R691 Once Saved Always Saved

We all could use some encouragement. Let's find it together today in the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton. In just a few moments, Dr. Don's headed to Hebrews chapter 6 to begin our study today, but right now there is such an amazing rush on our website. We're grateful to hear from you. It's all about this wonderful 52-week leather devotional called The Spirit of God Within You.

There's also a wonderful music CD goes with it. If you're not aware of it, go to our website and get the details. Our website's T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's T-E-W, like T for the E, encouraging W, or T-E-W online dot O-R-G. You'll find not only that resource, but many opportunities, including the Connect for Prayer and more.

That's at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Now today's message, Once Saved, Always Saved, with Dr. Don Wilton. My friends, while you're opening God's Word, let me tell you that I am going to be sharing with you something today from the Word of God that will set you free. It's not something that I can say to you. In fact, the things of which we speak from God's Word this morning are going to come from the Word of God. I wish that I could say these things to you, but I'm going to guarantee you that if you open your heart and you listen, and you allow God by His Spirit to minister to you, that you would be set free because of what God would say to your heart today. Our subject is one of the most remarkable subjects.

Carries, I don't know why, carries some of the greatest questions that have ever been asked. Our subject today is Once Saved, Always Saved. Now my friends, before we get into the Word of God, I want to say this. I know that there are those who worship with us today, perhaps many, who have a real struggle with your own salvation. In fact, the Bible says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. But you rarely have struggled with the matter of whether or not you are indeed saved.

Now I want to make a confession to you. I too have struggled with that. The reason why we struggle with that is because we are sinners. Sin rears its ugly head and creates an imbalance. It upsets the balance that God gives to us through His Word. Sin puts us out of joint, gets us offline, takes our eyes off center, causes us to look away from the cross. And all of us are sinners. We know that sin in the life of a believer will rob that person of the joy of their salvation. But sin in the life of an unbeliever will rob that person of their salvation.

Now the Bible speaks, I believe, very clearly to the subject. There are people here today who would say to me, pastor, you know, I remember when I made a decision for Jesus Christ. Now that might have been at vacation Bible school, might have been on that youth choir trip or on a mission trip or at a crusade, might have been in a revival service, might have been at home, on your way to school.

Maybe it was in Vietnam while you were on the front line. But you remember making a decision. But since the time that you made that decision and looking back in hindsight, you ask this question, based upon the sin that I have committed in my life since I gave my life to Jesus, how is it possible for me to still be a saved person? Now that's a good question.

That's a very good question. I'm going to give to you an illustration and then we're going to go to the Word of God. I am my Father's Son. You could have all kinds of paternity tests, DNA.

You could go and do all kinds of inquiries. I promise you, you're going to come back to the same set of, I am my Father's Son. My Father's name is John Wilton. My mother and father have told me I'm my Father's Son. I've been told I have some mannerisms of my dad, good and bad. All the evidence points, I know I'm my Father's Son.

But let's just assume that sadly I fell out of fellowship with my father and that breaking of our fellowship rarely became so serious that I never wanted to see him again. So I moved to China. When I got to China, I took plastic surgery and I changed my features so that I could look like one of the Chinese people. I never spoke another word of English.

I only spoke Chinese. I lived the rest of my life in China. I die in China and I never talk to my father again.

Here's the question. Was there ever a point during that process that I ever ceased being my Father's Son? Is there anything that I could have done to have quit being my Father's Son?

I could have done whatever I wanted to. I will always be my Father's Son. Now, because of the tragedy of these circumstances, I have lost out on a Father-Son relationship.

I've got a hole in my heart. I've had to deal with anger. I've never been able to enjoy the counsel of my daddy. I haven't been able to turn to him and talk to him and gain from his wisdom.

I haven't had grandpa around. I don't have all those wonderful benefits that we have through our fathers. But he's still my father. You see, my friends, the operative question is not whether or not I am capable of severing my relationship as a son to a father.

Here's the question. Was I my father's son to begin with? You better listen carefully. The question that God asks of us and that we need to ask of ourselves is this. Not whether or not I can lose my salvation, but whether or not I was saved to begin with. Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 6 and I'm going to begin at verse 9. Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case, things that accompany salvation.

Now I want you to notice from this point all the phraseology that comes about. We're going to talk about inheritance, the promises of God. We're going to talk about the oath of God, the covenant of God, the fact that God cannot lie.

It's impossible that He is unchangeable. We're going to talk about the anchor for our soul, which is firm and secure. We're going to talk about the inner sanctuary of God's grace, which has been made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His Son. Verse 10, God is not unjust.

He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what God has promised. When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument, because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised.

He confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled from sin in order to take hold of the hope the salvation offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus Christ, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

He has become our high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Once saved, always saved. There are two ways to become lost. Number one, to be born, because you're born lost.

That's your Adamic nature. Number two, to not be born again. Jesus said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you need to be born again. Nicodemus said, excuse me. You want me to enter the second time into my mother's womb and be born?

Jesus said, that's not what I'm talking about. First time you were born was of water. In order to be saved, you need to be born. You need to be born again of the spirit of the living God.

