MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH INTERNET CAMPUS SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE SEPTEMBER 26, 2010, 10:45 A.M.

Transcription

1 MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH INTERNET CAMPUS SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE SEPTEMBER 26, 2010, 10:45 A.M. >> Woo! What a song! I hear that song, I can't help but weep, I'm sorry, because that was me. Maybe that was you too, hmm? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. All right. Well, I've got to pull myself together here. In the meantime, why don't we say hello to all of our friends at our Loudon campus, all of our friends at our Prince Williams campus and all of our friends down in the Etch community and all of our friends around the world on the Internet campus. When I say three, you yell good morning to us. And we'll yell good morning to you. Here we go, one, two, three... >> Congregation: Good morning! >> It's great to be together as McLean Bible Church today. You know, about 40 years ago when I first game to the Washington area, I began attending a Bible preaching church and there was a dear elderly lady there whom I will never forever! She was a widow. She lived in an apartment fear the church building. She was a deep prayer warrior, a committed woman of God who loved the Lord like few people I have ever met and she wasn't even 5 feet tall. I used to kind of think of her as a little pit bull for God. Anyway, one Wednesday night after prayer meeting, I offered to give her a ride home so she didn't have to walk in the dark, and as we were riding along, I made the comment about how great it was going to be when the two of us got to heaven. And she said, well, I sure hope so! And I said you hope so what? And she said, well, I sure hope that I get to go to heaven. Folks, I was flabbergasted. Here was this woman, this Godly lady, this pillar of the church, and suddenly I realized that after she had prayed so many other people into heaven, she herself wasn't even certain that she was going there. Well this is what we're going to talk about today. We're in a series entitled people Jesus met and today we want to talk not so much about someone Jesus met, but rather about someone Jesus told us he is. Namely, the good Shepherd who gives every one of his sheep a place in heaven that is eternally secure. We want to go back into John Chapter 10, and look and see what Jesus said 2,000 years ago and then we want to wind all of that forward and talk about what difference does that make for you and me today. So that's our plan. Here we go, John Chapter 10, beginning in verse 7. Jesus said to them that his that his disciples, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate,

2 Jesus said, whoever (No audio). I think all religions lead to the same God or they say I think any religion if you as well as any other religion. Friends, I'm here to tell you that this is not at all what Jesus said in the Bible. As a matter of fact, Jesus said the exact opposite in the Bible, that he was the only way that people could get into heaven, and as much as our friends may not want to hear it, folks, we need to tell them what Jesus says in the Bible about how to get to heaven and let me tell you why, it's because no one is going to pay the spiritual price involved in giving their life to Christ, the price in repentance, the price in humility and the price in absolute surrender to Christ. They are not going to pay it, as long as they believe there's an easier way for them to get into heaven. Verse 17, Jesus continues. He says, for this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes my life from me, Jesus says, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it up again. This command I received from my father. Now, please don't ask me to explain to you the precise inner workings of what Jesus says in these two verses because I can't do it. Friends, Jesus is talking here about the deep things of God. He's talking here about the unfathomable interrelationship between the first person in the God head, God the father and the second person in the God head, God the son, and there's no human being alive who can explain all of these inner workings. The good news is we don't need to be able to fully explain these two verses in order to get Jesus' main point from them. Jesus' main point is that as our good Shepherd, he went to the cross and laid down his life to pay for our sins. He did it freely. He did it voluntarily. He did it willingly and then by his own divine authority, he took up his life again and rose from the dead. Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Now, all of this sets us up for verse 27 and 28. Jesus continues, my sheep, as the good Shepherd, my sheep, hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Verse 28, and I give eternal life to them. Now, this is one of the cardinal truths of the Bible that sets true Biblical Christianity apart from every other ism and every other ology in the world, namely that people who embrace Jesus as their only gate into heaven, God gives these people eternal life, as a gift. We don't have to earn it. We don't have to work for it. We don't have to deserve it. And we don't have to merit it. It is a gift God gives us based on the saving work of Christ on the cross. Ephesians Chapter 2:8 says for by grace you have been saved through faith and this, that salvation is not of yourselves. It is the what's the next word... Gift of God, not as a result of work. So no one can boast. Romans 6:23, many of us know it by heart, for the wages of sin is death, but the what? The what? The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You say, wow, Lon, that's great, but, wait, there's more. Verse 28

