Eternal Security – Promise,
or Pipe-dream?
Missing Dimension’s recent reference to Richard Burkard’s article on the “Faith Equation” reinforced what
many of us realize all too well; the subject of grace, works and especially
eternal security (better know by some as “once saved, always saved”) is a topic
that just seems too elusive by its very nature to allow us to fully comprehend
it. I think Richard did a commendable
job of summarizing the subject, after exploring both sides of the issue, by
stating that “all
sides in the faith and salvation debate should agree on one thing - the truth
of Acts 4:12: “...There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we
must be saved, “than the name of Jesus Christ.”” But I do believe however, that
even though this is not the easiest issue in the world to understand, after all
is said and done and the pertinent scriptures are studied, there emerges a
clear teaching from the Bible on this subject.
Not long ago I stumbled across an article, written in 1934
by H. A. Ironside, that I would consider far and away
better than anything else I have ever read on this subject. This minister from the past seems to have
nailed down all the loose ends on this topic, and to have capably answered any
questions the doubter might have about whether the true Christian does indeed
have scriptural assurances that he will be in God’s kingdom, no matter what the
future holds. This article has clarified this subject for me as none other has
been able to do.
Could the doctrine of eternal security possibly be
true? Can a Christian take assurance,
once he has sincerely (not superficially) repented and accepted Christ as the
master of his life, that he indeed has eternal life locked in from that point
forward? If true, wouldn’t this news be
almost too good to be true? Think of the
peace of mind, the joy, the freedom to stop worrying about oneself and start loving
and serving others that such assurance would give the true believer! If you ask me, this is EXACTLY the kind of
assurance and joy and love that I believe God would like to see radiating from
each of his children!
What a far cry this would be from the kind of “peace” that
the Armstrong teachings delivered. Under
legalistic teachings such as most of us endured under the WCG, most of us
believed that we were only one slip away from losing our eternal life, especially
if that slip came at the wrong time, or involved the wrong sin (such as
challenging the authority or credibility of those over us – an especially
grievous sin). Peace of mind was what we
were striving for, but just couldn’t quite seem to get our arms around.
What about the instances of supposed Christians that we’ve
known or know about, who turned to a life of sin later on in their lives, you
might be asking? And
what about all those scriptures that seem to point to the dangers of falling
away from the truth? For example,
what about 2 Peter 2:20-22?
“For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world
through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again
entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the
beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy
commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the
true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit
again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”
Or what about Ezekiel 18:24?
“But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness,
and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the
wicked man does, shall he live?” Doesn’t
this verse sound like a person can turn from God and lose their salvation? And doesn’t Hebrews
6:4-6 seem to nail down the fact that one’s salvation is not assured?
“For it is impossible
for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
and
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God,
and the powers
of
the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they
crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
These scriptures and
many more are thoroughly addressed in this article. I think you’re going to really enjoy the
insights
that this man has regarding this subject.
ETERNAL SECURITY OF
THE BELIEVER
H.A. IRONSIDE
Revised Edition
FOREWORD
This brief work consists of a message delivered in the D. L.
Moody Memorial Church on a Lord’s Day morning and the substance of two Friday
meetings when questions were submitted and then answered from the platform.
Careful editing might have eliminated everything that looks like repetition.
But inasmuch as it is by constant re-affirmation that truth is lodged in the
mind and heart, I have not pruned the answers as much as I otherwise might
have. Let me say that my object was not controversy nor
the besting of an opponent, but rather the edification and enlightenment of the
people of God, so that the knowledge of the truth might deliver from legality
and give true liberty.
H. A. IRONSIDE /
Can
A Believer Ever Be Lost?
It has been announced that I will speak to you on a subject which has occasioned a good deal of controversy among the
people of God. I want to take as a starting point--not exactly as a text,
because we shall be looking at a good many Scriptures--Romans 8:38-39: “For I
am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This is the inspired answer to the question of verse 35:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” That is, once we have been
justified by faith, who is there, what power is there, that can separate from
the love of Christ? And the answer, how full, how clear, not a shadow, not a
doubt, not a question left, when the apostle says that neither death nor life
shall separate! Can you think of anything which is
neither included in death nor in life? Neither death nor life shall separate!
No unseen powers can separate the believer from Christ,
“neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers.” These terms are used again
and again in the New Testament, particularly in the Epistles, for angelic
hosts, good and evil. When our Savior rose from the dead He spoiled
principalities and powers, that is, He defeated all the hosts of evil led by
Satan; and so we may take it that the angels referred to here are good angels,
and the principalities and powers are possible evil angels. But there is
nothing that good angels would do and nothing that evil angels can do which
will result in the separation of the believer from Christ. And then further he
says, “neither things present nor things to come.”
Again let me put the question, Can you think of any experience
through which a believer might ever go which is neither a thing present nor a thing to come? And the Holy Ghost says that neither
things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of
Christ. As though that were not enough, He speaks in a more general way when He
says that neither “Height nor depth (nothing in heaven, nothing in hell), nor
any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It looks to me as though we are safe if we
are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Eternal Security: Its Meaning
When we speak of the eternal security of the believer, what
do we mean? We mean that once a poor sinner has been regenerated by the Word
and the Spirit of God, once he has received a new life and a new nature and has
been made partaker of the divine nature, once he has been justified from every
charge before the throne of God, it is absolutely impossible that that man
should ever again be a lost soul. Having said that,
let me say what we do not mean when we speak of the eternal security of the
believer.
We do not mean that it necessarily follows that if one
professes to be saved, if he comes out to the front in a meeting, shakes the
preacher’s hand, and says he accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, that
that person is eternally safe. It does not mean that if one joins a church or
makes a profession of faith, is baptized, becomes a communicant, and takes an
interest in Christian work, that that person is forever secure. It does not
mean that because one manifests certain gifts and exercises these gifts in
Christian testimony, that that person is necessarily eternally secure.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said to the people of His day, as
recorded in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not every one that saith
unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth
the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name
have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will
I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me,
ye that work iniquity.”
Such people then may have been very active in what is called
Christian work--they have preached, they have cast out demons, that is, their
influence has been such that men and women have found deliverance from satanic
power through their ministrations in the name of Jesus, they have professed
with their lips, they have accomplished many wonderful works, but they are
found in that day among the lost, and when they plead their great activity and
their earnestness in Christian testimony, the Lord says to them, “I never knew
you.” Notice, He does not say to them, “I used to know you, but you have
forfeited My favor and I do not know you any longer.”
He says, “I never knew you.”
The
Sheep Of Christ
You remember how He speaks of His own in John 10:27-30: ”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, 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. I and My
Father are one.” Of His own He says, “I know them.” Of these others, in spite
of all their activity, in spite of all their accomplishments, He says in the day of judgment, “I never knew you.”
That is a very solemn thing. That answers a question that is
frequently put to us. I do not know how many times I have had individuals come
to me with a hypothetical case like this: “Suppose a man who joined the church,
who professed to be saved, who for a number of years was a very active
Christian worker, perhaps a Sunday school teacher, perhaps an elder or a deacon
in the church, maybe a minister, but after some years of apparent consistent
Christian living and helpfulness in testimony he turns his back on it all,
returns to the world, utterly repudiates Christianity, and now denies in toto the gospel he once professed. How does that square
with your doctrine of the eternal security of the believer?”
That does not touch the matter at all. The apostle John
tells us how we are to understand a case like that. He says in 1 John 2:19,
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might
be made manifest that they were not all of us,” or literally, “That they were
not altogether of us.” That is, it is possible to do all the things that I have
spoken of and yet never be regenerated. It is quite possible to join a church,
to make a Christian profession; it is quite possible to observe the Christian
ordinances, to teach and to preach, and yet never be born again.
