The

ETERNAL

SECURITY

0f the

BELIEVER

LOIZEAUX BROTHERS, INC., BIBLE TRUTH DEPOT A Nonprofit Organization, Devoted to the Lord�s Work

and to the Spread of His Truth PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

by H. A. IRONSIDE Litt.D.

No Chris t ianwill ever havehis name blot-ted out of theLamb�s book ofl i fe , for al lsuch have eter-nal l i fe �which is unfor-fe i table andeverlasting.

THE END.

Books by H. A. IRONSIDE on Bible Exposition

JOSHUA, Addresses on the Book of ........................................................

EZRA, NEHEMIAH & ESTHER, in one volume......................................................

PSALMS ........................................................................................................

PROVERBS, Notes on the Book of .............................................................

SONG OF SOLMON, Address on ...............................................................

ISAIAH ...........................................................................................................

JEREMIAH, �The Weeping Prophet� ........................................................

EZEKIEL, The Prophet ..................................................................................

DANIEL, The Prophet, Lectures on, With Chart......................................

The MINOR PROPHETS, ..........................................................................

MATTHEW, Adresses on .............................................................................

MARK, Addresses on ...................................................................................

LUKE, Addresses on. Conplete in 1 Volume........................................................................

JOHN, Addresses on .....................................................................................

ACTS, Lectures on the Book of ....................................................................

ROMANS, Lectures on..................................................................................

CORINTHIANS, First Epistle to..................................................................

CORINTHIANS, Second Epistle to..............................................................

GALATIONS, Messages on ..........................................................................

IN THE HEAVENLIES, Notes on Ephesians..................................................................

PHILIPPIANS, Notes on................................................................................

COLLOSSIANS, Lectures on.......................................................................

THESSALONIANS, Addresses on 1st. and 2nd...........................................................TIMOTHY, TITUS & PHILEMON, in 1 Volume

.....................................HEBREWS, Studies in, with Lectures on TITUS

............................................................JAMES & PETER, Notes on

.........................................................................JOHN & JUDE, Epistles of; in 1 Volume

...................................................REVELATION, Lecture on the. With Chart

................................................

LOIZEAUX BROTHERS1238 Corlies Avenue, Neptune, New Jersey

FOREWARD

This pamphlet consists of an address deliveredin the D. L. Moody Memorial Church on a Lord�sDay morning and the substance of two Bible Hoursat the Friday Lecture Meeting when questions weresubmitted and were answered from the platform.Careful editing might properly have eliminatedeverything that looks like repetition. But inasmuchas it is by constant re-affirmation that truth findslodgement in the mind and heart, I have not prunedthe answers as much as I otherwise might have done.Let me say that my object was not controversy nor thebesting of an opponent, but rather the edification andenlightenment of the people of God, that the knowledge

of the truth might deliver from legality and give true liberty.

�H. A. IRONSIDE.

Chicago, Ill., April 24th. 1934.

correction, and God will deal verysolemnly and seriously with themabout their failures. There would beno need of judgment if they were allperfect Christians, but if God dealswith His own people in this way, andif the righteous be saved throughdifficulty, �where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?� That has nothing to do with thequestion of whether the Christian issaved for eternity or not.

Ques. 22.� John 15: 1- 6 is the nextpassage questioned.

This chapter is not discussing thequestion of eternal life but of fruit-bearing. There are a great manybelievers who bear very little fruit forGod, but all bear some fruit for Him.There are many people in the Vine (andthe Vine speaks of profession h e r eon earth) who bear no fruit for Him,and wil l eventual ly be cut outaltogether when Jesus comes. Therewill be no place with Him becausethere is no union with Him.

There are no natural branches in theliving Vine. We are grafted in by faith.I do not know much about grafting,but I do know that it is one thing toput a graft in, and it is another thingfor a graft to strike. It is one thing fora person to be out - wardly linked withHim, and quite another for that per-son to have life in Christ. What is thetest that proves whether he is reallyin the Vine? If he bears fruit. All whohave life bear some fruit for God. If

there is no fruit, you can be sure thereis no life, no real union with Christ.

Ques. 23.� Will any Christian whopasses away with unconfessed sinhave an opportunity to make things�right after death.� Is the judgment-seat of Christ the time when all mis-understandings and discords amongChristians will be made right?

It is questionable if any Christian everdied who did not have someunconfessed sin to his record. Whilesin might be confessed in a generalway, yet who of us has ever definitelyconfessed all his sin? But the preciousblood of Christ answers for every sin abeliever has ever committed. At thejudgment-seat of Christ the Lord willgo over the entire life since regenera-t ion, g iv ing His mind abouteverything, and the believer will thenfor the first time see each detail inthe light of God�s infinite holiness.Everything there will be dealt with sothat the believer�s failures will neverbe referred to again for all eternity.

Ques. 24.� Is there any differencebetween the book of life and theLamb�s book of life? Yes, the book oflife is the book of the living. It is therecord too of profession. From thisbook names may be blotted out. TheLamb�s book of life is the record ofthe eternal purpose of God. Namesinscribed there are written from thefoundation of the world. In otherwords, one book speaks of responsi-bility, the other of pure grace.

THE ETERNALSECURITY

OF THE BELIEVER

An address by Dr. H. A. Ironsidein the D. L. MoodyMemorial Church

Can A BelieverEver Be Lost?

It has been announced that I willspeak to you on a subject which hasoccasioned a good deal of controversyamong the people of God. I want totake as a starting-point � not exactlyas a text, because we shall be lookingat a good many scriptures �Romans 8: 38,39;

�For I am persuaded that neitherdeath, nor life, nor angels, nor anyother creature, shall be able to sepa-rate us from the love of God, whichis in Christ Jesus, our Lord.�

This is the inspired answer to the ques-tion of verse 35:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?�

That is, once we are Christians, oncewe know the love of Christ, once wehave been justified by faith,

Who is there,What power is there,

that can Separatefrom the love of Christ?

And the answer,how full,how clear,

not a shadow,not a doubt,

not a question left,when the apostle says that ...

�... neither deathnor life shall separate...�

Can you think of anything which isneither included in death nor in life?Neither death nor life shall separate!

Then, no unseen powers can separatethe believer from Christ,

�Neither angels,nor principalities,

nor powers.�

These terms are used again and againin the New Testament, particularly inthe Epistles, for angelic hosts, goodand evil.

When our Saviour rose from the deadHe spoiled principalities and powers,that is, He defeated all the hosts ofevil led by Satan; and so we may takeit that the angels referred to here aregood angels, and the principalities andpowers are possibly evil angels. Butthere is nothing that good angelswould do, and nothing that evil an-gels can do, which will result in the

�For yet a little while, and He thatshall come will come and will n o ttarry . . . . If any man draw back, Mysoul shall have no pleasure in him.

Look at the next verse,�But we (Who? Real Christians) arenot of them who draw back unto per-dition; but of them that believe to thesaving of the soul.�If a person has believed to the savingof the soul, there is no danger of his�drawing back unto perdition.�It is a terrible thing to be intellectuallyconvinced and stop there.

Ques. 20.� Now I am referred toRev.3: 15, 16, where the Lord speakingto the church at Laodicea says,

�I know thy works, that thou artneither cold nor hot: I would thou wertcold or hot. So then because thou artlukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, Iwill spue thee out of My mouth. �

Is this an individual who has oncebeen saved and is so no longer? TheLord is talking to a church. Did youever see a church like the one atLaodicea, a church neither hot norcold, one where you could not tellwhether it was for Christ or againstHim? And then the Lord says to thatchurch,�Because you are just lukewarm �there is profession � but you are nei-ther hot or cold, I will spue thee outof My mouth. I won�t own you as achurch at all.�That does not say that there may not

be individuals in the church who arechildren of God, just as in the churchat Ephesus. He said to them,�If you do not repent, I will removeyour candlestick.�A candle, you know, is to give light.

Every time I go down town I pass achurch that D. L. Moody used tobelong to. I t was an evangelisticcenter in the city in his day, but todayit is a very center of Modernism, andthe Gospel is never preached there.Every time I look at it I think of thetime Moody was there and it stoodfirmly for the truth, and I say, �Their candlestick is removed.�There may be some true Christians inthat church, some of the dear oldpeople who were in it years ago, andmaybe their membership is still there.It does not say that they are notChristians because the church as suchhas lost its witness for Christ.

Ques. 21.� Here is a verse I amsurprised to find used to prove the�falling away� doctrine.

�If the righteous scarcely be saved,where shall the ungodly and the sinnerappear?� (1 Pet.4: 18).What has that to do with the question?What is Peter saying?�The time is come that judgment mustbegin at the house of God; and if itfirst begin at us, what shall the endbe of them that obey not the gospel ofGod?� (1 Pet.4: 17).I suppose that God�s children havefaults. I know they have to be judgedfor their faults by the Father in

separation of the believer from Christ.

And then further, he says,

�Neither things presentnot things to come.�

Again let me put the question.

Can you think of any experiencethrough which a believer might evergo which is neither a thing presentnor a thing to come?

