Dear God, this is probably one of the most enjoyable things to preach on this great subject,
dear God, and just rejoice in the fact that I'm eternally saved. And so, Father, I just
pray that you would bless this service and bless those that are here. Use this message
in a great way into Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Now, tonight I'm preaching a doctrinal-type sermon just to establish you and to ground
you on one great truth. And I'm just going to show you this from the Bible, throughout
the Bible. And if there's one doctrine that you need to know, the most important number
one doctrine that you must know is the one that I'm teaching tonight. I preach all kinds
of sermons. I mean, good night. The sermon this morning was not exactly something that's
one of the core, this is just the core tenet of our faith. It's vitally important, don't
get me wrong, that this morning's sermon was extremely important to know what you believe
about these type of things. And we saw so much great truth from the Bible, and I enjoyed
very much preaching the sermon that I preached this morning. And tonight's sermon is another
type of sermon that I really enjoy preaching, but this is the quintessential doctrine of
the entire Bible. This is the theme of the entire Bible. This is the one thing, I don't
care if you knew everything else in the Bible and you miss the great truth of what I'm going
to preach to you tonight, it's all in vain. And I'll tell you why. The truth that I'm
going to teach you tonight is something that, if you're not right on this, you're not right
on salvation and you're not going to heaven. And so let me show you what I'm talking about.
Look at verse number ten here. And in verse number ten, by the way, I love the books of
first, second, and third John, and also the Gospel of John. These are pretty much some
of my very favorite books in the Bible, and here's why. I love the way that John, more
than any other books in the Bible, lays things out in such a black and white, clear way.
This is right, this is wrong, this guy's of God, this guy's of the devil, this is right,
this is a sin, and he's just very clear, just making distinctions. Now look at this.
First John 5, 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Now
who is the witness? Well, if you look up to the previous verse, I want you to show this,
in verse number six, look at the latter part of verse six. And it is the spirit that beareth
witness because the spirit is truth. So who's the witness? The Holy Spirit. The witness
is the Holy Spirit. The witness that tells us, yes, I've seen it, yes, the word of God
is true, yes, you're saved, yes, you're born again, yes, you're going to heaven, yes, that's
the witness, okay? The witness is the Holy Spirit. Look at verse ten. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. So does every saved Christian have the Holy
Spirit living inside of them? Yes. The Bible says that Christ, that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you, and we'll get there a little later, it's in Ephesians one, and we're going to
be in Ephesians one a little later. But God is saying here, every believer, everyone who
says, I believe on Jesus Christ, I believe that Jesus Christ is my only way to heaven,
all of my faith is in him, it's not in myself or what I do, it's not in the church, it's
not in a priest, it's not in a preacher, it's in Jesus Christ that take me to heaven. Every
person who believes on Jesus Christ has the witness in himself. Now what does that witness
tell him? Well, keep your finger there and flip over to Romans, this is about, this is
several books back toward the, about the middle of the New Testament, Romans chapter number
eight, verse sixteen. Romans eight sixteen, the Bible reads, Romans eight sixteen, the
Spirit itself, notice the capital S, talking about the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament
whenever Spirit is capitalized, it's the Holy Spirit. When it's not capitalized, it's our
Spirit, or an unclean Spirit or any other Spirit besides God's Spirit. In the Old Testament,
it's not that way, it's just all lowercase. But look, the Spirit itself beareth witness
with our Spirit that we are the children of God. So what is the Holy Spirit witnessing?
The Holy Spirit lives inside us if we're saved, telling us, yes, you are a child of
God. That's why I ask people, do you know for sure if you die today that you should
go to heaven? Because people that are saved have the witness in themselves, and they believe
that they're going to heaven because of what the word of God says, and because the Holy
Spirit does not speak of himself, Jesus said, he will not speak of himself, but he will
take of mine and show it to you. So the Holy Spirit uses God's word, he doesn't just come
up with something of himself, he takes God's word and he uses it inside you to tell you
that you're a child of God. And so the Bible says the Spirit itself beareth witness with
our Spirit that we are the children of God. Now flip back to 1 John 5 where your finger
is, and it reads here, 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. Now in this verse there's only two kinds of people, there's no room
for anybody in this verse that doesn't fall into one of those two categories. You see
how he just lays it very clear? He draws a line and he said there's two kinds of people
in this world, there's those that believe on the Son of God, they have the witness in
themselves, and there are those that believeth not God, there's those who do not believe
God, and it says they have made God a liar. He says if they're not believing on Jesus
Christ, they're calling him a liar. Why are they calling him a liar? Look at the last
phrase, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. So on this side,
I'm just laying the foundation for the message, on this side we have the guy who believes
on Jesus Christ, he's got the witness in himself, the Holy Spirit. Then we have another guy
who does not believe on Jesus Christ. In fact he's making God a liar because he says I don't
believe the record that God gave of his Son. Look at verse 11, we're going to find out
exactly what he doesn't believe. There's something that this man doesn't believe that's compelling
him to call God a liar, it's called the record that God gave of his Son, it's in verse 11,
and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. Okay? So really you could break that statement down in verse 11, he says look,
there's only two kinds of people in this world my friend, there are those who believe the
record in 1 John 5.11, and there are those who call God a liar, they don't believe it.
