In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: God does not give the quality and quantity of eternal life which is his life with any strings attached. It is a gift of God. Listen, if it's not of grace, then it has to be performance.

But he says, "I give." He didn't say you worked for it. "I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish, no one shall be able to snatch them out of my hand." Satan can't take us out of God's hands. Somebody says, "Well, I could walk away," but I'm going to show you in a few minutes that won't work either.

Guest (Male): The Bible refers to believers as adopted as sons and daughters. Now that would indicate a permanent change and a unique relationship. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley will look at the scriptural foundation for believing that a Christian's eternal future is safe. Here's Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: The many things that separate the Christian faith from all other religions but primarily the one that stands out above all the rest is this: that all other religions are based on performance and the Christian faith is based on grace. I want you to turn to Romans chapter eight and I want us to look at two verses in this passage, the last two verses of Romans eight, because here Paul is offering us an awesome sense of assurance about our relationship to God when he makes this statement.

Having told us in these verses in the eighth chapter how God is in charge of everything, how he's predestined us to be conformed to his likeness, how everything is under his divine control, how he is guiding every aspect of our life, and he says beginning in this 38th verse: "For I am convinced, I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights nor depths nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Now there are many commands in scripture. It's very clear what you and I ought to be able to do as a believer, how we should live and yet all of us know that because we still live in this flesh we're not always going to do exactly what he tells us to do. So if our relationship to him is built on our performance, all of us would have to say, "Father, just take me on now because I'll never be able to do every single thing that I ought to do as long as I live in this flesh," because we will not always rely upon the Holy Spirit.

Then upon what is our assurance based? And so what I'd like to do this evening, first of all, is to give you a definition of eternal security. So I want you to write this down in the back of your Bible somewhere there so that you'll not forget it. Eternal security: what is it? Eternal security: once a person is saved by the grace of God, they are eternally secured in his grace and cannot be severed from their relationship with God.

Now, the grace of God is his goodness and kindness toward us without regard to our worth, or you can say our value and efforts, and in spite of what we deserve. So that's what the grace of God is all about. Has nothing to do with performance and conduct, but it has to do with his love toward us. And eternal security likewise has nothing to do with my merit or my worth in spite of what we deserve also, but once we are secured by his grace, we are eternally secured by that grace and nothing can separate us from him.

Now as we've said last time, we gave four reasons why we believe in eternal security. I want to give you the fifth one tonight and the fifth one is this, and that is it's real simple. Number five: the clear promises of God. The clear promises of God is one of the reasons we believe in eternal security. Look if you will in John chapter 10. Look if you will beginning in verse 26 of John chapter 10.

He says, "But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them." Now listen: "I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

Now notice what he says: "And I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish." He didn't say, "I give them eternal life and they shall never perish except," "they shall never perish if," "they shall never perish but." None of these statements have any question about them. He says, "I give unto them eternal life." God does not give the quality and quantity of eternal life which is his life with any strings attached.

It is a gift of God. Listen, if it is not a gift, it is of works. If it is works, it demands what? Performance, right. That is, if it's not of grace, then it has to be performance. But he says, "I give." He didn't say you worked for it. "I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish. No one shall be able to snatch them out of my hand. Satan can't take us out of God's hands." Somebody says, "Well, I could walk away," but I'm going to show you in a few minutes that won't work either. So therefore, we are eternally secured by his promises.

Now turn back if you will to Philippians chapter one. And so in this sixth verse of the first chapter of Philippians, he says... Well, let's look beginning in verse three. He's thanking God for them and he says, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now," how they had helped him.

"For I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Now somebody says, "Well, what he's saying is he believes they're going to keep on supporting him till then." Well, that's probably true. But what he's saying here is he's talking about the work that God has begun on the inside of them. He has begun his work.

Listen: he saves us and according to Romans 8:29, he not only saves us, but according to Romans 8:29, he's going to do what? He says that he predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of his son. Now look: if he has begun the moment you and I received him as our savior, he began that work in us. He predestined every single believer to be conformed to his son. So if he began that good work in us, let me ask a question. Is the Lord Jesus going to say, "Well, I started that in him but I quit"?

Is he going to say, "Well, I started that in him but he blew it real bad so I quit"? Is Jesus ever going to give up on anybody? He says, "Listen, he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." That means he's not going to give up, he's not going to throw us out, he's not going to lose. Listen: God isn't going to get discouraged with you and me. You say, "Well, why doesn't Jesus get discouraged with our conduct?" Because before he ever saved us, he knew what we were going to do.

So he's not going to get discouraged. When he says that he who has begun a good work in us will perfect it until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is until Jesus calls us home, he is going to be in the process of doing what? Conforming us to his likeness and he's not going to give up and quit on us. He's not going to act toward us like we act toward each other. And so therefore, he says, "I am confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ."

All right, if that's true, then am I eternally secure? Am I not? I absolutely am because for him to keep his word, he must absolutely keep me in himself and eternally secured. The next one, number six. The sixth reason we believe in eternal security is because of our union with Christ. And what we mean by that is that he's in us and we're in him. Or let's go to John chapter one for a moment because of our relationship to him. Listen to what he says in this first passage.