And the Holy Ghost says that neitherthings present nor things to come shallbe able to separate us from the loveof Christ. As though that were notenough, He speaks in a more generalway when He says that neither

�height nor depth(nothing in heaven, nothing in hell),nor any other created thing,shall be able to separate us fromthe love of God, which is inChrist Jesus our Lord.�

It looks to me as though we are prettysafe if we are believers in the LordJesus Christ.

Eternal Security: Its Meaning

When we speak of the eternal secu-rity of the believer, what do we mean?

We mean that once a poor sinner hasbeen regenerated by the Word and the

Spirit of God, once he has re-ceived a new life and a new nature,has been made partaker of the di-vine nature, once he has been justi-fied from every charge before thethrone of God, it is absolutely impos-sible that that man should ever againbe a lost soul.

Having said that, let me say what wedo not mean when we speak of theeternal security of the believer.

We do not mean that it necessarilyfollows that if one professes to besaved, if he comes out to the front ina meeting, shakes the preacher�s hand,and says he accepts the Lord JesusChrist as his Saviour, that that personis eternally safe.

It does not mean that if one joins achurch or makes a profession of faith,is baptized, becomes an communi-cant, takes an interest in Christianwork, that that person is forever se-cure.

It does not mean that because onemanifest certain gifts and exercisesthese gifts in Christian testimony, thatthat person is necessarily eternallysecure.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said to thepeople of His day, as recorded inMatthew 7: 21-23:

�Not every one that saith unto Me,Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king-dom of heaven; but he that doeth thewill of My Father which is in heaven.Many will say to Me in that day,

�Therefore we ought to give the moreearnest heed to the things which wehave heard, lest at any time we shouldlet them slip� (Heb.2: 1),

or in other words,�Lest at any time we should drift away from them.�

This is the same warning again. Youhave listened to precious ministry frommen of God who have preached theWord to you. You have had suchinstruction as many never have had.You will be terribly guilty if you driftaway from it. You need to �continuein the things which you have learned.�But if we were all to lose our salvationevery t ime we dri f ted into someerroneous thing, how serious it wouldbe! Is there anyone here who hasnever done a little bit of drifting?

If sin will separate me from Christ, howmuch sin?How can I ever be sure how much sin?Is it not a fact that every one of ussins in thought, or word, or in deed,probably every day of our lives?Is there ever a night that you can kneelbefore God and say,

�Lord, I thank Thee that I have notsinned in thought or word or deed to-day?�I am sure no honest Christian can saythat.How far do you have to sin in orderto break the link that binds you toChrist?You never could be sure that you aresaved from one day to another, and

you would not leave any room forthe restoring work of God, if yoursalvation depended upon your personalfaithfulness.

Ques. 18 .� What about such ascripture as this?�-

�Be thou faithful unto death and I willgive thee a crown of life?� (Rev.2: 10).How can you say that a man is savedfor eternity when the Lord says youmust be faithful to the end?

A crown of life is not salvation, it isreward. There are five crowns: theincorruptible crown for faithfullyrunning the course; the crown ofrejoicing for winning souls; the crownof righteousness for those who love Hisappearing; the crown of life for thosewho feed the sheep for Christ; thecrown of glory for thosewho feed thesheep and lambs of Christ�s flock. Imight lose all of those crowns andyet not lose my salvation.

The Word says,�If a man�s work shall be burned . . . he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire� (1 Cor.3: 15).

But I do not want to be saved thatway. I want to win the crown of life.

�Be thou faithful unto death, and I willgive thee a crown of life.�

Ques. 19.� ExplainHebrews 10: 37-39:

Lord, Lord, have we not prophesiedin Thy name? and in Thy name havecast out devils? and in Thy name donemany wonderful works? And then willI profess unto them, I never knew you:depart from Me ye that work iniq-uity:�

Such people then may have beenvery active in what is called Christianwork � they have preached, theyhave cast out demons, that is, theirinfluence has been such that men andwomen have found deliverance fromsatanic power through their ministra-tions in the name of Jesus, they haveprofessed with their lips, they haveaccomplished many wonderful works,but they are found in that day amongthe lost, and when they plead t h e i rgreat activity and their earnestness inChristian testimony, the Lord says tothem,

�I never knew you.�Notice, He does not say to them,�I used to know you, but you have

forfeited My favor and I do notknow you any longer.�

He says,�I never knew you.�

The Sheep of Christ

You remember how He speaks of Hisown in John 10: 27-30:

�My sheep hear My voice, and I knowthem, and they follow Me: and I giveunto them eternal life: and they shallnever perish, neither shall any man

pluck them out of My hand. I and My Father are one.�Of His own He says,

�I know them.�Of these others, in spite of all t h e i ractivity, in spite of all their accom-plishments, He says in the day of judg-ment,

�I never knew you.�That is a very solemn thing.

That answers a question that is fre-quently put to us. I do not know howmany times I have had individualscome to me with a hypothetical caselike this:�Suppose a man who joined thechurch, who professed to be saved,who for a number of years was a veryactive Christian worker, perhaps aSunday School teacher, perhaps anelder or a deacon in the church,maybe a minister; but after someyears of apparent consistent Christianliving and helpfulness in testimony heturns his back on it all, returns to theworld, and utterly repudiates Chris-tianity and now denies in toto the gos-pel he once professed. How doesthat square with your doctrine ofthe eternal security of the believer?�

That does not touch the matter at all.The apostle John tells us how we areto understand a case like that. He saysin the second chapter and nineteenthverse of his first Epistle,�They went out from us, but theywere not of us; for if they had beenof us, they would no doubt have con-tinued with us; but they went out,that they might be made manifest that

The faith here is not the faith by whichyou are saved, it is not the faithbywhich you believe.Jude says,

�Earnestly contend for the faith whichwas oncedelivered unto the saints�(Jude v. 3).

That is the body of Christian doctrine,and, if a real Chris t ian, you wil lstand for that Christian doctrine to theend, but if not, you may become aMormon, or a Christian Scientist, or aTheosophist, or something like t h a t .Then you simply show there is noreality. It is a very easy thing to say,�I am saved;� it is another thing toprove it.

Ques. 15.� What of ll Peter 3: 17?�

�Ye therefore, beloved, seeing yeknow these things before, beware lestye also, being led away with the errorof the wicked, fall from your ownstedfastness.�

We come back to what we werespeaking of a few minutes ago. Thereis always a possibility of a realChristian falling, and we need to bewarned again and again. How manywe have known who at one time hada bright Christian testimony but fell.They were not watchful, they were notprayerful, and they stumbled and fell.Does that mean they are lost? No;not if really born again. If born again,they have received eternal life; andif people thus fall, that is where therestoring work of the Spirit of Godcomes in. David fell in a most terri-

ble way, but says, �He restoreth my soul;�and sometimes in res tor ing Hispeople�s souls God has to put themthrough very bitter experiences. Heloves them too much to let them behappy when away from Him.

Ques. 16.� Explain this passage�

�Who concerning the truth haveerred, saying that the resurrection ispast already; and overthrow the faithof some� (ll Tim.2: 18).

A writer says,�We see here the possibility of havingour faith overthrown.�

That is not what Paul is talking about.He is speaking of the faith. Again youmust make the distinction. Our faithis that by which we believe. Webelieve God; that is faith. But webel ieve the t ruth that God hasrevealed to us, and that truth is thefai th, and that is what has beenoverthrown in the mind of the pro-fessed believer, in this i n s t a n c e .That is the same thing as you get in1 Tim.5: 15:

�For some are already turned aside after Satan.�Some real Christians do that, but whata blessed thing to know the Lordgoes after them and never gives themup.

Ques. 17.� May we not let the thingsof God slip away from us?�-

they were not all of us,�or literally,

�that they werenot altogether of us.�

That is,* it is possible to do all the things thatI have spoken of and yet never beregenerated.* It is quite possible to join a church,to make a Christian profession;* it is quite possible to observe theChristian ordinances, to teach and topreach, and yet never be born again.

If one teaches and preaches the truth,it will produce good results, and willdo men good whether the teacher ofthe preacher be real or not, for it isthe truth that God uses.

Of course He can use the t ruthto bet ter advantage when i t i sproclaimed by a holy man [person]living to the glory of God than whenit is proclaimed by a hypocrite. Nev-ertheless, God uses His truth regard-less of who may proclaim it, and thatexplains how people may do mightyworks in the name of Christ and yetnever be born again.

Christ�s One Offering

When we say that the believer in theLord Jesus is eternally secure, we baseit upon a number of lines of scripturaltestimony. In the first place, we rest itupon the perfection of Christ�s oneoffering upon the cross. Personally, I

never can understand how thoughtfulpeople, taught by the Holy Spirit ofGod, can carefully read the Epistle tothe Hebrews and not see that through-out that Epistle the writer is contrast-ing the many sacrifices offered underlaw with the one sacrifice of our LordJesus Christ.That to which he particularly callsattention is this:under law every time a Israelitesinned, he needed a new sin offeringand every year the nation had to cel-ebrate the great day of atonementwhen a new offering was presentedto God for the people.Why? Because those sacrifices couldnever take away sin, they simply cov-ered sin for the time being. But weare told in the tenth chapter ofHebrews that when the Lord JesusChrist came into the world and offeredHimself without spot to God, the ef-fect of His sacrif ice was eternal.Verse 14 makes this clear:�For by one offering He hathperfected forever them that aresanctified.�

Perfected for how long?�Oh,� says somebody,�as long as they are faithful.�No, that is not what it says.

