Advent, Promise of Coming

First Promise Kept at the First Coming. 

            Christ’s first advent was the greatest to date “promise made, promised kept” that God fulfilled.

John the Baptist, in his moments of despair, asked Jesus, “Are You the Expected One, or should we look for another?” When imprisoned, the baptizer’s hopes were discouraged but not entirely dashed. He knew that if Jesus was not the promised one, that He could expect another because God is and was and forever will be faithful and true.

            As far back as Genesis 3:15, the Bible teaches that a seed of a woman (literally “sperm” or "seed" in both Greek and Hebrew) would crush the head of Satan. That curse against Satan was literally fulfilled in the virgin birth of Christ, the only literal seed of a woman ever recorded.

Another 3:15 passage, Galatians 3:15, also teaches about the seed (singular) of man being the promise made long ago being fulfilled. “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made… the covenant was confirmed before by God in Christ, and it does not nullify the promise. If the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”

The promise was also made to Sarah, “The word of promise…Sarah will have a son.” (see Romans 9:9). Paul preached in Acts 13:23 that Jesus was the promised Son of God and Seed of David who would become the Savior of Israel and of the world. “From this man’s seed, according to the promise, raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus.”

Isaiah’s promise in Isaiah 1:9 was reiterated in Romans 9:29 that the Seed of the Lord of Sabaoth would come to save the world.

A Second Promise Kept: The Holy Spirit.

Another Promise Kept. Perhaps the second greatest Promise that God has made and Kept came 50 days after the Resurrection. When the Holy Spirit came down, it was the down payment of the Promise of a future Advent.

“Wait for the Promise of the Father” Jesus said in Acts 1:4. “I will send the Promise,” He had previously stated in Luke 24:49.

Simon Peter and those in the upper room experienced the fulfillment of that Second Promise kept. The Holy Spirit which Jesus Himself received was poured out on them all in Acts chapter 2. “The Promise of the Holy Spirit is being poured out today and this is what you now see and hear,” Peter preached in Acts 2:33, “the Promise is for you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Peter never stopped being in awe of those two promises kept. From a dank and dungy Roman prison cell, the aged fisherman was not bitter. Not disillusioned. No fist shook toward heaven, despite the scars on his back, seeing the cruel death of his best friend James, and perhaps having survivor’s guilt when his own life was spared.

No, from the prison cell Simon wrote these words of encouragement.

The Third Promise Will Be Kept: Jesus is Coming Again!

“God has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, and also escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Promise made, Peter Proclaimed, and Promise Kept. Four more times the imprisoned apostle used the word promise, finishing up with this defiantly faithful and unquenchable fiery man of God preached through his pen which echoes in our Scripture readings to this day.

“In keeping with His Promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”

And then as a nod to fellow prisoner in Rome, the Apostle Paul, Peter wrote “and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation which also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you.”

The Silence Is Broken!

    This Saturday and Sunday, Rief Kessler has asked me to take on the role of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, in the Christmas Cantata.

    A monologue of a man who was struck mute for nine months? I did not think this would be a very big role! However, my part is AFTER he gets his voice back and as I have practiced it, it is about a ten-minute monologue.

    At first, I was a little worried. I had recited the 17^th chapter of John a few years ago at Easter, and that was a challenge, but at least that was Scripture and a passage with which I was very familiar. I wondered if my memory would retain the almost 1,000-word script, marvelously written by Rief Kessler.

    Getting into the role of the aged father of the “greatest man who was ever born to a woman” (as Jesus called John the Baptist) really got me to thinking. What did Zechariah ponder all this time while he was silent?

    Many theologians (Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Elisabeth Elliot, Richard Foster, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones) have written about the “spiritual discipline” or “spiritual exercise” of silence. On my bookshelf, I have a book entitled Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney, a professor of biblical spirituality and associate dean at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Whitney states in chapter 10 that there are biblical reasons for silence and solitude, including:

• to follow Jesus’s example,
• to minimize distractions in prayer,
• to express worship and faith, to seek restoration, wisdom, and the will of the Lord,
• to learn to control the tongue,

    For me, the most profound reason for the discipline of silence is found under Whitney’s section on “To Regain a Spiritual Perspective”. He cites Billy Graham, A.W. Tozer, Sarah Pierpont (whose silence attracted Jonathan Edwards to propose marriage to her), C.H. Spurgeon, and Susanna Wesley among great leaders who gained great spiritual insights after being in silent solitude.

