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sermon: Sovereignty and 'Once Saved Always Saved'Are We Guaranteed to Make It?
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This world's Christianity has a doctrine referred to as "Once Saved, Always Saved." In broad terms this doctrine teaches that once a person has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, his salvation is secured on the basis that it is impossible for the Sovereign Almighty God to fail in what He sets His hand to do. After all, is there not a scripture in Philippians 2, verses 11 and 12 that says, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, ... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord"? Does the reference to bowing and confessing imply that every person is submissive and saved?
There is another scripture in II Peter 3, verse 9 that says "God is not willing that any should perish." Does this verse indicate that because God is not willing, that He will impose His will on all, and thus all will be saved?
There are other scriptures that can be put to this use, and a case can be built that makes it look as though these people have a doctrine—indeed that "once one is saved, one is always saved." [The method of thinking maintains] that once one truly is saved, he is saved forever and ever.
I think this question must be asked: If it is possible for a person to fail to make it into God's kingdom, is it God who has failed? Another thing to consider is that this doctrine generally operates on the basis that all God wants to do is save people, and that there are no other overriding issues to His purpose. For example, those who believe in this doctrine do not see the ongoing nature of God's creation; i.e., that creation did not end in Genesis 2; rather the creation of Adam and Eve only set the stage for far more creative activity in the spiritual realm. Therefore neither do they fully understand the importance and proper use of free moral agency, of meeting our responsibilities to God and man, and the very necessary aspects of His mercy, love, and justice in the governance of His creation.
Would it be merciful love to allow a miserable rebel to continue in his misery, causing problems for everybody whose life he touches, for ever and ever, putting everybody into misery?
I thought in light of the many sermons I have given touching on God's sovereignty, and the fact that this day [the Feast of Trumpets] memorializes the return of Jesus Christ and the completed work of God in the life of those called, that it would be helpful to touch on this issue of the certainty of salvation.
I didn't realize it until I was preparing this sermon, but it too fits into the main theme of last week's sermon. One of the themes in last week's sermon was: "Yes, young people, you can lose your sanctification."
In like manner, this sermon asserts that we can lose our sanctification. I am giving this sermon to prove to you that we can lose our salvation. I am giving this sermon to prove to you that if we do not bring forth fruit that is fitting for repentance, if we do not bring forth much fruit and give God pleasure in our growth and overcoming, we will be in the lake of fire.
That may not be pleasant to think about, but as we heard this morning, there are good aspects to this day, and there are bad aspects to this day. In an overall sense I am giving this sermon in order that we might be able to avoid the bad aspects that might fall upon us because we didn't fully prepare for what God clearly says is going to occur.
Let's reason together. We're going to begin in Revelation 20:10. I think that first of all, as we begin, we need to consider this question: If everybody is going to make it, why even have a lake of fire?
Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, [or are cast, as it really should read, because they were cast into this thing a thousand years before] ...and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
In one sense that ought to be the end of the sermon, because already we see that at least two people are cast into the lake of fire. As we continue, I want you to turn back to the Old Testament to Numbers 23:19 where a succinct and very meaningful statement is made.
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? Or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Brethren, there are no extraneous thoughts in the Bible. The Bible was written, by inspiration of God, with an economy of words, and every word was very carefully weighed before it became part of His book. God does not tell tales out of school, nor does He needlessly threaten. If He threatens it is because there is a candid and straight-forward reason for Him doing it. There is going to be a lake of fire in which the evil and rebellious are going to be cast.
God is immutable, meaning that His character is unchangeable. In this case, regarding His warning of a lake of fire to be used to consume the disobedient, it is not a hollow and empty threat used merely to intimidate and give Him pleasure in seeing His creation squirm. He says what He means, and He means what He says. "Has He said, and shall He not do it?" "Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?"
In regard to this doctrine of "Once Saved, Always Saved," I think that you can begin to see, that as Satan did with Adam and Eve, Satan is lying about God's word. From the very beginning he has been a slanderer. A slanderer is one who destroys through malicious words. Satan twists by saying or implying that God says this, but He really means that. God said to Adam and Eve, "In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die." Satan said, "Ha! You shall not die," implying that God really didn't mean it. The same pattern is followed regarding this doctrine.
