Eternal Security (Part 2 and 3)

All right, I need a copy of the lesson for tonight.

Anybody not remember to bring your book?

I need a copy. All right, we got a couple.

All right, Chuck, up here. There we go.

There's a there should be. What?

What are you passing out? What does that say on it?

Oh, that's Part 1. Does it say Part 1?

Let's say Part 2. All right, Jackson, do you have

Part 2 and three? OK, so raise your hand.

You need Part 3 as well. We're going to do Part 2 and

Part 3 tonight. So if you just got one of those

copies, raise your hand again. All right, those should have

been together. All right, let's go to 1st

Thessalonians, chapter one, First Thessalonians Chapter 1.

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

We're going to get into this here in just a second, But I

was, I was thinking about this this week.

And I think this is something that's very important to, to

point out. It's never been so easy for

people to come in contact with heresy or or really, for lack of

a better term, just goofy principles that people come up

with. You know, there's, there's a lot

of stuff out there nowadays, you know, the emerging church, Flat

Earth, you know, I mean, just so many things out there that that

are just they, they get trending, they get trendy.

One of the things that that is very trendy right now is

reformed theology. Everybody's jumping off on the

reformed theology bandwagon. And you know, I think a lot of

that comes from the fact that you have to be smart to

understand Reformed theology, which if you have to be smart to

understand it, then it's not simple enough to just read it in

the Bible. Then somebody probably came up

with it and it wasn't God. And so, you know, I think that's

that's a lot of where this comes from is, is I am so much smarter

than you that I can get dig deep into the Bible and we should be

getting deep into the Bible. Don't, don't, don't get me wrong

on that. We should be studying deeply as

deep as we can understand into the word of God.

But you know, it used to be for you to encounter a heresy or, or

get off on a wrong doctrine or something like that, you had to

either go to a bookstore and start looking through books or

sit down in the library or maybe listen to a radio program every

single day. Now all you have to do is get on

the Internet and everybody is a theologian, right?

This guy, it could be somebody sitting in his basement that has

never even been to church in the last three years.

But he's a theologian and you're listening to him, you know,

somebody who doesn't believe in the local church and doesn't

believe that, you know, who knows what I mean?

But but everybody has a platform now because of the Internet.

My point with saying that is you have to be very, very careful

who you read, who you listen to, who you study, who you take your

doctrine from. Just because you found this guy

in the Internet and he sounds convincing does not mean that

he's right. You've got to be very careful

about that, especially if you know that you are not very

strong in your faith, especially in areas that you are seeking to

understand, right. You can't just go find the first

person that comes along and offers you $100 Bible class and

take the class and expect that you're going to get all the

doctrines right from the Word of God.

Doctrine matters and if doctrine matters, then who you get your

doctrine from matters just as much.

So you have to be very careful with those things.

You know, one of the greatest dangers I think of the, the

technology with the Internet today is it literally brings

thousands of teachers right into your home.

And you can, you can find anything that you want online.

You can find it. You can, you can find anybody

that's saying anything you want to hear online.

You want to find somebody that says it's OK to drink.

Somebody is on there telling you that it's OK to drink.

You want to find somebody that's that's saying it's OK to have

women preachers and and women in leadership.

You'll find plenty of people that are saying that it's OK.

And here's all the reasons why you want to find somebody that

you know, tells you that that separation and standards and all

of those things are outdated and old.

You'll find plenty of people that will tell you all of those

things, right? And they'll have Bible to back

it up. But most of those things that

they're doing, they're taking out of context.

They're making a passage say something that it was never

intended to say. They are pulling one verse that

that looks like it could be saying something.

But because they don't, many of them even understand how to

study the Bible themselves. They haven't rightly divided the

word of truth. And they're giving you something

that you're jumping off on because they made it sound

convincing and now you're just as wrong as they are.

And, and now you, you come and I'm not saying that this

happened, all right, but now you come to church and the pastor's

wrong because this guy in the Internet said that this is the

way that it was. And if you read it, if you read

in the Bible, that's what the Bible is saying, right?

Get in the Bible yourself, study the Bible yourself.

You figure out what the Bible is saying and then go see what

other people have to say about what you came up with, right?

And maybe you have to tweak your opinion here and there.

Maybe you have to say, oh, you know what?

Maybe I, maybe I, maybe I did misread that a little bit.

Or maybe, you know, maybe I wasn't looking at the context

the right way. OK, look at it from that point

of view. Don't.

Oh, man, I wonder what that verse says.

Let me go see what this guy in the Internet says.

And oh, this is what that passage means.

My pastor is wrong because this guy in the Internet said that

this is what that passage means. And you're not interpreting it

the right way. OK, Don't take this wrong way.

Nobody came to me and said that. All right.

So I'm not, I'm not getting on anybody.

I'm just saying you have to be very, very careful about who you

listen to, who you watch, who you read on the Internet because

you can find anything you want to.

And this, this actually was a testimony that a pastor was, was

talking about, say testimony, but he mentioned this story.

He said that he had a guy that came into his church that at

best was a baby Christian. He hadn't been saved all that

long, really no time in God's word.

He hadn't spent any time reading.

But because he had read all of these people, he considered

himself to be an expert. And so he came to his pastor

And, and it got to the point where in in Bible studies, like

on Wednesday night, he has got his phone out and he's typing

verses in there and looking up what this guy has to say about

it, raising his hand and saying, Oh, that's not right.

That's not what this passage is saying.

This guy said blah blah blah and so finally the pastor sat down

with him and told him you need to stop reading all those

people. And he was shocked, couldn't

believe that the pastor told him, stop reading all those

people. You know, it's shocking to

Americans to tell them that. But, you know, I think a lot of

times what, what people think automatically is you're trying

to hide something. If you don't want me to read

what other people have to say, then you're trying to hide

something. You, you know, you don't want me

to, you know, and, and everything turns into a

conspiracy. And, you know, we have the right

to read and learn from whoever we want to.