Now look, break it down, that God has given to us. Now look, that's saying that God gave
it to us, he didn't make us earn it, he didn't make us work for it. The Bible says, for by
grace are you saved through faith, it is the gift of God. You see, give, gift, it's the
gift of God, not of work for us any man should boast. So he says, number one, you've got
to believe that God has given to us eternal life. No, that's something else, it's past
tense. It doesn't mean, well, when I die someday I'm going to find out whether I have eternal
life. No, he says look, he already gave it to you, he has given to us eternal life, that's
past tense. That means you're already saved. See that D on the end of saved, it's my favorite
letter in the word saved, because it means it's over, it means it's done. It's not something
like, well, I hope so, I'm trying to get my way to heaven. No, I'm saved, it's done.
And now I have been given eternal life, what's the next thing, it's eternal life. Not I've
been given temporary life, not I've been given conditional life, conditional upon how I live
or what I believe. He says no, I've been given eternal life, that means it can never end,
everlasting, eternal. And he says, and this life is in his sight. So look, he's saying
look, people that are saved, they just believe that God gave them eternal life. He just gave
it to them and that it was going to last forever and that it was through Jesus Christ. Isn't
that simple? Doesn't God just break it down so simply for us? And he says that if you
don't believe that God gave us eternal life, if you believe that God gave us life that
we could lose somehow, like we could be saved and then lose it, or if he gave us a life
that's eternal but we're saying no, I don't believe that, I believe that if I commit suicide
he'll take it away from me, I believe that if I commit murder he'll take it away from
me, I believe that if I get out of church he'll take it away from me, he says you're
calling God a liar, you do not have the witness in himself, you do not believe in the Jesus
Christ. Now that's what the Bible teaches, I'm sorry if that offends you, but anyone
who doesn't believe that God gave us eternal life is not saved according to this verse.
You say, why? Well, I'll tell you why. People who don't believe in eternal life, people
who believe you could be saved and then you could do something, some way to become unsaved
again after you've been saved, they're putting it off of Jesus Christ to get you to heaven,
they're putting it on you because now it's your responsibility to make sure that you
either keep on believing what you're supposed to believe or keep on going to church or keep
living a good life, and inevitably I've never ran into anybody who believed that you could
do anything to lose your salvation or that you could forfeit your salvation willingly,
I've never met one that didn't inevitably say this statement, well you can't just live
however you want, you can't just do whatever you want. See what I mean? They're bringing
in work salvation, they're saying you have to live a certain way to go to heaven. He
says no, God has given to us eternal life. Now look, let me show you how consistent the
Bible is. Here God is saying, if you don't believe that, you're calling God a liar if
you don't believe he gives you eternal life. Now look, put your finger there, flip back
just a few pages to Titus 1-2. Titus chapter 1 verse number 2, and just watch the consistency
of God's word, watch how just uniform he is on this concept. Titus 1-2, just a few pages
back, the Bible reads, in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before
the world began. You see that? It makes it clear again saying look, before the world
began, the word of God was authored in heaven, the Bible says forever oh Lord thy word is
settled in heaven, and that was written before it was completely given to us from mankind,
and he says forever oh Lord thy word is settled in heaven, from the beginning of the world
I promise you eternal life and I cannot lie. You see that? He says look, I can't lie. If
you don't believe that it's eternal, you're calling me a liar and I can't lie. You see
how consistent it is, 1 John, Titus, he says it again and again that there's only two kinds
of people in this world, those who believe on Jesus Christ and they believe the record,
they believe it's eternal, and then there are those who say no, God's a liar, it's not
eternal, I have to do something to maintain it or that I'm in danger of somehow losing
it in some way, shape, or form. Let me give you several reasons why you cannot lose your
salvation. Straight from the Bible I'm going to show you why you cannot lose your salvation,
why once you've been saved there is nothing in the world that you could do to be unsaved.
I'm going to tell you something, if I wanted to go to hell, if I just said I'm going to
set my mind to go to hell, I could not go to hell. I mean if I just said what do I have
to do to go to hell, I'll do anything to go to hell, I could not go to hell, because the
moment I go to hell then God's a liar, because God said that I've been given eternal life,
and if God says, Steve, this will last forever, I'm going to give it to you, the moment it
doesn't last forever, the moment God lies, because God said it would last forever, and
he says eternal, if it ends he's a liar, and there's no way that I could go to hell if
I wanted to, I will never see what hell is like, I'll never feel the flames of hell,
praise God, and there's no way I could. Number one, how do I know? The record of God, the
record that God gave of his son, we already dealt with that, but that's the first reason
why. The record that God gave of his son has told me that that's eternal, that's why.
But secondly, the first reason is the record that God gave, the second reason is the adoption
of God. How do I know that I can't lose my salvation? Because of the adoption of God.
