Transcript

Well, grab your Bibles and turn off everything that’s electronic and grab your Bibles and look at Philippians 1 as we come to the seventh unbreakable strand in this eight strand unbreakable eight strand cable of sovereign grace. You could call these the doctrines of grace, you could call it the core of Reform theology, you could use the nickname Calvinism, whatever you want to use. Well, one thing I have proven to you without question is that these are the doctrines that our forefathers have stood upon for hundreds of years and they are greatly neglected in the modern age, well, not nearly as much today as they were 25-30 years ago because there has been a resurgence of interest in them, but overall they are still greatly neglected. We talked, first of all, about the all-encompassing purpose of God to manifest his own glory. If you miss that, you miss everything, if you get everything else right but miss that. All that God does in saving his children and building his church for time and for eternity is for his own glory. That’s the primary cause. If God didn’t have a passion for his own glory, you would never be saved. Did you hear that? If God didn’t have a passion for himself and this is his own glory, you would never be saved. We’re God-centered, the Scripture requires this, and I think about man and his need, we care about man and his need but we are most concerned about God and his glory, then we best care for men and their needs. But always in that order.

Our second message was God’s invincible love for his children. Before time began, God held in his heart this magnanimous love beyond our comprehension. He had great love for all mankind beyond what anybody could deserve but yet this special, unique, invincible love for his own elect children.

The third message was the irreparable fallen condition of man. We are naturally in such a fallen state that every part of our being is overwhelmingly corrupted by sin whereby we can’t fix ourselves, we can’t repair ourselves.

Message four was God’s bold choice to grant favor to man, and that’s what grace means, a favor. A favor we could not earn or deserve. Somehow in the greatness of our God’s being and in his heart, he chose to have this wondrous favor toward mankind and, again, particularly toward those who were his chosen elect. A favor we could not earn, deserve or merit.

Message five was a perfect redemption. In order to save the children, in order to have a people that would know him, treasure him, enjoy him and bring him glory forever, his Son had to go down across and ransom them or redeem them from sin and that’s the perfect redemption that God accomplished for his children through his Son Jesus Christ.

Now today we come to the next installment. I’m sorry, we had the unfailing call to faith after that and that is that God brings his Gospel and his Holy Spirit to work on the hearts of those who are his and brings them to a repentance and a faith that will not and cannot fail ever.

Now we follow that up with the unfailing pattern of progressive sanctification, that after God brings you to that moment of faith, justification occurs and then you will continue on through this life’s pilgrimage progressing in your sanctification. Sanctification just means set apart. It means you will increasingly learn and embrace and walk in a life that is more God-centered and Christ-honoring and pleasing to God. Listen to me: that happens to every single truly saved person. Now it doesn’t mean you never fall or never fail but it means overall there is an unfailing pattern of progressive sanctification.

Now different phrases have been used for this same concept through the ages. Originally our forefathers called this the perseverance of the saints, that if you’re truly a saint, truly saved, you will persevere. You’ll never fall away or I should say fall out of the faith and you’ll never rebel and not repent and turn back to the Lord. Perseverance of the saints. Now over the years, we began calling it eternal security. I’m fine with that term and that’s basically what we’re talking about today. Also it’s been given the slang expression once saved, always saved. I agree with that too. But I think for our purposes what we really need to see from the Scriptures and what our forefathers would bring out regularly, as a matter of fact, if you lived years ago, you wouldn’t have heard eternal security, you would not have heard once saved, always saved, you would have heard things like the perseverance of the saints, you’d have heard things like progressive sanctification because they would emphasize a new life that shows forth God has changed you and saved you.

So let’s talk about that and the fact that every single person whom God calls he progressively sanctifies. None of them are ever lost. None of them ever fail. None of them ever fail to get all the way home to glory. They all make it home and they progressively persevere and are sanctified until that day of glorification.

So look at Philippians 1, if you will, and look at verse 6. Philippians 1:6, Paul writes to this church and says,

6 … 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.

