6 REASONS WHY YOU ARE ETERNALLY SECURE
I would like to share with you six reasons why you can know without a shadow of a doubt that once you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior that you are absolutely secure in placing your trust in Jesus Christ.
1. You have the PROMISE of eternal security.
Romans 8 : 38 – 39
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Do you see what Paul is saying? Paul listed 10 mighty opponents that cannot separate you from the love of God. Dear friend, nothing can take your salvation away if you are truly saved.
Death cannot. Governments cannot.
Life cannot. The present and future cannot.
Angels cannot.
Principalities cannot.
We have the PROMISE of eternal security.
2. God will PERSEVERE and complete what He has begun.
Philippians 1 : 6
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
When you were saved, who began the good work in you? Was it you or God? It was God. That is why it is blasphemy against God to say things like you can be saved at any time. It is just not true. God through the Holy Spirit begins the work.
1 John 4 : 19
19 We love Him because He first loved us.
God first loved us, and the Holy Spirit is the agent of the new birth that is salvation. Can I explain it a little bit?
The Holy Spirit is the convicter. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts you of your sin. The Holy Spirit is the converter. The Holy Spirit opened your eyes to the fact that you are a sinner. He opened your eyes to the Gospel. He helped you to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. The Holy Spirit is the completer of your salvation.
Look at Philippians 1 : 6 again.
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
Have you ever started something you did not finish? God the Father has not. Jesus has not. The Holy Spirit has not. Aren’t you glad that God is going to finish what He has started? Do you know when you are completely saved? You are completely saved when the Holy Spirit finishes what He started with you when you placed your faith in what He would be able to finish.
God will finish what He starts. If you could lose your salvation, it would mean that God the Father was defeated in His purpose. It would mean God the Son’s blood could not save and keep. It would mean that the Holy Spirit is disgraced because He is not able to complete what He began. It is not the perseverance of the saints but the God of glory who perseveres and completes what He has begun in you.
God will PERSEVERE and complete what He has begun. TO think otherwise suggests that a person could complete what God Himself started, but we cannot. God begins the good work in us, and God’s perseverance will complete the work.
3. We are PREDESTINED to be like Christ.
Romans 8 : 29 – 31
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
I want you know this is not talking about predestination in the sense that some are eternally condemned, and some eternally saved. “Predestination” as used in verse 30, only applies to a person that is saved. If a person is eternally condemned, it is because of their refusal to trust Christ, not because they were “predestined” to go to Hell. Jesus told us about it.
John 3 : 18
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
As a born-again child of God, to be predestined means that your destiny is determined. Well, Jimmy, what is my destiny? Your destiny is that you are determined, you are predestined, to be like Christ. Your destiny started in the eternal past when God chose you in Christ.
Ephesians 1 : 4 – 5
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
He predestined that you, if you accept Christ, would one day be like Christ. If you think that that are some predestined to judgement, you are denying what the Word of God says.
2 Peter 3 : 9
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
No one is predestined to eternal damnation if you believe the Word of God because Peter says that God is not willing that any should perish. God chose us all, and who He chose He called.
2 Thessalonians 2 : 13 – 14
13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God through the Holy Spirit calls everyone, those that He chose, and when you accepted Christ as your Savior, you became predestined to be like Christ. He justifies you, and He will glorify you. As a matter of fact, the believer has already been glorified in Christ.
John 17 : 22
22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
The revelation of that glory awaits the coming of the Lord at the Rapture.
Romans 8 : 21 – 23
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
The question becomes this: How can someone lose their salvation if they have been predestined to be like Christ after that person has accepted Christ as Savior?
The answer is that you cannot. How can you be predestined to be like Christ and go to Hell? If you are predestined to be like Christ, no matter what happens on this earth after you accept Jesus you are going to Heaven. Now, that does not mean that God won’t take you to the woodshed!!!! God knows the past, present, and future at one time, and if you have accepted Christ, at this very moment, He sees you glorified in Heaven, and I do not know how you could get any more secure than that. In the Spring of 1979 at Mount Vernon Baptist Church, when I accepted Christ as my Savior, God the Father at that very moment said it was settled, and I was predestined to be like Christ, and there is absolutely nothing as Paul wrote in Romans 8 : 38 – 39 that can change that.
What is settled in eternity cannot be undone in time. What is decreed in Heaven cannot be changed by Hell! When God says you are predestined to be like Christ, nothing will ever change His mind. God chose me. God called me, and God predestines that I will be like Christ.
