Preserving Grace: Can We Lose Our Salvation?

Coming up next on Renewing Your Mind... Well, we come to a very exciting part of our series. We come to the truth of the preserving grace of God. Sometimes we call it the eternal security of the believer.

Historically it's been called the perseverance of the saints, which is really the perseverance of the Spirit in the saints. But this truth so sweetens the pot. Perhaps no truth so sweetens all the other truths as this truth. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, the great Baptist preacher in the 19th century, testified that before he became a believer that he hesitated to give his life to Christ. And the reason was he was not persuaded that he could remain faithful, that if he would commit himself to Christ, he questioned himself whether he could remain in the faith, whether he could remain faithful. And so he feared making this fundamental commitment of his life to Christ lest he later fall away. And he had seen others that he thought were Christians fall away.

So he didn't want to be one more hypocrite, quote unquote. And so he said that he kept himself at a distance until that time he came to understand this truth and he said it was like God was baiting the hook to draw him in to Christ. In Spurgeon's own words, Spurgeon said that he found the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer, the preserving grace of God to be irresistible. Spurgeon said, quote, when I heard it said that the Lord would keep his people right to the end. I must confess that the doctrine of the final preservation of the saints was a bait that my soul could not resist.

I thought it was a sort of life insurance, an insurance of my character, an insurance of my soul, an insurance of my eternal destiny. I knew that I could not keep myself, but if Christ promised to keep me, then I should be safe forever. And then he went on to say, I longed and prayed to find Christ because I knew that if I found Him, He would not give me a temporary salvation such as some preach, but He would give to me eternal life and I would never be lost. And as the gospel was preached to him as a teenage boy, he came to the saving knowledge of Christ and part of what drew him to the Lord and encouraged his own heart, give your life to Christ, is that I knew if I gave my life to Christ, He would hold on to me forever. And it would not be a matter of me having to hold on to Him.

He would hold on to me and I would never be lost. So that's what I want us to look at in John's gospel. But as we transition into this, let me ask you these questions. What good is it to be chosen by the Father if in the end you die lost? What good is it to be redeemed by the Son upon the cross if in the end you could fall away?

What good is it to be effectually called by the Spirit if in the end you die lost? No, it's this truth that makes the doctrine of election so sweet. It is this truth that makes definite atonement so glorious. It is this truth that makes the truth of the new birth something to be so excited about in our hearts that we shall never, never perish. Come with me to John chapter 3 and verse 15, and I want you to see first, eternal life. This is the first time in John's gospel that this phrase is used, eternal life.

And here is the preserving grace of God in the life that He gives to us. It's not temporal life. It's not 10-year life.

It's not 20-year life. He gives to us eternal life. And let me tell you, what's settled for eternity cannot be undone within time. It is eternal life that He has given to us. Look at John 3 and verse 15. We read, so that whoever believes will in Him, referring to Christ, have eternal life.

Now, I want to draw out several things. First of all, the verb have. That's in the present tense, not will have, but in Him have eternal life. When does someone receive eternal life? Well, some people think that once I get to heaven, if I can just hang in there until I get to heaven, if I can just remain saved until I get to heaven, then God will close the door behind me, lock the door, and I can wipe the sweat from my brow and exhale and go, I made it. Now, I begin eternal life.

A lot of people live their Christian life with that misunderstanding. No, eternal life does not begin when you go to heaven. Eternal life begins the moment you believe in Jesus Christ.

That is a tremendous truth. This verse says that whoever believes will in Him have right now, present tense, present possession, will have eternal life. If you have truly believed in Jesus Christ, you are the possessor of the gift of eternal life. Sometimes people think of salvation as getting man out of hell and into heaven, and that is true, but it is also getting God out of heaven and into man. That's what eternal life is. The life of the eternities to come has already entered into my heart. Now, notice the last two words, eternal life, will in Him have eternal life.

Now, the adjective is eternal. The noun is life, and those who have a mere existence, a mere empty, hollow, shallow life that is devoid of any reality, when you believe upon Christ, you receive life. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And when you receive Christ, you receive life.

You begin to live for the very first time. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly. What kind of life is it that He's given to us? Well, it's obvious from this text, eternal life. That little modifier, eternal, is used 17 times in John's gospel and always in connection with life, eternal life, eternal life. Now, what does this mean, eternal life? It means two things. First of all, it speaks to the quality of life.