3 continues. Jesus says and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch my sheep out of my hand. Jesus says in this verse, not only is it life in heaven, a gift that God gives people when they come to Christ, but it's also a gift that no one can ever take away, that you can never forfeit, that you can never lose. Think for a moment now, if there were anything you and I could do as followers of Christ to forfeit our eternal life in heaven or if there was anything that you or I could do to convince God to abrogate and take back his life of eternal life, then there's no way that Jesus could use the word "never" in this verse. They shall never perish. Jesus could have said, well, most of the time they won't perish, or he could have said, well, probably they won't perish, or he could have said in this verse, the odds are 70/30 that they won't perish or he could have said in verse 28, God bless you, I hope you don't perish, but he didn't say any of those things. He said my sheep will never perish! And, friends, the Bible here is telling us that when you and I, once we have our salvation as followers of Jesus Christ, there's nothing we can do to lose it and there's no being in the universe that can take it away from us, because Jesus said in this verse, no one, not even the devil of hell himself can snatch my sheep out of my hand and, friends no one means no one. The truth is you and I can't even snatch ourselves out of Jesus' hand. This is Jesus' solemn promise that he gives to every single one of his sheep. So let's summarize. What have we learned so far in John 10? Well, we have learned that as followers of Christ, regardless of whatever dumb thing you and I might do, regardless of whatever stupid thing you and I might do, even regardless of whatever sinful thing you and I might do, Jesus declares that our eternal life in heaven is secure for all of time and all of eternity, period, period, exclamation point, praise God and amen! Yeah? (Applause). All right. Now, that's the end of our passage, but it leads us to our most important question of the morning. And you know what this is. So are you ready? >> Congregation: Yes. >> Are you prepared? At all of our campuses, are you prepared? I heard that. Here we go now. Everybody take a deep breath now. Here we go. Here we go. One, two, three... >> Congregation: So what? >> You say, Lon so what? I really appreciate everything that you are saying here, but I've got a couple of questions. First of all, I don't see what this really has to do with my practical every day life and secondly, are you sure you are not reading a whole lot too much into that one word "never." You are taking that thing and make it walk on all fours. Are built a whole theological system on one word. Are you sure you are not reading too much into that one word?

4 Let's talk about that. Jesus' word here in John Chapter 10 form the foundation of a monumentally important theological doctrine, a doctrine that has profound application to our lives today, a doctrine that dear lady in my car really needed to know, as we were riding that night. It's called the doctrine of eternal security. And so that's what we want to talk about. Let's begin by asking the question, what exactly do we mean by eternal security? Well, the phrase "eternal security" itself, never actually appears in the Bible, however, it's a phrase that summarizes an unmistakable truth that is in the Bible. The truth that we just saw here in John Chapter 10, namely that when a person truly embraces Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, God immediately gives that person eternal life, salvation, a guaranteed place in heaven, and that that salvation is eternally secure, meaning that that person can never lose it regardless of what they do or what they don't do from that point forward. Let's put it another way. The Bible teaches as followers of Christ, not only is getting our salvation not based on our human performance, but also keeping our salvation is not based on our human performance. Friends, from start to finish, from getting saved to stepping on the shores of heaven, it is all the undeserved mercy of God, based on Jesus' finished work on the cross, which never changes regardless of how our performance might change. Listen, when you are performing well, Jesus' death on the cross is not any more efficacious for you. And when you are performing poorly, Jesus' death on the cross isn't any less efficacious for you. Jesus' death on the cross stays the same. Your performance and mine may go up and down like this, but the cross stays the same! And our salvation is not based on our up and down performance. It is based on the cross that never changes. Amen. Now, you say, well, Lon, okay, I hear what you are saying, but you are still building all of this on word, the one word "never." Does the rest of the Bible support this? Oh, yeah. Here we go, John 5:24, Jesus speaking. He says, I tell you the truth. Whoever hears my word, and believes in him who sent me has no the tense of the verb, present tense. He says this in John 3:36, whoever believes in the son, that is Jesus Christ, has eternal life. He says this in John 6:37, I tell you the truth. The person who believes in me has eternal life. Friends, as a follower of Jesus Christ here today, you are never going to have more eternal life than you have right this minute. Eternal life is not something you are going to get when you get to heaven. It's something Jesus says you have right now. Heaven is just the place where people who already have eternal life go when they leave this world. You say, but, Lon, that's not the issue. The issue is can a person ever have eternal life and then lose it? Can a person ever forfeit their eternal life? Okay. Well, now wait a minute. Jesus goes on, John 5:24, and says, and

