[00:00:00] *INTRO*

[00:00:55] We're continuing this morning with our message series, "Hey Jude," and last week we started off where Jude is talking about the false teachers that were influencing people in the early church and some of the false practices that were coming about.

[00:01:09] And what we're looking at today is really another one of those topics, and it's a topic that ultimately has caused a fair amount of disagreement, not just back in the days of Jude, which was just a handful of years after the time of Christ. But honestly, right up until this present day because what we're gonna talk about this morning is the question of is cell salvation secure or can we be saved and lose our salvation?

[00:01:38] Now, there is a significant minority of churches within the Christian Church realm who believe that salvation is secure, they're the minority. It's the lesser amount, but they believe that to be true. The majority of Christian churches say salvation can be lost. And to again, get a better understanding of what I'm talking about I've been using this illustration.

[00:02:03] Imagine there's a pastor who's been faithfully serving God for 20 years. And he, whatever people need, he'll always be there. He just does whatever he can, whenever he can. And and he ends up going on a a family vacation, and on that family vacation, a drunk driver strikes and hits the car that he and his family are in, and it kills his wife and his two children.

[00:02:30] Now that pastor sits there and thinks, why did God allow that to happen? Why did God not protect me? And he decides one of two things, either there's not a God, or if there is a God, he doesn't wanna be serving a God that would not even protect him when, for the last 20 years of his life, he's been pouring into the hearts and lives of people proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and all these other things.

[00:02:56] So he stops being a pastor. He doesn't go to church and he stops believing. The question is, was he saved before? Was he a true believer before and he lost that because of the drunk driver hitting (the family), or was he just never a believer to begin with? And so depending on what your church background is, you'd see it differently because like I said, there is a significant minority of churches within Christianity that think that you can't lose salvation once you're saved, it just cannot be lost.

[00:03:32] Now who believes that? Most Baptists and that's a lot of what we have here in, in the Bible belt people that come from a Calvinistic background. Presbyterians, reformed churches like Reformed Anglicans, Congregationalists, they believe that salvation is secure.

[00:03:53] In other words, that pastor was just never saved. It may have looked like he was, but he never was. On the other side of the coin the people that believe that salvation can be lost, that's Roman Catholics. That's, Eastern Orthodox, that's Lutheran, that's Methodist, that's Pentecostals, that's some Baptist.

[00:04:12] So the majority of Christianity says, yes, salvation can be lost. A significant minority says, no, it can't. And that's what we're gonna be talking about this morning. And I also wanna talk about why it even matters because Jude has an opinion on it. It's not just an opinion, it's God's word. And so let's start off by looking at Jude verse five and six.

[00:04:38] And it says this,: "though you already know all of this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time had delivered his people out of Egypt, but he later destroyed those who did not believe, and the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling. These he has kept in darkness bound with everlasting chains for judgment on that great day."

[00:05:09] So we had, context is always important. So what we need to understand context wise, when Jude says these words in, in Jude five and six, where he is talking about how even though God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, he ultimately condemned those who were disobedient and that even the angels weren't secure.

[00:05:28] He says this right after what we looked at last week in Jude, verse four. And in Jude verse four, we're being warned about the false teachers who basically believe that you can do whatever you want. We have permission to sin. God doesn't care, He loves all. And in Jude four we also looked at those who denied that Jesus is sovereign, that Jesus is almighty.

[00:05:48] So it's important to understand when we say five, when we read five and six, Jude just gets done talking about the people who are being led astray by the false teachers. And he's basically saying, don't be secure in your salvation, because if God didn't spare the Israelites, and if God didn't spare the angels, he's not gonna spare you either.

[00:06:11] In fact, I have to be honest, I've never really understood why people don't believe that we can choose to fall away, that we can choose to walk away, that we can choose to stop believing. We see this in the angels, right? Jude talks about that, but honestly, we see that in Adam and Eve, right?

[00:06:29] God created Adam and Eve perfect without sin, but they chose disobey. And we see this throughout the history of Israel both when they came out of Egypt and they were wandering also when they came into the promised land, even into Jesus was born. We see the unbelief of the people of Israel.

[00:06:55] Because there is such great division among amongst Christians about this, and I don't understand why there is, because Jude makes it clear. But because there is, and because we're under the influence of at least one of those church bodies in this area that very much thinks that once saved, always saved.

[00:07:14] Normally, when I tell you a point or teach something to you, I'll give you a couple of examples just to say, see, I'm not making this up. The Bible says it. But because there's a disagreement about this in the church I'm gonna take it a step further today, I'm gonna probably give you I'm about to give you 10 passages that that show that you can fall away from your faith. In your bulletin, there's gonna be the listing of these, you can go back and read them later. And after I get done, like going through these with you, then we're gonna talk about why this matters, because I'm here to tell you it does matter. So first, let me help you to understand why. Why we believe and the majority of Christians believe you can fall from faith.