In other words, Paul is writing to them saying God started this whole thing and I’m convinced this includes God’s foreknowledge and predestination before the worlds began. God started all this and then he called you, does he not use that phrase? “Who began this good work,” that’s his calling of you to himself. You didn’t just come up with the idea to repent and believe, God acted on your heart through the Gospel, and then he’ll continue, he says, he’ll continue to perfect you until the day of Christ Jesus, until the end of time. Well, God does this work.

Now look at Philippians 2:13,

13 for it is God [who is doing this?] it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

After you’re converted, God is working in you. Now he uses lots of means, practical things we can talk about, Bible studies, preaching of the word, church fellowship etc. We’ll get into that next week. As I got to studying this, it blew up on me and became two parts. I’m not so sure part 1 shouldn’t be 2 parts but nevertheless, it kept growing on me. So we’ll get to that, Lord willing, next Sunday morning about the practical means of our sanctification progressing in Christ, but it is God who is behind all of it. It’s his will to do it and he does it through his power in our lives.

So as I’ve said to you many times, someone will say, “How do we know, Brother Jeff, if this teacher is really not a false teacher? How do we know if this guy is really a sound professor and we know he’s a true believer in Jesus Christ?” T-i-m-e. You just give it some time and pretty soon the true colors start coming out.

Well, let’s look at a few verses here this morning that encourage us about the security we have that we will progress forward and we will make it home to glorification. Isaiah 26:12, “LORD, thou will establish peace for us, Since thou hast also performed all of our works.” “You,” the nation of Israel said, “You, God, performed all the works we’ve performed. You actually did it all. You took care of us.”

Psalm 37:24, “When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand.” Is it not good to know, child of God, when you sin, when you rebel and you fall, God still holds your hand because you’re his? What a gracious God he is.

Psalm 89:33, “But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness.” The context is, “Man sometimes is unfaithful to me but those who belong to me, I will not be unfaithful to them. I will keep them.”

Jude 1:24, “Now to Him [that’s God] who is able to keep you from stumbling,” notice these words now, “and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” So it is God who makes you stand. It is God who will keep you so that you can stand blameless in his glory.

Now I. in our outline, we’ll only have two points this morning, and that is I. says those that “fall away from the faith” were never “in the faith.” That’s what the Bible would teach us because you always have the argument, “Well, pastor, what about So-and-so and what about this man? Do you see all the ways? He looks so genuine. She was the most caring, loving, giving, faithful person. He was just… Did you hear him teach the Bible, pastor? He was so…. and then he fell away. Then he just backslid and lived such an immoral life.” Now, now be careful here thinking we’re just talking about they become absolute atheist apostates because, listen, you can fall away from Christ today and be active in a church. It’s really easy because the state of the church has declined so incredibly, the standard is so low, the tongue-in-cheek statement used to be that you have to backslide to fellowship with them, and that’s just true. Things have just degraded. We’re on the downgrade so much in church life that you can almost be apostate and be happy in a church. It shouldn’t be that way but unfortunately it is.

Now there are some strong verses about those who can fall away from the faith. The first one is John 15:1-2, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” John 15:6, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” Strong words. John 8:31-32, “Jesus [therefore] was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.'” Again Matthew 10:22, “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.” Now, of course, that is written in the context of sever persecution which we know not of in America today.

Could I just take a time-out and pause and I believe 100% this is the providence of God that did this. You know, I don’t mind saying these things because they’re true. I don’t know if you can imagine, I don’t know if I can imagine what the church, Bible-believing Christians in the church might have faced in the next couple of decades if Hillary Clinton had appointed these last two Supreme Court justices. The difference could have been overwhelming for men in the ministry and for churches that hold to Bible doctrine. I see it as nothing less, I may not like the instrument God’s using but I see it as nothing less than the hand of divine providence that he’s blessed us not only our Supreme Court justices but a whole host of lower court appointments, people who are constituionalists and quite honestly have a Christian orientation to their lives and do not see us as the enemy and do not see us as the scourge or the problem in the culture. I’m saying all that to say this verse is written to a people who are experiencing that and he says a true Christian is not going to abandon the faith and abandon Christ even if the culture says, “You’ll not have a job. You may be locked in jail and you’ll never prosper if you hold to your faith in Jesus Christ.” True Christians will say, “I don’t like it. I’ll try to avoid it but if that’s what it means, that’s what it means.”

