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And the title of the sermon is, Once Saved, Always Saved. Once Saved, Always Saved. A lot of people like to mock that phrase, once saved, always saved. I love it. I love it. It's so poetic. It's so easy to say. It rolls off the tongue. Once saved, always saved. If you're saved today, you will always be saved and you have the guarantee of eternal life in heaven. What did Jesus say there? Basically, from this verse, he's saying, hey, once you receive salvation, it cannot be lost. And again, you might be wondering, Kevin, why? Another sermon on the gospel. Another sermon on salvation. That's two. In our last two weeks, we've been hearing about the gospel. And like I said last week, in an ideal scenario, hey, the first sermon's sufficient. By grace, through faith, and a lot of works. Right? So the thing is, because there are so many false gospels out there, like I said, I have no choice but to cover now eternal security. Okay? Now, I want you to think about this. The first sermon two weeks ago that I preached was, you know, it was by grace, through faith. We received salvation through faith from the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And we said, a lot of works. Right? Made that very clear. The Bible over and over, it makes that very clear. It's by faith alone and not of works. Last week, I had to preach on repent of your sins because what people do is they try to add works at the front end. And they try to use phrases that confuse the hearer. And so they're tricked into thinking, oh, it's not by works, but then they're trying to work their way to heaven. Okay, so some people add works to the front end of the gospel. It's not just belief, but you also have to clean up your life. You have to keep the law. You have to keep the commandments. That's what we dealt with last week. What we're dealing with this week is people try to add works to the back end of the gospel. Okay? They'll be like, well, it's just faith, but if you haven't got the works, you know, and we'll go there. But ideally, what I really want to preach on today, and what I really want to attack is this idea that you can lose your salvation. There are those that want to teach how you can lose it. But what did we just read? Jesus says, and I give them eternal life. Now, if you have eternal life today, you've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus says, if I give them eternal life, they shall never perish. Is there a condition to that? Is there, well, they might perish if? No, it's they shall never perish. And why will we never perish? Because it says, then neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So Jesus says, hey, if you're saved, you have eternal life, you're in the hand of Jesus Christ. Because no one, no man will ever be able to pluck you out of my hand, says Jesus. So who's holding on to God? Are you the one trying to hold on to God, or is God holding on to you? It says Jesus is the one that's holding on to you. It says no man, right? And then verse 29, just in case that's not clear enough, he repeats it again, now referring to God the Father, he says in verse 29, my Father which gave them me, so the ones that the Father gave to Jesus Christ, those that are saved, is greater than all. So Jesus says, hey, he's greater than you, he's greater than me, he's greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. So not only are you in the hand of Jesus Christ and he's holding on to you, but then you're also in the hand of the Father, who's the greatest of all, there's no one more powerful and greater than God the Father, and Jesus says, hey, you can't even no man can pluck him out of the Father's hand either. So you've got the double assurance there, right? You have the Holy Ghost in you, dwelling in you, then you're held by the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're held by the hand of God the Father. All three aspects of the Trinity in hand there, in salvation. So once salvation is received, it cannot be lost. And that's it, that's it, sermon's over. Alright, but I'm going to go through eight reasons, just eight other reasons why, and look, I could have made this list 20 reasons, right? But I just thought, okay, what are the best eight reasons that I can think of as to why we cannot lose our salvation? Number one, we just spoke about it, no man can pluck you out of God's hands. Jesus says, no man can pluck you out of his hands, or the Father's hands. Now there are those that will say, that believe you can lose your salvation. They'll be like, well, no man can pluck you out of God's hand, but you can pluck yourself out of God's hand. You know, no one else can do it, but you can pluck yourself out of the Father's hand. You can lose your salvation. If you decide to not live for the Lord, you don't have the works, you continue in sin, and of course they still continue in sin like we discussed last week, but you know, whatever terminology that I use, you know, you can pluck yourself out of the Father's hand. But that's so ridiculous, because if you look at the verse again, it says, neither shall any man. Okay, so it's not just other men, but any man, that includes you, unless you're not a man, unless you're something else, right? But any man, any woman, no one can pluck you out of the Father's hand. So you can see immediately how it falls short, because if you're a man and you think you can pluck yourself out, no, no man can do it, okay? Once you're saved, once you're in the Lord, no man can pluck you out of God's hand. So that's reason number one, no man can pluck you out of God's hands. Reason number two, it's called eternal life for a reason. Okay, it's called eternal life for a reason. John 3.15, actually turn there, John chapter 3. John chapter 3, we're going to look at the most famous verse in the whole Bible, but before that, we're going to look at John 3.15 first, and then we'll read verse 16. John 3.15 and 16. I'll give you a minute there, John 3.15 to 16. And you know it, but I just want you to pay attention to the words that are used here. Verse 15 says, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Remember what Jesus says, that if God gives you eternal life and they shall never perish, neither pluck them out of my hand. But it says the same thing here, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have what? Eternal life. I just want you to focus on that word, that phrase, eternal life. Okay, now look at verse 16. For God to love the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have what? Everlasting life, right? Verse 15, it's eternal life. Verse 16, it's everlasting life. Now these are phrases that you can use interchangeably. Okay, but God's decided to give us two words to explain the new life that we receive, the salvation that we receive, eternal life and everlasting life. And I think I preached about on this at the Soul Winning Marathon, but I just want to repeat, if you weren't there, what's the difference between eternal and everlasting? What's the difference? Because God wants us to understand this, right? Number one, everlasting, let's start with that. Everlasting, that's easy to explain. You know, sometimes if you're preaching the gospel and you ask someone at the door, what does it mean to have, what does everlasting mean? You know, it's in the word, everlasting lasts forever, right? Everlasting life is something that lasts forever. And then what's eternal? What's something