[00:07:54] The first passage I'm going to look at with you comes from Romans chapter 11. Now what's interesting about Romans chapter 11 is it's about God cutting out and cutting off the Jews. So if we think like you can't fall away, Paul says that this is exactly what has happened to the Jews. Look at Romans 11, 17 to 21.

[00:08:20] "Now, if some of the branches have been broken off and you though you're a wild olive shoot, he's speaking to the Gentiles. They're the wild olive shoot. They don't really belong. You've been grafted in amongst the others. And now you're sharing in the nourishing sap of the olive root. Do not consider yourself to be superior, br from the other branches. If you do consider this, you don't support the root supports you, you'll say then, but branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in granted true, but they were broken off because of unbelief. And you stand by faith. Don't be arrogant in your salvation Tremble for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either."

[00:09:11] And this is a message I think the church needs to hear today. Like in, in Jesus' day, like the Jews believed in God, but even though they believed in God they had developed a false understanding of who God was in their teachings and they were cut off. So that the time of the Gentiles could come.

[00:09:32] Guess what, if we look at the church today and the stuff that's going on in the church and what the church believes and teaches a lot of the stuff I talked about last week and we talked about all the other time the church scarcely reflects the teachings of the Bible and if the Jews could be cut off, the church can be cut off today. The Jews were like "we had Abraham as our father" and Christians are like "we believe in Jesus." But it's such a perverted and wrong version of it that we, too, are in danger of being cut off.

[00:10:06] Hebrews six, four to six: "for it's impossible in the case of those who've been enlightened, those who've tasted the heavenly gift they've shared in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they've tasted the goodness of the word of God, and the powers of the age should come and then have fallen away." *disgruntled noises* can it be any more clear? There's gonna be people who've experienced the Holy Spirit and the truth of God's word and all this stuff, and then they fall away. It's impossible if they fall away, the author of Hebrews is saying, for to be restored again to repentance.

[00:10:50] Revelation 2:10, "do not fear what you're about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested for 10 days. And you will have tribulation, but be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life." He doesn't just say, I'll give you the crown of life. And frankly, he wouldn't need to say, be faithful until death if it's impossible for us to stop being faithful. He's talking to people who are currently being faithful and he's saying, continue being faithful until death, and you'll get the crown of eternal life. Why? Because it's possible to not.

[00:11:27] James 5:19-20: "my brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth..." once again, if salvation is secure, how do you wander from the truth? You can't. "...and someone should bring that person back, remember this: whoever turns his sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover a multitude of sins."

[00:11:52] Colossians 1, 21 to 23. "Once you were alienated from God, you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. If you continue in your faith, establish and firm and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel you heard, and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, have become servants."

[00:12:29] So if you continue in it and you don't move from it, it wouldn't say if you do if it's not possible for you to not.

[00:12:38] Matthew 10 22, "you'll be hated by everyone because of me. But the one who stands firm unto the end will be saved.

[00:12:46] 1 Timothy 4:1, "The spirit clearly says that in latter times, some will" what? "abandon the faith." It's, Is it possible to abandon the faith? Absolutely. In the last times, there's gonna be some that are gonna abandon the faith.

[00:13:06] Hebrews 10:26: "if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there's no sacrifice for sin left."

[00:13:18] Matthew 6:14-15, "for if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will not forgive you your sins."

[00:13:31] So once again, we might have faith, we might believe, but if you're not forgiving other people their sins, guess what? Your sins aren't gonna be forgiven. Jesus says that not everyone that says to me Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. He's gonna say to some people who come to him Lord, He'll say, truly I never knew you.

[00:13:48] So it's possible to know Jesus, to have faith, to know the truth, and to wander off. The Bible speaks extensively about it. Jude's speaking about it.

[00:14:00] Now I wanna share the other side of the discussion, one of the main passages that, that people who believe in, once saved, always saved will point to, is they'll point to this passage from John 10, 26 to 29 but they make it say something it really doesn't say. John 10, 26 to 29 says this, "but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. Because my sheep will listen to my voice. I will know my sheep, they'll follow me. I'll give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, for no one will snatch them out of my hand. For my father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of my father's hand.?

[00:14:39] And people are like, see? We're secure, we're in Jesus' hand, no one can snatch us out of it. Correct. No one can, but the angels were allowed to walk out of it. Adam and Eve were allowed to walk out of it. The anointed Saul was able to walk out of it. And we too have the, no one will snatch us out of that hand, but we always maintain that free will to reject the faith.