Let me show you something interesting, look at Romans 8, 28, and I'm going to have eternal
law of the Bible tonight, and so you're going to learn how to navigate that thing, but Romans
chapter 8, verse number 28. And I want to show you something, because somebody might
confront you with this someday, this horrible doctrine of Calvinism, and they'll try to
pervert these verses in Romans 8 and in Ephesians 1, and I'm going to show you at the same time
why that's stupid, and I'm also going to show you why that you have eternal life, that you're
saved forever, but look at Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Look
at this, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Okay, you see that? He
says, look, everybody who I foreknew, now what does it mean to foreknow somebody? It
means that before the world began, before God ever even created Adam and Eve, he could
look into the future, right, and he foreknew everything that's going to happen. Well, he
foreknew exactly who was going to be saved, and who's not going to be saved. That's pretty
simple, right, because he knows everything. He knew exactly how many hairs I was going
to have on my head, and he knew exactly that I was going to get saved. He knew I was going
to get saved as a six-year-old boy. He knew that you were going to get saved whenever
you got saved. He knows. Does that mean that he decided who went to heaven and who went
to hell? No. That's the decision that he gives you. He says, whosoever will may come and
take the water of life freely. He says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. He leaves it up to you, but he foreknew that. Now, look, he says, whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. He says it's their destiny
to be conformed to the image of his son, to be like Jesus Christ is their destiny, and
so everything in their life is going to be wrapped up in getting them to be more like
Jesus. And then look at this, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. See,
the implication there is that when we get saved, we were foreknown that we were going
to be saved. Well, we're going to be in the image of Jesus Christ because he's our brother,
and he's the firstborn among many brethren. He's the only begotten son of God. We are
the adopted sons of God. Many brethren, he said. Now, look at Ephesians chapter one,
and we'll see it more clearly. I just wanted to show you that to give you a little foundation,
but flip forward about, go toward the back of your Bible, about three or four books there.
Look at Ephesians chapter one, and Ephesians chapter one, verse number five, actually look
at verse number four, according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of
the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Again, it's not
saying he chose who was going to be saved, it's saying he chose us that would be saved
that we should be holy and that we should be conformed in the image of his son, that
we should be without blame. It didn't say he chose who was going to be like that, it
says he chose all of us to be like that. And then look at verse number five, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. See that? It says that
we're predestined from the foundation of the world. Whoever would accept Christ as Savior,
whoever would believe on him, would be adopted as a son of God, a child of God, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has
made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of his grace. You see that? How we have been adopted into
God's family, we've been adopted as his children. Jesus is the only begotten son of God, the
physical son of God. We are the adopted joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Now look, that's
why he says in John 1-12, but as many as received him, to them did he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name. You'd be a son of God if you believe on the
name of Jesus Christ. That's why he said in 1 John 3-1, behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Beloved, now are
we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. You see that same
context of us being conformed to the image of his son? He says, we're the sons of God,
and we're going to be like him when he appears. We're going to be made into his image. Our
whole life is wrapped up in being closer to the image of Jesus Christ. People should see
us, and they should see what Jesus would be like. Is that what they see in you when
you're on the job? Is that when they see you at work, do they think, boy, this is what
I see. This is like what Jesus would be like. I mean, think about it. You represent Jesus
Christ. The Bible says that we're called by his name, so that means that when I say with
my mouth that I'm a Christian, and you ought to say that you're a Christian. You ought
to tell people, I am a Christian. Yes, I'm a Baptist. I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus
Christ. I'm a believer in Jesus Christ. When you say that, people are looking at you, and
they really could judge Jesus Christ by you, because maybe they've never even read the
Bible. And so they look at your life, and they say, okay, this is a follower of Jesus.
This is somebody that's supposed to be conformed to the image of his son. Let's see what they're
like. Maybe I can get an idea of what God's like. Boy, would they get the right idea?
Think about that. Think about that. They looked at you and judged God. Is Jesus Christ like
you? Well, then they might say, well, I don't want anything to do with Jesus Christ. Or
they might say, man, if you're just a loose image of what Jesus Christ is, good night.
I would love to be like Jesus Christ. And so you can either push people away by being
so far removed from what Jesus really is. You could give people the wrong idea of what
Jesus is like. Or you can say, you know what, if I'm going to claim the name of Christ,
I'm going to live like Jesus would live and be an appropriate representation of what Jesus
is. But look, if I'm adopted as God's son, think about this. Look at my three sons right
here. If my son does wrong, is he still my son? Of course he is. What if my son says,
Dad, I hate you. You're not my dad. Am I still his dad? Yeah. Am I still going to love him?
What if he goes out and kills 100 people? Is he still my son? What if he takes a gun
and blows his own brains up? Is he still my son? Yes, because that's a permanent bond,
between a father and son. That is the most permanent bond there is, between a father
and a son. You see, there's a way where my wife could cease to be my wife. God forbid.