that's eternal? Eternal means it never ends, right? So you might be on this side of everlasting life and you'll be like, wow, I received everlasting life and it lasts forever, right? That's one way of looking at it. But then you might be looking at it at this way and go, wow, it never ends, it never ends, it continues. So God's used two words to explain to us, the life that he's given us is everlasting and it's eternal, okay? It lasts forever. Does that mean it can end? Does it mean that at some point it can finish? No, and it never ends. So there was a beginning to it, but it will never end, right? So the second reason why you can never lose your salvation, it's because it never ends. It lasts forever. That's the definition of eternal life, all right? Now when you're knocking doors and you're preaching the gospel and someone's saying, yep, it's eternal life, everlasting life, but they believe you can lose your salvation, just ask them, what does everlasting mean? What does eternal mean, right? Because if you can lose your salvation, it's not eternal. It's not everlasting. It's temporal, right? It's temporal life. It's life that you have for a little while until, you know, whatever that arbitrary level is, you know, you fail and then you can lose it and then you get it again, you know, if you're good enough. Basically, they're adding works now to the back of the gospel. I want you to notice that it's adding works to the back end of the gospel, okay? Reason number three, reason number three that we cannot lose our salvation is that God cannot deny himself. God cannot deny himself. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter three, 2 Timothy chapter two, 2 Timothy chapter two, Nicholas, give me water, 2 Timothy chapter two, verse 13. Now Paul, the Apostle Paul, before we read it, I just want you to know who's writing this and who it's been written to, okay? 2 Timothy was written by Paul to Timothy, all right, that's easy. From Paul to Timothy, Paul the Apostle, Timothy was the bishop of a church. So these are saved men, people that God is using in the first century to preach the gospel to establish churches. And this is Paul writing to Timothy. He says in verse 13, If we, who's we? Paul and Timothy. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. God cannot deny himself. Once you've believed on Christ, once you've received eternal life, you have the Holy Ghost dwelling in you, even if you stop believing, God says he abideth faithful, right? He is the one that's faithful. He cannot deny himself, okay? Because guess what? The Holy Ghost is dwelling inside of you. If he denies you, if he thinks you can lose your salvation, then he's denying himself because the Holy Ghost is indwelling you. In fact, the Bible says Jesus indwells you, the Father indwells you, all three aspects of the Trinity indwell you as a believer. So even if you get to a point where these great men of God stop believing, they're like, you know, I don't believe this anymore. You know, I don't believe God's going to come through. I don't believe God exists. But if there was a moment in their time that they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, received eternal life, then God cannot deny himself. Why? Because of your performance? No, because he is faithful. God is faithful. If you fail in your faithfulness toward God, he will not fail in his faithfulness toward you. Reason number four, reason number four that you cannot lose your salvation, is that Jesus died for all our sins. When Jesus was on the cross, he died for your past sins, he died for your present sins, and he died for your future sins. Turn to Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26. Now, when you think about it, Jesus died, what, 2000 years ago, right? So all the sins you've committed were in the future. All of your sins, right? For all of us that live here now in 2017, all the sins we've committed in our lives, when Christ died on the cross, he paid already for those future sins, right? Not just the past sins. Yes, he paid for the sins of the Old Testament saints. Yes, he paid for the sins of the believers in his time. Yes, he pays for the sins of the whole world, even into the future. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26 says, talking about Jesus Christ, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. So Christ suffered for all the sins since the foundation of the world. Okay, even though it happened 2000 years ago, his sacrifice is something that transpires time. It's something that's eternal. It's something that was done for the past, present and future. Since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now while you're in Hebrews, turn to Hebrews chapter 10, and next chapter over verse 14. Hebrews 10 verse 14, for by one offering, okay, one offering, pay attention to that word, for by one offering hath he perfected forever them that are sanctified. One offering forever. Okay, so those sins that were paid for by the offering of Christ, they were done once when he was crucified, buried, rose again from the dead, once, but perfected forever. Okay, so all the sins you commit in your whole life, past, present and future, were paid for that one time that Jesus Christ offered himself. So Jesus has died for all our sins. The idea is out there that, well, let's say I'm unsaved, and I believe in Christ today. There's the idea that, well, then Jesus has paid for my sins from the time I was born till today. But from today onwards till the time I die, I've got to make sure I put my effort in and not continue sinning. That's how they think, right? They think, you know, yes, God's paid for the past sins, but not for the future sins. So if I continue in my future sins, I might very well lose my salvation. That's what they believe. But you can see very clearly that is a one-time sacrifice for the past and for all time, forever. So the fourth reason that we cannot lose our salvation is that because Jesus has already paid for all our sins, past, present and future. Reason number five. Reason number five, and I'll get Sebastian. Can you come up here? Sebastian, you're my object lesson for reason number five. Okay, stand here, just stand, yep. So Sebastian, reason number five, if you're saved, you are a born child of God. You are a born child of God. Now here's Sebastian. He's saved, so he's a child of God. But guess what? He's also my child. He's also Christina's child. He's got parents. He was born into this family. I'll just read John chapter three first. John chapter three verse six to seven. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's Sebastian, born of the flesh. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So when he believed on Christ, he was born of the spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. So Christ explains salvation as a new birth. Christ explains salvation as being born and becoming a child of God, being a son of God, right? And so God, Jesus uses the analogy, and the Bible uses the analogy of a child, a son of the father. And so here's Sebastian. He was born of mum and dad. He had no part in that, right? He was just born. You know, mum did all the work, right? She went through the labour. She went through the delivery. And I just relief once he was born, right? He didn't do the work. And same way salvation is, God did all the work. It's the work of God through Jesus Christ, death, burial and resurrection. He did all the work. All he asked us to do is believe on him. And if you do that, you are a born child of God, just like Sebastian is a born child of the Sepulveda family. Now let me ask you something. If Sebastian is obedient to mum and dad, you know, he's a good child. He does his chores around the house. He obeys the rules of the house. That's because he's my child, right? We've put discipline in his life. But if he does all these things, guess what? We're going to have a good relationship. We're going to have good fellowship together. There's going to be peace in the home, right? And he's going to get rewarded, right? He does a lot of good things. I'm going to be driven to, hey, reward him for being a good son, right? But what if Sebastian is rebellious? What if he doesn't obey the rules of mum and dad? What if he hates his family? What if he leaves the home and, you know, wants nothing to do with mum and dad? He says, you know what? I want nothing to do with you guys. And he's just a rebellious child. Don't be that way. But if he is, is he still my child? Absolutely. Is he still my son? Absolutely. Even if he's a rebellious child. We won't have the fellowship, right? And right now, while he's under the house, when he disobeys, he's going to be disciplined. He's going to be chastised when he does wrong, right? To punish the wrong that he does. But it doesn't matter how much I punish him, right? It doesn't matter how much it breaks the peace in the home. It doesn't matter how rebellious he is and we don't have good fellowship together. He's still my son because he's been born into the family. You can sit down. And the same thing. When you're a born child of God, when you're a son of God, you will always be a son of God. You are born into his family. Even if, as a Christian believer, you rebel against the Lord, you get out of church, you want nothing to do with him. Even then, you are still a son of God. But he's going to have to chastise you, all right? He's going to have to deal with you as a son. So reason number five, that you cannot lose your salvation is because you cannot be unborn. You are a born child of God. What's your born? You cannot be unborn. Reason number six, that you cannot lose your salvation. Turn to Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter one verse six. Philippians chapter one verse six. Reason number six, Jesus will continue working in you until the resurrection, until the rapture. Philippians chapter one verse six says, being confident. Be confident about this, guys. Don't waver. Being confident of this very thing, that he which have begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And I won't spend time now, but if you look up the day of Christ, it's about the rapture. It's about the resurrection of the saints. So the promise is, and what you can be confident about, is that the work that he's begun in your life, hey, when did that begin? The moment you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the work of Christ. That's the work of God that he does in you. The moment he's done that, he will continue that work. He will perform it until the resurrection, until the day of Jesus Christ. So even though you might not have an outward showing of your Christianity, Jesus Christ is doing a work in you and he's going to continue that. He'll perform it until the resurrection. Now if you could lose your salvation, that's because you're trying to perform the work. But you notice that it's Jesus that does the work in you. It's Jesus that will perform it. The promise is, hey, be confident because he's going to continue that work until the resurrection. And why doesn't he have to continue the work after the resurrection? Because at that point you're going to have resurrected bodies that are without sin, okay? So Christ will continue working in you. That's the sixth reason why you cannot lose your salvation. The seventh reason that you cannot lose your salvation, and this is the one that's very obvious, is because salvation is not of works. Salvation is not of works. So no amount of good works, no amount of works that you have done, you're being a good person, good works, good deeds, treating your neighbour with love and respect, doing things, sacrificing yourself for others. No amount of your works will ever attain salvation because salvation is not of works, okay? It doesn't matter how bad your works are, Jesus Christ has paid for them on the cross. No matter how bad of a person you were in the past, Christ paid for it on the cross. Remember your past, present, and future sins. So because salvation is not of works and you could never have enough good of works to attain it, then you cannot have enough bad works to lose it, right? If you don't have enough good works to attain it, then you can't have enough bad works to lose it. Why? Because it's not of works, right? Salvation is not of works. If it was of works, yes, you will lose it, all right? If you could lose it, you would lose it, okay? We'll talk about that later on. But reason number seven, salvation is not of works. Oh, the other thing is, in relating to that is remember we, well, you guys, you might be aware that there's a dual nature of you, right? There's the flesh, which is the old man, and then there's the spirit or the new man, the Bible talks about the new creature, all right? And so the reason you cannot lose your salvation, okay, is because the flesh, the flesh which sins, was never saved. This flesh is not saved. This flesh that I'm in and the flesh that you're in will decay and rot and pass away, which is why God needs to give you new resurrected bodies, all right? This flesh was never saved. So it cannot lose something that it never had, right? You look at someone's sinning and you go, wow, that guy could lose his salvation. No, because that person that's sinning was never saved. That flesh that does it was never saved. 1 Corinthians, you don't need to turn there, 1 Corinthians 15, 50 says this, Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Your flesh, as you are today, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. The reason your flesh will never inherit eternal life is because it's corrupted and God can only allow perfection into heaven, which is why he has to give you those resurrected bodies. So it's not of works. And if you're looking at the flesh, well, the flesh was never going to be saved anyway. So it cannot lose something that it never had. Reason number eight, we talked about the old man, now the new man. Reason number eight is because if you're saved, you have the new man, turn with me to 1 John chapter 3, 1 John chapter 3 verse 9, 1 John chapter 3 verse 9, I want you to see this. But the reason number eight, as to why you cannot lose your salvation, is because the new man is perfect and cannot sin. Guys, there's a part of you that's perfect. There's a part of you that's without corruption. That's the new man, the new spirit, and that man in you cannot sin. 1 John chapter 3 verse 9, Whosoever is born of God, now is this born of the flesh? Are we talking about the carnal body, the flesh, the old man? No, we're talking about the one that's born of God, the new man. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Why? For his seed, God's seed, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin. Why? Because he's born of God. The new man being born again, the new spirit cannot sin. That's why you cannot lose your salvation, because you're perfect. Right? The new man is perfect, has no sin. When you commit sin, it's in the flesh. When you commit sin, it's in the old man, and that never had salvation anyway. But the new man that's in you cannot sin. Okay? He remains perfect, he remains pure, because the seed of God remaineth in him. Wow. That's amazing. There's a part of God in you that makes up that new man. And we talked about being born of God again, being a son of God. But those are eight reasons. Let me give them to you very quickly. Number one, no man can pluck you out of God's hands. Reason number two, it's called eternal life for a reason, cannot be lost. Number three, God cannot deny himself, so even if you stop believing, God is faithful and cannot deny himself. Reason number four, Jesus died for all our sins, past, present, and future. Reason number five, you were a born child of God, you cannot be unborn from the family, reason number six, Jesus will continue working in you until the rapture or the resurrection. Reason number seven, salvation is not of works. Reason number eight, the new man is perfect and cannot sin. And look, I could have just kept going. All right? There's heaps of them and, you know. Again, we can wrap up the sermon here and finish up, but we won't. There's plenty to go through. Now, so works at the back end of the gospel, works at the back end. Now, Alistair, you might remember when we went out soul-winning in Ipswich a couple of weeks ago, we came across a man, an islander, and, you know, are you sure that you'll be going to heaven or would you have some doubt? He goes, no, I'm sure I'm going to heaven. Why? Oh, because of Jesus Christ. I've put my faith on Christ. And at that point, I was like, almost, yeah, you know, awesome. Someone's saved. But then, you know, the question became, well, can you ever lose your salvation? And what did he say? Yeah, of course you can lose your salvation. Of course you can lose it. And basically, how do you lose it? By being sinful, by not having the works, right? So this is what I mean. The front end is nice and clean. It's faith on Jesus Christ alone. But then the back end of salvation, well, you've got to have the works because if you don't have the works, you lose it. And one of the verses he used, and I kind of don't even want to go there because it's so silly, but I want you to turn there because it is such a major verse that people use. Matthew 24 verse 13. This is a verse that a lot of these people that believe you can lose your salvation use. And I don't even want to bring it up, but I have to, because the reason I want to bring it up is because it's so obvious that it's not talking about the salvation of the soul. Okay, it's so obvious. And I don't even know how people get tricked into quoting this verse as though you can lose your salvation. But Matthew 24 verse 13 reads, But he that shall endure until the end, the same shall be saved. So they'll be like, see, if you want to be saved, you have to endure until the end. And by endure, they mean do the works, be holy, be clean, be blameless, not sin. And if you don't do those things, then obviously, if you don't endure to the end, then you can lose your salvation. But it's so ridiculous. You just go back four verses. If they take you here, just go back four verses to verse number nine. Bob reads, Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you. And you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. So killing you, is that the death of the spirit and the soul? Or is that the death of the flesh? It's killing the flesh, right? If someone kills you, all they can do is kill your flesh. And so it's not even about salvation of the soul. And verse 13 is sandwiched between verse number nine and then look at verse number 22. And except those days be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. This is talking about the tribulation period, by the way. But I just want to show you how verse number nine, sorry, verse number 13 is sandwiched between verse number nine, which is talking about killing the flesh, and then verse number 22, which is about no flesh being saved. It's talking about the physical salvation, right? Quite often in the Bible, don't always assume every time it says salvation or saved, it's talking about salvation of the soul. No, quite often it's talking about the salvation of the flesh, right? Just saving your own body. And so it's very obvious within the context of Matthew 24 that this death, this salvation is of the flesh. But if that doesn't satisfy them, just get them to turn to a parallel passage. You don't need to turn there. Just Mark 13, I'll read it to you. Mark 13, verse 12 to 13. Parallel passage, exactly the same teaching. It says this, Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father of the son, and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. And you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that shall endure until the end, the same shall be saved. That's verse 12 and 13. So you can see immediately, the immediate context of verse before talking about being put to death by your own family. That's how bad the tribulation period is going to be, is that your own family, unbelievers are going to try to kill you for the name of Christ. So it's about the flesh. It's not the salvation of the soul. I don't even want to talk about this because it's so ridiculous. It's so easily disproven from the scriptures. So no, it's not talking about losing your salvation. But the other one that they come up with quite often, turn with me to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2, verse 7. And look, there's a lot of verses they use. There's a lot of verses, but obviously I don't have time to go through all of it. Maybe one day I'll preach on all the verses. But Revelation chapter 2, verse 7. It reads this. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh, pay attention to that word, to him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. So paradise is heaven. And they're saying, hey, if you're going to eat from the tree of life, which is in heaven, in paradise, you have to be someone that overcometh. You have to overcome. Now the Bible here doesn't tell us how to overcome. But they'll take this passage and say, see, you've got to overcome the world. You've got to overcome sin in your life. You've got to overcome your bad works in order to be accepted by God and to go into heaven. And if you don't overcome, you lose your salvation. Just another one, Revelation 2, you're there, verse 11. Look at verse 11. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. Now if you read the Bible, the second death is the lake of fire. It's hell. It's a lake of fire. So again, they're saying, see, you've got to overcome to not be hurt by the lake of fire, to not go to hell. So again, they'll take this, you know, even though the scriptures here aren't explaining what it means to overcome, they're just taking the liberty to tell you what they believe overcometh means. And again, Revelation 21, verse 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Now how did he become a son of God? We already read it, right? Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. But again, he that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God. So they're saying, see, overcome, for you to be a son of God, you need to keep your life free from sin. But turn with me to 1 John, chapter 5. 