4. We are made PERFECT by Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 10 : 14
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
The precious blood of Jesus Christ poured out on Calvary’s Cross makes you perfect forever. When you get saved, you just don’t get a fresh start. God is not saying I am going to make the down payment, and you have to keep up the monthly installments. That is how many view salvation. They believe God gives them a fresh start. They believe God forgives their past and makes the down payment, and it is their responsibility to keep up the installments. That is so contrary to what the Bible teaches. With one offering, Jesus paid for it all and forever. If you are saved, you are perfect in God’s sight. That is why the statement no one is perfect is one of the least intelligent statements of all time. Dear friend, you better hope you were made perfect because if God can see ½ of ½ of ½ of one sin in your life, you will die and go to Hell. When you accept Christ, you are perfect in the eyes of God. Christ made one offering for all sins.
By His death on the Cross, we are perfected forever when we accept Him as our Savior, and we can never lose that salvation. Can I challenge you to do something? Find one person in the Bible who was ever saved twice. You cannot do it. Do you know why? It is impossible to be saved twice. “By one offering.” In order for you to be saved more than once, Jesus would have to continually be sacrificed again and again, and dear friend, that “ain’t” happening. (Mrs. Betty Bishop, I know not to use ain’t, but I am using it for emphasis) Do you know why that is not going to happen? By one offering, He has perfected us forever. Jesus is never going back to that Cross. “By one offering.”
Someone might say this:
“Well, what happens if you sin after you are saved?”
Well, first off, it is not if we sin but when we sin. Dear friend, we will sin, and when we do, we are in disobedience, and God will take us to the woodshed to chastise us, but He does not beat the salvation out of us. If anyone could have lost their salvation, don’t you think it would have been Lot? He was a backslidden follower of God, who, without getting saved again, was raptured, if you will, out of God’s judgement on Sodom. Look at these verses, and if you cannot say Amen to these verses, I do not believe you ever will.
Romans 4 : 5 – 8
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”
Impute means to charge. God imputes righteousness on your account through Jesus Christ and not by anything you or I could ever do. There are many that believe you can lose your salvation because your works are not good enough. Well, dear friend, I cannot lose my salvation because the righteousness of Christ is charged or imputed to my account., and Paul says in verse 7 that we are blessed because Christ covered our sins through the imputation of His righteousness, and my sins and your sins, if you are saved, are as far removed from you as the East is from the West. You can rest peacefully knowing that if those sins are ever brought up it is by the devil and as Jesus did you can tell that old rascal to get behind you. Even more important than that. Look at verse 8.
8 blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”
The Lord will not impute sin. Praise the Lord!!!!!!! God is not going to charge any sin to my account because my sin, because I am predestined to be like Christ, has been covered in His righteousness. I want you to understand this. If the smallest sin you can think is charged to your account, then you are going to die and go to Hell because by one offering, Christ perfected you and to have that sin charged or imputed to your account would mean that for you to have that sin covered, Christ would have to die again and that is not going to happen. Think of it like this, and I could give you at least 2 examples, but I will only give you one.
When Israel applied the blood to the doorpost that night of the first Passover, is there anything that would have kept them from being saved if the blood was applied? Absolutely Not!!!!!
Even if they were fighting like cats and dogs on the inside because that sin would not have been charged to their account because the blood had been applied. Their salvation that night was based on the blood and not on what they were doing on the inside.
We are made PERFECT by Jesus Christ.
5. We are POSITIONED in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5 : 17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
The Old Creation (Old things) is Adam and his children. The New Creation is Jesus and His children. Everyone is either in Adam or in Jesus. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. In other words, because I am a new creation, what pertains to Jesus Christ pertains to me. DO you realize what that means? It means I can only lose my salvation if Christ loses His relationship with God the Father because I am in Christ. What is true of Christ is true of me because I am in Christ. I am not Christ, but I am part of the body of Christ. Noah’s Ark is an illustration of this. Noah’s Ark is a picture of salvation. It is a picture of Jesus Christ. It is so much more than animals saved two by two. Listen. God brought Noah and his family into the Ark, if any man be in Christ if you will.
Genesis 7 : 1
1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.
When God said come into that meant that God was where? INSIDE!!!! If you are at home and someone knocks on the door, what do you say? Come in. Why? Because you are where? INSIDE. If I am somewhere and I tell you to go on in, am I in? No, I am not, but if I say come in that means I want you to come where I am. God told Noah to come in where He was. God was in the Ark, and Noah was in the Ark.