But people do get divorced and remarried and she's no longer my wife. But my son will always
be my son. Do you see that? Always. When I die, my wife will no longer be my wife. That's
why it's till death us do part. The Bible says that people in heaven, we're not going
to be married in heaven. Nobody's going to be married. And so there's going to come a
day when that ends, but there's never going to come a day when this isn't my son. You
can see that all throughout the Bible, talking about people being the son of somebody else
long after they're dead. Because it's an eternal bond between a father and a son. And so to
say that God will adopt somebody into his family when they believe on him and say, you're
my son, you're called by my name, you're a joint heir with Jesus Christ, that means I
pencilled you into the will, that you will receive my possessions, my wealth, my riches,
my mansion in heaven, my streets of gold, you're my son in whom I'm well pleased. But
then you do something wrong and he says, you're not in my family anymore. Kick you out of
my family, damn you to hell. Good night. What kind of a God is that? So God, I would never
do that to my son, so I guess God is not even as good of a father as I am, because he'll
damn somebody to hell. Think about that. Think about how ridiculous that is, that God
will make you his son and then kick you out of the family. Or that you could be his son
for a while and now he's not my son. Can you imagine this conversation? Well, you know,
Solomon was my son for a while. He got into a lot of trouble. There were a few years in
there where he wasn't even my son. But now he came back to me and apologized and now
he's my son again. Isn't that ridiculous? It makes no sense. And so, number one, I know
that I'm saved eternally. I know that there's no way I could lose my salvation because of
the record that God gave to his son. That should be enough. The Bible says, if we receive
the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which
he had testified of his son. He that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself.
He says, if you receive the witness of men, you receive what some preacher told you. You
receive what some church told you. What if you receive the witness of God when he said
he that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself, but he that believeth
not God hath made a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave his son, and
this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son.
He says, don't listen to some man. Don't receive the witness of man. Receive the witness of
God, the record of God. That's one. Number two, I know I'm saved. I shouldn't just go
to close my Bible. I know I'm saved eternally because of the record of God. But I also know
because I'm a child of God, and that's a permanent bond that can never end. So that's the second
reason. What's the third? Well, before I get to the third reason, let me show you something.
Psalm 89. Turn in your Bible to Psalm 89, right in the middle of your Bible. Psalm 89.
I know sometimes I talk too fast. My wife was telling me today how sometimes she gets
a little frazzled when I'm talking to her on the phone because I just talk really fast.
I just have it just speaking really fast because I just have a lot to say in the sermon, so
I just try to jam in as much as I can. That's why you need to get the CD afterward and just
see if you have like a slow-mo setting. You slow it down a little and get all the points
or listen to it over and over or whatever. But Psalm 89, look at verse 26.
And by the way, a lot of people, they have this weird idea that people were saved different
in the Old Testament than they are in the New Testament. Like in the Old Testament,
people weren't born again. Well, then why did Jesus say that Nicodemus, in John chapter 3,
who was before Jesus died on the cross, who had been living probably before Jesus was
even born, and said to him,
Art thou a master in Israel? Art thou a ruler in Israel, and knowest thou not these things?
Marvel not that I say to you, you must be born again. He says, you don't know about
being born again? You're supposed to be a preacher? You're supposed to be a rabbi
and a teacher? If it's some New Testament thing, huh, that came about after Jesus rose
from bed being born again, then why is he telling some Jewish rabbi, you should know
about being born again from the Old Testament, sir. And so people in the Old Testament, yes,
they had eternal security too. People in the Old Testament had eternal security, that's
why Samson went to heaven, good night. He's going from one prostitute to another, and
then he committed suicide. Read the book of Judges, chapter 16, you'll see that.
That's why Saul went to heaven. Read 1 Samuel, at the very end of the book,
chapters 29 through 31, yeah, tell me he didn't have eternal security. Murdered
85 people, consulted with a familiar spirit that's a demon-possessed witch that he went
to, and she had a crystal ball, literally, and was trying to conjure up spirits, and
then Samuel himself appeared back from the dead and said, you're wicked, you're ungodly,
but tomorrow you're going to come and be with me. What? Why? Because he's saved.
Because Saul was saved. And so he said, tomorrow you're going to come and be with me, and we'll
both be in heaven. Samuel and Saul went to the same place, even though Samuel was a righteous
man of God, a preacher, and Saul was a murderer, a rebel against God, and he committed suicide.
They both went to the same place. What was the common denominator? Faith in Jesus Christ.
That's the common denominator. Now look, Psalm 89. Old Testament scriptures, preaching
eternal security. I picked one because I picked my favorite one, because I don't want
to spend my whole message on that. I can spend my whole message on the Old Testament proves
eternal security, but that's not the message. Look at Psalm 89, verse 26. This is talking
about Jesus Christ, by the way. Let me give you the context. This is Jesus Christ. You'll
see that in a moment. He shall cry unto me. Psalm 89, 26. He shall cry unto me, thou art
my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also, I will make him my firstborn. Talking
about Jesus Christ. Higher than the kings of the earth. Remember, he's the king of kings.
My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
His seed. Now what's his seed? Talking about his children. Now let me ask you something.
