John 10:24-29 – Life Without End – Bible study

John 10:24-29 Life Without End Many spiritual truths are difficult for us to comprehend. Gods love, grace, heaven, hell, forgiveness. A truth that many Christians struggle against is the truth that once a Christian is saved, they are forever saved. I understand the struggle on many levels myself. 1. The eternal security of the believer is too good to be true. 2. There are a few verses that, by themselves, might teach that we could lose our salvation. (They do not, but they could.) 3. Many have picked up on those few verses and ignored the many verses that clearly teach that salvation is eternal. However, the Bible is clear. Once a Christian belongs to God, God will never cast him or her out. Lets consider some verses tonight. I. \#John 10:27-29\ No one is able to remove us from God. A. Notice that Jesus separated the people into categories in this text. 1. Believers 2. Non-believers B. \#25-26\ Jesus told the non-believers that they were not His sheep, but then spoke of those who do believe. 1. \#27\ They hear Him. 2. They follow Him. 3. \#28\ Jesus was giving them eternal life. a. Eternal means it will never end. (More about that in a moment.) b. Notice Jesus was giving them this life, meaning it was currently becoming their possession. (I will mention that again later.) 4. They will never perish. a. If a Christian could lose his salvation, he could perish. b. That very notion is rendered impossible by this statement. c. If a Christian cannot perish, he cannot lose his salvation. 5. \#29\ Jesus puts His Fathers reputation on the line. a. The Father is greater than ALL (that means everyone and everything). b. Then Jesus said "no man" is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand." (1) Some say, "The devil is not a man." (2) No, but the devil is part of the all. (3) God is greater than the devil. (4) What is the purpose in making a boast about Gods greatness only to acknowledge that weakling being can thwart Gods plan? (5) Jesus purpose was not stir a fright in His followers but an assurance. (6) We who are in Gods hands are safe. (7) This verse alone should be able to cause you to question the insecurity of the believer. II. What God gives is eternal life. A. This revisits a truth about salvation I already mentioned. John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. B. Notice, this verselike \#John 10:28\called what God gives "eternal life." 1. The fact that the truths that I am point out are repeated in many verses should give you more assurance. 2. That phrase is used of salvation in 26 different Bible verses. 3. A similar phrase, "everlasting life," is used in 10 other Bible verses. C. Why would God use that phrase to describe what He is giving if it were not eternal and did not last forever? D. Here is another question? 1. How many times did God call salvation "temporary life"? 2. Most of you dont need to look that up! The answer is never. 3. Why would God misrepresent the gift is offering 36 times? He would not! III. Eternal salvation was being given. A. This is another truth that came from the first verses we looked at, \#John 10:28\. 1. There Jesus said, "I give unto them eternal life." 2. When do we get eternal life. 3. I am going to have to go a bit deep here. B. The Bible speaks of eternal life in three tenses, past, present, and future. 1. Future tense, John 5:40 and John 6:40 John 5:40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 2. John 10:28 – He did not say, "I will give" (future tense), but "I give" (present tense). 3. Verb tenses are extremely important in the Bible. a. There is a world of difference in what I will do and what I am doing and what I have already done. b. In John 10:29, Jesus said that He was giving at that present time "eternal life." B. However, notice these verses: John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. 1John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 1. In these verses, the giving is past tense. 2. Why? Because Jesus gives His sheep eternal life when they come to Him. a. As they come, He is giving eternal life. (That is present, active action.) b. After they have come, He has given eternal life to them. 3. These passages eliminate the teaching of both the Calvinists and those who believe you lose your salvation. a. God did not give us eternal life before the foundation of the earth. He gave us eternal life when we came to Jesus Christ. "I give unto them" (present tense). b. God will not give us eternal life when we stand before Him. He gave us eternal life when we came unto Him (past tense). IV. We are saved by grace. Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. A. Grace means we are saved by what God does, not by what we have done. 1. What has God done? 2. God put on flesh, died on the cross, rose on the third day, and paid our sin penalty. 3. That is what saved. B. We do have to respond to grace with two actions: 1. Faith or belief Ac 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 2. Repentance Re 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. C. However, the work of salvation was done by Jesus on the cross. 1. I do not deserve salvation. I did nothing to earn it. 2. Responding correctly to the news of what Jesus has done is not me working for it and it certainly is not me earning it. 3. Salvation cannot be earned. As Ephesians says, "It is a gift." 4. So if I was never good enough to receive salvation, how can I ever be bad enough to lose it? a. I was never anything but bad. Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. b. Anyone who believes they can lose their salvation by being bad has somehow concluded that they were ever anything but bad. c. They never were! d. Salvation is a gift by the work and grace of God. V. Christians have heavenly reservations that cant be cancelled. 1Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. A. Notice verse 4. 1. He is speaking of our inheritance. a. What is that? b. It is our salvation and all that comes with it. 2. It does not fade away. It is not going away. 3. It is reserved for us. B. That means that the mansion Ive got right now, the seat at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, my name that was written in the Lambs Book of Life, even my rewards – They are not going anywhere! C. If I can lose my salvation, there is going to be an empty place in heaven! 1. If Christians can lose their salvation, heaven will be a sad place, strewed with monuments of the damned who almost made it. 2. These things will not fade awayever! VI. We have been sealed by the Holy Ghost. Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. A. The Holy Spirit IS ours. 1. He is in the saved today, right now. 2. He seals the believer, not like an envelope is sealed shut but like a stamp or a brand shows ownership. a. In Bible days, when an important document was being sent, the important person would fold it, seal it with wax, and then while the wax was hot, he would mark the document as being his with his signet ring. b. That ring but a mark into the wax that told everyone that if you opened this document, you would have to answer to the person whose mark this was. c. Christians are marked by the Holy Ghost. (1) Anyone who tries to take our soul is going to have to answer to the God who gave us that mark! (2) His name is Jehovah, the Lord God Almighty! B. But not only is the Holy Ghost our seal, the Holy Ghost is also our earnest. 1. When you make a big purchase, you give an earnest or down payment that shows your intentions to finish the purchase in the future. 2. Earnests payments are the first payments and usually the biggest signal payment. 3. They are non-refundable which means if you do not completely pay off the item, you lose both the item and your down payment. 4. to understand what the Bible is saying, you have to remember that you are not the one making the payment. a. God is the payment to you. b. The payment is your salvation. c. The Holy Ghost was part of the down payment. d. He is not all there is but He is significant part of the first payment. e. If God does not complete the payment process, He loses what He has already given to you, the Holy Ghost! f. If you lose your salvation, the Holy Ghost ceases to be God. g. Even more, if you go to hell, He goes with you. 5. Friend, this is an impossible scenario. VII. Your completion in Christ has been predestinated by God. Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. VIII. There is nothing that can separate us from Gods love. Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. IX. We are kept by Gods power not ours. 1Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. John 10:29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand. 2Cor 1:21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; 22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. While some things may appear to be to good to be true, they actually are! Such is the case with eternal life. Rest in it not because of your goodness, but because of God’s.