[00:15:08] The rest, remainder of the time, I want, I wanna get to the "so what, why does it matter anyways?" Why am I spending the time teaching this to you? In addition to, there's just this disagreement in Christianity because in the end this is true, that if we understand this the wrong way, it can undermine and even destroy our faith because to believe that faith can be lost brings about laziness in faith.

[00:15:39] Let me give you an example. If you can think back to your college days, some of you aren't there yet, some of you are there. Some of you, it's been many years, but if you think back to your college days, if you could get an A or you would get an A, just, for doing nothing for a class, would you do anything for it?

[00:16:01] Like, I literally had a class like that. One summer I decided to take 16 hours and my school wouldn't let me take that many. So I took a couple classes at my school one summer and I took a couple classes at Austin Community College. One of those classes was weightlifting. Can you tell?

[00:16:23] But I remember, the very first day of class going to the class and the coach, I think the coach said it, or maybe someone in the class said it. I heard it from someone, but let's just say it was the coach, basically said he's not gonna be there taking attendance and checking out to make sure that we're being there and all this other stuff, but, it's expected this, that and, then there's gonna be a final.

[00:16:47] I'm like "he's not gonna be here, there's not gonna be any attendance..." Do you know how many times I went to that class? I went to the first class and I showed up for the final. Now I have to say I was a little nervous showing up for the final. I was thinking some of the kids in the class might have said "who is he? We've never seen him before." But I showed up for the final. I took the final, and guess what I got? I got an A because, why would I not be lazy if he's not gonna be there, and he is not checking attendance? I really wasn't planning on becoming a weightlifter. And it made me lazy because I knew I would get the A regardless.

[00:17:28] If you get hired on a new job and they're like, the best part of this job is we don't fire anyone, it's your job for life. If you want it, it might not be the best job, but it's not the worst, and you won't, you can't be fired. Your first day or two, you're gonna probably come, you'll be there on, at the start of the day you're gonna work your eight hours. But I bet you towards the end of the week, you're gonna I wonder how much they mean we can't get in trouble, we, we can't lose our job. And probably by Thursday, Wednesday or Thursday you took an extra hour and a half at lunch just to see if someone said something. And then by Friday you're like, huh, no one said anything. And you snuck out a couple hours early. If you truly can't lose your job I imagine by three or four months in, maybe you'll show up an hour a week.

[00:18:19] Why would you show up more if you can't lose it and you're gonna get paid? Why? When you can't lose something. It breeds laziness.

[00:18:30] Let's just say like your house could never be repossessed. We all have mortgages. How many of us in here would be paying our mortgages if they can't do anything about it?

[00:18:41] We just get to keep the house. Wouldn't you rather just keep the money yourself or if you get in a situation in which you know you have all these other expenses? They're not gonna take my house, so I don't need to pay that.

[00:18:54] Can you imagine how different your life would be if you couldn't lose your wallet or keys?

[00:18:59] I don't know about you guys, but like I've got a routine. When I walk into my house, my wallet and keys go to a very specific place on the counter, 'cause if I don't put 'em there, I'll spend hours looking for it when I'm trying to go somewhere.

[00:19:12] Point being, why is it any different for our faith? If you can't lose your faith, why in the world would you even worry about it? Why would you put any effort into it? It breeds laziness and it's not biblical. So understanding that, like, salvation can be lost is what scripture teaches, and to think otherwise really just makes us lazy in our faith. How? How do we keep from losing our faith? Because that's ultimately what it comes down to.

[00:19:50] Like I'm sitting here rocking some people's world this morning saying, no, salvation could be lost. And everyone's gonna be sitting here wondering man, how do I know if I've lost my salvation? Let's talk a little bit about how salvation is actually lost, or let's talk about how it's not lost.

[00:20:06] First, it's not a God problem. It's not that God is somehow grouchy or angry and impatient and is ready to take it back. Some of you guys may have had a dad who like at the smallest thing would just blow it out of proportion, like at everyone was supposed to go out for ice cream after the family meal, but someone spilled their milk and, all right, we're not getting ice cream now.

[00:20:33] Some of you had a dad who like when he came home, you'd be walking on eggshells because you never knew when he would just blow his stack. This isn't how God is. If we've lost our faith, if we've lost our salvation, the problem's not with God. It's with us. In fact, God is quite the opposite.