1 John, chapter 5, verse 4. And I know you guys, a lot of you guys know this already. But the question is, how are you someone that overcometh? How are you an overcomer? How do you inherit eternal life, become a child of God, and not be hurt by the second death? It's found in 1 John, chapter 5, verse 4 to 5. It reads, For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world. So how do you overcome the world? Is it by stop sinning? Is it by being a good person and doing the good works? No, whosoever is born of God. If you're born of God, you're an overcomer of this world already. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Even our faith. That's the vehicle used to become a son of God, to overcome the world, believing our faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse number 5. Who is he that overcometh the world? How many times does John need to tell us this? God, tell us this. Who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is a son of God. So if you've put your faith, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, guess what? You have overcome the world. It's not based on your works. You cannot lose it. It's based on your faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, that's very clear. So if people are taking you to these verses about overcoming, show them who are the people that overcome the world. How do you become someone that overcomes the world? It's by believing on Jesus Christ and being born of God. That's how you overcome the world. So the other thing that came up, Alistair, if you remember, with this individual, was we showed him how, you know, we showed him eternal life. We said, what's eternal? What's everlasting? He said, you know, last forever. It's eternal. And then I said, well, if you could lose it, then it's temporal life. And his response, and I don't know if this is general response out there of the people that believe you can lose your salvation, or if it's just him trying to cover his tracks. He's like, oh, but we haven't received eternal life yet. Right? We haven't received eternal life yet. That's something we receive at death. Right? You kind of have this, you're kind of like halfway there. Right? You've been saved, but you can lose it because you don't have eternal life as of yet. So I'm just going to run off some verses here. John 3, verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Present tense. If you believe on the Son, Jesus Christ, you have everlasting life. Okay? John 5, 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that hath sent me, hath everlasting life. Okay, present tense. You have it the moment you believe, and shall not come into condemnation, but is past, past tense, but is past from death unto life. So if you believe, you have eternal life right now, present tense, and you've already passed from death unto life. John 6, 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, hath everlasting life. Present tense. John 6, 54. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, says Jesus, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. And the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood is a spiritual connotation of salvation through his flesh and through his blood. But 1 John, turn to 1 John. Oh, you're already there, right? 1 John, chapter 5. Yeah, you're in 1 John. You should be there if you were there before. 1 John, chapter 5, verse 10. Have a look at this. 1 John, chapter 5, verse 10 to 13. I don't know if anything can be more clear than this passage. 1 John, chapter 5, verse 10. He that believeth on the Son, 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. So God's saying there's a record that God has given of his Son. And verse 11. And this is the record. This is the record, right? That God hath given us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. Okay, the record is. Okay, if you want to be saved, you have to believe the record that God has given of his Son. And the record is that God hath given us eternal life. Present tense. So this person that believes, he hasn't got eternal life just yet, it's a future thing. Guess what? He's not believing the record that God gave of his Son. All right? So he's making God a liar. Verse number 12. He that hath the Son, hath life. Present tense. And he that hath not the Son, hath not life. Verse 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know, that ye may know that ye have. Present tense. That ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the Son, so on the name of the Son of God. Can it be any clearer than that, guys? That you know you have eternal life, that you have it present, and that it's a record that's God given. The test is, the test of knowing where someone is saved is the record. Do they have eternal life right now? Do they claim they have it right now? Or are they saying it's still some future thing that they have not yet attained? If they believe it's something they've not yet attained, guess what? They're not saved. Even though on the front end, they said the right things, but on the back end, they've added works to the gospel. So that's a major heresy, guys. When you go out and preach the gospel, don't just assume they said believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they're saved. Check whether they're actually really still trusting in works, you know, and that really comes down to whether they can lose their salvation. All right. Now, I'm going to cover some other things very quickly. Now, this isn't the next groups of people and not people that believe you can lose your salvation, but they basically, they kind of come from the same root, but they, instead of saying you can lose your salvation, they're like, well, if you don't have the works, then you were never saved, right? It's still the same idea. It's bringing works into the back end of the gospel, right? But instead of saying without works, you can lose it, it's like, no, without works, you never had it. It's the same idea anyway, right? The end result is the person's not saved. So first of all, you've got fruit inspectors, and I'm going to cover these points quickly. They can all have their own sermon, honestly. But the fruit inspector is someone that says, yes, it's by grace, through faith alone, not of works. And I believe many of these people that say this are saved, but then they're looking at your life, they're looking at whether you pass some arbitrary level of works and goodness to really determine whether that person's saved or not. Okay? They've been fooled into thinking that they've got to look at the evidence of works rather than the evidence of their faith. Now, one terminology that these churches that teach this use a lot, and I've heard it used many, many times, is when someone believes in Christ, this is what they say about this person. They say, well, he made a profession of faith, right? He made a profession of faith. They don't say he's saved. They don't say he has eternal life. They say he made a profession of faith. Now, the idea behind that is, yes, by his mouth, he's acknowledged he's believed on Christ, but we don't really know because we've got to watch that guy for a while. You know, we've got to make sure that person lives up to whatever standard, you know, they have before we can actually say, yeah, this person's saved, right? Now, you don't find that anywhere in the scriptures. You either have eternal life or you don't have it. There's no middle ground. There's no middle testing ground, a gray area to determine whether someone's truly saved or not, right? It's black and white in the scriptures. And they probably have good intentions because they've probably seen false professions for real and, you know, people that really weren't saved and now they're very careful. Oh, he just made a profession of faith, right? We don't know if this person's truly saved. But turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22. And let me just show you how ridiculous this is. There's only one place in the Bible that mentions a profession of faith in the language that they use, right? He made a profession of faith. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22. It says this, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Full assurance. Something that we're sure of. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Verse 23, Let us hold fast, right? What does it mean to hold fast? To hold on to, not to waver, not to move. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, without being shaken, without trembling, without doubting. Why? For he is faithful that promised. So this profession of faith, guys, if someone makes a profession of faith, I believe in the Son of God, his death, fear, and resurrection. I'm trusting you alone, Jesus Christ, and not my works. If they make that profession of faith, guys, we should encourage that person to have the full assurance, to hold fast, to not waver in their belief of salvation, right? The profession of their faith, of our faith, guys. This is the only passage in the Bible that has those words together. Profession of our faith. Does it sound like something that's middle ground, that's gray area, not sure? No. If anything, there's surety in that, right? Why? Again, for he is faithful that promised. Not because of that person's ability to be good and to do good works, but because he, God, Jesus Christ, is faithful that promised. It reminds me of 2 Timothy 2.13. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. So this idea, oh, they made a profession of faith, gray area, we're not sure. No, we're stupid. That's a stupid thought. No, they made a profession of faith, okay? On the true gospel, they're saved, okay? It's not to be wavered from. Don't be fooled into thinking like these fruit inspectors do to watch someone whether they're performing good enough. The next group of people are the Calvinists, Calvinism. Now, there's a lot of Calvinists, there's a lot of people that claim they're Calvinists and they're not even Calvinists. I know a lot of them. They think they're Calvinists. They don't even believe in the points of Calvinism. So just be mindful about that. Someone once asked me, are all Calvinists unsaved? It's like saying, are all Baptists saved? I mean, if you just use this general term, you're gonna find no matter what term you use, what explanation, there are gonna be some that are saved and some that are unsaved, okay? Because it's not based on what term people use to describe themselves. It's based on whether they've put all their faith on Jesus Christ alone. But Calvinism is kind of like fruit inspection, right? But the fruit inspectors will say, okay, yep, they seem to be living all right. They come into church, they're reading the Bibles. They seem to have an interest in God. Therefore, we'll say they're saved, right? And at that point, they'll be like, that person's saved and they're sure about that. The Calvinists are at extreme level, because the Calvinists basically teach is that, that person that is doing really well, doing good works, you know, wow, look, he's a moral Christian. This person could even be a leader in the church, right? A pastor or whatever. But then like, they still don't know whether that person's saved, because they have this teaching of, what's it called? Perseverance of the saints, perfect. So that the idea is a true believer, someone that's truly saved will persevere till the end, to the end of their life. So this person could be like the best Christian for like 50 years of their life. But then in the last weeks of their life, they just full on rebel. They just go into all manners of sin. And then that person when they die, well, he wasn't saved, because he didn't persevere to the end. He failed right at the end. So we could tell that he wasn't saved You see how it's even more extreme? It's like you can be the best, you can be the greatest Christian on the planet. But if you fail right at the end, then you weren't saved in the first place. It's even a more extreme version of this. Yeah, so they teach perseverance of the saints. So the idea is kind of like that endure to the end. I think they might even use that verse as well. But the idea you've got to endure, the Christian has to persevere. And if they didn't persevere, they're not saved. But the Bible doesn't teach perseverance of the saints, guys. It teaches preservation of the saints. God is the one that preserves us. We don't persevere for our salvation. God preserves us for our salvation. That's what Jesus and the Bible teaches us. 2 Timothy 4, don't need to turn there, I'll just read this quickly because of time. 2 Timothy 4 verse 17, Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his holy kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. It's God that preserves us. He's the one that protects us. And what Paul is writing here is that he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, delivered out of Satan's hands. It's God that preserves us in this life. It's God that preserves us into eternal life. We are preserved, he said, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. So we're preserved unto his heavenly kingdom. Then Jude chapter 1 says this, Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. So we're preserved unto the heavenly kingdom. How are we preserved? You know, how do people preserve certain, like, onions? They might put it in vinegar or other, you know, things that preserve, you know, food. But we're preserved in Jesus Christ. So if Jesus Christ is perfect, he has all the works, he's able to keep the law perfectly, we're preserved in Jesus. That's how we're preserved. Not just preserved unto heaven, but preserved unto heaven in Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches preservation of the saints, not perseverance of the saints. If you had to persevere your good works, you fail immediately, okay? So you really want to talk to these people that believe this and just clarify, explain things to them. That it's not, see how they bring in works still in the back end, and just add in a lot of confusion. Either they're unsaved or they're saved and they're just always, and I've seen this, always doubting, always doubting their salvation. They do something wrong. How could I have done that if I'm a believer? Of course you could do that. You're a sinner. Saved by grace. Now, what's funny about this, guys, is that, you know, judging someone by their works is such an immature Christian thing to do. So immature, right? Because, you know, some of you, Matthew, how long have you been saved? A year? About two years, all right. Matthew's, you know, relatively young. A two-year-old child, right? Still very young, Matthew. And then, you know, someone might come, might be saved today, right? They don't know how to talk. They don't know how to dress properly. You know, they don't know how to behave. And then Matthew, you know, sorry to use you in a negative light here, Matthew. I know you're not like this, but Matthew might look at that new believer and say, well, you know, if he's