I do not tell you anything new when I say that things are not as they used to be. Those institutions, whether they be the salute to the flag, the church, the home, the familiar cop on the beach, or whatever might represent security to you, those institutions that used to be so familiar, so much a source of security are breaking down, and things are different. And what we are creating is a world of frustration, neurosis, psychosis, inhibitions, fears, complexes, insecurities, and all kinds of new psychological jargon for old -time theological problems. There is, they are all ramifications of one basic original problem, that is, man separated from his security. There was a time, a long time ago, when God gave man a beautiful Garden of Eden, and in this Garden of Eden, he gave him an absolute security in his relationship to God. And God said simply to man, that if you will live with me, and through me, and stay close to me, you will be a perfectly fulfilled individual. But man said, please, Lord, I'd rather do it myself. And he went his way, and to that degree that man has, through the years, been trying to separate himself from God, and live above and beyond and apart from his God, man's insecurities, his lack of stability and security that he has found in God, is still causing all kinds of difficulties. We talk about children being insecure. Adults engage in all kinds of neurotic overt behavior, and the psychologists say they're just insecure. And they are. And they will never be secure until they reestablish those basic priorities that have caused us to have what little bit of similance of sense and security that we have, and that is our right relationship to God. You cannot feel secure in your home, in your job, in your business, or in your nation until you have, first of all, rightly established a relationship between you and God that brings security. Well, this is the basis from which it all evolves. I don't know how many problems there are in the world. I don't know how many psychological expressions there are for the problems of every one of us. But the one that I hear about the most is security. We do all kinds of things, trying to prove ourselves, trying to prove we are somebody, that we are important, trying to establish our identity and secure the fact that we belong. But I believe there is, in the Word of God, the most able and ample and all -inclusive security to be found anywhere in all of creation. And our world, collectively, and our people individually, will never, ever find any kind of direction and stability and maturity and security until, first of all, there comes a settled consciousness of our established, secure, irrevocable, unescapable, immutable, unchangeable relationship to Almighty God. There is, through the Word of God, a continuity of expression that bespeaks the fact that men need something higher than themselves. They need to find a security and a power stronger than themselves. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Let me be safely enfolded under his wings are but a few of the ramifications of the basic intent of the human heart to find some security in an insecure world, some stability in a fluctuating society. I submit to you that when you and I can firmly establish an unchangeable relationship to God, it's going to do an awfully lot for our society, for our church, our people, for us personally, in our relationship to our fellow man in a fast -changing world. It really does not matter, you see, particularly if a man is absolutely rightly related to mother or father, that is important, but he can stand that if he is rightly related to God. One may not be absolutely secure in his relationship with his peers, but when he is secure in his relationship to God, he finds it bearable and endurable. But he may be the richest, the most loved man in all of the world, and if he is hungry and insecure and devoid of the presence of God in his life, he'll never find fulfillment. And I want to preach to you for a few moments this today on the unchangeable relationship of the security of the believer in Jesus Christ. It would amaze you to know how many of us are Baptists who really down on the inside don't believe, really don't totally swallow the old -time rootin' tootin' Baptist fist -shakin' Bible -pounding doctrine of once saved, always saved. The security of the believer, always in grace. Now, I believe that this is one of the biggest causes for the lack of stability and security of God's people. And I want you this morning to re -evaluate your faith, not in light of what you think, not in light of what is reasonable or rational or normal or seems to be feasible, but as is always the case in any ultimate judgment, what sayeth the Word of God. Now, there are those who say, Preacher, let's stop here for just a minute. If I believe what you believe, that when I was saved I could never lose my salvation, I'd go out and get drunk and booze it up and rob a bank and get a babe and live like the devil. Now, let's examine that statement. I raise the question, do you believe that? You either do believe it or you don't believe it. And if you don't believe it, you shouldn't say it. And if you do believe it, you need to be saved. Because the grace of God is no license to sin. The Apostle Paul said, Shall I continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. To the contrary, the fact of my secure position in Jesus Christ is, in my mind, one of the greatest incentives to my fidelity to Christ. That's one of the greatest reasons I want to be right. Suppose you heard that I robbed a bank last night. You wouldn't believe that. I hope that you wouldn't. Now, just because you wouldn't believe it, does that encourage me to go out and do it? No. That's all the more reason why I'm going to not do it. And because of God's confidence in me, because of the grace of God revealed toward me in Christ, I know of no greater motivating factor for my constant fidelity to Jesus Christ than the fact that he is trusting in me, that he cares about me, that he has confidence in me. Listen to Romans chapter 8, verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, he reminds us, for thy