If one teaches and preaches the truth, it will produce good
results and will do men good whether the teacher or
the preacher be real or not, for it is the truth that God uses. Of course He
can use the truth to better advantage when it is proclaimed by a holy man
living to the glory of God than when it is proclaimed by a hypocrite.
Nevertheless, God uses His truth regardless of who may proclaim it, and that
explains how people may do mighty works in the name of Christ and yet never be
born again.
Christ’s One Offering
When we say that the believer in the Lord Jesus is eternally
secure, we base it upon a number of lines of scriptural testimony. In the first
place, we rest it upon the perfection of Christ’s one offering upon the cross.
Personally, I never can understand how thoughtful people, taught by the Holy
Spirit of God, can carefully read the Epistle to the Hebrews and not see that
throughout that Epistle the writer is contrasting the many sacrifices offered
under law with the one sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. That to which he
particularly calls attention is this: under law every time an Israelite sinned,
he needed a new sin offering, and every year the nation had to celebrate the
great day of atonement when a new offering was
presented to God for the people.
Why? Because those sacrifices could never take away sin,
they simply covered sin for the time being. But we are told in Hebrews 10 that
when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and offered Himself without spot
to God, the effect of His sacrifice was eternal. Verse 14 makes this clear: “For
by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Perfected
for how long? “Oh,” says somebody, “as long as they are faithful.” No, that is
not what it says. “He hath perfected for ever.” Why? Because
the sacrifice is all-efficacious.
I am sure my brethren who deny the doctrine of the eternal
security of the believer do not realize that in so doing they are putting a
slight upon the finished work of Christ; they are reducing the sacrifice of
Christ practically to the level of the offerings of bulls and goats in the Old
Testament dispensation. I am sure they do not mean to do that, for they love
their Lord just as truly as I trust I love Him, and they do not want to
dishonor Him. But they are afraid that this doctrine will lead people to be
careless about their lives, and therefore they stress the possibility of a man
losing his salvation after he has once been justified by faith. But they do not
pursue that to its logical conclusion; they do not see that it is a practical
denial of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved eternally
because the sacrifice of Christ abides.
When I came to the Lord Jesus Christ and put my trust in
Him, not only were all my sins up to the day of my conversion forgiven, but all
my sins were put away for eternity. When a young Christian, I was taught
something like this: I thought when I was converted that all my sins, from the
time of dawning accountability up to that night when I put my trust in the Lord
Jesus, were put away, and now God had given me a new start, and if I could only
keep the record clean to the end of my life, I would get to heaven; but if I
did not keep it clean, I ceased to be a Christian and I had to get converted
all over again.
Every time this happened the past was under the blood, but I
had to keep the record clean for the future. What a God-dishonoring view of the
atonement of Christ that is! If only those of my sins that were committed up to
the moment of my conversion were put away by the atoning blood of Jesus, what
possible way would there be by which sins I have confessed after that could be
dealt with? The only ground on which God could forgive sin is that Jesus
settled all upon the cross, and when I trust Him, all that He has done goes
down to my account.
What Of Future Sins?
A lady came to me one day and said, “I do not understand you
there. I can understand that Christ died for the sins I committed up to the
night of my conversion, but do you mean to tell me that Christ died for my
future sins?”
I said, “How many of your sins were in the past when Christ
died on the cross?”
She looked puzzled for a moment, and then the light broke
in, and she said, “How foolish I have been! Of course they were all future when
Jesus died for me. I had not committed any of them.”
God saw all your sins, and He laid upon Jesus all your
iniquity. Therefore, when you trusted Him, you were justified freely from all
things. Do you say, “Does it make no difference then if a believer sins?” That
is another question, and it would take a whole evening to go into that, but
here is the point: the moment you trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior, your
responsibility as a sinner having to do with the God of judgment is ended for
eternity, but that same moment your responsibility as a child having to do with
a Father in heaven begins. Now if as a child you should sin against your
Father, God will have to deal with you about that, but as a father and not as a
judge. That is a line of truth that stands by itself and does not contradict
what I am now teaching. It explains some things that bewilder people when this
doctrine is brought before them.
The
Spirit’s Perseverance
In the second place, we base the doctrine of the eternal
security of the believer upon the perseverance and omnipotent power of the Holy
Spirit of God. Look at Philippians 1:6. Writing to these saints, the apostle
says, when he thanked them for their fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now, “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Do you see
that? Who began the good work in you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus?
The Holy Spirit of God did. It was He who convicted you of sin; it was He who
led you to put your trust in Christ; it was He who through the Word gave you
the witness that you were saved; it is He who has been conforming you to Christ
since you first trusted the Lord Jesus.
Having thus taken you up in grace, the Holy Spirit has a
definite purpose in view. He is eventually going to conform
you fully to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He never begins a work
that He does not intend to finish. “Being confident of this
very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ.” If when you were a poor sinner the Holy Spirit
had power sufficient to break down your opposition to God and to bring to an
end your unbelief and rebellion, do you think for one moment that He does not
have power enough to subdue your will as a believer and to carry on to
completion the work that He began?
People say, “I see you believe in that old Baptist doctrine
of ‘once in grace, always in grace.’” Or another says, “I understand you hold
that old Presbyterian idea of ‘the final perseverance of the saints.’” I do not
know why this should be called either Baptist or Presbyterian, only to the
extent that Baptists and Presbyterians agree with the Book, and the Word of God
clearly shows that once God takes us up in grace nothing can separate us from
the love of Christ so that evidently the expression, “once in grace, always in
grace,” is a perfectly correct one. But, on the other hand, I am not so
enthusiastic about the other expression, “the perseverance of the saints.”
I believe in it; I believe that all saints--all really
belonging to God--will persevere to the end, for the Book tells me, “He that
shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13), and if a
man starts out and makes a profession but gives it all up, he will never be
saved, because he was never born again to begin with, he was never truly
changed by grace divine. On the other hand, the reason he endures to the end is
not because of any particular perseverance of his own. What I believe in, and
what the Word of God clearly teaches, is the perseverance of the Holy Spirit.
When He begins a work, He never gives up until it is completed. That is our
confidence.
Experience
And Faith
Forty-three years ago the Spirit of God in grace led me to
trust the Lord Jesus Christ. I have had many ups-and-downs since then, as the
old folks used to sing in a camp meeting I attended:
I am
sometimes up and sometimes down,
But still my soul am heavenly
bound.
I have had varied experiences, but the wonderful thing is
this, the Holy Spirit of God has never given me up. And if at times I have been
wayward and willful and did not immediately bow before God and repent of my
waywardness and willfulness, then I found I had to come under the rod, my
Father’s rod, and He whipped me into subjection until I came to the place where
I was ready to confess by failure and be restored to fellowship with Him. But I
was just as truly His child while getting a good whipping as I was when the
effects of it had restored me to fellowship. Your child does not cease to be
your child when you have him over your knee and are using the slipper on him.
It is because he is your child and because you want him to grow up to be a
well-behaved boy that you do that. And so we believe in the perseverance of the
Holy Spirit of God, that having begun the work He will carry it on to
completion.
New Creation
In the third place, we base the doctrine of the eternal
security of the believer upon the fact of the new creation. In 2 Corinthians
5:17 we read: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new.” That verse may be rendered like this: Therefore if any man be in Christ,
this is new creation; old things have passed away, and all things have become
new.
What do we mean by new creation? Just this: we were once in
the place of death; we were once utterly
lost and ruined. How did
we get there? Follow me now. It was not by any act of our own. Do you say, “I
did not get into the place of spiritual death by any act of my own?” No, you
did not. Do you say, “I was not lost because of any act of my own?” No, you
were not. But why were you numbered among the lost? Because you were born into
the world a member of the old creation of which Adam the first was the head,
and every child of Adam’s race comes into the world lost and is under sentence
of death. And so we read in verse 14, “The love of Christ constraineth
us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then
were all dead.”