5 that person that is the one who has eternal life because they believed in me, that person will not be condemned for they have crossed over from death to eternal life. Now, the see to getting the power out of what Jesus said in this verse is all found in the verb "have crossed over." This is perfect tense in the Greek language. The perfect tense is fairly used in the new testament. So when it is used, it's significant. And the perfect tense means there was a past, completed action. Jesus giving us our salvation based on what he did on the cross. The results of which go into eternity, unchangeably and irrevocably. If we would diagram a perfect tense, we would put a big dot on the paper representing getting our salvation through the finish work of cross and then we draw a line all the way into eternity, representing the irreversible and ongoing results of that. You are like. All right, all right, all right, stop, stop, stop. I didn't come here to get a grammar lesson and I didn't come here to learn Greek. Just get to the point. Okay! The point is now that you know enough Greek, let's go back and let's retranslate John 5:24 and what I will give you is the RSV, that is the revised Solomonic translation. So here we go. John 5:24 in the RSV. He who believes in Jesus has eternal life, and will not be condemned for that person here comes the perfect tense has crossed over. That person is crossed over. And that person always will be crossed over from death to eternal life. According to John 5:24, my friends when we embrace Jesus Christ as our Savior, God irreversibly transfers us from a state of eternal death to a state of eternal life, and there is no going backwards ever, ever, ever! For all of eternity. No going backwards. (Applause). Here's another way to look at, it Hebrews Chapter 10, verse 6 and this is the covenant, God says that I will make with them, that is the followers of Christ, their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more. God is telling us here when we become born again followers of Jesus, God enters into a covenant with us, a legal agreement with us, a contract, if you will, with us, and remember, John 5:24, it's a contract that's irreversible. And let me tell you what the terms of this contract are that God enters into with us. There's a few of them. Here we go, number one, term number one, is their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Hebrews 10:17. Term number two of the contract is our names are inscribed in the Lamb's book of life, Philippians 4:3, revelations 27. Term number three, there are is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ, Romans 8:1. Term number four of the contract, God says I will bury their sins in the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19 are. Term number five of the contract is we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that your body is a believer, is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is

6 in you, whom you have received from God. Term number six, we become adopted children of God, John 1:12. But to all who received him, that is Christ, he gave them the right to become, to be the children of God. Term number seven and I love this one! Term number seven is that when we are recipients of this contract, we're branded with God's personal seal of ownership which is the indwelling Holy Spirit. Listen to Ephesians 1:13. Having believed in Christ, we were parked with a seal what was that seal? The promised Holy Spirit which is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. Hey, do you guys like old westerns? I love old westerns. I love John Wayne! How can you not love John Wayne? And hey, are any of you guys old enough to remember Hoss Cartwright on "bonanza?" Yeah, I love that guy. But my favorite western guy is Clint Eastwood. And before he was actually a star in movies on westerns, he actually was a star of a television show, a western show called "Rawhide." Rolling, rolling, rolling, keep those doggies rolling, rawhide. No time to understand them, just rope, tie and brand them. Keep them doggies moving, rawhide. What do you think? Yeah. (Applause). Now, you say, is there a point to this? Yes. The point is that in the west, in the old west, when you wanted to mark an animal, so that every single person who ever met that animal knew that animal belonged to you, and you marked it for all of time, what did you do to it? You branded it! Exactly right. We will show you a picture of what that looks like. You took a hot poker and you branded it with your seal in its flank, right? In its hind parts. Well, what Ephesians 1:13 is telling us, is that's exactly what God has done because the word here to be marked with a seal literally means in Greek to be branded. And so what this verse is saying, Ephesians 1:13 is that every follower of Christ has been branded with the indwelling Holy Spirit. Thank God not with a hot poker, with the indwelling Holy Spirit so that every creature in the universe knows for certain that we are God's property for all of time and eternity. Every angel knows it. Every sarafin knows up, every cherub knows it and every demon in hell knows it, we belong to Jesus for all of time and eternity. I love that. How cool is that? Finally number eight, term of the contract number eight is we have already seen it in John Chapter 10, we become Jesus' personal sheep, who can never perish. So think about it now. If you as a follower of Jesus Christ were to lose your salvation, if I as a follower of Christ were to lose my place in heaven once I had come to Christ, here's what would have to happen. Are you ready? Here we go. Here's what would have to happen. Number one, somebody would have to cast the indwelling Holy Spirit out of us.