sake, or because of him, we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. In other words, because of our relationship to Christ, we are dead to outside interferences. We are dead. We're like sheep going to the slaughter. And all of the powers of outside interference, whether it be the devil, or angels, or principalities, or hype, or death, or any creature, we are dead toward those. They have no power over us because of our relationship to Jesus Christ. Look at it again. For thy sake, because of thy sake, and our relationship to thee as the result of the of the death of christ on the cross we are now alive for god yet dead toward sin the bible says he that is dead he that is born of god cannot commit sin now this does not mean we'll never commit a sin but it means we'll not give a committal to sin when someone is placed in a an institution for healing we say they are have been committed now when my life was given to christ it was committed to him now i do not say that i'll never sin again or that you'll never sin again but the man that is born of god will never again give a permanent committal back over to sin because his seed his seed remaineth in him and he cannot we need to understand that when we come to christ we do not eradicate the old nature what we do is receive a new nature now we possess two natures his seed remains in us but the old seed the old nature can and does sin but the new nature imparted of god retains the man from giving a re a committal back over to sin consequently he retains his secure relationship to god through jesus christ now there are two words i want you to remember one is relationship and the other is fellowship my wife just took one of my little boys out of the service i see probably to discuss his behavior somewhere on his anatomy as is quite often the case now when he comes back into the service he'll still be my boy the relationship will not be broken but he was removed because he got out of fellowship when you and i sin we get out of fellowship with god but we do not break our relationship the bible says the blood of christ his son cleanseth from all unrighteousness now in our limited grammatical vehicle we call the english language it is impossible to convey what the beautiful original language of the greek means for example we many times we have no way of saying what the original language said i don't have any way to say to you that the blood of christ which cleanses us from sin keeps on cleansing and keeps on cleansing and keeps on cleansing and say what the what the greek said if i were to use the the exact transliteration of the errorless tense of the verb to cleanse i would have to start saying the blood of christ cleanses us and keeps on cleansing and keeps on cleansing and never stop saying it and as soon as i stop saying it a billion years from now i wouldn't be saying what the greek said it just means it keeps on it never stops we have no way of conveying that into english the blood of christ cannot be overcome listen it begins to cleanse it is a point it is applied at point action it starts to purge it keeps on purging it begins to cleanse it keeps on cleansing it starts to keep it keeps on keeping and on and on and we don't have any way to say it if we ever stop saying it we're not saying what it's saying the blood of christ cleanses from all sin for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have and keep on having there's the arrows again and keep on having and keep on having and if you ever stop saying it you wouldn't be true to great and keep on having and keep on having everlasting life it is endless it is continuing it never stops now we can get out of fellowship we can disobey him and he disapproves our actions but though i were to be taken to court and sued for disfavor from my own parents though they would disown me and legally disinherit me and change my name the fact would remain that i was still always there you could not undo that blood bought blood born relationship for i am persuaded he adds that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord Now there are those who say the Bible says no man can take them out of my father's hand. My sheep hear my voice. They follow me. No man plucketh them from my hand. There are those who say yes but you can pluck yourself from your father's hand. Then are you not a man? The word man does not mean male in this context as opposed to female. It means a member of the human race. Then you must be an animal. Then you must be an angel. But the Bible says any other creature animal nor height nor depth nor principalities nor angel. That means an angel just like it says. There is no creature on the earth of God of whom you are one whether you're one or you're somebody else's one that can get you out of the hand of God. It cannot be done. God gave his son to give us endless everlasting life. Now ladies and gentlemen you and I as children of God need to remember that as his children we have some basic responsibilities to God and some tests by which we can be assured we are of God. He says for example in the book of Hebrews that he chastises every son and scourges whom he receives and if ye are without chastisement then are ye illegitimate and not sons. Not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven. Now you say preacher that means you have to live it. What is the will of your father which is in heaven? That you say Lord Lord yes that much of it yes. That you confess him with your mouth but also that you repent of your sins and follow him with your life. And if you say that you have had a confession of salvation which has not produced a repentance of sin and a new direction of life you deceive yourself. You say how may I be sure? The Bible gives us a very simple unfailing test. Again if you claim to be a child of God and are without chastisement when you sin and we all sin there is no such thing as sinless perfection. No one lives above sin. The Bible says if you are a Christian claiming to be a Christian the way you can know that you are a child of God is that he will chastise you. He will correct you. But if you can go on and on in a backslidden condition. If you can steal God's