�He hath perfected for ever.�

Why? Because the sacrifice is all -efficacious. I am sure my brethrenwho deny the doctrine of the eternalsecurity of the believer do not realizethat in so doing they are putting aslight upon the finished work of Christ,

he might have had that he will nothave, because he did not go the wholeway with the Lord Jesus Christ. Ifgoing the whole way entitled men toheaven, none of us would ever getthere. But as we go, as far as we un-derstand, the whole way, He is goingto reward us. If people could learn tosee the difference between salvationby grace and reward for service, thisquestion would settle itself. From thispoint on, most of these objectionsreally have to do with this very fact.

Ques. 14.� Take the next oneHebrews 3: 12 - 14:

�Take heed, brethren, lest there be inany of you an evil heart of unbelief,in departing from the living God.But exhort one another daily, while itis called To-day; lest any of you behardened through the deceitfulness ofsin. For we are made partakers ofChrist, if we hold the beginning of ourconfidence steadfast unto the end.�

That is one of the �if� verses.Another one is found in1 Corinthians 15: 1, 2:

�Moreover, brethren, I declare untoyou the gospel which I preached untoyou, which also ye have received, andwherein ye stand; by which also yeare saved, if ye keep in memory what

* May I refer to another of my booklets,�Salvation and Reward.� Same publishers.

I preached unto you unless ye havebelieved in vain.�

Another one is found inColossians 1: 21-23:

�And you, that were sometimealienated and enemies in your mindby wicked works,yet now hath He rec-onciled in the body of His fleshthrough death, to present you holy andunblameable and unreproveable inHis sight if ye continue in the fa i thgrounded and settled, and be notmoved away from the hope of thegospel, which ye have heard, andwhich was preached to every creaturewhich is under heaven; whereof IPaul am made a minister.�

I might add others to these, but hereare three �ifs.�

What does the Spirit of God mean bybringing these �ifs� in?

In every one of these instances He isaddressing bodies of people.I standhere to address you as a body ofpeople. If I were to ask everybodywho professes to be a Christian tostand, I suppose nearly everybodywould rise. Would that prove thatyou were all Christians? It wouldshow that you profess to be Christians.What would prove that you really are?�If ye continue in the faith groundedand settled, and be not moved awayfrom the hope of the gospel.�

You profess to have received the gos-pel; you are saved if you keep inmemory what has been preached untoyou. If you do not, it just shows thatthere is no reality.

they are reducing the sacrifice ofChrist practically to the level of theofferings of bulls and goats in the OldTestament dispensation.

I am sure they do not mean to do that,for they love their Lord just as trulyas, I trust I love Him, and they do notwant to dishonor Him. But they areafraid that this doctrine will lead peo-ple to be careless about their lives, andtherefore they stress the possibility ofa man losing his salvation after hehas once been justified by faith. Butthey do not pursue that to its logicalconclusion, they do not see that it is apractical denial of the finished workof our Lord Jesus Christ. We are savedeternally because the sacrifice ofChrist abides.

When I came to the lord Jesus Christand put my trust in Him, not only wereall my sins up to the day of my con-version forgiven, but all my sins wereput away for eternity. When a youngChristian, I was taught something likethis: I thought when I was convertedthat all my sins, from the time ofdawning accountability up to thatnight when I put my trust in the LordJesus, were put away, and now Godhad given me a new start, and if Icould only keep the record clean tothe end of my life, I would get toheaven; but if I did not keep it clean,I ceased to be a Christian and I had toget converted all over again. Everytime this happened the past was un-der the blood, but I had to keep therecord clean for the future. What aGod -dishonoring view of the atone-ment of Christ that is! If only those

of my sins that were committed up tothe moment of my conversion wereput away by the atoning blood ofJesus, what possible way would therebe by which sins I have confessed af-ter that could be dealt with?

The only ground on which God couldforgive sin is that Jesus settled for allupon the cross, and when I trust Him,all that He has done goes down to myaccount.

What of Future Sin�s?

A lady came to me one day and said,�I do not get you there. I can quiteunderstand that Christ died for thesins I committed up to the night ofmy conversion, but do you mean totell me that Christ died for my futuresin?� I said, �How many of your sins were in thepast when Christ died on the cross?�

She looked puzzled for a moment, andthen the light broke in, and she said,�How foolish I have been! Of coursethey were all future when Jesus diedfor me. I had not committed any ofthem.�

God saw all your sins, and He laidupon Jesus all your iniquity, and there-fore, when you trusted Him, youwere justified freely from all things.Do you say,�Does it make no difference then if abeliever sins?�

from fully following Christ.

Suppose they went to heaven only onthe ground of fully following Him.You see these Jews were looking forthe kingdom, and many said,�I will follow Thee, but my friendshave a claim on me.��No,� the Lord says; �I must come first. No man, havingput his hand to the plough, andlooking back, is fit for the kingdom ofGod.�

That is the test of discipleship. But itis necessary to distinguish betweensalvation by grace and reward forfaithful discipleship. The rewards areconnected with the kingdom. Nomatter how faithful I may be as aChristian, it does not give me anybetter place in heaven than if I weretaken there the moment I was saved.Suppose the very instant you wereconverted you dropped dead; wouldyou have gone to heaven? Yes; youwould have gone there on the groundof God�s delight in the work of HisSon. Suppose you were convertedfifty years ago. There have been ups-and-downs in your life; but you havebeen saved all those years. Wherewould you go if you died suddenly?To heaven. On what ground? On theground of God�s delight in the work ofHis Son. There is not a bit of changein fifty years.�But,� you say,�I have been a wonderfully faithfulChristian.�Have you, indeed? I am surprised thatyou should think so. The more we

serve Him, the more most of us feelhow unfaithful we have been. Butyou insist, �I have been a very faithfulChristian.� Does that make you anymore fit for heaven than you were themoment you trusted Jesus?You ask, �Does faithfulness as a disciple go for nothing?�It goes for a great deal, but it h a sno saving merit. You have a place inthe Father�s house on the ground ofpure grace, but the Father�s house isnot the only thing before us, there isalso the kingdom of God.�Then shall the righteous shine forthin the kingdom of their Father.�

And here there are different rewardsaccording to the measure of faithful-ness in this life.*

Here was one to whom the Lord said,�I want you to follow Me to Africa or India ,�and he said,�O Lord, suffer me first to go and burymy father. I have an old father here,and cannot bear to leave him as longas he lives. After he is dead, I amwilling to follow Thee.�And the Lord says,�Let the dead bury their dead.�Of course if he had the responsibilityof providing for his father, that wouldbe a different thing. Because thatman has not the faith and courage tomake that break, does he cease to bea Christian? He may stay at home,he may be of great value and greatuse, but when he comes to the judg-ment-seat of Christ there is a reward

That is another question, and it wouldtake a whole evening to go into that,but here is the point � the momentyou trust the Lord Jesus as your Sav-iour, your responsibility, as a sinnerhaving to do with the God of judg-ment is ended for eternity, but thatsame moment your responsibility asa child having to do with a Father inheaven begins. Now if as a child youshould sin against your Father, Godwill have to deal with you about that,but as a Father and not as a Judge.That is a line of truth that stands byitself, and does not contradict whatI am now teaching. It explains somethings that bewilder people when thisdoctrine is brought before them.

The Spirit�s Perseverance

In the second place, we base the doc-trine of the eternal security of thebeliever upon the perseverance andomnipotent power of the Holy Spiritof God. Look at the first chapter ofthe Epistle to the Philippians. Writingto these saints, the apostle says, whenhe thanks them for their fellowship inthe gospel from the first day until now,

�Being confident of this very thing,that He which hath begun a goodwork in you will perform it untilthe day of Jesus Christ.�Do you see that?Who began the good work in you ifyou are a believer in the Lord Jesus?The Holy Spirit of God.It was *He who convicted you of sin,

it was He who led you to put your trustin Christ, it was*He who through the Word gave youthe witness that you were saved, it is*He who has beenconforming you toChrist since you first trusted the LordJesus. Having thus taken you up ingrace, the Holy Spirit has a definitepurpose in view. He is going eventu-ally to conform you fully to the imageof the Lord Jesus Christ, and He neverbegins a work that He does not intendto finish.�Being confident of this very thing,that which hath begun a good workin you will perform it until the day ofJesus Christ.�

If when you were a poor sinner theHoly Spirit had power sufficient tobreak down your opposition to Godand bring to an end your unbeliefand rebellion, do you think for onemoment that He does not have powerenough to subdue your will as abeliever and to carry on to comple-tion the work that He began?

