From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You may look at your life and just think, "Man, my life's a mess. I'm a Christian, but I'm just failing here and failing there and failing somewhere else. I have a lot of claims that I keep coming to the Lord. I keep confessing my sin, confessing my sin, and I do sometimes wonder if the Lord's going to drop me, like the insurance company just says, 'That's too much, I drop you.'" But He will never do that. One day He is going to enable you to stand before the presence of God Almighty, and you will be blameless before Him.

Guest (Male): This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today. He's got a concrete truth to pass along all found in scripture. Our God is a God who never lets go, and that's the title of today's lesson from the series "Faith Under Fire," a study of the book of Jude.

So many Christians live in fear that their sins are so great that God will say, "I'm done with you. I'm letting you go." How can we be sure that that is not the case? In today's message, Pastor Jeff shares the comforting truth that as believers, we're held securely in His hands and that our confidence rests not in ourselves but in the God who saves and sustains us forever.

If you missed any of the other five lessons that we've aired so far this month, you can go back and listen again at fromhisheart.org. Download a free MP3 of any broadcast as well as the sermon outlines and notes from Pastor Jeff, all for free. Right now, though, open your Bible to the book of Jude. Here again is Pastor Jeff to assure you again that our God never abandons His people.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Years ago, I heard a message on eternal security by Adrian Rogers, and he addressed the congregation. He said this: "Is there anything better than being saved?" He said, "There is. Being saved and knowing you're saved. Is there anything better than being saved and knowing you're saved?" He said, "There is. Being saved, knowing you're saved, and knowing that you can never lose it."

How can you be sure that the Lord will never drop you, will never let you go? You can be sure number one because He is able. "Now to Him who is able," Jude says, "to Him who is able." The word "able" in the Greek is dunamai. It means capable, strong, powerful. As Paul said, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed, that which I've entrusted to Him until that day." Have you entrusted your heart, your life, your all to Him? If so, He will keep you. He has the power to do that.

How can you be sure that the Lord will never let you go? Because He's able in every instance. Secondly, because He's able to keep you from falling. So it says in verse 24, "Now to Him who is able." Able to do what? "To keep you from falling," from stumbling. The Lord is able to do that. Two areas of assurance. First of all, He's able to keep you from falling into sin. And He's able to keep you from falling away from Him, from apostatizing.

The book of Jude is all about apostates, those who hear the truth and reject the truth and wander from the truth and pervert the gospel and turn the grace of our God into licentiousness. The Lord is able to keep you from falling away from Him. Jesus said in John chapter 6, "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

I contend that if you could lose your salvation, then Jesus didn't do the will of the Father because it was the will of the Father that of all that He has given Me, I lose nothing. So that's why I said we're not saved by holding on to Jesus; He holds on to us. And He gives us eternal life. John 5:24, Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has present tense, right now everlasting eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of judgment into life."

Think about eternal life. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting eternal life." The moment that you put your faith and trust in Jesus, He gives you eternal life. Now, if you have present tense eternal life, when does that life end? It doesn't end. It's eternal life. If you had "eternal life" but five years from now you could lose it, then what did you really have? You had a five-year life.

If you could have it for ten years and lose it, what did you have? A ten-year life. If you could have it for twenty years and then lose it, what did you have? A twenty-year life. You didn't have eternal life because eternal life never ends. And so the Lord gives us eternal life. He who hears My word and believes on Him who sent Me has, right now, eternal life. And He's able to keep us from falling away from Him.

You say, "Well, Jeff, what about the people that we know of that were Christians and now they're not Christians?" Joshua Harris wrote the book; he was a pastor. He wrote the book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and he walked away from Christianity. He said, "I don't believe this," and he walked away. You say, "Well, that guy was obviously a Christian and now he's not a Christian." How do you explain the people that were Christians and now they're not Christians?

Well, you explain it this way: You don't know that that person is a Christian or not. How could you know? You can't see into that person's heart. The disciples didn't know Judas was a devil. Jesus did because the Lord sees not as man sees. Man sees the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. And the Lord knows those, as it says in Second Timothy, He knows those who are His. Now, we just look on the outward and we say, "Well, that guy, he looks good. He sounds good. They say the right things. They're brothers and sisters in Christ."