tithe Sunday after Sunday. If you can desecrate God's name day. Blaspheme his name. If you can live an impure immoral continually backslidden life and get away with it you're no child of God. The Bible says he scourges he reproves and corrects those whom he calls. Now I have two boys and a girl. Next door there are other children. When the neighbor children disobey I don't touch them. I leave them alone because they are not my responsibility. But when my children disobey I'm going to chastise them. I'm going to reprove them and I'm going to correct them. The Bible says God reproves his own. Now remember this. God deals with the unsaved on a credit basis. You say how can an unsaved man live like the very devil. Reject the will of God. Live in immorality. Live drink like a fish. Steal God's money. Do whatever he wants to. And go all the way through life and prosper. The wicked do prosper. But the Bible says they store up wrath against or until the day of judgment. In other words God lets the unsaved man just store it up. You just chalk it up. Don't think that because God hasn't judged you yet that you're getting away with your rejection of Jesus Christ. God says that's all right. Just let him go. Give him a little more rope and eventually he'll hang himself. But the Bible says be sure one day your sin will find you out. God does not slap your wrist every time you reject Christ as an unsaved person. He just lets it go. He just lets it pile up. And then it is all answered for at once. Quickly. Cut off. Hardened neck. Sudden reproof. Says the word of God. Ah. But if you are a Christian the Bible says God deals with you on a cash basis. Every time you sin, you can expect an immediate slap from the hand of God on your hand. Some kind of rebuke, some kind of a sting in the heart, some kind of reproof, judgment, to pull you back in line. David said, oh God, try the reins of my heart. He prayed, Lord, keep me in check. Pull the reins of my heart. Let me know when I do wrong. Keep me in line. And if you claim to be a Christian, you have confessed with the mouth. The way you can know whether or not you have repented with your heart and are following with your life is, does he let you go when you sin or does he reprove you and pull the reins and chastise you and pull you back? He keeps that relationship with his children. Now I submit to you that the burden of proof that a man is once saved, always saved, is not on the individual who believes this wonderful Bible doctrine. The perversion of which delights the devil, disturbs the saints, and destroys, helps to destroy the work of the Lord. It is an awful, damnable idea. The idea that God's grace, that God's power is not sufficient to keep a man saved. Listen, the Bible says, by grace are ye saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Over and over and over, from A to Z, from generations to revolutions, the crux of the word of God is on the security of the believer. Now those who disbelieve it, that a man can lose his salvation, they are the ones who must prove, because only the minority, the tiniest minority of scriptures, even infer that a man might lose his salvation. And when examined carefully, one is very easy to discover, it is very easy to discover, that they are out of context, perverted, and misunderstood. Let's examine for a moment some of the scriptures which seem to suggest at first glance that a man could lose his salvation. First of all, there is 1 John 3, 9. That that is born of God does not commit sin. As I have said, I live in a physical, fleshly body. I have, however, received a new spiritual nature. This body has certainly not been born of God. One day it will be. When I am glorified, I'll have a new body. I'll have a resurrected body. I'll have a raptured body, which is incapable of sin, lust, pride, gluttony, gossip, deceit, envying, emulations, and all of the issues of life which proceed from the heart. But until that time, I must deal with the problem of a spiritual nature which indwells a physical body, a spiritual being inside an unspiritual body. Consequently, there are tensions and frustrations. There are problems that pull us apart. The apostle Paul said it like this, when I want to do good, evil is continually with me. There was an Indian who lived on a reservation way out in the west, and a missionary came and won him to Christ. Years later, he returned and said, Joe, how are you getting along? Joe, the Indian said, well, I'm doing pretty well, but it seems like there's a white dog and a black dog inside of me. Well, he said, which? And he said, they're always fighting. That white one represents the good and the black, the evil. He said, oh, he's fighting inside of me. Well, he said, Joe, which one wins? And the old Indian said, I guess the one I feed the most. Now, if you live on a constant diet of television and movies and ball games and picnics and as good as most of those things may be, if you are constantly eating and sleeping and just doing things which contribute to the preservation of the body, then the old physical nature is going to win out. And though your soul is saved, you're going to live a defeated Christian life. I wonder if there is a person listening to my audience today, to my voice today, who spends one -tenth as much time feeding the Spirit with the Word of God and prayer and witnessing and fellowship with God's people as they do the flesh. Is it any wonder that we're defeated? Is it any wonder that we're backslidden more than that we're right? Is it any wonder that down on the inside we're laden with guilt complexes which tell us we know what we ought to do that are so frustratingly in contrast with the obvious of what we are not doing? Ladies and gentlemen, there is a higher plane of living than that most of us know. There is the fullness of the Spirit of God by which we are totally and basically oriented and directed to do the will of God. You do not have to live for the flesh. You do not have to feed the flesh and have a defeated, guilt -ridden Christian life. You can rise above that by a simple and complete committal and surrender of life to the fullness of the Holy Spirit of God. There is