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Amen, so we're starting a new series tonight. We're starting a series called Baptist Basics, and the first sermon in this series is covered in, quite extensively actually, in John chapter six. So Jesus here, in John chapter six, is going over, he's using, you know, one thing about Jesus that I love, a lot of things, I love everything about Jesus, but one of the things about his intellect that I really appreciate is that he uses everything as a teachable moment. So here at the beginning of John chapter six, he feeds the five thousand, I mean he literally does a miracle where he literally feeds bread to five thousand people, and then he launches into this major teachable moment in John chapter six about how, you know, comparing physical actual bread to, you know, the spiritual bread of believing on him, and how one, you know, if you eat bread you have to keep eating bread and keep eating bread, and if you don't eat bread, you know, you'll die. And even if you do eat bread and eat bread and eat bread, you're eventually going to physically die anyway, as he uses that example of the manna in the wilderness, but he says, me, the bread of life, he said, when you eat of this bread, and, you know, he knows that there's people that don't believe what he's saying, and, you know, he's just in one of those situations where he's just teaching a truth to even people that aren't believing. So he says, but if you eat of this bread of, you know, of me, he's talking about the bread of, and he says these two words over and over again in John chapter six of believing on, believing on him. If you eat of that bread, you will never die. You will never die. You will have everlasting life. So this evening, I want to talk to you about this doctrine, which is basically the fundamental of our faith, and it is a very separating, and you can see, even in John chapter six, how this doctrine, this teaching, was a separating teaching. What did it say? It said after Jesus taught this, many of his own disciples didn't follow him anymore. It was a very separating doctrine. So we're going to talk this evening about this doctrine of eternal security this evening. In John chapter six, that is exactly what Jesus is teaching. He is saying, when you eat of this bread, not, you know, the physical bread that we just fed the 5,000, you will never hunger. You will never die, but you will have everlasting life. So the question this evening is this. Can you lose your salvation? We're going to look at this in detail. I hope you have a Bible. We're going to be flipping through your Bible, and just let me say this. There's no way we can get to all the Bible on this. There is so much Bible on eternal security. What I want to do this evening, if I had a title for the sermon, it would be the logical case for eternal security. I want to think through this this evening using some very simple Bible philosophy, and just think through the logical case for eternal security. Can you lose your salvation? This is Protestantism today. This is the Protestants today. We'll say, you know, it's faith in Jesus, belief in Jesus, but you can lose it. You can lose it by doing X, Y, and Z, or whatever, fill in the blank. It depends on who you talk to. You'll get different answers on what you have to do to lose that salvation. Look, Protestantism, in my opinion, is worse than Catholicism in many cases because of the fact that at least Catholics will come up to you and say, yes, you're saved by your works. It's by works. You must do works. But Protestants are so wrapped around the axle with this faith plus works theology that it is very, it's very tough sometimes to unwrap them from that axle. But we're going to, we're going to start this evening by giving you the logical case for eternal security. It's this strange mix of faith versus faith mixed with works that we have trouble with out there, or some people have trouble with. The Bible doesn't have any trouble of it, but here's the thing. The Bible has a lot to say about this doctrine. Turn back to John chapter six if you're still there. This is the teachings of Jesus himself. Look at John chapter six. Jesus is using this idea of the bread of life to teach eternal security here. Look at John chapter six and verse 31. He says, our fathers did eat manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. He's talking to the Jews here, the unbelieving Jews. For the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. This is where they get all offended, right? Like, oh, he said he came from heaven. Isn't this the carpenter's son, right? So they get all offended because he's basically claiming to be the Christ. Look at verse 35. And Jesus said unto them, I am that bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. And you say, what does cometh to me mean? Well, then he explains it right here. And he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not. So these people do not believe on him. And the father that giveth me shall come to me. And, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So he says, look, you know, if you believe on me, you will never hunger. He's like, you will, I am that bread of life. And I will never cast you out. So much for this idea that God can give up on you or walk away from you. He says here, I will never cast you out. For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the father's will, which him that sent me, that he that, I'm sorry, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but I should raise it up again that last day. And this is the people that say, you have to do the will of God. You have to do the will of God to go to heaven. Well, here's the will of God, verse 40 right here. Okay. The will of God is what? And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth his son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. I mean, he just breaks it right down right there. And I will raise him up at the last day. So what I want to do is I kind of want to flip this thing on its head this evening. And I just don't want to go through Bible verse after Bible verse on eternal security. I want to try to see if we can make some sense out of the arguments against eternal security, the things that we see out there, soul winning. So here's the first one. Here's the first one that we'll hear from a lot of Protestants. And this is one actually before I got saved that I actually used to believe. And it's this, that maybe it's eternal security after you die. So, you know, you have eternal life, it's eternal life after you physically die, then it's eternal life. But you don't really know that you have it until just, just hang with me here. All right. It's eternal life after you die. So look, we only have really one ruler criteria here. We're Bible believing Baptists. We believe everything in the Bible. So the whole Bible must be true. That's the only criteria that you need to have this evening. Okay, the whole Bible must be true. The Bible, look, the Bible cannot contradict itself. If you believe something in the Bible, and it contradicts something else that you read in the Bible, it's either one of two things. If you're reading a verse here, or verses here, and you say these two things don't match up, either you're interpreting it wrong, either you are misunderstanding one of those verses, or the Bible has a contradiction in it. Well, the problem's you. I'm just going to tell you right now. The problem is you. If you are reading something in the Bible that you believe contradicts something else in the Bible, you are misunderstanding one of those verses. So that is the only thing, because look, if one thing in the Bible is wrong, the whole thing's out the window. Because if I tell you that this book has one error in it, but I'm not going to tell you where the error is, you can't trust any of it. Look, there is no errors in the Bible. I've not found one yet. There is no errors in the Bible. So the fact that it's without error is the biggest miracle of the book itself. Okay, so look, the whole Bible must be true. That's our design criteria for this evening. Okay, so let's say somebody could believe on Jesus. They could trust in Jesus. Turn to Ephesians chapter one. What does believe on mean? Let's just define the rules here. What does believe on mean? Turn to Ephesians chapter one. You see this again and again. You see believe on, believe on, believe on. Sometimes it's believe in, but what does this mean? Turn to Ephesians chapter one, and then keep a finger in Ephesians chapter one. We're going to be coming back there later on in the sermon. Look at Ephesians chapter one and verse 12. What does believe on mean? When Jesus says this in John chapter six, John chapter three, many other places in the Bible, what does it mean? Ephesians chapter one, look at verse 12. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom that he also trusted after that he heard the word of truth. What is the word of truth? The gospel of your salvation, and whom also after that ye believed. So here we see the word trusted and believed used interchangeably. So to believe means to trust. To believe on means to trust. And then it says after that, look, it says after that you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promises. Other places in the Bible, you know, it uses believe in, in John 3 16, you know, but most other places it's believe on, okay? Ephesians chapter one is showing us that that means to trust in Jesus, in the word of truth, in the gospel, okay? That's what it means. So let's say, back to the sermon, let's say that someone could trust in Jesus. Someone could trust in Jesus and through actions of their own, or look, misactions of their own. They trust in Jesus at this point in their life, and then through misactions or actions or sin or whatever in their life, God would take this away from them. He would take this life away from them, and you say, okay, you know, I'm tracking you. I could, I could trust in Jesus and then do all these bad things, you know, this sin and this sin and this sin, and then God would take that away from me, okay? So the question I would immediately have to ask is, okay, what are those sins? What are those sins that I could do that could make me lose my salvation so I can avoid those things like the plague, right? I mean, who wants to lose their salvation? I mean, raise your hand if you want to lose your salvation. Anybody? I mean, what in the world? It's terrible. We got to stay away from this stuff. So let's look for this list of sins. First of all, you know, I don't know. The only place I could really find anything that even comes close is Revelation chapter 21. Go ahead and turn there. Let's give that one a shot. It talks about a list of sins that will get people to the second death, a list of sins that will get people into hell. In Revelation 21 eight, look at this list. The Bible says, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and the murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters. Pretty bad people there. Pretty bad list. And all liars. Oh, we got a problem here. Shall have their part in the lake with burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So there you are. After you believe, if you lie, you're getting the second death. Except go to John chapter 10. Remember our design criteria here that the whole Bible has to make sense. So if you're going to read Revelation chapter 21, verse number eight and say, if you do those sins, you lose your salvation and you're going to get the second death. You're going to have a lot of problems with other parts of the Bible. I'll just give you one example. Just look at the front of your bulletin. John chapter 10, look at verse 28. This is the words of Jesus. If you have a red letter Bible, these words are red. John chapter 10 verse 28. And I give unto them eternal life. First of all, what does he give you? It's eternal life. How long's eternal last? Until you lie. I give unto them eternal life and they shall perish when? They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Well, that's interesting. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. He basically said the same thing three times there. You get that? He says, I give unto them eternal life. He could have stopped right there. He's like, you have eternal life. That's it. But then he says again, and they shall never perish. Well, it's kind of the same thing as having eternal life. If you have eternal life, you're never going to get the second death. If you have eternal life, you're never going to die. And then he says it again, almost like we're dense, almost like we're thick headed. Neither shall any man, maybe they'll think, maybe they'll think someone or even themselves could do something that could make them lose this eternal life. No, no man, no man can take this away from you. And he says, my father, which gave them me is greater than all. Why, why can no man take it away? Because, because my father, God, the father's more powerful than any of you people, including yourselves, no matter how great you think you are. My father, which gave them me is greater than all and no man, he says it again, he says it again, is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. God holds your salvation, he's saying. So as he gives you this eternal life, he gives you this salvation and God holds it. You don't hold it. Turn back to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. I'm going to give you, I mean, you probably read this verse as a soul winner, maybe a million times. I'm going to give you something else to think about here. Ephesians chapter two. You say, I already know this. Well, you know, I just want to give you maybe some better thoughts, some different thoughts on how you can explain this to people. Look at Ephesians two, eight, nine, for by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Look at verse number nine. Don't forget verse number nine. The reason for salvation being not of works in Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine, and in verse number nine, he gives the reason for it is what? What is the reason? The reason for it not being of works here is by grace through faith is so you can't brag about it. It is so you can't say, I did this myself. If you get one thing, look, if you read the Bible again and again and again, you know what you're going to realize? You're going to kind of, you're going to kind of see the nature of God. You're going to kind of learn God's personality and you're going to realize how stupid it is when people say, oh, that's Old Testament God versus New Testament God. Because when you read the Bible again and again and again, you realize same personality here, same personality. If you know one thing about God, it's this, he wants the credit. He sent his son to die for you. What in the world? He wants to credit for it. He doesn't want you boasting about it. That's why it's by grace through faith and not of yourselves. Look, it's not of you, not even a little bit. You can't take any credit. Now, if you were responsible for keeping your own salvation, if you get saved when you're 32 years old, and then from the time that you're 32 years old to the time that you're 90, you live a godly Christian life and you hang on to that thing. We're going to see how stupid that is too in just a few minutes. But let's say you do that. You live a godly Christian life and you hang on to your salvation. What could you, if that's the case, what could you say when you stood before Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ? What could you say? You know what you could say? Look at thy wonderful works that I've done. You could say, Lord, Lord, look at all the things that I did in your name from the time I was 32 years old to the time that I was 90. Look at my wonderful works. I hung on to it. You could take credit, could you not? To the time of your physical death. You could take, look, that would be quite an accomplishment that you could talk to Jesus about. Think about it. Kind of sounds like these people turn to Matthew chapter 7. Well, you say, wow, well, the Bible covers these people. The Bible leaves no stone unturned. Look, people haven't changed. It's all the same thing, folks. Look at Matthew chapter 7. Look at Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21. Matthew chapter 7 verse 21. Not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. These people are calling Jesus Lord, folks. But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. What's the will of my Father which is in heaven? Let me read for you John 6 40. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that see at the sun and believe on him may have everlasting life. Many will say to me in that day, back to Matthew chapter 7, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, in thy name cast out devils, in thy name done many wonderful works. And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. These people are going to hell. These people are going to hell. And Jesus didn't say, I knew you, and then I forgot you. And then you did that sin and I forgot you. No, he never knew him. They knew him. But that doesn't matter. He's got to know you. He's got to know you. And they were trusting in themselves. They never believed on Jesus. They never trusted in Jesus. Salvation is not, look, salvation is not of works. You want to treat us on that, you come on Wednesday nights, we are going to tear that thing down to the last blade of grass. It's not of works, not even a little bit. Because you're trusting, look, if you're trusting your works, even to keep your salvation, you're trusting yourself. But here's something, turn to Revelation chapter 20. Here's something that is of works. Here's something that is of works. You know what's of works? Damnation is of works. Damnation is of works. Look at Revelation chapter 20 and verse number 11. These are the people that did not believe on Jesus. These are the people that are standing at the great white throne judgment. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was no and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books. Those books were the law. Those books were the law, the commandments, the Bible, according to their works. They were judged, look folks, if you're judged by your works, turn to Isaiah chapter 6. If you're judged by your works, you're toast. If you're judged, I don't care how good of a person you think you are, if you're judged by your works, you're done and you're going to go to hell. Turn to Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 61, I'm sorry. The Bible says in verse 10, I will great really rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. Don't forget that. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Look folks, being saved doesn't mean you suddenly become a great person. Being saved means someone else puts a nice garment on you. You're clothed with somebody else's righteousness when you're saved. We wear His righteousness. It's not suddenly our own. We wear His, it's a garment that we put on. It's like the bride and her jewels. The bride is made beautiful by the jewels. I'm saved, so I'm this great person now and I'm going to keep my salvation. No folks, it's not only not biblical, but it's not logical. The Bible does not contradict itself in words or in philosophy. It's not logical either. Let me explain this to you. Turn to 1 John chapter 5. Turn to 1 John chapter 5. This idea that you could get saved, that you could believe in Jesus, you could trust in Jesus, but then at that point you got to be good or not do these sins, or you'll lose that. Go to 1 John chapter 5 and look at verse 13. The whole Bible is true. The whole Bible is true. The whole Bible is true every word, every verse. Look at 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. There it is again. Who is he saying? He's talking to people that are saved here. He's saying people that have believed on the name of the Son of God. That you may what? That you may be pretty sure that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. That you may think, that you may know, that you may know. Look, if you could believe in Jesus and trust in Jesus, but then you had to keep yourself from certain sins, you had to turn from certain sins, all your sins, whatever, until you died physically. Look, you could never know. And don't tell me you could because you're a liar if you say that because you could never know. You know why? Because there's no specific list of sins in the Bible. It's not there. You would actually, and look, you would actually, look, I'm an engineer. You would actually need more than just a list. You would need, I mean, you would need like charts graphs. I think about like performance analysis. I mean, I need, I mean, if you're going to tell me that there's certain sins that can take away my salvation, I need some charts. I need some performance curves. I need, you know, horsepower versus flow. I need head versus flow. I mean, we've got to figure out the efficiency of this thing. So I make sure that I'm in the green. I mean, I don't want to drive this thing into the red. I mean, that's risky territory. I mean, you would need a timeframe. You would need seriousness of sins in there. I mean, you would basically need a chart that shows seriousness of sins on the y-axis and then like time on the x-axis to be the simplest you could do it. I've thought this through. Look, there's no charts in the Bible. There's no list of these things. Look, here's maybe one the teenagers will understand. Probably not the teenagers in this church. It's like a video game. Probably not the teenagers in this church. Thank God. If you like a video game where you have like salvation that's like your life and every sin like takes away some life and then like some sins take away more life than the other sins. But then every time you go to church, you get more life. And then every time you get baptized, you get more life. Every time you give money to church, more life. Depends on how much money. More life. But I mean, you would have to have like, you see how confused. I mean, look, some sins take, I mean, we know all sins aren't equal. We've already done that. So some sins would definitely take away your salvation faster than other sins. And you know, here's the thing. Everybody's understanding of what sins are bad and what sins take away their salvation is different. You know why it's different? Because it's not in the Bible. I met a Pentecostal lady one time. She told me, she's like, yeah, I'm saved. I believed in Jesus and I'm saved. Could you ever lose that? Yeah, as long as I don't commit 12 sins a day. Like what in the world? You know, I mean, but here's the thing. It's not in the Bible. So where are they getting these things? They're getting it from their preacher. They're getting it from some false prophet that tells them what sins that they can't commit, or they'll lose their salvation. I mean, I don't know, it's a pretty good idea if you want to control people. Like if you guys aren't doing what I'm saying, you're not vacuuming the carpet or whatever good enough. It's like, listen, vacuum harder or you're going to go to hell. I mean, I know that's a simple example, but that's really what's happening here. You know, you can't control your wife