Lon Solomon Ministries
Some Eternal Security Questions
Hey, you know, I don't know if you have a favorite hymn or not. I do a couple of them. And one of my favorite hymns is a song that goes like this, come now found of every blessing to my heart to sing thy grace, streams of mercy, never ceasing, call four songs of loudest praise. You know the song? Right, come now found. Well, I want to tell you about the guy who wrote this hymn. His name was Robert Robinson. And Robert Robinson was a man who was led to Christ by a famous name you may recognize, a fellow named George Whitfield, the great preacher of the great awakening here in the United States. And not long after Robert Robinson had come to a decision for Christ in a meeting with George Whitfield, he wrote this great hymn. But then something went horribly wrong. And too long after that that he turned his back on Christianity, turned his back on his relationship with Christ, went back to drinking, went back to swearing profusely, went back to partying hard and disavowing all connection with Jesus Christ whatsoever. This went on for years, living a reprobate lifestyle away from the Lord. And one day, Robinson got into a stage coach and there was a lady in the stage coach whose head was down. She was engrossed in some reading. We didn't think much about it. And the stage coach took off and as they were traveling along, eventually the lady looked up and said to him, "Sir, listen to this wonderful poem that I'm reading." And she started reading the poem, "Come now, fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace." And Robinson sat there in stunned silence listening as she read his hymn until she got to the very end and she said those lines, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, and unable to contain himself any longer." Robert Robinson blurted out and said these words and I quote, "Madam," he said, "I am the poor soul who wrote those words." And I would give a thousand lifetimes if I could get back today the feelings that I had back then end of quote. Well to finish the story, you need to know that in spite of this encounter, Robert Robinson never did return to a walk with Jesus Christ. He never did return to a Christ-centered lifestyle and he died still disavowing any connection to Christianity and Jesus Christ. Now friends, what's up with this? I mean, how do we integrate the life experience of Robert Robinson into what we're learning about the eternal security of the believer in Jesus Christ? I mean, did the man lose his salvation? Did he fall from grace? I mean, what happened to this guy? Well, that's what we want to talk about today because two weeks ago, we talked about eternal security in part six of spiritual boot camp and we said that eternal security is a phrase that's never found in the Bible, but it summarizes a truth that is found in the Bible, the truth that once a person has embraced Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, once they've placed their trust in the blood of Jesus to cover their sin and to be their entry ticket into heaven, God immediately grants that person eternal life. And that their salvation, their place in heaven, is eternally secure, meaning they can never lose their salvation, they can never lose their place in heaven regardless of what they may do or they may not do in terms of human performance. In other words, our eternal life and our place in heaven is based not on our performance, which changes day by day and moment by moment, but it is based on what Jesus did for us on the cross, paying for our sin in the sight of a holy God, which never changes. Now two weeks ago, we spent a lot of time giving you scriptural data to support this. If you miss that, you need to go get the tape, but we mentioned two weeks ago that we had some questions that lingered, that kind of served to undermine this understanding of eternal security, questions like number one, what about a person who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but their earthly life isn't what it ought to be. Number two, what do we really mean, are we saying that because we're eternally secure, we as followers of Christ can go do whatever we want to do? Number three, I mean what if a person was like Robert Robinson? What if they claimed to know Christ at one point in their life, but then they turn their back on Jesus and they walked away? Do they still have eternal life? And number four, what if I simply lose the feeling? I mean like Robert Robinson did, what if I just wake up one day and I don't feel like I have eternal life, I don't feel like I'm connected to Christ, the feeling's all gone. What does that mean? Did I lose my eternal life? So we want to answer these questions today because this is a really important issue with God that you and I and every other follower of Christ in the world understand and be drop dead certain that not only do we have eternal life, but that we can never lose it. So let's address these questions that tend to undermine that, biblically. Alright, question number one, what about a follower of Jesus Christ whose life isn't what it ought to be? I mean somebody who gives their life to Christ and they keep right on live in La Vida Loca, you know what I'm trying to say? And you know they never seem to establish a distinctively Christian lifestyle, I mean does this person have as much eternal life and as much eternal security as Mother Teresa had? Is that what we're really saying? Let's talk about that. And friends, to respond to this question, what we have to say first is that the question itself is based on a faulty understanding of salvation. Right here in Romans chapter three, look with me if you would in verse 20, says therefore, verse 20, therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the law, by observing the Old Testament law, that is by acts of human