How do you become lost? Number one, by being born. Number two, by not being born again. So the question is this. What are the four requirements to be saved?

I want to share those with you. Here's what the Bible says you need to do in order to come to know Jesus Christ. Number one, you need to repent of your sin. You will never be saved unless you repent of your sin. Repentance is the absolute requirement of God because repentance is my acknowledgement that I'm a sinner. I am agreeing with God concerning his righteousness when I repent of my sin. I am agreeing with God in the willing sacrifice of Jesus because he died for my sin.

Bible says repent and be converted in order that your sin may be blotted out. Number two, second requirement is confess your sin to Jesus. Why do Jesus? Because Jesus is the one who on our behalf entered the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus Christ is our high priest. The third requirement of salvation is that we believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead. That's what Paul tells us in Romans. He says if you confess, believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth and what you need to believe is the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. Number four, you need to trust in him by faith. Now that's the part that I like. This is the part that suits me if you'll beg my pardon.

I tell you why, because faith tells me, Don Wilton, you can give it your best jolly well try that you've ever jolly well made. You can do everything you jolly well want to to try and understand God, but you are never going to completely understand everything about God. I don't understand all these things. I'm not even quite sure that I fully understand how that God was in Christ reconciling the world himself.

I don't understand how that God raised Jesus from the dead. I'm a human being, but I believe in it. I have faith in that. I'm willing to take God at his word.

All right, here's the question. Are you willing to take God at his word, to trust him? Say, Lord, I entrust my life to you, come into my life. Now, if you've done that, and God by his Spirit has saved you, and he has forgiven you, I'm going to tell you on the authority of God's word, my friend, you can never lose that salvation. There are five guarantees, I believe in Scripture, concerning once saved, always saved. I'm going to give them to you, and then I'm going to give you some Scripture. Number one, guarantee number one, the guarantee of God's word. Somebody ever comes and says to you, what evidence have you got? You can't lose your salvation.

I'm giving you five. Each one of these, by the way, is a Bible series on its own, but I'm trying to get it into one message. Number one, the guarantee of the word of God, this precious book, the Bible. I love this Bible, but you know, you may have a small Bible or a Bible with lots of notes in it or a black Bible or a blue Bible. It's not the point, folks.

Here's the point. God's word. You see, the word of God is the complete revelation of God in Christ Jesus. There is nothing else that can be said. That's why, folks, I do not believe that today people can come and say that I've got the gift of revelation.

No, you don't. God has given to us already the full completeness of his revelation. It's right here. This is God's infallible, inerrant word. It is the living word of God. This is God's word.

You're going to say to me today, what's the significance of that? Well, folks, if I'm going to know whether I'm going to heaven or hell, I want some kind of authority, thank you very much. I don't want any theologian giving me his opinion, I beg your pardon. I don't want any brilliant man telling me what he thinks. I want to go to the root.

I want a guarantee from the word of God. Are you listening today? Wow, we are listening. Forgive the interruption, Dr. Don Insist. I take a moment to let you know we would love to pray with you. We are listening to you as well. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673.

You'll find that and other ways to connect on our website as well at TEWOnline.org. Now back to today's great Bible teaching from Dr. Don Wilton. Number two, second guarantee of one saved, always saved is the certainty of God's promises. Well, you go back into Genesis and we were to take a little journey.

I'll tell you what would happen, folks. If I preached a series on the promises of God in Scripture, I will guarantee you we would have so many promises that when I am 95 years of age, I promise you I'll get up here with my walking stick and I'll get into the pulpit and I will say to you, congregation, turn in your Bibles. We'll probably be in Hosea or Isaiah or maybe we might have made it to Malachi and I'll say today we're gonna look at number 6034 promise in the Word of God.

I still wouldn't even begun to scratch it because God's Word is filled with promises. God is the God of covenant. Covenant and promise, the guarantee of God, is intrinsic, listen to this, in the character of God.

God's character and His holiness is within itself the certainty of His promise. He's the same yesterday and today and forever. He's unchangeable, all powerful, doesn't go anywhere, doesn't give things a second thought. He's already decided it from before the foundation of the world. God is in control. He's sovereign. He's alpha and omega, beginning and end.

He's the first and the last. How do I know that I'm saved? Forever. The guarantee of God's Word, the certainty of God's promise. Number three, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, listen carefully to this, beloved friends. When Jesus died upon the cross, what took place upon that cross? I can't wait for Easter Sunday, because come Easter Sunday, I always preach a message on the resurrection that you can take to the bank.

Doesn't matter what series I'm in. Doesn't matter where we are when it comes to that Easter Sunday. I want to talk about the empty tomb, don't you?

Well, let me tell you what happened on that day, folks. When Jesus hung upon that cross, what was the one statement that gets to me more than anything else when Jesus said, it is finished? What was he referring to? He was referring to the finished work of the cross as it pertains to all that is necessary that needs to be done concerning my sinfulness. God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. How is it made possible that I am reconciled to God the Father? It is through the Son.