power. There is a victorious plane of living. There is higher ground on which the Christian can live. But unless we begin to feed that nature, we will continually live with frustrations and guilt and problems that pull us apart and divide us with a kind of schizophrenic nature that makes us know what we ought to do but not have the power to do it. Is there any wonder the apostle Paul cried, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the vile body of this death? But then, praise the Lord, he immediately said, I thank God through my Lord Jesus Christ. I like that old Pentecostal song, there's victory in Jesus. There is victory in Jesus Christ. But we need to remember that we have an old nature. And the new nature, if you have really received a new nature, will not allow you to give a recommittal back over to the old nature. Another problem verse says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now when in Philippians the apostle wrote those words, words, I think he would be embarrassed today if he knew how many of us stopped right there. The word for, a copulative, continues the thought and goes on. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for or because it is God that worketh in you both to do and to will his good pleasure. Now in understanding every complex verse in the Bible, you need to remember the context in which it is, it is stated. In the book of Philippians, there was a problem of discouragement. The apostle Paul would go in and win some folks to Christ and start a church and go over to the next town and do the same thing and the next town do the same thing. And the folks at the first church sat down and started crying. Oh, Paul's gone. We can't do anything. They just boohooed and gave up. Now he wrote them a letter and said, you don't need me. God's in you. Go ahead. You've been saved. Now continue to work out, give an outworking as Ephesians 2 10, where his workmanship, give a proof, an outward manifestation of this inward salvation. Because it is God, not Paul, that worketh in you, both to do the power to do it and to will the desire to do his good pleasure. They're not talking about falling from grace. They're talking about discouragement. Now, while we're speaking of falling from grace, I want you to turn with me over to Galatians chapter 5, verse number 4. Very, very quickly, if you will, please, Galatians, just before Ephesians, chapter 5, verse number 4. Well, if I get out of Ephesians, I could find it. All right. Galatians 5, verse 4. Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Grace. Oh, yahoo. There it is. Boy, we got us a proof text. It shows you can fall from grace. Right. You certainly can, but you can't be lost. You say, oh, but that says fallen from grace. Now, let's be let's be consistent what are we talking about every book in the new testament deals with one basic message you remember that the law was never intended to save us it was intended to point us to the one who could save us looking in a mirror was never intended to make me clean it was intended to show me i was dirty so i could find some soap it would point me to the soap and water which could make me clean now the law in the book of galatians the uh the the judaizers had come to these jews who had kept all of the laws and then paul had come along and said that the fulfillment of the law was jesus christ so they said that's good now that we've kept our our new moons and our holidays and our feast days and all of the legal ramifications of the law now we know that they were foreshadowing they were previewing the coming of christ so now we have come to christ we've received him we've graduated from kindergarten we've gone on you see to college now we've discovered the fulfillment of christ but the the jewish legalizers came along and said that's all right to be saved by faith in christ but to keep yourself saved you're going to have to go all the way back under law and bring law up and add it to grace you're going to have to add the jewish uh legalistic philosophies to the grace of god to jesus christ the finished work of christ on the cross is not enough in the book of galatians there is one theme and it is not the security of the believer it is this having been saved by faith in christ don't try to go back under the law and add law to grace don't fall away from grace don't slip away from grace in galatians there are a thousand words 149 verses and six chapters they all deal with one thing unquestionably one doctrine and that is having gone from the law which revealed christ up to christ don't slip away from christ and go back and try to add law to christ now it's good to keep the law but not trying to do it as a part of your salvation by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus unto good works which god hath foreordained that we should walk in them why are we saved in christ unto good works so we can do good works we're not saved in christ by good works unto good works so that we can do good deeds we ought to do good deeds but they do not save us they are the result of our salvation they do not contribute to salvation they are the proof of salvation now the apostle paul go back to the first verse of christians 5 says stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith christ hath made us free he said you've become free by faith in christ stay there and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage don't go back and get all bound up and tangled up in the law behold i paul say unto you that if you be circumcised uh circumcised christ shall profit you nothing these adult people were going to submit to the jewish right of circumcision to help contribute to their salvation he said if you do that christ isn't going to do you any good don't leave college christ and go back to kindergarten works for i testify again to every man that is circumcised all right if you're going to do that then you're going to be a debtor to the whole law if you're going to take one part of the law to keep yourself safe then you're going to have to keep all the ten commandments to keep yourself safe you have to do the whole business do it all christ therefore is become of no effect