Did Jesus have physical children while he was on this earth? No. Tell the Da Vinci code
who ever made that movie to go to hell, because it says here that his seed is talking about
us, because we're his children if we're saved. Remember, we just found out that we're the
children of Jesus Christ. Well, look at this. His seed, people that are saved, also will
I make to endure forever. You see that? How they're going to live forever, if they're
his seed, if they're his children. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his
throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, you see that? That's talking
about saved, born-again Christians who are God's children. If they forsake his law, if
they say, I'm not going to obey any of the Ten Commandments, I'm going to forsake it,
I'm going to put it away from me, I'm going to take it down off the wall, and I'm going
to just do what I want to do. I'm going to break all of them. I'm going to forsake God's
law. If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, they're totally living
wrong. If they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, I mean, they're breaking
everything. They're breaking the commandments, they're breaking the statutes, they're breaking
the laws, they're breaking every sin in the book, then will I visit their transgression
with the rod. He's talking about discipline, like I discipline my children. He's saying,
I'm going to visit them with the rod, I'm going to take a rod to them and beat them.
I'm going to spank them. And that's what he says again in Hebrews chapter 12, for whom
the Lord loveth he chaseneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. So God will discipline
his children. But it says, I will visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity
with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer
my faithfulness to fail. You see that? He says, I'm not going to stop loving them. I'm
not going to take away my loving kindness from them. I'm going to discipline them, just
like you should discipline your children. My covenant will I not break. He says, I'm
not going to break my promise. I'm not going to break this as a promise or the promise
of even eternal life. He says, I'm not going to break my promise. If they break every sin
in the book from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21, I will not break my promise, because
I'm not a liar. You see that? 89 Psalm 89. Look at this. This is great. I love this.
My covenant will I not break, because just because you sin, God's saying, I'm not going
to reduce myself to being a sinner like you by lying, by changing my word. My covenant
will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. I'm not going to
change what I said. Once have I sworn by my holiness, good night, when God really wants
to say something, he swears by his holy. I mean, how are you going to swear more than
that? He says, once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David, his seed shall
endure forever. David here is a picture of Christ. That's why he talks about Jesus as
the son of David, king of kings and so forth. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will
not lie unto David, his seed shall endure forever and is thrown as the son before me.
It shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in the heaven. Do
you see that? His seed shall endure forever. He says, I'm not going to change what I said.
He said, but God, look at this Christian. He's broken every commandment in the whole
Bible. Aren't you going to, good night, are you going to send him to hell? God says, I'm
not going to alter the thing that went out of my lips. I'm not going to change what I
said. I swore by my holiness that he's going to endure forever if he's my son. If he's
saved, he's going to endure forever, period. So number one, I know that I'm going to heaven,
eternal security. I know that once I'm saved, I will always be saved because of the record
that God gave his son, period. That should be enough. But also, I know it because of
my adoption as his son. And he said, look, I'll swear at you and say, up one side and
down the other, I'll swear by my own holy name. I mean, he's saying, I'm putting my
name on the line saying I will not change what I've said. Eternal life means eternal
for anybody who believe it, to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. But number three, not only the record of God, not only is there the adoption of
God, but there's also, and we kind of covered this, the promise of God. Look at 1 John 2
25, and we'll see the promise of God again. And there's so many times that this is mentioned,
the promise of God, but so many times in reference to eternal life. Look at 1 John 2,
25. I love these clear verses. That's why I love these books by John. Of course, they're
all by God, but the books that are under the canopy of 1, 2, and 3 John. Look at 1 John
2, 25. I love the simplicity of the book of John. It just says, and this is the promise
that he had promised us, even eternal life. I mean, isn't that a great verse? This is
the promise that he had promised us, even eternal life. Hey, has God ever made you a
promise? Yeah, he made me a promise. He said, I have eternal life. That's the promise. And
so he's not going to alter the thing that's gone out of his lips. He's made a promise
to us, period. Number four, not only is there, number one, the record of God, the adoption
of God, the promise of God, but number four, and I love this, the immutability of God,
the immutability of God. Look at Hebrews chapter 6, verse 18. Hebrews 6, 18, and you
say, I don't know what immutable means. Well, you're about to find out what immutable means
in Hebrews chapter 6. Immutable means it cannot be changed. It means that God never changes.
If God is immutable, it means he cannot change. The Bible says, I am the Lord. I change not.
Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Later on, in another place, he says, Jesus
Christ, the same, yesterday and today and forever. And so look at the immutability of
God. It says in verse number 17 of Hebrews chapter 6, wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. That's
talking about where he sware. Remember, he sware by his holiness. In Psalm 89, that's
what he's referring to, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God
to lie. You see that? He says, when God sware this immutable, unchanging oath by his holiness,
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and would send us into that within the veil. See,
the anchor of our soul that we can anchor our soul to is the oath that God swore out
of his mouth when he said it's eternal life. Now look, if God's not good for his word
when he sits there and swears with an oath and says, I'm going to give it to you by
two immutable things, I'm going to promise it, I'm going to swear it, what else do
you want me to do? If I can't believe him when he swears to me, what else am I going
to believe in this book if I'm not going to believe what he swore by an oath by his
holiness and said it's immutable, it's not going to change? Flip over in the same
book to Hebrews 13. You'll see this again in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 13.