Let me skip down to the missing piece of the puzzle. “Pastor, how do you explain this? We know that the Bible seems to sow abundantly and thoroughly teach that those whom the Lord saves, he does the saving, he keeps them, they progress in sanctification, then he glorifies them, that they are secure once they’re saved forever, but how do you explain these verses about these who look so much like Christians, they were so close to the things of God and then they fall away?” Well, I think this is the missing piece of the puzzle, Hebrews 6:4-6, and I think I have six messages on these first verses of Hebrews 6 in a series I called “The Pretenders,” and if you want a more thorough and exhaustive dealing of this, you can get that somewhere. You can probably get it free online and just listen to it.

Hebrews 6:4-6 is the missing piece of the puzzle that explains for us how so many can look so godly and then nevertheless be false professors and not belong to God at all. He says here, “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away.” Now notice the wording there. Let’s go back and look at that again. They’ve been enlightened. They’ve tasted the heavenly gift. They’ve been made partakers of the Holy Spirit. What does this mean? It means this: it means there is a work of the Holy Spirit of God in the hearts of people that has every mark of authentic Christianity but it’s not. It’s a work short of the new birth. It’s a work that comes short of being truly born again. It’s a work of the Spirit in the heart of a man but it’s less, it’s short of making you a true convert or truly saved person.

I think the best way to say this, it’s an awakening wrought by the Spirit of God but it is not regeneration. It is not conversion. That’s one of the ways we can understand how people can show such seemingly powerful vivid fruit and then go to the craziest, rebellious and quite often what you see these kind of people doing, they’re the most divisive, factious, problem-causing people to churches and you think, “How can they do that?” I think Hebrews 6 explains that. They can have insights that seem so sound, so wrought of God. I think we see this in Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 disciples chosen by Jesus himself. Of course, Jesus knew what he was and he was in the inner circle, so trusted he became the treasurer of the 12 disciples. But trust me, Judas Iscariot was never a child of God. He was an impostor. He was a counterfeit.

I think we see this in Simon the magician in Acts 8. Remember the story of Simon? Simon was just dazzling the people with his magic arts. I’m sure he was clever. I’m sure he was gifted in speech. I’m sure he had charisma. Man, the ladies swooned over him and the men admired him. Simon the magician was something in his day and then he saw the apostles, the true men of God preaching the Gospel and he saw the power that they had and he said, “A-ha, I’m gonna add this onto my show. I’m gonna become a disciple of Jesus Christ.” So he feigned an obedience to Jesus Christ and he saw the disciples laying their hands on people and the Holy Spirit would be imparted to them and he asked, “Can I buy this power?” And Peter rebuked him and said, “May you perish with your money. You can’t buy this. This isn’t about buying anything materially.” Simon the magician looked like a genuine convert. He was following the apostolic band. He was a part of the group and then exposed that he was actually a hypocrite. He was actually a counterfeit.

Probably in 2 Timothy 4, Demas whom the Apostle Paul says, “Demas, having loved this present world has forsaken me.”

So on and on we could go and we’re going to look at some other texts here in a moment that point out the type of people or the characteristics of those who fall away. But I think that’s the key, these are folks as Hebrews 6 would say, they’ve been enlightened, they’ve tasted the heavenly gift, in one sense they’ve been made partakers of the Holy Spirit but they’re not true converts. They can give all the outward signs of obedience, a witness for Christ, a knowledge of his word, a zeal for his kingdom and then fall away. Here’s what it’s saying: they were close but never in the faith. Close but never in the faith.