And you do have the right to read and learn from whoever you

want to. But my job as a pastor and as

your pastor is to help you be very careful about the wolves

that are coming in in sheep's clothing.

And there are lots and lots and lots of them, especially because

it's so prevalent on the Internet today.

You can find anybody who will say anything that you want to

hear. If that's not an indication that

there's a lot of people out there saying stuff that's not

biblical, then I don't know what is.

My job is to protect you from the wolves that are trying to

get you off on these wrong doctrines.

So you want to know what a passage says?

I'm not saying, you know, call me up every 5 minutes and say,

hey, pastor, what does this passage say?

But I'll have a discussion with you about it and then I'll give

you some good resources. That's the reason why we have so

many of the books that we have in the bookstore, right?

It's those are resources. Go, go read them.

That's, that's why we have them there.

They're there for you to have something to study that I know

is safe. You, you can't be here for very

long without realizing that every message that I preach,

everything that I teach, I have tons and tons and tons of Bible

verses for it. Because it's not just my

opinion. I'm, it's from God's word.

And the people who I read, I read people as well, right?

The people who I read have been at it for a long time.

They've proven themselves that they are, that they are

biblicist, that they, that they are in God's word, that they are

going to read it in a literal context, that they are going to

stick with only the King James Version of the Bible that we

are, that you're going to get something.

And, and even with some of those, I come across people who

I'm saying, I don't, I don't think that's right.

I don't think that's what the Bible is saying right there.

And I dig into the Bible for myself and I get into a little

bit more. I have, I have 3 or 4

commentaries that I really like. And guess what?

Sometimes they disagree with each other.

You know what that means? Somebody's wrong.

You know what that means? I better figure out what that

passage is saying before I just go listen to this one guy

because I really like the way that he says it or what he's

saying, right? It's very, very, very important

that we study. Somebody wrote this, a pastor

wrote this. In my experience and opinion,

very few Christians are mature enough in the Lord to be on

social media. Social media is, along with many

other things, A1 world church tool that promotes unbiblical

doctrines and heresies through the use of peer pressure and

exposure to philosophy of the world.

It is a place where one can trust in the world's

understanding and reason is a place where the individual can

gather agreement for anything he or she wants to believe or

promote from the smorgasbord of ideas.

Do born again believers not know the Wiles of the devil?

That's how we concluded. I think it's really good.

But you know, you know, second Timothy, chapter 3 and verse 7,

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the

truth. I think that's what the Internet

has kind of produced with a lot of these people.

A lot of people that just get all of their theology from,

they're too lazy to read the Bible for themselves.

So I'll just go listen to what this guy says it is and he's got

to be right because I like the way that he said it.

You've got to be very, very, very careful about that.

And, and obviously, you know, you know, we're concerned about

the younger generation that is many of them apathetic and

carnal. And you know, we, we're trying

to get them excited and get them to have a zeal for the things of

the word of God. But sometimes what happens is in

that zeal, and not even just young people, young Christians,

this happens with a lot. They get so excited about the

word of God and, and, and so much zeal in the word of God

that they, it's a zeal without knowledge is what the Bible

says. That's what the Bible does.

That's what the Bible says that a pastor ought not to be a

novice. You know what novice means?

I mean, somebody that doesn't have a lot of exposure to God's

word, right? You might have, you might, you

might get saved and you might study the word of God every day

for that year. You've read through the Bible

three times. That's a good start, right?

But that's just getting a, that's just getting a foothold.

That's just getting a foundation.

You're still a novice in God's word, right?

It takes time, it takes, it takes, it takes studying it, it

takes going through those. And so, you know, there's,

there's a lot of Calvinist pastors, a lot of hyper

dispensationalist pastors out there, teachers who can sound

very convincing to somebody who doesn't know what they believe.

And it's very, very easy for you to get off on, on a strange

doctrine or on, on a, on a wrong doctrine because you listened to

the wrong person, right? And I don't know everybody

that's out there, but part of my job is to know who's out there

and what they're teaching and what they're preaching and why

it's right or why it's wrong. Most of them are wrong, right?

That's why the Bible says broad is the way that leadeth to

destruction. Narrow is the way that leadeth

to life. It doesn't mean that 90% of them

are right and the other 10% are wrong.

It's the other way around. 90% of them are wrong.

Maybe 10% of them are, right. So my, my, it's just a warning,

all right. And, and we're going to get into

this because, and the only reason that that I started

thinking about that is because eternal security is one of those

issues, right? There's a lot of people out

there who will say that eternal security is not a biblical

doctrine with as many verses as we've looked at that talk about

eternal security in the context of eternal security.

It's you can't say that it's not a Bible doctrine.

It is a Bible doctrine, but for the people who don't want to

believe in eternal security for whatever reason, there's 100

people out there. It'll show you why eternal

security is not a biblical doctrine.

And if you're reading and listening to and watching the

wrong people, it's very easy for you to say, man, that sounds

really convincing. They're they maybe they're

right. What do you think a wolf in

sheep's clothing is? Right?

He's not wearing a tattered. You know, then the Bible uses

that term, basically a wolf in sheep's clothing, right?

I mean, he's not, he's not wearing some tattered wolf

clothing that you're like, you're a wolf and you're just

trying to pretend you're a sheep.

No, he looks like a sheep. That's why people go after it,

right? That's why people are fooled by

it. So, and the Bible tells us all

about that. And you know, false teachers

that that look so good and sounds so good.

And people will heap to themselves having teachers

having itching ears, not the teacher that has an itching ear.

It's the people they want to know something.

And so they'll just go find all of these teachers.

That's exactly what the Bible is talking about.

I mean, it's almost like the Bible knew that the Internet was

going to come along someday and it was going to be there.

And there's thousands and thousands of teachers out there

that you have at your fingertips that you can listen to and get

doctrine from, and they can be wrong because you have itching

ears. Go study the Bible for yourself.

And if you don't know how to do it, then go to the bookstore and

find the book that says how to be an effective Bible student.

