Many of their choices will be made for them.
The very first sentence in our statement of faith refers to this ability to choose, it says… We believe that the human race’s creation in Godlikeness included ability to choose between right and wrong, and that thus human beings were made morally responsible;
So from the beginning we were made responsible, sin came into the world and warped our minds and souls towards ourselves… instead of wanting to please our maker, God, we now are born with this bent towards pleasing ourselves… you have seen that play out in your life haven’t you? Even though we want to do what’s right, we can find ourselves doing the exact opposite, the Bible calls it “gratifying our sinful desires” or our selfish desires. So we have this problem called sin…. But God in His great love for us pours down from heaven this awesome gift called Prevenient grace…..and it’s this grace that gives us the ability to respond to God’s love… with out this grace we would never have the ability to know God or to be saved from our sins…. But the Good News is this, with this Grace, every man, woman, boy and girl can sense God’s love and God’s desire to have a relationship with them, and because of that, they can sense the Holy Spirit that comes and convicts us of our sins and invites us to turn to God.
Isn’t God Good? So we believe that God has given every man the choice of serving God or not.
I want to remind you this morning before I get into the differences between what we believe and what others believe why I am preaching this message. I believe that it is important that you know what you believe and why. I also believe that as many of you are new to New Hope Church of the Nazarene, it’s important that you understand what we believe as being taught in Scripture, and how it applies to our lives on a daily basis. I’m not here to argue with my Brothers in Christ who hold a different view, I believe they are apart of the World wide Body of Christ, and we serve the same Lord, we fight for the same cause….
Let me make the distinctions in the two views for you so that you can understand the differences, so that you can study this for yourself, and I am going to give you a lot of Biblical references that you can look up on your own if you want to write them down.
We have two camps if you will… there is the Calvinist view and the Wesley-Arminian View…. We are in the Wesley-Arminian camp. So first let me state as briefly and as simply as I can the different views and then we will look at Scripture.
First, The Calvinist point of view. Here’s there statement. “They whom God has accepted in His Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.” According to the Calvinist belief, God has elected certain individuals out of the mass of fallen humanity to receive eternal life, and those so chosen will necessarily come to receive eternal life, it follows that there must be a permanence to their salvation.
They would say that God has predestined a certain number of people, and those people, because God has chosen them, they will be saved, and they will not lose their salvation. They would quote 1 Peter 1:3-5 as a text supporting this belief, lets look at it.
1PE 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
This is a great passage, one that without a doubt talks about the hope that Christ gives us, this living hope and this inheritance that as a Christian cannot be stolen from us.. It’s being kept for us, and God, through our Faith is protecting us until we reach heaven.
The way the Calvinist would interpret this passage is that after you accept this great gift, God protects your salvation….. No matter what, your secure in your salvation… Even if you were to choose to live in willful disobedience to the Word of God, they would say that obviously this is not what God wants for us, but regardless God’s protection keeps us secure.
How would we differ on this interpretation of this passage? I would say simply that we do believe that God will protect us, He will keep our inheritance safe and secure, it will never perish, spoil or fade… there’s no doubt about that… but Heaven is a reward for those who have Followed Jesus and obeyed His commands. The Christian life requires our obedience… there is no way around that.
I find it interesting that right down a little farther in this same passage in 1 Peter we find a call to Obedience, look with me at 1 Peter 1:13-15
1PE 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
This passage, and so many others like it challenge us to live a life that honors God, it challenges us to choose to live close to God, to continue in our relationship with Him, not moving away from the truth.
Personally, one of the greatest difficulties that I would have in believing that a person could be saved without the possibility of being lost again is the many passages in Scripture that warn us, as Christians to not fall away, to not apostazize. Hebrews 10:26-31 is one of the strongest passages I’ve found that talks directly to possibility that someone who has been a Christian can lose their faith… by their own choice. Look with me at Heb. 10:26-31
HEB 10:26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. HEBREWS 10:26-31
For the Christian who has known the goodness of Salvation, for that person to deliberately keep on living a lifestyle of sin, it makes it very clear, unless they repent of their sin and turn back to God… there’s noting left for them except judgment and a raging fire……. Do you know what the key is…. It’s there choice… it’s our choice… how will we live our lives… will we live our lives for God, experiencing all the goodness and blessing He has for us, living with His Grace, His Love, His Spirit… or will we CHOOSE to live in our own selfish world, only pleasing ourselves…. It’s your choice.
Listen to the apostle Paul says about his race as he relates it to the Christian life… 1 Cor. 9:24-27
1CO 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Listen to the warning that the writer of Hebrews gives to his Christian brothers…
HEB 3:12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
I don’t consider myself to be an intellect, I’m not real smart, so I ask simple questions. This is the question that I can’t get around in this whole matter.
If as a Christian I can’t lose my salvation, why is the Scripture full of Warnings such as this one we just read, why has God given us warnings to not turn away, to not fall away if there was no chance of it?
My conclusion is simple. I have a free will to chose how I’m going to live my life. My choice matters. I heard it put this way and I believe it.
Uncle Buddy Robinson, one of our beloved preachers said it like this…. “God voted for me, the devil voted against me, and I cast the deciding ballot for myself.”
I read this analogy and thought it might be helpful in understanding this whole picture.
There were parents who feared that their young child would may run out into the street and get hit by a car: One way the parents can prevent that from happening is to build a fence around the yard. That would prevent the child from leaving the yard, but would also remove the child’s freedom. Try as he or she might, the child could not possibly get out of the yard. (This would represent the Calvinist view)
Another possibility is for the parents to teach and train the child regarding the danger of going into the street and the importance of being careful. (This would represent our view) God does not make it impossible for us remove ourselves from His Grace, but instead He uses every possible means of Grace, including warnings in Scripture, to motivate us to remain committed to Him.
It’s your Vote, it’s your choice.