    He begins this section on regaining a spiritual perspective with Zechariah. Having been disciplined by the Lord, the priest from the order of Abijah climaxes his prophecy with these insightful words of wisdom, gleaned from nine months of silence (see Luke 1:76-79, NLT):

“And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.”

    The angel Gabriel tells Zechariah that he and his wife will have great joy and gladness. That is how I will play this man of God. And by coming, I believe you too will find the Thrill of Hope.

Blessings in Him!

 

He left us, to test us.

Have you ever felt God has withdrawn from you? Maybe He has. 

There’s a small verse almost hidden in 2^nd Chronicles 32:31 that packs a powerful punch for those who feel abandoned by God.

“God withdrew from him (Hezekiah), in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.”

God had blessed Hezekiah, perhaps as much as all kings except for David and Solomon. 

God had turned back Hezekiah’s enemy, the king of Assyria, despite his deliciously wicked taunts against Hezekiah and the bewildering triumphs over other countries, including Judah’s rebellious rival, the nation of Israel.

God proved the healing of Hezekiah from a near fatal sickness by using a holy time machine, turning the sun’s relentlessly advancing shadow backward by ten steps, a feat never to be repeated even to this day (2^nd Kings 20: 1-11, 2^nd Chronicles 32:24).

God does all these things, and then God tests Hezekiah? Near the end of his life? I mean, come on, now! God abandoned and left desolated the good and great King Hezekiah of Judah?

Why?

Why is it that we can feel so close to God, and then suffer the “Elijah depression”, as seen in 1^st Kings 19:9-18?

Could it be that we have come to take God for granted, or even worse, think that somehow His blessings are the results of how good we are, rather than how good He is?

“Hezekiah did not repay (God) according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up… Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries … storehouses … and stalls. Moreover, he provided cities for himself, and possessions… Hezekiah prospered in all his works.”

God left him to test him, but NOT to show God what was in the king’s heart.

God left him to test him to show HEZEKIAH himself that even though the king was passing the grades of the day, he was actually failing the test of eternity.

O, America! O, American churches!! O, American pastors, and all we with our treasures laid up for ourselves, do we not see that we are not rich toward God? Of course God has left us, to TEST us.

“But I’m not prosperous,” you say?

It wasn’t the prosperity that caused God’s test. It was the pride.

God doesn’t give a reservoir of water for your possessions, but when pride drowns everything else out of your heart to the level that there is no room for God, then, yes, He’ll leave you. Alone. By yourself. In an ocean of “possessions” that only possess you.

To test you.

Tell me now, just how long has it taken you to notice that God has left?

Your trinkets may not be of silver or gold, but they glittered and darted in your heart. O, but didn’t they TWINKLE in your eyes? Those itty bitty things suddenly pushed out the God of the universe! Those things you loved the most caused the One Who loves you most, to leave you to the uttermost.

“Psst. Hey!”
“What?” you answer.
“Shh. Shh. Do you want a cheat sheet for the test you’ve been failing?”
“Yeah! Sure!” you say. “What’s the answer to Number 1?”

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

C.J. Mahaney said in his book Humility: True Greatness, “Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him.”

“Psst. Hey. Want another cheat sheet?”
“Yeah,” you whisper back, “What’s the answer to number 2?”

“He has shown you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, 

But to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Your God."

Andrew Murray’s “cheat sheet” found in his book Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness has an answer to passing God’s test of being left all alone.

“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you. The only humility that is REALLY ours is not that which we try to show before God… but that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct.”

“The insignificances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us.”

Keep reading that last sentence over and over ... 

... until …

“Ah, Father! Welcome Back! I’ve been missing You!”