Boy, I could never exhaust this subject. I could literally preach on an entire year on
eternal security. We just start Genesis and just look at it. But I want to just try to
exhaustively kind of cover this in one sermon, just kind of give you a real strong, clear
understanding of this concept in the Bible. And if you're saved, you already know this
because you're trusting Jesus Christ, you know it's eternal. I mean, it's John 3.16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You're saved, you know this, but you
want to know why that you know it. And you want to just be able to rejoice in the fact,
I mean, didn't I, when I'm preaching this sermon, I'm thinking about this, I'm excited,
I want to shout about it. I'm like, praise the Lord, I'm secure. Praise the Lord, I'm
eternally saved. And plus, when the heretic comes to you, and when the Pentecostal comes
to you, and when the Nazarene comes to you, and when the Assemblies of God comes to you,
and name any religion you want in the world, when the Mormon comes to you, they don't believe
this, the Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe this, the Catholics don't believe this, the
Methodists don't believe this, whoever you name, they'll come to you, you won't just
go, uh, uh, uh, uh, well, you know, I mean, it's eternal, you know, look, now you know,
you can show them, hey look, you call a guy a liar? Huh? You think God's lying? He said
it's eternal. And you can show them in the Bible some of these things. But look at this,
Hebrews chapter 13, verse number 5. I'm sorry, I'm looking at the wrong verse. Verse number,
yes 5, I'm sorry. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with
such things as you have, for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Now is that true or not? Is that true when Jesus says to me, I'll never leave you nor
forsake you? I indwell you, the Bible says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Is Christ
in me? Does Jesus Christ live inside my heart? Do I have the witness in myself, as the Bible
says, do I have the witness, the Holy Spirit living inside of me? He said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake thee. Well what about, I'll never leave you nor forsake thee. Well what
about, I'll never leave you nor forsake thee. I mean never, yes I do. And then look, verse
8, Jesus Christ the same, yesterday and today and forever. See how clear that is, because
the immutability of God, the unchangeableness of God, where he says, I don't change, and
I'll never leave you nor forsake thee, period. And so number 1, the record of God, number
2, the adoption of God, number 3, the promise of God, number 4, the immutability of God.
Look at 2 Timothy 2.13, let me just show you a few last scriptures on this, just to show
you some great other examples of this in the Bible. Those are the four big ones, let me
show you a few other things. 2 Timothy 2.13, this is for all the what ifs, you know, people
say, oh what about this, what if this, what about this? 2 Timothy 2.13. Now keep in mind,
let me give you the context of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy is being written by the Apostle
Paul, who's a preacher. And this preacher is writing this to a man that he won to the
Lord, named Timothy, a much younger man. Paul won Timothy to the Lord, in the book of Acts
you can read about it. And when Paul won Timothy to the Lord, he's writing, he trained him
to be a preacher, and Timothy is pastoring at this time. And he's saying to this pastor,
this is from his mentor, the guy who won him to the Lord, giving him advice, preaching
to him about, you know, pastoring and everything, these are called the pastoral epistles, but
look what he says here. And I wish I could read the whole context, but for the sake of
time I'm just going to take you right here to verse number 13. Keep in mind, this is
Paul, one of the greatest men that ever lived, to Timothy, another one of the most greatest
men who ever lived, okay? These are great men of God, these are great preachers, these
are men God used, these are holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost
and were actually used to pen down the Bible itself. God moved upon them and used their
hands to write down his word. Look what Paul says to Timothy. If we believe not, what's
he talking about? He's talking about me and you, Tim. Hey, listen, Tim, if we believe
not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. He says even if for some reason,
Tim, you and I were to stop believing, I mean even if for some reason one day we just said,
like, I'm not sure if I even believe that anymore. He says, yet he abideth faithful,
he can't deny himself, he still couldn't take away. Even if peradventure, you could somehow,
Tim, stop believing in Jesus, which is not, you know, it's not going to happen, but he
says, like, if you somehow could stop from believing in Jesus and if I were to stop believing,
he says, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. He cannot take away your salvation
no matter what. He says he can't deny himself, even if you don't believe, even if you break
every sin in the Bible. I mean, what else do we have to show? If you can't lose your
salvation by stop believing, and if you can't lose your salvation by breaking every commandment
in the Bible, how can you lose your salvation? See what I'm saying? And so the Bible's so
clear on this, the Bible's so replete with great information on this, but look at another
one. Look at Matthew chapter 7. First book in the New Testament, about 75% of the way
through the Bible. Matthew chapter 7, familiar passage. Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone that
sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. You see that? Not everybody
who says, I'm a Christian, yeah, I believe in Jesus, not everybody that does not go into
heaven. It says, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Elsewhere,
God said, this is the will of the Father that you believe on him, whom God has sent. He
said, my will is that you believe. He said that you would believe and that believe he'd
have life through his name. He says, it's not enough just to say, Lord, Lord, yes, Jesus
saved me. You have to be believing on Jesus Christ in your heart. You have to say it's
all Jesus, not it's my good works and yes, Lord, please save me, and I'll do a good job
and keep it, and I don't believe it's eternal. If you say, Lord, Lord, and you don't believe
in eternal life, you're not saved, because God said you're calling God a liar and you
don't believe him. But look, not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? I preached
unto you, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works.