Genesis 7 : 16
16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.
God shut the door to keep the water and judgement out and to keep Noah in. It was not Noah that shut the door. It was God. There was no doorknob on the Ark. God shut the door.
Ephesians 1 : 13
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
God shut Noah in the Ark with Himself, and the only way that Noah could have gone down would have been for the Ark to go down. Right or wrong? When God shut the door, it was as Paul wrote. Noah was sealed with the promise that he was going to be delivered by that Ark which symbolizes the salvation provided by God. By the same token, the only way I can lose my salvation is for Jesus to go down because I am in Christ, I am a new creation. Do you really believe that Noah and his family did not sin while they were on the Ark? That would be totally against the nature of man. They probably argued every day about who was going to clean up after the elephants. Can you imagine the mess? But when they did sin, they were not thrown off the Ark because God had sealed them, and because I am a new creation in Christ, the only way I can lose my salvation is for Christ to lose His position with the Father.
My eternal security is based on Jesus Christ and His position with the Father.
6. You are being PRAYED for by Christ.
John 17 : 9
9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
Who is Jesus praying for her? He, in this instance, is praying for His disciples. Well, what does He pray?
John 17 : 15
15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
Jesus is praying for the Father to keep His disciples from the evil in this world. You might be wondering what in the world that has to do with us. Before I answer, let me ask you this. Did Jesus ever pray, and His prayer not be answered? OF COURSE NOT!!!! The Holy Trinity is always in perfect harmony. You say that is good, but Jesus was praying for His disciples, and what does that mean for me? Let’s look a little deeper.
John 17 : 20
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
Now, how does that make you feel? Jesus was not only praying for His disciples but also those of us that came to a saving knowledge of Christ through the Word of God. If you have accepted Jesus, He started praying that you be kept before you were a twinkle in your parents’ eyes. If Jesus is praying that you be kept, guess what? You are going to be kept. How does that make you feel? Are you eternally secure? Of course, you are. If you could lose your salvation, that would mean that Christ did not have His prayer answered by the Father, and that is not possible. Why?
Hebrews 7 : 25
25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Why am I secure? Because my Savior, who is able to save me to the uttermost, is praying for me to God the Father. My Savior is interceding on my behalf day by day, night by night, month by month, and year by year on the basis of His perfect sacrifice He made to cover my sins, and no sin can ever be charged to my account again, and nothing can separate me from that Salvation.
Picture this scene in Heaven!!!!!
I get mad at a driver in Dyersburg who cuts me off in traffic, and I make some kind of gesture or say something that has murder at its core. I mean I literally want choke that person until their eyeballs pop out like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon, and Satan, who has access to Heaven to accuse the saints, accuses me before the Father.
Satan says, “God, look at Jimmy!” “God, you are supposed to be righteous. What are you going to do to him? He just committed about 12 sins because of what he wanted to do to that other driver. God, did you see how mad he got?” “God, he was speeding too, and he was not buckled, and God, I think he threw a gum wrapper out of his window.” Ole Satan, the Prosecuting Attorney from Hell, and he is accusing me before the Father, and do you know what? He is right on all counts. God is righteous. I did sin, and I deserve what God gives me as a punishment, but dear friend, I have an Advocate too. Suddenly, my Divine Defender, Jesus Christ, comes to my defense. He advocates on my behalf.
Jesus says, “Father, that is Jimmy, and in 1979, he trusted that I covered his sins. Father, I have promised him that no more sin would ever be charged to his account. I promised him that nothing would ever separate him from your love through me, and Father, I have been praying daily for him that you would keep him from the evil one.”
And Satan drops his head and accuses the next person because dear friend, I am secure because Jesus Christ covered my sins, and you are secure too if you have Christ as your Savior. There is no reason for you to ever doubt your salvation if you have truly been born-again.
No more sins will be charged to my account because Jesus is daily praying to the Father that I be kept until the day of salvation, and God the Son will never pray anything that God the Father will not answer.
The kicker in this, dear friend, is that you must truly be born-again. If you have not completely placed your faith and trust in who Jesus Christ is and what He did for you, then you are not saved. There is a great verse in 2 Corinthians that talks about what all of us need to do, and if you do what the following verse says, the Holy Spirit will either confirm you in your salvation or convict you of your need to be saved.
2 Corinthians 13 : 5
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
If you know that you have not truly accepted Christ, it is so simple to do. This is all you need to do.
Romans 10 : 9 – 10, 13
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”