It's a thick book in there, or not even that thick.

It's probably a hundred 120 pages that tells you how to

study the Bible for yourself. Great tool.

All right, we have so many of the tools down there.

It's not just a plug for the bookstore.

It's the reason I have the bookstore and the reason that we

take the time to go through all of these resources and to make

sure that they fit in line with what the Bible teaches is

because I don't want you to have to go to a Christian bookstore,

go online to some bookstore and say, man, I hope this book is

OK. Let me try it out and see,

right, you can trust everything that we have in there.

It's all been vetted. It will all help you to study

God's Word and it's going to lead you down the right path,

not the wrong 1. So be very, very careful about

that when it comes to this idea of eternal security.

We're going to look at 2 questions tonight.

The first one being Part 2. Does the doctrine of eternal

security mean that anyone who professes Christ has eternal

life? And the second one being is if

the disobedient believer does not lose his salvation, what

does happen to him? So some of these, especially in

Part 2, we've already discussed, so I'm going to cover it fairly

quickly. Some of these, especially in

Part 3, we're going to cover in a lot more detail later on, so

I'm going to try to cover it fairly quickly.

All right, I know trying to get 2 lessons done in one night

seems to be pretty adventurous. That's not the word I'm looking

for, but ambitious. That's right.

Thank you. Maybe, maybe we should have,

maybe you guys should come up here and help me out.

But that's a little ambitious. But at the same time, like I

said, I think we can get through this.

Got a lot of verses to look at tonight, so let's jump as

quickly as we can to those. But that's the question that we

want to start with. Does the doctrine of eternal

security mean that anyone who professes Christ has eternal

life? The short answer is no, but we

won't leave it at that. The promise of eternal security

is only for those who have been saved, not for mere professors.

Salvation always changes a person's life.

And the reason that I say that we've discussed a lot of these

things already is because a lot of this goes back to repentance

and faith, repentance and faith, repentance and faith.

When somebody truly repents, there is going to be a change in

that person, OK? Salvation #1 demands repentance

and we're there in First Thessalonians chapter 1 and

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

verse #9 for they themselves show of us what manner of

entering in we had unto you and how ye turned to God from idols

to serve the living and true God.

Sure sounds like a giving up of some things, doesn't it?

Sure sounds like a change of life.

How come they didn't turn to God and keep serving those idols?

Because that's not repentance. Repentance demands and salvation

demands repentance and repentance demands a change and

to wait verse 10 for his Son from heaven whom he raised from

the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to

come. Now here's what else what I'll

say as we go through this. You can look to the next points

and see the next verse that's coming up.

If you want to jump to that verse that way, by the time I

mention it, you're almost there already, then that's perfectly

fine. But to, to, to sum up, what the

Bible is talking about here is that God requires repentance for

salvation. And repentance means your

dramatic change of mind resulting in a change of life.

It means to surrender to God. If you are going to surrender to

God, if there's going to be a change in your life, then there

is going to be a giving up of the old life and a giving up of

the old ways and a change from who you used to be.

And I've said this many, many, many times, and I hope you get

it. You don't change in order to be

saved, but you changed because you have been saved.

And there's a difference. I'm not changing my life.

I'm not reforming my life because I'm hoping that God will

take me to heaven. I'm reforming my life.

I'm changing my life because I accepted Christ as my Savior,

and I'm not that person anymore. I'm going in a totally different

direction. That's what repentance is all

about. And so the believers there at

Thessalonica exemplify biblical repentance.

They turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse #17 I think this is one of

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

the, one of the powerful verses that we have that really shows

that repentance is a change in somebody's life course.

John 3 verse #7 Jesus said you must be born again.

Born again is a dramatic change. It's a, it's a, it's a new

birth. It's a miracle that God does for

a new believer. It's a dramatic transformation.

Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse #17 says therefore, if any

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

man be in Christ, he is what a new creature, old things are

passed away. Behold, all things are become

new, right? That's a change that's I'm not

who I used to be. There is something different

about me, right? This, this, this idea.

And I've, I've heard people say this before and, and I've, you

know, read many stories of, of people saying this, especially

in the, in the books where they're trying to get a ton of

people saved. And you know, they have these

salvation contests and all of these things where they're

trying to see who can lead the most people to Christ.

What if I told you that you could keep living your life

exactly the way that you're living your life and you can

still go to heaven? Would you want that?

Who wouldn't? All you have to do is believe

that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins and you can go

to heaven when you die. Do you believe that?

Yes. Well, do you want to pray and

ask Jesus to come into your heart?

Yes. OK, you're saved.

No, you're not saved. That's not salvation.

That is not repentance. There's no repentance in it.

There's probably not even really any faith in it either, but

there's no repentance in it. You cannot continue to live your

life in the same way that you're living your life and expect that

there has been a change, that there's been repentance.

So that salvation requires a new birth, and a new birth changes a

man's life #3 those who are saved hear Christ's voice and

follow him. So there's 3 verses here in John

John 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10 that all go hand in hand.

You cannot separate the one from the other.

And that's what a lot of people try to do.

They take verses as I just mentioned, out of context and

make it say something that it was not meant to say.

You can say if you read in verse 28, I give unto them eternal

life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man

pluck them out of my hand. That's for all of those who

accept Christ as their Savior. That's for all of those who

believe on Jesus Christ, Right? But Jesus gives the definition

of a true believer who has eternal life.

Jesus is sheep hear his voice, meaning they respond to his

word, and they follow Christ, meaning they submit to him as

disciples. That's what verse 27 says.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

Somebody who has not had one minute of change in their life

is not following the voice of God, right?

I believe I'm I'm a Christian. I'm a believer.

No, no change in your life whatsoever.

No forsaking the old ways and turning to God.

No, no change of mind that leads to a change of direction.

You're not hearing the Shepherd's voice because you're

not following him or or you would, right?

So what we're saying here is the promise of verse 28 and 29.