7 Number two, for us to miss heaven, somebody would have to eradicate God's brand from our hide. For us to miss heaven, number three, somebody would have to cancel our adoption papers as children of God. Number four, somebody for us to miss heaven, would have to talk God into remembering our sins and our lawless deeds once again. Number five, to cancel our salvation, somebody would have to sneak up into heaven and erase our name out of the lamb's book of life. Number six, somebody, if we were to lose our salvation would have to convince God to rewrite Romans 8:1, so that it now read "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ, except in the following circumstances." Number seven, if we were to lose our salvation, somebody would have to scuba dive down and bring our sins up from the depth of the sea. Number eight, somebody would have to turn us from being one of Jesus' sheep. >> Being one of the devil's goats. Number nine, somebody, if we were to lose our salvation would have to snatch us out of the hand of Jesus while he wasn't looking. And finally, number 10, somebody, most importantly of all, would have to make a liar out of Almighty God because he made a covenant with us, promising that he would never do any of these things, things he would have to do in a genuine follower of Jesus was ever to lose his or her salvation. Friends, the bottom line is when you and I genuinely embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior, God consummates a legal agreement with us, a covenant with us, guaranteeing our place in heaven. It's a covenant that is irreversible. It is a covenant that is irrevocable. It's a covenant you can take to the bank from the day you get saved for the until the last day of eternity, and there is no last day of eternity. Praise God. Praise God. What a great situation to be in! Amen. (Applause). Amen. Now, you know, I was having lunch with unbelieving friend of mine a few weeks ago. He says, by the way, I want to ask you a question. He says, do you really believe that hell is an actual place? I said, I certainly do. I said but because I have trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior, my Messiah, I'm not going there. I'm going to heaven. And he said, come on now. He says you really believe that, that a person can sit here at a table and absolutely know for sure that they are going to heaven? And I said, yeah, I do. Yes, certainly. He says, don't you think that maybe it's just a little bit arrogant for you to sit here and say, well, I know for sure that I'm going to heaven. He says don't you think that's just a little bit arrogant. I said, no. I'm not going to heaven because of anything that I've done. I'm going to heaven because what Jesus in