to you you all that are saying you're justified by the law you're falling from grace you're leaving grace now this wasn't a bunch of skunks and drunks he was talking to this was the cream of the crop there was no question of immorality these people were so spiritual brother they came to prayer meeting they loved they sang oh how i love jesus and they also had feasts they gave 30 percent of that boy they were going to do everything and they were counting on that for salvation and he's saying unto them what do you need christ for you're going to leave christ you're going to go back under the under the law Christ has become of none effect to you. Oh, how we can pervert the scriptures. There is no question. There is no inference. There is no discussion of eternal security. The only thing they're discussing here is don't leave Christ and fall away from grace and slip back under the law. Stay with Christ. Sure, be good. Sure, do good works. But because you have been saved, not in order to be saved. I have one more little hypothetical question for you. Just suppose you could be saved and then lose your salvation. What would you have to do to get it back again? Turn to Hebrews 6, 4. That same hypothetical question is posed for us there. Just suppose you could be saved and then lose your salvation. Incidentally, it's very strange to me that many people who believe you have to be saved to be baptized and then believe you can lose your salvation, when you come down to get it back again, you don't have to be baptized again. It got you saved the first time, but it didn't have to get you saved. I don't understand the consistency of that. You see, when you get in a religion that works, produces salvation, it's sure easy to get confused. Let me ask you a question. If you could lose your salvation after you got it, what would you have to do to lose it? You say, well, if you kill somebody. Well, just suppose you started to kill somebody, but then you decided you wouldn't and at the last minute you accidentally did anyway. Would you lose it? Just suppose you could lose your salvation, how would you do it? Oh, you say, preacher, I guess if you got drunk and died that way. Okay, how drunk is drunk? You say, well, it takes ten bottles of beer to get drunk. Just suppose you drank nine and nine -tenths bottles of beer and died. Do you go to hell or to heaven? You see, you start splitting hairs, you're going to have more screwball ideas than you can shake a stick at. I thank God's salvation is by grace. That's why we sing amazing grace. Shall I continue in sin so that grace may abound and cover my sins? God forbid. No greater reason in the world to live for Jesus than amazing grace. Nothing, nothing any more than that. Now, look, just suppose, he says, it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again under repentance. What's this? It is impossible if a man could fall away to renew him under repentance again? You mean, preacher, if I could lose my salvation, I don't have to just come bouncing down the aisle and say I want to get saved again to be saved? That's absolutely right. You don't do just that. You couldn't get saved again if you did lose it. It is impossible to renew them again under repentance. Literally, it would be impossible. It is an impossibility. Why? Seeing they crucify unto themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open chain. You see, Jesus' blood shed on the cross for your sins availed for your salvation once. Once he entered into the Holy of Holies, once he died on the cross and he said it is finished. Once he ascended into heaven, once he sat down on the glory seat, once he sat down on the right hand of the Father, once he began to intercede and he keeps on interceding, thank God, and he keeps on and he keeps on and he keeps on and he keeps on and the blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat and he forever liveth, hallelujah, forever liveth to make intercession for the saints. Now, if you could so grievously sin as to overcome the power of the blood, to make null and void the efficacy of the propitiation of the Son of God on Calvary's cross, what would have to happen? Jesus would have to be prophesied for hundreds of years. All of the Old Testament prophets would again have to prophesy. He again would have to lay aside those regal robes of royalty. He again would have to step to the earth through the womb of the virgin. He again would have to come from heaven. He again would have to die on a cross. Now, the next time you sin, if you could so sin, if sin could make you unsaved, he'd have to go back to heaven and be prophesied and come born to the virgin and bleed and die all over again. Now, how many people are there in the world that are Christians? A half a billion? Probably. Probably. Just suppose all of us sin an average of five times a day. That means that two and a half billion times a day the Savior has to come from heaven, be born of the virgin, be prophesied, live a holy life, go to the cross, die, and start all over again. No, no. If you could fall away, it would be impossible to renew you to repentance the second time because you'd have to put the Son of God to an open chain. You'd have to crucify him all over again. I want you to know that's never going to happen. When he said, it is finished, it is and was finished. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Save a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found. I was blind, but now I see. This is my story. This is my song. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Praising my Savior all the day long. Let's stand and pray together. Our Father, in a world of insecurities and uncertainties, of upturns and overturns, in a world of frustrations and fluctuations, we thank thee, O God, that thou changest not. Thank thee that you've died once for all. You've interceded your blood once for all. Men who are coming to come to Christ are saved once for all. O God, grant that the security of our relationship to God through Christ shall motivate us and inspire us to do and be our very utmost for thee. In Jesus' name, amen. If you are here today, and do not know Christ as your Savior.