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Guest (Male): Some wonderful assurance regarding your salvation is up next.

Pastor Thom Keller: For God wants you to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you. And here is the secret, the mystery God wants you to know. Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.

Guest (Male): Can you lose your salvation? Maybe that question has crossed your mind and you have some real doubts about whether or not you're saved and on your way to heaven. Well, today on studying the word, we'll look into this very question. Hopefully, by the end of our time together, you'll have a good idea of where you stand. Here's pastor Tom Keller in Colossians chapter one.

Pastor Thom Keller: I visited a young guy in his home the other day who was in a body cast because he had fallen off a 20-ft cliff. I asked him what happened. He said I was walking along this mountainous area and I saw a sign that read falling rocks. It doesn't. You know, those falling doesn't he thought it rocks like it rocks like it's really cool, but falling doesn't rock. Did you really like that one or No, okay. Thanks for being honest. Well, I tell you what doesn't rock, that joke for one thing. What doesn't rock as a Christian is doubting your salvation.

So, a question that is often asked relative to this is can a Christian lose their salvation? Once we discover that rock, can we fall off of that rock? We're going to see what Paul has to say about that. Let's begin. We're going to begin this morning verse 23, but for context, we're going to go back to verse 19. We studied this section last week. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He, Christ, made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.

This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence and you're holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. And then our verse for today, but you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the good news. The good news has been preached all over the world and I, Paul, have been appointed as God's servant to proclaim it.

Verse 23 again by itself, it says but you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. The ESV says it this way. He has now been reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order listen in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I, Paul, became a minister. He will present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him if indeed you continue in faith, if indeed if if you continue in your faith.

If you continue. So, you might ask wow, that sounds like my salvation is conditional based upon my works. Because God says Paul says here that God will present me holy unblemished before himself if if I continue in my faith. Well, let's take a closer look at this and let's begin by looking at the rules of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the theory and method of interpretation applied not just to the Bible, but to all grammatical interpretation. These rules go back to the Greek philosophers of Socrates era who died in 399 BC. So, these rules were already in play in Paul's day and have been used to interpret both philosophical and biblical texts ever since then.

And so let's take a look at today's verse, this conundrum which seems to say that your salvation is conditional based upon your faithfulness and tested by these hermeneutical rules. So, the first rule of hermeneutics is the rule of definition. So, the first question is what do the words in Hebrew or Greek mean in the Bible? In this instance, Greek. Where do you go to check this out? You go to a strong concordance. This is a copy of mine. It's a Beda book. I would suggest that when you get serious about Bible study that you go buy yourself a strong concordance.

They're all over the place. Uh there are thousands and hundreds of thousands of these books. You can get them used on Amazon. Buy yourself a strong concordance. So, let's look at what the strong concordance has to say about this passage. What is a keyword that causes us to wonder what Paul is telling us here? It's the word if. And now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence and you are holy and blameless as you stand form without a single fault.

Verse 23, the next verse in the ESV, New King James, if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, if you continue. So, we look up the word if in the Greek concordance. Now, the Greek language is a very very rich language. The English language contains about 1 million words. The Greek language contains about 7 million words. And if you include word types, it actually has 70 million words. English 1 million, Greek 70 million. And so uh there are a lot of different words given many times to one English word. And if is a good example here.

We go to the Greek concordance and we look up the word if. And I think there are about five to seven pages in the Greek concordance, four columns per page. I think it's four. All the word if. And every scripture verse in the Bible that has the word if in it is included. So, this section goes from Mark 12:19 down to Luke chapter 10 verse six. And there are verses above of course and verses below. But just in this little section on the right side, those numbers represent a different meaning of the word, a different definition of the word.

So, here you can see that there in this section there's number 1487, number 2579, and number 1490. So, just in this section there are three different definitions. Now, in the concordance we discover that the number used here is 1489. And so in the back section of the book, you then turn to the second half of the concordance where you look up the number itself, where they're listed in order. And we see here that 1489 uh says indeed seeing that unless. So, it can mean indeed, it can mean seeing that, it can mean unless. So, let's use these different definitions in the reading of verse 23.