Look at all the good works I did, God. God, I went to church. God, I was a preacher. God,
I did everything. I lived for you. I've done all these wonderful works. Look how I fed
the homeless. Look how I taught Sunday school. What's he going to say to them if they're
not saved? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. You're not saved. I'm sorry,
you're not in my family. It would be like if the neighbor kid down the street comes
to me and says, but Dad! I mean, it's just some strange pronouncement. Dad! I'm hungry,
Dad! Why didn't you feed me, Dad? Dad, why didn't you drive me where I need to go, Dad?
I'm going to say, I never knew you. Get out of here. Go home. You're not my son. I don't
know you. See, if God knows you, that's all you need because you just need to be in the
family. See, you don't think God knows his children? Oh, that's who he knows. He doesn't
know the strangers. He doesn't know the other. The neighbor kid, he doesn't know. He knows
his children. And so he's saying, I never knew you. Depart from ye that work iniquity.
You're a sinner because everybody's a sinner. He says, you're a sinner. I don't know you.
You're going to hell. Now look, what's the key word? I never knew you. Okay, so look,
everybody who goes to hell, God never knew them. Does he say, I used to know you, but
you lost your salvation? See what I'm saying? He doesn't say, I knew you, but then you stopped
believing in me and you got out of church and you forfeited your salvation and you decided
to go back to your old ways and so now you're not saved. No, he says, look, the many that
are going to come to me, it's because I never knew them. Because if you go to hell, it's
because God never knew you. If he knew you one time, that's all it takes. You're in the
family. You're born again. You're saved. You're God's son. He just has to know you one time.
Now look, one last thing I want to show you. Flip forward to the book of John. Two scriptures
in the book of John, actually. John chapter five, verse 24. I know I repeat this verse
a lot. It's a verse that was shown to me the day that I got saved and so it means a lot
to me. Great verse. This is the quintessential verse in the entire Bible. If I had to pick
one verse and somebody said, I want you to prove to me that you can't lose your salvation.
I want you to prove to me that once you're saved, you'll always be saved. I want you
to prove to me that it's eternal and you can use one verse, Pastor Anderson, ready,
go. I say, John 5, 24. This is it. This is the big one. This is all you need. But John
5, 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life. Has, that's right now, has this present tense.
If you've heard the word of God and you believe on Jesus Christ, he says, you have everlasting
life. Now. If I have it now and it's everlasting and I already have it, then it's going to
last forever. It doesn't say, you'll get everlasting life when you die if you endure
faithful to the end. He says, no. If you believe him, you have it right now. So it must last
forever. He that believeth, let me see here, I lost 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. Look, am I going to come into condemnation or not? Because
God said if I believe on him, I will not come into condemnation. So if down the road somewhere
God condemns me, then he's a liar because he just said that I will not come into condemnation.
He shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. See, the moment
I got saved, I was over here. Let's let this area represent death. I was in death. And
God said, you believe on me? Come on over into life. I'm going to resurrect you from
the dead. The Bible says in Ephesians 2, 1, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses
and sins. It says he quickened you. He made you alive. He brought you to life. The quick
means, the Bible says he's the judge of the quick and the dead. Quick means alive. And
he says, you were dead, but I've resurrected you from the dead. I've translated you and
I've brought you across. I've reached across and said, you're in death. Now you're in life.
I've brought you to life. So it's like, what is he going to do, bring you back to life?
And then you die again, you know. Let me bring you back to life again. No, he says, look,
you've been passed from death to life. You'll never come into condemnation. You have eternal
life. Three different times in the same verse he's telling you. You're eternally saved.
And then flip over, of course, to John chapter 10. This is probably a famous one.
John chapter 10. It says in verse number 25, Jesus answered them, I told you and you believed
me not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me, but you believe
not. What's their problem? Twice in a row it says, your problem is that you don't believe.
But you believe not because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you. He's saying,
look, the reason you don't understand my preaching, the reason why you're offended by my preaching
is because you don't believe in me. That's your problem. And he says, if you believe
in me, then you'd be one of my sheep. And he says, my sheep hear my voice and I know
them. See, there it is. Again, remember I never knew you? He says, I know my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice and I know them. Wouldn't you love the consistency of the Bible? You'll
see the same patterns repeated again and again because he's so consistent. My sheep,
even though it's written by 39 different authors over 1600 years, it's just consistent. The
same thing again and again. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me
and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. They're never going to
perish. They're my sheep. They believe in me. They're my sheep. I know them. They'll
never perish. And then the other crowd, I don't know them and I never knew them because
once I know them, they're my sheep and they'll never perish. I mean, how much clearer can
you get? And then he says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck
them out of my hands. So it's like he's making two different statements. One is that they're
never going to perish. There's no way they could ever go to hell. And then he reiterates
that by adding another statement saying, nothing external. No, they can never. Somebody
else cannot take away their salvation from them. Nor can they perish of their own accord.