[00:20:53] Look at what Psalm 103:8 says of God: "for the Lord is compassionate. He's gracious, He's slow to anger, and He abounds in love." If God's anything, He's just, He's too gracious. He's so slow in, in getting angry and upset. He abounds in love. We see this with Israel, when Israel, like He, He did all of these signs to deliver Israel from the Pharaoh, all these miracles and wonders. Moses goes up the mountain for 40 days and what do they do? They're melting all their gold down and making a golden calf. You'd think God would just *boosh koosh* destroy them at that point.

[00:21:31] No, actually He didn't, because He's actually very slow to anger, He abounds in love. He sends the prophets, they even kill the prophets who are trying to bring the people back to God, and God doesn't just destroy Israel. He's constantly trying to, yes, sometimes punish them, but in the hope of bringing them back.

[00:21:49] Think about when Peter denied Jesus three times before when Jesus was arrested, God didn't strike Peter down for doing that, He restores Peter, and Peter becomes one of the greatest people in the early church. Why? Because in the end, our God is slow to anger and He abounds in love. So if we lose our faith, if we lose our salvation, the problem's not with God, it's with us.

[00:22:15] And it's not that God's not forgiving, God is incredibly forgiving. The Bible has a story of the prodigal son, and that's a story that we're all familiar with. I think, there's this dad who, his son just is ready to be out on his own. He doesn't want to wait till his dad dies to inherit the wealth of his father, so it's him and his brother.

[00:22:36] So he demands his father give him half of all that his dad has, so that he can go in and start enjoying life. And so his father gives him half of all that he has, he goes out and squanderers all that money and wild living and just wastes it all and gets to the point where he's having to literally sleep and eat with pigs.

[00:22:55] And so the kid decides he's gonna come home. And even after the kid has wasted half of everything that, that the dad had, the dad, when he sees the kid off coming from the distance, he runs out excited and he gives his son that, that squandered half of his possessions, he gives him a big hug and he celebrates because his son that was lost is now found, that was gone, has now come home, and he declares let there be a sacrifice of a fattened calf.

[00:23:24] God is incredibly forgiving. We have a God who will go out of his way to bring us back. Look at Luke 15:3-7: "then Jesus told them this parable, suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, doesn't he leave the other 99 in the open country, and go after his lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and he goes home and he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, rejoice with me for I found my sheep. I tell you, in the very same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents than over 99 righteous people that do not need to repent."

[00:24:13] What does Jesus tell the disciples? "Lord, how many times do I have to forgive someone that, that wrongs me? Seven times?" Jesus is like, "no, 70 times 7," basically an unlimited amount of times. And if we're called to forgive other people when they repent, how much more so will God forgive us when we repent?

[00:24:35] So if you lose your salvation, it's not 'cause God's a grouch. And it's not that He's not forgiving, He's incredibly forgiving.

[00:24:45] So why would you lose it? Two points that I want to mention. The first is this, is: salvation is lost when we stop producing fruit.

[00:24:55] I've got three fruit tree in my trees in my yard, I've got two apple and one peach. And I'm like here to tell you, if the day comes that they stop producing fruit, they're gonna get cut down, 'cause they're really too small to be shade trees, so I'm only having them for the fruit. Jesus says basically the same thing. He's, if a tree's not producing fruit, it should be cut down, but he's not really talking about trees, he's talking about people.

[00:25:22] Look at Matthew 21, 18 to 19: "now early in the morning as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road. He went up to it and he found nothing on the fig tree except leaves. And then he said to it, 'may you never bear fruit again!' And immediately the tree withers."

[00:25:44] Now that's a great tree story, but you think the Bible's really wanting to tell us about like tree stories? No it's trying to tell us that, like, in the same way a tree is worthless if it's not producing fruit, a follower of God is ultimately worthless, it's not true faith, when they're not producing fruit. And this is where some church bodies get it messed up, especially like Catholics, right?

[00:26:09] Catholics get confused, they think it's like faith and works cause you to be saved, but that's not what this is saying either. The works are evidence of the faith. Just like a fever is evidence of the flu: the fever isn't the flu. You got a flu and if you have flu, it's gonna produce fever.

[00:26:27] Or like a good blood pressure reading is indicative of good cardiovascular health.

[00:26:35] In the same way, like if you have faith you must produce fruit. If you're not producing fruit, you don't have faith. James talks about that. Look at James 2:14-26, "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith, I have deeds.

[00:27:19] Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith with deeds. You believe that there's one God. Great! Even the demons believe that and they shutter. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father, Abraham, considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what it is that he did. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was even called God's friend. That a person is considered righteous by what they do, not by faith alone. In the same way was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As a body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

[00:28:25] So if you wanna worry about your salvation I think you need to look at your life. Are you living selfishly? Are you living for yourself, or are being the light of Christ to the world and telling people about Jesus and helping people who are in need and all these things that God calls for us to do? If you don't have the deeds, you don't have the faith.

