" They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us." 1 John 2:19
This passage clearly teached that those who leave the faith, never really were of the faith. Our salvation is secure and we serve in faith and love out of gratitude and not to deserve eternal life. We will never deserve it. We are saved by grace through faith. Holiness is not the absence of sin, but rather the presence of God's spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the proof of living faith in God's gift of salvation. Salvation has three aspects: Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. Salvation is not just a fire escape, it's the whole story of all we are to be. The Gospel alone is God's power unto salvation.
Harry Ironside on Eternal Security
http://bob.vandyke.net/saved.htm
Dr. Charles Stanley on Eternal Security
http://www.intouch.org/myintouch/exploring/studies/ESSG_92269.html
Adrian Rogers, Erwin Lutzer, Bobby Welch, Jim Henry, David Uth, James McDonnell, John McArthur, John Waalvoord, Samuel Doherty, Josh McDowell, Hadden Robinson, Norman Geisler, Charles Ryrie, Craig Blaising, John Hannah, Ravi Zaccarius, J. I. Packer, D. L. Moody, J. Dwight Pentecost, Joe Stowell, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Chuck Smith, Zane Hodges, Joseph Dillow, Earl Radmacher, Greg Laurie, Harold O.J. Brown, Tony Evans, Chuck Swindoll, Warren Wiersbe, Bruce Wilkinson, James Kennedy and Matt Heard teach Eternal Security for the believer. All the false religions and cults teach that men can never be assured of Heaven or their equivalent until they themselves pay the price. "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe" wrote the Hymn writer. We serve out of gratitude and love, not out of fear and trying to reach God by our own works. Faith is not a work, but true faith in the truth alone results in action. God sees our hearts and looks on what lies within. Faith pleases Him only if it is in Him alone. The faith that is not dead is obedient faith, meaning that you not only say you believe, but whom or what you follow proves if your faith is real. Romans begins and ends with the phrase " Obedience of Faith ". James uses two examples of good faith that are tied to obedience in the book of Hebrews. James also uses one example of "Dead Faith" of demons who could not help but believe in God, but made the same mistake that Adam and Eve made. They believed in someone else more and followed HIm. Saving faith is faith in Christ alone.
We are born again of the Spirit. This new creation which takes place at the new birth for every believer will be in Heaven, even if the flesh looks to us like it got the best of a believer in their whole life time. The key here is that there was a new birth. It's never enough to give intellectual accent or to have a divided faith like the demons do and like Adam and Eve did when they sinned. To be saved and born again, you must have a change of mind ( metanoia ) having trusted in Him alone and His finished work on the cross for your own personal salvation from your own personal sin.
For those already born anew: The losses of living in sin are greater than we can ever imagine and the gains for living in good faith are also much greater than we can imagine. It is extremely important not to sin and certainly not to live in any sin. Those who care not that they are living in sin, should examine if they were truly born again. We were freed from sin and to sin again is to return to its bondage.
When we come short in our daily walk, we confess, repent and re-appropriate God's fullness by faith in His forgiveness already there and provision of victorious living. A true Christian will persevere, but the Lord always has the final word on whom He knew and whom He never knew. We need to be careful not to judge men to harshly, remembering that we were also saved by God's mercy and grace.
We are sealed with the Holy Spirit and God will never abort His newly redeemed children. He will discipline and lovingly bring us home. There are those who claimed His name and will be told " I never knew you ... " they were not told, ( I don't know you anymore ). Please send us your link to a good sermon or lesson on the security of the believer.
Finally, I recent years around 2011, the Lord has impressed upon me the fact that we were born again with the incorruptable seed of God (1 Peter 1:23) our greatest connection to Adam, whether we like it or not is that we were born of his perishing physical seed. This is why the Bible says in John 3:16, that we will never perish if we believe in God's Holy Son. Finding out about death as a young boy of 11 was a grim shock to me that never left me peaceful. Finding out about being born of imperishable seed, tells me we are saved forever as that seed was given to us sinners by grace through faith.