performance. So how does a person become righteous in the sight of God? Well verse 21 goes on to say, but now a righteousness from God which is apart from human performance has been made known to us. How do you get that righteousness? This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, for it is by grace, God's undeserved mercy and kindness that you have been granted eternal life through faith. This is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not the result of human works so that no one can brag before God. You see friends, you and I didn't get eternal life because of our good performance, which means that you and I can't lose eternal life because of our bad performance. This has nothing to do with performance. May I say that if you're here and you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way, that this is really important information for you to have. Because there are many people, maybe you're one of them, who are determined that they're going to earn their eternal life, become righteous in the sight of God, get into heaven by their own performance, whether it's religious performance, secular performance, it doesn't matter. But friends, what the Bible is telling us is that's going up a one way street the wrong way and it's a dead end. There's nothing to go to, there's no place there, no one ever gets righteous in the sight of God through human performance because no one is ever, the verse says, going to brag before God. And if you get to heaven because you earned it, you can brag before God. God says that's never going to happen. So if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus Christ, I want to tell you, you need to take a real hard look and reconsider how you're planning to get to heaven. God says there's a righteousness apart from human performance that He offers you and it comes to faith in what Jesus did plus nothing. I hope you'll take advantage of that. Now this idea of basing our eternal security on our human performance isn't new way back in the first century. The people who lived in Galatia, those Christians had the very same problem. They believed that you got your salvation by faith but then you had to keep it by human performance. And Paul wrote them and here's what he said, Galatians 3 verse 1. He said, you foolish Galatians, what's wrong with you people? Well tell me one thing Paul says, did you receive eternal life by observing the law, by your own human performance or did you receive eternal life by believing God's promise by faith? Well of course they got it by faith. Are you so foolish Paul says, after beginning by faith, are you now planning to attain your goal by human effort? Friends, God does not change horses midstream. If God starts with people on the basis of faith, God finishes with people on the basis of faith. That's what Paul's saying, God doesn't change systems halfway through on people. And the point is, not only is it the grace of God that gives us eternal life, friends it is the grace of God that preserves our eternal life. And if it wasn't, if that weren't the case, there wouldn't be a single one of us here whose eternal life would have lasted 24 hours. You'd have found some way to ruin it in the first 24 hours of having it and so would I. And if God had given it back to you, you'd have ruined it in the next 24 hours. Folks, the only reason that you have eternal life now and that you will still have eternal life, the day you leave this earth is because of the grace of God, that's it. Because God's being true to His promises. Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 13, if we are faithless, if our earthly lives don't measure up to everything they ought to be, God remains faithful, He cannot deny who and what He is. So heaven, eternal life, our eternal security, it's all God's grace from start to finish. And when you step onto the shores of heaven, believe me, you are not going to sing amazing human performance, no. You know what you're going to sing, you're going to sing amazing grace, of course, that's what this is all about. This doesn't have anything to do with what kind of earthly life you live. Now you say, well, Lon, okay, I got that. But here's my question, okay, I'm eternally secure, but now does that mean I can go live any kind of earthly life I want to live? I mean, are you saying that I can rob banks, steal cars, have dismembered body parts in my basement refrigerator? And I'm still going to heaven and that's perfectly okay. Is that what you're saying? No, I am not wrong, wrong, a thousand times wrong. I didn't say that. The Bible never says that. What the Bible says is that our human performance as a follower of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with getting into heaven. It has everything to do with the kind of reception you get when you arrive. And I want to show you that. First Corinthians chapter three, flip over there. First Corinthians chapter three, page 808, if you're using our copy of the Bible, and you know when I was a brand new believer 30 years ago, 21 years old, I had real problems trying to figure out, well, how do you mesh this idea of eternal security with my responsibility of living a godly human life? And this passage answers that. It really helped me. I hope it'll help you. First Corinthians chapter three, page 808, look at verse 11. Paul writes and says, "For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that's already laid which is Jesus Christ." The foundation of every single earthly Christian life is Jesus Christ. But you can build on that foundation with two different kinds of building material. Paul uses the imagery of building on top of that foundation. And he goes on to say, "If any man builds on this foundation using gold or silver or costly stones, that's the first category of building material. Notice all three of them, gold, silver, precious