[00:28:51] And then lastly, what it really comes down to is this, and this is my last point this morning: salvation is ultimately lost when we reject faith, when we walk away. Some of you in here, either you've experienced this in your life or you know someone who has a death of a child, and if you've experienced a death of a child, it's like my story of the pastor, right? If you experienced the death of the child it can be really hard.

[00:29:18] "If there is a God, why did he allow my child to die?" And it's really easy at times like that to, to choose to walk away from your faith.

[00:29:29] Some of you have had to suffer miscarriages and multiple miscarriages and you sit there and God you've heard us cry out and pray that you just give us a healthy child but you haven't. And for some that might cause them to just choose to not believe because it doesn't seem that God is even hearing their prayers.

[00:29:50] For some of you in here, you've experienced a painful loss of a marriage and as the marriage is breaking down, there's all those pleas that you made and you cried out to God, please soften my, my spouse's heart. Please help me to keep my family together. Please don't make it so that I have to raise, my kids to myself. And all those pleas seemed unheard by God. And so when, when He didn't hear it and when He didn't answer, how easy it is to just become a cynic and skeptical and choose to walk away from your faith?

[00:30:21] Some of you know of someone or you yourself have experienced a horrific crime. Maybe you were raped, maybe you're held up at gunpoint. Maybe you're beaten to the point of near death. It's very easy to lash out and God, "where were you when I needed You?" Some of you experience abuse as a child, how easy is it to when you experience something like that, God, where were you when I'd cry to you all night long and say, "protect me from my uncle," or "protect me from my dad," and how easy it is to ultimately walk away?

[00:30:58] Some of us, it's the bad influences that we have in our lives that can cause us to walk away. We get in with the wrong crowd we start doing the wrong thing. People that don't have those good deeds, remember like I said, faith should produce fruit and deeds. We start hanging out with people that they're just fun to hang out with and they like to maybe party and have a good time or whatever, and you get in with the wrong crowd and next thing you know, you're acting and behaving like an unbeliever.

[00:31:26] For some of us, we go to churches or hear false teachers, and those false teachers teach us things that aren't true about God. And that leads to unbelief, just like the false teachers led Israel to, to unbelief.

[00:31:39] And for some of us in here, maybe it's guilt that, like you can't forgive yourself because of all the things that you've done that you regret and you can't go back and undo. And so you can't believe that God would forgive you, and you just stop believing.

[00:31:56] There can be an endless amount of things that, that, that can cause us to walk away from our faith. And that's why in the passages you're hearing the scripture tell us that, that "stand firm until the very end," even to the point of horrible crime against you, even to the point of of losing friends or loved ones, even to the point of death.

[00:32:23] Here's what I don't want this morning: I want, I needed to teach you this lesson because there's such a divide in Christianity on this.

[00:32:30] What I do not want you to be doing is running for the doors thinking, have I lost my salvation? I'm not trying to get you to question your faith. In fact, let me encourage you with these words. If you're worried that you might have lost your salvation, you probably haven't because if you're worried about it, you care. It's when we don't care that it becomes a problem in the same way that a body should be taken care of: we have to exercise our body, we need to eat right. We should take the medicine that we need to take if we've got illnesses in the same way that we should care for our body.

[00:33:03] We have to care for our spiritual body, and if you think it doesn't matter, you're not gonna do it. Don't neglect your faith. Exercise it, in fact, treat your faith and treat salvation like it's a treasure, because if you have a treasure, you're gonna treat that the most special thing that you have. For some of you, maybe a, your treasure's an inheritance you got.

[00:33:26] For some of you, maybe it's your dad's coin collection. For others, maybe it's something, your great grandma maiden's been handed down and this thing is a treasure to you. You always know where it's at and it's always being protected, and it's always being cared for and preserved. If you think of your faith that way, if you think of salvation that way, you'll never lose it.

[00:33:46] Would you join me in a word of prayer?

[00:33:49] Gracious Almighty God, we just thank and praise You for for this morning and to be able to continue to explore these words of Jude. And I just pray for the church, gracious God, as we have for whatever reason, just really forsaken our faith and and are in danger of, of, even we ourselves being cut off.

[00:34:14] I pray, gracious God, that we would care about our faith, that we would care about salvation, that You'd not cause us to be lazy in our faith, but to be sincere help us to follow You and walk according to Your will and according to Your ways, all the days of our lives, so that in the end we hear "well done, good and faithful servant."

[00:34:42] Receive your inheritance of eternal life that's been won through Jesus Christ on the cross. It's in His name we pray, amen.