God says that if we do not measure up to what He expects of His children, we will be cast into a lake of fire. Satan says, "If you believe in Jesus Christ, that is all it takes, and you will be in His kingdom." In so doing, Satan can effectively destroy the production of works by blurring the necessary incentive to overcoming human nature's self-centeredness. The necessary incentive, in this case, is at least some measure of fear of being thrown [into the lake of fire], of not measuring up. In addition to that, what I think may be far more serious is that he destroys faith and trust in God's word, and salvation is by grace through faith.
As we continue this sermon, we're going to consider as a primary witness (example): Israel's wilderness experiences. We have long used this as a pattern we can safely follow to learn lessons important to our pilgrimage. God gave them human leaders—men like Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb. He broke the grip on Egypt, which is a symbol of sin. He parted the Red Sea, killed off their enemy, and He safely got them across into the wilderness.
From that point on, unfortunately, it was all down hill for a very large number of them even though He faithfully provided for them every day for the entire way to the promised land. But the entire first generation of those above twenty, so liberated by Him, perished, except for Joshua and Caleb and their families. Pay attention, because everyone in that first generation—male and female—had already made the covenant with God at Mount Sinai, and they didn't make it into the Promised Land, which is a type of the Kingdom of God. That ought to give all of us pause for sober reflection on what we are doing with our lives. This morning, in the closing prayer, Bill asked that we be able to work in order that we be prepared for His kingdom. These people did not do it. They fought God the whole way.
Let's go back to Exodus 6, because there is something additional to learn here that is sobering to thing about.
Exodus 6:5-8 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and you shall know that I am the LORD your God which brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.
I want us all to notice that God solemnly promised to do all these things, culminating in Him giving them the land, bringing them to it. Put into other words, God predestined them to make it, and they didn't make it, even though He solemnly promised to do so.
The record is given throughout the Bible, but most extensively in Exodus and Numbers, and a little bit in Deuteronomy—God didn't fail. Israel failed! I will read you just briefly a verse in Romans 8:3. Paul said, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh." The weakness in this whole operation was not God. The weakness was in Israel.
By the time Israel got into the period covered by the book of Numbers, they reached a very critical event in Israel's journey. It was here, following on the heels of Joshua, Caleb, and ten other men going in to spy out the Promised Land and to report back to the people the kind of land it was and the kind of people that were there, that ten of the men came back with an evil report. Only two of those who spied out the land felt that with God's help they were up to taking over the land. And so we find that Israel refused to go into the land on the basis of those ten men they agreed with who failed God. By the time we get to Numbers 14, verse 22, God had had it up to here with the Israelites.
Numbers 14:22-23 Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it.
Numbers 14:27-34 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, says the LORD, as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless you shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities even forty years, and you shall know my breach of promise.
God went back on His word. Now how could He do this? We shall continue to see why He could do it. Don't forget that I am going through this in order to help you understand that even as He has likewise promised to bring us into the Kingdom of God, it is not unconditional.
Numbers 14:35 I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
Why didn't they make it? As a people, Israel tempted God ten times. God specifically mentions complaining, murmuring against His provision for them, and He outright called them evil. Now to tempt is to provoke or entice Him to do something wrong. But there is strong basis and just cause for God's judgment of them, because no sin stands alone. Murmuring is not a simple stand-by-itself sin, especially in regarding that the murmuring is against God. I want you again to consider that Israel entered into a covenant with God shortly after leaving Egypt. Let's go back to Exodus 19 and review that, and then in a little bit we'll get back to this murmuring again.
Exodus 19:4-8 You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD has spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.
Here, in these brief four or five verses, the covenant is stripped bare of everything except its most essential parts. Those most essential parts are that God would be their God, and that He would provide for them. That appears in verse 4. Those are examples of how He provided. He would be their God, and He would provide for them, as He had already demonstrated that He could do in bringing them out of Egypt.
Very briefly, Israel's part was to obey Him. More specific terms are spelled out beginning in Exodus 20:1 and going all the way through Exodus 21, 22, into chapter 24 and up to verse 8. So in Exodus 20 through Exodus 24:8 are the specific terms of the agreement between the two.
A covenant is an agreement. It is a contract binding both parties to its conditions, or its terms. If one party does not hold up its end of the deal, the other party is not obligated to follow through on its part because of fraud. The other party in this agreement happened to be the holy, sinless, perfect-in-character Creator God.
Now parties entering into a contract do so in order that the partnership created by the agreement will be mutually beneficial. Contracts have clearly-stated terms, and each party agrees to fulfill those terms. Israel did not come anywhere close to fulfilling the terms of this agreement. Ten times they rejected Him, provoked Him. God was justified in His judgment of them.