or you don't like the way that you're, you know, you're just telling them that they're going to go to hell if they backslide or whatever. You know, I mean, it's a control mechanism. The Catholic Church has been doing it with infant baptism since, you know, 300 AD. You want to come? You want your kids to go to heaven? You better bring them here. It's like, why didn't people see this coming? People did. They were called Baptists and they got burned. They got tortured and they got killed for it. Look, you say this is all silly to even think about this video game wife versus taking away your life and getting more and just not getting past the point where you die because, you know, then you've got to be born again again, which isn't in the Bible either. I mean, you say it sounds dumb, but look, folks, this is the Reformation. I mean, this is Protestants today. So let's go back to the logic part. So we know, look, we're told we can know we have eternal life, right? 1 John 5 13 that you may know. It's very clear. I mean, that's not a complicated statement that you may know that you have eternal life. People, you know, and then people believe it operates by this weird game. These rules are not in the Bible and these people, where are they getting them? They're getting them from some false prophet that's teaching things that are not in the Bible. It's that simple. Your pastor or whoever is telling them what will send them to hell. They're, you know, how much they must come to church and do all these things, whatever. So look, here's another one on how you can keep your salvation that you'll hear many times, a lot of times from Protestants. I believe this myself for half my life. And it's this, you can keep your salvation by confessing your sins. You can keep your salvation by confessing your sins by, you know, asking for forgiveness. You'll hear this at the door many times. What if you sin? Well, you just have to ask for forgiveness. Now here's what the actual reality of these people is. I've run into these people so many times. Most people that believe this, let's think this one through. Let's think this one through. Most people that believe this ultimately believe that everyone is going to go to heaven. Okay? The more people, and you just, you say, I'm not sure. Let's trust me. People that believe that all you have to do is ask for forgiveness and then you'll be able to go to heaven or you'll be able to keep your salvation or whatever. First of all, asking for forgiveness is a work that you do. It's a work. It's you doing something. Okay? Look, it's a good thing to do. Don't get me wrong. Nothing to do with your salvation. So you have to ask for forgiveness. But people that believe this think everyone's going to heaven. Because I'll always say at the door, I'll always say, so whenever somebody gives me a works-based answer, I'll always say to people, what if I don't do those things? So when they say, well, you just have to ask for forgiveness. And then I'll just say, what if I just never asked for forgiveness? What if I'm just a horrible human being and I never asked for forgiveness? And those people will almost always say, well, I just think God's going to forgive you anyway. I mean, so the question is, the question is, are most people going to heaven? Turn to Luke chapter 13. I mean, look, I mean, that's a good question. I mean, if you don't know the answer to that question, let's answer it for you right now. Let's just take a rabbit trail and find out. Are most people going to heaven? I mean, it's a nice thought. I wish most people were going to heaven. I mean, I would like most people to go to heaven, would you not? I mean, who wants people to go to hell? I mean, who would want people to go to hell? Look at Luke 13 and verse 23. The Bible says, then said one unto him, Lord. I mean, it's a pretty direct question right here. Are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, strive to enter in at the straight gate. Straight meaning not straight as an arrow, straight meaning narrow, like a canal, like the one that the ship got caught in. That's a straight gate. Okay, the ship got caught in the narrow gate for many. Look, many ships could not go through that, that canal. One ship blocked it up. So many could not go through it. It was just one at a time. So I say unto you, many will seek to enter in and shall not be able. He answers it in more detail in Matthew 7 13, where he says, enter ye in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate, the opposite of this. And broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many be there with the go in there at, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. And few be that find it, few there be that find it. Look, most people are not going to be saved, folks. I hate to break it to you. But most people, and if you become a soul winner, you will understand that most people are not saved. Most people are not saved. You say, you say, that's terrible. Well, I agree. That's terrible. Will you help us do something about it? Will you help us preach the gospel to people? Will you help us get out there and get the truth to people so people can get saved? I mean, that's why we're doing what we do here. Those are the first works right there. Turn to 1 John chapter 1. Let's get back to this idea of confessing your sins to keep yourself saved, to keep your own salvation. Look at 1 John chapter 1. The Bible says, in 1 John chapter 1 in verse number 9, the Bible says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Aha! I've got it. There it is. If you don't confess your sins, you're going to hell. Not what it says. Let's look back a couple of verses and let's look forward a couple of verses. The Bible says in verse 6, if we say that we have fellowship with Him, oh, there it is. This is about having a relationship with your heavenly Father. 