He says, "But as many as received him to them he gave the right, the authority, the privilege to become children of God even to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of God." God doesn't make mistakes. Nothing happens apart from his knowledge and wisdom and understanding. So if he accepts me, he accepts me on the basis, listen, of his grace with all of his foreknowledge out there knowing exactly what is going to happen.

Now listen to this. Put that together with this. He says in Hebrews chapter 13, verse five, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Now think about this. He didn't say "if," "when," "but." He says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Now if you and I have a relationship with him which is ours the moment we're saved and he says, "I'm abiding in you and you're in me," that is, we have become one with him. What we have is the life of Christ within us. That's what eternal life is.

Eternal life isn't something that he sends down later on after you and I get saved or when we get saved. Eternal life is Christ living on the inside of us. "I'm abiding in you," he says, "and you're abiding in me." Does that mean that you and I always look like it and act like it? No. Does it mean that we are always bearing the fruit we ought to bear? No, it doesn't mean that because we're still in these fleshly bodies. But we have a relationship to him and that relationship cannot be broken.

You see, you can take a passage here and a passage there and say, "Aha, that means you can be lost." But look at all the other passages we've just read. And so therefore, when you put scripture against scripture against scripture against scripture, you have to ask then what must these verses mean in the light of these very, very clear promises of God? And so based on our relationship to him, there is no way that you and I could be in him and him in us and we be lost.

So I want you to look at Colossians chapter one for a moment. Colossians chapter one. Listen to what he says. Now these are all past tense words. That is for all of us who have saved this is what's already happened. He says in verse 13 in Colossians one: "For he delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins, period."

He doesn't say "and if," "and except," "and but," "and when." He's already delivered us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins. Now listen: if we have redemption the forgiveness of sins and the blood of Jesus Christ his son he says is continually cleansing us from all sin, then how in the world can we be lost if the blood of Jesus Christ his son is continually cleansing us from sin?

It has nothing to do with performance. It is the grace of God. And what causes that to rub against the grain of some people is this: because it absolutely eliminates any human effort on our part to remain under the love of God, to remain in the love of God, to remain in the grace of God and to remain in the favor of God. It's all of God and none of man. Does that mean that we are not to be obedient to God? No. It just simply says that this is God's love. This is the expression of God's love.

Now one last reason I'll give you and that is because the work of the Holy Spirit in our life is eternal. And let me give you a couple of verses here. Both of them in Ephesians. In Ephesians chapter one, verse 13 and 14 and Ephesians chapter four, verse 30. So let's go back to Ephesians chapter one for a moment. Look at what he says in this first chapter.

But let's start reading in verse 13. He says, "In him you also after listening... listen this how you get saved. In him you also after listening to the message of truth the gospel of your salvation having also believed you were what? Sealed. Where? In him. How? With the Holy Spirit of what? Of promise who is given to us as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession speaking of us to the praise of his glory."

Now he says, "Look, this what the Holy Spirit has done." And he says, "Who's going to get the glory?" It is to the praise of the glory of God. Now listen to what he says. He says that when you and I were saved the spirit of God came to indwell us and the spirit of God came to indwell us for how long? For all eternity. Jesus said, "I'm abiding in you and you're abiding in me" through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The very act of giving to us the Holy Spirit is God's way of saying to us, "This is my promise to you, this is my pledge to you that you are eternally secured as my sons and my daughters because the very presence of the Holy Spirit in you marks you as one of mine." How are you going to go to hell? How are you going to be lost? When Jesus says, "I'm not going to ever leave you nor forsake you. You sealed until the day of redemption." Look in the fourth chapter of Ephesians. Fourth chapter, look if you will in verse 30.

It's amazing how we read a verse and we take part of it and we forget the other part. Look at this: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of what? Redemption." He says we were sealed for that day when we're eternally brought before him through death and in his presence. How long are we sealed? Forever and ever and ever.

Now I want to give you two more passages real quick because somebody says, "Well, I believe that but what about our sin?" Well, I want to give you two passages. I want you to jot these down. The first one has to do with what does God do when we do sin? God says that when you and I disobey him, Hebrews chapter 12 if you look there for a moment. Hebrews chapter 12, that we will be chastised.

He says in verse five: "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are reproved by him for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines and he scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons for what son is there whom the father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline of which all have become partakers then you are illegitimate children and not sons."

So here's what that says: that you and I because we're the children of God, we can expect God because of his love for us when he sees us getting out of line he is going to send into our life... Listen, if we do not repent immediately, if we don't deal with it now, then he will send whatever chastisement is necessary to get us back in line. Why? It is an act of a loving father.

So we are eternally secured in him. Does not give us license for sin because he says look, two things will happen when you and I disobey God even though we're eternally secured. It does not mean we're going to lose our salvation. He will just do what? He will discipline us. The word is not punish. Punish is what he does to sinners. What he does to his children is he disciplines us.