I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,

neither shall any man pluck them out of my, 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.

So you have Jesus's hand. I mentioned this the last week.

You have Jesus holding them in their hands, in his hand, and

then the Father holding them in his hand.

There's no way that you're getting out of there.

You're secure, right? But the promises of verse 28 and

29 cannot be divorced from the evidence of verse 27.

You have to take all of those things in context.

Who is it that has eternal life? Who is it that nobody can pluck

out of Jesus's hand? Who is it that nobody can pluck

out of the Father's hand? It's the sheep that hears voice

and follow them. Follow Him.

That's who it is. All right, we have another one

that's almost the exact same way in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Turn over there. Those who are saved hear

Christ's voice and follow Him. But saving faith always produces

holy works. And again, I'm not going to take

the time to go all the way through the entire book of James

because we already did that. But how many times do we see in

the book of James that works follows salvation, works follows

repentance, right? Not for salvation, but because

of it. And it will be evident.

It will be obvious. Ephesians 2, eight through 10

describes the proper relationship between faith and

works. It's faith that saves us and

works that follow as a result. The works in the Christian life

are God's works in the believer. Thus there is no glory for man.

But to mix works together with faith for salvation is a false

gospel. Look Ephesians chapter 2, verse

Ephesians 2:8

8. For by grace are you saved

through faith, and that not of yourselves.

That is the gift of God, not of works less than any man should

boast. All of that is Jesus's part.

That's all on him. For we are his workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before

ordained, that we should walk in them.

What is, what is preordained, right?

We read it, we read about that in Romans, right?

And the preordained is that some are going to be saved and some

are not going to be saved. And you're preordained to go to

heaven. You're preordained to be damned

to hell, right? That's what preordination is.

No, it's not. He's talking about two good

works, right? And if you read the context of

that passage, it says the exact same thing.

But what is he? What is he ordaining us to?

He which God hath before ordained that we should walk in

them. What is them?

Good works. OK, so if God has before

ordained that we should walk in good works, who is he talking

about here? The people who are saved, right?

For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of

yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of

works, lest any man should boast.

We then those who are saved are his workmanship in Christ Jesus

created unto good works, that we should walk in them, right?

Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

So it's also true that holy works follow saving faith.

James describes a Christian life from man's perspective.

If a man says he has faith and does not have anything in his

life to back it up, he does not have saving faith, right?

In fact, let's go over there and look at that.

We're not going to, we're not going to go through the entire

passage, but let's go to James chapter 2.

James 2 · chapter mention

Many times James mentions this faith without works is dead.

But James chapter 2 and verse #14 what does it profit, my

James 2 · chapter mention

brethren? Though a man say he hath faith

and have not works, Can faith save him?

If a brother or sister be naked and death due to daily food, and

one of you saying to them depart in peace, be your warmed and

filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things which are

needful to the body, What does it profit?

You see what he's saying here? It's all just empty words.

Oh, oh, you need clothes. OK, go, go in peace and be warm.

But you didn't do anything. You didn't put any clothes on

them. How are they going to go in

peace and be warm? It's just, it's just words,

right? What he's saying is faith

without works. Because then he concludes with

that verse #17 Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead,

being alone. Faith in works go hand in hand,

right? If you're saved, you're going to

have the works that prove that you're saved.

You're not doing it to stay saved.

You're not doing it to be saved, but you're doing it because you

are saved and there's going to be an evidence that you are.

So then #5 let's go over to 1st John chapter 2.

John 2 · chapter mention

First John chapter 2. The Bible says that true

1 John 2 · chapter mention

believers keep God's commandments and purify

themselves. First John chapter 2 and verse

1 John 2 · chapter mention

#4 he that saith, I know him. Who would that be?

Those who claim to be saved, right?

Those who claim to be Christians, he that says I know

him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the

truth is not in him. So if, if, if you don't keep his

commandments, you're a liar, the truth's not in you.

Then what do you not do? You don't know him, right?

You say you know him, but you don't keep his commandments.

You're a liar and there's no truth in you.

That means you don't know him. Claim that you know Him, but if

you don't keep His commandments, you don't, right?

Verse number or chapter 3. Verse #2 Beloved now, are we the

sons of God? And it does not yet appear what

we shall be. But we know that when He shall

appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

And every man that hath this hope in Him purifies himself

even as he is pure. What's the hope?

What's the hope? Heaven, He's coming back, right?

So what he's saying does not appear what we shall be, but we

know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we

shall see him as he is. Everybody that has this hope

does what purifies himself, who has the hope that God's, that

Jesus Christ is coming back for us someday?

The saved, right? So if you're saved and you have

that hope, then what are you going to do?

You're going to purify yourself. So then let's do the opposite of

that. Somebody who says they're saved

but doesn't purify themselves because he could come back.

What's the only conclusion that we can draw from that?

Probably you're not saved right now.

You can still be a Christian in sin, all right?

You can still be a Christian living in sin.

We're going to talk about that in the next lesson.

But there's a good indication then that you're not saved.

The promise of verse 2 cannot be divorced from the evidence of

verse 3, Right? Here's the promise.

He's coming back for us. I have this hope that he's

coming back. But verse 3 is, and every man

that hath this hope purifies himself.

So if you don't purify yourself, you don't have that hope.

That's basically what he's saying.

And what Brother Cloud is saying here in this fifth point is the

promise that he's coming back for you cannot be divorced from

the fact that if he really is coming back for you, you're

going to live a pure life. Number six, the Bible warns

about those who profess Christ but do not obey him.

Titus chapter 1. Let's turn over there.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

They are false professors, false professors.

And we see a lot of this. In fact, Titus talks a lot about

exactly what I was just talking about, false teachers.

But Titus chapter one verse #16 Let's go back to verse 15.

Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are

defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their

mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God,

but in works they deny Him, being abominable and

disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

That is exactly what our question is.

Does the doctrine of eternal security mean that anyone who

professes Christ has eternal life?