Just camping out in our tents

     Not only is today the first full day of fall (yay!), but this week also celebrates Sukkot or Feasts of Tabernacles September 20-27 on the Jewish calendar. It was a feast that Jesus, Paul, and the early church celebrated.

    Chapter 23 of Leviticus ends with explaining the Feast of Tabernacles, which memorializes the 40 years of wandering before entering the Promised Land. However, there is also a New Testament fulfillment as we look forward to putting aside our earthly “tabernacles” of our physical bodies.

    In 2 Peter 1:13-14, Peter refers to our bodies as a tabernacle (or tent). “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent (tabernacle, KJV), to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.” (NKJV)

    The Apostle John also used the verb form of this word when he explained that Jesus, the Word, “tabernacled” among us. “And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us,” (Revised English Version). John again used tabernacles to look forward in Revelation 7:15, 21:3, when God will “tabernacle” or dwell with humanity.

    Paul also carries forward this analogy in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, comparing our earthly tent to an eternal house:

    “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, ³ if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. ⁴ For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

    The point? Twice in the last week, I’ve spoken with unbelievers who question God’s goodness because of the world’s badness. COVID, hurricanes in the Gulf, earthquakes in Haiti, fires in California, none of these are surprises to God. But as Rick Warren says on Day 6 of The Purpose Driven Life, “Life on earth is a temporary assignment.”  

    Or as Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

    This is not our home, we are aliens, pilgrims, strangers. We are just camping out in our tents, waiting for our house to be built!

The ANSWER that Never Goes Away

    I saw Darren smoking a cigarette in front of his RV late Friday night. I greeted him by name, "Hey, Darren!" and he greeted me by name, “Hello, Tim!”.

    “I just wanted to show off that I remembered your name, Darren,” I said, remembering his name after meeting him early that morning. He smiled and followed me barefoot to my trailer. Within seconds, he told me what I would have soon surmised.

    He was drunk.

    He also soon surmised that I was a minister and began to tell me another thing I already knew: the importance of remembering people’s names, one of my many Achilles' heels!

    “People use different parts of their brains,” he said, “to remember their own names and to say the names of other people. You have to not say your own name when you meet people and are trying to remember theirs. That should be very important to you in your ‘business’.”

    I winced.

    My uncle Don one time said he liked getting old because he could finally use his age for all of his shortcomings and I am definitely using my geriatric years to excuse what I’ve suffered all my life: a poor memory.

    We stood in the cool September air, even after I had been gone from my own RV for 14 hours, yes, on my “day off". I was tired and knew from experience that our discussion would soon get around to “religion”, a familiar topic especially for non-church-goers and especially when they’ve imbibed.

    I listened.

    He was my age and a Marine. You never say “former Marine”, something I learned the following day at a funeral of another Marine. If he hadn’t been leaving on Sunday, I know we would have become friends, even though he was big, brawly, and brash. He bemoaned religion, the military, the government, and finally, my favorite subject, God.

    “If there is a God, why is there so much of … this?” he waved his huge hands to the dark sky, obviously referring to the places of uttermost tragic circumstances to where he’s traveled. We had been standing and talking for what seemed like an hour, but it was undoubtedly due to my readiness to go to bed.

    But you know me.

    I asked him to come sit down at my picnic bench in front of my RV, but his bare feet couldn’t bear the rocks, something only now as I write this do I find amusing that this tough Marine also apparently has an Achilles’ heel … or maybe like me a touch of plantar fasciitis. I even offered to go get him my Adidas flip flops, but no. So, we stood. He talked. He asked. I listened.

    He’s been to Somalia. He’d been to (you name it, he'd been there). He’d seen suffering. Sometimes I wonder if people look at ministers and think of them as hothouse flowers, living in Ivory Towers. And perhaps we are; but even ministers, and especially ministers, see a lot of evil, hear a lot of things. You don’t have to be a Marine or a paramedic to know the evils and tragedies of the world. And yet we still believe in God.