The second thing that will happen is in first Corinthians chapter three. First Corinthians chapter three, the second thing that'll happen is we'll lose our reward. So it is not a matter of losing salvation but losing reward. So in the third chapter of first Corinthians, look at that. Paul says, talking about his ministry and what God was doing in his life, look in verse 10. "Now according to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder I laid a foundation," that is he went around starting all these churches. "And another is building upon it."

So those whom he had trained come along and disciples the people and grows up the church and it begins to grow. "But let each man be careful how he builds upon it for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ." Now we're talking about our Christian life. That is, he says all of us have this foundation. Christ is the foundation of our life. Now you and I are going to build on that life.

"Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay and straw, each man's work will become evident for the day will show it," the day of judgment. "Because it is to be revealed," the light comes upon it, "with fire and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built upon it remains he shall receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as through fire."

That verse of scripture ought to settle it for people who have a problem with eternal security. Now here's the reason. He says, "Now once you and I are saved, what happens? We start building on this life. Things that we do that are right, things that we do and motive is right or motive is wrong, whatever it may be. We start building on this Christian life." He says, "He predestined you and me to be conformed to his likeness so we start growing in our Christian life."

If we waste time, if we sin against God, we are going to be disciplined unless there's immediate repentance of that sin. Now he says two things you watch for. The discipline of God if we sin, or that some things, for example, wasting time or sinning in different ways, he says we can lose our reward. If there was any way that you and I were going to be lost, he would never have said this: "If any man's work is burned up he shall suffer loss," of reward, "but he himself shall be saved yet so as through fire." Suffer loss yes, chastised yes, suffer eternal loss of our salvation: never, never, never.

Let me ask a question. How are we saved? By what? By grace which has nothing to do with our conduct, has nothing to do with our worth but he says in spite of what we have done, in spite of what we are worth, he says it is the unconditional love of God poured out upon us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. What has sealed us as a child of God is the Holy Spirit, but he says it is the result of the blood of Jesus.

Now, sealed as his sons and daughters motivated to want to do what God wants us to do, failing at times in our life, absolutely. When we stand before him what is it? He says there'll be areas of our life in which we suffer loss but we are also going to receive reward. And he says we may suffer loss but we'll not suffer the loss of our salvation only our reward.

So when you think about his whole plan of eternal security, his plan is an expression of unconditional love. What does the world need to hear? That God loves them. Does that mean you get away with sin? No. Chastisement, loss of reward, but not loss of salvation, not loss of redemption, not loss of his great favor toward us.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. The Bible says that once you accept Jesus Christ as Savior, you can be sure that you'll spend eternity with him and knowing you'll see him face to face for eternity should motivate holy living today. To study more about what took place on the cross of Christ and how that should impact you, log on to intouch.org and go back over this lesson at the link to today on radio. Connect to our online bookstore to order a copy of today's complete message, Reasons for Believing in Eternal Security. Again, that's intouch.org.

You can also call or text 1-800-IN-TOUCH. If you prefer to write, our address is: In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Are you looking for guidance from God? Some tips are coming up in today's moment with Charles Stanley. We're not the first to seek a life of purpose. The Bible tells of many who followed a specific path step by step with courage, with surrender for a deeper purpose, a stronger passion, a lasting peace.

Introducing your path to purpose, passion, and peace. A new 90-day devotional inspired by the timeless teaching of Dr. Charles Stanley. Available now at intouch.org/store. In Touch Plus is streaming on Local Now featuring all the best of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Want to have strong convictions based on the word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future.

Guest (Male): In Touch Plus, your streaming network for quality Christian programming 24/7. Now watch this. In Touch Plus streaming free on Local Now. You're listening to In Touch. When you need to hear from God, stay immersed in scripture. With encouragement for believers, here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: If you keep reading, God will test you so that you won't be running to your favorite verse here and there and so forth. You just keep reading and saying, "God, I know this is your word. I'm going to trust you to speak to my heart. Somewhere I'm going to find something here that I know that you're speaking to me." God will do that. I've run through many of those times when I thought, "Lord, you didn't tell me what I expected to hear."

You know we might as well be honest with him, he knows us what we are thinking. And it may be two or three days go by and then all of a sudden there it is, just glowing. And you can't read the Bible every day and expect God to give you this awesome message in neon signs in print, "this is for you today." If we did, we'd just run every day and get out message and forget the rest of it. So he knows how to make himself known.

The thing that blesses me most is when I'm going through one of those times thinking, "God, I just need to hear from you." And he'll bring a verse to my mind or I'll come across a verse in the scripture that I wasn't looking for, didn't expect, have probably read it many times but this time it has a message it hadn't had before. In fact, just last week I was praying about something that concerned me deeply and I was just saying, "Lord, I need to hear from you. I need a word of assurance. I know you're going to work this out. I'm trusting you." And the next thing you know, he's done it.

Guest (Male): You'll find help for studying the Bible at intouch.org. If this program challenged you to grow in your faith, tell us about what you learned. Next week on In Touch: Have you ever felt like you just needed a little help staying on track? Dr. Stanley's message addresses that exact feeling when we return. Be back Monday on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.