It is easy for a pastor to assume that his church members all believe the cardinal doctrines of that church. For example, he might think that everyone is expecting the imminent return of Christ, and everyone is convinced of the absolute sovereignty of God. Everyone believes in a literal devil and a literal hell. He might also assume that they understand those doctrines, and that most could share them with others. But these pastoral assumptions could eventually bring about the destruction of that church. As new members join, they may not believe those doctrines, and perhaps they may even deny them when talking with other members. And then new believers, as the future of that church, must be taught those doctrines from scratch. How will they learn them, if they are not taught. And how shall they hear without a teacher?
Take for example the doctrine of the eternal security of the regenerated soul. It is such a foundational principle, that it may not be taught as often as it should. It may be assumed: “Everyone knows that the life which Christ gives to the believer is eternal.” The problem is: not everyone does know that. In fact, the majority of professing Christendom is not convinced of eternal security. And so Paul told Timothy, “Preach the word (the whole counsel of God); be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and DOCTRINE. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” – Like the fable of “falling from grace.”
I have just finished reading a book by one of Canada’s greatest Baptist preachers – T.T. Shields. My approach to this subject of eternal security grew out of a few comments made by this man. Let’s consider several emblems of salvation that God has given to us for this Christ-glorifying doctrine.
Before we go there, I’d like to remind you of the obvious.
There is our opening scripture for example: The life which the Saviour gives to the sheep which God the Father has given to him, is eternal. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish…” And, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, what whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” “He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life,” and in contrast to him or her, “he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” The Lord Jesus said: “This is the will of him that sent me (it is the will of God) that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” In prayer, the Son of God thanked the Father, saying, “thou has given (me) power over all flesh, that (I) should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given (me.)” To the Romans Paul wrote: “As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
I could multiply verses like these, but it would occupy too much of our time this afternoon. Yet as I bring these scriptures to your attention, I ask you two questions: Does “eternal” really mean “for ever?” Does “ever lasting” mean what it appears to mean? You may think I’ve lost my mind, but I ask those questions because I have had people deny the obvious. I have heard people say that “eternal” refers to a long, but limited stretch of time – “eons of time.” That is a lie coming from the heart of Satan himself. It is very much like what the Devil asked Eve – “Yea, hath God said that he is giving His elect never-ending eternal life?” Like the question the serpent posed to Eve, that question attacks the very heart of salvation, it attacks the grace of God; it attacks the veracity – the honesty – of the Person of Christ. In salvation, the life which Christ gives to the sin-dead soul will stretch throughout eternity. It is much more than this, but it is eternal. Jesus said, “I am come that (my sheep) might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Now, let us consider a few of those emblems that I promised you.
Obviously, from the previous scriptures, salvation involves LIFE; salvation IS life.
And this eternal life is the gift of God; it is imparted by the Holy Spirit. It is something given to the sinner which that sinner did not have before. It is absolutely new to him. As I tried to say last week, when we come into this world, we do so spiritually still-born. We have physical life, but that is not life worthy of fellowship with God, because it is poisoned with sin. Salvation provides special and essential life, and it comes out of the life of God’s sacrifice, the Lord Jesus. It is His life, and the regenerated sinner can receive it only by faith. As I say, that life comes from God – but not as a newly created principle – it is as a part of Jehovah himself. Whatever life may be in the Lord, that is the life which is bestowed upon all who trust the Saviour. That life not only means “endlessness duration,” but much, much more. It is a life of quality even more than it is a life of quantity. It is life “more abundant” than anything found naturally on earth. And for the sake of this message it is eternal; it is as everlasting as God Himself.
Of course, there are different kinds of life all around us, and those different lives extend themselves differently. For example, there are creatures that are old with the passing of twelve months. There are insects which live and die within a few days, but still, they have life for a little while. There are living things which are still relatively young after passing a full century on our calendars. And again, the quality of each of those lives are different. Can a fish enjoy a sunset or the smell of a rose? Does the squirrel enjoy either of those? I don’t know. But each of those creatures have life – in contrast to inanimate objects like stones and mail boxes.
The born-again Christian has a kind of life which is superior to that of the two-hundred year old tortoise and the thousand year-old California Redwood. It is God’s life in us, and everything that “life” means to Jehovah, we share – to a tiny degree. And since it comes from God, the very word “life” demands the adjective “eternal.” Of course – what we have been given is “everlasting life.”
And how did we receive that everlasting life? We were BORN AGAIN with it as CHILDREN OF GOD.
Ten times the New Testament speaks about “children of God,” describing God’s saints as His offspring. Romans 8:16 – “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Galatians 3:26 – “Ye (saints) are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. I John 3:10 – “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” Do you love the brethren?
Sadly, there are millions of professing Christians, who believe that even the children of God can sin so wickedly that they can lose their filial relationship with God; they can lose their salvation. As a result there are some people who claim to have been “saved” again and again, dozens of times. But the idea is as unreasonable as it is unbiblical.
Pastor Shields described talking with a woman who was worried that she had lost the salvation she had earlier. Just then the woman’s little girl ran through the living room, giving the preacher an illustration. He asked the woman, “What if you gave your daughter some little chore to do, to which she said she would. But then later you discovered she hadn’t done it. What if when you in asking her a second time she refused; she refused with vigor, stomping her foot. Of course you would spank her and send her to her room to think about her rebellious attitude. The preacher then asked, “At that point, whose child would she be? You might say she was the child of your husband. But wouldn’t she still be your little girl?” The sin and rebellion of the child, doesn’t destroy the basic relationship she has with her parent. Brother Shields went on to say that the Lord may consider sinning Christians to be “naughty,” but they are still His naughty children.