How was that made possible? Through the death of Jesus upon the cross, where He gave His blood. He shed His blood. He died. What happened when Jesus died? He took upon Himself the sin of the world. It was so troublesome. It was so awesome.

It was so powerful. He cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? And He gave up His Spirit. And when Jesus died, the sin of the world died with Him. And when I do four things, my friends, when I repent of my sin and confess them to Jesus and believe that God raised Him from the dead and trust in Him by faith, I receive time past in time present what God has already done for me in Christ Jesus. It doesn't need to be done.

It's already done. And so what happens when I receive forgiveness of sin? Well, Jesus tells us about that Himself. He said, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take your sin and I'm gonna cast it as far as the east is from the west and remember it no more. And I'll tell you what I would like to do, folks. I'd like to get into a jet aircraft and fly out west in order to find east.

But I want you to know, my friend, as far as the east is from the west, it means that those two will never meet. In other words, here's what Jesus said. He said, I will take your sin, I will cast them as far as the east is from the west, and I will remember them no more. I have this kind of feeling that when I come into heaven, I want to walk up to my Savior and begin to apologizing to Him.

Lord, if I could just have a word with you, I've just arrived in heaven. You know, I've got to tell you again, I'm so sorry that I stole that money and Jesus is gonna look at me and say, what money? Well, Lord, I want you to know I murdered that man.

What murder? Lord, I know that I repented of my sin and confess that to you, but I committed adultery. I was unfaithful to my spouse. What unfaithfulness are you talking about? You see, my friends, as human beings, we struggle with that, don't we? We have great difficulty. You get a couple that's been married for eight years and in the eighth year of their marriage, they have a tiff.

I mean, they have a real tiff. I mean, they just go at each other and they have such a tiff that they really get on one another and one of them says something real hurtful and it's the most painful thing in the world and the offending party finally comes back after a day or a week or a month and goes to that spouse that's been offended and says, honey, I don't know what overcame me. Please, I will do anything. Would you forgive me for what I did? And honey says, it's okay, honey. Let me tell you. No, please, would you? Don't worry about a thing.

Go get a peanut butter sandwich. You're okay. I forgive you absolutely completely and ten years later, they have another tiff and the honey that forgave looks to the honey that was forgiven and says, you remember what you did, you sorry son of a seafaring catfish?

And catfish says, what are you talking about? And the one who forgave said, you remember what you did to me in the eighth year of our marriage? But I thought you forgave me. Well, I did, but you're not gonna get away with it.

You're not gonna do that again. You see, folks, we struggle with that. That's a constant battle, isn't it? Not with God. That's not a battle God has. That's why what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is all about is the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

It's finished. Number four, fourth guarantee, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Folks, here's what happens when I give my life to Jesus Christ, when I repent of my sin and confess my sin to Jesus, when I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, when I trust Him by faith, I am indwelt by the Spirit of God. Now, folks, I don't have time to do any teaching on the Spirit of God today accepting to say to you that the Spirit of God has many functions, but the Spirit of God is the sanctifier. The Spirit of God is the sensitizer.

It doesn't mean that when I accept Christ that I no longer sin, but because I am indwelt by the Spirit of God, I am sanctified unto the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and I am sensitized to sin, which seeks to easily destroy me and separate me from the love of God. The Spirit of God goes to work. One of the greatest things about becoming a believer is that I'm not on my own anymore. I am indwelt by the Spirit of the living God, and He is the enabler. He is the one who guarantees me.

He guards my heart. Number five, the imputed righteousness of God. You might say to me, Pastor, what in the world is that? Well, it's a huge subject, but let me just say to you that in 1517, Martin Luther precipitated the Protestant Reformation, nailed his 95 theses to the Nord-Wittenberg Castle in Germany, and the whole basic presupposition of everything that took place in the life of that great reformer centered around one phrase, the just shall live by faith. What that word is in the book of Romans, that word just there is tied into the justice of a just God, but it is also that which is made available to me, because when I give my heart to Jesus Christ, I not only see who God is, but I receive who God is. All that the Father has given to the Son is made available to me, and I am declared just. It's called the doctrine of justification.

You want a simple summary of that? It's just as if I had never sinned. Sometimes things seem too good to be true. Just as if we'd never sinned, it all starts with a decision that we have to make on our own. I pray that you would open your heart to what our pastor wants to share with us next.

This is Dr. Don Wilton. Are you ready? Would you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that Jesus loves me and that He died on a cross for me. Today, I repent of my sin, and I confess my sin to the Lord Jesus, and I give Him my heart and my life. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Amen. If you've prayed that prayer from your heart and you've given your life to Christ, I welcome you to the family of God. You are my brother, my sister in Christ.

Let's get engaged together because we are connected together forever as believers in Christ. If you just prayed with Dr. Wilton, we have wonderful resources free for you. If you gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life, call right now at 866-899-WORD.

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When things around you seem out of control, you can make a difference. Call today, 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. It's been a great day at the Encouraging Word, and there's another wonderful message. At the same time tomorrow, I hope you'll join us then. Between now and then, let's stay connected on our website, T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G or 866-899-WORD. ...