The reason God specifically mentioned murmuring is because murmuring also involves presumption. This is bad. The complainer against God presumptuously regards his view as to how things ought to be as superior to the holy, sinless, perfect-in-character God, as if God is unaware what is going on in His family. Murmuring against God is presumption. God plainly says in Numbers 15 that this will not be forgiven. In one sense you could almost say that Israel committed the unpardonable sin in their complaining because of the presumption that is in it. That's how serious it is.
Secondly, murmuring involves ingratitude. It deprecates blessings received, and any inconvenience is exaggerated. Ingratitude easily forgets past kindnesses. That person is always operating on the idea, the approach, the concept of "What have you done for me lately?" Murmurers think that everything done by themselves is too much, as if they're being put upon, and that they should not be required to do this. The other side of that coin is everything done for them is too little, that it's never enough. Finally, murmuring is active antagonism against the holy God.
Let's continue this by going back into the book of Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 1 and 2.
Hebrews 4:1-2 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
It's interesting that the author here says, "any of you should seem to come short of it." There is no doubt at all that he was thinking about the Exodus experience, and especially the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness. Those who died in the wilderness came short of it. It's another way of saying that if we act like they did, we're not going to be there either.
The point is this: God, without doubt, made the solemn promise. He admitted that. However, Israel entered into the Old Covenant with God, and they did not hold up their end, and thus God was freed from the obligation of His promise. He did not fail. They did. The author here summarizes why they failed.
There are many kinds of sins that were committed in the wilderness similar to the murmuring mentioned in Numbers 14. However, underlying all of them was the breakdown of their trust that God would follow through. The message to you and me who have made the New Covenant with God is that the promise of God is still valid for us. That's the message. However, if we fall short through unbelief as Israel did, then like them, it means that we will not make it. Israel's refusal of God was not just a momentary reaction in one incident, but ten times they tempted Him, showing that their rejection of Him was a continuous stretch of unbelief over the two years up until the time of Numbers 14.
One of the interesting aspects of the "Once Saved Always Saved" issue is that the "no law" people are essentially saying that God has entered into an agreement with them in which they are held to no terms, except that they believe in Jesus Christ. That gets rid of the rest of the covenant. What a convenience! They are essentially saying that God requires nothing productive of His partners.
Let's go back to those very well-known scriptures in Deuteronomy 30:15. Listen to this carefully in the light of what I have said up to this time.
Deuteronomy 30:15 See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil.
Now consider this. This is exactly what He did with Adam and Eve. He said, "See, I have set before you this garden with all of this being yours except for this over here. As long as you forsake this, you will live. If you choose this one, you will die." There's nothing hard about that. It's as simple to understand as it could possibly get. He's saying the same thing to you and me. "See, I have set before you this way which is good and right and which will produce the good things. This other way is death."
Deuteronomy 30:16-20 In that I command you this day to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply: and the LORD your God shall bless you in the land whither you go to possess it. But if your heart turn away so that you will not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish, and that you shall not prolong your days upon the land whither you pass over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live: That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may obey his voice, and that you may cleave unto him: for he is your life, and the length of your days: that you may dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
God invites us to choose, ...and we can choose death. He exhorts us, and encourages us to make the right choices in life, but we are free to choose death. Do we understand that if we choose death, it legally absolves Him of any blame? He didn't make the choice. We did. We enter into this covenant, which is a legal agreement [stating that] God will do this, and we will do that. Our responsibility is to choose life. If we choose not to choose life and instead choose to choose death, then He is not bound by His promise.
We're going to leave that example and we're going to go back into the New Testament to make note of something that Jesus said in Luke 14. This is a different point altogether, but in some ways it involves the same general principles.
Luke 14:25-27 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
If all one has to do is believe, why would Jesus warn us that we had better count the cost of salvation to us? Is merely believing something costly? The answer to that is "no" unless one intends to do something about what one believes.
Notice that Jesus mentions family members in this teaching. He is establishing the possibility that if one follows Him, it may cost one a good relationship with those related through blood, and because they are family, a multitude of shared experiences.
We have to consider in counting this cost that other family members may not "come to Christ," and because they don't come to Christ, a separation occurs between you and them. Therefore the number of shared experiences you have with them begins to dwindle, and because you are receiving teaching that they are not receiving, perspectives (the way we look at things) begin to change. Some things become important that were unimportant before, and are still unimportant to them, but have become very important to you, and the drifting away becomes wider. There becomes broader areas, and a wider number of places of disagreement.