Well, here's somebody who is professing to know Christ,

right? That's what he's saying.

They profess that they know God, but it works.

They deny him, and they're abominable and disobedient and

reprobate. So to go on to the next page, if

a person claims to have faith in Christ, but his life doesn't

reflect that he's deceived, A fruitless profession of faith

cannot lay claim to God's promises of eternal security.

If an individual professes Christ and then turns away,

that's evidence that he was never saved, right?

So does the doctrine of eternal security 'cause people to live

carelessly? Well, I suppose that it could,

right? We're in Titus chapter 2.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

Look at verse #11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation

hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying

ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly,

righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that

blessed hope in the glorious appearing of our great God.

Of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself

for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify

unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

So those who don't believe in the doctrine of eternal security

say that it causes people to live carelessly.

Well, you can if, if you can, if you can't lose your salvation,

then you can go live your life however you want to.

And it just, it encourages you to live your life however you

want to because you know that you can't lose your salvation.

If you can lose your salvation, it makes you want to live for

Christ. Because I don't want to lose

what I have, right? Well, in fact, the opposite is

true, the cloud said. I began my preaching career in

part of Tennessee where Methodists had predominated for

a couple centuries. The doctrine of losing your

salvation had devastated that area.

It was filled with people who had tried to live the Christian

life and failed and now lived like the devil.

That's exactly what happens, right?

If you know that you cannot lose your salvation, you realize what

a wonderful thing you have that motivates you to live for the

Lord. They their argument is the exact

opposite. Well, if you know that you can

lose that, that you can't lose your salvation, you can just go

live how you want to and that's going to motivate you to not

live for the Lord. No, exactly what Brother Cloud

is saying is exactly what happens so often.

You try so hard and you realize you can't do it on your own.

And then you never know if you're saved or not.

And you don't have any kind of security that you, when you die,

you're going to go to heaven. What's the point of doing all

this anyway? Then they quit and they go live

like the devil. That's exactly what happens in

many of these places where they don't believe in eternal

security. But the Bible teaches that the

grace of God and motivates believers to serve God with a

thankful heart. And we read that in Romans 2,

Ephesians chapter 3. The more a believer understands

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

the unfathomable love that God has for him in Christ, the more

he wants to please God first. John 419 We love him because he

first loved us. No, it's not.

It's not what's the what keeps me living for the Lord.

What is it that keeps me living for the Lord?

His love for me, right? I know what He gave me.

I know what I have in Him. I have eternal life.

Could I go jump off the deep end and live my life however I want

to right now? Absolutely I could.

And I could still go to heaven because I know I'm saved.

But the reason I don't do those things is not because I can't.

It's because I don't want to. For the love of Christ

constraineth us. I don't want to go do those

things because I know what He's done for me.

I know what He saved me from. That's why I have the motivation

to live for him. It does the exact opposite.

I'm not trying to do this to to get myself to heaven.

I'm not trying to do this so that I can, you know, have a

higher, higher rung or a bigger mansion or any of those kind of

things. Those those things are already

promised to me. I can't lose that because I know

I'm saved. But I don't want to live like

the world. I don't want to live like the

old man. I don't want to live like who I

used to be because I know that what I have is something that's

far more valuable than what I had before.

I accept the Christ as my Savior.

So the true grace of God teaches people to live holy lives.

And that's what we're saying there in Titus chapter 2 verse

Titus 2 · chapter mention

#11 So let's go on to Part 3. Then a third question, I guess

what this would be, but a second main question.

If the disobedient believer does not lose his salvation, then

what does happen to him? OK, well, isn't that a

motivation? The doctrine of eternal security

causes people to live carelessly because they know they can't

lose it. I suppose that's a possibility.

But what happens to the believer who knows that he's eternally

secure, knows that he cannot lose his salvation, but he's

disobedient to the Word of God? Well, we have a few things here.

Number one, let's go over to 1st John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

We're not too far from there. The sinning believer is out of

fellowship with the Lord and his people.

First John chapter 1 and verse #3.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

Well, really verse 3 through 7 that which we have seen and

heard, declare we unto you, that she also may have fellowship

with us. And truly our fellowship is with

the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

And these things right we unto you, that your joy may be full.

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and

declare unto you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness

at all. We say that we have fellowship

with Him and walk in darkness. We lie and do not the truth but

but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have

fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his

Son cleanseth us from all sin. John's gospel here of first

John. First John really is all about

our fellowship, right? The the, the, the, the

fellowship that we have with God.

That's kind of the theme of that whole book John was writing to

instruct the believers in how to maintain that fellowship with

with Jesus. So verse #7 is all about verse

#3 is all about that which we have seen and heard and declare

unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us.

And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son

Jesus Christ. It's all about having that

fellowship with Him. We do that by walking in the

light instead of walking in darkness.

Walking in the light is walking in obedience to God's Word.

Walking in darkness is walking in disobedience to God's Word.

So to live out a fellowship with Christ means that I'm not

walking according to God's Word. And if I'm not walking according

to God's word, then I don't have that fellowship with him.

I'm not going to have that fellowship with him.

I don't have the wisdom that he can give me.

I don't have the power that only comes from him.

I don't have the blessing that he wants to give me.

So when I get to the point where I have decisions that I have to

make in my life and I'm doing it without God's blessing.

When I have decisions that I have to make and I'm making it

without God's wisdom. When I when I have to get up

and, and try to share the gospel with somebody in a crowd or

one-on-one and I don't have God's power, right, I lose all

of that when I'm not living in fellowship with God.

The question that that that I think that I think we ought to

think about often is are you on praying ground, right?

How many times somebody comes to you and says, Hey, I need you to

pray about this is a really serious matter.