People say,�I see you believe in that old Baptistdoctrine of �Once in grace, alwaysin grace.� �Or another says,�I understand you hold that old Pres-byterian idea of �The final persever-ance of the saints.� �

I do not know why this should becalled either Baptist or Presbyterian,only to the extent that Baptists andPresbyterians agree with the Book,and the Word of God clearly showsthat once God takes us up in grace

is the Son question :- How are you treating God�s Son who died to save you?Christ has died for all men, His bloodis shed for the salvation of all men,and it will avail for every sinner in allthe world if they trust Him See John3: 18, 19.

Here is this Hebrew who has followedalong to a certain point, and now thequestion comes,�Will you confess this Christ as yourone great Sin Offering no matter whatit means?�And he answers,�No: I cannot do that. I am going backto the temple. There is a sin offeringthere, and I will not have to suffer asI may if I confess Jesus Christ.�But he cannot do that.God does not accept that any more,

�There remaineth no more sacrificefor sins.� �If we sin wilfully after thatwe have received the knowledge ofthe truth, there remaineth no moresacrifice for sins.� �There remainethno other sacrifice for sins�is the true meaning. This sacrifice atthe altar was commanded by God.

He said,�If you sin, you must bring a sacri-fice, and I will accept you.� �Thelife of the flesh is in the blood: and Ihave given it to you upon the al-tar to make an atonement for yoursouls: for it is the blood that makethan atonement for the soul� (Lev.17:11). �All right,� this Jew says,�I have a sin offering.�

But he has met Jesus Christ or heardof Him as the great Sin Offering, heknows that God accepted Him andraised Him from the dead; he has allthis knowledge, but having it all he isafraid to come out definitely andconfess Christ as his Saviour.He says,�I do not need this Sin Offering, I willgo back and be content with the sinoffering of the temple.�

Before Jesus came that wasacceptable, because it pointed toHim, but now He has come. If youreject Him, there remains no otheroffering. This passage, you see, hasnothing to do with a real Christianturning from Christ, but with a manthoroughly instructed who refuses toaccept Him. And how many peoplethere are, not only among the Jews butin Christendom, who are refusingthis Sin Offering.

Ques. 13.� The next passage broughtup is Luke 9: 61, 62:

�And another also said, Lord, I willfollow Thee; but let me first go bidthem fare well, which are at home atmy house. And Jesus said unto him,No man, having put his hand to theplough, and looking back, is fit for thekingdom of God.�

What a terrible thing it would be ifthis were the way into heaven! Howmany thousands of earnest Christianpeople there are who have allowedwhat they thought was their responsi-bility to their friends to keep them

nothing can separate us from the loveof Christ, so that evidently the expres-sion,

�once in grace, always in grace,�is a perfectly correct one. But, on theother hand, I am not so enthusias-tic about the other expression,

�The perseverance of the saints.�I believe in it, I believe that all saints,all really belonging to God, will per-severe to the end, for the Book tellsme,�He that shall endure unto the end,the same shall be saved�Matt.24: 13, and if a man starts outand makes a profession but gives it allup, he will never be saved, becausehe was never born again to begin with,he was never truly changed by gracedivine. On the other hand, the rea-son he endures to the end is not be-cause of any particular perseveranceof his own. What I believe in, andwhat the Word of God clear lyteaches, is the perseverance of theHoly Spirit. When He begins a work,He never gives up until it is com-pleted. That is our confidence.

Experience and Faith

Forty-three years ago the Spirit of Godin grace led me to trust the Lord JesusChrist. I have had many up - and -downs since then, as the old folks usedto sing in a colored camp meeting Iattended:�I am sometimes up andsometimes down, But still my soulam heavenly bound.�

I have had varied experiences, but thewonderful thing is this, the Holy Spiritof God has never given me up; andif at t imes I have been waywardand wilful and did not immediatelybow before God and repent of mywaywardness and wilfulness, then Ifound I had to come under the rod,my Father�s rod, and He whipped meinto subjection until I came to theplace where I was ready to confess myfailure and be restored to fellowshipwith Him. But I was just as truly Hischild while getting a good whippingas I was when the effects of it had re-stored me to fellowship. Your childdoes not cease to be your child whenyou have him over you knee and areusing the slipper on him. It is becausehe is your child, and because youwant him to grow up to be a wel l -behaved boy, that you do that. And sowe believe in the perseverance of theHoly Spirit of God, that having begunthe work He will carry it on to com-pletion.

The Creation

In the thi rd place, we base thedoctrine of the eternal security of thebeliever upon the fact of the new crea-tion. In the fifth chapter of II Corin-thians, verse seventeen,we read:

�Therefore if any man be in Christ,he is a new creature: old things arepassed away; behold, all things arebecome new.�

slidden, it is not our union with Himthat is destroyed, but it is our com-munion. You may say, �Why are you so sure that a realChristian does not apostatize?�Because God says so in His Word.1 John 2: 18:�Little children, it is the last time:and as ye have heard thatantichrist shall come, even now arethere many antichrists: whereby weknow that it is the last time.�Antichrist means �opposed to Christ.�The apostate is always a man opposedto Christ. A man says,

�I have tried it all,and there is nothing in it,�

and so denounces Christ.�They went out from us, but they werenot of us; for if they had been of us,they would no doubt have continuedwith us: but they went out, that theymight be made manifest that theywere not all of us.�

The words, �no doubt,� are in italics,and really cast a doubt. Leave thosewords out for they do not belong inthe Greek text, and read it,�They went out from us, but they werenot of us: for if they had been of us,they would have continued with us.�And then he adds,�They went out, that they might bemade manifest that they were notaltogether � that is the literal ren-dering � of us.�In other words, they were with us inprofession, in outward fellowship, butnot altogether of us, because they hadnever really been born of God. This

explains the tenth chapter of Hebrewsalso which is the next passagebrought up here as an objection.

Ques. 12.� ExplainHebrews 10: 28, 29:

�He that despised Moses� law diedwithout mercy under two or threewitnesses: of how much sorerpunishment, suppose ye, shall he bethought worthy, who hath troddenunder foot the Son of God, and hathcounted the blood of the covenant,wherewith he was sanctified, anunholy thing, and hath done despiteunto the Spirit of grace?�

People are troubled here, for they say,�Well, this man was surely aChristian, because it says that hewas sanctified.�

That does not prove that he wasnecessarily a Christian. The wholenation of Israel was sanctified by theblood of the covenant; in a certainsense the whole world has beensanctified by the blood of the cross.If it were not for that blood shed onCalvary�s cross, the whole worldwould be doomed to eternaljudgement, but ,because Jesus died forthe entire world God says,

�Now, I can deal with all men on theground of the blood of the cross,�and, as we often put it, the great ques-tion between God and man today isnot primarily the sin question. Why?Because the blood of Christ answersfor sin. What is the great question? It

That verse may be rendered like this,

�Therefore if any man be in Christ,this is new creation; old things havebecome new.�

What do we mean by new creation?Just this; we were once in the placeof death, we were once utterly lost andruined.How did we get there?Follow me now.

It was not by any act of our own.Do you say,

�I did not get into the placeof spiritual death

by any act of my own?�No, you did not.Do you say,

� I was not lostbecause of any act of my own?�

No, you were not.

But why were younumbered among the lost?

Because you were born into the worlda member of the old creation of whichAdam the first was the head, and everychild of Adam�s race comes into theworld lost and is under sentence ofdeath. And so we read in this samechapter in verse 14, �The love of Christ constraineth us;because we thus judge, that if Onedied for all, then were all dead.�

The Two Adams

Let me try to make that clear. Here isAdam the first, the head of the old

creation, and he was placed on trialin the Garden of Eden.The entire worldwas represented in him - you wererepresented in him, I was representedin him. As the Spirit of God says ofLevi, �He was yet in the loins of hisfather, when Melchisedec met him�(Heb.7: 10), so we, every one of us,were represented there in Adam whenthe old creation was on trial.Adamfailed, and God said,�In the day thou eatest thereof,dying thou shalt die.�As a result of that failure the old crea-tion fell down in death, and everyperson that has ever been born in theworld since that time was borndownthere; no one has been born up here,where Adam the first started, exceptour Lord Jesus Christ, and His birthwas a supernatural one. Therefore, asmembers of the old creation we wereall dead, all lost; but now see whathappened. Our Lord Jesus Christ cameinto the world � the written Wordhere speaks of Him as the living Word� and He stood on this plane of sin-lessness. Adam was created sinlessbut fell; Jesus came, the sinless One,conceived of the Holy Ghost, born ofa virgin mother, but He saw men downthere in death, and at the cross Hewent down into death, down to whereman was, and came up in grace fromdeath. But He did not come up alone,for God has quickened us togetherwith Christ, so that all who believe inHim are brought up from that placeof death; and as at one time we weremade partakers of Adam�s race so nowwe are made partakers of a new crea-tion.

reality of Christ�s Messiahship and Hisfulfilment of all the types of old.These two plots of ground are t w omen, they are the hearts of two men.We may think of them in this way tomake it all more graphic. They growup side by side, they both are taughtthe Bible, they both go to the samesynagogue, both wait for the Messiah,both go down and listen to John theBaptist preach, perhaps both werebapt ized by John the Bapt is t ,confessing their sins. John�s baptismwas not salvation, it was just lookingforward to the coming of a Saviour.Both of them hear the Lord Jesus, bothof them see Him do His works ofpower, both are in that crowd watchingwhen He dies, both are there when thethrongs go out to see the open tomb,both are near when He ascends toheaven, both see the mighty work ofthe Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, bothof them moved in and out among theapostles, and outwardly you could notsee any difference between them. Butby-and-by persecution breaks out.