John 10: 28, 29; Phil. 1:6; Romans 8: 38,39
" No one can have true happiness and peace unless they know their sins are
forgiven and that they have assurance of eternal life with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ." Bill Bright
Bikers for Christ - First Baptist Church of Daytona Beach
A. Admit that you are a sinner (All have sinned...Romans 3:23) and accept God's only antidote for sin- faith in the shed blood of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ.
B. Believe what the Bible says...Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins, died, was buried and rose victoriously from the grave that we might be made the righteousness of God through faith in Him (John 3:16) (2 Corinthians 5:21) (John 5:24)
C. Confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior right now (Romans 10:9-10) Call upon Him now in prayer. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13)
Other Excellent Eternal Security Teaching Links:
http://www.egracebiblechurch.org/eternal_security.htm#Introduction
The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
Martin Luther saw that salvation came by faith, and understanding the difference in teaching in the book of James and Romans is critical in our ministry. James was not a reply to Romans, as James wrote his epistle years before Paul wrote any of his. James was a warning to the Jew who took God's grace for granted and misunderstood Genesis 15:6 which is the basis for justification by faith. James asks and answers what faith is in chapters one and two. Faith demands an action response as seen in Rahab and Abraham. The one example of worthless faith James gives us is of the demons that could not help but believe the God they knew, but who also believed Lucifer. Theirs was a divided faith and our faith (however small) must be in Jesus alone. Eph. 2: 8, 9 and Titus 3:5 clearly state that it is true faith alone and not any of our "good" works that will save us from the curse of Adam's sin. However Eph. 2:10 and Titus 3:8 follow those passages and show us that the new creation (new birth) enables us to act with good works now pleasing to God. Simply put, Jesus said it best - "without Me you can do nothing". We must first have the Lord Jesus as our personal savior.
Some folks have gotten the notion that salvation comes from the Church. In fact, the Church is the saved and salvation comes directly from God to the one who believes. The Church is made up of all those saved from sin and our head who is Christ alone. God alone saves us. No man, church or hierarchy can "improve" or "fix" the Gospel. It is perfect and any modifications simply detract from God's word. The church is us and we cannot save ourselves. The Church believed and believes unto salvation. Our Lord and Creator taught us whom to believe in. We are always taught to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and never once taught to believe in any church. Our faith and the Gospel message preceded the Church. Jesus picked the twelve Apostles, trained them and died in our place before the Church began. The faith was given to the church and the churches calling is to be faithful to the faith Christ gave to us. Whom we are to believe in; to whom we should pray; in whose name should we bring our requests before the Father; who is our only acceptable mediator and much more was all given to the Church to follow and obey in good faith.
All men were born of Adam's corruptible seed and by believing like the example Jesus gave in John 3: 14, 15 we are born anew by the incorruptible seed of God - never to perish. This is why John later wrote in 1 John 2:19, that once you are in God's family, you will never leave. This October 31, 2012 will mark 50 years of this new birth for me. I have known thousands of believers, and though some have strayed who always came back in tears of sorrow, no one I have known has left the fold. God will ultimately judge who is and who is not saved, but if they departed for good, they never did belong to God's family according to 1 John 2:19. If you have been born again by grace through faith you have become part of the divine nature. You were born of God's Holy Spirit. John states it plainly, "you were born of God". 1 John 5:1
Romans 6:23 summarizes the Gospel this way, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Salvation is a gift!!! It is not earned in part or in whole. You can never earn salvation or pay for it. The price was paid in full by the blood of Christ on the cross. We insult God and do not believe Him by offering our "good works" which are like "filthy rags" in His sight. Only the "good works" done in the power of the Holy Spirit are pleasing to God. If it is a gift, you cannot pay for it. When the world speaks of free gifts, there are always strings attached, not so with God. The religious Jews tried to earn their salvation by good works and died in their sins unless they instead placed all of their faith in Jesus alone - Romans 9: 30-31. In Matthew 28:18-20 2 Timothy 2:2 and 1 Thessalonians 2:8 we can summarize what making disciples involves.