8 his mercy did for me on the cross and I said, and if you will accept Christ like I did 39 years ago, as your Lord, your Savior and your Messiah, you can have that absolute assurance that you are going to heaven, just like I have. I John 5:13. I'm writing to you who believe in the name of the son of God that you may k n o w, that you may know that you have eternal life! Listen here, folks. God says in the Bible that it is normal for us as followers of Jesus Christ to know for sure that we're going to heaven. It is our birth right as Jesus' sheep. It is our birth right as the children of God. It is our birth right as branded recipients of God's covenant of salvation to know that our eternal life is secure and to know that we are going to heaven when we die and my friend, you need to believe God when he tells you this. You need to accept what God says, and you and I need to enjoy and revel in the truth that God wants us to revel in. You say, but, Lon, what if I really do something bad? I mean, what if I really sin in some horrible way and really let God down in some big way? Well, what did the Psalm say that we just heard sung for our offertory. It says for every fault God sees the fault. Is that what the song said? No. The song said for every fault, God sees the cross, my friend! God sees the cross! Friends, we are hidden behind the cross in the eyes of God. We are hidden as believers behind the blood of Christ in the eyes of God and I'm not saying it's right to do things that are sinful or wrong, and that we don't need to make restitution and ask God forgiveness. I'm not saying that. I'm saying it doesn't change one bit the fact that God made a covenant with us, based on the cross and when he sees the fault, he didn't see it in terms of judging us. He sees the cross! Praise God for that. Praise God for that. Now, what all of this means for you and me is that as followers of Jesus Christ, because of eternal security, we can look death right in the eyeballs! And we can say, I'm not afraid of you because I have a contract with Almighty God. A contract that was sealed by the blood of the living, risen Christ, guaranteeing me a place in heaven and death. There is absolutely nothing you can do to mess it up. As a matter of fact, there's not even anything I can do to mess it up! I'm not afraid of you. Praise God. Praise God. Hmm? What do you say? Amen. >> CONGREGATION: Amen. >> I have got to tell you, I need a plan of salvation. Maybe you don't, but I do. You give me any plan of salvation that I could mess up, and I would mess it up! I mean, self destruction is one of my spiritual gifts is what I'm telling you. And I'm so glad that God gave me and you a plan of salvation that I can't mess up! I'm glad he gave you a plan of salvation that you can't mess up! And I'm telling you, when I get to heaven, I don't know about you, but I believe God's going to put me up on the shelf somewhere and he will bring all the angels around and he will point to me and he will say, do you see him, do you see him all you angels? If I can save that guy, and if I can sanctify that guy all the way into heaven, there is not one human being alive that I can't save and

9 sanctify into heaven. You see him? If I can do it for him, I can do it for anybody! Praise Jesus, I'm telling you for me. I tell you that. (Applause) And so, listen, if you are a follower of Christ, I don't care how bad your day is going. Friend, as long as eternal security is true and it is true, there is always going something going right with our day. I mean, if you are sitting there and my gosh, you get hit by a bus crossing the street, because of eternal security, you pop right into heaven. Hey, knowing that picks your day up. (Laughter) Yeah! If you go out for lunch with some of your friends at work, and you choke to death on your shrimp, the next breath will be taken on the shores of heaven. Knowing that cheers your day up, yeah? You come home, your husband comes home and he says to you, sweetheart, what kind of day did you have today? I want to know all about it. Come sit down on the couch with me. I want to hold your hand and look right into your eyes and I want you to tell me everything that went on. And you have a stroke! (Laughter) The next breath you take will be on the shores of heaven. And praise God. It's a good day! (Applause) And so here's the question I want you to ask yourself or maybe talk about as you leave. How would my attitude, how would your attitude, if you are asking someone be different towards things in life? How would that be different? How would your attitude towards your mistakes and your failures be different? How would your attitude towards the sins and the failings in your life, how would your attitude towards sickness, how would your attitude be towards the future, how would your attitude be towards the fear of dying, how would all of that be different if eternal security weren't true? And then after you finish discussing that, and you are thoroughly depressed about it, then remind yourself, but eternal security is true! Praise God! I don't have to worry about all of that stuff that might have been and all of those fears that might have been, and all of that shame that might have been. Eternal security is true. Praise God and, friends, if this won't cheer you up today and get your spirit moving for God, I don't know what will! Let's pray together. What do you say? Heavenly father, thank you so much for teaching us from your word today. Thank you for making a salvation that we can't mess up even if we tried. Lord, that's exactly the find that folks like us need. Thank you for reminding us today that our eternal security is locked in for all of time and eternity and that no one can snatch Jesus' sheep out of his hand. Lord Jesus, I pray for every one of us here who know that we are Jesus'

10 sheep, by relying on his blood to be the payment for our sin. Lord, encourage our hearts today. Lift our spirits today. Thank you for your mercy and your love for us today. And Lord, I pray that you would drive us out to tell other people about how they can have this same eternal security and know that they are going to heaven if they will just trust Christ. Lord, use your word today to lift and comfort our lives and we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what do God's people say? >> CONGREGATION: Amen. >> What did you say? >> CONGREGATION: Amen. >> God bless you. Have a nice day. (Music)