One of them is arrested, and they sayto him,�Deny Jesus Christ, or you will die.�He says,�I cannot deny Him; He is my Saviour.��Then you will die.� �I am ready to die, but I cannot denyHim.� T h eother one is arrested and they say,�You must deny Christ or die.�He says, �I will deny Him rather thandie. I will go back and be a good Jewagain rather than die.��Come out here, then.�

They had a terrible way of taking himback. I remember reading how in sucha case, they took him to an uncleanplace where a man slew a sow, andthis one going back to Judaism, inorder to prove his denial, spits on theblood of the sow and says,

�So count I the blood of Jesusthe Nazarene.�

And then they purify him and take himback. Could any real believer in Jesusdo that? What made the differencebetween the two?

Those plots of ground had the samerain, the same sunshine, but there weredi f ferent crops. What was thedifference? One to them had the goodseed and brought forth good fruit, theother did not have the good seed andbrought forth thorns and briers. Thesetwo men were both familiar withthe t ruth, but one received theincorruptible seed, the Word of life,and brought forth fruit unto God. Theother has never received the goodseed, and the day comes when he isan apostate.

If you will keep in mind the differencebetween an apostate and a backslider,it will save you a lot of trouble overmany scriptures. The apostate knowsall about Christianity, but never hasbeen a real Christian. The backslideris a person who has known Christ, whodid love Him, but became cold in hissoul, lost out in his spiritual life.There is not a Christian who has notoften been guilty of backsliding. Thatis why we need the Lord as our Advo-cate to restore our soul. When back-

What does God do for us now?Does He put us where Adam wasbefore and say,�Now behave yourselves, and youwon�t die again?�No, He puts us up higher than Adamcould ever have gone except by a newand divine creation.�He hath raised us up together, andmade us sit together in h e a v e n l yplaces in Christ Jesus�(Ephes.2: 6), and because we belongto this new creation we can never belost. You were lost because the headof the old creationfai led, and youwent down with him. You can neverbe lost unless the Head of the n e wcreation falls, and if He does you willgo down with Him.But, thank God,He remains on the throne where GodHimself has put Him, in token of Hisperfect satisfaction in the work Heaccomplished.

You may have heard of the Irishmanwho was converted but was seizedwith a dreadful fear that some day hemight commit some great sin and losehis soul, that he might be lost afterall, and he trembled at the thought.He went to a meeting and heard thewords read,�Ye are dead, and your life is

hid with Christ in God.�

�Glory to God!� shouted Pat;�whoever heard of a man drowningwith his head that high above water?�

We are linked with Him, we belongto the new creation, and that is whywe shall never be lost.

Eternal LifePossessed Now

In the last place, we rest the truth ofthe doctrine of the eternal security ofthe believer upon the fact that thebeliever is the present possessor ofeternal life. It is not merely that if weare faithful to the end we shall receiveeternal life. There is a sense in whichthat is true, there is a sense in whichour hope is eternal life. I am a Chris-tian now if I believe on the Lord Je-sus Christ; believing on Him I haveeternal life, but I have it in a dyingbody. I am now waiting for the re-demption of the body, and when theLord Jesus comes the second time Heshall change this body of my humilia-tion and make it like unto the body ofHis glory. Then I shall have receivedeternal life in all its fullness, spirit,soul, and body entirely conformed toChrist. In that sense I am hoping foreternal life. But over, and over, andover again, Scripture rings the changeson the fact that every believer is atthe present time in possession of eter-nal life.�As Moses lifted up the serpent in thewilderness, even so must the Son ofMan be lifted up, that whosoever be-lieveth in Him should not perish, buthave eternal life�(John 3: 14,15).

Adam�s life was forfeitable life, he losthis life because of sin. Eternal life isnon-forfeitable life, otherwise it wouldnot be eternal.

�The entrance of Thy words givethlight, it giveth understanding untothe simple� (Ps. 119: 130).

�And have tasted of the heavenly gift.�It is one thing to taste; It is anotherthing to eat. Many a person has gonethat far and never been saved. Theangel said to Ezekiel, �Son of man,eat this roll.� But the angel saw thatEzekiel had only tasted it, so he com-manded, �Son of man, cause thy bellyto eat it.� It was in his mouth, andif his head had been cut off all thetruth would be gone, but�God desires truth in the inwardparts.� �And were made partakers ofthe Holy Ghost.�They were neither sealed, nor indwelt,nor baptized, nor filled with the Spirit.He does not use one of the terms thatrefer to the Spirit�s great offices, butsays,

�And were made partakersof the Holy Ghost.�

Did you ever see a man in a meetingwhere the Spirit of God was workingin power, and have you ever goneover and talked to him and said,�Don�t you want to come to Christ?�And he had answered,�I know I ought to come, I can feelthe power of the Spirit of God in thismeeting. I know this thing is right andI ought to yield, but I don�t want to,and I won�t.�And he goes away resisting the Spiritalthough he was a partaker. So thesepeople described in Hebrews 6 hadbeen in this way outwardly ac-quainted with Christianity, but theynow denied it all. For such there couldbe no repentance.

Now in order to prove that this is thecorrect interpretation of the passage,let me draw your attention to Hebrews 6: 7 - 9:

�For the earth which drinketh in therain that cometh oft upon it, andbringeth forth herbs meet for them bywhom it is dressed, receiveth blessingfrom God: but that which beareththorns and briers is rejected, and nighunto cursing; whose end is to beburned. But, beloved, we are per-suaded better things of you, andthings that accompany salvation,though we thus speak.�

Notice in the first place, all thesethings he speaks of in verses 4 and 5might be true of a man and yet hewould not have salvation.But he says, as it were,�Though we have given you thiswarning, we are persuaded betterthings of you; you have gone fartherthan these apostates ever did, youhave been saved; and so do not thinkwe are confounding you with peoplelike these.�

He uses this little parable to makeclear what he means. Here are twopieces of grass growing side by side,we will say justseparated by a fence.The earth is the same, the same sunshines on them both, the same kind ofrainfall waters them both. When thetime of harvest comes, one of theseplots brings forth herbs, but the otheronly thorns and briers. What is heteaching here? This is a message tothe Jews, trying to make them see the

�For God so loved the world, that Hegave His only begotten Son, that who-soever believeth in Him should notperish, but have everlasting life�(John 3:16).

Everlasting life is life that lasts forever,and we have it now.�He that believeth on the Son hatheverlasting life: and he that belie-veth not the Son shall not see life; butthe wrath of God abideth on him�(John 3:36).

�Verily, verily, I say unto you, He thatheareth My word, and believeth onHim that sent Me, hath everlastinglife, and shall not come into condem-nation; but is passed from deathunto life�(John 5:24).

His Sheep Follow Him

I have purposely left this point untillast because people generally take itfor granted it will be the first passageused in taking up this subject. In John10, reading from verse 27, we aretold,�My sheep hear My voice, and I knowthem, and they follow Me.�Notice these three things.It matters not what profession a manmakes, if he does not hear the voiceof the Son of God, he is not a Chris-tian, and therefore the Saviour doesnot know him as His own.No matter what profession he maymake, if he does not follow the Lord

Jesus Christ he is only a sham and afraud and a hypocrite.He may follow for a little while out-wardly, like those of whom the apos-tle Peter speaks who walk in the wayof righteousness and then turn fromit.�But it is happened unto themaccording to the true proverb. Thedog is turned to his own vomit again;and the sow that was washed to herwallowing in the mire�(ll Peter.2: 22).

If that dog had ever been regeneratedand become a sheep, if that sow hadever been changed and become alamb, neither would have gone backto the filth; but, you see, the dog wasalways a dog, and the sow was alwaysa sow. They were just whitewashed,not washed white, they were neverregenerated, and so went back to theold things.But the sheep of Christ are different.

�They follow Me,�Jesus says.Be careful. Do not profess to be oneof His sheep if you do not follow Him.It is the test of reality.There are manypeople who tell us,�At such and such a time I was con-verted, I went forward, I signed acard.�You can do all of these things and belost forever. What you need is a newbirth, and when you are born again,you get a new life, and when youreceive a new life, you love to followJesus, and if you do not, you are not aChristian. Take that home.Examine your own foundations a bit.

believe whodo not believe in the eter-nal security of the believer. Whatare you going to do with your back-slider? If backsliding and apostasy arethe same, don�t you see this passageis the worst possible, passage, in allthe Bible for their favorite doctrine?