    Philip Yancey began a great writing career with books dealing with suffering. Where is God When It Hurts? was later repackaged in another book entitled The Question that Never Goes Away. In between he even wrote a book called Disappointment with God. I stopped reading him, even though his writing ability and wit exceeds my favorite go-to writer, Max Lucado, simply because his books and his tragedy depress me.

    When Yancey was an infant, church members suggested that his father, who was stricken with polio, to go off life support, praying in faith that God would heal him. God did not, and his father died. Yancey at one time lost his faith in God and at times in his writing, he seemingly has not regained it all back.

    We all experience tragedies, and so has Darren, at least from afar. The Marine told me of his life, how he retired at 52 and has been travelling the country in his RV with his wife. He wouldn’t trade his life for anyone.

    He stood looking at me. He had just asked me how I could explain the answer to the question that never goes away while he’s standing there drunk with no shoes on in the middle of the evening after my 14-hour long day.

    I said, “You know that’s why I’ve been listening to you all this time. You know I’d love to tell you…”

    He smiles broadly, interrupting me, not even knowing possibly what I said, leans over and gives me a big hug, “I know you would. Good night, Tim,” and walks back to his RV.

    I smiled too as he walked away. Witnessing with a person who is intoxicated has not been my forte, no matter how kind of a drunk they are. I felt a little like Jesus and the man whom we call the rich, young ruler: “Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him…”

    I have no idea about the Marine’s soul, but the following day I read the eulogy of a Marine, who died at age 86 after a life well lived, whose faith was strong to the very end. I wished that kind of testimony for my almost-friend Darren who taught me the value of remembering names.

    After the funeral, I went and got a copy of my book, The Gospel of John, One Day at a Time and put a copy of the 23rd psalm from the funeral on page 58, a devotional entitled, “Why Is There Evil in the World?”

    I’m no Philip Yancey, but there’s a link at the bottom of this post to see what I wrote several years ago.

    On Sunday morning, I was as sick as a dog, so much so that I missed church, but between kneeling at the porcelain altar, I trotted a copy of the book to Darren. Who knows, I may be the only Philip Yancey that Darren will ever read.

    I told him I had just did a funeral of a Marine the day before (the words sounded a little more ominous than I intended as they came out of my mouth), and wanted to thank him for his service. Darren left that morning to resume his wonderful life of retirement, disbelieving in God who allows suffering in the world, rather than believing in a God who allows him to live his wonderful life of retirement.

    His empty lot at the RV park will soon be replaced by another traveler. It reminds me of the plot of ground or water where Darren’s body or ashes will some day be deposited.

    I pray for the Darrens who need to believe because of God’s goodness, rather than disbelieve because of the world’s tragedies.

    The Gospel of John, One Day at a Time: John 9. Days 20-21 (johnoneday.blogspot.com)

   

A New Year, Rosh Hashanah

At Sundown Monday, September 6, 2021 a new year begins the Jewish calendar, as recorded in Leviticus 23 (also recorded in Numbers 29:1-6):

23 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.’ ”

As practicing Jews, the Lord Jesus Christ, His disciples, and the Apostle Paul all marked this solemn occasion. It is traditionally called Rosh Hashanah and begins the Feast of Trumpets, including the blowing of the shofar.

The New Year begins in the Seventh Month?

You may have noticed that nowhere does these passages from Leviticus and Numbers say that this is Rosh Hashanah or a “New Year”. Just as the holiest day of the week is the seventh day; that is, the Sabbath, the number seven often signifies holiness to the Lord. Rosh Hashanah is in the seventh month of Tishri, with the first month being Nisan, which occurs in March/April. Only in Ezekiel 40:1, the phrase “Rosh Hashanah” is used, literally meaning the head of the year, rather than the New Year.

I compare it to the calendar year begins in January, but the school year begins in August/September. The Jewish calendar is based on a lunar cycle of the moon, and of course that is from where we even get the word “month”.

From sundown Monday to sundown Wednesday were days of self-judgment (two days are used, just to make sure that the right time is observed), a time to remember our sins, our repentance, and our forgiveness of those sins. 