Second of all, the duration of life. First, it refers to the quality of life that we have come to receive. And literally, this means life of the age to come. In other words, what we will experience in heaven one day in the very presence of God has already been deposited down in my heart.

Listen, heaven has come to us long before we ever go to heaven. Eternal life, life of the ages to come, meaning it's not a life like anything this world has to offer. It's not a life like anything that is the result of this world system. It's an out of this world kind of life that we have come to experience. It is eternal life.

It is of a totally different quality than anything this present age can give. So it speaks, first of all, to the quality of life, unlike anything this world has to offer us. But second, it also speaks to the duration of life. The word eternal does speak of that which belongs to eternity. Eternal life means a life that will go on throughout eternity.

Well, if we have come to receive eternal life right now, that means we're eternally secure forever in the Lord Jesus Christ. God will never give eternal life and then take it back. This is irrevocable.

This can never be reversed. Once we have received eternal life, it is ours both through time and eternity. And so that which is settled for eternity can never be undone within time. He will go on to say the very same thing at the end of this chapter, John 3 verse 36, He who believes in the Son has, present tense verb, has eternal life. I want to say again, I say this to your encouragement, if you have believed upon Jesus Christ with true saving faith, you have already come to receive eternal life and the life of the ages to come already is dwelling within your soul. And what is it to believe upon Christ? Well, it involves the mind, it involves the heart, and it involves the will.

Let's just talk about this for a second. With the mind, we must know the truth of the gospel and we must know our lost condition before God. Come to the realization no one can be saved until they know they're lost. And with the mind to know basically this, that He is a great Savior and I'm a great sinner. John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace began to lose his mind toward the end of his life and he was at times embarrassingly searching for information that was elusive to him in conversations. And as he would speak to others, he would say, I can tell you, I can always remember this, He is a great Savior and I'm a great sinner.

Oh, may we never lose sight of that. So with the mind to know the terms of the gospel, that Christ has died for sinners, He's been raised from the dead, He offers Himself to those who will commit their life to Him. Second, with the affections, with the heart, one is persuaded of the truthfulness of the gospel and the truthfulness of the Spirit convicting my heart that I'm in need of Christ and then with the will for there to be a decisive choice of the will whereby I surrender my life to Jesus Christ, whereby I submit myself to the lordship of Christ, I repent of my sins and I give myself completely to Jesus Christ. That is saving faith. And he says, the one who believes in the Son has eternal life. I trust that you have come to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just believe that He existed 2,000 years ago, came to this earth. Not just to believe the maps in the back of your Bible, but to actually surrender and commit your life to Jesus Christ.

Just like when you stood before the church when you were married, you walked into that church and your wife came down the aisle, your wife-to-be, and there came a point where you pledged yourself to her and she pledged herself to you and the knot was tied and there was a binding commitment that you entered into. That's what it is to exercise saving faith, to commit yourself to the saving arms of Jesus Christ. Let's continue to look. Not only do we receive eternal life, so in a sense we don't even need to look at any other verses.

This is it. We have eternal life right now. But notice in John 3.16, the second heading, never perish. This says that we will never suffer destruction.

For God so loved the world, John 3.16, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Now, what part of not perish can we not understand? To not perish means to never be banished from the love of God, to never dwell again under the wrath of God.

It's the antithesis of suffering eternal destruction in a real place called hell. To never perish means to never suffer under the wrath of God. And this text says that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. There are no exceptions to that. There's no fine print to that verse.

There are no exception clauses to this. If you have surrendered your life to Christ and entrusted yourself to Him, I can tell you on the authority of the Word of God that you will never, never, never ever perish or suffer destruction. That's what the preserving grace of God is. It's much pictured like Noah entering the ark, and the ark is a picture of Christ, we know, from 1 Peter 3.

Noah fell down many times in the ark, but he never once fell out of the ark. And there are many times in our Christian lives in which we will stumble and trip, but we will never fall out of Christ. Now, the Bible says, the steps of a righteous man are ordained by the Lord, and he delights in his way. Though he falls, he shall not be hurled headlong because the Lord is the one who holds his hand. I have been young and now I'm old, yet I've not yet seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. It's the Lord who holds onto us, and the Lord will never release His grip upon our lives. So, eternal life, never perish.