If those who hold that a man can besaved over and over again will pon-der this passage I am sure they willsee how fatally it knifes their theory.

This is the way it reads:�For it is impossible for those whowere once enlightened, andhave tasted of the heavenly gift, andwere made partakers of the HolyGhost, and have tasted of the goodword of God, and the powers of theworld to come, if they shall fall awayto renew them again unto repentance;seeing they crucify to themse lve sthe Son of God afresh, and put Him toan open shame.�

If this passage teaches that a man oncesaved can be lost again, then it alsoteaches that if that man is lost again,he can never repent and be saved. Inother words, if that passage teachesthat a man once saved can be lostagain, it teaches that if you have everbeen saved and you are now lost, youhave a through ticket for hell, andthere is no turning back. You a r echecked right through. But what is thereal question here?It is almost impos-sible to explain it in a minute or two,for you need to study the entire fifthand sixth chapters of Hebrews to-gether.* *May I

lead the inquiring reader to my book, �STUD-IES IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.�Same publishers.

The apostle is speaking to people whohave the Old Testament and havebeen intellectually convinced thatJesus is the Messiah but who areexposed to persecution if they con-fess His Name. Even if not genuine,they know that Jesus is the Messiah,and they must have felt the power andseen the evidence of His authority inthe iracles wrought. Yet they can turntheir backs upon it all and go back toJudaism, and go into the synagogueagain and say,�We do not believe Jesus Christ is theMessiah, the Son of God; we refusethe authority of this Man. He shouldbe crucified.� �They crucify to them-selves the Son of God afresh, and putHim to an open shame.�The apostle says,�Do not try to do anything there; youcannot, for they have gone too far.They are apostate.�I t proves that they are not realChristians. In verse 9 we read,�But, beloved, we are persuadedbetter things of you, and things thataccompany salvation, though we thusspeak.�That is, you could have all these thingsand not have salvation.You say, �I don�t think so.�But look at it,�It is impossible for thosewho were once enlightened.� What does that mean?Born again? No one could listen to agospel address wi thout beingenlightened.

A Dangerous Doctrine

People say,

�If you preach this doctrine of theeternal security of the believer, menwill say, �Well, then it doesn�t makeany difference what I do , I will getto heaven anyway.�

It makes a tremendous difference whatyou do. If you do not behave your-self, it shows that you are not a realChristian. I know that a real Christianmay fall, but the difference can beseen in Peter and Judas. Peter failed,and failed terribly, but he was genu-ine, and one look from Jesus sent himout weeping bitterly; his heart wasbroken to think that he had sodishonored his Lord. But Judascompanied with the Lord almost three- and - a - half years, and was a devilall the time; he was a thief, and wasseeking his own interest. He was evenmade the treasurer of that company,and he held the bag,but we read,

�He bare away what was put therein�(John 12: 6),

as this has been literally translated. Atlast remorse over - took him, not genu-ine repentance, and what was the re-sult? He went and hanged himself. Hewas never a child of God. There is agreat difference, you see, between aChristian and a false professor.

Justified by Faith

�My sheep hear My voice, and I knowthem, and they follow Me: and I giveunto them eternal life.�

Do you believe it?I do not understand how people canread a passage like that and then talkabout a Christian losing his life. Itwould not be eternal if it could be lost.

�And they shall never perish,neither shall any man pluckthem out of My hand.�

The original is very strong here.In the English a double negative makesan affirmative, but in Greek it onlystrengthens a declaration,

�They shall never,no never, perish.�

It is impossible, it is unthinkable, thatone who has eternal life shall everperish. �My Father, which gave themMe, is greater than all; and noman is able to pluck them outof My Father�s hand.�

Here I am, a poor lost s inner, butthe Lord in grace picks me up andsaves me, and I am in His hand. Andnow the Father puts His hand aroundtoo, and I am in the hand of theFather and of the Son, and the devilhimself cannot get me unless he canloosen those hands.

ment delivered unto them. But it ishappened unto them according to thetrue proverb, The dog is turned to hisown vomit again; and the sow thatwas washed , to her wallowing in themire.�

Does it say,�But it is happened unto themaccording to the true proverb, Thesheep is turned to its own vomitagain?�No, it does not. It says,

�The dog is turned to his own vomit again.�

How many of these dogs there are!They escape the pollution of the worldtemporarily by the knowledge thatcomes through the Lord Jesus Christ.If you were brought up in a Christianhome and taught the knowledge of theLord Jesus Christ from your youth, youescaped a great deal of the pollutionof the world. But after you have knownall these things, you can turn aside;you can take your own way into theworld and l ive in i t s f i l th andpollutions. What does that prove?That you used to be a Christian andare not now?� that you used to beone of Christ�s sheep but are no longer?Oh, no. What then? It proves that,�The dog has gone back to his ownvomit again, and the sow that w a swashed, to her wallowing in themire.�The remarkable thing about this doc-trine of the eternal security of the be-liever is that many of the greatest menof God who have ever l ived havebelieved in it.

C. H. Spurgeon,D. L. Moody,Dr. R. A.Torrey,Dr. A. C. Dixon,

and scores of others whom we revere,believed in it.C. H. Spurgeon said very beautifully,�If this dog had ever been born againand gotten a sheep�s nature, it neverwould have gone back to its ownvomit; and if this sow had ever beenregenerated and had the heart of alamb put in it, it never would havegone back to his wallowing in themire.�It is not a question of a sheep of Christperishing. The devil has a lot ofwashed sows, but they are not, andnever have been, Christ�s sheep.

Ques. 11.� Now we come to thecrucial text,Hebrews 6: 4 - 6.Watchthis carefully. See if I read it correctly.

�For it is quite possible for those whowere once enlightened, and havetasted of the heavenly gift, and weremade partakers of the Holy Ghost,and have tasted the good word of God,and the powers of the world to come,if they shall fall away, to renew themagain unto repentance; seeing t h e ycrucify to themselves the Son of Godafresh, and put Him to an openshame.�Is that what it says?You believe that a man can be onceenlightened, made a partaker or theHoly Ghost, can taste the good wordof God and the powers of the world tocome, but fall away and then repent;don�t you? That is what all the folk

Could you think of any greater secu-rity than to be in the hands of theFather and of the Son?��Never perish� � �eternal life�what wondrous words are these!

Do not be afraid of God�s truth.As well be afraid of the beginning ofthe gospel that God can freely for-give and justify a guilty sinner by faithin the Lord Jesus Christ. People try toput guards around that truth and say,�Yes, you are justified by faith if youhave enough good works to add toit.�

That is not true; it is by faithalone, and good works springfrom that.When you know you have eternal life,you will find your heart so filled withlove to Christ that you will try to livefor His glory.

Objections

There will be certain passages com-ing up in the minds of different ones,and they will say,�What he has said may sound logicalenough, but what about this scriptureand that?�Let me say, there is no possible scrip-ture that will come to your mind thatthe present speaker has not consideredcarefully over and over again. I havenot time in one address to go into allthese, but I can assure you that hav-ing examined them all with the great-

est degree of care, I have never beenable to find one that can set aside this:

�Neither death, nor life, nor an-gels, nor principalities, norpowers, nor things present, northing to come, nor height, nordepth, nor any other creature,shall be able to separate us fromthe love of God, which is inChrist Jesus our Lord.�

If you have a clear, definite, positivescripture, do not allow some passagethat is perplexing, that is difficult ofinterpretation, that seems somewhatambiguous, to keep you from believ-ing the positive statement,

�He that believethhath everlasting life.�

It is because I have a salvation likethis to offer to men, it is because Godhas sent me to proclaim a salvationlike this to sinners, that I have confi-dence in inviting people to come toJesus, for I know if they get in livingtouch with my Saviour He will makethem His forever.

On two Friday evenings following,opportunity was given for objectors tobring in their questions.

These are taken up in detail in thepages that follow...

from his righteousness, andcommitteth iniquity, and dothaccording to all the abominations,that the wicked man doeth, shall helive?�

Is it not strange for anyone in thisdispensation of grace to quote apassage like that, as though it hadanything to do with the question of thesoul�s salvation? Go back and readEzekiel 18. Of what is it treating?We read in the twenty-first verse,

�If the wicked will turn from all hissins that he hath committed, and keepall My statutes, and do that which islawful and right, he shall surely live,he shall not die.�Is that grace?No, that is law.That is just the quintessence of law:Do you believe that if a wicked manturns from his wickedness he will live?If this is true, why did Jesus die?Would you preach that to sinners?Would you have me stand up and say,�You wicked people, you havebeen doing wickedness; you start intonight to do righteousness and y o uwill live��would you have me preach that? Iwould be del iberately deceivingpeople if I told them that. But you seehere God was testing people under lawand said,�The man that doeth these things shalllive ... But when the righteousturneth away from his righteousness,and committeth iniquity, and doeth ac-cording to all the abominations thatthe wicked man doeth, shall he live?