The Two
Let me try to make that clear. Here is Adam the first, the
head of the old creation, and he was placed on trial in the Garden of Eden. The
entire world was represented in him--you were represented in him, I was
represented in him. As the Spirit of God says of Levi, “He was yet in the loins
of his father, when Melchisedec met him” (Hebrews
7:10), so we, every one of us, were represented there in Adam when the old
creation was on trial. Adam failed, and God said, “In the day thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt
die.” As a result of that failure the old creation fell down in death, and
every person that has ever been born in the world since that time was born down
there; no one has been born up here, where Adam the first started, except our
Lord Jesus Christ, and His birth was a supernatural one.
Therefore, as members of the old creation we were all dead,
all lost. But now see what happened--our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world
(the written Word here speaks of Him as the living Word) and He stood on this
plane of sinlessness. Adam was created sinless but
fell; Jesus came, the sinless One, conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of a
virgin mother, but He saw men down there in death, and at the cross He went
down into death, down to where man was, and came up in grace from death.
But He did not come up alone, for God has quickened us
together with Christ, so that all who believe in Him are brought up from that
place of death; and as at one time we were made partakers of Adam’s race, so
now we are made partakers of a new creation. What does God do for us now? Does
He put us where Adam was before and say, “Now behave yourselves, and you won’t
die again”? No, He puts us up higher than Adam could ever have gone except by a
new and divine creation. “He hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6), and because we
belong to this new creation we can never be lost.
You were lost because the head of the old creation failed,
and you went down with him. You can never be lost unless the head of the new
creation falls, and if He does you will go down with Him. But, thank God, He
remains on the throne where God Himself has put Him, in token of His perfect
satisfaction in the work He accomplished.
You may have heard of the Irishman who was converted but was
seized with a dreadful fear that some day he might commit some great sin and
lose his soul, that he might be lost after all, and he
trembled at the thought. He went to a meeting and heard the words read, “Ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” “Glory to God!” shouted Pat.
“Whoever heard of a man drowning with his head that high above water?” We are
linked with Him, we belong to the new creation, and that is why we shall never
be lost.
Eternal Life Possessed
Now
In the last place, we rest the truth of the doctrine of the
eternal security of the believer upon the fact that the believer is the present
possessor of eternal life. It is not merely that if we are faithful to the end
we shall receive eternal life. There is a sense in which that is true; there is
a sense in which our hope is eternal life. I am a Christian now if I believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ; believing on Him I have eternal life,
but I have it in a dying body. I am now waiting for the redemption of the body,
and when the Lord Jesus comes the second time He shall change this body of my
humiliation and make it like unto the body of His glory.
Then I shall have received eternal life in all its fullness,
spirit, soul, and body, entirely conformed to Christ. In that sense I am hoping
for eternal life. But over and over and over again, Scripture rings the changes
on the fact that every believer is at the present time in possession of eternal
life. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son
of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).
Adam’s life was forfeitable life; he lost his life because
of sin. Eternal life is nonforfeitable life, otherwise it would not be eternal. “For God so loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Everlasting life is
life that lasts forever, and we have it now. “He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the
wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and
believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).
His
Sheep Follow Him
I have purposely left this point until last because people
generally take it for granted it will be the first passage used in taking up
this subject. In John 10:27 we are told, “My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Notice these three things. It
matters not what profession a man makes, if he does not hear the voice of the
Son of God he is not a Christian, and therefore the Savior does not know him as
His own. No matter what profession he may make, if he does not follow the Lord
Jesus Christ, he is only a sham and a fraud and a hypocrite. He may follow for
a little while outwardly, like those of whom the apostle Peter speaks, who walk in the way of righteousness and then turn
from it. “But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that
was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22).
If that dog had ever been regenerated and become a sheep, if
that sow had ever been changed and become a lamb, neither would have gone back
to the filth; but, you see, the dog was always a dog, and the sow was always a
sow. They were just whitewashed, not washed white, they were never regenerated,
and so went back to the old things. But the sheep of Christ are different.
“They follow Me,” Jesus says. Be careful. Do not
profess to be one of His sheep if you do not follow Him, It is the test of
reality. There are many people who tell us, “At such and such a time I was
converted, I went forward, I signed a card.” You can
do all of these things and be lost forever. What you need is a new birth; and
when you are born again, you get a new life; and when you receive a new life,
you love to follow Jesus; and if you do not, you are not a Christian. Think
about it; examine your own foundations a bit.
A
Dangerous Doctrine?
People say, “If you preach this doctrine of the eternal
security of the believer, men will say, ‘Well, then it doesn’t make any
difference what I do, I will get to heaven anyway.’” It makes a tremendous
difference what you do. If you do not behave yourself, it shows that you are
not a real Christian. I know that a real Christian may fail, but the difference
can be seen in Peter and Judas. Peter failed, and failed terribly, but he was
genuine, and one look from Jesus sent him out weeping bitterly; his heart was
broken to think that he had so dishonored his Lord.
But Judas companied with the Lord almost three-and-a-half
years and was a devil all the time; he was a thief and was seeking his own
interest. He was even made the treasurer of that company and he held the bag,
but we read, “He bare [away] what was put therein” (John 12:6), as this has
been literally translated. At last remorse overtook him, not genuine
repentance, and what was the result? He went and hanged himself. He was never a
child of God. There is a great difference, you see, between a Christian and a
false professor.
Justified By Faith
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know
them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life.” Do you believe
it? I do not understand how people can read a passage like that and then talk
about a Christian losing his life. It would not be eternal if it could be lost.
“And they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of My hand.” The original is very strong here. In the English a
double negative makes an affirmative, but in Greek it only strengthens a
declaration. “They shall never, no never, perish.”
It is impossible, it is unthinkable, that one who has eternal life shall ever perish. “My Father, which
gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able
to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.” Here I am, a poor lost sinner, but the
Lord in grace picks me up and saves me, and I am in His hand. And now the
Father puts His hand around too, and I am in the hand of the Father and of the
Son, and the devil himself cannot get me unless he can loosen those hands.
Could you think of any greater security than to be in the
hands of the Father and of the Son? “Never perish,” “eternal life”--what
wondrous words are these! Do not be afraid of God’s truth. You might as well be
afraid of the beginning of the gospel that God can freely forgive and justify a
guilty sinner by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. People try to put guards
around that truth and say, “Yes, you are justified by faith if you have enough
good works to add to it.” That is not true. It is by faith alone, and good
works spring from that. When you know you have eternal life, you will find your
heart so filled with love for Christ that you will try to live for His
glory.
Objections
There will be certain passages coming up in the minds of
different ones, and they will say, “What he has said may sound logical enough,
but what about this Scripture and that?” Let me say, there is no possible
Scripture that will come to your mind that the present speaker has not
considered carefully over and over again. I have not time in one address to go
into all these, but I can assure you that having examined them all with the
greatest degree of care, I have never been able to find one that can set aside
this: “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
If you have a clear, definite, positive Scripture, do not
allow some passage that is perplexing, that is difficult to interpret, that
seems somewhat ambiguous, to keep you from believing the positive statement,
“He that believeth hath everlasting life.” It is because I have a salvation
like this to offer to men, it is because God has sent me to proclaim a
salvation like this to sinners, that I have confidence
in inviting people to come to Jesus, for I know if they get in living touch
with my Savior He will make them His forever.