Jesus describes this very thing in the parable of the seed or the parable of the soils in Mark 4:5-6, “Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.” So it looked great, sprang up, what fruit it seemed to bear. Verse 6, “And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.” Now there is a further explanation in Mark 4:16-17, Jesus says, “In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root,” they had a root but not the root, “have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.” That’s one of the things you’ll see – are you listening to me, church? That’s one thing we should watch for as a church, as we strive to stand on the word of God and without trying to make it happen, we begin to get some ridicule, some persecution, it becomes hard at work, we begin to be mocked maybe in the neighborhood, young people, you’re kind of slighted at school because you go to this kind of church, when you start falling away and think, “I think I’ll find me a new church,” that’s what he’s saying here. Because of affliction and persecution, they fell away. It doesn’t mean you don’t struggle with that some, it doesn’t mean your flesh doesn’t say sometimes, “You know, it would be kind of fun to go to happy church. It would be kind of fun to go to a church where there’s really no cost, there’s no expectation, there’s no accountability and the preacher’s exciting and interesting.” Trust me, these people that fall away don’t usually just quit going to church, they just find a church that fits them instead of fitting Jesus.

They had no true root in them so the modus operandi of a great number of modern churches is, “Let’s give the people a Christianity they’ll embrace. Let’s give them a Christianity without afflictions. Let’s give them a Christianity without persecutions.” By the way, if you want numbers and lots of offerings, that works. If you want to build a true church for the glory of God, that doesn’t work. It never has.

2 Peter 2:20-22, again talks about these who have fallen away and it shows you they fell away because they were never in the truth. 2 Peter 2:20-22, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” If they come close to the things of God and then fall away, the last state is worse than they were before they came.

Verse 21, “For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.” Then he goes to an old proverb to illustrate this point. Verse 22, “It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and, ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.'” Now notice he doesn’t use the illustration of a sheep wallowing, he says they’re dogs and they’re swine. Why? Because dogs are basically dirty animals.

I remember, I had two beautiful dogs at one time. They’re gone now and I want to get me another dog, Lord willing. Beautiful dogs but the people I live around are rednecks. Gary Gatlin lives up the road from me and Gary, like me, is a redneck but Gary doesn’t do what I’m about to say people do, I just mentioned Gary because I thought about him, alright? But people around me or near to me are known to kill deer, take the meat off of it and throw the carcass of the deer close to the front of my house and some of those deer carcasses are weeks old and my dogs would drag those rotten deer corpses into my… It’s kind of weird to pull up in your driveway and see a backbone laying there. Filthy stench and then the dogs would be out there just chewing on it and literally go throw up and come back and chew on it again. They’re dirty animals. “Well, not my dog, Brother Jeff.” No, you let your dog out around rotten stuff and they’ll show you what’s in their heart. They’re dirty. They’re filthy. Let them lick you on the face. You may think it’s sweet, you’re crazy is what you are. I shouldn’t say that. I’m sorry. I didn’t literally mean that but what I’m saying is the Bible uses the word “dog” here because everybody that’s had any real experience with dogs know they’re pretty dirty. They lick things. They’re dirty.

What’s a pig do? A pig does what a pig’s nature wants a pig to do, they wallow in slop and in filth. Their own filth. He didn’t say a sheep returns, he says a dog returns, a sow returns. These people who act like they’re believers, act like they love the things of God, join up and say, “I’m with you. I’ll carry my cross.” When the affliction comes, when the persecution comes, when it’s not fun anymore, “I’m with you. I’m one of the numbered of the disciples of Jesus Christ,” and then they fall away, that’s what he’s describing here. The point is dogs and swine is what they were all along. They were for a season dressed up in sheep’s clothing but eventually their true nature came through. There’s no need for us to be alarmed about what this verse means. Dogs and swine they were before and dogs and swine they continue to be. That’s what the text is teaching.

Now I’m going to have to detour a little bit on a side note here because I want to look at the verses, two verses right before these two verses, that’s 2 Peter 2:18-19 because in 2 Peter 2:18-19 he describes the false teachers who pull these people away, these people who parade to be true pastors of the Gospel, true preachers of Jesus Christ but they’re really not and they pull people to follow their version which is really a corrupt and wrong version and false version of Christianity.