judging people by their works, go, you know, that person, I don't think that person's saved. Because look at them. Look how they talk. Look at how they dress. Look how they, you know, conduct themselves. Because Matthew's looking at his level as a two-year-old, right? But then someone that's been saved for 10 years might look at Matthew and go, I don't know if Matthew's saved. Because look, he's not performing the way I am. Look at me, you know, I've been saved for so long. I've overcome so many sins. You know, I'm living this life. You know, Matthew's not even doing that well, right? But then the pastor, you know, maybe he's been saved for a long time and for many years might look at that person that's been saved for 10 years. I don't know if that person's saved. Because look, they haven't attained the level of good works that I've attained in my life, right? But do you see how immature this is? But then what is the level of good works that you need to attain to be saved? What is it? It's actually perfection. Because there's God looking down at everyone who's perfect, who's holy, who's righteous, looking down at all these believers going, none of these have attained the level of perfection that I need for them to achieve to come to heaven. The only way to heaven, the reason we come short of the glory of God is because God is perfect. He's holy. He's without sin. So unless you're without sin, guess what? You've come short of that glory of God. You've come short of His perfection. So us looking at each other, I don't know, that's stupid and immature. Because next to God, then if that's the case, then you're not even saved, right? Next to God. Because you haven't attained His perfection. Jesus says in Matthew 5 48, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. So the way to go to the Father is to have the perfection of the Father. You've got to be perfect to go to heaven. Okay? You need to be perfect. The Bible teaches there's two ways to heaven. Really there's one way. But the Bible teaches there's two ways. Matthew 19, don't turn there. Let's get through this quickly. Matthew 19 verse 16. You guys know the story of the young rich ruler that came to Jesus Christ. Matthew 19 16, And behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, look at the question that he asks, Good Master, what good thing shall I do? What good can I do that I may have eternal life? Verse 17, And he said unto him, Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God. But if thou will enter into life, keep the commandments. Keep the commandments. So one way for you to go to heaven is to keep the commandments perfectly without failure, without breaking one of those. That's one way to heaven. Okay? You're not going to make it though. The young rich ruler though thinks, yeah, I've kept it from my youth if you know the story, because I've kept all the commandments. And Jesus has to point out to him that, you know, he wasn't willing to give up his riches and give it to the poor so he could have riches in heaven. So Jesus keeps putting a higher level of works until that young rich ruler realised that I can't save myself and he went out upset, you know. That's one way. You can try to keep the commandments, but let me tell you now, you've already failed. Okay? And if you've already broken one of those commandments, you've broken the whole law and you're not perfect so you're not going to make it to heaven on your own. The other way is believe on Christ. Jesus Christ was perfect. Jesus Christ's righteousness can be imputed upon you by believing on him. You put your faith on him, you receive the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so before God the Father in that new man washed, our sins washed in the blood of the Lamb, the righteousness of Christ upon us, God says, yes, you are perfect because of what Jesus Christ did for you. Because I'm looking at Jesus Christ, I'm looking at you through the covering of Jesus Christ. That's the other way to go to heaven perfect. You can only make it perfect to be perfect. You either let Jesus be perfect for you, receive him, or you try to make your own works and be perfect. So you see how stupid and immature it is, oh, that person's not quite working to what, what level? The level is perfection. The level is perfection. So, you know, they can never tell you what that level is. And I always ask them, so how many works? What works? And who's the person that says they've done enough works? Who's that judge, right? I said this a couple of weeks ago. Now, let me just finish up on one thing here. The reason these people look at works, it's not because they're evil and wicked and, or some are, some are, but it's just because, you see, there's a sense of justice in man because we get that justice from God, right? And it's hard for people to accept that, wow, you know, I'm going to heaven because of Christ, but that murderer, that rapist can also go to heaven, you know? And then the thought is, well, what advantages do I have trying to be a good person? What advantage do I have over, you know, the person that does the wicked, you know, major wicked sins? What advantage do I have? You see, there's that sense of justice in them, right? And the reason is because they've not been taught properly, okay? They have this idea that heaven is the end. Like, that's what we're trying to achieve. And that, there is a truth to that. But for them, that's the end goal, right? So everything we do up to that point is to get to heaven. Whereas for a Bible-believing Christian, heaven's just step number one. Heaven's just step... In fact, you don't need to do anything but believe on Christ. Heaven is your free ticket given by Jesus, the free gift. That's not the hard thing. That's the easy thing. Going to heaven is step one. But there's more to the Christian life. There's more to heaven. There's more to eternity. And these people have not been taught that. Works plays a part in steps two to a million. Eternal, okay? Works plays a part there. But it doesn't play a part to get to heaven, to have salvation. And so they have this sense of justice. And God is a just God. And God will reward us for our works. But it's not based on heaven. And so I just want to cover this very quickly. Romans chapter five, verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience, talking about Adam, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous, talking about Jesus. Moreover, the law answered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So no matter how bad of a sinner you are, no matter how much you abound in sin, if you believe on Christ, God's grace abounds more than what you can sin. That as sin have reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And then verse number six, verse one, it says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? You know, should we just continue living a sinful life? That grace may abound, because it doesn't matter how much we sin, God's grace will continue abounding for us. God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? So there is a call for Christians to live a righteous life without sin. There is a call to do good in the Bible, okay? And God will reward us accordingly. 