I recently received from a gentleman a tract entitled “All
about the Eternal Security Doctrine.” He is afraid that this doctrine may have
a tendency to make people careless about their lives. I can sympathize with him
in that for this reason: I was a Christian worker in an organization that
believed in what is commonly called the Arminian
view; that is, when a person gets converted he has a good start for heaven, and
then it is up to him to keep on going. As my old instructor used to say,
“Getting to heaven is like riding a bicycle: if I stop, I will fall off.” I
believed that thoroughly, so thoroughly that when people spoke to me about
being eternally saved I used to say, “That is a doctrine of the evil one; that
would mislead people and lead folks to become careless,” until I had a rather
rude awakening.
I found our halls were thronged by people who were getting
converted over and over again every few weeks. It seemed as though that old
hymn, “Ye Must Be Born Again,” should really be sung, “Ye must Be Born Again and Again and Again.” That puzzled me, for I
never read of anything like it in the Bible. Then I found that the falling away
doctrine had a tendency to make people very careless indeed. Let me give you a
concrete example. A young man in whom I was quite interested had been addicted
to a certain sin in his unconverted days. After he professed conversion he
turned from that particular sin, but he confessed to me privately that he had
gone out in the darkness of the night, when no one knew where he was, and had
fallen into the same sin many times.
“How can you do it?” I asked him. “Well,” he said, “I always
make up my mind that I will commit the sin and then get converted again when I
come home.” I saw from that how dangerous was the doctrine of being saved today
and lost tomorrow. The last time I saw that young man, he said to me, “It’s no
use; this sin has such a grip on me that I cannot stand it.” “Don’t yield,” I
said. “Let me call in several of the others and let us pray with you.” So four
or five of us knelt and prayed very earnestly, but he rose again and clenched
his fists, for he was in great agony, and said, “It’s no use. I am going out to
sin, but I am coming back to get converted afterwards.”
I never saw him again, and I do not know what became of him.
That, you see, was one effect of this doctrine that a person loses his
salvation when he sins but can come back again and get converted any time he
desires. Certainly the Word of God teaches nothing like that. You can see that
the Arminian view can be used to turn the grace of
God into lasciviousness. It is possible for the other view to be misused also.
But I want you to see that the misuse of any doctrine does not in itself prove
the teaching is wrong. We need definite Scripture upon which to base our faith.
If people have no conscience toward God, they can misuse any doctrine in the
Bible. But what we want to get at is this: Are the objections brought against
the doctrine of eternal security really tenable?
Question 1 – Man: A Free Moral Agent?
“Is not man an absolutely free moral agent?” as one objector
insists. He says, “We can quote no Scripture on unconditional eternal security,
because there is none.”
I do not know what he means, but of course there is no
eternal security that is not based on personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But this writer goes on to say, “When a man is saved, he is on God’s altar to
live or die, for service or sacrifice, and neither the devil nor demons can
pull him off so long as he chooses by God’s grace to keep himself in that
place.”
The fact of the matter is that man is not an “absolutely
free moral agent.” In his unsaved state he is the slave of sin “led by the
devil captive at his will.” When regenerated he is the servant of Christ,
delighting in holiness and indwelt by the Spirit of the loving God. I was not
saved by placing my all on the altar. I was saved when I trusted Christ who
gave Himself as the offering for my sin. I am not keeping saved by my
surrendered life. I am “kept by the power of God.” The same grace that saved is
the grace that keeps.
I do not simply “choose” to keep myself in the place where I
am secure. God has chosen me, and I say amen to His choice. But if it were
possible for me to choose to abandon Christ, would I not perish? Yet the Word
tells me that Christ’s sheep shall never perish. Let us look again at the words
of the Lord Jesus in John 10:27-29: “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, neither shall any man pluck them out of My
Father’s hand.”
I wish you would look at verse 27. Who is a sheep of Christ?
He is one who hears His voice and follows Him. If a man says, “I am a
Christian,” but does not hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and does not
follow Him, that man is a hypocrite; he is not a Christian. Jesus says, “My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me.” Notice the expression, “I know them.” I pointed out in my former address
that in Matthew 7:22-23, the Lord Jesus says, “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy
name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful
works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”
Observe that according to Scripture He never says to any
soul in the day of judgment, “I used to know you, but
I do not know you now.” He says, “I never knew you.” That ought to clear
up the whole question. He says of His sheep, “My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them.” Therefore, if one has ever been a sheep of Christ, the
Lord Jesus knows him. Now if by some strange metamorphosis that sheep of Christ
were changed into a goat, one of the devil’s goats, and appeared at the day of judgment among the goats, Jesus could not say to that
goat, “I never knew you.” He would have to say, “I used to know you but I do not
know you now.” But He says, “I never knew you,” because He gives His sheep
eternal life. What is eternal life? One asks, “If the spiritual life of Adam
were conditional, how could the life of a believer be secure? Adam must have
been eternal in nature.”
This shows how little well-meaning people distinguish
between the life that God gave to Adam by creation and the life that He gives
to us by regeneration. Adam’s life was simply natural life and he forfeited
that when he sinned, but God gives to believers
eternal life, and that can never be forfeited. It would not be eternal life if
it could. So He says, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never
perish.” He puts no conditions around that promise, “They shall never perish.”
The word “perish” is in the middle voice, so that if rendered literally in
English, you would have to make two words of it, because we do not have a
middle voice. The words “perish” and “destroy” are the same in Greek. “I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never destroy themselves.”
Sheep so easily destroy themselves. I was going over the
desert when out among the Indians, and as we passed a bridge over a deep chasm,
we heard the pitiable bleating of a lamb. We went to the edge of the bridge and
saw the lamb about fifty feet down on a little ledge. It was a sheer descent of
nearly two hundred feet to the creek below that. We looked to see whether there
was any possible way to get down there, and we could not find any. That lamb
had been eating and had come to the edge and had looked down.
There was that little ledge all green, and so down he went
and ate all the green that was there before he found that he could not get
back. We tried to lasso him, but were not expert enough to do that. We looked
up, and already there were three great buzzards flying around, just waiting for
the time when the little animal would give up. That lamb was destroying
himself. Jesus says, “My sheep will never destroy themselves. I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish” (in the middle voice, “never perish
themselves”). Why not? Because they have the Holy Spirit
dwelling in them.
The Word of God says, “Being confident of this very thing,
that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of
Jesus Christ.” Jesus first says, “I give unto them eternal life,” and then,
“They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of My hand.” Some may say, “Well, I know a devil cannot pluck me out,
no angel would want to, and man could not, but I might pluck myself out.” Then
you would perish, would you not? And He says “They shall never perish,” before
He tells you, “neither shall any pluck them out of My
hand.” Is man an absolutely free moral agent? He was when God created him, but
is he now? Is the sinner a free moral agent? What does Scripture say? “Ye are
led by the devil captive at his will.”
What? A man led by the devil captive at his will is a free
agent? “Know ye not, that he to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his
slaves ye are?” (Romans 6:16). Man is a slave to sin and Satan; he is not free.
But now the gospel comes to the man, and he does have the power of decision,
and when he decides for Christ he gets eternal life with all that that implies,
and that life is the same life that is in the blessed Son of God. It is
communicated to him, and now he is led captive in the chains of love to the
Savior’s feet, and he does not want to be a free agent. He is glad to be a
bondman, as Paul puts it, of Jesus Christ.
Question 2 – Matthew 24:13
What about Matthew 24:13? “But he that shall endure unto the
end, the same shall be saved.” Weymouth says, “He who stands firm unto the
end.”