All his righteousness that he h a t hdone shall not be mentioned in histrespass that he hath trespassed, andin his sin that he hath sinned, in themshall he die.�And what has happened?Not one man ever continued in all thethings that are written in the book ofthe law to do them. Therefore, theywere all under sentence of death.How then were they to be saved? Byturning over a new leaf? Oh, no; butby confess ing that they had norighteousness. If they had, it wouldonly be filthy rags. But now they findall their righteousness in the Lord JesusChrist,

�who of God is made unto us wisdom,righteousness, sanctification, and re-demption.�

Do not ever quote Ezekiel 18 asthough it were gospel. It is law. Andthen remember the �life� spoken ofin Ezekiel is not eternal life in Christ.It is life here on earth prolonged underthe divine government, because ofobedience, or cut short because of sin.

Ques. 10.� What about ll Peter 2: 20to 22?�

�For if after they have escaped thepollutions of the world through theknowledge of the Lord and Saviour,Jesus Christ, they are again entan-gled therein, and overcome,the latter end is worse with them thanthe beginning. For it had beenbetter for them not to have known it,to turn from the holy command-

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

I recently received from a gentlemana tract entitled,

�All About theEternal Security Doctrine.�

He is afraid that this doctrine mayhave a tendency to make people care-less about their lives. I can sympathizewith him in that for this reason: I wasa Christian worker in an organizationthat believed in what is commonlycalled the Arminian view, that is, thatwhen a person gets converted he hasa good start for heaven, and then it isup to him to keep on going. As myold instructor used to say,

�Getting to heaven is like riding a bi-cycle; if I stop, I will fall off.�

I believed that thoroughly, so thor-oughly that when people spoke to meabout being eternally saved I used tosay,�That is a doctrine of the evil one;that would mislead people and leadsfolks to become careless,�until I had a rather rude awakening.

I found our halls were thronged bypeople who were getting convertedover again every few weeks. It seemedas though that old hymn,�Ye Must Be Born Again,�should really be sung,�Ye Must Be Born Again, and Again,and Again.�

That puzzled me, for I never read ofanything like it in the Bible. Then Ifound that the falling away doctrinehad a tendency to make people verycareless indeed.Let me give you a concrete example.A young man in whom I was quite in-terested had been addicted to a cer-tain sin in his unconverted days. Af-ter he professed conversion he turnedfrom that particular sin, but he con-fessed to me privately that he hadgone out in the darkness of the nightwhen no one knew where he was, andhad fallen into the same s i n m a n ytimes.�How can you do it?� I asked him.�Well,� he said,�I always make up my mind that I willcommit the sin, and then get con-verted again when I come home.�I saw from that how dangerous wasthe doctrine of being saved today andlost tomorrow.The last time I saw that young man,he said to me,�It�s no use; this sin has such a gripon me I cannot stand it.��Don�t yield, � I said;�let me call in several of the othersand let us pray with you.�

So four or five of us knelt and prayedvery earnestly, but he rose again andclenched his fists, for he was in greatagony, and said,�It�s no use. I am going out to sin,but I am coming back to get con-verted afterwards.�I never saw him again, and I do notknow what became of him. That, yousee, was one effect of this doctrinethat a person loses his salvation when

and then they said to me,�The trouble with you is you have notgot holiness yet. If you get that youwill be able to live the right kind ofa life.�I said,�What is this blessing of holiness?�and was told,�When God saved you, He only justi-fied you.��Only justified you?��He forgave your past sin, but nowyou have to get sanctified, and thatmeans you must have all your inbredsin rooted out, and you will get trueholiness.� I thought ,�But it didn�t work very well withAdam,�and it rather bothered me. Yet theyassured me that was the thing, and soI went in for it and for six years I strug-gled.*

I was working on a text that is not inthe Bible,�Without holiness no man shall s e ethe Lord.�I heard many sermons preached on it,and sometimes I preached on i tmyself. I had a large red banner withthat text in white letters, and I triedto get holiness, and sometimes Ithought I had it, and then somethingwould go wrong, and I would haveto try to get it all over again. I shallnever forget the first time I read it,�Follow peace with all men, and ho-liness, without which no man shall seethe Lord.�

I thought it said,

�Without holiness it is impossible tosee God.�I thought I had to get perfect holinessin this life, but what it says there is, ifyou do not follow holiness you w i l lnot see the Lord. Every Christian fol-lows holiness. A man who says, �I ama Christian,� and does not followholiness, is either self-deceived or ahypocrite. We maintain this with allour hearts.

*I have taken this whole subject upmuch more fully in one of my earlierbooks, �HOLINESS: THE FALSE ANDTHE TRUE.� Same publisher.

Ques. 8.� What about Romans 6: 16?

�Know ye not that to whom ye yieldyourselves servants to obey, hisservants ye are to whom ye obey;whether of sin unto death, or ofobedience unto righteousness?�

I have al ready spoken of that .Romans 6 is like the book of Exodus.When the children of Israel were inEgypt they obeyed Pharaoh becausethey had to; when they were broughtto God in the wilderness, Pharaoh�spower was broken and they becamethe servants of God. We, in ourunsaved days, were servants to sin;now, as Christians, we are serv-ants of God and we are to walk be-fore God in holiness and r i g h t e o u s -ness.

Ques. 9.�Ezekiel 18: 24:

�But when the righteous turneth away

he sins, but can come back again andget converted any time he desires. Cer-tainly the Word of God teaches noth-ing like that. You can see that theArminian view can be used to turn thegrace of God into lasciviousness. It ispossible for the other view to be mis-used also.But I want you to see thatthe misuse of any doctrine does notin itself prove the teaching is wrong.We need definite Scripture uponwhich to base our faith. If people haveno conscience toward God, they canmisuse any doctrine in the Bible. Butwhat we want to get at is this: Arethe objections brought against thedoctrine of EternalSecurity really ten-able?

Ques. 1.�Is not man an absolutely free moralagent?� as one objector insists.He says,�We can quote no scripture on un-conditional eternal security, becausethere is none.�

I do not know what he means, but ofcourse there is no eternal security thatis based on personal faith in the LordJesus Christ; but this writer goes on tosay,�When a man is saved, he is on God�saltar to live or die, for service or sac-rifice, and neither the devil nor de-mons can pull him off so long as hechooses by God�s grace to keep him-self in that place.�

The fact of the matter is that man isnot an �absolutely free moral agent.�In his unsaved state he is the slave of

sin �led by the devil captive at hiswill.� When regenerated he is theservant of Christ, delighting in holi-ness and indwelt by the Spirit of theliving God. I was not saved by plac-ing my all on the altar. I was savedwhen I trusted Christ who gave Him-self as the offering for my sin. I amnot keeping saved by my surrenderedlife. I am �kept by the power of God.�The same grace that saved is thesame grace that keeps.

I donot simply �choose� to keep myselfin the place where I am secure. Godhas chosen me, and I say Amen toHis choice.But if it were possible for me tochoose to abandon Christ, would I notperish?Yet the Word tells me Christ�s sheepshall never perish.Let us look again at the words of theLord Jesus in John 10: 27-29:�My sheep hear My voice, andI know them, and they followMe: and I give unto them eter-nal life; and they shall neverperish, neither shall any manpluck them out of My hand.My Father, which gave them Meis greater than all; and no manis able to pluck them out of MyFather�s hand.�

I wish you would look at the 27thverse. Who is a sheep of Christ? Onewho hears His voice and followsHim. If a man says,�I am a Christian,� but does not hear

�Let no man deceive you by anymeans: for that day shall not come,except there come a falling awayfirst, and that man of sin be revealed,the son of perdition.�

The word translated �falling away�is �apostasy� in the original. Thathas nothing to do with the question ofindividual salvation. It does not touchthis doctrine. Can you not see that itis a prophecy of what is happening allabout us at the present time? Recentlywe were told that seventy-five percent of the ministers in the ChurchFederation in the city of Chicagosigned a questionnaire saying that theydid not believe in some of the greatfundamental t ruths of the Bible.There you have apostasy. Does thatmean that these ministers were allChristians once and now are notsaved? My dear friends, I am afraidthe whole trouble is that most of themhave never been born again at all.They do not know anything ofregenerating grace, and therefore arequite ready to apostatize from thedoctrines held sacred by the greatevangelical denominations. I re-member when a certain preachercame out with a blatant attack onthe doctrine of blood atonement. Itshocked a lot of people who had beenreading his books, and they said,

�Isn�t it strange that a man once sucha fine Christian now denies the bloodof Christ?�

I sat down and read every one of hisbooks, and found that he never men-

tioned in any of them the blood ofChrist or Christ�s death on the cross,excepting in one when he spoke of theexample of humiliation Jesus set bygoing to the cross. But never one otherreference to the death, the blood, orthe atonement. Later he stated:

�They charge me with giving up thedoctrine of blood atonement; I neverbelieved it.�

He showed that he was simply anapostate. These things had no placein his heart or life. The apostasy iscoming, it is coming fast; the greatprofessing church is going into it, butnot one born again person will e v e rbow to the antichrist.