stones, they're all permanent. They're all long lasting. They're all enduring kinds of building material. This represents people who are building earthly Christian lives that are characterized by obedience to God and spiritual faithfulness and humility and servanthood. Or you can build differently on the foundation. Paul says, "You can build with wood and hay and straw." And this is building material that's short-lived and transitory and impermanent. And this represents people who are building their earthly Christian lives around disobedience to God. Spiritual, waywardness, arrogance, selfishness, either way, it's up to you. You build on the foundation whatever you want. But Paul said, "I want you to remember there's going to be an accounting for how you build this thing." Look at the next verse, verse 13. It says that every person's work will be shown for what it is because the day, meaning the day we stand in front of Christ, will bring it to life. It will be revealed with fire and fire will test the quality of each man's work. When you stand in front of Jesus Christ, he's going to take his big old cosmic flame thrower and he's going to turn it right on your building. And when the smoke clears, whatever is left is what you get rewarded for. Now the wood, the hay, and the straw, guess what? That all burns up. The gold, the silver, and the precious stones, when the smoke clears, they're still there. First look at the next verse, verse 14. If what we have built survives, the fire, we will receive God's reward. You say, "What is that, Lon? How do I know? I don't know what it is. I've never been to heaven. I don't have a clue except I know this, whenever God's given out reward, you want them. Whatever it is, you want them." So if God turns his flame thrower on your building and your building is mostly standing when you're done, wonderful, God's going to reward you. He said, "What happens if my building's all gone?" Well, the next verse is for you. Verse 15. If that happens, verse 15, if your whole building gets burned up, you will suffer loss of reward. But look at this, but you yourself, that person himself will be saved. Now how do you say it any simpler than that? How does God say it any more straightforwardly? I'm not throwing anybody out of heaven, God says. Once you're there, you're there. If you trusted Christ, the foundation didn't get burned up, just the building on top. You're not there because of the building, you're there because of the foundation. So you're still there, but look at the end of the verse, that person will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames by the skin of your teeth, by the hair on your chinny chin chin. You're not going to get in by much. You will get in. But this idea that because we're eternally secure, it doesn't matter what kind of earthly life we live, preposterous, stupid, ridiculous, God never says that. And friends, beyond that, there's a human side to this, and that is when we're alive on this earth, God indwells us as followers of Christ with the Holy Spirit, who activates your conscience and my conscience and doesn't allow us to get away with the stuff we used to get away with. That's why David wrote Psalm 32. He said, "When I kept silent about my wrong, doing my bones wasted away day and night, your hand was heavy on me, God, till I made it right." I'll tell you, when I was 21 years old and I gave my life to Christ, the way I knew something supernatural had happened in my life that had never happened before, is not because I floated around all day three inches off the ground singing hymns. It's because when I did stuff that a month ago I could get away with doing and not feel bad about it at all, lying, cheating, stealing, conniving, manipulating, now all of a sudden, I felt terrible about it. I knew that wasn't me. I knew that wasn't me. What happened inside of me, where did all this come from? What happened is the Holy Spirit, when he comes into a life, he reactivates our conscience, he reboots our conscience, and suddenly it works again, and you can't get away with the stuff you used to get away with. Friends, if you really know Christ, eternal security doesn't give us license to get away with stuff. If anything, when you come to know Christ, we become more concerned about the life we live than we used to be. We say, "Well, on okay, got that." But what about the person like Robert Robinson, who just walks away and turns his back on God and disavows all connection with Christianity and Jesus Christ? I mean, do you want to tell me after repudiating the faith like that, that he's still going to heaven? Well, friend, if he genuinely trusted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, then yes, he's going to heaven because the Bible says 2 Timothy 2, 13, we saw it earlier, even if we are faithless, God remains faithful. He made that man a promise, and he's going to keep it. But you know what, over 30 years of being a follower of Christ, I've seen lots of people do this. Turn their back, walk away, church going, all kinds of activity, and then they just drop off the face of the map. You see them again, and they're bitter and angry, and they don't want anything to do with God. I've met people like that, you've met people like that. You know what's interesting, friends, that Jesus explains to us in the Bible the spiritual condition of people who do this, and he explains it in Matthew chapter 21, that Jesus was walking along, and he sees this fig tree. It's got all kinds of leaves on it, and so he's like, wow, this is great, and he walks over to pick a fig to eat it, and it's going to have me figs on it. So it's got all these leaves, no figs, and what does Jesus do, because it doesn't have any fruit. He curses it, and then he uses that as an example to teach his disciples something, and what he teaches his disciples is that