The writer of this question recognizes that primarily this
refers to the great tribulation, but it is a principle that I believe every
preacher of the Word should insist on. There is no use in people professing
conversion, going forward, raising their hands, going to an inquiry room,
joining the church, getting baptized, taking communion, teaching a Sunday
school class, doing missionary work, giving their money for Christ’s work, and
going on like this for years, and then by-and-by drifting away, turning from it
all, denying the Lord that bought them, refusing absolutely the authority of
Jesus Christ, and yet professing to be saved. It is endurance that proves the
reality of a work of grace within the soul. That is the difference between one
who is merely reformed by the teaching of Christianity and one who has been
born again. You see this very clearly when you contrast Peter and Judas.
Peter slipped and sinned grievously, but in spite of it all
he endured to the end. Jesus said, “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail
not,” and though his outward life for a brief period was not what it should be,
his faith remained, and Jesus restored him, and he went on to the end of his
life until crucified for his Savior. Judas was one of the chosen, he was with
the apostolic band but never was regenerated, and so when he sinned and sold
his Lord, he turned away an apostate and died a suicidal death. Jesus said of
him long before, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
Not, “One of you is in danger of becoming a devil,” but “One of you is a
devil.”
And we are told: “Judas by transgression fell, that he might
go to his own place” (Acts 1:25). Peter was a backslider, Judas was an
apostate, and there is a great difference between the two. If a man says, “I am
saved,” let him prove it by going on. That is why I say we should not be afraid
of the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer. Some say, “But I knew
a man who was a wonderful Christian, and now he has given it all up and says he
is still saved.” He is only deceiving himself. The next time you see him you
tell him that the Bible says, “He that shall endure unto the end, the same
shall be saved.” There is no use your carrying on a
profession if your life does not prove it to be real. Men can misuse any
doctrine.
Question 3 – John 8:31
What about the Scripture found in John 8:31? “Then said
Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye
continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed.” Is not the condition for
permanent discipleship “if ye continue in My word?”
Certainly. Every man who
knows the truth of eternal security believes it. There is no use for a person
to profess to be a disciple of Jesus if he does not continue. It is this that
proves there is a genuine work of the Spirit of God in his soul.
Question 4 – John 6:66
What about John 6:66? “From that time many of His disciples
went back, and walked no more with Him.”
That has happened down through the centuries. Jesus
distinguishes between a disciple and “a disciple indeed,” or between one who is
only a disciple and one who is a true believer. The Greek word translated
“disciple” means “a pupil” or “a learner.” There were many who up to a certain
point learned of Jesus, and they were learning more and more every day as they
listened to Him. But when He declared, “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood,
hath eternal life” (John 6:54), they said, “That is too much for us; we are not
going on with this man,” and they went back. It was not a question there of
whether people were born again and lost, but whether they who had been numbered
among the learners would go on learning and let Him be their teacher, or
whether they would refuse further instruction and turn back. We are not told
that even those who turned back ever again returned.
Question 5 – John 6:67
John 6:67, “Will ye also go away?” What about this question?
The question and the answer bring out the very thing I am
speaking of. He turned now to the apostles, that little group who had
accompanied Him so long, and said, “Will ye also go away?” and Peter said what
every truly converted soul always says, “Lord to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). If you are
really born again, that is always the answer.
I remember reasoning on this subject with a dear good
brother for something like two hours one day, and he was insisting that a man
could take himself out of the Lord’s hand. I said, “Why do you keep insisting
on this? Are you sure that you are saved?” He said, “Absolutely.” “How long?” I asked him. “Forty years,” he replied. “And you
have been kept for forty years? Do you want to take yourself out of the Lord’s
hand that you are talking like that?” “Certainly not,” he answered. “Well,” I
said, “you are better than your creed.”
That is just the point. If a man is born again, he never
wants to take himself out of Christ’s hand even if he could. Christ alone is
the one who satisfies the soul.
Question 6 – 2 Thessalonians 2:3
How about 2 Thessalonians 2:3? “Let no man deceive you by
any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”
The word translated “falling away” is “apostasy” in
the original. That has nothing to do with the question of individual salvation.
It does not touch this doctrine. Can you not see that it is a prophecy of what
is happening all about us at the present time? Recently, we were told that
seventy-five per cent of the ministers in the church federation in the city of
I remember when a
certain preacher came out with a blatant attack on the doctrine of blood
atonement. It shocked a lot of people who had been reading his books, and they
said, “Isn’t it strange that a man who was once such a fine Christian now
denies the blood of Christ?” I sat down and read every one of his books and
found that he never mentioned in any of them the blood of Christ or Christ’s
death on the cross, except in one when he spoke of the example of humiliation
Jesus set by going to the cross. But there was never one
other reference to the death, the blood, or the atonement. Later he
stated: “They charge me with giving up the doctrine of blood atonement; I never
believed it.” He showed that he was simply an apostate. These things had no
place in his heart or life. The apostasy is coming; it is coming fast. The
great professing church is going into it, but not one born again person will
ever bow to the Antichrist.
Question 7 – Hebrews 12:14
What about Hebrews 12:14? “Follow peace with all men, and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
That is exactly what we stand for. Anyone
who says “I am a Christian” and does not follow peace and holiness will never
see the Lord. But I remember how that used to trouble me. When a young
Christian, I was taught that when I was converted all my sins up to that moment
were put away, and then it was as though God said, “I have wiped off the past
and have put you back where Adam was before he fell: if you can keep the record
clear from now to the end, you will be saved and you will get to heaven.” I
started out and soon began to fail, and then they said to me, “The trouble with
you is you have not gotten holiness yet. If you get that you will be able to
live the right kind of a life.”
I asked, “What is this blessing of holiness?” and was told,
“When God saved you, He only justified you.” Only
justified you? “He forgave your past sin, but now you have to get sanctified,
and that means you must have all your inbred sin rooted out, and you will get
true holiness.” I thought, “But it didn’t work very well with Adam,” and it
rather bothered me. Yet they assured me that was the thing, and so I went in
for it and for six years I struggled. (For a more thorough treatment of this
subject, see Holiness: The False and the True, Loizeaux Brothers.)
I was working on a text that is not in the Bible: “Without
holiness no man shall see the Lord.” I heard many sermons preached on it, and
sometimes I preached on it myself. I had a large red banner with that text in
white letters, and I tried to get holiness. Sometimes I thought I had it, and
then something would go wrong and I would have to try to get it all over again.
I shall never forget the first time I read, “Follow peace with all men, and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” I thought it said, “Without
holiness it is impossible to see God.” I thought I had to get perfect holiness
in this life, but what it says there is, if you do not
follow holiness you will not see the Lord. Every Christian follows holiness. A
man who says “I am a Christian” and does not follow holiness is either
self-deceived or a hypocrite. I maintain this with all my heart.
Question 8 – Romans 6:16
What about Romans 6:16? “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of
sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
I have already spoken of that. Romans 6 is
like the book of Exodus. When the children of
Question 9 – Ezekiel 18:24
Ezekiel 18:24: “But when the righteous turneth
away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity,
and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he
live?”
Is it not strange for anyone in this dispensation of
grace to quote a passage like that, as though it had anything to do with the
question of the soul’s salvation? Go back and read Ezekiel 18. Of what is it
treating? We read in verse 21: “If the wicked will turn from all his sins that
he hath committed, and keep all My statutes, and do
that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” Is
that grace? No, that is law. That is just the quintessence of law. Do you
believe that if a wicked man turns from his wickedness he will live? If this is
true, why did Jesus die? Would you preach that to sinners?
Would you have me stand up and say, “You wicked
people, you have been doing wickedness; you start in tonight to do
righteousness and you will live”? Would you have me preach that? I would be
deliberately deceiving people if I told them that. But you see, here God was
testing people under law and said, ”The man that doeth
these things shall live. . . .But when the righteous turneth
away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity,
and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he
live?
All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be
mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath
sinned, in them shall he die” And what has happened? Not one man ever continued
in all the things that are written in the book of the law to do them.