Can you pray about this for me? And you say, you're never going

to say, no, I can't pray. I'm not in fellowship with God,

right? You're going to say, yeah, I'll

pray with you about that. And then you start thinking

about all the things that you're doing that are not in

fellowship. And man, I haven't been on my

knees in a while. And boy, if I, I mean, if I do

pray, is my prayer going to be the thing that hinders the

answer because God can't answer me because I'm, and you're not

on praying ground at all, right? How about, how about living a

life that's clean before God and living in fellowship with God so

that when somebody does come and say, hey, I really need you to

pray about this. Can you pray about this with me?

I can say, yeah, I'll drop it at my knees right now.

I'm, I'm in fellowship with God and there's nothing that I have

between me and him. I'll go to God on your behalf

right now. And I'm going to trust that

God's going to answer that prayer because there's nothing

between me and him, right? You're out of fellowship with

him. Now You can, you can be a saved

Sinner that's out of fellowship with God and you lose all the

things that come with that fellowship, right?

It's like it's, it's, it's just think about it with any

relationship that you have, right?

You're in fellowship with somebody, you have a great

relationship. And then you do something that

kind of stabs them in the back and all the, the jokes that you

used to, you know, tell together and all the fun things that you

used to do and all the, you know, the, the inside jokes and

whatever else that you had with each other.

It just kind of goes away because, well, I mean, he

probably, I mean, we probably could joke around again, but I

know what I did to him and he knows what I did to him.

And so we just kind of, we lost it.

You know, it's, it's not there anymore.

And it happens in relationships, right?

It may not even be something that you did.

It might just be that you kind of went separate ways and you

don't really hang out very much anymore.

That's exactly what the what the fellowship with Christ is too,

right? Sometimes you sinned against him

and you know that there's this thing between you and him.

Well, you're not going to come to him and ask him to do this

for you, or ask for his power or ask for his wisdom when you know

you have something between you and Him.

But sometimes it may not even be a sin.

It might just be that you got cold and you grew away and you

haven't been, you know, you haven't been in prayer and you

haven't been in your Bible, and you haven't been doing the

things that you know you're supposed to do.

And that causes the fellowship to grow cold too.

And now somebody comes and says, hey, I need you to pray about

this. And you say, well, yeah, I'll

pray about it. And you don't because you can't,

right? So what happens to a saved

person, a Christian that that can't lose his salvation, but

he's in sin anyway? Well, he's out of fellowship

with the Lord. 2 The sinning believer grieves the Holy Spirit

that lives in him. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 4. Now this whole part here, this

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

whole third part of the eternal security is, is under the

assumption that you know Christ as your Savior, right?

And you know that you know Christ as your Savior.

The sitting believer grieves the Holy Spirit that lives in, in

Ephesians chapter 4 and verse #30 and grieve not the Holy

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of

redemption. OK, You're sealed under the day

of redemption. You cannot lose your salvation.

But what can you do? You can grieve the Spirit,

right? So I mean, if you want to, if

you want one verse on eternal security, that's about it right

there, right? You're sealed under the day of

redemption by that Holy Spirit that you can grieve.

How do you grieve the Holy Spirit?

By living for him? No, by not living for him,

right. So what this verse is saying is

you're sealed, the Holy Spirit seals you and you're going to

heaven, but you can grieve him at the same time, which means

you can sin and not lose your salvation.

But don't. That's what he's saying.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto

the day of redemption. So to grieve the Holy Spirit

means that his ministration in my life is hindered.

He cannot do the things that he wants to do through me and in

me. He is the believer's comforter

and strength and guide and teacher.

And when he's grieved, I lose that blessing.

I don't grow spiritually. I don't have spiritual power.

I don't have spiritual enlightenment, I don't have

spiritual wisdom. I lose all of the things that

the Holy Spirit does in the life of a believer when I grieve him

#3 the sinning believer is helped by the Lord Jesus Christ.

First John chapter 2 probably could have stayed over there,

1 John 2 · chapter mention

but let's go back to it. First John chapter 2 verse #1 My

1 John 2 · chapter mention

little children, these things right I unto you, that ye sin

not. And if any man sin, we have an

advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but

also for the sins of the whole world, right?

So. My little children, OK, who is a

child who's a child that he's talking to here?

Yes, us right. It's the it's the children of

God. It's not just the the the little

kids, it's the children of God. So he's saying, my children,

these things I write unto you that you sin not, but if you do

sin, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous right.

He's our advocate with the Father and he'll be there to to

go to God on behalf of our sin, right?

He's the propitiation. He's the he is the the the go

between, if you will, the payment for our sin and not for

ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

He'll do that for anybody. But when we sin, God doesn't

abandoned us. We have an advocate, we have a

helper. The name Jesus means savior and

he does not cease to be my savior when I sin.

Jesus is there helping me. And I've used this illustration

many times when it comes to the the, the the list of all of my

sins. And you accept Christ as your

savior and that and, and he puts his name that in, in ran in

blood over the top of all of your sins.

Well, what happens when you sin again still covered under the

blood of Christ, right? He opens the book, he writes

that sin down and he closes the book again, right?

Grieves him. It hurts his heart to have to

write a sin down that he died for, but he still does it and he

still covers it the same way, and he'll still go to God on our

behalf as an advocate for us #4 Then the sinning believer is

chastened by the Father in Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 12. We like this passage because it

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

talks about wherefore seeing we also are compassed about.

We have this great cloud of witnesses looking under Jesus.

Very inspiring verses, right, But it continues on, and they

get not very inspiring, and just a few short verses after that,

but necessary verse #5 And you have forgotten the exhortation

which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not

thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked

of him. That in for whom the Lord

loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he

receiveth. That comes from Proverbs chapter

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

3. If you endure chastening, verse

7, God dealeth with you as with sons.

For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all our

partakers, then are you bastards and not sons?

Listen, what he's saying is if you can sin and there's no

punishment that comes from that sin, then you're not a son

because God punishes his children, right?

You cannot just sin, sin, sin, sin, sin and have no consequence

for it and have no pricked conscience about your sin.

If you can live your life that way and you don't feel anything,

there's a good possibility it's because you're not saved.