We're going to go back to a scripture that I mentioned this morning in the sermonette in II Samuel 24:24 to something that David said. I just want to pick the thought out of this.
II Samuel 24:24 And [David] the king said unto Araunah, No; but I will surely buy it of you at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which does cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
This little principle that is here presents the crux of what Jesus was teaching in that illustration in Luke 14. The way that God has called us is very frequently costly in terms of sacrifice. Jesus charged the young ruler that came to Him in Mark 10 to get rid of his material wealth at the very beginning of their possible relationship. That young ruler could not do it, and the relationship never got off the ground because he was unwilling to make the sacrifice.
One of our problems is that we never know when a major sacrifice is going to hit us and possibly hit us very hard—so hard that the relationship with Him may be destroyed because of our unwillingness to trust God through thick and thin right up to the end. Very, very often, the sacrifice happens between family members in which one is in the church and the other, or others, is not, and then the cost of our conversion might go sky high if we're unwilling to make that sacrifice.
Continuing this thought, we're going to go back to Deuteronomy 13:6.
Deuteronomy 13:6-11 If your brother [a family member], the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, ... [It's really getting close here.] ...or your friend, which is as your own soul, ...[somebody like the kind of relationship that David and Jonathan had] ...entice you [to temp you to do wrong] secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, you, nor your fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, near unto you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; You shall not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him: But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones, that he die; because he has sought to thrust you away from the LORD your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
Wouldn't this be a difficult test of loyalty? What have we then lost? Is God going to take someone into His kingdom that cannot be trusted to respond in the correct manner? I think not! Think back to that example in Mark 10. The Bible doesn't show Jesus chasing after that rich young ruler, lowering the cost for him to come to Christ. I don't mean all of it, just half of it. No. That man's god was money. Jesus would have been in violation of this principle had He lowered the cost for that man in order to have his friendship. No wonder Jesus was saddened, because, as it says, He loved him.
I am sure that God is going to endeavor to work with us, even as He shows us there with Jonah. How many times did He intervene in Jonah's life, even to the extent of creating a special fish to swallow Jonah and dump him up on the shore, and then to put up with all his griping and grumbling? Even though Jonah did the job, the book leaves off with the story incomplete, and it just makes you wonder what happened to Jonah.
God patiently worked through things with David, who was a man just like we are. He went through it "thick and thin" with David. David is going to be in God's kingdom. God says that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and that promise is good. If there is any forsaking that is going to be done, it's going to be done on our part because, even as it says of the Israelites, "that the law was weak through the flesh." That's where our problems lie as well. There comes a point where God has to accede to our will, because His will not permit anyone not dedicated to His way to be in His kingdom. His justice for all concerned, including the sinning person, demands that He put that person to death in the lake of fire.
Let's look at another place, to another familiar scripture, but we're going to reason together about it.
Matthew 24:12-13 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax [grow] cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
The word "endure" gives me a picture of a long wearying period of intense pressures brought upon by our desire to live this way—please God—combined with world conditions, about which we can do nothing. They happen. They impact upon us, and we have to live through them.
Why would Christ give us a warning like this—that only those who would endure to the end would be saved—if there was not in Him the thought that some, or maybe even many, would lose out on their salvation because they were found to not have the vision, the will, and the loyalty to hang in there despite the pressures? Christianity has never been a cakewalk. We're not walking through Central Park somewhere. We're following a rough road that is getting rougher as the days go by, and more difficult as things (about which we can do nothing and over which we have no control) are impacting on us.
Jesus said His way is difficult. In Matthew He called it narrow and difficult, meaning that there are times when it is demanding, that the requirements are high, and they must be met in order for us to remain a part of it. One of those times (especially hard times) is right now—the end time. Besides Jesus, the Apostle Paul warned that we were going to go through perilous times at the end.
Jesus stipulates here that the times would be perilous because a massive amount of lawlessness would pressure us to cave in and just go along with it. What we need, He says, is endurance to keep one from losing one's way—the way of salvation. Patient burden-bearing endurance is a work created in us through God's gift, but it still remains necessary for us to choose to use it when the long and the hard times arise.
II Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
It's interesting that I just noticed here he said "you might be partakers of the divine nature."
II Peter 1:5-11 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance [or self-control]; and to self-control, patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
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