Therefore, they were all under sentence of death. How then were they to be
saved? By turning over a new leaf? Oh, no--but by confessing that they had no
righteousness.
If they had, it would only be filthy rags. But now they find
all their righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ, “who of God is made unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” Do not ever quote
Ezekiel 18 as though it were gospel; it is law. And remember the “life” spoken
of in Ezekiel is not eternal life in Christ. It is life here on earth prolonged
under the divine government, because of obedience, or cut short because of sin.
Question 10 – 2 Peter 2:20-22
What about 2 Peter 2:20-22? “For if after they have escaped
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse
with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known
the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy
commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the
true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit
again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”
Does it say, “But it is happened unto them according
to the true proverb, The sheep is turned to its own
vomit again”? No, it does not. It says, “The dog is turned to his own vomit
again.” How many of these dogs there are! They escape the pollution of the
world temporarily by the knowledge that comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you were brought up in a Christian home and taught the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ from your youth, you escaped a great deal of the pollution of the
world. But after you have known all these things, you can turn aside; you can
take your own way into the world and live in its filth and pollutions. What
does that prove? That you used to be a Christian and are not now? That you used
to be one of Christ’s sheep but are no longer? Oh, no.
What then? It proves that “the dog has gone back to his own
vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” The
remarkable thing about this doctrine of the eternal security of the believer is
that many of the greatest men of God who have ever lived have believed in it.
C. H. Spurgeon, D. L. Moody, Dr. R. A. Torrey, Dr. A.
C. Dixon, and scores of others whom we revere believed in it.
C. H. Spurgeon said very beautifully, “If this dog had ever
been born again and gotten a sheep’s nature, it never would have gone back to
its own vomit; and if this sow had ever been regenerated and had the heart of a
lamb put in it, it never would have gone back to its wallowing in the mire.” It
is not a question of a sheep of Christ perishing. The devil has a lot of washed
sows, but they are not, and never have been, Christ’s sheep.
Question 11 – Hebrews 6:4-6
Now we come to the crucial text, Hebrews 6:4-6. “For
it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the
heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away,
to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son
of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
Watch this carefully. See if I read it correctly. “For it is
quite possible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of
the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted
the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall
away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.”
Is that what it says? You believe that a man can be once
enlightened, made a partaker of the Holy Ghost, can taste the good Word of God
and the powers of the world to come, but fall away and then repent--don’t you?
That is what all the folk believe who do not believe in the eternal security of
the believer. What are you going to do with your backslider? If backsliding and
apostasy are the same, don’t you see this passage is the worst possible passage
in all the Bible for their favorite doctrine?
If those who hold that a man can be saved over and over
again will ponder this passage, I am sure they will see how fatally it knifes
their theory.
This is the way it reads: “For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good Word of God, and the
powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away to renew them again unto
repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put
Him to an open shame.”
If this passage teaches that a man once saved can be lost
again, then it also teaches that if that man is lost again, he can never repent
and be saved. In other words, if that passage teaches that a man once saved can
be lost again, it teaches that if you have ever been saved and you are now
lost, you have a one-way ticket for hell, and there is no turning back. But
what is the real question here? It is almost impossible to explain it in a
minute or two, for you need to study the entire fifth and sixth chapters of
Hebrews together.
The apostle is speaking to people who have the Old Testament
and have been intellectually convinced that Jesus is the Messiah but who are
exposed to persecution if they confess His name. Even if not genuine, they know
that Jesus is the Messiah, and they must have felt the power and seen the evidence
of His authority in the miracles wrought. Yet they can turn their backs upon it
all and go back to Judaism, and go into the synagogue
again and say, “We do not believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God;
we refuse the authority of this man. He should be crucified.” “They crucify to
themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.” The apostle
says, “Do not try to do anything there; you cannot, for they have gone too far.
They are apostate.” It proves that they are not real Christians.
In verse 9 we read, “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and
things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.” That is, you could have
all these things and not have salvation. You say, “I don’t think so.” But look
at it:
“It is impossible for those who were once enlightened.” What
does that mean? Born again? No one could listen to a gospel address without
being enlightened. “The entrance of Thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding
unto the simple” (Psalm 119:130).
“. . .and have tasted of the
heavenly gift.” It is one thing to taste; it is another thing to eat. Many a
person has gone that far and never been saved. The angel said to Ezekiel, “Son
of man, eat this roll.” But the angel saw that Ezekiel had only tasted it, so
he commanded, “Son of man, cause thy belly to eat it.” It was in his mouth, and
if his head had been cut off all the truth would be gone, but “God desires
truth in the inward parts.”
“. . .and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.” They were
neither sealed, nor indwelt, nor baptized, nor filled with the Spirit. He does
not use one of the terms that refer to the Spirit’s great offices, but says, “and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.” Did you ever see
a man in a meeting where the Spirit of God was working in power, and have you
ever gone over and talked to him and said, “Don’t you want to come to Christ?”
And he has answered, “I know I ought to come, I can feel the
power of the Spirit of God in this meeting. I know this thing is right and I
ought to yield, but I don’t want to, and I won’t.” And he goes away resisting
the Spirit although he was a partaker. So these people described in Hebrews 6
had been in this way outwardly acquainted with Christianity, but they now
denied it all. For such there could be no repentance.
Now in order to prove that this is the correct
interpretation of the passage, let me draw your attention to Hebrews 6:7-9:
“For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh
oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them
by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected,
and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you; you
have gone farther than these apostates ever did, you have been saved; and so do
not think we are confounding you with people like these.” He uses this little
parable to make clear what he means. Here are two pieces of grass growing side
by side, we will say, just separated by a fence.
The earth is the same, the same sun shines on them both, the same kind of rainfall waters them both. When the time of
harvest comes, one of these plots brings forth herbs, but the other only thorns
and briers. What is he teaching here? This is a message to the Jews, trying to
make them see the reality of Christ’s messiahship and
His fulfillment of all the types of old. These two plots of ground are two men, they are the hearts of two men. We may think of them in
this way to make it all more graphic.
They grow up side by
side; they both are taught the Bible; they both go to the same synagogue; both
wait for the Messiah; both go down and listen to John the Baptist preach;
perhaps both were baptized by John the Baptist, confessing their sins. John’s
baptism was not salvation; it was just looking forward to the coming of a
Savior.
Both of them hear the Lord Jesus; both of them see Him do
His works of power; both are in that crowd watching when He dies; both are
there when the throngs go out to see the open tomb; both are near when He
ascends to heaven; both see the mighty work of the Spirit on the day of
Pentecost; both of them move in and out among the apostles; and outwardly you
could not see any difference between them.
But by-and-by persecution breaks out. One of them is arrested,
and they say to him, “Deny Jesus Christ, or you will
die.” He says, “I cannot deny Him; He is my Savior.” “Then you will die,” the
first one declares. “I am ready to die, but I cannot deny Him,” the second man
replies. The other one is arrested and they say, “You must deny Christ or die.”
He says, “I will deny Him rather than die. I will go back and be a good Jew
again rather than die.” “Come out here, then,” they command him.
They had a terrible way of taking him back. I remember
reading how in such a case, they took him to an unclean place where a man slew
a sow, and this one going back to Judaism, in order to prove his denial, spits
on the blood of the sow and says, “So count I the blood of Jesus the Nazarene.”
And then they purify him and take him back. Could any real believer in Jesus do
that? What made the difference between the two?
Those plots of ground had the same rain, the same sunshine,
but there were different crops. What was the difference? One of them had the
good seed and brought forth good fruit; the other did not have the good seed
and brought forth thorns and briers. These two men were both familiar with the
truth, but one received the incorruptible seed, the Word of life, and brought
forth fruit unto God. The other has never received the good seed, and the day
comes when he is an apostate.