what matters is not leaves, what matters is fruit, because you see the only way to produce fruit is to be connected to the sap of the Spirit of God. And if the Spirit of God is operating in a person's life, you will produce fruit. Now you may not produce as much fruit as another follower of Christ, but you'll produce some. You say, long, what kind of fruit are you talking about? I'm talking about the fruit of a transformed life from the inside out, the fruit of a transformed worldview based on the truth of the Bible, the fruit of a transformed value system based on the Bible, the fruit of a reactivated conscience in your life, the fruit of Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of being a new creature in Jesus Christ. If the Spirit of God is flowing through you and living in you, you're going to get transformed and you're going to make fruit whether you want to or not, some 30 fold, some 60 fold, some 100 fold Jesus said, but everybody makes fruit when you're connected to Jesus Christ. And if you're a tree with all the leaves on it, but you haven't got any fruit, you're not connected. I don't care how many leaves you got, you're not connected. There's no sap going through you and friends in the same way, there are professing Christians all over our world today who go to all the right Christian places and say all the right Christian words and do all the right Christian things and are full of all kinds of religious performance, but there's no fruit because there's no real salvation. And when they turn and they walk away, they turn their back on Christ, did they lose their salvation? Oh, friend, they never had it. It's not about leaves, it's about fruit. It's not about being leafy, it's about being fruity, you understand what I'm saying? And I have never met a fruity Christian that ever turned their back on Jesus Christ. I've met fruity people who have problems, I've met fruity people who had bumps in the road, I've met fruity people who went through tough times, but I've never met a real fruity person, you understand what I'm saying, that turned their back on Jesus Christ and repudiated their belief in Him. Never. And maybe you have, but I haven't. I've met lots of people with leaves do it, but leaves don't salvation make, friends. So be careful when you're looking at somebody and evaluating their experience, make sure you evaluate them properly, if all you got was leaves, lots and lots of religious performance, but no fruit, you didn't have anybody lose their salvation, they never had it to start with. You say, "Well, Lon, I got one more question. What about me? I mean, I know I'm fruity, I mean, I know that I'm walking with Christ, I know He's changed my life, but you know, there's some days I wake up, man, I feel terrible, there's some days I wake up and, you know, I don't feel connected to God, I don't feel like I'm internally secure, I don't feel like I have eternal life, I don't feel anything. You know, I just feel like the heavens are made out of brass and that God and I have no connection. What about me? What happened to me?" Well, friends, this is a real problem for those of us living in 21st century America, because we live in a culture that bases everything on feeling. If you don't feel satisfied with your spouse, you leave them, if you don't feel satisfied with your job anymore, you quit, and you loathe to your quits. If you don't feel like staying out of debt, what do you do? Now you go the mall and spend a whole bunch of money. If you don't feel like staying thin, what do you do? Well, you go buy dozen donuts and eat them. I mean, whatever you feel like doing, you know, that's what you do. We live in a culture that Madison Avenue has brainwashed into believing that how we feel is the engine that ought to pull the whole rest of this trade. That's not what God says. In fact, that's the exact opposite of what God says. God says our feelings are not the engine that a caboose. And the engine that's supposed to pull this train is the word of God. The engine that's supposed to pull this train are the promises of God. And friends, there is no way you and I can run a Christian life that is consistent, that has equilibrium, that has integrity, a Christian life that has stability and constancy if we're letting our feelings pull the train. You can. Hey, I've stood in the emergency room at three o'clock in the morning with my little girl not sure whether she's going to live or going to die. Man, if my feelings were pulling the train at that moment, I wouldn't have had a whole lot of nice to say about God. I got news for you. Some of you have stood in funeral homes with your feelings. And if your feelings were pulling the train at that moment, you wouldn't have had a whole lot of nice things to say about God. Feelings are never meant to pull this train. The truth of the word of God is meant to pull this train. Things are the caboose. And the caboose bounces all over everywhere, but thank God it's not the engine. And so if you wake up one morning and you don't feel eternally secure, you know what we say about that, don't you? Here's what we say. So what? Yeah, well, so what if you don't feel eternally secure? What's that got to do with anything? I mean, John 3 16 still says that the people who believe in Jesus Christ shall not perish, shall have eternal life. Do your feelings change John 3 16? Romans chapter 8 verse 1 still says, "There is no condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ." Do your feelings change? Romans 8 1, John 5 24 says, "If you trust Christ, you will be given eternal life. You will not come into condemnation. You have passed from death into life." Do your feelings change John 5 24, John 10 28, "My sheep hear my voice. I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. No one will ever snatch it out of my hand." Do your feelings change John 10 