When we are born again by the power of divine life, we become the very children of God. The life of God the Father is given to us, and furthermore, we are even adopted by the Father. It is inconceivable that we could ever be the children of any other spiritual father. When Jesus said to the wicked Pharisees, “ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do,” he was not talking to His disciples. Those who have been begotten again by the Word of God – which liveth and abideth for ever – are given a different nature from the children of the devil, and they, too, will live and abide forever.
Now consider something else… Paul describes our salvation using the emblem of a BODY.
Let’s not get into all the interesting theology involved in this. Let’s try to stay nice and simple for a moment. I Corinthians 6:15 – “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ.” Writing to Christians, Paul says that our bodies, referring to each of us, are parts the body of Christ. I Corinthians 12:12 – “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” Ephesians 5:30 – “We (saints) are members of (Christ’s) body, of his flesh and of his bones.”
Paul’s primary point in I Corinthians is that as members of Christ’s body we are linked to each other. And the ear can’t boast of being more important than the finger or the eye. And the eye can’t say that it is more vital to the body than the leg. “Hey everyone, let’s work together here as the cohesive unit that we are in Christ.” In his analogy, Paul doesn’t mention several other body parts, including the heart and the head. Cut off a finger or pluck out an eye and that body will continue to live – although somewhat handicapped. On the other hand, if we cut off the head or rip out the heart, that body will die. But Paul doesn’t mention cutting of any body parts. It is not a part of his illustration.
Would it be a grave mistake for me to say that the head of this body or the heart of this body is the Saviour? In salvation, you and I have life because we are attached to the beating heart of Christ, and we reap the blessing of His saving blood flowing through us. You can look at that as an allegory, but it is much more than that – it is a spiritual fact. Being attached to Christ – whether as a finger or the middle toe of His left foot – you possess the same life as the head, or the heart, of this spiritual body. Christ died physically on the cross for your salvation, but as the Son of God He is eternal and cannot die. And as a part of Him, through God’s grace, we have been given the same kind of life as the Head of this magnificent body.
Going a bit farther, think about scriptures which refer to believers as PLANTS and BRANCHES.
In Matthew 15, the Lord Jesus was teaching some material which caused a bit of consternation in the crowd. “Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone” – or in other words, don’t worry about their objections. Notice that Jesus spoke of the Pharisees in a negative way – plants which the Heavenly Father had not planted. Those plants shall be rooted up, like weeds. I know that sometimes this kind of logic is not acceptable, but can’t we infer that the plants which the heavenly Father has deliberately planted will not be rooted up?
Pastor Shields made a statement I thoroughly enjoyed in this regard. He said, “There are some people who imagine that Christians are annuals, that they have to be planted again and again and again. I believe they are perennials. I believe they live on and on.”
In my study I turned to the last few verses of Psalm 92, but my heart forces me to begin at the beginning. The Psalmist says, “It is a GOOD thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night… For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.” Verse 12 of that Psalm says, “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” The saint of God is someone who has been planted, flourishing in the temple of the Lord. And he will be producing fruit for the Lord’s storehouses from the day of his salvation through his old age. He is planted on the rock. The Lord is our rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. We can rely on Christ’s protection, His care and His promises of ETERNAL life.
And then we come to the illustration in John’s 15th chapter – the vine and the branches. There are branches which are in, or attached, to the vine, and they produce fruit for the glory of vine. But sadly there are branches which only appear to be in the vine, they are produce-less. By their lack of fruit they prove themselves to be lifeless, so they will be gathered and cast into the fire. Those branches which are attached, but are not a fruitful as they ought to be, may be pruned, but they still have the life of the vine within them.
As long as the vine has life, the branches, which prove themselves to be a part of the vine, have the same life. And what kind of life does this Divine vine possess? Isn’t it eternal life?
Out of several others, let me leave you with one more emblem: LIVING STONES.
Please turn to Ephesians 2 – that eloquent statement about salvation – its definition, necessity and its results. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; – a reference to the new birth. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) Please explain to me how salvation by God’s grace can end in the failure of eventual damnation? “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Again, how can saved sinners, already raised up into heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ever be lost? “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Now skip down to verse 19 – “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
We, as “living stones” are built up into an holy temple unto the Lord. We all have our place, according to the divine plan, in the divine purpose. As a divine type or picture of this, do you remember how Solomon’s temple was built? “And the house, when it was in building was built of stone made ready before it was brought hither; so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.” The first temple, designed by David, Jesus’ glorious predecessor and type, had every stone preplanned, precut and identified for placement in the final edifice. In the months of actual assembly the construction was only a matter of setting each prepared piece into place.
And the same is true of God’s spiritual temple. The great Architect of this world is building a spiritual temple. Christ is the foundation, and every stone in that building is set in place relative to that foundation. Each one has his or her particular spot, and when we are eventually swung into position and placed upon that Foundation, we become part of a living wall. I don’t believe that the combined powers of hell could bring down that glorious edifice. It is eternal because the foundation is the eternal Son of God.
Salvation is the great work of God from beginning to end, like the construction of a magnificent temple. It was designed before the foundation of the earth, with each piece chosen and marked to become a part of the completed building at the proper time and in the proper order. Even the smallest providential details were ironed out by the Holy Spirit prior to the day of construction. Not a single living stone will be missing. No marked piece will be missed or rejected or become corrupt over time. Salvation, however you want to illustrate it, is eternal because its Architect is eternal and its purpose is eternal.
The Lord Jesus has promised, “I give unto them ETERNAL life and they shall NEVER perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Amen?