Typically in modern Judaism, Micah 7:19 is read, “He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. ‘You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.’ ”

But I’m not Jewish…

…But Jesus was and still is Jewish. He is of the tribe of JUDAH, from which we get the name Jew, and Judea. Numerous passages in the New Testament refer to the concepts of Rosh Hashanah. Since the first four feasts from the Old Testament coincided with the fulfillment of those prophecies in the New Testament, these feasts celebrated this month may also coincide with the future prophecies when they are to fulfilled.

What were the first four feasts that coincided with the fulfillment by Jesus Christ that have already occurred? Passover, Pesach, celebrated the liberation from enslavement and coincided with Jesus’s institution of a “New Covenant” or a “New Testament in My blood” (Luke 22:20, KJV) and occurs at the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Ḥag haMatzot. There is also the Feast of Weeks, Shavuat, (Pentecost), which Christians also link with the New Testament fulfillment in Acts 2.

Further, twice Paul referred to the holy day of Pentecost in Acts 20:16 and 1 Corinthians 16:8. If he, as a Christian to the Gentiles, we too should be mindful of the Jewish feasts, and especially those which have not yet been fulfilled, including Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Rosh Hashanah can be celebrated by Christians in anticipation of several coming prophecies to be fulfilled. Consider:

At the sound of the trumpet, the dead in Christ shall rise (see Matthew 24:31, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, and 1 Corinthians 15:51-57). When John is called up to heaven in Revelation 4:1, he heard a trumpet sound and voice which said, “Come up here…”. This passage marks the beginning of the Tribulation, when the church is raptured from the earth.

In Luke 10:20, Jesus said we are to rejoice that our names are written in heaven. In the Jewish Talmud, there is a rejoicing at Rosh Hashanah about those whose names are written in the Book of Life (see Philippians 4:3, Revelation 20:15, 21:27).

Revelation says there are “ten days” of tribulation. The time from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur is exactly ten days of repentance. While the Great Tribulation is seven years, it is possible that it could begin at Rosh Hashanah with the rapture of the church, of Christian believers both Jewish and Gentiles, and during those seven years, the Great Day of Atonement would come seven years and ten days later at Yom Kippur.

It is amazing that the seven years of Tribulation from Revelation 4 through Revelation 22:15 that the word is not mentioned, but yet, in Revelation 22:16, it is clear that these things are testified to the churches! 

John 5:24 through 29 states clearly that we who

    1) hear the word of Jesus and
    2) believe in God who sent Jesus (see also John 3:16)
    3) have everlasting life and
    4) will not come into judgment.

Verse 25 says that an hour is coming and now is for those who will hear the voice of the Son of God and live. That “hour” has lasted nearly 2,000 years that we have heard (either in His presence or through His word, the Bible) from the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah, and, as a result, live in eternal life. From my book The Gospel of John One Day at a Time, I wrote: 

The phrase in John 5:28 which says “Do not marvel” can be loosely paraphrased as “and that ain’t all.” Not only did Jesus give life to the spiritually dead, He also states that ALL in the graves will hear His voice. If they have “done good” (or believe in Jesus, see John 5:24), they will have everlasting life. If they “have done evil” (or ever did anything bad—ever! See Romans 3:10-23 for more on that!) they will be condemned. John 6:29 says that believing in Christ is “the work of God.” On Judgment Day, all will hear the Christ’s voice. Every knee will bow down and every tongue will confess He is Lord, but for some, it will be too late.

The worst sin of all is to reject God’s gift of eternity. Revelation 20:12 speaks of two resurrections: John wrote, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them.” (Revelation 20:6). But, “anyone not found written in the Book of Life” are judged by their works and every one of those will be “cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 3:15).

Let us use these days of

• Rosh Hashanah,
• Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement (begins sunset, Wednesday, September 15, 2021),
• Sukkot or Feasts of Booths / Tabernacles (begins sunset, Monday, September 20, 2021), and
• Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (which ends the Feast of Booths, at sunset Monday, September 27 through sunset, Wednesday, September 29)

to admit, confess, and repent of our sins; believe that God sent Jesus to be the atonement of our sins; and to call upon the name of the Lord for our salvation (See Romans 10:9-10, 13).