It's as a result he has brought you into the very presence of God and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. And here these are three possible valid interpretations. If indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled, seeing that you continue in the faith grounded and settled unless you continue in the faith grounded and settled. So, it offers us three possibilities, three different ways of translating this, but it doesn't bring clarity to which one is intended here. So, we now have applied the first rule of hermeneutics, its definition.

And we see that there are two out of the because two are pretty similar. We said that there are ultimately two possible interpretations. Uh number one and number two. And so is there another rule of hermeneutics that will get us closer to understanding the truth about this word if? And there is. It's called the rule of unity. This rule says number seven. This rule says that the part of the text being interpreted must be consistent with the rest of the scriptures. So, applying the rule of unity to this verse of the two possible interpretations which are both allowable if or seeing that, which definition of if is consistent with the rest of the New Testament teachings?

According to rule number seven, interpret every passage in the light of all other passages. Well, let's look at a few verses that deal with this conditional salvation issue. First John 5:12, whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have God's son does not have life. I've written this to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. And then from uh John five, I tell you the truth, Jesus speaking. When Jesus says I tell you the truth, he's trying to make a point.

Those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins. But they have already passed from death into life. John 1:24, now all glory to God who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. Hebrews 7:25, therefore he, God, is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. John 10:28-29, I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

No one can snatch them away from me for my father has given them to me and he's more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the father's hand. John 6:47, I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. John 3:16, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:36, and anyone who believes in God's son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn't obey the son will never experience eternal life but remains under God's angry judgment. First John 2:25, and this is fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.

And lastly, First Peter chapter one, and we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you pure and undefiled beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith God is protecting you by his power until you receive the salvation which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. And then the understatement of all times, so be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead. So, in the light and weight of these Bible verses, which of these two possible interpretations lines up with these scriptures? The second, seeing that.

On this interpretation, John MacArthur says this, quote, those who have been reconciled will persevere in faith and obedience because in addition to being declared righteous, they are actually made new creatures with a new disposition that loves God, who hates sin, desires to obey God, and is energized by the indwelling Holy Spirit. And I like this little quip adds at the end, if you know yourself well enough, you know this is true. If you could lose your salvation, you would. That's pretty good. Now, before we move off of this, if you're not just quite convinced yet, that's fine.

You must choose. However, there's one more thing to consider before you decide. And that is number uh 1487 in strong concordance which strong notes as following it says, quote, a particle of conditionality if, whether, for as much. And yet this Greek word is not used. The word that is highlighted as being the word if that means conditionally is not used. Instead, another word is used. And folks, this is one of the real gems you will get out of reading, studying, using the strong concordance. There are so many words in Greek that are available for just one English word.

And now listen closely to this. A lot of times the interpretation of that word is going to be made very clear to you by the word that the author did not use. Did you get it? Because it points to something else. For instance, death is this is my notes, but you know, it says someone that commits a sin, it leads to death. In English, death is death. We don't know what comes with that, but in Greek that can be just a physical death of the body or it can mean death in the body and in eternity in heaven or hell.

There is a word for that. So, when it says just when it doesn't use the eternity in heaven or hell, you know that it's not talking about eternity in heaven and hell because it uses the other word. So, again if you when you get serious, I really suggest you get a strong uh lexicon. And then moving on the second part of verse 23 says this, the good news has been preached all over the world. And I, Paul, had been appointed as God's servant to proclaim it all over the world. So, is Paul saying here that by 62 AD, which is when he wrote this letter, that every single person in the then known world had already heard the gospel?

No, of course not. It is possible that Paul might be referring specifically to the Lord's command to the Great Commission that he gave to his disciples before he left, right before he left, Mark 16 15 which says this, he said to him, the disciples, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Similar to what Paul says in verse 23, New King James, which was preached to every creature under heaven which I, Paul, became a minister. I think this is Paul using hyperbole to confirm that the early church was in fact working at this mandate, was working diligently to share the gospel to every single living creature.