So what are these false teachers, these false movements that look like Christianity, what marks them? “For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality.” Now stop for a moment. Here’s basically what they say, they say, “Now look,” and I’ve heard this in our own area, “we hold to the same doctrine Jeff Noblit holds to. We hold to the same Reformed faith Grace Life of the Shoals holds to,” arrogantly means, “but we’ve got a new insight they don’t have. We’re elitist. Noblit and those guys may have studied the Bible for 38 years but we’ve found something he doesn’t understand. We have a higher view of things. Now we hold to the same orthodox doctrine, we’ve just got a new slant that’s better.” Well, what is this new slant according to 2 Peter 2? I mean, “Peter, what are you dealing with in the first century in the churches that we might be dealing with today?” He says, “Here’s what they do, they entice by fleshly desires and by sensuality.” Do you know what that means? They accommodate sin. They tell you you can be an orthodox, fundamental, sound doctrine Christian but we’ve formulated a new type of church and a new type of Christianity where you can enjoy some of your fleshly indulgences. You’ll have all the appearance of a sound Christian in a sound church but you really get to indulge in some sin.

Well, how do they sell that? Look at verse 19, “promising them freedom.” Here’s what they say, “We’ve discovered our liberties in Jesus Christ. We’ve found a new thing that Noblit and that old guard, they don’t understand. We’ve found a new liberty in Jesus Christ.” Peter said, “In my day,” close to 2,000 years ago, “our churches experienced the onslaught and the attack of men who posed to be faithful men of God and faithful men of the Gospel when really they were just enticing people into their group by promising them sound religion but lots of sinful indulgence.” Now the real cool thing, the real movement right now is liquor. You can drink liquor and be a sound Reformed in doctrine Christian. I’m not saying that absolutely every sip of an alcoholic beverage is sin but you shouldn’t take a sip of it. It’s not wise. It’s not good. But God help us that the church of Jesus Christ promotes such a thing because, brothers and sisters, I know the nature of sinful flesh. You crack that door open, it’s going to swing wide open and there’s going to be lots of filth flow through you were not expecting.

Notice what else Peter says here, verse 19, “promising them freedom,” we have new liberties and y’all can come join us and be a part of these new liberties, “while they themselves are slaves of corruption.” Peter said, “What’s really behind this is they may not know it, it may be hidden, but they’re slaves to sins that you don’t know about and they want a religion that accommodates their indulgence and so they want to lure you in.” Because by the way, we’re all flesh – listen to me – we all like sin but when Jesus saved us we sill like sin but we like him more, and if we’re really saved, we want somebody to help us with our sin desires, not help us sin more but help us sin less. Amen?

So especially to our young families here at Grace Life, to our single folks, our high school or college single folks, be wise. Be discerning when you hear somebody say, “Hey, we hold to these great sound doctrines. This is a revival of true doctrine in our evangelical communities. We hold to those things but we’ve got a new insight. We offer you liberties that they kind of frown on down there.” It’s not new, is it? This was happening to Peter’s churches 2,000 years ago. By the way, it seems like I remember studying an Old Testament book that said something about this, the book of Amos. What did Amos run into? What did God send the country preacher, Amos, into the big cities of Israel to preach? He went into those cities and here’s what he said, “You’ve taken Orthodox Judaism, the great sound doctrines, and you still hold to them, you claim, but at the same time you roll the Baal carts in and you have the sensual, sinful indulgence that Baal worship teaches along with the sound doctrine of Judaism and you’re trying to combine the two.” Do you know what Amos said, “God’s going to judge you for it.” Nothing’s new in 3,000 years. The same basic stuff.

Young people, be wise. Listen, let me ask you something. Now I’m not the end-all, I know there are men wiser than me that know the Bible, but do you believe I could study this book exegetically for 38 years and there’s some great new Christian truth that some church is going to find that we haven’t found yet? Some great new and exciting biblically sound way to do church that we haven’t found yet? You think if I found it in here, I’d rob you for not letting us do it? I’d go right to it if it was in here. Folks, they’re not finding it in the book, they’re finding it in their flesh. These are worldly things.