He's saying they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My
Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. And I love this next verse. I and my Father are one. You see that? He's
saying, look, Jesus and God, it's the same thing. I am my Father. And look what it says
in verse 31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone it. They said, we're going
to kill you for saying that you're God. We're going to kill you for saying that you're the
Father. And look at the latter part of verse 33. It says, for a good work we stone thee
not, but for blasphemy and that thou being a man makest thyself God. You see, the Jews
understood that he's saying, I'm God. You're making yourself God. We're going to kill you.
And of course he preaches against them and goes on and rips them up one side and down
the other. Look, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's eternal. But let me
close with this. You know what? Try and prove that to somebody who's not saved. It's not
going to work. Because I'll tell you why. The Bible says they have a veil over their
eyes and they just cannot understand the Bible. They can't see it, but when their heart turns
to Christ, the veil's removed and they'll understand it. See, people who don't believe
this, I'm talking about people who just are strongly against what I'm preaching to you
tonight against and they're saying, no, I've been in church for years and I will not accept
it. They don't have an intellectual problem. They have a heart problem where they're refusing
to give God all the credit for their salvation. It has to be something that they're still
doing to keep it around. Or they have to lift them up above someone else and say, well,
that guy can't go to heaven because he lost his salvation. No, no. Look, humble yourself
before God. If you're not saved, humble yourself before God and say, you know what, God? It's
all you. I mean, you paid it. You did it all. I'm just going to believe you and I'm going
to believe the record that you gave yourself. Who am I, God, to call you a liar? I'm just
going to believe it when you said it's eternal. I'm not going to call you, I'm just going
to believe it, God. And see, that's a heart problem when somebody wants to lift themself
up against what God says and call him a liar. They need to just humble themselves and say,
I'm sorry. I was prideful. I was arrogant. I did wrong and I'm just going to accept the
fact that your word is true. Let God be true in every man a liar and I'm just going to
believe that it is eternal. But how about the fact that when you go soul winning and
you say, one, two, three, repeat after me, you know, yep, that's decent and you're hard
to save. You look, if this is such a vital doctrine, if this is what God says you have
to believe in order to go to heaven, if this is something where it kind of separates those
who are trusting works, you know what I mean? It kind of just separates them because if
somebody believes you can't lose it, they're pretty much saying that it has nothing to
do with the way you live. I mean, they're pretty much saying that it's by Jesus, but
if somebody says you can lose it, then you have something to do with it. You see, that's
a great separator. And so let me tell you something, every time I go soul winning, every
time, every time I win somebody to Christ, every time I get somebody to the gospel, before
I just pray a prayer with them, you know what I'm saying, I want to go through, I go through
this with them and I don't go through the whole thing. I just show them one scripture.
And if they're believing on Jesus and they want to get saved and they're willing to accept
Christ, I'll show them just one verse, that's all, that says it's eternal and they'll say,
yeah, I understand that. And once they understand that, once they comprehend that, it just makes
it so clear in their mind that it's not about their life. When I say, look, did you know
that it's eternal life? Whether I'm in John 3.16, I might show them that. Whether I'm
in Romans 6.23, you know, whether I'm in whatever verse I'm showing them, or I might just show
them the word saved, how it has a D on the end and I'll explain to them how it's past
tense, it's done, it's eternal. And when I explain that to them, boy, it really helps
people understand the gospel. I mean, it will really help them get saved if they understand
this. And this is the greatest tip I could ever give you. If you say, what's your number
one soul winning advice, Pastor Anderson? What's your number one tip for getting my
loved ones and my friends saved? Number one tip is when you go through the plan of salvation,
yes, show them they're a sinner, of course. Show them the death, burial, and the resurrection,
preach the gospel, which the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, the gospel is the death,
burial, and resurrection. Preach the gospel, show them that it's by faith, show them that
it's by believing, and then explain to them that it's eternal life. Isn't that great?
Isn't that good news? Isn't that the good news of the gospel? That it's eternal life
and that you can be saved eternally and you just show them that? And if they say, well,
wait a minute, I just don't believe that, that once you get saved, you can never lose
it. Pray in a prayer with them, you're wasting your time because they're calling God a liar.
But if you can get them to realize that this is a one time thing where they get saved eternally,
well, they'll be saved. They'll believe on Jesus Christ if they can accept that. Because
that's the record that God gave them His Son. And they'll go from that crowd that's in
the believeth not side, they believe that record that it's eternal, they get on the
believing side. And then, yes, lead them in that prayer where they call on God for salvation.
Because with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Boy, God, thank you so much. I'm so glad that I don't have a Bible that's hard to understand,
and I'm so glad I don't have a Bible that I have to sit around and interpret, and split a bunch
of hairs, and I have to just try to read between the lines, and I think it's eternal. I think
this says I can't lose it, but I'm glad God...