You ought to feel something. You're, you're a son of God and

he's going to treat you like a son.

He's going to discipline you the way a father disciplines a son,

right? Verse.

Verse #9 Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which

corrected us, and we gave them reverence.

Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of

spirits, and live? For they barely for a few days

chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit,

that we might be partakers of His Holiness.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous,

but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yielded the

peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised

thereby. Boy, you cannot get more

beautiful language than what you read in verse 9 through 9

through 11. Such a beautiful, beautiful

language on the way that God deals with his children.

He's saying, man, you have a father, you have an earthly

father that, that that spanked you when you did wrong.

And he was doing that to to make himself feel better because you

he knew that he wanted to live a peaceable life and with you

running around like a Wildman. He's not going to have it.

So he he disciplines you and you gave him reverence because he

disciplined you. How much more should you give

reference to God when he does it?

He's not doing look, he that's that's what he's saying verse

#10 for verily, for they Verily for a few days chastened us

after their own pleasure. But he for our prophet that we

might be protectors of His Holiness.

The reason we should be thankful that God is willing to punish us

and chastise us as his children is because he's trying to make

us more holy. He's trying to make us more like

him right. It doesn't seem to be fun, but

the fruit of it is good. It's going to help you be what

he wants you to be. So what happens to some a Sinner

That's, that's that. I mean, a saved person that's in

sin, God has to chasten them. He has to chastise them.

And it's not fun, but it's for our good.

Verse #5 the sinning believer reaps corruption.

Galatians chapter 6. Let's turn over there.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

Coming to a close here. Galatians chapter 6.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

These are verses that most of you could quote pretty easily.

Verse 7 and 8, Be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever

a man soweth that shall, he also reap, for he that soweth to his

flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth

to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

There's a price to be paid for sin in this present world.

Just because we're saved doesn't mean that we escape the sowing

and reaping. And I think that's a that's a

really sad principle. It's a really hard principle.

And, and he mentions a few things here that I think are are

easy for us to understand. Many believers have paid a

terrible price, such as losing their marriage over such things

as adultery, anger, worldliness, losing their kids hearts, losing

their ministries. Anything can be forgiven by

confession, but God has but, but sin has consequences.

For example, I know many divorce believers who have confessed

their sin, but the divorce is still a reality with all of its

ugly and hurtful lifelong ramifications.

It's true, right? Yeah, you could be saved and you

can go have an affair and you're not going to lose your salvation

and go to hell because you had an affair.

There's a lot of things that come as a result of that.

And you can choose your sin, but you don't get to choose the

consequences. God chooses the consequences.

And sometimes, like he did with David, he'll have mercy,

Sometimes he doesn't because he knows what we need to help us

get to the point where we're not going to do that again.

Can't lose your salvation, but you're going to reap that

corruption. You sinned.

You're still, there's still a principle of sowing and reaping

and we still all fit within that principle.

Number six, the sinning believer loses irreplaceable

opportunities for service and fruit.

And I think this is one of the saddest parts of it for, for,

you know, obviously, if you know, many times when somebody

sins and they know they've sinned and they're repentant,

like David was right. David said, I know that

everything that that I'm getting everything that's happening to

me. I deserve this right and I think

a lot of people feel that way. But the sad thing is you lose

out on so many opportunities to serve the Lord.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse #14 Wherefore he says, awake

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall

give thee light. See then that you walk

circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time,

because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but

understanding what the will of the Lord is.

See, we, we can be forgiven, but we lose opportunities when they,

when the Israelites doubted God, they were forced to walk in the

wilderness for 40 years. They repented.

As soon as they realized what was going to happen, they, they

repented and they asked God, you know, for forgiveness.

Oh, we're so sorry. We should have never said that.

We should have never done that. Please forgive us.

And God said, that's fine, I forgive you, but you're still

going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, right?

You're still going to have to go through all of those things.

And, and then the same thing, all of those who, who, who

complained and God said, all right, everybody that's 20 years

old and up, you're going to die in the wilderness.

Some of them, some of them repented, if you will.

Some of them ask for forgiveness, but the

consequences were still there. Many believers have lost

irreplaceable opportunities by making important decisions when

they were backslidden out of God's will.

And it happens a lot. Marry the wrong person, take the

wrong job, because you stop paying attention to what God

wanted. You start focusing on money and

start focusing on all those other things and you get out of

God's will because you're backslidden.

You have to live with those consequences.

You have to live with, with all of the the consequences of your

choices right now. Obviously you marry the wrong

person. You're not going to say up,

definitely marry the wrong person, get divorced.

Let's go and try this again. No, you live with it and you

move on and you and you try to make the best of it for God's

glory in the middle of a situation that you made a mess

out of, right. But you can still move on.

But you can't go back and start over.

So what the conclusion here is then we must live very

cautiously and make sure that we're in God's will every step

of the way. The last one here then is in

First Corinthians chapter 3. And I think this is this one

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

ought to be the most sobering for all of us.

And again, one of the motivations that keeps us from

sinning. Just because we can't lose our

salvation doesn't mean like as we already said, this doesn't

mean that we can live our lives how we want to, right?

But the sinning believer will suffer loss at the judgement

seat of Christ. One of these days we're all

going to stand before God. And one of these days we're

going to get rewarded or we're going to not get rewarded,

depending on how we lived our lives.

And verse #11 for other foundation can no man laid, and

that is laid which is Jesus Christ.

Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver,

precious stones, what hay stubble, all those are things

that we can build on top of, right?

So you get the foundation, right.

Once the foundation, right, that's, that's Christ, right.

Your house is not going to collapse when the storms come.

You're not going to end up, you know, with a, with a, with a

flat house because you built on sand, you built the foundation,

right? Nobody can lay that foundation

other than Jesus Christ. But then you build on that

foundation, and you can build out of gold, silver, precious

stones, wood, hay, stubble. Every man's work shall be made

manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be

revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of

what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he

has built there upon, he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss,

but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire.