Now here’s my point: the Bible is telling us that a lot of people who fall away from the faith fall into false Christianity, they don’t fall into atheism. Be discerning. Be wise. And here’s the great danger, put that up there again, Brother Tommy, 2 Peter 2:18-19. Put up 19 again, “promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” Here’s what happens: this sounds like freedom, it’s enjoyable for a while but it leads you into deeper and deeper enslavement which is the very liberties Christ died to keep, or the very enslavements Christ died to set you free from. The point, Peter is saying, “They’re leading you into the bondage Jesus saved you to get you out of. You’ve been saved so that you now have the capacity and the strength to not live in the bondages of your fallen flesh and sinful desires.” That’s liberty, not letting you indulge in them but keeping you from them. We don’t believe in accountability and church discipline at Grace Life Church because I like beating you up. That’s not the motive. I don’t want you to rob yourselves, I don’t want you to be ruined by the enslavements Christ died to liberate you from. So God forbid I give you a Christianity that helps you into your bondage, I need to give you a Christianity that leads you out of the bondage of lust and sin in the world. Can I get an amen right there? Are you hearing me, church? I struggle with it myself. I don’t need you to help me sin more. You struggle yourselves, you don’t need me to help you to sin more. That’s bondage. That’s not liberty. Do you see how this is such a twisted, warped version of Christianity? Boy, to the immature, to the young people, to those who lack discernment, it sounds so good.

Alright, that’s my side note but it is in this classroom of the doctrine of the unfailing pattern of progressive sanctification because he’s saying those who do fall away never were God’s, they never were on that pattern. Then 2 Peter 2:18-19 gave us some ideas of how they’re pulled away. Let me say this for just a moment. I’m convinced there are good brothers and sisters, even good Christian leaders who can get drawn into this but I’m shocked when they stay in it. That’s what bothers me. We can all be pulled but I’m shocked when they stay in it.

Now, a key problem passage. Galatians 5:4, a three-parter. Galatians 5:4 is a text that’s th been one of the most troubling texts for the Reformed movement since the 15 century AD when our forefathers broke off of Roman Catholicism. Remember, Roman Catholicism ruled the world. The government was Roman Catholic. The church was Roman Catholic. It was everything so when these brillinatly trained men who were Catholics themselves pulled away and got in the word of God, they said, “Okay, what doctrines would we believe if we didn’t listen to the church and we just looked at the Bible?” And they gave us these doctrines. Well, they came up with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints or the unfailing pattern of progressive sanctification, that once you’re saved, you’ll continue in sanctification and one day you’ll be ultimately glorified and God doesn’t lose any of them, but one of the problem passages is Galatians 5:4 where Paul writes to the church at Galatia and he says, “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking,” key phrase here, “you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” Remember the main point, how I worded it: those who fall away from the faith were never in faith. A great difference from being in the faith and falling away from the faith or being in the faith and then supposedly hypothetically losing it and just falling away from it.

Now you need to listen. Basically as we approach the study of salvation, there are two schools of thought or there are two doctrinal systems, alright? These two systems are at every point and in every way completely in contrast one to the other. In other words, they are polar opposites. They’re the antithesis one of the other. If one is true, the other is canceled out completely. There is no possible mixture of these two schools of thought or these two systems of doctrine. If you take any part of one of the systems and try to add it to the other one, you make the other one obsolete. So these two, notice how I put the word “valid” in quotes, these two valid approaches to salvation. 1. Grace and faith. The second one is law and works.

“Pastor, why would you say those are two valid approaches?” Because if from the moment you’re conceived in the womb of your mother you have no sin nature and if from the moment you’re born you are perfectly righteous and holy, then you could get to heaven, you could get to God based on your works. So I say “valid” because it’s just a hypothetical notion to prove a point. Obviously number 2 is radically not possible because we are irreparably fallen in sin.

So when Paul said in Galatians 5:4, that’s that troubling verse, “you have fallen away from grace,” Paul is stating a hypothetical. He’s not saying you have actually lost your salvation, he’s saying by toying with works after you’ve embraced grace, you’re doing something that’s unthinkable and even impossible. You see, if you tamper with salvation by grace through faith by adding the slightest aspects of works and law, then you’ve left grace completely and you’ve embraced works completely. You see, what they were doing, Judaizers, another group of false teachers were influencing the church in Paul’s day and these Judaizers came into the Galatian congregation and began to say, “Now we believe all that Paul has taught you, we believe the great doctrines of the Christian faith but we have a more enlightened view. We have an additional insight Paul didn’t give you, that is you’ve got to put a little of the works of Moses with Jesus, then you’ll have it all.” Paul writes to this church, study Galatians, and he tears their argument to shreds A to Z, Alpha to the Omega, completely decimates their whole approach.