If you will keep in mind the difference between an apostate
and a backslider, it will save you a lot of trouble over many Scriptures. The
apostate knows all about Christianity but never has been a real Christian. The
backslider is a person who has known Christ, who did love Him, but became cold
in his soul, lost out in his spiritual life. There is not a Christian who has
not often been guilty of backsliding.
That is why we need the Lord as our advocate to restore our
souls. When backslidden, it is not our union with Him that is
destroyed, but it is our communion. You may say, “Why are you so sure
that a real Christian does not apostatize?” Because God says
so in His Word. 1 John 2:18: “Little children, it is the last time: and
as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many
antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” Antichrist means
“opposed to Christ.” The apostate is always a man opposed to Christ. A man
says, “I have tried it all, and there is nothing in it,” and so denounces
Christ.
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they
had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out,
that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” The words “no
doubt” are in italics and really cast a doubt. Leave those words out for they
do not belong in the Greek text, and read it, “They went out from us, but they
were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.”
And then he adds, “They went out, that they might be made
manifest that they were not altogether (that is the literal rendering) of us”
(1 John 2:19). In other words, they were with us in profession, in outward
fellowship, but not altogether of us, because they had never really been born
of God. This also explains Hebrews 10 which is the next passage brought up here
as an objection.
Question 12 – Hebrews 10:28-29
Explain Hebrews 10:28-29: “He that despised Moses’ law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of
God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified,
an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” People are
troubled here, for they say, “Well, this man was surely a Christian, because it
says that he was sanctified.”
That does not necessarily prove that he was a
Christian. The whole nation of
Why? Because the blood of Christ answers
for sin. What is the great question? It is the Son question: How are you
treating God’s Son who died to save you? Christ has died for all men, His blood
is shed for the salvation of all men, and it will avail for every sinner in all the world if they trust Him. (See John 3:18-19.)
Here is this Hebrew who has followed along to a certain
point, and now the question comes, “Will you confess this Christ as your one
great sin offering no matter what it means?” And he answers, “No, I cannot do
that. I am going back to the temple. There is a sin offering there, and I will
not have to suffer as I may if I confess Jesus Christ.” But he cannot do that.
God does not accept any more that “there remaineth no
more sacrifice for sins.” “If we sin willfully after that we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more
sacrifice for sins.” “There remaineth no other
sacrifice for sins: is the true meaning.
This sacrifice at the altar was commanded by God. He said,
“If you sin, you must bring a sacrifice, and I will accept you.” “The life of
the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11).
“All right,” this Jew says, “I have a sin offering.” But he
has met Jesus Christ or heard of Him as the great sin offering; he knows that
God accepted Him and raise Him from the dead; he has all this knowledge, but
having it all he is afraid to come out definitely and confess Christ as his
Savior. He says, “I do not need this sin offering; I will go back and be
content with the sin offering of the temple.”
Before Jesus came, that was acceptable because it pointed to
Him, but now He has come. If you reject Him, there remains no other offering.
This passage, you see, has nothing to do with a real Christian turning from
Christ, but with a man thoroughly instructed who refuses to accept Him. And how
many people there are, not only among the Jews but in Christendom, who are
refusing this sin offering.
Question 13 – Luke 9:61-62
The next passage brought up is Luke 9:61-62: “And another
also said, Lord, I will follow Thee; but let me first go bid them farewell,
which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his
hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the
What a terrible thing it would be if this were the way into
heaven! How many thousands of earnest Christian people there are who have
allowed what they thought was their responsibility to their friends to keep
them from fully following Christ. Suppose they went to heaven only on the
ground of fully following Him. You see, these Jews were looking for the
kingdom, and many said, “I will follow Thee, but my friends have a claim on
me.” “No, the Lord says, “I must come first. No man, having put his hand to the
plough, and looking back, is fit for the
That is the test of discipleship. But it is necessary to
distinguish between salvation by grace and reward for faithful discipleship.
The rewards are connected with the kingdom. No matter how faithful I may be as
a Christian, it does not give me any better place in heaven than if I were
taken there the moment I was saved.
Suppose the very instant you were converted you dropped
dead--would you have gone to heaven? Yes, you would have gone there on the
ground of God’s delight in the work of His Son. Suppose you were converted
fifty years ago. There have been ups-and-downs in your life, but you have been
saved all those years. Where would you go if you died suddenly? You would go to
heaven. On what ground? On the
ground of God’s delight in the work of His Son. There is not a bit of
change in fifty years.
“But,” you say, “I have been a wonderfully faithful
Christian.” Have you, indeed? I am surprised that you should think so. The more
we serve Him, the more most of us feel how unfaithful we have been. But you
insist, “I have been a very faithful Christian.” Does that make you any more
fit for heaven than you were the moment you trusted Jesus? You ask, “Does
faithfulness as a disciple go for nothing?” It goes for a great deal, but it
has no saving merit. You have a place in the Father’s house on the ground of
pure grace, but the Father’s house is not the only thing before us. There is
also the
Here was one to whom the Lord said, “I want you to follow Me to Africa or
He may stay at home, he may be of great value and great use,
but when he comes to the judgment seat of Christ there is a reward he might
have had that he will not have, because he did not go the whole way with the
Lord Jesus Christ. If going the whole way entitled men to heaven, none of us
would ever get there. But as we go the whole way, as far as we understand, He
is going to reward us. If people could learn to see the difference between
salvation by grace and reward for service, this question would settle itself.
From this point on, most of these objections really have to do with this very
fact.
Question 14 – Hebrews 3:12-14
The next passage is Hebrews 3:12-14: “Take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the
living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today;
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made
partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end.” That is one of the “if” verses. Another one is found in I Corinthians
15:1-2: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye
are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have
believed in vain.”
Another one is found in Colossians 1:21-23: “And you, that
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath
He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight: if ye continue in the faith grounded
and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have
heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof
I Paul am made a minister.” I might add others to these, but here are three
“ifs.”
What does the Spirit of God mean by bringing these
“ifs” in? In every one of these instances He is addressing bodies of people. I
stand here to address you as a body of people. If I were to ask everybody who
professes to be a Christian to stand, I suppose nearly everybody would rise.
Would that prove that you are all Christians? It would show that you profess to
be Christians. What would prove that you really are? “If ye continue in the
faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.”
You profess to have received the gospel; you are saved if you keep in memory
what has been preached unto you. If you do not, it just shows that there is no
reality.
The faith here is not the faith by which you are saved, it
is not the faith by which you believe; but it is that which you believe. Jude
says, “Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints” (Jude 3). That is the body of Christian doctrine, and, if a real
Christian, you will stand for that Christian doctrine to the end; but if not,
you may become a Mormon, or a Christian Scientist, or a theosophist, or
something like that. Then you simply show there is no reality. It is a very
easy thing to say, “I am saved”; it is another thing to prove it.
Question 15 – 2 Peter 3:17
What of 2 Peter 3:17? “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye how
these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the
wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.”
We come back to what we were speaking of a few minutes
ago. There is always a possibility of a real Christian falling, and we need to
be warned again and again. How many we have known who at one time had a bright
Christian testimony but fell? They were not watchful, they were not prayerful,
and they stumbled and fell. Does that mean they are lost? No,
not if really born again. If born again, they have received eternal
life; and if people thus fall, that is where the restoring work of the Spirit
of God comes in. David fell in a most terrible way but he says, “He restoreth my soul”; and sometimes in restoring His people’s
souls, God has to put them through very bitter experiences. He loves them too
much to let them be happy when away from Him.
Question 16 – 2 Timothy 2:18
Explain this passage. “Who concerning the
truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow
the faith of some” (2 Timothy 2:18). A writer says, “We see here the
possibility of having our faith overthrown.”