If you know the history of the disciples, they did go off into far far reaches. Thomas went to India, for example, and the others as well. And then in verse 24 Paul makes one of the most controversial statements in all of his letters. Verse 24, listen, I am glad when I suffer for you in my body for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church. God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. I include verse 25 in this to make the point that verse 24 is not pointing to some other statement to bring clarity.

Verse 24 stands by itself. Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church. Wow. Think of what Paul's saying there. I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of the church. You can see why this is so controversial. Well, what Paul is not saying here is that Christ's death and sufferings on the cross were an insufficient and inadequate payment to appease God's wrath and in some way he needed to add to that.

Instead, I believe the idea that Paul is making here is that Christ suffered for me and in like manner I bear his cross and I also suffer for the cause of Christ. And if you know Paul's history, he did indeed suffer. Ellicott, the commentator, says, quote, that Paul fills up instead of his master portion of the suffering still left unfinished after Christ departed to go to heaven. And that same idea is clearly portrayed in Second Corinthians chapter one verse five, for as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

So, there Paul says we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings and some of you have suffered for the cause of Christ. Christians around the world have suffered and paid dearly for following Christ. So, we know that's true. Going into verse 25 says this, God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. This message was kept secret for centuries and generations passed. But now it has been revealed to God's people. Verse 26 by itself, this message was kept secret for centuries and generations passed. But now it has been revealed to God's people.

Are you overwhelmed, astounded, amazed, astonished, and grateful that God has reached out and called you to be his adopted child? You and me being that we are non-Jews, consider the context of how the whole Old Testament was about God reaching out to the Jews. And now all of a sudden we're included in that. Again, look at verse 27. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles too. Who's a Gentile? Anyone who was not born a Jew or converted to Judaism. And this is the secret. To the Gentiles, here's the secret.

Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. And here Paul shares the secret, a secret revealed only in Paul's day. Go back to his mindset. A grand total of only about 29 years at this point. Jesus being crucified 32-33 AD, Paul writing this letter 62 AD, only 29 years have passed since this mystery has been revealed. And this mystery that was unknown prior to this is that Christ lives in you. Listen, Christ lives in you. This is known as the exchanged life. Galatians 2:20, I myself, my old self has been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So, I live in this earthly body by trusting in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Romans 8:10 goes after the same concept, but if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit of life but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And Romans 6:6 again this this new life, we know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives for we are no longer slaves to sin.

Listen, for when we died with Christ, when the old man died, we were set free from the power of sin. So, let me personalize this verse for you. For God wants you to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you. And here is the secret, the mystery God wants you to know. Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. Paul says this secret, King James says this mystery is that Christ lives in you, in you. And folks, the Bible says that this has very real implications as it relates to sexual sin.

First Corinthians six says this, don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body which is a part of Christ and join it to a prostitute? The word prostitute here means a wayward mouth. It doesn't mean sex for money. It means sex outside of marriage. Should a man take his body which is a part of Christ and join it to a prostitute? Never. And don't you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the scripture say that two are united into one.

That doesn't happen to your marriage. It happens through sex. But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. And then it says so run from sexual sin. No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. You steal a car, it's not a sin against your body. You cheat on a test at school, it's not a sin against your body. This sin does stand apart on its own in that it is unique in that this sin alone is a sin against your own body.

He says, don't you realize that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself for God bought you with a high price. Jesus on the cross. So, you must honor God with your body. Listen folks, this is why if you are a Christian every time you are involved in fornication, there is a check in your spirit. There is a guilt. There's an understanding that what I'm doing is wrong. You know where that comes from? You know where that guilt comes from, that check in your spirit?

It comes from Christ who is living in you saying don't do this, please. Get us out of here, us, you and me. He's in there. Get us out of there.

Guest (Male): You're listening to pastor Tom Keller on studying the word and we're in a study of Colossians right now. Would you like to give this a second listen? Either go to our website at ccleb.com or visit our YouTube page. Simply subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon and you can watch our services live or on demand. That includes this series in Colossians. For those interested in a CD copy, call 717 273 5633. Once again, that's 717 273 5633. Study the word is listener supported. With your help, we're able to reach thousands of people all over the world.

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