What he’s saying is when you begin to toy with embracing, “Well, maybe it is trusting in Jesus plus some works of the law,” then you’ve fallen away from the doctrinal system of grace and you’ve embraced the doctrinal system of works. Also, we need to remind ourselves that if we embrace the tiniest part of law and works, then we become indebted to the whole law. So Paul’s making a point here when he tells them, “you’ve fallen away from grace.” He says, “Your flirting in any capacity with works salvation is a complete abandoning of grace and full embracing of works and now works and law is your only hope of salvation,” he says, “which is an unthinkable thing.”

James 2:10 reminds us, “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” James says if you think works is going to help you get somewhere, understand this, that if you only stumbled on one point of the law, not even fully violated it, you just stumbled a little bit on one point of the law, you’re still guilty as if you broke the whole law.

So Paul writes to the Galatians and says, “I preach to you the Gospel of grace. You were saved by the Gospel of grace, now you’ve let these elitist new teachers come in, claim that they hold to sound doctrine like I do, but they add to it works, then if you do that, it doesn’t sound like that big a deal but you’ve actually abandoned the whole doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. You’ve fallen away from the system of belief, the system of doctrine by which any man can be saved.” He’s not saying you lost your salvation, you fell away from the truth of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith.

You see, the law is an interconnected, inseparable system. It’s a seamless garment. If you break one tiny part of the law, if that’s what you’re embracing for your salvation, God holds you guilty for the entire fabric. You don’t get to choose what parts of the law that suit your strengths or suit your whims. Now that’s what always happens with legalists, those who come to us and say, “I don’t know if I believe this once save, always saved. I’m not sure that you understand what salvation by grace means. We believe that there ought to be this work.” Invariably they pick out some works that they’re comfortable with, some things at least outwardly they’re pretty good at keeping. Well, Jesus blew that argument out of the water, didn’t he? He said, “By the way, fellas, you’ve heard you should not commit adultery, do you really want to understand the law?” Jesus said, “If you’ve ever lusted in your heart, you’re an adulterer in God’s eyes already.” So 100% of the men said, “I’m guilty.” And the ladies too, by the way. The point is when you start embracing law, you’re done. You can’t keep it. You can’t uphold it and Paul says to the Galatians, “Man, what has happened to you?” So he says, “Do you really want to cast aside the whole system of salvation by grace through faith to embrace a law and works approach to salvation?”

Look at some other things he says in this same context to the Galatians, Galatians 5:7-8, “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?” You were going right along strong, salvation by grace through faith, but who got you off track? He says in the last part of Galatians 5:8, “This persuasion did not come from Him who,” here’s our word again, “calls you.” The one who called you to saving faith called you by grace. You didn’t say, “God, I’ve done a lot of good things. God, I’ve gone to church. God, I said a prayer. God, I walked to the front. God, I did some good stuff now call me to salvation.” He says, “No, no, no, God called you so when you moved from a salvation totally of grace to something else, your thinking wasn’t influenced by God, it was influenced by somebody else. This persuasion did not come from him who calls you.” Look, the highest form of worldliness is good works salvation. We think, well, worldliness means guys out drinking, he’s doing drugs, he’s cheating on his wife. That is worldly but the highest form of worldliness, the most corrupt worldliness is when we embrace that we could earn our way to God. That’s just so natural to man. Man wakes up in the morning and thinks in those terms but grace is radically unnatural to us but it’s wonderfully true for us.