God's Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're children of God and we can be around other Christians and we can have that sense that this person is a true believer. But that sense is not 100% accurate all the time. Many of us don't know these people that are well-known that walked away from the faith. We just know about them. And we have this idea, "Well, they've lost their salvation." They didn't. They never had it. That's the whole point of Jude.

These are apostates. These are people that got really close. They heard the truth, but then they rejected the truth. They said, "Well, I don't like that." Jen Hatmaker, people know her. She's in Austin and so many people followed her. Then she came out some years ago in favor of the LGBTQIA+ agenda and program. Recently she just said she's left the church. People are like, "Well, she must have lost her salvation." I contend nobody loses salvation. You can't lose salvation because you don't hold on to Him; He holds on to you.

But you can pretend to have salvation and never really have it. First John chapter 2, verse 19, "They went out from us, but they are not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us." Just because you're with the group, so to speak, and you call yourself a Christian and you open the Bible and you teach the Bible and you preach the Bible, doesn't mean you truly believe.

That's why it is so important in this day and age that we have discernment and we ask God and we double-check teachers and preachers of the word. We go back to the scripture ourselves and study to make sure that what this person is saying is true. When it comes to Matthew 7, when Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. For many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not preach in Your name and in Your name cast out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?'"

"Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" How many in this room could say to the Lord, "Lord, I've preached in Your name. I've cast out demons in Your name. I've performed miracles in Your name"? None of us could say all three of those things. You know who could say all those things? Judas. He could say all that. He did all those things. But the Lord never knew him.

How do you know that you really belong to Jesus? How can you be sure that you belong to Jesus? How can we say from the scripture that the Bible is clear that once you're saved, you're saved forever? Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14, "In Him," speaking of Jesus, "in Him you also after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with the view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory."

Guest (Male): What a wonderful comfort to know that our position in Christ is permanent. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve and today the lesson "A God Who Never Lets Go." Now, we know this because God has promised it and His character is faithful. Deuteronomy 3:8 says, "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you."

Hebrews 13:5 repeats that promise, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." A simple way to say it is this: We know God will never abandon us because He has given us His word, demonstrated His love through Christ, and proven Himself faithful again and again. To help that truth sink in, we'd like you to have a special resource from Pastor Jeff. It's the series "Faith Under Fire" that we've been in this month, a study of the book of Jude.

Six messages that will bring you peace and assurance that is unshakable. It's our special gift for you for your support this month of any amount to From His Heart. Pastor Jeff is a volunteer for this ministry. Just go to fromhisheart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253) and make that gift, and we'll send you the series on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or an immediate MP3 download. And be assured, God is a God who will never let you go. Now, back to conclude part two of this lesson. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: The Holy Spirit, He's our down payment, so to speak. He's our earnest money contract. He's our engagement ring. That's the word that's used in the Greek, arrhabon. It means all those things. And when the Lord says, "Here, you're going to be My bride. I'm going to marry you and here is the pledge of the fact that I'm going to come back for you one day. I'm giving you My Holy Spirit and I'm never breaking up with you."

You're sealed. And for God to reject me, to let me go, well, He would lose His Spirit. Just like you break a contract, you lose your earnest money. Well, that's never going to happen. And so you and I can know that He will keep us from falling away from Him. And then assurance number three: How can you be sure the Lord will never let you go? Because He is able to make you stand before Him.

To keep you from falling and then to stand before Him, as it says in verse 24, "to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy." If you know Christ, you will one day in the future stand blameless before Him. That is amazing. That word blameless means without blemish, without reproach. Now we stand not sinless before Him because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But we stand blameless before Him because Jesus took all our blame. He took all our condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and of death. The Bible says He was numbered with the transgressors so that we would never be numbered with the transgressors.

He took all our sin upon Himself. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And one day, I and all those who truly have given their heart and life to Jesus, we're going to stand before Him blameless. As we sing that song, "Faultless to stand before the throne." Ephesians chapter 5 says this: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless."

We're going to be blameless. The Lord is excited to present His bride before the Father without spot, without wrinkle, without stain, without blemish. You may look at your life and just think, "Man, my life's a mess. I'm a Christian, but I'm just failing here and failing there and failing somewhere else. I have a lot of claims that I keep coming to the Lord. I keep confessing my sin, confessing my sin, and I do sometimes wonder if the Lord's going to drop me, like the insurance company just says, 'That's too much, I drop you.'"