Again, not necessarily a verse that we usually think of for

eternal security, but eternal security is, is right there in

that verse. You're going to be saved, right?

You're not going to, you're not going to lose your salvation.

That foundation is still there, but you could build an entire

life on top of a foundation that's solid, but that's going

to be burned up the second you touch the fire to it.

And everything that you put your life around, everything that you

built your life around could be gone in an instant.

You'll be saved. You're going to heaven.

Your foundation is is is secure, but everything that you built

your life around is gone in an instant unless you build out a

gold, silver, precious stones that would hay stubble be gone

in an instant. That's a sinning believer.

You can live your life how you want to.

You can and you don't. You're not going to lose your

salvation, but you're going to pay the consequences of it.

And one of these days you're going to stand before God.

I, as he says here, want to hear him say well done, thou good and

faithful servant. To not hear that will be a very

tragic loss. That's the sinning believer.

You're a believer. You're saved.

You're on your way to heaven. You can't lose that salvation.

He's holding you in his hand, in God's hand.

All of those are there for you, but it's all going to be burned

up. And not only that, but the life

that you live here is going to be a miserable life because

you're going to be getting chastised by God.

And if you don't get it right and come back, he's going to

keep chastising you. And things are probably going to

keep getting worse and worse and worse and worse for you.

But not only that, you don't have God's power, you don't have

God's blessing, you don't have God's wisdom, you don't have the

work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Can you be a Christian and sin, live your life how you want to

and still go to heaven? You can, but it's a miserable

life and it's a miserable judgment because everything that

you built your life around, it's going to be burned up, it's

going to be gone. It's not going to come for

anything. So the thing that he mentions

here at the very end, I can't recommend this book enough

Things hard to be understood. It's a handbook of biblical

difficulties. And basically what it is, is

everything that everything that we find in God's word that seems

to be a contradiction is just that it seems to be a

contradiction. God's word does not contradict

itself. So this book things hard to be

understood is a really good book for helping you to understand

the difficult passages what is being said here.

But there's a whole section at the end of that book that is all

topics, if you will, eternal security.

And he says for passages, look at the at the article in eternal

security for passages that are used by those who deny the

doctrine of eternal security. So these are all verses in all

passages that would that would refute the passages that they

used to say that eternal security is not a valid

doctrine, if you will. We don't have time to go through

all of those. We, we pretty much have, I mean,

in, in one way or another, one form or another over these last

couple weeks that we've done this lesson, but things hard to

be understood. It's a tremendous, tremendous

book. You can get it in a hard copy.

You can get it in a digital copy.

I believe we have hard copies of it back there in the bookstore.

I know we did. I don't know if we, you know,

we, we try to keep up with them and we've made several orders

and everything else. Sometimes it just disappears,

but you can get a digital copy of that too.

And it's easy to have that as part of like a Bible study in

the mornings or something like that, if you're, if you're

looking at it. But again, we have to be very,

very, very careful about who you read and who you listen to and

who you watch, all of those kind of things, because the doctrine

should come from God's Word. You looked at, look at all these

verses that we looked at tonight, right?

You can get in God's Word and find those verses for yourself.

You can do it. Why don't we?

Many times it's because we're too lazy to actually get in

there and look at it ourselves, right?

So it's a whole lot easier to just go find somebody that wrote

an article about it on the Internet, read what they have to

say, take their opinion, and that forms the basis of our

belief about this. Now I don't have to study that

out anymore because this guy said this and it sounded good.

So this is what I believe, right?

That's not Bible study, that's reading somebody's opinion,

right? Bible study is get in there,

figure out what it says. What do these verses mean?

OK, let's find the verses. Let's find the verses that

people who are opposed to eternal security use as evidence

for why they think eternal security is not a Bible

doctrine. And let's go find verses that

show us how we know that it is and how we know that they're

wrong. Right?

You can find it. You just got to study it out.

And again, that's why we have hundreds of Bible study tools.

You can use tools to help you find those things, but you need

to study it out for yourself. And don't just count on somebody

else's opinion or somebody else's study.

Get into the Bible yourself, read those verses yourself, see

what it has to say, come to your own conclusion based on what

God's Word says, right? It's a very important that we do

that. All right, we're going to get

into position and practice next week.

Let me mention this as we close. We have, I think, 6 people that

have accepted Christ as their Savior since the last time we

did a baptism service. And I'd like to do a baptism

service on Sunday for those who need to be baptized.

I know that's kind of short notice, but I mean really, I

don't know what I don't know how you prepare for baptism, you

know, other than maybe telling other people about it that might

want to be there and be a part of it.

But having said that, I will plan to do it on on Sunday.

So come let me know if, if you need to be baptized, if you're

one of those 6 that we, most of us, in fact all of us have

talked about about baptism. I've talked to all of you about

baptism. It's just kind of the date we

get into the next Sunday is Christmas, the Sunday after

that, a lot of people are out of town and things like that.

That puts us into the beginning of the new year, which is our,

our Sunday where we're kicking off the new theme.

And it just, it's going to be another month before we can do

it. I'd rather do it sooner than

later. So I'm planning to do it this

Sunday for all of those who would like to be baptized that

have been saved recently. So come see me, let me know,

send me a text, something like that and let me know.

I'll probably shoot each of you a text and just and, and see

where you're at with it. But if you can do it, we'd like

to do it this Sunday. All right, let's pray we'll be

done and we will sing our song and be dismissed.

Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.

Thank you for these lessons that we have.

I thank you for the work that Brother Cloud has put into, but

digging these things out of the Word of God and helping us to

have a framework to go off of and some verses that we can look

at that that that just really help us with understanding the

doctrine of the Bible and making sure that we are getting it from

your word and not just from somebody's opinion or from

anywhere else. God may.

May our final authority be God's word, and may you help us to be

truly students of your word and be effective at it.

And may you help us to be witnesses for you because of

what you've done for us. Thank you again for all you do

for us in Jesus name, Amen. All right.