Galatians 3:1 in the same context. In Galatians 3:1 he says, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” He’s saying to the Galatians, “Did you not hear me thunder the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ? You know he did it all. You know he paid it all. You know your salvation is fully, absolutely, exclusively secure in what Christ did for you. Who bewitched you?” That’s an interesting word, isn’t it, “who bewitched you?” That’s an interesting phrase. The concept of being bewitched means who fascinated you with a new line of thought? Who has cast a spell on you, is what he’s saying. Why have you drunk the Kool-Aid of this bunch? He says you’re under a hoax. What’s wrong with you? So he just pulls no punches. He takes the ax to the root of the tree here.

Well, let’s go back to Romans 8:28-30. It’ll be on your screen. The apostle writes to the church at Rome and he says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called,” he does the calling, “according to His purpose.” Now he goes back before calling now in verse 29. Look at it. Think with me. “For those whom He foreknew,” he knew them in an intimate way before time, “He also predestined,” marked them out for particular outcome, “to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren,” that means that Jesus would be the first but in saving us, we’d be his brethren and would be with him for all eternity. Verse 30, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Now here’s the one simple unavoidable, undeniable point of what Paul is saying here, that is, the foreknown and the predestined are the same ones that he glorifies. By the way, all these verbs are past tense. He already foreknew them. He already predestined them. He already called them and in God’s mind he’s already glorified them. Do you know what that is? That’s eternal security and it implies the pattern of progressive sanctification.

Now he doesn’t use the word “progressive sanctification” here but it’s understood from the balance of Scripture because when he calls you, you believe and you’re justified. Justification which happens with regeneration or being born again, that happens at one time, it’s fully settled, secure, over the moment you believe. Your justification is done but now your sanctification is a continual work. Listen, you can look at it this way: God has saved me, I’m justified. God is saving me, I’m being sanctified. God will save me, I’m going to be glorified. But in the eternal mind of God, it’s all done. It’s all finished.

Well, one last section and we’re going to go for this morning. John 6, go there with me, if you would. Just turn over to John 6. Notice the security and the finality of the Lord’s expression here for his own. Powerful in how he says it, John 6:36, “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.” Now wait a minute, Jesus said, “There are some of you, you’re seeing me, you’re hearing my preaching but yet you don’t believe in me.” Well, here’s why some believe and some don’t believe, verse 37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me,” notice this phrase, “I will certainly not cast out.” Now notice, “I’ll certainly not do…,” he’s going to be safe. Verse 38, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing,” notice this, “but raise it up on the last day.” They’re going to make it all the way through to the end. They’re secure. “I will raise them up on the last day.” Verse 40, “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,” notice it here again, “will raise him up on the last day.” Notice the great security in that. Verse 41, “Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him.” Have you ever had anybody grumble about these doctrines to you? They were grumbling about him, “because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down out of heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, “I have come down out of heaven”?'” In other words, as Jesus taught them the truth, they couldn’t grasp it, they couldn’t receive it. Why couldn’t they grasp it? Why couldn’t they receive it? The Spirit had not enabled them to. Remember I told you he’s sovereign. The Spirit hadn’t enabled them to see it. They may have 12 PhD’s, they may can study the Greek and the Hebrew of the Scriptures, they may can articulate the stories of the Bible, even teach sound doctrine from an intellectual perspective but they don’t see it until the Spirit of God enables them to see it.

Verse 43, “Jesus answered,” as they’re saying, “We don’t get it, Jesus. We don’t get all this teaching you’re giving us.” Verse 43, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do not grumble among yourselves.'” Here’s why you can’t get it. Verse 44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him,” look at the security, “and I will raise him up on the last day.” Now in case you’re wondering, this is old time, full, I can prove it to you with absolute redundancy. This is old time Baptist doctrine. That’s why we’ve always held to once saved, always saved, because God did it all from start to finish. “I will raise him up on the last day,” which includes, “so I will continue him on in progressive sanctification in this life.”

A sheep may fall into a ditch but he won’t wallow in it, but a hog will and a dog will but not a sheep. “My sheep,” Jesus said, “hear My voice and I know them and they come to Me and I will in no wise cast them out.” If you’ve believed on Jesus, you’re one he foreknew and predestined, you’re one he’s justified, you’re one he is sanctifying, and you’re one who is going to be glorified. The unfailing pattern of progressive sanctification.