But He will never do that. One day He is going to enable you to stand before the presence of God Almighty, and you will be blameless before Him. But not only blameless, you will have great joy. We stand blameless before Him with great joy and be greatly joyful before Him. That word means exultation, exceeding joy. Now, when people encountered God in the scripture, there was not exceeding joy; there was exceeding fear.

When Isaiah saw the Lord in Isaiah chapter 6, high and lifted up, sitting on a throne, and the glory filled the temple and the seraphim were there, each having six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and they called back one to another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory," and the foundations of the thresholds trembled and there was smoke, and Isaiah cried out and said, "Woe is me! For I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

There was fear. But in that day, we stand blameless with great joy, exceeding joy, not because of what we did, but because of what He did. It's all the glory. All the glory goes to Him. And Jesus is looking forward to that day, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He can't wait to come get His bride.

He can't wait to take His bride to heaven. He can't wait to present His bride without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing before the Father. That is His great joy. That is our great joy. And listen, you will see if you know Christ in a real way, you will see and experience the fullness of His glory, the fullness of His glory. Because it says we will be in the presence. "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory."

That's face-to-face glory. That literally means to be in the face of, directly in front of. Moses asked the Lord, "Lord, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me Your glory." And the Lord says, "I can't show you My face. I can only show you the backside of My glory. No man can see My face and live. But this is what I'll do for you, Moses: I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand, and I'm going to pass by and I'll let you see the edges of My glory, the back of My glory, because if you see My face, you die."

But in that day when we're blameless before Him, faultless to stand, we see His face. We see His glory full-on, His glory. And it says in Revelation chapter 22 that there will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him, and they will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads. We're going to see the Lord in all His splendor, in all His majesty, in all His glory.

And as Jude ends up verse 25, "to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever." Past, present, future, all the glory goes to Jesus. He holds you. You don't hold Him. He holds you. You don't hold Him.

Perhaps you heard the story of the little boy who had a little pond in his backyard and it was a hot summer day in Florida and this little guy wanted to go swimming. And he ran outside and he jumped in the water. His dad was watching him from the window and saw the son swimming and he saw what the son didn't see. There was an alligator in that pond. And as the son was swimming out to the middle, the alligator was swimming toward him.

The father left the house and he ran and he got to the pier and he yelled after the son. The son turned around and started to swim back, but the alligator was swimming at him. And they met right there at the pier and the dad had his hands on the son's arms and the alligator had his jaws on the son's legs and there was a tug of war. And a neighbor heard the commotion, ran outside with a gun, and he shot and killed the alligator.

Well, they got that boy out of the water, they took him to the hospital. His wounds were extensive. And after several weeks, a reporter came to talk to that family, to talk to that boy. And he was telling him what happened and then the little boy said, "You want to see my scars?" The guy said, "Yes." So he showed him the scars on his legs and the reporter said, "Oh, that's horrific."

And he said, "But these are the scars I'm most proud of," and he pulled up his shirt sleeve and there were scars on his arms. And he said, "How did you get those?" He goes, "Those are from my father who would not let me go." Your Father will never let you go. Your Lord will never let you go. Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hands. My Father who is greater than all has given them to Me, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

You are safe and secure if you are in Jesus. You are saved and saved forever. But now here's the big question: Have you ever truly been saved? If you're saved, you're saved forever, but the question is have you been saved? You're not saved by just repeating words. You're saved when you give your heart and life to Jesus. And when you do, He puts you in His hand and He will never, no never ever let go.

Guest (Male): What a promise, that you can be assured God will never abandon you. Are you ready to put your faith and trust in Christ? The Lord offers you forgiveness for your sins and freedom to live for Him. Will you accept the gift of God that He's offering you in Jesus?

To better understand what that means, we invite you to go to our website at fromhisheart.org, click the "Why Jesus?" link. You'll find some clarity there offered from Pastor Jeff. We also have some free download booklets from Pastor Jeff that can help you called "How Can You Be Sure You're Going to Heaven?", "How to Receive a Not Guilty Verdict from God," and "How to Understand the Mystery of Prayer," all when you click the "Why Jesus?" link.

Well, thanks for joining us today on From His Heart, and we hope that the truth will resonate in your heart that God holds on and never releases you. His grip is unbreakable. That's all for today, but be with us on Thursday for the beginning of another powerful series that will air for the rest of the month. It's called "Face-Off: Fighting for the Faith." Join us then as we open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.