1 John chapter 1. It is that simple. But look, they will say, see, you have to confess your sins or you lose your salvation. But look, 1 John chapter 1 I just showed you from the Bible was about having fellowship with your heavenly Father, but let's just walk the logic of this one through. This is a great one. Just look up here and just think through this with me, okay? Let's say, if you don't, I have to operate this way. I must confess my sins, which confess means to be truly sorry and to ask for forgiveness. Okay, that's what confession means. Now turn to Proverbs 24. I need to operate this way or I will lose my salvation. I must confess my sins or I'm done. You'll meet people that believe this, but they really believe everyone's going to heaven, so they make no sense in what they believe themselves. But look at Proverbs 24. Let me just walk the logic of this one through. The Bible says in Proverbs 24.9, the thought of foolishness is sin. Oh man, what in the world? The thought, I mean, having a foolish thought is a sin? So here, I mean, I got a couple of questions. These are things that I used to think about as I was a confessional Lutheran until I was in my 30s, meaning you had to confess your sins to wipe that slate clean. But here's the thing, I would always think about this. What if I miss one? What if I miss one? And here's a really big one because you can put some clause in there that says, Oh God, forgive me for all the stuff that I forgot about. And then that gets rid of all the, you know, what if I miss one? But look, here's another one. What if you're disingenuous about one? What if there's a sin that, you know, you're not going to stop? What if there's a sin that, you know, you're actively in and you're confessing it on Sunday morning? You think God is an idiot? You think you're fooling God? You think he's just going to be like, you know, whatever, you know, but here's the thing. What if I just do this thing where, okay, let's just say that God believes that as long as I confess a vain repetition, are you following me? But let's just, let's give it the benefit of the doubt. We confess a chance every Sunday morning. It's like a salvation extender. Think of an Etch-a-Sketch, right? You guys even know what that is, you younger people. In Etch-a-Sketch, you shake it and it's all clean. You can draw on it again, right? So you go there Sunday morning, you shake the Etch-a-Sketch clean. So good, right? How long are you good for? If a foolish thought is a sin and confessing your sin shakes the Etch-a-Sketch, I don't know, you're good for like a few minutes? I don't know. You know, what if I have a foolish thought and then get hit by a car sometime between Sunday and Sunday? Look, nobody's going to heaven on these rules. I mean, you certainly can't know. I mean, do you think, I mean, how long do you think that your salvation slate stays clean after you successfully reset it? Think this through, people. It makes no logical sense. Basically, people would be, you know, have their salvation reset for a few minutes, and then they'd be in danger of damnation again. You see how stupid this is? You see how stupid it is when we try to make logical sense out of the alternatives of this? So look, the only doctrine where the Bible makes total sense and does not contradict itself at all is the doctrine of eternal security. Once saved, always saved, it matches everywhere. I remember this. I remember this when I got this, and then I started reading the Bible, and the Bible was not confusing to me anymore. I was like, man, it all makes sense now. It all makes sense because everything matches together perfectly. Look, here's the simple, here's three main tenets of this that I like to think about. Look, as far as the timeline of your salvation, go back to Ephesians chapter one. Go back to Ephesians chapter one. Here's three tenets of eternal salvation that I like to think about. The first one is this. You're sealed. You're sealed. Think about that word. You're sealed. Think of the timeline, this timeline of I got saved at this moment, and then I have this whole life to live until my physical death, but the Bible says that you're sealed. Go back to Ephesians chapter one. Look at verse 13. The Bible says, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after... Look, there's a time, there's a sequence of events happening here. After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So look, you heard, you heard, and then you believed, and then you were sealed. Now what were you sealed with? Superglue? Two ton epoxy? Love this stuff. We got this porcelain chicken. It's been broken like 17 times. It never breaks in the same place because I use two ton epoxy all the time. It's great glue, but it's not going to keep your salvation. Okay? Look, here's the thing. You're sealed with what? The Holy Spirit. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit of what? Of promise. Verse 14. It gets even better, but wait, there's more. Which is... I mean, look, with this stuff with eternal security, Jesus is just slamming this stuff home. The Bible is just slamming this stuff home. Look, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. That's enough for me. I don't need another verse, but here it is. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until there's that time again, the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. Even if you say that eternal doesn't begin until physical death, you're sealed all the way up to that time by the Holy Spirit, which is the earnest. You know what an earnest is? It's a down payment or a promise. When you put an earnest payment down on a house that you're thinking about buying, it means I'm gonna buy this. You know what? If you back out from the deal, you know what happens? You lose that money. Turn to John chapter 3. From this moment of trust, let's go back to the moment of trust. From this moment of trust, you are sealed. Turn to John chapter 3 and verse 36, one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. John chapter 3 verse 36, one of the most simple to understand verses in the entire Bible. The Bible says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Just stop there. Look, He that believeth on the Son. Look, who's the Son? It's Jesus. We all know this. Half everlasting life. It means you have it. It's an older word for have or you currently possess it. It says when you believe on Jesus, you have it. You have everlasting life. And at that moment, you're sealed. At that moment, God put a down payment on you. And you know what? He put that down payment inside you. And that down payment is, look, to believe God would take away your salvation is to believe that God would walk away from His down payment. And the down payment is Him. He would have to abandon Himself. Holy Spirit. Look, it's the only thing. Look, you decide not to buy that house, you lose that money. God walks away from God's not walking away from the Holy Spirit. You say He might be really mad at me. Yeah, but you know, He's going to keep you around because He's got the Holy Spirit holding you. Put a down payment on you with the Holy Spirit. I mean, forget you. God's not walking away from the Holy Spirit. Turn to Romans 6 23. So that's the first one. You're sealed. From that moment, you believe you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. The second one is this. And I mean, it's so simple. It's just beautiful that salvation is a gift. Romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see that word gift? You don't earn a gift. You don't work for a gift. You don't pay for a gift. Look, it's the very nature of this simple term that makes salvation and the gospel itself so beautiful. If I mean, every even of the smallest child understands what a gift is. Even the smallest child understands that a gift once it's given to you, you didn't pay for it. The person that gave it to you in this case, it's through Jesus Christ. It's provided by Jesus Christ. And then it's yours at that moment. And then it can't stop being yours. Even the smallest child understands that somebody who would give someone a gift and then take it away is you know, you know, it's they're a liar. And then on top of all that, so it's a gift. It's super simple. That's the simplicity of the gospel, folks. And it makes perfect sense. Because what if God made the gospel so complicated that it was this twisted version? I mean, there's a million different doctrines out there twisting works and faith. But now you have to figure out which one's right. What if the gospel was so complicated, only the most studied scholar in the Bible could figure it out? Is that I mean, no, it makes sense that it would be simple. It makes simple, it makes sense that it would be, you know, it's almost like God said that he, he, he preferred the meek over the proud, you know, who have a hard time, you know, who has a hard time with the gospel being a gift and being eternal and having nothing to do with themselves. It's nothing to do with you to get it. It's nothing to do with you to keep it, you know, as a really hard time with that proud people. That's why the, you know, the more money people says, you know, have, and the more successful people have in general, the more resistant they are going to be to this simple gospel of it being a gift. And here's, here's the next, the last one. Not only is the gift yours, not only is it a gift and it's yours, but it's eternal. It's literally eternal. God cannot lie. Titus. As a matter of fact, that, you know, when you logically look at this thing as we did here, the only thing, you know, here's the thing, the only thing that you could know if you believed that it wasn't eternal and that you could lose your salvation, the only thing that you would know if you thought you could lose it to sin or not doing something or whatever, the only thing that you are not confessing your sins, the only thing that you would know is that you don't have it. I mean, if you were honest with yourself and you believe that you could lose it through these things that we talked about this evening, the only thing that you would know for sure is that you don't have it folks. It's the only way, look, this believing that you're saved by believing on Jesus is the only way the Bible makes sense. It's the only way the logic of it makes sense. It stays simple. Eternal life is eternal. It happens in a moment and you're sealed in that moment. God puts a down payment on you with His Holy Spirit. And then all these things, all these things, look, your works, confession, following the commandments, all these things that the Bible does talk about. They're all good things. Turn to John chapter one. They're all good things to do as God's children. They're all good things to do as God's children. You're saying, I can get saved and I can go do whatever I want in my life. Well, yeah, you know, and you're not going to go to hell. I mean, everything else is, you know, your family may go to hell. You know, I mean, you ruined your life. You're going to be chastised and beaten by God again and again and again. It doesn't sound like a free ticket to me, but yeah, you're not going to go to hell. He's never going to take away your salvation. You're sealed. You're still sealed even though you're a bad guy and you never go to church and you're just going to live a life the way you want to live this worldly life. But look, you're not going to go to hell. But look at John chapter one, verse 12. The Bible says, but as many as received him to them gave me power to become the sons of God, lowercase s, even to them. So who are the sons of God to them that believe on his name. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a child of God. You're a son of God. You're a daughter of God. Now turn to first John chapter two. And God is a good father and he will chastise his children. The Bible talks about, we're not going to go into depth on that, but God will chastise his children. So it is true to say that once somebody gets saved and they continue in sin, that their life will change because God is going to beat them down because now you're a son of God. Now you're under different rules. I've had people say that to me when they got saved and they believed on Jesus and they said, oh man, I think you might've just wrecked my life. I said on this earth maybe, but not eternally. On this earth maybe, because you continue doing the things that you're doing and God, you're not getting away with anything anymore. Simply put, look at first John two and verse three, and hereby we do, we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Does that say he knows you? No, it says we know him if we keep his commandments. In Matthew chapter seven, he says, I never knew you. In Daniel chapter 11 that I read to you this morning, what do we say? Who are they going to do? Who are they that are going to do those exploits? They that what? They that know their God. It doesn't say everybody that's saved. It says they that know their God. You keep God's commandments. You walk in the Bible. You keep this Christian life and you, you do, you're showing your love for God. Why would you not do that after he saved you? It's like, here's the best gift anyone could possibly ever give you. And you're just like, thanks, see you later. But that's what everybody does. That's what everybody does. It's a character thing. We do know him if we keep his commandments. Verse number six says he that, he that sayeth he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. It's like you should do these things. Romans teaches the same thing. You should do these things. You are no longer a slave. You are no longer a servant to sin. You should walk this way. It doesn't say you will. You still have the flesh in you. You still have this desire to sin. You are still going to sin, but you ought not to. It has nothing to do with salvation. It has everything to do with the relationship that you have with your Heavenly Father. And here's the real kicker. The guy at the door that says, you're telling me I can believe on Jesus and it's a free ticket to heaven? That's exactly what I'm telling you. You trust in Jesus. You let go of your own works and, and you believe on his name and you're saved and that's it in a moment. You're saved. You're saved. In a moment. But here's the thing, you go out and you live the life of a drunk and you live a wicked life. You think your kids are going to get saved? You think when you open the Bible to your kids, look, if you could give me the choice that if somebody gave me the choice that either you're going to go to hell, Jared, or your child is going to go to hell, I would choose me every time. You don't get to make that choice. Whether or not your children get saved and grow up in the Lord and grow up learning the Bible and learning the Word of God and knowing the Lord and eventually believing on Jesus themselves, that's up to you because they're watching you. They're watching your, look, you're a witness to them. Your works matter. Your works matter. James chapter 2 talks about how your works matter to profit everyone around you. You could take that salvation and you could run with it and just forget everybody else around you. A lot of people do it. A lot of people do it in this life. But some man you are. Some father you are. And just, and forget about that you're just throwing it in the face of God. Who gave his only begotten son for you. And for every stupid, wicked thing you'll ever do in your life. He gave up his only son to die and take the punishment for you and you're going to be like, thanks, see you later. You could do that because he promises that he seals you. Look, God keeps his promise. God keeps his promise. These people that believe that you can lose your salvation unless I do something, they're all going to go to hell. And if they, look, I hope we can get the truth to as many as possible. But ultimately if they go to the grave thinking that I have to do these things, they deserve to go to hell. Because God did it all. He paid it all. He did it all and then he wrote it all down and it's the simplest thing ever. The choice, look, the choice is up to you on what you believe. But look, he will never let you go. You. There is no way to make biblical or logical sense if you think about these things of the doctrine of losing your salvation. It's eternal. Thank God that it's eternal. I thank God for that all the time. And you know what? I'll tell you this. If I could lose it, I would lose it. You're saying, but you're, but you lead this church. If I could lose it, if it was possible, I will lose it. I had another, some kind of person I was given the gospel to in church one time a few years ago and he said he believed that he wasn't a sinner anymore. First of all, he's a liar, the Bible says. And he looked at me and he said, you're telling me that that pastor up there is a sinner? That's exactly what I'm telling you. If I could lose my salvation, I'm going to be a sinner until the day that this body dies. If I could lose it, I'd lose it. And so would you. You need to thank God for the fact that you're sealed. You need to thank God for this promise that he gave you. Not only did he die for you, not only did he take the punishment for you, but he promised to keep you. If you just trust in that, that's it. It's the only thing that makes any sense. And I'm so thankful for this promise. Eternal security. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.