Ques. 7.� What about Hebrews 12:14?��Follow peace with all men, and ho-liness, without which no man shall seethe Lord.�

That is exactly what we stand for.Any one who says, �I am a Christian,�and does not follow peace and holinesswill never see the Lord. But I rememberhow that used to trouble me. When ayoung Christian, I was taught thatwhen I was converted all my sins upto that moment were put away, andthen it was as though God said,

�I have wiped off the past and haveput you back where Adam was beforehe fell; if you can keep the recordclear from now to the end, you willbe saved, and you will get to heaven.�I started out and soon began to fail,

the voice of the Good Shepherd, anddoes not follow Him, that man is ahypocrite; he is not a Chris t ian.Jesus says,�My sheep hear My voice, and I knowthem, and they follow Me.�Notice the expression,

�I know them.�I pointed out in my former address thatin Matthew 7: 22,23, the Lord Jesussays, �Many will say to Me in that d a y ,Lord, Lord, have we not prophesiedin Thy name? and in Thy name havecast out devils? and inThy name donemany wonderful works? And then willI profess unto them, I never knew you:depart from Me, ye that work iniq-uity.�Observe, He never says, according toScripture, to any soul in the day ofjudgement, �I used to know you, butI do not know you now.� He says,�I never knew you.� That ought toclear up the whole question. He saysof His sheep, �My sheep hear Myvoice and I know them.� Therefore,if one has ever been a sheep of Christ,the Lord Jesus knows him. Now if bysome strange metamorphosis thatsheep of Christ was changed into agoat, one of the devil�s goats, andappeared at the day of judgmentamong the goats, Jesus could not sayto that goat, �I never knew you.� Hewould have to say, �I used to knowyou, but I do not know you now.�But he says, �I never knew you,�because He gives His sheep eternallife.What is eternal life? One asks,�If the spiritual life of Adam was con-

ditional, how can the life of a believerbe secure? Adam must have b e e neternal in nature.�This shows how little well-meaningpeople distinguish between the l i fethat God gave to Adam by creationand the life that He gives to us by re-generation. Adam�s life was simplynatural life and he forfeited that whenhe sinned, but God gives to believerseternal life, and that can never be for-feited. It would not be eternal life if itcould.So He says,�I give unto them eternal life,and they shall never perish.�He puts no conditions around thatpromise, �They shall never perish.�

The word �perish� is in the middlevoice, so that if rendered literally inEnglish, you would really have tomake two words of it, because we donot have a middle voice. The words�perish� and �destroy� are the samein Greek.�I give unto them eternal life,and they shall never destroythemselves.�

Sheep so easily destroy themselves. Iwas going over the desert when outamong the Indians, and as we passeda bridge over a deep chasm, we heardthe pitiable bleating of a lamb. Wegot out and went to the edge of thebridge, and saw the lamb about fiftyfeet down on a little ledge. It was asheer descent of nearly two hundredfeet to the creek below that. We

Certainly. Every man who knows thetruth of eternal security believes it.There is no use for a person to professto be a disciple of Jesus if he does notcontinue. It is this that provesthere is a genuine work of the Spiritof God in his soul.

Ques. 4.� What about John 6: 66? �

�From that time many of His discipleswent back, and walked no more withHim.�

That has happened all down throughthe centuries. Jesus distinguishedbetween a disciple and �a discipleindeed,� or between one who is onlya disciple and one who is a truebeliever. The Greek word translated�disciple� means �a pupil�, or �alearner.� There were many who upto a certain point learned of Jesus, andthey were learning more and moreevery day as they listened to Him.But when He declared,�Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinkethMy blood, hath eternal life�(John 6: 54),they said,�That is too much for us;we are not going on with this man,�and they went back.

It was not a question there of whetherpeople were born again and lost, butwhether they who had been numberedamong the learners would go on learn-ing and let Him be their teacher, orwhether they would refuse further in-struction and turn back. We are nottold that even those who turned backnever again returned.

Ques. 5� John 6: 67,

�Will ye also go away?�What about this question?The question and the answer bring outthe very thing I am speaking of. Heturned now to the apostles, that littlegroup who had accompanied Him solong, and said,

�Will ye also go away?�and Peter said what every t rulyconverted soul always says,� Lord, to whom shall we go? Thouhast the words of eternal life� (John 6: 68).If you are really born again, that isalways the answer. I remember rea-soning on this subject with a dear goodbrother for something like two hoursone day, and he was insisting that aman could take himself out of theLord�s hand.I said,�Why do you keep insisting on this?Are you sure that you are saved?�He said, �Absolutely.��How long?��Forty years.��And you have been kept for fortyyears? Do you want to take yourselfout of the Lord�s hand that you aretalking like that?��Certainly not.��Well�, I said, �you are better thanyour creed.�That is just the point; if a man is bornagain, he never wants to take himselfout of Christ�s hand even if he could.Christ alone is the One who satisfiesthe soul.Ques. 6.� How about ll Thessalonians 2: 3? �

looked to see whether there was anypossible way to get down there andcould not find any. That lamb hadbeen eating, and had come to the edgeand had looked down. There was thatlittle ledge all green, and so down hewent and ate all the green that wasthere before he found that he couldnot get back. We tried to lasso him,but were not expert enough to do that.We looked up, and already there werethree great buzzards flying around,just waiting for the time when the lit-tle animal would give up. That lambwas destroying himself.Jesus says,�My sheep will never destroy them-selves. I give unto them eternal lifeand they shall never perish�� in the middle voice,

�never perish themselves.�Why not?Because they have the Holy Spiritdwelling in them.

The Word of God says,�Being confident of this very thing,that He who hath begun a good workin you will perform it until the day ofJesus Christ.�Jesus first says,�I give unto them eternal life,�and then,�They shall never perish, neither shallany man pluck them out of My hand.�

Some may say,�Well, I know a devil cannot pluckme out, no angel would want to, andman could not, but I might pluck my-self out.�Then you would perish, would you not?

And He says,�They shall never perish,�before He tells you, �Neither shall any pluck them out of My hand.�

Is man an absolutely free moral agent?He was when God created him, but ishe now?Is the sinner a f ree moral agent?�What does Scripture say?��Ye are led by the devil captive at his will.�What! A man who is led by the devilcaptive at his will, a free agent!�Know ye not, that he to whom yeyield yourselves servants to obey, hisslaves ye are?�(Rom.6: 16).

Man is a slave to sin and Satan; he isnot free. But now the gospel comes tothe man, and he does have the powerof decision, and when he decides forChrist he gets eternal life with all thatthat implies, and that life is the samelife that is in the blessed Son of God.It is communicated to him, and nowhe is led captive in the chains of loveto the Saviour�s feet, and he does notwant to be a free agent. He is glad tobe a bondman, as Paul puts it, of Je-sus Christ.

Ques. 2.�What about Matthew 24: 13?�But he thatshall endure unto theend, the same shall be saved.�Weymouth says,�He who stands firm unto the end.�The writer of this question recognizesthat primarily this refers to the great

Tribulation, but it is a principle that Ibelieve every preacher of the Wordshould insist on. There is no use inpeople professing conversion, goingforward, raising their hands, going toan inquiry room, joining the church,getting baptized, taking communion,teaching a Sunday School class, do-ing missionary work, giving theirmoney for Christ�s work and going onlike this for years, and then by-and-bydrifting away, turning from it all,denying the Lord that bought them,refusing absolutely the authority ofJesus Christ, and yet professing to besaved. It is endurance that proves thereality of a work of grace within thesoul. That is the difference betweenone who is merely reformed by theteaching of Christianity and one whohas been born again. You see thisvery clearly when you contrast Peterand Judas.

Peter slipped and sinned grievously,but in spite of it all he endured to theend. Jesus said,

�I have prayed for theethat thy faith fail not,�

and though his outward life for a briefperiod was not what it should be, hisfaith remained, and Jesus restored him,and he went on to the end of his lifeuntil crucified for his Saviour. Judaswas one of the chosen, he was withthe apostolic band but never wasregenerated, and so when he sinnedand sold his Lord, he turned away anapostate and died a suicide. Jesus saidof him long before,�Have not I chosen you twelve, andone of you is a devil?�

not,�One of you is in danger

of becoming a devil,�but

�One of you is a devil.�And we are told,�Judas by transgression fell,that he might go to his own place.�

(Acts 1: 25).

Peter was a backslider, Judas was anapostate, and there is a great differ-ence between the two. I f a mansays, �I am saved,� let him prove itby going on. That is why I say weshould not be afraid of the doctrine ofthe eternal security of the believer.Some say,�But I knew a man who was a won-derful Christian, and now he has givenit all up and says he is still saved.�He is only deceiving himself. The nexttime you see him you tell him thatthe Bible says,�He that shall endure unto the end,the same shall be saved.�

There is no use your carrying on aprofession if your life does not proveit to be real. Men can misuse anydoctrine.

Ques. 3.� What about the scripturefound in John 8: 31?

�Then said Jesus to those Jews whichbelieved on Him, If ye continue in Myword, then are ye My disciple in-deed.�Is not the condition for permanent dis-cipleship,�If ye continue in My word.