28? Of course not. Friends our eternal security cannot be based on how we feel. It has to be based on the unchanging, non-negotiable promises of Almighty God which never changed no matter how you feel. You wake up with the flu, you're not going to feel eternally secure. So what? John hadn't changed a bit. If you die in the middle of the flu, you're still going to heaven. It doesn't matter how you feel. You understand? Now this is really important for us as followers to Christ to understand because if we listen to our culture it becomes impossible to build a Christian life that has stability. Your feelings can't pull this train. You know here we've got an election in the United States, pretty weird huh? It's the weirdest thing you ever saw in your life and of course it's not going to be over until the electoral college sings which is in December. I don't know when these things will be over. But I was reading an interesting article in USA Today about the electoral college and about faithless electors. You know what they are? You know when they choose electors the electors make a promise beforehand that they're going to vote for whoever candidate wins their state. But then there are cases of electors who go to the electoral college get together and vote differently. They're called faithless electors. And Walter Burns who wrote a book entitled "After the People Vote" a book all about electoral college politics said and I quote, "We have had a number of faithless electors in the past but it's never been enough to affect the final outcome of the vote." End of quote. However, this year things could be very different. And he suggested in the article that if Mr. Bush does win Florida, if Mr. Gore continues to lead in the popular vote nationwide that you might just have an elector or two go to the electoral college and vote for Mr. Gore even though Mr. Bush won their state because they believe whoever won the popular vote ought to win. He also suggested you might have some electors who could begin playing pork barrel politics and negotiate with each candidate until they get what they want. A new road, a new government building, whatever before they decide who to vote for. Did you know in most states there are no laws requiring electors to vote for whoever won their state and the biggest penalty any state puts on an elector for being a faithless elector is a misdemeanor $1,000 fine, that's it. Wow, does that make you feel secure? Good gracious, where is this thing going to end? Well, I got some good news for you, you say, Lon, please, okay, I got some good news for you. The good news is, Almighty God doesn't operate like the Electoral College, is that good news? Amen to that, when God makes you a promise, friends, when God makes you a promise, God makes you a promise, it's done, it's over, God's not going to be a faithless promissor. When he tells you something, he can never go back on it, he will never go back on it, all the tea in China, as my mom used to say, won't change it. And friends, God has promised us when we trust Jesus Christ, our eternal destiny is secure, you can't even mess it up if you want to, praise God for that, man, that's good news. Now if I have a suggestion for you, why don't you just simply believe God? There's a novel idea, why don't you just believe what God tells you? You're gumming this stuff up with your human logic and your human intellect and your human education and your human wisdom, don't gum this thing up and ruin it, don't listen to somebody who wants to put you on a Christian performance treadmill where you're trying to earn and keep your salvation every single day, that takes all the joy out of the Christian experience. It ruins what God created this relationship with Christ to be, because you can never perform good enough. You can never perform up to any kind of a standard that's acceptable. God didn't put you on a treadmill, don't put yourself on one. God put you on a grace system, friends, not a work system, and grace says, when you believe Jesus Christ, I will give you eternal life and you will never perish. Now let's believe God, what do you say? So that God doesn't have to write us and say, oh you foolish Americans, what's wrong with you people? Why don't you just believe what I tell you? And you know what I've learned? When you're not afraid to die, when you know you're eternally secure, when you know even if you were to pass away in the middle of the worst day in your whole life, you're secure. Friends when you're not afraid to die, you're not afraid to live. And that's what God's after. He wants us to live with gusto for Jesus Christ, but you can't live like that until you're sure that your destiny is settled. And that's why God thinks this is so important, it's why we spent two weeks on it, and I hope you'll walk out of here convinced and it'll change your life. Let's pray. Father, thanks for teaching us from the Bible today. Thanks for creating a system for us to get to heaven that is foolproof, that we can't even mess up. Lord, we need that and we thank you for that, and my prayer is that you would help us in simple childlike faith just to believe what you tell us and to begin enjoying being on a grace system. Lord, for people who are here, even followers of Christ who are on performance treadmills, who have put themselves on a workspace system in their Christian experience, God, I pray that you would liberate them today, that you would open the prison gates and help them walk out today because you didn't create the Christian experience to be a treadmill. You created it to be freedom. And God, thanks for making us free, free to live, free to take risks, free to love, free to enjoy life because we are secure in Jesus Christ. Help us believe that and may it change the way we live Monday to Saturday. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]