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. There is a judgment for all of us, guys, okay? The unsaved are going to be judged by the works, and because they're not perfect, they're going to fall short of that and be cast into hell. But for believers, we're also judged by our works, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. So you can do good or bad in this life. You're not being judged for your sin, but your work could be good or bad, okay? It could be something that's eternal, or it can be something that's temporal. It can be something that lasts forever, or it's something that can go to waste. Jesus Christ is going to judge us by our works as Christians, not to go to heaven. He's the door to heaven. He's done it. We're there already, as far as God is concerned, but to reward us in heaven. And guys, we're not all going to be equal. Sorry to break it to you. You know, someone that got saved and did nothing for Christ, they're not going to receive anywhere near as much as someone that has given their life to Christ, has sacrificed themselves for the glory of Christ. They're going to receive the greater reward. You know, going out, soul-winning. Winning souls will add further treasure in your life. The one that wins many souls will receive much more than the one that received, that didn't win any souls to the Lord. We're not all going to be equal in heaven. Yes, we all make it there. Praise God, right? But then God's going to reward us. You might have a huge mansion, or you might be just cleaning the streets of gold, right? But still, hey, great. You know, if all I do is clean the streets of gold, thank God I'm in heaven, right? You know, gold's nice to look at anyway. But God would judge us by our works. So there is a justice. There is something that we ought to work for and live for and overcome sin in our lives. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 10. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. So we have the foundation which is Christ, and now every man needs to build on that foundation. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. There it is, verse 12. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. So God's going to burn all our works in heaven. I don't know how this works, but he's going to look down at our works and burn it with fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abides, so it still remains after it goes through the fire, abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. So if your work is burnt and you suffer loss, you suffer loss of rewards, he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. So you just made it, right? You just made it. And so I just want to show you here that someone can be saved and just have no works at all. All their works are hay, stubble, and what are the three that it says here? Wood, hay and stubble. That's what a man's work can be. They're saved, they're going to heaven, but that's all they've got. When Christ judges their works, it gets consumed by the fire, there'll be nothing left, but he himself shall be saved. So you see how you can't judge someone by their works? Because they can have no works, they can lose it all, it's all a waste of nothing, but they still make it to heaven. And so when you're talking to these people about losing the salvation, you want to show them, yes, there is justice, yes, there is a reason to live godly, but it's not to be saved, it's so we can have rewards in heaven. And quite often when I explain this to them, they're like, oh, okay, because it satisfies their justice, it satisfies their desire to do good and not to do bad. And the other one you want to tell them is Hebrews chapter 12 verse 6 and 7, I gave the illustration with Sebastian. So is there a punishment for someone that is sinful, disobedient, wants nothing to do with God? Yes, there is a punishment, it's not hell if they're saved, it's chastisement on this earth. It's being disciplined, no one likes being disciplined, but it's necessary for us to grow as believers. God will discipline you, God will chastise you in His way if you disobey the Lord. Okay, and you lose your rewards as well, you can lose rewards in heaven. You don't lose rewards that you already attained, we can cover this some other time, but you lose rewards that you could have attained, that's what Bible teaches. And then obviously the best example, the best example is the thief on the cross. Luke chapter 23 verse 42 to 43, the thief says to Jesus, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. So he's put his faith on Christ. Just remember me Lord, all I want is to be remembered. He's not asking for the mansions, he's not asking to be sat at the right seat of Christ. He says, just remember me Lord. And Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Immediately, it's the best story. This guy did nothing. He was dying, he was dead on the cross. Jesus, just remember me, save me. I'm putting my faith on you. Jesus says, yep, today you'll be with me in paradise. No works. He had no chance. His hands were crucified. His hands were nailed to the cross. He had nothing, he could do nothing. All he could do was accept the free gift that Christ had given him. And by the way, I don't think, actually I don't think this guy's going to go without rewards actually, because his story's in the scriptures, right? And how many thousands of people, tens of thousands have read his story and been encouraged by that? How many people have actually come to Christ hearing, wow, yeah, it's not about works. So his story actually has lived on further than what he has expected. I wouldn't be surprised if his testimony here has given him rewards in heaven, but we'll see that later on. But all I want to point out to you guys that eternal security is important to cover our soul when we please. Cover eternal security. So important. Can someone truly be saved without them fully understanding internal security? Yes, I believe they can, right? But you want to really drill it home so they can realise that, hey, works do not play any part in my salvation, because they're going to be tricked by some post-prophet out there that they need the works in order to be saved. The last thing I want to point out to you guys is this. Those that say you can lose your salvation, Acts chapter 4 verse 12 says this, Neither is there salvation in any other. There's no salvation in any other person. For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. If you think, God, Jesus gets me some to a point, but I've got to maintain it. No, the Bible says there is not, neither is there salvation in any other. It's just Jesus. If you think you have to keep your works to be saved, now you're adding another. That's you and Jesus, right? You and Jesus. Now, let's say Jesus did 99% to get you there, right? We know the criteria is perfection. What's perfection? Without error, without corruption, without sin. It needs to be perfect. Now, if Jesus brings 99%, and you say, well, I have to do 1%, your 1% is already corrupt. You need to bring perfection in your 1% of your life. If your life is going to reflect 1%, then you still need to be perfect to make up that 1%. Because if you fail at that 1%, it's no longer perfect. It's only 99%, right, of what Jesus did, and you're still trusting that 1%. There's still corruption, and it's not perfect. If you say, well, Jesus did 99.99%, and I just have to bring 0.01%, that's all I have to bring to that. If that's your life, you're already not perfect. You've already corrupted that. Yes, 99.99, you're almost there, but you still fail because it needs to be perfect. Just trust Christ 100% to get you there. You cannot lose your salvation. It's only through Jesus Christ. Let's pray.