If someone stops believing in Jesus Christ or switches religions, were they
ever saved in the first place? And I would give a resounding, for sure, no way.
Absolutely not. Now you say, how can you be so firm on that? Well look if you
would at 1st John chapter 2. Look at 1st John chapter 2. 1st John chapter 2.
I'm sorry if the first part of the sermon was a little confusing.
False doctrine is always confusing because it's all over the place, you
know. You got people with all these views all over the place. Let's get some
clarity from what the Bible teaches. We know the Bible teaches that salvation
is by faith alone. We know that you can't lose your salvation. We know that
faith and works are two separate things that happen separately. You can do
works without having any faith. You can have faith without doing any works.
These are two separate things. One of them saves you and the other doesn't.
It's not of works, but it is a faith that can't be connected in that way. But
then this question of perseverance of the Saints can be a question of, will a
person who believes on Jesus Christ continue to believe on Jesus Christ or
is it possible for them to just stop believing or switch religions or whatever?
Well look what the Bible says in 1st John chapter 2 verse 18. It says,
little children, it is the last time and as you've heard that Antichrist shall
come, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is
the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they
had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went
out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Now when
the Bible talks about going out from us, it's not talking about physically. It's
not talking about geographically. It's not saying, hey, if they quit the church,
they were a phony. No, that's not what it's saying. If they leave Phoenix,
Arizona, you know, that's not what it's saying. What it's saying is, if they go
out from us, he's talking about leaving the faith, leaving the doctrine of
Christ, leaving right beliefs. They went out from us, but they were not of us.
Now everyone who's among us is not necessarily one of us. Now we don't know
that though until they go out from us. When they go out from us, it becomes
manifest. What does manifest mean? Obvious, apparent, clear, that they were
not of us. So basically while they're here, we think they're one of us. I
mean, you know, we all show up, we sing hymns, we listen to the same sermon,
people are saying amen, everybody's going out soul-willing, everybody's smiling,
everybody's here. You just kind of assume that we all believe in Christ.
You kind of assume that we all believe in the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, and salvation by faith alone, and that we're all on the same
page, that we all believe the Bible is the Word of God. But then you'll have
somebody go out of here and go into damnable heresy, join a false religion,
become an atheist, become an agnostic, just completely renounce the gospel or
the teachings of Christ, or just basic biblical doctrines. And when we see that,
it's not that that person has changed. Oh man, they sure have changed.
They did not change at all. They have only now become manifest. What they
always were on the inside. We thought that they were one of us because they
talked the talk, but they went out so that they would be manifest, that they
were not all of us. It was obvious that they were not one of us. Because if
they had been of us, you know, maybe they would have continued with us. Is
that what it says? No, it says if they had been of us, they would no doubt
have continued with us. And they went out for the purpose that they might be
made manifest so that we could all see this guy is not of us. Go to
second John, second John. So again, if this is what people mean by
perseverance of the saints, this is a good doctrine. But if they mean you're
going to keep doing works, well, that's a dangerous doctrine and it's a
wrong doctrine. Okay, but are they going to continue believing the gospel?
Absolutely. And if you don't believe the gospel, you're not saved. Well, I
used to believe it. You're a liar now is what I would say. Because I
don't believe that you ever truly believed in Christ. Because if you
did, you'd be saved and you would continue to believe. And the fact
that you went out from us is just making it clear that you never were
one of us actually. Look at second john for more clear evidence on
this doctrine. It says in verse number nine, whosoever transgressive,
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. So we see right here that those who abide in the doctrine of
Christ remain in the doctrine of Christ are saved. People who
depart from the doctrine of Christ, people who transgress
and depart from the doctrine of Christ, they are not saved. They
don't have God. That's why they did that. Now, what does
the word transgress mean? transgress literally means to
cross a line to cross a boundary, right? trans means
across like a transcontinental railroad or something, trans
Siberian Express, and then grass has to do with going or
movement like progress, you're moving forward regress, you
move backwards, right? So transgress is to go across.
Okay, so when the Bible says whosoever transgressive, you
could read that as whosoever crosses a line, basically,
whoever transgresses crosses a line, and does not abide in the
doctrine of Christ, they don't remain in the doctrine of
Christ. So here's the doctrine of Christ. They leave,
they cross a line. Now, here's the thing, no one's
doctrine is going to be perfect. Because none of us
have a perfect understanding of the things of God. None of us
knows the entire Bible perfectly. We're all going to
make mistakes, we're all going to get things wrong. At
times, we're going to express things wrongly at times, we're
never going to have a perfect belief on every single subject
or issue, or a perfect understanding of exactly who
God and Jesus are until we get to heaven. Will we have
a perfect understanding? Okay. But there are people who are
a little off on something. And then there are people who
cross the line where they're not even in the doctrine of
Christ anymore. Right? If somebody says to you, Jesus was
a created being, they've crossed the line. Jesus is not
a created being. Oh, Jesus is a human. He's just a man. He's
not divine. He's not God. He's not deity that you
cross the line. Okay, people teaching, oh, the Trinity is
polytheistic and, and Jesus is God the Father in another
form, you've crossed the line. You've rejected the
Trinity, you've rejected these key teachings that Jesus is
the Son of God. You know, you have crossed the line. Okay, if
somebody says, you know, I believe salvation is totally by
works. I mean, you're way over the line, buddy.