Blessed Assurance

 Blessed Assurance

 

Does the Bible really teach “once saved, always saved”? If you are truly saved and going to heaven, is it possible to sin so badly that you would lose your salvation? Read the following verses and decide!

--God’s WORD--

1. God’s Word says we can know we have eternal life.

1 John 5:13--These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

God’s Word says there is no condemnation for Christians.

Romans 8:1-2 -- There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

God’s Word says He is faithful even if we are not.

2 Timothy 2:11 -- This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. 12 If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. 13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

God’s Word assures us He will never leave or forsake us.

Hebrews 13:5 -- Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." ⁶So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

Jesus’ Word says we shall not come into judgment.

John 5:24 -- "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Jesus’ Word was that He would be with us always.

Matthew 28:20 -- “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Jesus’ Word promised true freedom and sonship forever.

John 8:34 -- Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

God’s Word says faith, not works, is what saves.

John 3:36 -- He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

John 6:47 -- Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.

Ephesians 2:8-9 -- For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

--God’s WILL--

2. God’s Will – We are saved by His will, not ours.

John 1:12-13 -- But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 6:37 -- All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.

We are kept saved by God, not ourselves.

2 Timothy 1:12 -- For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

Romans 8:31-35, 38-39 -- What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 God’s will predestined us for heaven.

Ephesians 1:5 -- having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

God’s mercy saves, not our righteousness--God saves us when we were unrighteousness.

Titus 3:3 -- For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.

--God’s WORK--

3. God’s Work –The resurrection is proof that sin and death no longer reign over us.

Romans 6:9 -- knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:17 -- And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

The resurrection proves God will resurrect us as well as He raised Christ.

Romans 8:11 -- But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

God’s work in the resurrection assures us our life is hidden with Christ in heaven right now.

Colossians 3:1 -- If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Our works may be lost but we shall be saved

1 Corinthians 3:15 -- If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

God’s work keeps us in His hand.

John 10: 28 -- And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.

Jude 1:24 -- Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

God’s work in the crucifixion makes it impossible to fall away and renew ourselves again to repentance.

Hebrews 6:4 -- For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. 7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; 8 but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

God’s work in salvation makes us confident, assured, and anchored with things that accompany salvation.

Hebrews 6:9 -- But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. 10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…

We are kept by God’s power that doesn’t fade.

1 Peter 1:3 -- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

God began and will complete His work in us.

Philippians 1:6 -- being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

--God’s WITNESS--

4. God’s Witness (the Holy Spirit) seals and guarantees us our inheritance.

2 Corinthians 1:21 -- Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

2 Corinthians 5:5 -- Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.

Ephesians 1:13 -- In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 4:30 -- And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

God’s Spirit is our witness and guarantee of eternal life.

1 John 4:13 -- By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

Romans 8:15 -- For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is irrevocable.

Romans 11:29 -- For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

God’s Witness of the Spirit stays with us forever.

John 14:16 -- And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

 

 “Once saved, always saved” does not mean getting “hell-fire insurance” by praying a prayer then living sinfully. True salvation is putting your trust in Jesus Christ for your eternal life, and receiving His Holy Spirit to come live inside you and change you from within.

If you once were living for God and you feel you have lost your salvation, don’t give up on God. The “Blessed Assurance” we have from these and many more verses similar to them is that God has never given up on you.

If you still have doubts, it may be that you have never been saved to begin with.  Read again Romans 8:16 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” God’s Spirit should bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. If you don’t have that assurance, nail it down today. Pray this prayer:

Dear God, I admit that I’m a sinner, and I accept the fact that you accept me and love me just as I am. I believe Jesus died on the cross to take away my sins. I believe You raised him from the dead to prove your love and forgiveness for me. I call in faith for You to come into my life. I receive you and I commit my life to you. In Jesus Name,  Amen.”

If that is the prayer of your heart, God promises He will come in to the life of anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord (Rom. 10:13). Get involved in a local church that preaches God’s Word and the assurance of your salvation.