That’s not what Paul is talking about. He is speaking
of the faith. Again you must make the distinction. Our faith is that by
which we believe. We believe God; that is faith. But we believe the truth that
God has revealed to us, and that truth is the faith, and that is what
has been overthrown in the mind of the professed believer in this instance.
That is the same thing that you get in 1 Timothy 5:15:
“For some are already turned aside after Satan.” Some real Christians do that,
but what a blessed thing to know the Lord goes after them and never gives them
up.
Question 17 – Hebrews 2:1
May we not let the things of God slip away from us?
“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1), or, in other
words, “Lest at any time we should drift away from them.”
This is the same warning again. You have listened to
precious ministry from men of God who have preached the Word to you. You have
had such instruction as many never have had. You will be terribly guilty if you
drift away from it. You need to “continue in the things which you have
learned.” But if we were all to lose our salvation every time we drifted into
some erroneous thing, how serious it would be! Is there anyone here who has
never done a little bit of drifting?
If sin will separate me from Christ, how much
sin? How can I ever be sure how much sin? Is there a
Christian here who has not sinned today? Is it not a fact that every one of us
sins in thought, or word, or in deed, probably every day of our lives? Is there
ever a night that you can kneel before God and say, “Lord, I thank You that I have not sinned in thought or word or deed
today?” I am sure no honest Christian can say that. How far do you have to sin
in order to break the link that binds you to Christ? You never could be sure
that you are saved from one day to another and you would not leave any room for
the restoring work of God if your salvation depended upon your personal
faithfulness.
Question 18 – Revelation 2:10
What about such a Scripture as this? “Be thou faithful unto
death and I, will give thee a crown of life?” (Revelation 2:10). How can you
say that a man is saved for eternity when the Lord says you must be faithful to
the end?
A crown of life is not salvation; it is reward. There are
five crowns: the incorruptible crown for faithfully running the course; the
crown of rejoicing for winning souls; the crown of righteousness for those who
love His appearing; the crown of life for those who suffer for Christ; the
crown of glory for those who feed the sheep and lambs of Christ’s flock. I
might lose all of those crowns and yet not lose my salvation. The Word says,
“If any man’s work shall be burned. . . .he himself
shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15) But I do not want to be
saved that way. I want to win the crown of life. “Be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life.”
Question 19 – Hebrews 10:37-39
Explain Hebrews 10:37-39: “For yet a little while, and He
that shall come will come, and will not tarry. . . .If any man
draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
Look at the next verse, “But we (who? real Christians) are not of them who draw back unto
perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” If a person has
believed to the saving of the soul, there is no danger of his “drawing back
unto perdition.” It is a terrible thing to be intellectually convinced and stop
there.
Question 20 – Revelation 3:15-16
Now I am referred to Revelation 3:15-16, where the Lord,
speaking to the church at
Is this an individual who has once been saved and is so no
longer? The Lord is talking to a church. Did you ever see a church like the one
at
Every time I go downtown I pass a church that D. L. Moody
used to belong to. It was an evangelistic center in the city in his day, but
today it is a very center of modernism and the gospel is never preached there.
Every time I look at it I think of the time Moody was there and it stood firmly
for the truth, and I say, “Their candlestick is removed.” There may be some
true Christians in that church, some of the dear old people who were in it
years ago, and maybe their membership is still there. It does not say that they
are not Christians because the church as such has lost its witness for Christ.
Question 21 – 1 Peter 4:18
Here is a verse I am surprised to find used to prove the
“falling away” doctrine. “If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the
ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:18).
What has that to do with the question? What is Peter
saying? “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if
it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them
that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17). I suppose that God’s children
have faults. I know they have to be judged for their faults by the Father in
correction, and God will deal very solemnly and seriously with them about their
failures. There would be no need of judgment if they were all perfect
Christians, but if God heals with His own people in this way and if the
righteous be saved through difficulty, “Where shall the ungodly and the sinner
appear?” That has nothing to do with the question of whether the Christian is
saved for eternity or not.
Question 22 – John 15:1-6
John 15:1-6 is the next passage questioned. “I am the true
vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:
and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more
can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men
gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
This chapter is not discussing the question of eternal
life but of fruit bearing. There are a great many believers who bear very
little fruit for God, but all bear some fruit for Him. There are many people in
the vine (and the vine speaks of profession here on earth) who bear no fruit
for Him and will eventually be cut out altogether when Jesus comes. There will
be no place with Him because there is no union with Him. There are no natural
branches in the living vine. We are grafted in by faith.
I do not know much about grafting, but I do know that it is
one thing to put a graft in, and it is another thing for a graft to strike. It
is one thing for a person to be outwardly linked with Him and quite another for
that person to have life in Christ. What is the test that proves whether he is
really in the vine? The test is if he bears fruit. All who have life bear some
fruit for God. If there is no fruit, you can be sure there is no life, no real
union with Christ.
Question 23 – Unconfessed
Sin
Will any Christian who passes away with unconfessed
sin have an opportunity to make things right after death? Is the judgment seat
of Christ the time when all misunderstandings and discords among Christians
will be made right?
It is questionable if any Christian ever died who did
not have some unconfessed sin to his record. While
sin might be confessed in a general way, who of us has ever definitely confessed
all his sins? But the precious blood of Christ answers for every sin a believer
has ever committed. At the judgment seat of Christ, the Lord will go over the
entire life since regeneration, giving His mind about every thing, and the
believer will then for the first time see each detail in the light of God’s
infinite holiness. Everything there will be dealt with so that the believer’s
failures will never be referred to again for all eternity.
Question 24 – The Book of Life
Is there any difference between the book of life and the
Lamb’s book of life?
Yes, the book of life is the book of the living. It is the
record too, of profession. From this book names may be blotted out. The Lamb’s
book of life is the record of the eternal purpose of God. Names inscribed there
are written from the foundation of the world. In other words, one book speaks
of responsibility, the other of pure grace.
No Christian will ever have his name blotted out of the
Lamb’s book of life, for all such have eternal life--which is unforfeitable and everlasting.
~/~/~/~/~
Henry Allan Ironside, one of
this century’s greatest preachers, was born in
Though his classes stopped with grammar school, his fondness
for reading and an incredibly retentive memory put learning to use. His
scholarship was well recognized in academic circles with
“HAI” lived to preach and he did so widely throughout the
H. A. Ironside went to be with the
Lord on January 15, 1951. Throughout his ministry, he authored expositions on
51 books of the Bible and through the great clarity of his messages led hundreds
of thousands, worldwide, to a knowledge of God’s Word.
His words are as fresh and meaningful today as when first preached.
The official biography of Dr. Ironside,
H. A. Ironside: Ordained of the Lord, is
available from the publisher. Other
works by the author are brought back into print from time to time. All of this
material is available from your local Christian bookstore or from the
publisher.
~/~/~/~/~/~
Note from Whistler to my readers:
(Aug '03) Now that I’m no longer part of Missing Dimension website and
have somewhat less exposure, it’s time to reassess matters. I realize that my increased focus on
Christian topics of debate (most of which the WCG had wrong), with less focus
on commenting on the shenanigans of the WCG and its offshoots may be going off
in a direction many MD readers may not want to go. Therefore, my newly established website may
not have as much demand or usefulness.
Maybe I’m off on a tangent (one that I feel the Holy Spirit wants me to
be on) that interests few Missing Dimension readers.
You be the
judge. Drop me an e-mail at whistler4truth@hotmail.com. If I get just a few responses, or if most feel
my columns don’t really fill a need, I’ll probably tone down considerably the
number of articles I put together, and post maybe just a couple a year.
Till next time (whenever that may be), here’s whistlin’ at ya! ;o)