Number three, never thirst. Come with me to John chapter 4 and verse 14, and we're just laying one text upon another and putting our arms around all of these to show that they all speak with one voice. They all say the same thing, that there is the preservation of the saints by the eternal security they have in Christ. John 4 verse 14, Jesus is the speaker. He is speaking to the woman at the well, and she has said to Him, sir, give me this water, or she will shortly, excuse me. And notice verse 13, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. He's referencing the physical water. When you drink of physical water, you thirst, and then your thirst is quenched for a short period of time, and then you have to drink some more water because you're thirsty again, and it's quenched and on and on and on. You drink, and you're satisfied, drink, and then need to drink again.

But verse 14, Jesus said, is totally different spiritually. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. Implied in that, if you think about it, is the eternal security of the believer, that not in time nor in eternity, not now or forever, will you ever thirst in your soul again.

Spurgeon has preached a sermon entitled The Sip That Satisfies, and he says, one sip of this water and you will never thirst again. He alone satisfies the human heart. He alone fulfills us.

He alone quenches the longings and the thirsts of our heart. A. W. Pink writes, never thirst argues the eternal salvation of the recipient. Were it possible for a believer to forfeit salvation through unworthiness, this verse would not be true. For every lost soul will thirst, thirst forever in hell, close quote. The fact that we will never thirst means that we'll never be lost, means that we will never be forsaken of the Lord. Again, this is the eternal security of the believer.

Let me give you one more. Come to John chapter 5 verse 24, and this fourth heading is never condemned. Never perish, never thirst, never condemned.

In John 5 verse 24, Jesus again, the speaker, we've already looked at this text, but let's look at it in this light of the preserving grace of God. Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has, present tense, has eternal life. That means everlasting life.

That means never ending life, and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life. Do you see those words, does not come into judgment? Now, before we were saved, we were under condemnation.

We were under a state of wrath. Romans 1 verse 18 speaks of that we are all under the wrath of God. But Romans 8 one says, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, this is an irrevocable declaration that the Lord has made in justification by which he has imputed the perfect righteousness of Christ to our account. He's reckoned the righteousness of Christ to our account. It can never be backed out of our account in heaven.

It can never be written off the books. It is once and for all settled in heaven, this state of never entering into condemnation again. John 3 verse 18 says, he who believes in him is not judged. Romans 8 23 says, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns?

It's a rhetorical question, the answer of which is no one. God is the one who has justified us through our faith in Christ. No one can condemn us. And so this is a finished transaction, never to be reversed. We'll never go back into a state of condemnation again. We are eternally secure in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think this is a great place for us to bring to conclusion this session, and we'll pick it up at this point for our next session. But let me just conclude by saying, as we have given our lives to Christ, this enables us to enjoy being saved. If I thought that I could lose my salvation, I want to tell you, I'd be scared to come out of my closet each day. I'd be scared to come out of my bedroom. I would, I would live with such fear and terror that I would somehow some way do something that would forfeit the saving grace in my life. But the fact that I'm eternally secure, you know what that does?

It does the very opposite. That propels me out into the world, knowing that I'm held secure by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is holding on to me, and I will never slip through His fingers. What boldness, what confidence, what assurance this gives us as we follow the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want to encourage you and remind you as you have given your life to Him, rest in His love and go forward into this world fully confident that He holds you in the grip of His hands and in the grip of His grace, and He will never relinquish that hold on your life. You know, in hearing Dr. Stephen Lawson explain that, it leaves us with a question, how do we want to live?

Do we want to live in fear that God will somehow lose His grip on us, or do we want to live in confidence that He who began a good work in us will carry it to completion? It's been a great privilege to feature Dr. Lawson here on Renewing Your Mind this week as we look at the doctrines of grace in John. We're making the entire series available to you today. You can request the two-DVD set for a donation of any amount when you contact us online at renewingyourmind.org, or you can call us with your gift. Our phone number is 800-435-4343. Dr. Lawson taught this series in 12 parts and each session is about 24 minutes.

They work very well for a series in your Sunday school class at church or a small group meeting in your home. So again, request the doctrines of grace in John for your gift of any amount. Our number again is 800-435-4343.

Or if you prefer to make your request online, our web address is renewingyourmind.org. Well again, we hope that you have been encouraged by what you heard today from Dr. Lawson, and we have more tomorrow, so we hope you'll join us. And here's a portion of what we'll hear. When sin moved into the temple, the Holy Spirit moved out, and the glory of God moved out. But now, as the Spirit has come to indwell us, when sin comes into our life, He's not leaving. He's not moving out. You know what He's going to do? He's going to clean house. The Holy Spirit will be with you forever. That's Friday, here on Renewing Your Mind. God bless you. God bless you.